6NoisyHikers

Mini-Hiker#2 with her first traveller at one day old. Mini-Hiker#2 has her first cache find at 3 weeks old (the weather had been lousy!) Sleeping while we search for a fake rock at 6 months old. Hands-on caching at one year old.

Simply because I like to show off my grandkids Mini-Hiker#1 finds her first cache at 3 days old. Mini-Hiker#1 on the trail with Grandma at 10 months old. In charge of the GPS at one year old. Finding our 800th cache last weekend - 2 and a half years old!

WorldCaching is in Surrey, BC and it is a private house. Mostly online orders but Tracy will also let you come over by appointment and browse the "shop", which is in her attic

Wow! That's really wild - or at least it seems so to a girl from the suburbs The spider would have stopped me in my tracks. No cache today, let's go.

We found our 800th cache this weekend - on Mother's Day - and all the NoisyHikers and the two Mini-Hikers and the Mini-Hiker-in-Progress were there to celebrate!

When we do a series of caches, what we find works well for us is to open a Word document. We start typing the story of our adventure, using the "bullet" feature to number each paragraph. The number of paragraphs equals the number of caches in the series. Then I cut and paste each paragraph into its corresponding cache log (with pictures too). The paragraphs connect to each other, like a story does, so on their own, a log won't necessarily be of much use to a future finder - but really, few people are reading those anyway. The person that matters most in this case is the CO, and I hope he/she gets enjoyment of receiving 40 emailed installments of our adventure. For example: PRED01 PRED02 PRED03 PRED04

+1000 Just make sure that the lock n lock is similar in size to the inside of your tackle box - or use two smaller containers labelling SWAG and LOG if you like - or people will put items in the tacklebox itself and they will get damaged and make the cache yucky even though you tried your best to prevent that.

Absolutely. Some long-time, "experienced" cachers do just this on cache series in our area - cachers with thousands of finds. Granted, they compose a log that is at least 20 or 30 words long, but it's still automated. Of course, so is the description of each cache in the series. And each container is the same. So maybe like begets like? Sigh.

Probably this cache: Savona Caves View No log yet...

We love our eXplorist GC. It is the only unit we've ever used. It is definitely just for Geocaching, but that is all we need. Loading pocket queries is easy, it holds up to 10,000 caches - not quite, but it runs happily loaded with five thousand. You can get them for about $150.

Jeremy and NoisyHiker#6 at our first Block Party in 2012.

Why does the idea of even and odd pocket queries remind me of this?

No pocket queries for me this morning - even or odd!

There are 2.3 million active caches - so this does not include the zillions of containers formerly known as caches The actual number of registered, validated, dedicated, active cachers is closer to 300,000. (I get this info from cacherstats.com, which counts any registered member with over 200 finds.) The other thing you'll find if you do a random username search is that most names are abandoned accounts - because either they stopped caching or they decided they didn't like the username and, instead of changing their info, opened a new account. Try any word, try "pickle". The serach engine will give you up to 20 possibilities. Check each one and see what I mean. These abandoned accounts stay listed forever in the geocaching record of users, thus the 6 million figure.

We had the opportunity to show a Canadian Senator how to geocache! Actually, it was easy because we're related! That's Senator Yonah Martin holding a Canadian geocoin.

We did this cache and it was AWESOME! We were there with GeoGasHead, who was the first cacher to find both caches. We have just completed this project as well: World Cache Canada. It requires a team of five cachers around the world. However, you don't sign for the whole team; you only sign for the cache you find in your own country.

I have a feeling that the one Lab Cache/one finder set-up has nothing to do with singling out someone special. What it does is minimize damage as cachers experiment. With no review process, a cacher might be led into a potentially dangerous situation - like a crazy gun-totin' land owner's field or a highway overpass. One cacher will likely not be noticed, but a parade of them is going to be cause for alarm. One strange person pawing through your azaleas is an irritating anomaly. Two or more is a lawsuit. Smart decision!

Thank you, Jayme, for your endless enthusiasm and unbelievable patience. I'm thinking my Lab Cache will be a day-long multi that ends with an outdoor concert where the lead singer shouts out the code during the drum solo.

Multis tend to work one of two ways: 1. You visit a series of waypoints to collect bits of information that will give you the coordinates for the final location. 2. The first way point leads you to the second waypoint, which leads you to the third and so on, until you reach the final. Either way, you will ultimately need to know how to manually enter coordinates into your GPS or smartphone. If you tell us what you are using, someone (maybe even me!) will be able to explain how to do that if you're not sure. After stalking your profile a bit you might try Leave It To Beaver or the Lime Quarry Tour. Make sure you thoroughly read the cache pages for multis - print them out and bring them along if they are detailed - so you know what you are getting into. You may be required to use information on a sign or count the number of items (like fence posts) at a location to find the next coordinates. How to do this will be written in the cache description.

We are working on World Cache Canada right now and have made a few trips into Vancouver, BC to find each stage.

You spelled "Tim Horton's" wrong.... +1, eh?

Hooray! Thanks for the info. Glad to hear that all has been made well. We'll put our gas money into moving along the trackables we have then - one brand new and one rescued after six months in the wilderness.

Thank you, Eartha! We're up in Vancouver, BC and would happily make a day trip to Seattle if we could help out some trackables.

Burke Mountain Summit cache

It looks like they have an event coming up in February that you might enjoy. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4WV0Y_snow-trek-2014-lpm