Team Red Oak

Welcome to our wold! You'll find you never have enough time to cache. I wish I could cache all day long but I have to work, and on weekends I have to do things around the house so I don't have nearly the amount of finds I would like to. I know I must find them all, and I know I can't find them all in just one weekend so this is an excercise in patience for me. But I'm not at all addicted!

I have one my husband made. It is made from cedar and it comes from Texas. We were helping friends clear some of their land and there were 3 cedars that were in the way so the trunks became walking sticks, one for me and the two smaller ones went to my twin boys.

Give the other cacher lots of time. I've learned my lesson about trying to log a TB too quickly. We picked one up on the Applachian Trail while in PA for the weekend. When we got home we saw the TB still showed being carried by someone else. I waited a few days and I emailed them and the TB owner before I finally figured they must have forgotten so I grabbed it from them. About a week after that I got an email from them, they had taken a family vacation and had been out hiking the AT for about 2 weeks. I felt terrible. If I had only been more patient. They had some great pics to post which they were able to post in their first pick-up post, but they could not post a drop off since I grabbed it. But I also learned another lesson too, if I drop off a TB and I know I will be away from a computer for a long time I will give that info in the cache log book. It still doesn't guarentee someone will see what I wrote, but if they look through the log they might.

That's happened to me once before on a multi where I was having trouble finding the first part and another caching team came by, the young boy found the first stage as I happened to be standing right next to him and reached down and grabbed it. Then we agreed to to look for the 2nd and 3rd stages separately. I counted it as a find, but I said in my log that cacher x arrived and we searched together and he/she was the one to spot the cache. You probably would have found it eventually anyway. If you don't feel comfortable about it then next time you're caching and you run into someone make ground rules. Like who ever finds it first should just stop looking until the other one finds it too. Then you both have found it.

Wow- So many differing opinions. I will say after reading these responses, I am sure for our circumstances we did the right thing. It never crossed my mind to pick up and destroy the drugs although the Anacostia River is in throwing distance, it is polluted enough and I am certainly not afraid of being detained for hours because the police might think I am guilty of something. I have faith in our justice system and the truth. I just didn't want to destroy any finger prints or take a trip I wasn't prepared for because there was residue on the outside of the baggies and later I stick my finger in my eye or something. The drugs were off the main path and the National Arboretum is not a hot spot for kids. There's more chance a bird or small animal might come by and sample one of the packets than kids (squirrells gone crazy). There was no one in the area at all. I still wish we would have been able to talk to a police officer instead of just the security, but we did the right thing by contacting the authorities even if they were just security. After that it was their turn to do the right thing. Our cell phone was forgotten at home on this trip, so calling the police was not really an option. I do want to thank all of you who responded no matter how you responded. I really do enjoy the forums and I asked for opinions.

If it's a sharp item, then I think it would be necessary to take precautions. Suppose someone finds an ammo box full of stuff and puts their hand in it and starts to move things around and can't see the arrowhead. Or they do the cache at night and they don't have the best light source. I doubt anyone will lose a limb from an arrowhead cut, but it could put a damper on the day. Most people know how to handle sharp objects when they can see them. Putting it in a bag would be sufficient. Besides if it is hand made I bet people would want to know more about it, I would. If it's in a bag then the maker can add a note or card telling about the arrowhead. I would love to find a handmade arrowhead and a multi tool (reference to another thread).

How about a record for introducing someone into the sport who lives the furthest away from your home? We introduced someone who lives 4035.7 miles (give or take a few miles) away to this crazy hobby. They even went out and found their first cache without a GPSr.

When you sign the log you are proving you found it. We've taken pictures at some of the caches we've found, but we only post pics that do not give away any details. I think in 2 of our photos you can see part of the container, but in each case the container was just a container. We would never post a picture of the container if the container was unique.

Nevermind- I figured it out. We went out caching and when we came home I looked again at the cache page and saw it was listed as a TB without a separate coin icon. Thanks to all who would have answered me though

We picked up a coin this morning (our very first coin of any kind) from Dark and we don't know how to log it. I thought it would be listed on the cache page near the TB's but we can't find where to go to log the coin. PLease help. Thanks

I worked for the Corps of Engineers HQ up until Feb this year. I can give you the address in DC if you want to contact them, I can also give you the persons name to put on the envelope. But they will tell you to talk to your local Engineer District Office first. Sometimes the best way to go if you feel it's important enough is to write your congressman and tell them whats going on. Then the Congressman assigns a Congressional Tasking to the Corps of Engineers and then the Corps must at least give a look see at the area. This is just a bit of info and if you're interested just email me. Dawn

Depending on the severity of the erosion and how badly the bridge needs repair can it be an Eagle Scout project or several Eagle Scout projects to return the area to a nice place? I would not archive the cache, up the difficulty to the appropriate level and put the conditions/warnings on the cache page.

Travel Bugs are not trade items, you can take one without leaving one. Just be mindful of the bug's goal and move it on to another cache in a reasonable amount of time. For trade items, trade even or trade up. Of course everyone has a differeing opinion of what even or up is. When I trade, I keep in mind what I would like to find in a cache. Welcome to geocaching, it will take over your life soon.

As someone who is watching a few caches (none of them are the OP's) let me tell you why. One of them I'm watching becasue it is on my list to do, but was temp disabled so I am waiting for it to come back online again. Two others I'm watching becasue I had to post DNF's on them and I want to know when someone else finds them or if a maintenance check gets done so I am positive they are there before trying again. The last one I would like to find, but the difficulty is high and the last few logs reported some problems and there hasn't been a logged find or DNF in over 2 months we just don't want to put forth the effort in the heat so I'd just like to know any activity on the cache. Once the weather cools down some, we'll probably go look for it unless the owner disables it. So there is nothing sinister about having people watch your cache. The reasons are probably similar to mine. If a cache owner posted a note asking who was watching the cache I may or may not respond depending on the mood I'm in, at my age some days I'm cranky and some days not so much.

I've met other cachers twice. The first time it was the cache owner doing a maintenance check on her multi and we were glad to meet her since we were new and having trouble finding the first stage. I think it was only our 2nd or 3rd time out caching and we were very excited to meet her. We used our nick names first and then our names. The second time I ran into someone I could see this guy coming a mile away. Walking with his GPSr held out in front of him, and his nephew in tow not even trying to be discreet in a park full of other people fishing and walking. When they walked over the bridge towards me I asked if he was geocaching and he said yes and I asked him his name and he gave his real name and not a nick name so I did the same. Later he told me he isn't registered on GC.com and although he may sign a log book he never does anything online. He said he didn't want to spend the money and register. I took the opportunity to tell him it didn't cost anything to register and log finds online. He also mentioned he found another cache in the park and at the co-ordinates given all he found was a rubber snake and thought that was the cache. I told him if he picked up the snake and looked on the bottom he would find co-ordinates to the next stage since that particular cache was a multi. I think this guy is not as obsessed as the rest of us. I can not understand how he could have escaped the power of the frog.

Please do not put moth balls in your cache. There are some odors that give me almost instant migraines and at the very least make me feel queasy. It would not be cool for me to open a cache to find moth balls! If you must put moth balls in your cache then make sure you have it listed on your cache page that you did so, then I and others who have the same problem can avoid the cache. For many years closets and trunks were lined with cedar as a deterent for bugs, perhaps putting cedar chips in your cache is an alternative.

I asked the same question on 1 July, and a few people sent a list of some good caches. I'm not sure how to link to the thread, but if you go back and look at my post, there are some good suggestions listed there. The zip code for Kempton is 19529 if you want to see what else is around. We did Pulpit Rock and AT Indian Princess and they were both very nice caches. Another one we would like to do is a virtual where you drive and look at 5 or 6 covered bridges in Berks County. Have fun

I wonder what the older woman was doing there? Was she with children or was she alone? Men aren't the only people to be wary of alone in a park. Some people just tick me off!

Geo_boy- I think you have some very fine ideas and you should continue to think creatively. However, you should take the time to clean up your spelling and punctuation a bit. Sometimes I have to read your posts 2 or 3 times to understand your meaning. When you finally hide your first cache, your cache page will need to be clearly understood or no one will be able to find your cache. If your listing page is too hard to understand many people will give up. I wouldn't discount your hiding abilities based on your writing skills, but I may not hunt your cache if it is too difficult to understand your cache page. I for one enjoy reading your posts because you are so creative with your hiding ideas. Unfortunately, it seems as though many of your ideas have been thought of. Like you, I am new to this game so when I read one of your ideas it is new to me also and the input from more experienced cachers is very insightful. I encourage you to continue to be creative and continue to post your ideas. Also try to edit your posts, when you do finally hide a cache maybe you should ask for some help on the listing page, afterall the idea behind the hide is to get people to find it. edited to add: For your own benefit - don't drop out of school. Dawn from Team Red Oak

As long as you mention those things on the cache page, I don't see what the problem is. I hate bugs climbing on me and squeal like a little girl every time I see one but my husband laughs at me, brushes it off and on we go. I don't complain about there being bugs in the woods near the cache though. In my opinion caching gets me places I never would have gone otherwise, so it's all good. Once I get there I can decide to either climb that tree or not, but if I choose not to climb that tree it doesn't mean there shouldn't be a cache in the tree. It's all in the journey.

If we would have had our cell phone with us we could have called someone else. Whenever we have the phone nothing happens. Part of the problem on our part was the heat today. We went to the National Zoo to take a TB whose goal was to see the Zoo then we were going to place the TB in the cache at the arboretum. Before we went to look for the cache we looked at a few of the other gardens and by the time we found the white powder we were both fried. It was only 1:30 when we left the arboretum, but it was really hot and the humidity was terrible. We had to walk uphill to get back to the car and our shirts were sticking to our backs it was miserable out side and we were getting hungry - I think I'd like some cheese with my whine! I really don't know what the security ladies did after we left. They may have called the police and went to the location. They just didn't seem very enthusiastic about what we found. Maybe they see the stuff al the time so it's nothing to get all worked up about. I do think calling the arboretum tomorrow is a good idea. BTW we had to report a DNF as neither of us felt like bushwacking where there was no path down a hill and back up again in this heat. We'll come back another day when it's about 15 degrees cooler.

That is why we left them where they were. With our luck something would have happened and no one would have believed we were on the way to turn them in. No officer these aren't ours honest, we were just on our way to find you and give them to you. Yeah right as they haul us off to jail and I lose my job!

Okay here is our story. Today we were at the National Arboretum (which I highly recommend going to) looking for a cache. We walked along a trail and my husband looks down and sees about 10 teeny tiny little blue bags of white powder. We assume it is cocaine. Near the tiny little blue bags is a larger green zip lock bag about an inch or so square that is open and empty. We think the tiny blue bags fell out of the green bag. There is no one else around this particular area although in general there are people on the pathways. We left the drugs where they were and hiked back to the car and drove to the visitor's center (we couldn't find a security office building) and told the lady what we found and asked her to call security. The security officers arrived and just as they arrived a police car drove past the visitor's center but did not stop. We told the security ladies what we saw and where we saw it, but they didn't seem too interested. One of them thought it was outside the arboretum gate and we told her that it was inside the gate and on the arboretum property. I really wish the police officers would have come in the building instead of just the security. I don't know if the police were there because security called them before coming in to talk with us or if it was just a co-incidence that they drove by while we were in the visitors center. We weren't sure what to do, do we leave the drugs and report the location, or do we take the drugs and turn them in and report the location? Did we do the right thing? We left the cell phone at home and even if we had the phone we don't know the phone number to the police department and in my opinion this didn't warrant calling 911.

I agree with mini cacher about that other puzzle. Luckily I opened it up in a new window so as I type this it is still open but minimized. When I am done here and close out we'll see what happens, I suspect shutting off my computer will finally kill it. I really only need to be told something once, well maybe twice but not indefinately.

Variety is the spice of life. We like all caches depending on what we're in the mood for. I must say we've had a difficult time finding a 1.5 star hide and have walked right up to a 5 star hide. Terrain difficulty doesn't matter for us in anything but how many we do in one day. As for needing specialized eqipment, if we had it, we would use it. Unfortunately, we don't have any. So we would have to go with someone who did and had extra for us. We have both been rappelling and rock climbing while on an outdoor type vacation, it is not something we would do on our own. I say hide the cache. There are people out there who would look for it, just don't expect it to be a cache that is found once a week. The more specialized equipment needed means fewer people will be able to look for it. But it doens't mean you shouldn't hide it.