Polk Street Bandits

My wife and I are meeting some friends in Evanston for the weekend. We are geocacher's, but they are not. We are looking for the top 5 local caches in the Chicago area - any input would be awesome. I think we will bring our bikes, so the lake shore bike trail will be one of them. We will also do the Project APE cache on the way in/out. Any ideas would be great! Thanks in advance.

My wife and I would like to come, but we are still trying to find a third/fourth. IS there any one else out there looking for a pair to add to their team? Despite been noobs, we are experienced in the outdoors... but not in capturing aliens... We're in our late 20's, no kids... We'll probably stay the night down there.

Was in the market for a GPS for other activities (hunting / fishing). Spent a few days combing forums that came up in Google searches... Stumbled on Geocaching, thought it was one of the most interesting (and fun) activities I had heard of in a long time. Now a day doesn't go by where I don't "Feed my addiction"!

One of the local parks and recreation departments in Michigan recently purchased 4 GPSr for use by local citizens. They can "check them out" like a library book and learn more about the unit and the sport with out making a $300 commitment. I thought it was such a great idea, I am recommending it to our local city government.

I'm a noob in Dearborn area - if you live there send me an email you can come get lost with us... If you are having a hard time finding a cache, try triangulation: Example - take a reading where you have a strong signal from say, east of the cache location. Mark the bearing (line of sight) and approximate distance (100ft or less), then move to another position 90 degrees from your present position. Maybe from the North. Take another bearing and distance... The points where these two lines intersect should give you a good idea where it is. I practiced in a baseball diamond with an orange cone. It definately helps... This weekend (Sat) Roseville is having a geocache event. It's here

Look- I wasn't trying to pick a fight - I'm just saying that if a less risky alternative is still 80% as good as DEET, that's the one I would use. (Besides, wearing light colors, not using perfumes, and wearing long sleeves are 100% effective and don't cost anything - if not uncomfortable!) Statistically, unless your an 85 year old person with other health issues, it's virtually impossible to "DIE" from a skeeter bite. I'd rather take the tiniest risk of getting a horrible disease, than then endure a more likely event such as - melting my $300 GPS, getting an eye infection from over-spray, ruining my clothes, etc.

Batteries, Hand Sanitizer, some people like trading cards (hockey, baseball - unopened), I've seen lotto tickets (unscratched) - that seemed like a good idea. My wife and I just bought about 10 $3.00 gift certificates to Tim Hortons (think Dunkin Doughnuts).

I'm a noob (but hopelessly addicted) - so my experience is limited to a few weeks. I have checked every day for 6 weeks for WJTBs in my area, and had 3 near misses before I got my first one yesterday. I left work early - and still would have missed it, but the cache owner traded the bug I saw "logged in" for another WJTB about an hour before I got there! America the Beautiful Cache I promise not to hold onto it for too long. We are bringing it to a Geocache Event Saturday sponsored by CoyChev in SE Michigan. I plan to let someone else "find it" there. In the meantime - my wife and I took it to visit the Chrysler Engine Plant where the Jeep engines are made... Made for a funny pic.WJTB Page (Beldon) All I can say, is keep doing what you're doing - I was just lucky to find mine.

Fortunatley for us, our skin isn't made of plastic. There are many products that are safe for humans that are harmful to other things. DEET has been used by hundreds of millions of people for over half a century. There are few products out there that have been so thoroughly tested and for so long. If 50+ years isn't long term, I don't know what is. As far as Skin-So-Soft and dryer sheets, its great that they work for you. Independent tests have however concluded that they do not work. Considering the seriousness of insect borne diseases, it is irresponsible to advise people to eschew a repellent that is proven safe and effective in favor of one that has been proven ineffective. As far as whether its worth the risk, I'll use a proven safe and effective repellent rather than expose myself to West Nile Virus, or Lyme, or Erlichosis, or Babesoisis, or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, or or Tick Typhus, or STARI, or Tularemia, or St. Louis encephalitis, or Tick Paralaysis, or Relapsing Fever, or Anaplasmosis. That's a risk I won't take. Wow - I didn't realize that I was in the presence of a chemistry expert... I guess since it melts plastic, but not our skin, there couldn't possibly be anything wrong with using it - I stand corrected. (The original poster stated he lived in Michigan - the total number of cases of serious diseases spread by insects in Michigan is less than 17. One's risks of getting "harmed" by the chemistry in DEET (overspray in eyes, skin rash, etc) are much greater than contracting something from a bug bite (in Michigan). I am not being "irresponsible" by offering advice that is contrary to yours - he asked for several people's "opinions". Since neither of us are paid experts - there is nothing irresponsible about either of us providing anecdotal advice. Don't take everything people write here as a challenge to your greatness.

I used to use DEET, but after it melted my camera beyond recognition, I decided I didn't want it on my skin/clothes - "safe" or not... Lot's of products are deemed "safe" one year, only to be refuted by some long-term studies a few years later. It's not worth the risk in my opinion. I use skin-so-soft and dryer sheets. It works extremely well. Here are some other tactics that will help - whether you use DEET, or any other product. If you know ahead of time you are going caching - do/don't do the following: Insects are attracted to the bio-chemistry of our skin. Bugs seek out the chemicals excreted from our pores with sweat. Wear long sleeves - this will reduce the bugs' sense of attraction. Even in hot weather, you can wear "UnderArmour" - it will keep you cool and help reduce bugs. Don't shower with fragrent soaps. Use a simple soap such as Dove or Ivory that has no perfumes in it. If the bugs are extremely bad, wear a mosquito net on your face. That will keep the annoyance level down considerably.

I'm a rank noob, but I like them equally (fence sitter!). I started geocaching for the hunt, not necessarily for the cache. I also really enjoy seeing things that are around you, but you had no idea (prior to the cache) that they were there. I think both types of caches satisfy this curiosity in me. Trading cache, or photgraphing the virtual, etc are just added bonuses to the total experience. I think it's important that the editors continue to place strict limitations on all caches - especially virtuals in order to maintain the overall quality. We don't need people setting up virtual caches for the Washington Monument, or the UN building as an example...

Great idea - Maddie and Rex have been on about 80% of our cache finds. If only I could teach them to help look...

I'm a recovering noob, and am trying to get a feel for this as well... So far - hand sanitizer, AA batteries (new), 2 matchbox cars (new), leather money clip (no use for that in my house), and a few hockey cards (in plastic sleeves). I also carry 1 leatherman tool (new) to trade if I come accross a cache in the Ritz Carlton.

I use my GPSr as a cell-phone, and then "drop it" nearby the cache. It usually works - people don't pay much attention to me unless I have the dog along. Where I struggle is looking for a micro or some other small cache out in the open. There aren't many inconspicuous ways to search for something in a 15ft circle with out looking weird.

I just bought a "gently used" Meridian series off of e-bay from a guy who still had 1.25 years left of his 2 year best buy warranty... It was an incredible deal, and since I'm a newbie, I was leary about setting down $300. My Meridian platinum came with software for less than $200. My friend has a color Meridian, but it's not value add in my opinion. Base your buy on features, but consider that you will most likely only use 1 or 2 of them primarily. My firend got the color because he will need it mostly at night - the B&W can be more difficult to see. Also, if you will use if for other sports - size, weight, etc come into play.

My wife and I are relatively new, but we like: 1) Time together (caching 1 or 2x per week ensures we hang out doing something constructive). 2) Finding things "off the beaten path" 3) The hunt itself 4) Learning all kinds of new stuff about geography, nature, history, etc) 5) Keeping up with technological advances on web, GPS, etc. The people are great too. We hope to make some new friends at events, etc.

Thanks for the email - I'll write him today. Even though we my wife and I are Americans, we visit many Provincial and a few Canadian National Parks each summer. We hope to make geocaching part of our enjoyment of the parks. I understand their concerns, but still feel there is a compromise that can be made.

My wife and I just bought our first 4 tags. For the first one, I was going to mill out the center of a hockey puck and glue the travel bug into it. The goal would be to visit as many stadiums / ice rinks as possible. It would be neat to have pictures of it at each of the NHL rinks as an example. We're pretty new - but one attraction to travel bugs (for us) is living vicariously through the bug. Some day, I'd love to visit all of the pro rinks in N.A., but since it's unlikely, maybe the bug can do it. The watch idea is awesome by the way.

I was trying to come up with an alias for my wife and I to share that didn't seem lame... We live on Polk Street - and bandits just sort of came naturally. We're still trying to come up with something more exciting.

I think this all ready exists... they are called letter boxes, or hybrid letterbox caches. People make pre-made rubber stamps and then "sign" the book with their "mark". The more extravegant the stamp - the better.

American's don't have it so bad... The poor Europeans take their vacations entire countries at the same time - that pretty much means if you don't leave with every one else at your "appointed time" then you can't eat or go to the movies at home... And if you leave at your appointed time, it's really crowded (everyone goes to Southern Spain or Italy). If the French farmers have a strike - you spend your whole vacation on the road looking at sheep. In the US, we have it great - we sit at work from 9-5 for 70% of the week, but type on geocaching.com the whole time... some of us get 15 or so company holidays (christmas, new year, turkey day, etc) plus 2 or 3 weeks vacation... It's not 3 months off, but at least we can take it when we want.

Never mind - I checked... The one I linked, just redirects you to your site when you ask it about Tennessee. That's a relief!

Did mine and yours match?

As an automotive employee, I have to say gas prices do not affect purchasing decisions or driving habits for most people. For those that do, we offer Hybrids, PZEVs, and other interesting products. Unfortunately, good old gasoline is still the cheapest form of propulsion (BTU per Pound Cubic Foot Dollar). Also consider that depending on how your electricity is created (coal, hydro, etc), it could be more costly or damaging to the environment than you think. If you want cheap gas, go here... Never fails.

Forones around town, I really just carry my GPSr and a pen. When we go off-roading, we usually fill our trusty Jansport with a camera, H20, and bug-spray... Did I mention bug spray?