Rev Mike

Thanks for including that PDF here. It not only made for good reading but is immediately relevent to me as I am in the process of planning a 20 state caching trip for the spring that is going to involve spending a large deal of time in no less than 6 National Parks. It is nice knowing now that if I am in a state that honors my concealed carry permit that I no longer have to secure me sidearm before entering the parks. It is already been quite a task trying to figure out what states have what level of reciprocity agreement (if any) with my home state and researching gun laws in twenty states before setting off. - Rev Mike

That is the first lesson to learn in here. We are for the most part good people but if you mention something even remotely controversial it will be beaten to death and could go on days. Strangely trisodium phosphate was also the first thing that popped into my head. - Rev Mike

Yep it is all about enjoying what I am doing and where I am. Numbers don't factor into my goals at all... I don't think I have even made 10 finds in the last 3 months. When I do set personal goals they usually revolve around maps. Since I love to travel, and would be on the road with or without geocaching, my strong affinity for coloring in maps seems natural. I like to color in sections of maps be they new states or even counties and when I end up somewhere new I try to look for the caches there that seem like they would be most interesting to me. That is about it for my goals. - Rev Mike

I think briansnat is correct in that as long as you at least try to keep it near home it will work out better. I have found a couple like that before and one was confined to a county. It was much easier than the other one that did not even have to stay in the same state as the cache. As long as someone will be able to find it because it is no fun hiding a cache that people can't solve or find. Some people may think themselves clever for hiding something like that but I don't. I had a puzzle go unsolved for about eight months or something like that before I started really dropping hints everywhere. Finally someone got it and then better hints spread like wildfire but I tend to think that I failed as a cache hider when nobody could find it. - Rev Mike Oh and someone WILL lock the key in the cache

StarBrand and Prime Suspect have got it right. If the cache no longer has an owner then when something serious happens the cache must go. I really don't think either of them hates old caches nor were they "putting down those of us who like having the old caches around"... I think they were just replying to the OP. and to the OP just what caches are worth all of this? C'mon give us some waypoints so we can argue the merits of each listing seperately!!! - Rev Mike

Yep... 134 finds across 16 states and 13 developed across 6 states with a few more in various stages of development. I have taken a few months off and have no plans to do much caching for a few more months but when I do I am really going to go at it. I am currently planning a 3+ week/20 state caching route and you had better believe I will be grabbing at least a few dozen EarthCaches along the way. The worst part is I will be in California for that trip but not near the 100 EarthCache finds cache And many thanks to everyone out there developing EarthCaches... I may not have found one of yours yet but I will get there sooner or later. - Rev Mike

All I am saying there is that the decision to publish the cache or not is the reviewer's so how is it bad advise to advise the OP to run the idea past his reviewer? - Rev Mike

From a moral standpoint I don't see how this is any different than if I were to go on a caching trip and made a couple of mix cds for the trip. Am I a bad person if I leave them in the driver's car since I already have the real cds and don't need them? But the entire point of my prevoius post was to get the OP to ask his reviewer if it was OK to do what he had planned since that matters more than any opinions given here. - Rev Mike

Anyone happen to know where this trail might happen to be? I would do it bit I certainly would not have one of my hand dedicated to the video camera. - Rev Mike

I would imagine that as long as swapping of music is not a requirement of logging a find on the cache it should not keep it from being published. It could just be a regular cache with a suggested trading theme. I don't think that a couple people trading mix cds is quite the problem it is made out to be here. Now if the CO made a hundred copies of an album and distributed them in the cache then I would see a problem with that. It does not seem much different to me than stamping Where's George on a dollar bill and trading those in a cache and that seems a widely accepted practice. I have even seen caches encouraging creating and swapping those. I hardly think that something on the scale of a single cache will bring down the wrath of the copyright gods. I doubt that the SWAT team will dive out of the bushes to arrest anyone that takes a cd from the cache. Provided the cache is not on private property then the container and all contents are technically considered abandoned property and no agency will take the trouble to try to establish a chain of custody on items considered abandoned, that are constantly changing hands. That is why I don't consider it a bad idea. It might also be of note that I am not familiar with any laws regarding this issue in the UK and I do not know Groundspeak's take on it. I am just saying I have never noticed anything in the guidelines that prohibits this practice practice and trust in the reviewers to make the decision if and when the time comes. After all they are the only ones whose 2 cents really matters. Might I suggest that the OP emails his local reviewer and asks... - Rev Mike

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Exactly.

In addition to the couple of great caches there you should also take the time to explore the rest of the area. Almost all of the roads are still open and passable provided your vehicle does not sit extremely low and you can make it do what you want it to. But my favorite part to take first timers to is the old rte 61 that was bypassed after sections caved in. You don't have to walk more than about 2 tenths of a mile down the road before you run into some of the most dramatic examples of what the fire has done to the road. These coordinates (N 40 47.977 W 076 20.382) should be very close to the north end of the closed section and there is room for a couple of cars to park there. The coords are not exact since I just ballparked it in Mapsource but should be within a couple hundred feet. *Note also that you will see all manner of offensive grafitti painted on the road* Here is a picture of me pretending to fall into the road: Hope you have a great trip. - Rev Mike

Very true. I almost always have a firearm with me when caching... unless I want to cross the border into New York. They do not honor my concealed carry and the laws are tough. I rarely cache urban area to begin with so my biggest concern is bear but if I am heading to NY the gun stays home. - Rev Mike

Case in point: the mystery cache in Northwest PA that was the conclusion of an elaborate cache series. The owner hid the container on the grounds of the police station, given that his next door neighbor was the police chief. Permission was quite clear. The first finders had a nice chat about the cache with the desk sergeant when they visited. That cache was later blown up by the bomb squad. Would a premium account at Geocaching.com have changed the outcome? Would making every bomb squad in the country a cache reviewer (so they can see multi and mystery locations) have changed the outcome? This is a very important point... My only addition is that, in a case that may be considered an "imminent threat," there is just not time to log on to gc.com and look up caches. I know the rest of us may do that at work but in a situation like that hesitation may mean lives. Ammo cans and swag are cheap and if it is mistaken for a bomb it was probably not in a good spot to begin with. I live with in twenty miles of the cache Keysone mentions and if I remember correctly there were more than twenty other caches that needed to be found to get the coords for that one. - Rev Mike

Parking lots are just as boring with a cache in them.

and finally five from caches of mine and then I swear I am done...

and yet more...

and a few more...

It is only a matter of opinion but you can't "disagree" with my choice since you've not found it yet. Likewise I have not found the one you think was the best for NH so I could not consider it as a favorite yet. But I will get there eventually. - Rev Mike

Since when can a CO change the log type?

Regular Traditional Earth alone Finding Virtual Letterbox 60CSx Social not not Out of state "Extreme/Hardcore" Rural

Yes. I had one that was submitted years ago under the account of the team I used to cache with. The style of hide was put on hold for the reviewers to consider how it fit the guidelines and after a decision was made I could not do what was requested. I was working on it for a while and eventually just gave up and pulled the cache but I forgot about the unpublished listing and then a couple of years went. I finally got a notice it had been archived a month ago or so. - Rev Mike

I think my favorite part of that was the road up from the east "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" I believe. The towers and benchmarks were great too. I will get to the Red River Gorge Geological Area eventually. I should be in Kentucky again in May caching my way back to Pennsylvania from California. I will see if I can get that on my route. - Rev Mike