E_ZIG_A

When I'm caching in conditions where I am likely to run into snakes (being Australia, we have more than our fair share of aggressive and venomous sorts!) I wear leather GP boots, long pants and thick canvas gaiters. I figure the snakes can't bite me through that and it gives me a chance. Quite a few times I've narrowly avoided stepping on a big Tiger snake (very aggro and extremely venomous) and Red Bellied Blacks (not quite so bad, but still not to be messed with).

I use the visit feature in two ways; to log my own personal Trackable through every cache I visit (that's fun, seeing the crazy moves and big distance!) and I log trackables I am carrying through any geographical moves or interesting caches. I include stories and photos.

I try to, but often if I'm travelling I don't have time or access to a PC to do the deed. Having said that, a TB I picked up in Canada last week came caching with me this weekend; we found more than ten caches and I visited it into each one, with one or two photos and a story with each visit! That is what I try to do, but you can't always and of ourselves, rarely is it acknowledged. I guess I don't do it for the rude and ignorant owner then, but all the other catchers along the way to enjoy the journey through the logs.

Scroggin is always great for snacking on the way (the kids will love it). You can't go wrong with muesli/cereal bars either. Well wrapped sandwiches will keep well, so long as you don't fill them with soggy stuff, so stick to your basic fillings like VEGEMITE or peanut butter and jelly, whatever you like, but just non soggy! Fruit is good too - an orange, apple or banana is great trail food. A bar of chocolate and some jelly snakes for energy snacks is a good idea too! You could also go all out and make a quiche/egg and bacon pie/flann type of thing and wrap it well and put it in a insulated lunch box with a frozen box of juice. Boiled eggs travel well too. Nuts. Popcorn. Jerky.

Me personally, always a story and I try to have at least one photo for each TB. But I also don't get twisted if I get the robotic (yes boring) log of just visits, because I understand I have no control over how other people play the game and at the very least, it is fun to see on the map where the bug has travelled. You have to see the silver lining in the cloud, or you might as well give up the game.

For the record; I like my TB visiting caches with the Geocacher holding it; I like to look at the map to see where they have been and it is fun to see the path a Geocacher takes in a day or week or so of caching sometimes! Don't feel bad about visiting caches with TBs I say; it's all part of the game and as with any game, you can ask for your own game piece to be used in a certain way, but once you release it, then you just have the fun of watching random chance at work and see who ends up with it and where it goes!

I agree whole-heartedly with this. Apart from the crazy 'auto visit' feature, I think it is a bit much to be upset at someone who is trying to do the right thing by your TB through visiting it in caches; it shows that it is moving and collecting miles if nothing else and a bonus is when they take the time to write something extra in those logs and add the odd photo or two.

Well I'm a tad confused now, I thought power trails are where a heap of geocaches were placed in a line so you can drive, ride or hike along, picking up heaps of caches along the way. There are some great power trails set by the bicycle riding set up in Townsville and also down here in Brisbane (Queensland) which involve many more than 20 geocaches in a line, following the bike trails. I've enjoyed these because they are an interesting walk or ride and the caches are not all same old boring thing, but imaginatively done; so for me tick all the boxes; you enjoy exploring a new area, you have a few challenging or interesting caches to find and you get to find heaps! The thoughtlessly placed ones as described above don't sound like my cup of tea at all.

We have introduced a few work colleagues to Geocaching and some of them are still going strong, some are still the recovering from experience of being dragged through the bushes, being furtive, while dressed in a suit and tie while we were out on a work trip.... heh heh heh. And quite a few have said, "oh, you too?" and while I don't advertise it loudly, I do have a trackable patch on my backpack, which is recognised by quite a few people at work, who march in and loudly ask, "who's the Geocacher?"... It's no secret, but we like to be furtive in finding our caches and when introducing someone to geocaching, its good to explain to them that you don't let 'muggles' see you do it, in order to preserve the cache.

and as we all know, sometimes the most direct path is not the one that gets you there in the end!

I have done parts of a few power trails, by parking in a mid point, then the dog and I leap out and with a backpack filled with supplies, we march in one direction, exploring and grabbing caches, then round trip it back to the car nabbing a few random caches off the track, before heading back down the other way. for me it's like a mega exercise session. I'd do it with a bicycle, but the geobeast would very quickly turn that into a disastrous tangle of leash, spokes and legs! I think doing a power trail by car would need a few people to leap out as the driver cruises on, otherwise the stopping and starting might get dull.

yes, such is the life of a travel bug! 2 weeks is really nothing in the busy lives we all lead, weather, illness and with the increasing numbers of micros and also geocaches out there that travelbugs seem to go missing from regularly, so I know i tend to hold on until i find just the right cache for each bug; I'm also very busy, so sadly there might be times I hold a bug for many weeks longer than "etiquette" suggests - I do like to keep the bug moving and write notes, stories and photos, so it doesn't just sit dormant, but yes, I do hold them for a while before I find that great cache to plonk them into.

Found it GC18JCR You'll be Heading for this Lookout 12/27/2010 This was our first Geocaching trip! We went with the Lindsay Larrikins and after a bit of wandering around and pondering the clues, we found this very neat cache! We didn't write in the log (but intend to return to do so). Great view and we had to pretend to be looking for a child's toy when a muggle wandered up as we were bum up in the .... but I won't give it away.... ; )

and I think that can be one of the big problems; the instructions for the bug are too complex or restricting, so people just leave it or ignore the mission, as the owner has made it too hard for them to simply pick up and move it. I read here in these forums from some experienced cachers, that you have to remember that whilst the bugs mission may be to move from point A to point B, sometimes the quickest way is via point C and D, rather than just sitting there waiting for someone who will only take it from point A to B....

I was over in the USA for work and did my first LPC in a few shopping mall car parks, so NOW I know what you-all are talking about! I have to agree that whilst on the surface sure they might seem not very exciting, but I look at the positive, they DO a few things: They bring you to a different part of town. They might take you down to a different part of the car park that you might not ordinarily go to (don't we all try and park as close to the mall as possible?) and there just might be something interesting down there that we, in our shopping frenzy/frustration, might have otherwise missed (in one example, we found a really cool tent with Xmas toys in it, at the far end of a shopping mall car park! There was no way we would have found this without either local knowledge or this geocache). They give the non shopping-fanatic geocaching partner something to do when the other one goes in to do the shopping! They do help you to rack up the numbers when you are on a numbers run or when you need to find a cache a day! They are fun for the people who have never seen an LPC before! We are out there! They are great to introduce your muggle workmates to Geocaching (if you saw a car driving on the wrong side of the road going through a car park a few months ago...sorry about that....it was us Aussies, looking for a cache and momentarily forgetting what side of the road to be on....)

The best etiquette IMHO, is simply to move and log, move and log. Apart from that, I don't think there is much more apart from how each individual personally plays the game.

My first Geocache is still out there and going strong, receiving positive comments and the odd favourite point too. I think as long as you are taking people somewhere interesting (i.e. a positive experience) then its all good! And remember: it's a game and games are FUN I took ages checking and rechecking the coordinates to that cache, adjusting the clues, adjusting the description, checked it regularly, kept it well stocked and now it just seems to be motoring along fine. I also subscribe to the notion that if you put a cache out there that YOU would enjoy finding, then you can't be going to far wrong either.

Lack of FTF prizes! ha ha well I try to put an FTF prize in mine to mark the occasion for the truly first person to get there and find it, but having been FTF on a small handful now, not one single one had anything in it to claim as the FTF prize! Ah well.... Actually the biggest beef is racing there hoping to meet a heap of other FTF hounds and then nada. zilch. lonesome. no impromptu FTF gathering! I was lucky enough to join in on a few of those in Melbourne and it was heaps of fun, but every FTF I had up here in Brisbane so far was a solo affair. But I live in hope!

I just loaded it up and agree; it's really cool!

I tend to visit TBs and GCs in each area as I go, or in every interesting Geocache in the area that I'm caching in; I write a little bit of a log with each "visit" and try to take a few photos somewhere along the way too. I like it when others do this with my travellers and that is why I do it with other people's. I get bored with visited logs with no detail yes, but in those instances it is actually fun to look at the map of where that piece has moved, even if only in the same area, so I guess it call comes down to your perspective. In the end, all you can do is hope for an interesting log, but not get bent around the axle if you don't get one; just enjoy the ones you do get!

The cache is disabled and the geocaching community is showing their support; nothing wrong with that and petty adherence to "policy" has no place at a time like this.

Yes, my Geobeast is a trackable also and she loves Geocaching, as we both get to go on long rambles, wandering in aimless circles looking for 'something'...

Well I have 40 Trackables out there, an even mix of coin and bug. Of those six are marked as location Unknown and I have another significant handful that are still in the hands of other cachers, who haven't logged them for many many months (some since 2011) but I've sent out one polite reminder email and I've updated the cache page with some instructions on what to do with a trackable, but beyond that I have no control and I won't be getting my undies in a bunch over it. The game is all about chance and there is little point in worrying about something you have absolutely no control over. The only thing to do really is release a few more and watch with interest what happens to them! I get a lot of enjoyment seeing the adventures of my other travellers; I have sufficient out there who are in the care of great Geocachers, who are taking my team on some awesome journeys, so I think that is the key here: release enough so that you aren't frantically worried about THE ONE or TWO.

rightio, doubting my own sanity here! Last week I could not change those settings, so was stuck with the appalling Apple Maps. Today, after downloading Google Maps, I suddenly have other options! All I can say is Hallellujah! I don't care how, why, sanity or not, it's GAME ON.....

Ok, now that we have the Google Map app on our iphones, do you think the Geocaching app will be able to tap into that soon? I am so frustrated with the Apple maps as I was doing a lot more spur of the moment geocaching when travelling for work (when dragging out a GPS is not possible) but with the 6.0, it is a sad and miserable experience!