sshipway

Yes, develop it -- post the pics online, and maybe put the pysical photos in a little album in the cache itself, if there is space? The cache owner (if they are still about) would most likely thank you for doing their work anyway, and you can always send them the digital photos if they subsequently request it. Im amazed the camera is still there-- here, the only one I knew of was stolen before being half full...

I don't even bother with Micros and Nanos. My kids (5 and 3) are also all about finding interesting swag inside and trading (first to find it gets first choice on the swag!) so micros and empty 'small' caches are considered a waste of time by them. Personally, I also usually find micros a bit tedious -- after all, its easy to hide something that size. Take on the challenge and try hiding something a bit larger, eh? I know urban caches have to be smaller but some people hide something tiny where they could easily have gone up to 'small' or even 'regular'.

My other half thinks geocaching a complete and utter waste of time that could be more productively spent (by me) by doing the housework . Took her with myself and children to a beautiful waterfall in the mountains (to pick up the geocache nearby) but she spent the whole 1-hour drive complaining! Since, then, she only lets me go caching if I also take the (13month old) baby with me. This limits me to T<=2 caches However, -- since Miss 5 and Master 3 are keen geocachers there is still hope for my caching future as Master 1 becomes more mobile...

Now, is there a way to get a CACHE's statistics (last find, difficulty/terrain, etc) as a stat box like this? I added this to a request on the website...

If someone (possibly with a more sensitive or accurate GPS than mine) posts a log with a suggestion of better coordinates I'll take it under advice. If there are many DNFs and the finders all suggest a different set of coords I'll be grateful for the correction. Other people are free to ignore the suggestions. In any case if someone is trying to be helpful then thats a good thing (even if they got it wrong ) Some people will complain about anything. Some people take things too seriously and personally.

Sorry, no picture... but a list. GPS (of course) Bright LED torch (plus spare batteries) Leatherman Dessicant sachets (for damp caches) Pen and pencil Spare paper (for taking notes) Phone Sticking plasters Antibacterial hand gel Tissues Wet wipes Coil of rope Plastic carrier bags Bag of assorted swag for trading Bag of any trackables/Geocoins awaiting dropoff Chocolate Whistle Compass If caching with kids, also add -- 2 spare nappies, spare T-Shirt and trousers So far, every item has had to be used on at least one occasion. Unexpected situations include the park maintenance staff swithcing on the area sprinklers and soaking the whole family, 3yo being caught short and needing to do #2s in the bushes, falling off a log, and so on... Occasionally: magnet on string, camera... When I was caching in Taiwna I also carried a printed article on geocaching (in Chinese)

I tried Balancing the Fallen Tree a little while back... and failed (the balancing, that is -- I found the cache ). Resulted in a bit for scrapes and blood but nothing worse. I think the caches in the US are a bit more physical than urban NZ.

Maybe I should have added more of these to my post to indicate good-natured inter-cultural teasing: Back when I was in my 20s, backpacking through Texas, seeing so many people openly wearing lethal weapons did indeed make me feel unsafe, having come from a country where you never see guns apart from on TV. While a gun is not dangerous in isolation, you have no knowledge of the stability and judgement of the holder; seeing so many people apparently ready to use a lethal weapon at a moments notice is unsettling for someone from a country where this is not the norm.

Americans and their love of guns... Fortunately, I live in a country where it is not necessary for everyone over the age of 3 to carry a handgun in order to feel safe I remember how nervous I felt travelling through Texas so many years ago with so many weapons about. Scary place, if you can't even go geocaching without being armed!

As long as you (a) virus scan it, (B ) disable autoexec for USB under windows or use linux/mac, (c ) never never run any executable on it, and (d) be prepared to meet Goatse if you dare to open an image file, then you should be OK. Since this would only contain non-executable game data you should be OK, but I doubt enough people would know what it is and have the game available for it to be worthwhile doing. Steve

If people are searching for suggestions, I think it would be very useful to have the TB code printed on the tag in QR format (those square squashed-space-invader codes that can be read by mobile phones). This is a standard means of distributing short strings of info, and it is highly likely that, if this is done, future goecaching smartphone apps will support scanning the TB code in this way... -- My trackable Similarly, it would be cool if cache owners could place a QR code on the cache container holding the cache ID, but this would be a bit harder. However generating the code for print is easy: QR Code Generator -- My cache Steve

Somehow I think that even SPAM doesn't last THIS long... checking out the trackable page, it's definitely old, but it hasn't traveled near as much as World Traveler -- it's not left the USA/Canada even. Good thing you have large cache sizes over there, it wouldn't fit in 90% of the caches here in New Zealand.

We were recently privileged to pick up this guy: World Traveller According to the log, he started life in Nov 2002, before travelling 30,000 miles and eventually languishing in a cache in southern Taiwan for a year before we picked him up to take him on to New Zealand. Given that geocaching only started at the end of 2000 and trackables on the website were likely to be some time after this, he seems to be close to the maximum age achievable. My question is, what's the oldest bug you've found? What's the oldest bug known to still be 'live' in the wild? Were we just insanely lucky to find this guy or are there many 10 year old bugs slowly moving around the world? Thoughts....

Our NZ LARP society also keeps local police aware of events, particularly any in a more modern or urban setting which may be misinterpreted. They welcome the information as it minimises the risk of false alarms. In the current political climate in USA and UK in particular its probably a good thing to let them know about strange hidden boxes in advance, else you might find your new cache being detonated remotely...

Not everyone has an iphone or similar. I too have to print the pages, though normally I cut-and-paste the relevant text out into a separate file so I can fit several onto a single page, and print the map once. It never comes out quite how I want but its better than nothing!

Since I go caching with my kids (3 and 5) the main thing of interest to them is finding cool stuff they can grab (and I have to replace with something else :/ ) so this is why the swag is important to me. Finding GC/TB items (yes, I know I cant keep them!) is exciting to the kids, too, so I put in something nice as well. I want to reward the cache-creator by adding nice things and thus making their cache more popular - else all we'll be finding is stuff that not even a small kids would want. My test would be, if my 3-year-old would like to grab it, then its OK to use as swag Steve

So, I've seen too many caches holding nothing but a 5c coin, business card, or something you'd find in a cracker. I've tried to upgrade swag by placing some nicer items in there, but its a losing battle I'll also place a better swag item if I remove a TB/GC or if I particularly like the cache placement. What do people think should be the value of an item of swag? I'd say it depends on your country of reference, but maybe UKP1.5, US$2, NZ$3, NT$40 would be a good guideline. What value items do you tend to place?

I have no problem with nudity, although I'd want to keep any pornography and violence away from the kids until they're old enough to judge for themselves. However I realise that in more religious countries (middle east and USA) people have less liberal views. As long as it conforms to the 'Certificate PG' rules for the country in which it is located, I think it should be OK. It would be sensible to make a note in the cache description of this, though. So in the UK, nudity would be acceptable (with advance warning) but not blood&gore. In the USA, blood, gore and toy firearms would be fine, but no bare skin (we tease you over your prudery, you tease us for being wusses over blood&gore, and thus is equilibrium maintained) The only thing I have removed from a cache to the bin so far was a rather extreme religious pamphlet. Unexpected photos as mentioned above, business cards and (non-geocaching-related) adverts will also be removed in the future...

I've created a number of TBs attached to old USB sticks (ranging in size from 128MB to 1GB). They have tags on them warning about sensible precautions and etiquette rules. It's up to the collectee if they decide to take the risk (which is zero if you take the appropriate precautions of disabling autoexec, not running executables and just placing images on the stick). I've placed a load of instructions on the TB page, as well. Cat S. Trophy Cat R. Clysm Cat Mandu Kiwi Explorer Hopefully, any obscene content will be deleted by the next finder, and people will take reasonable precautions -- the odds are something nasty will end up on there eventually. One of these (Cat R. Clysm) is password protected, and a clue to the password is on the TB page. I don't know if this will make a difference or not... Steve

If anyone wants to follow the Cat's progress, the trackable page is here

I've created a new trackable, 'Cat S. Trophy', to travel to Christchurch and then on to the various countries which gave their aid when the earthquake struck. Everyone picking up the trackable is requested to add their picture to the attached USB key, and to donate a small koha ($5? $1?) to the Red Cross. Every time it makes one of its goals, I'll make a $20 donation to the appeal as well. Currently it is in the North Island heading south... please pick it up if you're in the area! (I considered using one of the Chch Appeal Geocoins for this, but wanted to attach the USBkey and to get it out as soon as possible)