dameetro

I have tried several things to keep trackables from getting lost or stolen. I tried attaching a second tag with instructions. I've tried attaching trackbles to HUGE items (such as a giant squid), small items, or really weird items (like a plastic hamburger bun). I've put instructions to only place them in Premium Member Only caches, or high difficulty/terrain caches. I've drilled holes in coins to "ruin" the value purposely. I've purchased stupid looking or ugly ones too. Nothing has seemed to work any better than the others. It's luck of the draw. The next person to come along might be a great cacher who knows what to do, or a new cacher who is eager to learn the ropes and follow instructions. Or they may be a drooling vegetable or just a bunghole who doesn't care. You just really never know who will come along. That's part of the fun, and it's also part of the frustration. I've had plenty get lost on their first drop. And I've had one travel to the other side of the world and make it to its goal. My advice, don't spend a ton and don't get mad when one gets lost. After getting lost, sometimes they show back up years later, but most don't. Just enjoy the ride and have fun with it. As for where I get mine, I get them from the Groudspeak store, sometimes Geoswag, and sometimes are freebies at events or as FTF prizes.

The number of bogus logs from noobs has increased a lot, just in the last few weeks. Finds on a 5/5 caches that say "TFTC", logs that just have gibberish characters, or logs that just make no sense. Upon visiting the cache, of course there are no signatures from these folks. And then you can't even email them to tell them you're deleting their logs. Odds are they won't notice anyway...but this does really seem to be on the rise in my little corner of the caching universe. I had 3 bogus noob logs today on different caches. The users have never even visited the site. I've made several of my caches PMO, especially ones closer to town. It seems most Intro users don't seem to fake log the caches out in the boonies...yet.

Best swag I have ever found was in a doggie themed cache. Our geodog pulled out a squeaky purple ball. It's still one of her favorite toys 3 years later. Favorite people themed swag was a very powerful tactical flashlight I got from a night cache. It came in handy while getting back out of the woods.

Believe it or not, in one week I've had a SECOND trackable make it to its goal.....from Mississippi to the Pike Place Market in Seattle in a little over 2 years. That's really weird. Perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket on my way home today. Pike Place Perch

Similar to this, but a little more subtle...

We've all seen dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of lightpole "skirtlifter" caches after a few years of caching. Just now while looking back at my first Found It logs, I chuckled when I read my first skirtlifter find from a Lowe's Parking lot. I remember walking around in circles trying to figure out where a container could be in the middle of this parking lot, and being amazed that some guy thought to stick a match container under there! By the end of that week....well, ya know. It wasn't so amazing. So here's your task......Copy and paste your first skirtlifter log find here so we can all laugh at your innocence! I'll start: My 12th cache find....."Awesome hiding spot!" .

Since so many bugs get lost, I thought I'd share a successful trackable story. I released 2 whale tags named George & Gracie. Their goal was to race eachother from Mississippi to the Golden Gate Bridge in Califoria. Thanks to many great cachers, Gracie made it there last week. They even posted some fun photos. GRACIE TRAVEL TAG

I found these little guys snuggled up with the container. I didn't sign the log so I wouldn't wake them up.

I thought I would share a fun caching story.... My wife and I were out doing some caching this weekend while camping out of state. I noticed a cache nearby that had several favorite points. When I got there, my GPS took me to an old Vietnam era helicopter at a VFW post. As soon as I got close, I knew I recognized the markings on the nose. I had recently scanned some old slides my dad had from his tour in the early days of Vietnam. This chopper was flown by someone in the very same unit. While this wasn't the exact chopper my dad flew, it was very cool to see one like it and from his unit. This is just one of the many reasons that caching is awesome. You never know what you'll find next. Here's the cache, in case you're interested in the Vietnam photos I scanned and posted with my log. GCK8CF - The Outlaw .

With all the trouble with bugs and coins going missing, I thought I'd share a success story. TB48MKG This is the first of my trackables to actually make it to its goal. Released in October 2011, it made it from Mississippi to the Eiffel Tower yesterday had its photo taken in front. So keep up hope. You never know. All it takes is the right cacher to help it along. Happy caching everyone!

Thanks for the advice everybody. It looks like we will just have the CITO in the general area of the multi's final location. Anybody who has solved it on their own will have the opportunity to go grab it before or after the cleanup. It's going to be alot of work. When I visited the location earlier this week, I saw a hot water heater, a few refrigerators, and tons of other household debris that had washed downriver from all the neighborhoods that flooded last year. Hopefully no one will need to use the line from Jaws...."We're gonna need a bigger boat" when they see the amount of trash we need to haul to the shore.

Thanks for that tip. I am thinking of just making it just what you suggested....and not even mentioning anything about the multi located there. Odds are, most of the attendees will be the same people who have already found the multi anyway.

Good question. I had that same thought. I have heard from 4 former finders who said it was a great idea. Some have borrowed kayaks to find stage 3, several borrowed a boat from a friend. Not everyone owns a boat or kayak, so they don't even get a chance to do these level 5's. There are some tree-climbing caches near here too. Most people don't have the correct gear, so one guy usually comes with his climbing gear and helps them use it. I thought this might be kinda like that.

Well, with 17 users sill "watching" the listing, I figured it might be nice to see if any former finders would like to re-visit and help me clean up. Many of them listed the cache as a favorite, so I thought some of them may be willing to help CITO the island, especially at an organized event. That way, new finders can have the same challenging experience they had, minus all the garbage.

Basically, the final stage of a 5/5 cache I have adopted is on an island. The area had a 100 year record flood last year, leaving a large amount of trash behind. For the event, I was planning to ferry cachers to the island with my boat...then they can find the final stage and help CITO the island. A few local cachers will probably kayak to the island too. Most of the cachers who have found the multicache have done so via kayak. Here's the cache if anyone is interested. It's disabled temporarily because the container was damaged after the flooding. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=36ede079-3e46-44cd-8f79-d28ae1db606c

Quick question: is it against any guidelines to have a CITO event at the final stage of a multi? Can you expect attendees to find 2 stages of a 5/5 cache prior to the CITO event date?

Add a waypoint by clicking the 3 dots at the top of the map after you are on the Navigate to Geocache map. The little flag shows up at the top.

This Altoids tin was submerged in the Mighty Mississippi for several weeks. I had to pry it open with a knife. It had quite a bit of sand in there, but surprisingly the little Christmas eraser and pin were still recognizable. TNLN. And then there was this Folgers cache. It hadn't been found in almost 2 years. It had no lid for that entire time. I dumped out the water and dug two matchbox cars out from the decayed leaves from 2 Autumns. The log had totally disintegrated inside the bag.

I found an unwrapped, hopefully unused jimmy hat in a cache last month.

Here are a few pics I've taken. I love to do fun pictures for other people's trackables. I figure what goes around, comes around. I took this one of someone's GeoCookie Coin. I quickly made a trip to WalMart for some real Oreos because the photo made me hungry. And then there's the time I took a few trackables to a Star Trek Convention... The General Lee I took this Spark Plug TB to the school they used in the movie "Kindergarten Cop". It's not a toomah. And this gave me an excuse to actually wear my Yoda mask. Dora made it to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

I found some Chicken Poop flavored lip balm in an ammo can last year. I didn't try it. But I'm glad they used free range chickens. I'd hate to think some poor chicken spent his life all squished up in a cage pooping out that lip balm just to make my lips all smooth and soft.

Mine was the Search for George Owen Cash. Click Here. It was originally hidden by the local Search and Rescue Squad. This one really taught me alot about GPS. Took a few weeks to finish the puzzle amd make the trek to each stage. And I was fortunate enough to adopt it...so I get to experience it every few months.

I drilled a hole in mine too. I attached a geocoin buddy tag. That way, if someone steals the coin...they get a nice tag too. My coin, "The Rocketeer"

Today's guess.... Zinnia

How about Black eyed susan...Rudbeckia hirta