M3J

Two of us geocachers from Canada will be there the first two weeks of July...it would be cool to host an event in country while we are there. Just checking to see if anyone else would be there. Likely looking at an evening event between July 5 and 11.

Thanks guys. I was just curious. It was very pretty (for a spider) and I had never seen one like this before. Wasn't sure if they were venemous or not and whether future cachers to the area should be warned or not but it sounds like those guys are like the planet earth in HHGTTG....Mostly Harmless.

Saw this guy while caching in Paisley, Ont this weekend. I'd guess his body was about 3/4 to 1 inch long. Anyone have any clue what kind of spider this is? Never seen one like this before.

I had been in the numbers mode for a long time. Not to do more than anyone, but I was always setting goals like 2,000 by my 40th birthday...100 a month for a year...200 on vacation...etc. At the time, for me, that was part of the fun....the adventure AND the smilies. Since I hit 3,000 in December, I have only done 60+ caches. I am just at a place where I had other things to do...life has been very very busy. I still enjoy caching, don't get me wrong, but I was placing a crazy day of 30 or 40 caches ahead of a day just hanging with my wife. I have cached in every province, I think something like 22 US states, 8 or 9 countries, but many a time it was by myself. What was the point to that??? I did some in the Carribean in Jan, some in Ottawa the long weekend, a few in Niagara this past weekend (my wife and I were away for our anniversary and SHE actually suggested we do some caching), and will be doing some this weekend on Toronto Island. In 4 weeks our family heads to Africa and I will be doing a few in Uganda (one right on the equator), BOTH of the caches in Rwanda, a few while on safari in Kenya, and a few in London on our day and a half there on the way home (including one around Grenwich so we will have a GPS picture showing 00 00.000 N/S in Uganda and another showing 000 00.000 E/W ini London...kinda cool). All in, I may wind up with 200-300 for the year...a far cry from the 1,200 I have done in a year in the past. Doesn't bother me in the least. I am sure there will be a day when the kids are all grown up and the wife is into some new crazy craft and I am left to my own devices once again...maybe even be retired by then. Numbers may be a big deal once again. That will be fine too...life changes, priorities change, etc. For now, I am just interested in seeing new places, having new countries beside my name, caching with friends and family when there is time, and enjoying caching as just another fun thing to do in life...not have it run my life.

Thanks Nozz...been looking for these as well.

You know, I remember you telling me that before and I never got it...these days, with a lot of new stuff coming out that really shouldn't be out there, I am starting to agree with you more. I think I've only done 50 caches in the last 4 months...just getting a little tired of crappy caches. Thank goodness for the ignore button! Maybe I'll have to try some Waymarking too! Just don't think Timmie's will cut it for me though

No offence at all CD, its really not that big of a deal to me at all, but you were not a reviewer when the early caches by these guys were put out there...early 2005. I am sure you may have communicated with other reviewers that were around at the time, but since this would be second hand info, I would think the only way to make the above statement is if you had been part of those early conversations directly with OGPSTH while acting as a representative of GC.com. Regardless, if the conversaations you indicated really did play out as you mentioned and there were concrete maintenancce plans in place, not much GC.com can do about it I guess. Anyway, I certainly don't believe that allowing caches to be placed by folks living far away is something that has only happened for the OGPSTH people. I have seen many caches over the years placed by those living far away...I still run into them from time to time when I am travelling. To be frank, I think this is one area where caches have fallen through the cracks and been allowed to be published when they shoulddn't have been. I have always stood behind one common thought though...if you don't like a certian cache placer, or type of hide, or location, etc, then don't do them. I would be willing to bet that many who have complained about OGPSTH caches have done more than one of them. If people really didn't enjoy doing them, why did they bother doing more? Cheers

As I have shared before, I was OK with a lot of the caches I found as they were in interesting places up north and I understood the intention was to get more people into caching...a family event. Knowing the guys at the Canadian Ecology Center who were the organizers of the OGPSTH, I can assure you the problems with the early caches were mainly due to the first guy who was in charge of OGPSTH really not knowing much about geocaching, but was well versed on GPS for outdoor use. He did put out some bad caches and did not maintain most of them, primarily because they were spread out everywhere in the north (as a side note to this comment, if reviewers would have not allowed them to place caches hundreds of kms or more from home (Mattawa area) as I thought the guidelines prevented, they wouldn't have had a maintenance issue). When the next guy took over (I think it was Rob), the cache quality went way up and he put out some great hikes in beautiful areas....I can think of a couple close to Burk's Falls I think they were). Take a look at the dates of publication for the crappy ones vs the good ones....its pretty clear. That being said, the inherant flaw was that, no matter who was placing these caches and maintaining them, they were basically employees of the Canadian Ecology Center and if they left the organization, there was no incentive for them to take care of these caches anymore. Personally, I think the error in the first place was that GC.com allowed these caches to be published on their site. I feel there are a number of reasons why they did not meet GC guidelines. That being said, having the caches on their own website was just fine and it should have stayed as a seperate entity. I actually found out about these caches from their website, not from GC.com. There were a number of caches on their website that were never published on GC.com in the early days. And yes, I won a couple of prizes

I bought the Sawyer's spray last year. Its supposed to last 6 weeks on the clothing even when washed. Think I'll be caching in the north this summer!

...one of my favorites (and was my first!). Very nice trail at night.

Um... WHOOPS Yes I meant northwest there..... Also, we're planning the next batch of BFL Caches coming October 3 BFL Boot Camp IV October 3rd???? But there won't be any sleet, snow, ice storm, or freezing winds by then!!!! It just won't be the same!! I'm sure the CREW from Waterloo will be there!

If you mean buy as in just buy a couple for keeps or trading, I can only speak for the couple I have bought from 3geeks and the many I have bought from Landsharkz. Both make quality coins. Knowing Helen and Chris at Landsharkz, I am certainly a big fan of their work. All of their coins are top notch. If you are referring to ordering custom coins to be made to your specs, again, our experience with Landsharkz could not be beat for certain. Chris is an amazing designer/artist and the two of them just simply run a quality business and are a pleasure to deal with. Our CREW coin was a huge hit and I still get requests for coins (though we sold out long ago). At the end of the day, if you just like collecting, there are a bunch of designers out there that do great work. It really depends on what you are looking for. eBay is another great source for coins believe it or not.

Everything I do (almost) is from a loaded PQ (Pocket Query). I spend part of my week deciding where I am going to cache that weekend and the route I am going to take. I always use the Geocaching Google Maps for that and then create a bookmark list to save them to (eg. "Jan 24"). The night before I build the PQ from the bookmark list and load that via GSAK. I do not keep my closest 500 like many do. I see no point. I want to only see on the map the caches I intend to do for the day. I don't want to open each one while in the field to determine if I want to do it that day. With the Oregon (and CO) its easy...once I connect to my computer and its sees the GPSr as a drive, I just go in and delete the caches.gpx file, thereby clearing out all of the old caches, then load the new file via GSAK for just the ones I am going to do that day (or on that trip). Now, if I don't have time to go bookmarking beforehand and I am headed to a city for another reason, I will pull a PQ for all caches in the area just so I have something in there. If I still had a lot to do close to home, I might do that differently and just load the closest 500 but since its 40km to the next large clump of caches for me, it makes no sense since if I put in a distance of 50km for the radius in the PQ, I will get a lot of caches in the exact opposite direction from where I want to go. To each his own though...this just works well for me. There is no right and wrong, its just what you find easier based on your caching style.

No, I may have mislead you. We are not going until June 27th. 5 months yet.

Lots of us crazies here. Keep an eye out for the CREW Pub Events...there is one in February. All the regular local cachers will be there I am sure.

Congrats on the new pup Cathy! Where did you wind up getting him/her from? Harley has made us a fantastic pet...I'm sure yours will as well. Just get him into a puppy class as soon as possible...that plus training to sniff out tupperware....

No problem.

Thanks for the info Carbon Hunter. I look forward to the trip very much and your info will certainly come in handy.

Too bad about the Jinja cache. My family and I will be in Jinja at the end of June for three weeks and I had been looking forward to that one. I will still do the others in the area as well as Kampala/Entebbe. I had just come into this forum to post some questions about caching in East Africa. If its OK, maybe I can ask the questions here... 1) How long a drive will it be from Jinja down the the equator (where there is another cache) in Uganda? 2) How safe is caching in Jinja and East Africa as a whole? We are coming over with our two boys, ages 10 and 14, and its a concern of my wife's. 3) Interesting to see mention of the 100 days of madness cache. I am flying from Entebbe to Kigali alone on July 11 just for two days to see the genocide museum and other sites of interest in regards to the genocide (after reading Shake Hands With The Devil, I knew I would have to visit when we are in Uganda). I plan on doing the few caches that are there as well. What other points of interest would I want to see while there? 4) Are there many cachers in Uganda? I had thought it would be very cool to meet other cachers over in Jinja or Kampala while we are there. Thanks for the replies. Mike from Canada

Problem with this one is that unless you are in the canadian military or a weather researcher, you can't get to CFB Alert where this cache is close to. I am an ex reservist but that gets me no where, though I have tried.

Hi folks, Without wasting too much of your time in this forum, could someone please just tell me if a topic about caching in East Africa (specifically Uganda and Kenya) would be better served going to the All Nations forum than here? Thanks Mike from Canada

Too bad about your weather folks...wasn't too bad here, though a little wet. We had about 45 at the event here. Congrats to Lone Star 1 on #100, 13coach13 for #200, Teab BBEX on #300, Baker's Dozen on #600, HomerJFong on #750, Eelow&Beelow on #1100, Galloping Gourmet on #1700(+2), as well as Dreadnaught plus ourselves on #3000. Great food, great company, plus we gathered a ton of toys for the toy drive. I am proud to be part of this bunch! Merry Christmas all!!

Oktoberfest (notice the k, not a c...half the population here gets quite upset by that one...learned it the hard way!) for 2009 runs from Oct 9 - 17. Its always a blast. eelow&beelow would know something about this as he works there and is, in fact, holding our annual Regift O Rama event there this coming Jan 1. ElectroQTed and I held an Oktobercache event last year (had to skip this year) so if folks are going to come down for the GPS Adventure during Oktoberfest, maybe Ted and I can put it on again this coming year. It was good fun. For those in the Michigan/Ohio/Pennsylvania/New York areas, we are only about a 90 minute drive from the border at Buffalo and about 2.5hrs from Detroit. Its pretty convenient to get here for a large number of our American caching friends!

Some good points Ralph, though the couple of caches I am thinking of that were placed by new cachers who then left the sport were actually decent caches. My brother in law out in Nova Scotia is another example. I think he has a hide or two but only 35 or so finds since starting almost at the same time as us in 2005. I think life just got busy and the novelty wore off. I am sure that happens with many. Actually, I have been surprised it didn't happen with me. I am famous for buying the newest thing and then walking away a few months later. I don't think we would have a reason to put on an annual garage sale if it weren't for all of my forgotten "hobbies"! I would agree 100% with your comment about statements being misperceived when written online. I think the internet is 90% responsible for the downfall of polite communication over the last 10 years. No one cares about the other's feelings if they don't have to worry about facing them.

I have read some good points in this thread and I have reflected on my original thoughts. Maybe having the right to place a cache be based on number of finds is not fair, I will concede it is hard to pin down what is right/fair. As I had stated though, I have seen great caches from "newbs" and crappy ones from those with hundreds of finds or more. My thoughts were only to "improve the odds". I really am thinking about some local finds in recent times where inexperience led to coordinates being WAY off and caches in very bad locations. These were all by new cachers who were likely just not aware that it is bad form to place a cache along a fence or in a tree right at the edge of someone's backyard (just an example). I don't feel these caches were intentionally crappy, just that the cachers were not aware of what is cool/fun or not due to inexperience. Nothing malicious, just the facts. Another thought is that I have seen over the years a number of cachers who get into geocaching, place a number of caches right away, then decide this hobby is not for them. I have DNFed on a number of caches over the years that had been muggled but since the cacher had left the hobby, they were not replying to requests to replace or archive their caches. I can think of at least 4 examples in our region in the last two years where this was cachers with few finds and just lost interest. As stated, you guys are likely correct...setting a number of finds or time in is maybe not the right approach. Not sure how else to show new cachers what good caches are like. Not saying mine are the best by any means but the more someone finds, the more unique cache ideas they get and the more they learn great hiding strategies. I'm still learning too...always love a new hide type.