Poidawg

That is what I was thinking, once it gets down in price, to have it on the road when travelling might just be the thing. I heard it comes with GPS installed so that would cut out a step right there. Of course some of these caches are way out in the boonies at it might be hard to go online out that far, but as long as the GPS aspect was working well, you could cache with the most updated info and log on right afterward to post your find...

I just saw the Origami being featured on the news. The newest thing in portable computing and GPS. I was wondering who was thinking about getting one when they come out.

Sonoma County is huge. What part of the County will you be visiting? Are there any specific places you are interested in visiting? I suggest you check out the areas you will be visiting and run the postal code link to find out the zip of the area you are staying or will be visiting and check the caches in that area. You might also check with the cachers in www.thegba.net forums they are more local to the Bay Area.

I agree, flip through the pages on your GPS. I use the map feature to get me close. I check the feature which shows the sats and their strength (which changes all the time) I compare the coords of the cache with where I am, and sometimes if I hold still for a bit (making sure my WAAS is on - tho some dont use this feature) I get a better fix from the satellites. Once you get to a place. Stop using your GPS unit. Use your eyes to figure out what may be altered or does not belong. Some (most) of these people are pros at hiding their caches. And the suggestion to try and find a REGULAR cache instead of a micro cache may make things easier for you until you get better. I have less than 50 finds and am always amazed at the level of steath put into hiding som of these caches. Have faith, dont quit. And if you know someone with a ten year old kid, take 'em with you, or just a friend, or even another cacher in your area. It is nice to have a second pair of eyes with you when first starting out.

I always bring a compass with me while Im caching. I like Orienteering and have the compass in my pack anyway. I bring it out now and again to work on my Orienteering skills. Does anyone else bring and/or use a compass while caching?

No kids, but my dog loves to go, he has a couple critia...No leashes (leashes???? I dont need no stinkin' leashes), a nearby creek with flowing water in it and something along the trail which is dead and smelly so he can roll in it!!! As for me, I love caching with him. I might suggest bringing a platypus or other type of water bottle or a camelback (even in the snow, when dehydration can be a threat) a portable waterbowl, they make foldable ones. I clip a platypus to my backpack strap and clip the dogs water bowl to my pack with a carabiner. I also bring some dog biscuits with me or some cuts off the Natural Balance meat sticks which are great for trips. I put a small gas can in the car and filled it full of water, put in a couple of those cheapo beach towels, so I can rinse the fresh cow pattie off of him. I also have an old sheet or comforter to drape over the back seat. If you have a back seat with space behind it, I looped a long leash around the sheet so I could keep the windows open and the sheet would stay on the seat. Otherwise a couple of well placed bricks will help keep the sheet on the back of the seat ....

Dont you guys think hiding a cache or a couple of caches, not just finding them, would be important in passing from newbie status?? 49 finds No hides

Great idea to add the time of day, that way the guy who was FTF on that last cache I logged onto would have seen how close I was on his heels....

I have a backpack for longer walks which is already packed up with everything. I add water, food, and my gpsr and cell phone and off I go, if I am in an area unfamilar to me I just put this pack in the trunk of my car. Usually I take the mountainsmith lumbar pack which is much smaller. Again I have it already loaded with smaller items. I just add perishables, water the gps and the cell phone and Im ready to go. If Im up in the mountains, I can just add the things I need for that area.I have a zippy full of trade items so I can put that in whatever pack Im using. Most of what I carry is inexpensive enough to have two of what I need. This way I dont even have to think about which pack to take.

He fits right in with that environment...Look at that furbaby...thats the way I like em best, stuck to the floor with a happy spirit!!! I think I am going to try and place all my caches where cachers can go with their dogs. I have been to a couple of caches and found I had to leave my VERY unhappy dog in the car because no dogs were allowed. Needless to say I had to leave the area before finding the cache because the people in the area where I had parked my car thought my dog was singing his death song!!! A couple of times I would sheepishly slink back to the car as fast as I could and go on to another cache because people would crowd around the car sympathising with my dog. He can get loud and obnoxious in a hurry. jeez

Stormcloud - A sign of a truly good owner. The chores will be there when you get back, if you don't take the dog, it might retaliate and you never know, the couch might be gone when you get back. I agree whole-heartedly. Dog goes with - always. Sometimes, I even take my friends dog too, then I have twice the entertainment along the way. Of course, I might have twice the dog bathing duties when I get back as well....They NEVER come when there is a dead noxious squirrel in the area they can roll on!!!!

Okay I have two possible places to put my first cache. I went out and got some ammo cans from the army surplus store and am now realizing how inadequate they will be for the areas I have picked out. I am wondering. Does anyone know if the paint can type containers which Michaels and OSH sell are any good. I would plan to paint them with rustoleum, but want to know if anyone has used them and if they have any staying power. Thanks.

I would NEVER think of using bug spray to ward against spiders. Like snakes they are instrumental to a good balance in nature. It looks like the spiderling you are holding is a juvenile orb weaver. I could be wrong. They are beautiful garden spiders, and great to have around. I am not afraid of spiders, in fact I have sought out and taken some classes in spider behavior and life span etc.. However, getting bit by a false widow or a black widow can be most detrimental to ones health and can take years to recover from. I am always careful when reaching into a any covered close quartered area.

No matter what I'm doing, my general rule of uncle is that the first one who calls it, needs to be honored. Just like the slowest person hiking dictates the pace of all the hikers. Staying together for safety. As they said in TOP GUN - never leave your wing man. I usually cache with my dog. If I look around and he is no longer with me, and will not respond to my calling or my whistles, it means he has had it and will meet me at the car....there have been times he has not liked the area and I have had to try another cache. He is over 85 pounds, and both his breeds are stubborn as mules so there is no use in trying to reason with him. When he is done, he is done. When he wont go, he wot go. You should see us trying to get him out of the vehicle to go to the vet!!!

Great shots thanks for sharing...If I can get over there I am going...This hard frost we are having is a great thing, now we just need a late good spring rain

OOps I hit the reply button twice...

I was introducing my friend to geocaching. We had a couple of really good finds. My friend was excited until we starting walking to another cache nearby. What a mess. We had our dogs with us, and this is an area where people go to frequently with their dogs, well we had to go a bit further, and it turns out just behind this hedge of bushes is a foul lake complete with half submerged cars, refrigerators, and sunken boats, there was a disgusting film over the water. We grabbed the dogs before they could jump in and either severely injure or kill themselves on submerged metal. We continued on, and had to walk right next to a homeless encampment complete with garbage strewn everywhere...I apologized to my friend and said that this was not a usual place to hide a cache, or even make someone walk through to get to a cache. I felt so bad, especially knowing that many cachers which frequent the area have kids. I am still appalled!!!

I would love to know what person would let a cacher dig into a public park to bury a cache? Which is what the ebay ad states..

I complained to EBay, listing the fact that he is listing geocaching.com and that nobody charges to find caches here, that is the beauty of geocaching, you can exhaust yourself, cover yourself in ticks, fall into brambles, or down a ravine or abuse yourself in any number of ways all for free. Not only that but that this money is somewhere in a public park - to dig up?? On top of that if it was listed on geocaching.com, someone would have already found it, like minutes after it was posted...

I have not read 90 percent of the replies on this forum. I have some questions/concerns for those who do arm themselves while caching.... Why would you feel the need to carry a gun? If it is because of a chance meeting with a bear? If a bear is surprised by you, depending on the closeness of the bear, it is quite possible you would never get the gun out of your holster to defend yourself...Even if you were to pull the gun and fire off a round or two (making sure that safety is off first), the adrenaline coursing through your system might not make you the best shot. Considering all factors are in place and you are charged by a bear and you get a nice shot or two off, what about other hikers in the area? Many caches are off trail, some hikers, like myself, like to hike off trail, especially to check out wildflower displays or some other natural cool thing. I was in law enforcement and I believe guns have their place, like attorneys, and sharks etc... Being aware of your surroundings, having a keen ear to the natural world, using your senses to try and determine if you are in active bear territory, by learning animal signs and talking with rangers and or other hikers before starting out, is worth more to me in maintaining safety than any gun. There are a huge number of classes one can take to be safer in bear territory. Learning to talk louder, or make some big noises once every 15 minutes along a hike, listening for snuffling, or even smelling for bear scent (which is very potent), checking the area around you for bear prints or scat... As far as keeping yourself safe from a muggler with bad intentions, if you look like you need to be mugged by a muggler, than you will be, and I suspect if you are paying more attention to your GPS unit than your surroundings, it will not matter if you are packin at all... Just my 2 cents. I would hate to see innocent people getting hurt over a misunderstanding or a bad shot - heck Dick Chaney, in a controlled situation, shot his buddy. It is just to easy to take someone out by accident. I will see you all at the gun range.

I have an idea for a blind child...if you can, get some of those inexpensive walkie talkies. Put one on, and put it in or near the cache. Make certain the volume is on high enough that it can be heard for a distance. Have someone push the CALL button on the walkie talkie. Have someone walk with the blind child, so she stays safe...and there you are. Actually I have limited mobility. I have a blown knee, very little disc left at L4-5, have fibromyalgia and oesto-arthritis. I MUST walk every day, but it takes very little to overdo it and have a walk turn on me putting me into pain. Geocaching provides a great way to get the walk my dog and I need. The bummer is most of the larger caches are up a ridgeline or involve a good hike, which I can not complete. I would love to see more larger caches in the populated areas, and not a days hike away. ALthough I have to say micros dont bother me all that much. I would like to quantify that I am in now way, shape or form complaining about the type of caches near me or that ALL OR EVEN MOST are inaccessible. That would be STUPID since I have yet to find more than 43 caches...

In looking just at where you said you have travelled to hike. I would say get a GPS unit which can handle waypoints, autorouting, and TOPO maps because you seem to travel lots in very remote areas, where the terrain makes more of a difference.

Good idea, I know of a few places close to the wildflowers where I can hide the cache without anyone trampling them..Thank you

This is posted in the regular forums, but I thought I would post it here as well. I live in the North Bay of California and I am totally into wildflowers. I go out every year and photograph them and try to identify them. I am wondering if anyone would be interested in a seasonal wildflower cache. It would have to be seasonal and I could place it in the middle of a wildflower field which I know would be blooming. I could put a wildflower ID book into the cache and an afternoon among the wildflowers could be had by all. There would not have to be any trading. Just bring a drink and a sandwich or some other delictable munchie, bring the dog and the kids and have a blooming good time, what do you think? Do you think it should have trades as well? I can get used ID books for very little - so that would not be a problem if it was covetted and taken home by someone.

I live in the North Bay of California and was going to post this in the West and Southwest forum, but really this can be done anywhere a field of wildflowers are going to be blooming... I am totally into wildflowers. I go out every year and photograph them and try to identify them. I am wondering if anyone would be interested in a seasonal wildflower cache. It would have to be seasonal and I could place it in the middle of a wildflower field which I know would be blooming. I could put a wildflower ID book into the cache and an afternoon among the wildflowers could be had by all. There would not have to be any trading. Just bring a drink and a sandwich or some other delictable munchie, bring the dog and the kids and have a blooming good time, what do you think? Do you think it should have trades as well? I can get used ID books for very little - so that would not be a problem if it was covetted and taken home by someone.