bptattooist

Harry, Thanks for sharing your little bird with me, that's an awesome amount of travel he has done. I hope one day that at least some of my TB can make it that far. All the best...Bill Land O Lakes FL

Looks like the majority of cachers feel the same. leave it where you found it. Contact CO if you feel there is a significant discrepancy. This works for me. I've only been at this for about a year now but have placed 40 caches and it does annoy me a bit when players log that they found a cache and put it where it was supposed to be. Only the person who placed it could possibly know where it is supposed to be. At long last I'm glad to hear the majority iof cachers agree that 20 or better is concidered a reasonable variance from supposed coordinates. Thank you all for you inputs...Happy caching

I am very interested in following trackables. My specific interest is in knowing how many places a trackable has been and for how long a given trackable has been on it's journey. Another curiosity I have regarding trackables is why do so many people carry the trackable around with them for months or even years just to dip them into different caches to build up the miles. If they are doing this to prevent the trackables from going missing, this certaily is a sorry world we live in. That really isn't the trackable on a true journey but in reality it is the same human on a journey with a coin in his/her posession. Seems to defeat the purpose if you ask me. I'm looking for the trackables that have gone from cache to cache 100's even 1000's of times always changing hands along the way. All info on this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your comment...BPTATTOOIST Land O Lakes FL

Hi Erik, or Tadpole, I think the intent of no commercial caches is to keep the geocaching community and the activity of geocaching from getting spamed by commercial interests. Just imagine if you could use caching for commercial purposes how it would take the main concept of the sport away which is going to new places you may otherwise have never explored. Instead you'd being headed down to your local car dealer with GPS in hand to find GZ is inside the show room where you would be attacked by eager salespeople rather than spending the day out exploring which is what you wanted to do in the first place. Side note: I see your handle is erikausaf, just curious...Are you active duty USAF? I'm retired USAF If so thanks for your service

Made my first post tonight. Don't think that qualifies me as a lurker although "Lurker" is kind of a neat title. But I am taking this opportunity to let you know who is reading the blog. I'm a 50 year old dad of 7 and grandfather of 12. I was given a GPS last Father's Day because I had found out about Geocaching from a guy who was caching out in some woods where I walk my dog and he told me what he was up to. I got interested and tried it a few times with my car GPS which is a TOM TOM. I had fun but realized the accuracy and lack of durability with the mobile unit was not practical. My wife saw my enthusiasm and surprised me on Father's Day. I've been hooked ever since. I don't think I'll be a regular poster on blogs like this or reader of them for that matter, time does not permit. However I think this is a great tool to ask other sport participants their views, opinions and ideas. Thanks to all of you who spend the time to facilitate these features...BPTATTOOIST Land O Lakes, Florida

Everyone is entitled to an opinion regarding replacement of caches which are not neccessarily at GZ acording to the coords on your GPS device. My opinion is, I never assume that GZ according to my GPS is going to be exactly where the CO's GPS said it is. I feel that once I reach GZ that I expect to have to look at least 20 feet in all directions from GZ to consider it a fair search. If I find the cache within these paramiters, and the cache appears to be somewhat hidden, then I would not even consider moving it anywhere for any reason. On the other hand, if it is obvious where a cache most likely was, and you find it slightly relocated from that area, I think it is reasonable to not leave it in the open and to replace to the obvious hiding spot. I would always make a note on the find log about any actions like this that I took. I have a great example of a cache I know was not in it's intended hidey hole when I found it. At the base of a tree with a small hidey hole at ground zero and the cammoed match stick container is lying 2-3 feet in a direct line with the hidey hole and all the dirt is sprayed out of the hole directly toward the displaced match stick container. Obviously an animal had scratched this container out of place while looking for termites, grubs etc. I went back with another cacher to this site a month later and the same cache container was the same 2-3 feet out of it's hidey hole and the same amount of freshly scuffed dirt was strewn about toward the container. I have come across several caches displaced similar to this during my short time being involved with geocaching. But as far as blatently relocating a cache because I believe my GPS accuracy to be better than someone elses etc. I feel this is very arrogant and not really the intent of the game at all. It seems often that some cachers feel they should be able to pin point the exact location of a cache within inches, this is not realistic. We do live on planet earth and things here are not 100% perfect all the time. Just have fun caching and don't take it so serious, it's just a game.