3blackcats

I'm in! Got to have cat coins

Going on five years as a popo here in Southern California.

We have a cacher in our neck of the woods (or in our case, the desert) who sneaks to caches and takes bugs, Jeeps and coins. After the owner has declared the item missing, the evil cacher then miraculously revives it from "the graveyard". He replaces the item with what I have now taken to calling a surrogate; coins and bugs are replaced with plastic poker chips, Jeeps are replaced with plastic toys resembling Jeeps. He will usually attach a tag with the tracking number to the surrogate (and just where did he get the tracking number?). He is a crochety guy as well. If he can't find a cache it's because of bad placement by the cacher who OBVIOUSLY has no business placing a cache that people can't just hop out and find. One time he bad-mouthed a cache hider several times saying that he could not find the cache, it was hidden in a questionable location and he was NOT going back to look EVER AGAIN! When a group of us found the cache rather quickly this jack*** went back out to the location and found the cache. In a private e-mail I suggested that he apologize to the cacher hider for such a vicious attack; I suggested he do it publicly since his attack was so public. Over the next week, six of my caches went missing or were vandalized. One of my caches was a popular travel bug hotel that had seven TBs, one of which was hand-made by a young boy. Thankfully the TBs reappeared unscathed in another TB hotel about 30 miles away. This fine gentleman also blasts folks for "discovering" items without actually having held them in their hand yet he is blatantly guilty of the same thing. He will shamelessly scold someone for this, yet he will e-mail cachers asking them to trade numbers for Jeeps so he can discover them. As I read more and more forum threads, I see that unfortunately my area is not unique in its possession of such a fine ambassador to our game. We can all keep our fingers crossed and wish upon a star that everyone will play the game honestly, but in reality that just ain't gonna happen!

I received two collapsible aluminum walking sticks a few years back and I love them! I generally use them on long-distance backpacking trips but have occasionally used them on particularly brutal day hikes. With the added weight of the backpack the sticks add stabilization and displace the weight from my tired old knees. I've also noticed that keeping my arms at right angles alleviates finger swelling. Mine are nothing special, just run-of-the-mill REI poles but I love 'em!

Count me in!!! We should have at least one in SoCal!

I'm 43 but my knees, feet and shoulders are telling me otherwise...but what do THEY know? Age is only a #...I keep telling myself that...age is only a #...Let's all say it together...

If a cop shows up, ask if he knows where the cache is...you just never know!

I retrieved a TB that was "advertised" as a Jeep TB. It was to be the first Jeep TB I had found so I was pretty excited. To top it all off, the Jeep had arrived in one of my own caches! I go running out to the cache to log the Jeep, and to my dismay the Jeep was actually a plastic toy with a key chain on which someone had printed the number. What a freakin' bummer THAT was! I did NOT log the Jeep since it wasn't a TB at all...it was a surrogate! Yes, folks, there are problem children EVERYWHERE. I quit the game for a couple of months because of a couple in my 'hood, but then I thought (FAMILY FRIENDLY) them! I'm not quitting the game because of a bunch of maroons! The behavior of these folks, however, never ceases to amaze me it's supposed to be a game...

Locals? I don't see any locals...

I'm not sure why a hider would want to restrict the manner (or time) in which a cache is found. Judging by the other thread running right now there are plenty of night cachers. On the flip side of this, however, are the folks that simply can not cache at night for whatever reason. If some folks have the capability of finding a "night" cache during the day, why limit that capability by forcing someone to take a picture in the dark? Everyone plays the game in the manner which suits us best, so why impose unnecessary rules? The last time I checked, as long as a cacher signs a log the find is "legal". I would personally avoid a night cache at which I was forced to take a picture (presumably with flash) that may bring unnecessary (and possibly dangerous) attention to myself and whomever was with me. I would discourage anyone from imposing ANY TYPE of logging restrictions on caches. Let's keep the game fun!

I have cached extensively at night and love it! I generally use night caching to beat the heat, but I've done it just out of sheer convenience, too. Night makes some caches easier (mostly due to decreased muggle factor) and some caches more difficult (due to lack of light). While I agree that cachers may miss seeing great views or interesting sites at night, some caches have GREAT views at night!

How very cool! I remember my very first find...a hide-a-key outside of a historic adobe house a few miles from my home. It took me and my sister (1bigdodgerfan) about fifteen minutes to find it, but when we did WE WERE FREAKIN' HOOKED! We looked at each other in sheer disbelief that this thing was hidden here...in this place...for HOW long? And if this thing is here...how many more things are hidden nearby that we don't yet know about? Everywhere we went for the next few weeks we wondered, "Is there a cache there?" or "Why isn't there a cache there?" As you have already discovered, the wonderful thing about this wacky game is that it gets us off of our backsides and makes us visit places we would never otherwise DREAM of going. Welcome!

When my sister-in-law (Ms Americache) bought a new Dell Axim handheld computer, she GAVE me her old one! Did I luck out or what? I use the MobiPocket reader (which is free to download from their website) to read the cache pages when necessary, and I write notes in the notepad on the handheld. The first time I went completely paperless (2-3 weeks ago?) I felt VERY cool!!! PAPERLESS RULES!

Now that is great !!!! Thank you. I take cash, check or Visa. Bravo! But I was thinking of something from the wretched refuse of my underwear drawer...no? Hmmm....

I generally walk up to within a few feet of GZ and then start looking for places the cache might be hidden. As mentioned above, signal varies for many reasons. I'll have to admit you have WAY more patience than I...45 minutes looking? Wow! When all else fails, pull your face out of the GPSr and go with your geosense!

In California, "99-cent Only Stores" are beginning to stock them. I'm not sure what store would be your equivalent back there.

Well, I just read the trespass statute for the zillionth time just to be sure, but since you asked, I figured I'd read it again so my data was correct. Under Florida law, there is no exemption for geocaching in the trespass laws, and any lawyer who passed the bar exam would most likely be aware of that fact. Ergo, that particular statement would probably not come up in court. If that statement did happen to come up in court, I'm sure the Judge would educate the lawyer. Does that answer your question? What? Wadda ya mean it was rhetorical? The above is a quote...below is MHO. I'm not sure where the Wisearse's came across this particular cache, but since they do a lot of local caching, I'm inclined to think this was a SoCal cache. I'm pretty well-versed on California trespass laws and geocachers are not exempt here, either. If I was called to an area for someone who had jumped a locked gate that was clearly posted with a No Trespassing sign, I'm pretty sure it would off to jail with the offender. Most on-duty police officers I've encountered while geocaching are very cool with the idea. I think it is in the best interest of the game and the welfare of ALL involved if we all try to keep it that way!

Cool! My nickname at work is Sparky (common spelling), but it has nothing to do with an incident involving electricity. LOL I have three cats running my house right now...all three are black. Here's a funny story about a log I received: Someone thanked me for one of my hides by saying, "Thanks guys!" I thought that was cool that they addressed the entire group and not just one of me. I didn't have the heart to tell them why I picked my screen name!

I think anyone with over 3000 finds has a bunch of finds. I'm still puzzled as to why folks think that cachers who have a high amount of finds in a short amount of time have questionable methods and/or motives... p.s. I haven't looked at your # of finds, Corp of Discovery...

The excuse I use depends on the circumstances of the search. I was out at 2 a.m. looking for a cache near a parking structure. From waaaay in the distance we see security rolling up in their cart looking very serious. When the guy got to us and asked what we were doing I said, "I was out here earlier in the day and lost my keys somewhere...they must be here!!!" My partner and I just kept looking for the cache while I muttered something about being a dummy because I lost my keys. He just rolled away and said, "Okay......". On the other hand, when I was out at 2 a.m. looking for a cache behind a business (I still wonder why I was there...) and a police officer rolled up I stood up and moved my hands away from my body so he could see what I was holding was NOT something that was going to kill him. He asked what we were doing and I said, "Geocaching!" He responded by saying that he didn't know there was one at this location but he could show us where the one "over there" was and pointed to a restaurant parking lot. My geobuddy and I just laughed. While solo searching one day I was getting strange looks by passersby. I happened to find a softball in the ivy near GZ and held it up exclaiming, "Here it is! My daughter lost this the other day!" The stories go on and on...

I have two different sizes of sig items. One is the size of a regular mailing label and the other is the size of a return label. I make mine in Printshop since it has a pretty large art gallery. I DO laminate these items since I print them on paper. I have also done sig items out of shrinky dink material. I bought the material at a stationery store and cut it into 2" squares. I then stamped it with a cat paw (and later another cat-related image), wrote "3blackcats" on it and baked it! All of the writing and stamping was done in permanent ink so the items are quite water-safe. I like signature items...please don't let the negativity keep you from having fun and expressing yourself!

Hey! Late for dinner! LOLLL

Let your numbers go? Now who's calling whom a ho? We've gotten off track. Oops...sorry....wrong thread........

The best quote to come out of this debate yet! I second that! Three cheers for self-disciplined folks who know how to prioritize!!!

Yes...I think I may have a picture of my Subaru at that cache...GREAT view! I also did your cache at the LaBrea Tar Pits a while ago...did that one while on a day of virtuals! I'll send you the pic if I can find it. Sorry...back to the topic...