lucien

Note that caches in that same location are no longer allowed, since it is well off of the trail, and needs 'bushwacking' - both explicitly disallowed by the newly-enforced policy. It would have to be substantially relocated - not just a minor move. I picked that place originally because it was exactly that - out of the way and out of sight; a bit of solitude in a busy park. The cache would have to change far beyond what it was to remain (whether owned by myself or anyone else).. and in my $0.02, no longer the 'same' year 2000 cache as it originally. To me, the geocaches placed in that time were about sharing an interesting location to find, with a cache and log to document visit. The logbook, the container, and even the website changed over the years, but the place remained the same. I'm happy so many people got it enjoy it (and the location) over the years, and I hope people continue to visit the park in the future, for the place itself.

Folks, please do not harass the park preserve employees on the phone, nor represent yourself as owners of the cache - it is not productive.

Note to people considering visiting this cache; the park has now started to enforce a policy that caches older than two years must be removed. This unfortunately means the end for this long-lived cache, and the listing will be removed from the Geocaching site in November. I will move along any trackables still left in the cache at that time. I would encourage anyone considering visiting this site to still do so; this cache was placed back in a time when Geocaching was about finding interesting and unique out-of-the way places, which this still very much is. Thank you all for the interesting logs over the years, and best of luck in the future. -Lucien

Yes, I just had the same issue with a person from Germany - 'horser' logged a travel bug that's been sitting in my desk drawer since 2002. He's also logged other ancient travel bugs on my watchlist from the same era that have long since been marked lost. I can only speak for my own, but I strongly suspect he's been brute-forcing the other travel bug ids for one of these 'number/statistics' games.

I've driven through the holland tunnel many times with my Garmin GPS III+ - it definitely _does_ lose the view of the sattlites almost immediately upon entering the tunnel. Something else must be going on if your GPS continues to show the position - perhaps predicting it based on the last good data.

Actually, here's a much more feasible alternative.. Motion detector camera Set one of these up nearby a cache with a newly planted bug, see who shows up, and when.. Even better, threaten to do so at _every_ cache, even if it's only actually done at a few...

Perhaps put one of these in a stuffed animal attached to a travel bug, and see where it shows up? Minaturized GPS tracker fits in a beer can

Here's a site with how they do it - basically, very small GPSr + cell phone guts to 'phone home' with the location info when the can is opened: GPS in A Can

This may not surprise you, given the ethics he's shown to date, but he's also apparently either a spammer, or sharing the same machine as a spammer - www.piratecaching.com is listed as a spam source by several services, e.g: Spamcop

Another useful link on the same subject: http://www.nynjtc.org/trails/no-car.html

If you're looking for a weekend day trip, you can't do much worse than the Appalachian Trail stop. Besides being sort of neat (trail drops you off right where it crosses the trail; the 'station' is just a small wood platform where it crosses the tracks), there's several caches along the way - besides Symmetric Hurd, there's 'Bloop' right over the hill, and 'Cat Rocks' a bit further on, probably all doable in a day trip, though the snow will make it a little harder to hike. Harriman is nice as well, but it is a fair bit of hiking/traveling to get to the trailhead from NYC.

Yep, it was Harriman; I just saw the rear end of it buzzing while bushwacking to the cache and coming across Waterboy & Wife... They got the picture later on, a bit farther away, but it sure seems like it met the criteria for a Timber Rattler...

Thanks, everyone; I'm really quite honored by all of your kind words. I've had a lot of fun over the years reading all of your logs, finding your caches, and meeting quite a few of you on the trails. Thanks especially to Cache Ninja for placing so many of the first caches I found, as well as being so enthusiastic about the sport. (I hadn't actually been reading the forums before this, thus the late post- my geocaching family back in the midwest (Pharmteam and TeamVE) actually had come across these posts, and pointed me to them. Thanks again to them as well!) -Lucien

This is the most memorable one I've ever come across - certainly made me think twice before bushwhacking the next time... L.bug by Cache Ninja