Scamp

Handsome doggies! Cache is a wonderful name for a dog.

I cache with my dog, and have sometimes used her as an excuse for why I am standing in a bunch of bushes. It goes like this: Smile at people who are giving you a strange look. "Dog ran in here and got her leash tangled." Laugh embarrassedly. People nod and say their dog does that too. People walk off. These days, when I'm doing caches in high traffic areas, I usually use my iPhone instead of my GPSr. If someone seems to be watching me, I turn it sideways while I'm hunting and act like I'm just taking a photo of a bug or something.

I think it *is* possible to hide a cache too well, mainly based on the fact that a cache placed in an environmentally sensitive area might cause harm to the surroundings if it is too well hidden. As a hider, you can't assume that everyone will be delicate when searching for your cache, so you should be careful to hide things in such a way that it won't do any harm. If, however, you're hiding a cache in a spot where rigorous searches won't do any harm to local flora or fauna or anything else of significance, I think being as fiendish as you like is a-ok. There's a rating available for cache difficulty; if people choose to hunt high difficulty caches, they have to expect a well-hidden cache.

There are no ex-Marines. Bag o'Tricks Point taken! He was definitely still in hero mode, even if he wasn't active military anymore.

I didn't mean to start drama. I like cemetery caches. The ones I've done have all been nice caches. And I hope that people will keep up the high standard out of respect for the meaning of the place to people who aren't geocachers. The end. That's all I meant. I wasn't expecting multiple people to jump down my throat over one poorly-chosen word-- which I admitted wasn't accurate in my very next post. I'm remembering why I've only made like 50 posts on this board in six years of caching; it's because I don't want to have to sit around and try to think up eighty million ways someone could miscontrue my simple statement and turn it into a debate that's been debated ad nauseum when I didn't want to debate in the first place.

I sing when I'm walking alone in areas where bears have been seen. If that doesn't scare them off, nothing will. In all seriousness, though, I can fully understand why someone would want to carry a weapon with them while hiking. I had a run-in with a human attacker while hiking alone along a trail in a populated suburban area. It was noon on a Sunday, I had hiked the trail at least two dozen times before that day, and I never would have imagined that someone would try something there, but they did. By some miracle, I-- a scrawny 5'3" girl-- was able to bloody the guy's nose and send him reeling long enough to run for the park entrance, where I met up with a jogging ex-Marine who escorted me the rest of the way out. I was extremely lucky. I wound up signing up for aikido after that, and was not brave enough to venture into the woods alone for almost two years. Even now, I rarely go out alone and usually take my dog with me. I can completely understand why someone would want to carry a gun with them, especially if they prefer to be outdoors alone. The world isn't safe-- even in areas you think you know.

5413 within 40 miles of where I am in Redmond, WA. =)

I guess it would depend on your definition of 'spewage'. In my opinion, micros work well in cemeteries because they are relatively unobtrusive. I guess I meant the sort of micro that emerges from the mindset of "there isn't a cache within .1 mile so I am going to stick a film cannister here just so there is one." Thoughtful micros are fine by me, and even the cheesy-cheap micros don't really bug me in most places, but if someone stuck one in a cemetery with no intent to maintain it just for a numbers-bump, that would seem tasteless. Since I can't read the minds of cache owners, I have to assume that every cache that I look for was hidden with the best of intentions. I bolded the most telling part of your post. The rest just reads like a vendetta against the owners of those caches that didn't curl your toes. It's not just a matter of taste-- I was honestly trying to be polite by just calling things cheesy or cheap instead of labeling them what they are. Someone who dumps a worthless, leaky container in a bush and never checks on it again is leaving garbage sitting around, not a cache. Garbage isn't hurting anybody much when it is in a Walmart parking lot, but it is out of place in a cemetery where respectful behaviour is more important. I think the game would be better if everybody put time into their caches in general, but special care should be taken in places where muggles are more likely to be put-off if they find something that seems inappropriate.

I guess it would depend on your definition of 'spewage'. In my opinion, micros work well in cemeteries because they are relatively unobtrusive. I guess I meant the sort of micro that emerges from the mindset of "there isn't a cache within .1 mile so I am going to stick a film cannister here just so there is one." Thoughtful micros are fine by me, and even the cheesy-cheap micros don't really bug me in most places, but if someone stuck one in a cemetery with no intent to maintain it just for a numbers-bump, that would seem tasteless. I know that could really apply to any size cache, but most of the offenders I have seen putting out huge numbers of poorly planned and unmaintained caches are fond of the film cannister micros.

For anybody in the Chicago area, a great cemetery cache is GC26C4. I found back it back in about 2003, and it still ranks among my favorite geocaches ever. There's truly fascinating history at the spot. I've found a smattering of caches in cemeteries over the years, and the ones I have seen have all been tastefully placed. I guess I might feel differently if the cemetery caches I've visited had been microspewage, but that hasn't been the case.

Girl Scout here, clear through to Senior Scouts and a Lifetime Membership in the organization. I earned my Gold Award, which is the highest award given in Girl Scouting. I'm signed on this fall to be an assistant troop leader for the first time, and I'm really looking forward to it. I think what you did in scouting depended heavily upon where you were located and what your individual leaders were into. I learned a lot of valuable outdoor skills, even down to earning an outdoor survival badge that required us to spend a weekend outdoors with no packed in food or water, living off the land as it were. I wonder if they could even do that these days due to liability issues. =P

Latex condoms degrade over time, and heat accelerates the process. It is fairly common knowledge that you shouldn't use a condom that has been in your boyfriend's wallet for years, because it is likely to not be safe. I think they should not be in caches for the same reason-- someone could use it not knowing that it might have degraded, and the result could be tragic. I don't find them offensive, but an old condom in a cache has more potentially lethal consequences than one of those small swiss army knives that people consider inappropriate swag these days. ... Come to think of it, a wrapped condom was the only sex-related item I have ever seen in a cache, and I traded it out for the reason stated above. Unless you guys are caching in much more risque areas than me, I haven't really seen this to be a widespread issue. I don't even see why a condom would be family-unfriendly, tbh-- how many small kids are gonna even care about what that is if a mctoy is sitting next to it? And older kids should probably be told what that is anyway.

Does it look like the cacher killed it himself and put it there-- like a domesticated animal? :/ If it was just roadkill then someone might just have a stupid sense of humor, but if you think the person actually mutilated and killed the animal himself, and know who it might be, I'd report them to the cops! Torturing animals is illegal in most places, and that goes well beyond just cache vandalism.

I just started working on a puzzle cache, and I had a few questions that somebody who designs these sorts of caches often might be able to help me with. First off, is there any kind of standard rating guide out there that people use when they decide upon the difficulty of their puzzle caches? What I have planned shouldn't be TOO fiendish, but it is a multi-layered puzzle where a less difficult puzzle leads to two other "layers" of puzzle before the final solution can be deduced. I'm trying to decide where it would fall along the difficulty scale-- if anybody has representative caches of the different levels of difficulty that they could link to the pages of, I'd be really grateful! Second, is there ANY way to check that my coordinates are available BEFORE I submit this thing? It's taking a good amount of work, and before I reach the point where the cache coordinates come into play, I'd like to make sure that there isn't a puzzle or multi-leg that I somehow missed in the vicinity. Thanks for any advice that anybody can offer.

I think it would be pretty awesome to open an ammo can all full of dice... There's a game store near me that sells single d4-d20 dice for 80 cents a piece, some in really neat colors. I've been thinking of buying some up and using them as cache swag, but somehow whenever I go in there and buy some, I end up deciding they are good dice and save them for d&d, and they never make it into a cache. =P

I've actually seen plenty of printed materials for other non-Christian religions, thought I haven't had anybody shove one in my hand on the subway like people do with the chick tracts. The Thai restaurant I frequent to has a whole bunch of Buddhist phamphlets in a rack right next to their take-out menus, so you can take your pad thai with a side order of dharma.

I'd CITO that even though I don't find condoms to be offensive at all. Latex degrades with time, and heat accelerates the process. A condom that's been sitting out in a cache is pretty likely to no longer be safe, and it would be terrible if someone used it and thought that they were protected when they were not. On the original topic, whatever. I don't find moderate religious tracts to be offensive, and I laugh at Chick Tracts and other extremist propaganda even though I belong to one of the sects that they malign. I'd only bother CITOing them if they were a sodden mess like most paper in a cache tends to end up.

I log a DNF if I start hunting for a cache and can't find it, with a couple of exceptions. If I am working on a cache that has several stages, and it just ends up taking longer than I anticipated so that I have to break off partway through, I won't DNF it provided that I can make it back to continue hunting in the next couple of days. Also, if in the course of hunting a cache I realize I need something that I don't have with me-- money for parking, a flashlight, more water than I packed, a pen for the logbook-- I won't DNF until I give it another shot with the proper supplies.

I'm sure this thread was more aimed at people, but while we're talking about it, in regards to our furry caching partners... Up until a month ago, I lived in southwest Michigan and worked at an animal hospital there. We saw very, very large numbers of dogs who tested positive for lyme disease. It can be just as devasting for a dog as for a human, but lucky for them, they can be vaccinated against it. The lyme vaccine isn't a part of the core vaccination program at most clinics, but if you cache with your dog and live in or travel to areas where lyme disease is an issue, you may want to consider discussing the vaccination with your dog's veterinarian. Deer ticks are actually really hard to spot on a dog, so even a thorough check after hiking may miss them. Also keep your eyes open for a bullseye-shaped mark on the skin; that can indicate that the dog may have been bit by a lyme carrier, and should see a veterinarian. ... sorry, crazy semi-paranoic dog owner here. =p

I found a letterbox by accident once too while out hiking. I knew there was supposed to be a cache somewhere in the area, though I didn't have the coordinates with me at the time, so as I was passing through and spotted a likely-looking cache hidey-hole, I decided to take a peek inside. It wasn't the geocache, but the hiding spot was indeed in use. =p

People have varying definitions of scary too. I know that when I was a kid, I wouldn't have been scared of a snake, plastic or otherwise. I'd have thought it was neat. On the other hand, as a little girl I was terribly afraid of heights, so some of the caches I've done that were up on the sides of mountains would have been scary as heck to me back then. It would kind of be silly to label all those caches as potentially scary because some people are scared of heights. It's just as silly to label a cache as scary because some people are afraid of snakes. Whenever you're dealing with any activity outdoors, there are unknowns that can pop up-- wildlife among them. If a kid is frightened by snakes, or spiders, or scorpions, it isn't going to do much good sheltering them from pretend ones, since they're very likely to spot the real thing one day if they really enjoy hiking and mucking around outside. Better to just tell them how to behave respectfully around real ones, and how to avoid dangerous situations with them. If they made the mistake of reaching into a dark crevice and finding a rubber snake, it could easily have been a real one, and the situation would have been much more frightening. That can be used as a teaching opportunity. As far as the elderly cachers among us are concerned, I bet their hearts are much stronger than the average person's due to all the activity and a healthy sense of adventure. /salute the old folks.

That snake is so gorgeous-- those photos you got are better than a Found It! smiley by far.

I'd like to find my 100th cache by some time in 2010. >.> At the rate I'm going, it *might* be feasible, though I'll need to pick up my pace considerably-- 64 caches since 2002 so far. I bet I'd win for most modest numbers-based goal.

When I started caching, I lived on the north side of Chicago. There were about seven caches within walking distance (which I considered to be about a five mile radius) of my apartment at that time. Now, a search from my old address yields 73 caches within the same radius... Holy smokes. That's more caches than I have even found in six+ years.

Somebody needs to make a 1/5 that requires a jet-pack now.