LokiDucks

We started geocaching in around the October time, where it was cold and we weren't worried about insects. My geocaching team has been on a bit of a hiatus as of late, and today, two of us decided to get back into the swing of things to keep up with the competition. What a mistake... From the start, i was worried about ticks, and took along OFF! Wipes, as the container said it helps prevent ticks. I swiped some on me, tucked my shirt in my pants, zipped up my track jacket (despite the heat) and took off. I did my best to avoid tall grasses and contact with plantlife, but you know how it is. Gotta do what ya gotta do. We found two caches and had to give up on a third out of frustration. On the ride home, my friend spots two "spiders" (later proven to be ticks) crawling on his jeans. He pulled over, got out of the car on the road, and swipped them off. Two minutes later, a third appears on his pant leg. Now i'm feeling the pressure too (neither of us has ever had a tick before). I got home and ran inside as my friend sped off in his car for his own home/shower. Before i reached the stairs to my room, i already was down to my boxer shorts. I threw my clothes into the dryer for 30 minutes on medium-high heat (as i had read that that will kill any that are on there). And made for the mirror. All seemed well until...*brush*...i touched one on the back of my knee, right in the crevace.. I panicked! What to do! I felt utterly defeated. As thoughts of lyme disease raced through my head, i made for the internet: Removal tips. I googled and i wikipediaed. Some sites said to use petrolyum jelly, others said to spray it with insect repellant, some said to burn it, what to do?! Finally i found something i felt could be trusted--the CDC. Their official website said to use sharp tweezers to grab it by the head and pull it out. I did just that and then combined the tips from the other sites: i trapped it in a cup and marked it with my name and date, i put an antiseptic on the bite site. Phew...hopefully crisis averted... So, is anybody else cancelling caching until the winter? Cuz (as you can tell) ticks freak us OUT!

wow okay, so we're pretty under then. We were growing concerned that we were just investing too much money on something we're just going to stash in the woods. Thanks for setting my mind at ease

Thanks all of you for replying to this thread, it's good to see additional concern and opposite viewpoints. I do suppose that it would be a whole lot of work to print maps, decypher clues, drive out to the woods, search for the cache, then only to steal it. Frankly...the people who would be most interested in plundering a cache would probably be too lazy to actually follow through, heheh. I think i'm going to write the article anyway (it probably won't even get published). At least that way the word is out and those who decide to use it for good will get a chance to have some fun

Hello everyone. At 19 years old, i think i'm one of the younger geocachers around here (at least in my area [not counting cacher's kids anyway]). In any case, i'd love to spread the word to others my age to spark interest in it. I've had success with my personal circle of friends whose interests i know match mine and i know would be interested in geocaching and take it seriously. So i thought about writing an article for my college newspaper about geocaching. But as i was writing, i thought about some jerks deciding to go plunder caches just for the fun of it (college kids can be so cruel). Maybe it's just mean world syndrome, but i'm a little hesitant to submit the article. On the one hand: it could greatly increase interest in geocaching for people more in my demographic, expand the community, and cause growth in the number of caches to hunt around here. On the other hand: pirates plundering the hard work that we know goes into hiding, submitting, and maintaining caches. I suppose this is the risk we take anyway, where anyone could just stumble upon the website and decide to plunder caches. But it seems a little dangerous to just be advertising our presence and our activities...I dont' know, what do you guys think?

How much money do you usually spend on a cache? Average? What's the most? We're currently working on a fairly complex one that's cost us about $11 so far, and we keep breaking stuff as we test the cache out (let's just say it involves disassembling and hot-wiring a laser pointer ) What are some of the caches you've done that you just had to say "Wow...that's cool" about? And what made them so cool? Were they just unique? Complicated? High-Tech? We're trying to make some caches in our area really stand out and be more interesting than those drive-ups we see so much.

We almost exclusively cache at night. Mostly because my friends (and i somtimes) are just too lazy to get up before noon after a long week of school. In any case, each team member has one flashlight (some have a handheld in addition to a headlamp), dress warmly, be stealthy (ie, don't use the lights when it's not necessary), and don't make any aggressive motions when the cops show up (not that it's happened to us...yet) But carrying a Geocaching pamphlet of sorts isn't a bad idea, i'm going to have to start doing that. We haven't encountered the fuzz yet, but it's pretty much inevitable. Goodluck to you, fellow night owl. EDIT: Also, soemtimes the GPS just makes it too easy during the day...the night can humble you somewhat

We had found more than 20 caches without GPSr and using only google earth and hints. You have to use the KML plugin only to get the general location of the cache, then C/P the Coords into the search box to get a better idea of the location. We then printed the map, printed the listing, and headed out. We were able to use the maps well enough to kind of eyeball ourselves into the right area then use intuition and/or hints to find the cache. Pretty effective i'd say.. Now that we have the GPSr, i use Google Earth to plot out the cache plan for the trip, getting a number of caches in a specific area. I also use it to make sure i know how to get to where we're going and find places to park.

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It's very good to knwo that so many of you would do it and don't consider it any sort of real challenge. But like i said, around here there aren't that many REALLY difficult caches. Maybe some thick bushwacking through thorns is the most "extreme" we've had to do so far. I'm glad that there are really difficult and more extreme caches out there somewhere. Perhaps a road trip is in order?!

heh, well i use "eXtreme" lightly here. Because most of the caches in my area that we have found so far are simply follow the beaten trail and then deviate ten feet to find an ammo box under a log. Or worse, a micro, camoflaged and hooked into an evergreen tree. Compared to what we've seen, crossing this log is eXtreme. I'd love to see more difficult and challenging caches in my area!

Hey everyone! We recently hid a cache in a spot that requires crossing over a fallen log that spans a small river/stream. One of our team members expressed concern that no one will bother with our cache because they won't want to risk falling in the water. So my question to you is this: would an obsticle like this prevent you from completing the task? Would you just do it or find another way? How extreme is too extreme for hiding a cache? I'd do it...

mmm, yes. No, it's not so worrisom that it would prevent me from geocaching..i just wanted to know what i might be up against heheh

Hello all. My friend just recently talked with his sister's boyfriend who is a hiking enthusiast. He said that it's not the hunters that you have to worry about (in reference to the buying of a blaze orange vest) but traps that you have to look out for. He made mention of wood planks w/ nails set up on the ground that you can fall into/onto and tripwires hooked up to boobytraps as well. He also made mention of hunters being angry at scaring the deer. Have any of you SJ geocachers encountered any real dangers in Wharton State Forrest? Anything like this or something else entirely??

HEh okay, thank you for responding. I did send an email as well after re-reading the reviewer's initial post. I didn't mean to sound pushy, i'm just still new to how the process works and very excited to see my first hide get found

I recently hid a cache and submitted it for approval. It was turned down. I made the necessary changes to the description/coords that the reviewer had concerns about, however, it does not seem like it has been given a second look yet. Now, this is my first (attempt at) hiding a cache, so i'm not sure if this is the way things are normally done. But the very quick first look at the cache (where it was denied) and the lack of action after I fixed the problems, makes me wonder. So i guess i'm asking: what is normal for the cache review process? (Sorry if this comes up a lot, but the forum search feature isn't working for me for some reason..)

Heh okay thank you. Those sneaky beasts! When i read geognerd's first reply, i looked into the 400 and saw that with the Newegg instant savings of $74 and the $50 rebate from Magellan, it would only be $30 more than the 210 to get the 400 (which i like because of the rechargable battery)

Oh okay, and it's comparably priced? Also, are you saying it's not out yet? If so, do you know when it will be released? Because christmas is coming up and it's my chance to get one as a gift instead of shelling out my own cash EDIT: Also, when looking around on Newegg and the Magellan website, the 400 is listed as having "No service fees." Does that mean that the lower numbers in the series have service fees? If so, are they expensive? monthly? etc?

As a starting geocacher, i deperately wanted a GPS unit so that i could tackle the more challenging, deep-woods caches as well as the multi-caches. That said, with christmas coming up, i'm thinking about asking for a MAGELLAN eXplorist 300 Compact Mapping GPS Receiver. Anybody have any experience with this device? What do you think?