Bucephala

I geocache alone all the time but I live in a fairly safe area (knock on wood). The crime rate isn't very high and we don't really have dangerous animals. When I'm alone, I just use common sense and don't put myself in situations where I may get injured (so no climbing waterfalls or cliffs). My biggest concern is other people. If I see a lone male on the trail under 60 years old (which isn't very often) I make eye contact and usually say hi (I live in an area where strangers say hi to each other when they pass on the street or trail). If he looks sketchy, I might pick up a rock just in case. I'm not exactly waif-like. I'm a firefighter so I probably look like I could put up a good fight. I've been lucky so far, but I remain vigilant.

It would annoy me if the distance to hike is misrepresented. Or if they mark that it takes less than an hour and it actually takes more than two hours. This time of year, it would bother me if a cache marked as winter friendly isn't really winter friendly. Misrepresented cache size would bother me because I tend to program my brain to look for the size advertised. I should train myself not to do that because sometimes damaged containers are replaced with a container of another size (usually micro).

I had a situation with a TB that wanted to visit farms. The only cache that was near a farm was a micro. I logged the TB as visiting the cache, took a picture of it with sheep in the background (it was a sheep TB) and moved it to a bigger cache later on. I really don't think the TB owner would mind that it just visited the cache. I dip my vehicle TB in event caches. It's there. I can't physically leave my truck in a cache for another cacher to take. Are they fake miles? I think not. As for my travel bugs that are released in the world...I've been having horrible luck with them going missing. So I'd rather have an honorable cacher dip one as they travel across the country than have it be stolen or lost before it has the opportunity to travel across the country.

I have a new one with two finds. It was a favorite of both premium member cachers so it has a 100% rating. I don't look at the percentages either. In my area, if a cache has one favorite point then you know it's worth finding.

His requirement is in violation of the listing guidelines. If TPTB found out about it, he would be required to remove it. Sbell111 is correct. As much as some of us so called Puritans don't like blank logs or "TFTC" only logs, we cannot delete them just because they're blank logs or TFTC logs. Now before the end of ALR's in April 2009, it was rare, but people could threaten to delete such logs, and get away with it. Perhaps that verbage has been in their profile for quite some time? It's possible it's pretty new too though, as the number of TFTC only logs has rocketed into orbit in the last two years. No, he's not very new. He's been caching since 2008. I used to go to school in his area and got some of his caches. He burst on the scene with some controversial ideas and a "holier than thou" attitude about caching. Then when I was returning to the province he lives in, I checked his profile to see how many FTFs he had (he's very much into FTFs) and that's when I noticed the warning about log deletion. I don't think it was there when I lived in the area, so I think he added it in the past year. It could be an empty threat because I did see a "TFTC" on one of his caches.

This is a note posted by a cache owner whose caches I've found. The note is posted at the very bottom of his profile page (after lists of his hides and FTFs) where cachers are unlikely to spot it. "Just a note. We have placed over thirty caches. If you write a log and use only acronyms, ie TFTC, TNLN, etc the log will be deleted. If we take the time and trouble (and expense) to place a cache for your enjoyment, at least take the time to write a sensible log. Thank you." My logs usually reflect the hide. Some of this guy's hides were good but others were sub-par. Some have no thought and barely any expense put into them. I think it's a bit self-righteous of him to delete people's "TFTC" logs. I had no idea that people could leave blank logs. I thought the system had a one character minimum. While it may be a little rude to leave a blank online log (especially if you spent a lot of time and money on the cache) I think that if the paper log is signed then the cachers should get credit for the find.

"So now I am asking YOU. How many of you come across "Crappy" swag? How many of you HONESTLY trade swag of EQUAL or better quality? How many of you HONESTLY keep with the SWAG theme of the cache? (Assuming the cache has a SWAG theme) If you don't why? How many of you feel that the CO should occasionaly go in and "Refill" their cache with new swag? How many of you have the "SWAG factor" because you ALSO have the "KID factor"? That is if it wasn't for the "Kid factor" you wouldn't have the "Swag factor"." I frequently come across crappy swag such as rocks, seashells, cigarettes and broken toys. When I went to do maintenance on one of my caches, somebody had left that packaging from a trade item in the cache when they took it (they had traded a trackable for the trade item too). In another of my caches, somebody traded a bunch of safety pins for something better (the cache was placed with great swag!) I HONESTLY trade equal or better. In fact when a cache is low on swag, I leave a few things without taking anything. I carry around small Smokey Bear items from work that I leave in depleted caches. It's the responsibility of the caching community to trade fair. I don't think cache owners should have to burn a hole in their pocket keeping their caches full of great swag. It's futile!! When I add things to my caches on maintenance runs, the things that I add are never as nice as the things that were originally in the cache (but they are way better than rocks and broken toys). I don't usually trade for swag unless I find something neat. Sometimes I trade for signature items. I always look for trackables to move. I rarely have a child caching with me (just my niece when she visits once a year) so I don't have the "kid factor". She enjoys finding caches when there are kid things in them. This Christmas she was hoping to find a bouncy ball. I'll be picking some up at the dollar store and leaving them in depleted caches. Most of my swag is geared towards kids but I leave a few things for adults like fishing gear, car air fresheners and camping gear. Adults seem to like unique hand-made stuff so I started making drink glass charms to leave in caches.

I left my sunglasses a few times. Usually I'm still close enough to the cache site to go back for them but one time I was long gone before I realized that I was missing them. My coworker left his GPS on the roof of his car and noticed it bouncing on the road when he pulled away. It still works! Good ole Garmin 76 CSX!

I have 52, but I went back and found quite a few. Some were archived because they were gone. I log my DNFs if I spent a lot of time looking for them. If I just gave it a quick look, I don't bother logging the DNF.

Sorry! Double posted!

I had a lovely 10-10-10. I went to a breakfast event with some fellow cachers. I found 7 caches (got 2 DNFs) and hid two caches. The weather was bit crazy...raining then sunny breaks then more rain followed by sunny breaks...but it was a decent day overall.

The Hurricane Series is a huge series on the Trans Canada Trail that was just published last month after Hurricane Earl passed through. I didn't do it yet but I've been told that it's great to do by bike. Hopefully I'll get to half of it before the end of the month.

I prefer to hike to caches but it depends on the cache. I drive to some if I am on a road trip. I just bought my friend's bike and I did some caching by bike for the first time yesterday. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to do some caching by bike on the Trans Canada Trail this fall.

There's a cache owner who on his profile page has threatened to delete logs that only contain "TFTC". He feels that if he went through the trouble to hide the cache, people should at least leave more than 4 characters in their logs. I wonder how he'd feel about someone logging a period.

Obviously, you know absolutely nothing about golf. If it were easier than geocaching, I'd be on the PGA Tour. Agreed. Golf is very intellectually intensive. There are many things to consider when making a golf shot (which club, wind direction, hazards, personal limitations). Geocaching is only physically demanding if you choose caches that are physically demanding. Getting out of a car to walk 15m to a cache is not even close to demanding. Geocaching is multi-dimensional. It's what you make of it. I'm not competitive in it so for me it's a hobby that sometimes also involves sports (hiking, biking).

I guess it's just like other aspects of caching. Some people are in it to find caches, some are in it to solve puzzles, some are in it to place caches, some are in it to get FTFs. I'm not into FTFs (I only have 9 and I made an effort to get only 2 of them) but the local cachers that are into them seem to have fun competing with each other.

It worked! The seller must have put the wrong insert with the coin or something. Thanks so much for the help!

I recently purchased a Celtic Tree of Life geocoin from eBay and I want to activate it so my friends can discover it. I entered the trackable # at coincodes.com but the site is not recognizing it. I have used the site several times before and never had a problem. Just to be sure it was unactivated, I tried the trackable # on geocaching.com and the site recognized it as an unactivated Celtic Tree of Life coin. I contacted the admin at coincodes.com a few days ago but haven't heard anything back. Has anyone else purchased this type of coin and had this problem? Is there anything else I could try? I'm very disappointed because this is my favorite coin so far.

Ugh! That was happening here a while back. A muggle who called himself "the fleaa" vandalized caches and that's one of the things he did. I am so sorry that this happened to you!

There are fold-up pens that you can get at the dollar store (here anyway) that have a clip on them. I clip them onto my lanyard so it's always with my GPS. Sometimes I use them as trade items so other cachers can pick them up.

My brother introduced his friend to geocaching and as soon as he started finding them, he wanted to hide some. My brother told me that this guy has come up with some amazing cache containers and creative hides before he even had 50 finds. A guy in my area has over 1000 finds and he's still placing crappy caches. It doesn't matter how many finds a person has. Either they are going to put effort into it or they're not.

I just started collecting coins. Here are a few that I've bought so far. Newest Coins I have to take a little break from buying them. I can see how this can get very addictive!

I'm not sure what I'd do in town. I don't cache there much since Cape Breton has a lot to offer in the way of forest caches. When I come across a muggle on a trail, I use the bird watcher cover. I just pull out a bird field book. It could also work for ground vegetation, mushrooms, trees, tree diseases, and insects. If I'm in a scenic area, I use the photography cover. Sometimes I may have to crouch to get the angle I want

Are you here asking advice or just trying to get someone to buy you a premium membership? Bingo! Unless they've been changed since yesterday, you don't have any PM caches.

I always put a note on the first page of the log book that says "Congratulations! You found nameofcache which was placed on dateofplacement" Recently, a cacher from my area placed a power trail and gave every cache the same name. She didn't even number them. I think it's going to be a source of confusion for geocachers.