GeoVet

Happy Independence Day America! C/326th Med. BN 101st ABN longago faraway

Nothing as radical as you guys! But I did wind up chest-deep in a drainage ditch with knee deep muck in the middle of a marsh restoration project. Cache called "Bridge Almost Too Far" and I never saw a bridge. Nothing but tall marsh grasses and brambles. Thought I'd just step over this little stream and before you can blink, I'm in it. The smell alone could have killed. Sun's going down, I'm thinking hypothermia, if I get out. Holding the GPSr high, I'm grasping onto cattails thinking" spread out your weight, don't get more mired" as I give another mighty pull on my stuck legs. Face down in the soup and straining, I'm literally grasping at straws, utterly alone. "This is how they'll find me, spent and frozen, unless the coyotes get here first." Well, I got out and found the cache, then got lost because the GPSr got wet and useless. (I even marked the starting point when I began, so I could get back.) For what seemed like a lot longer than it probably was, I was in survival mode. When I got home all smiles, my wife just shook her head.

"Clear the answer will be; first unlearn what you have learned." -Yoda

About 10:1 find to hide. Hikemeister, you going to give us an average ratio?

I am touched by the sensitivity of the GC community on this issue and have logged more than a few beauts. There is a local cacher, however, who gets approval by calling graveyards "little parks". It may simply be a ploy to gain quick approval or a little subterfuge to confuse us. These "little parks" are basically park and grab micros with no historical(except to kin)/geographic significance. I am put off by drive-by placements, but hunt them none-the-less.

M-51 field pants (used to be standard issue, since replaced) are the best. Stick-tights wipe right off, lots of storage and, unlike wearing chaps, your "private first class" is covered . . . what?!?

It is what it is. Semantics aside, our "activity" can be all things to all people, thus wildly popular. Witness these forums, a free and open exchange of ideas. Do labels matter? A rose by any other name . . .

This question is like asking, 'water, is it wet or is it a liquid?' Yup, there's the false dichotomy. Sport? Game? Yup. Or nope. It is what it is.

I disagree with Mr. Vegas. The bug (or whatever you decide to call it . . . tick?) doesn't travel anywhere. It sounds like fun. I remember fun. You sound very thoughtful and reasonable Fueller, certainly verbose. Welcome! I say "go for it".

Hey GeoVet, did you not read the post by BigFurryMonster? Yup I read Big Furry's post and couldn't agree more. I think the sport sells itself. I just had to get some issues off my chest, I guess.

How about this? You bully and intimidate your way into high school lunch rooms, set up eye candy in front of handsome toughs, call everybody wussies for not geocaching, get all their personal data from the office (it's the law, they can't refuse) so you can badger them at home, offer them any impossible thing they want to go geocaching, set-up weekend indoctrination sessions ( . . . umm, GeoInfoCamps, yeah! that's it!) where in-your-face is par, convince them that they can't live without geocaching and they should just try it for 4 years. You could get the backing of multi-million dollar ad campaigns at government expense. Cajole, woo, threaten, intimidate, tease, sell, trick, muscle, subtlety court and spark young minds into thinking "Must . . . have . . . GPSr". Lie, cheat or steal. Tell them absolutely anything, promise them anything, guarantee them anything they want (legal, shmegal). . . if they will only go tupperware hunting. OK. I'm better now.

Same here. KISS works for me. Peace.

We used to have a saying "Frog it. Don't mean nothin', drive on." . . . or something to that effect. Of course, that was long ago and far away. Peace.

You say tomato . . . around here the hiders call them "little parks" and they get approved no problem. Not saying it's right, just the way it is.

How about a "Replace a Cache Day" where you replace some lame pointless cache with a good one? I like the way criminal thinks. We've got enough bad caches. How 'bout "Take a Noob to Replace a Lame Cache Day"? Whatever, there's bound to be too many rules involved.

Consider the Garmin Rhino for kids. It's the same program as the etrex plus you can see where everyone is and know they're safe. Kids tend to wander . . . oh look at that cool butterfly, etc.

No rules, no expectations, no guidance. Do your own thing. Gotta love this game. Personal find to hide ratio: a little less than 10:1 Peace.

Highpointer, same thing happened to me in Grand Cayman Island. Couldn't find the darn thing when I was sure I was on top of it and I knew I'd never be back. Sure enough, someone found the thing after I looked and looked. (Less than a year later a hurricane devastated the island and all but one cache was left. Guess which one.) When I am getting frustrated and can't find one now, I turn off my Garmin, sit down and "think like a geocacher". That's what I would tell my students when I taught a geocacheing class, too. Trust the force. . .

Just a tip of the hat and a big thank you to all who served or are serving in the military. Regardless of your feelings about war and all the blah, blah, blah . . . make time to thank a vet TODAY!

You're right. What can it all mean? (happy Veteran's Day everyone)

Real cachers use AMMO CANS.

I love the program, but sometimes there's just too many ammo cans to see anything else on the map. Does anyone know how to undo/disable the geocaches on GoogleEarth once you've enabled it? Thanks.

My buddy bought a Nissan X-Terra and was offered 2 choices as options: 1) a mountain bike or 2) Garmin emap. He goes over 300lbs so he took the emap and gave it to me when he couldn't (wouldn't) figure it out. Lucky me. No reason to upgrade either.

12 digit coordinates 11 shiny benchmarks 10 coords a leaping 9 first to finds 8 maids a-caching 7 Walmart lamp posts 6 ammo boxes 5 garmin gps's 4 travel bugs 3 french geocoins 2 fishings waders and a micro in a giant pear tree