redwoodkestrel

That's not good enough. You'll also need ... "...plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints,twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence ... pictures of the approach, the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to mention the aerial photography..." 'Course, the volunteer cache reviewer in this case will have a seein' eye-dog, in a classic case of American blind justice! +1 hmmm... three people have walked in and made this reference and walked out. I'm beginning to think it's a movement Geocachers are always put on the Group W bench.

I haven't been to that cache, but you can use the information on the cache page to help you figure it out- which is a really good tip for learning how to find geocaches early on in your geocacher career: 1. It's listed as a "micro" size cache. So this could be something the size of a film canister, a bison tube, a magnetic "hide-a-key," or potentially a "nano" which is somewhat bigger than a pencil eraser and magnetic. 2. Reading through the logs, a lot of people talk about muggles eating lunch or sitting at the cache location. So this could mean that the cache is possibly at or near a bench or a picnic table. Taking that information, I would use my GPS to get me as close to the coords as possible, and then start by looking/feeling underneath benches or picnic tables to see if it's a magnetic cache attached to the underside- on metal joints. If I didn't find it at one of those places, I would expand to nearby potentially hiding spots and look there. Good luck! I hope you find it!

I already know of a cache like that! Pretty cool. Haven't done it myself yet though.

I too try to have fun things from the dollar store with me when I cache, simply because I do like to think about kids who might be out caching with their parents. I also like to leave shells and beach glass- things that I've collected on my trips to the ocean- because I can see items like those being of interest to people who might not live near the ocean. If I find an empty container (log book and nothing else but space), I'll often add a few things, just to give the next person something to choose from. Rarely do I take anything, unless it's something that really interests me. The only time I won't leave things is if the cache container is not weather-proof anymore or if the cache is obviously known by the non-geocachers and is continually emptied out. But yes, generally I find that the items in caches around here (San Francisco area) are mostly garbage (hair ties, bandaids, handiwipes, actual garbage, etc.), inappropriate (condoms, tampons, etc.), or just random "oh shoot I should put something in the cache" items (nearby rocks, seeds from trees, and the ever-present coins... usually quarters or pennies).

How about this one? 50 Foot Walking Stick The current holder has had it for two years... though granted, I think the first holder had it for over one year.

I don't think it's an issue with the GPS unit itself, more like a problem with the communicator software or something like that. Regardless, the method I posted above is very easy, so see if that works for you.

I had problems too... can't remember what I did to make it work (in fact, the Explorist GC actually just stopped turning on after using it for 3 weeks or so... took it back to REI and they were having a sale on the 510 for pretty much the same price as the GC, so I upgraded!). But here's an easy work-around: run a pocket query for the caches you want (remember that you can only get 1000 at a time, so you may need to run a few pocket queries to get all the caches within a 50 mile radius), download it and expand the files to someplace easy to find (I usually just put them on my desktop). When your gps is connected to your computer, open it up so you can see the folders. The pocket query you downloaded should have two files: one that is the geocaches and one that is the waypoints. Just put the geocache file in the geocache folder in your gps, and the waypoints file into the waypoints folder on your gps. Totally easy!

While I rarely take things from caches (other than TBs or coins), I always try to leave something in return. Even though I don't have kids I like to imagine children out caching with parents and getting really excited to find what treasures a cache might hold. So stopping by a drugstore and picking up some mini Playdoh containers or bouncy balls is something I've started to do recently so I have fun tradeables with me. I'll also leave ocean treasures: shells, beach glass, etc. since it's something that connects me and what I love to the caches I visit. When I find a cache where the majority of the items inside are garbage (ticket stubs, condoms, tampons, cough drops, etc) I'll usually clean out the undesirables and leave a few extra things in return, just so the next person has a few things to choose from. The only times I won't leave anything behind is (1) when the cache is too small to hold anything other than the log, or (2) when it's obvious to me that the cache location is known by many non-geocachers who obviously check and remove things. Though even then I'll occasionally leave beach glass.

If you go to your public profile, click on the tab that says "geocaches," then click on the link that says "All Geocache Hides," you should get a list of all your hides and in the "info" column there will be the symbol for needs maintenance if it's been logged as such. Hope that helps!

I've got to agree that Golden Gate Park makes for a pretty incredible place to go hunt caches: Golden Gate Park Caches

When I worked for the CO Division of Wildlife for a summer doing field work all over central/western CO, our field crew would swallow entire cloves of garlic to help with the mosquitoes. Seemed to work pretty well. And it 100% kept away any and all vampires- didn't see a single one all summer!

Oh man, I was out caching a month or so ago in Jack London State Park (Sonoma, CA). I had decided to go get the FTF (what was going to be my very first FTF!) on a nano that had been placed 6 months earlier but still hadn't been found, and I figured since that cache was 3/4 up the side of the mountain, I might as well go to the summit and grab the two caches up there as well (making it an 8 mile round trip). About an hour into the hike, I felt something land in my hair and start buzzing. I'm by myself, I have no idea what it is, my hair is tight in two braids, so I try to brush it out. Well, whatever it was had gotten tangled, didn't like me trying to touch it, and decided to sting me (or bite me?) on my scalp. I frantically unbraid my hair to get it loose, shake it around to try to get rid of the insect. Never actually saw what it was, but man did that sting hurt! About two days later, all my lymph nodes on that side of my neck swelled up huge and super painful. It took over a week for the swelling to go down. To add insult to injury, I continued on my hike anyway and when I got to the cache it turned out that exact same morning two cachers decided to visit that nano as well- thus getting the FTF! After it not being found for half a year! I couldn't help but laugh. Still, it was a nice hike to the summit and I definitely enjoyed it.

Try the advanced search under "Hide & Seek a Cache." When you click "Hide & Seek a Cache," scroll down to "Other Search Options," and below the fill-in fields is a link for the "advanced search options." Once you're there, choose the type of caches you're looking for and the area you're searching in, and click the button next to "Exclude your owned or found items from results." http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx

I love a beautiful hike that leads me to a beautiful place AND a great geocache! I also love caches placed around my city (San Francisco) that take me to interesting places that I've never been before. And I do appreciate caches large enough to hold tradeable items... finding a TB or original geocoin is always exciting.

Poison oak. Well, not really poison oak, but poison oak combined with my insatiable need to stick my hand in there and get the cache anyway when I know I shouldn't because I'm so allergic but it's right there and I really want to get it. And sap. I've ruined too many shirts and pants by not looking where I'm sitting/leaning/climbing when caching. (But that's probably my fault too. )

Link for reference: Inappropriate or Non-publishable Placements In your submission, there will be a text box to add some comments that only the Reviewer will see. It might be in your best interest to include any additional information concerning the nearby State Office (i.e. it's not placed on State Property, or not in line of sight, etc.) Best of luck! Thanks for the input! Very much appreciated. Well, if I place the cache where I want to it will be on that state property, but I would place it far from the buildings, definitely out of site. The area that I'm thinking of has none of the CA state developmental center buildings nearby- they're at least a quarter mile away and cannot be seen at all. But it's still their property. The white area outlined on both sides of Arnold Dr. is their property- so you can see they have a lot of land, most of it open since the buildings are all concentrated near the center. I'll be sure to include all of that info for the reviewer. But as far as people know it's okay to put caches on CA state property?

Okay, so I'm finally gearing up to hide my first cache. And I want to do it right. The area that I'd like to place the cache is a developmental center that is property of the State of California, but it is NOT a California state park. The whole place is open to the public. There are buildings and offices that are used in the center of the property, however around the edges of the property there is a lot of open space with horses, a small park/field, and even trail access into a nearby California state park. This area is one of my favorite places to go for a quick walk, or to hang out and play frisbee. It's a beautiful location that I don't think a lot of people know about, which is why I thought of this spot instantly for my first cache. I've been doing a ton of research and have found a lot of information regarding geocaching in California state parks. But I haven't seen much about geocaching on non-state-park property belonging to the state. Looking at the maps, it looks like this site does have two other caches on it, however I think that property has been incorporated into the nearby state park and might not be reflected on current (i.e. Google) maps. I know that there's a cache in the Capitol building area in Sacramento, but I'm not sure about finding further info about caching on California state property. This is the area I'm thinking of: http://www.geocaching.com/map/beta/?ll=38.348425,-122.516429&z=15 The area outlined in white is the property I'm talking about. Any insight or information or links to resources would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.