WebChimp

I agree on carrying a pocket knife. I always have one with me. As a side note, always carry it in the same pocket, so you won;t have to look for it in case of an emergency, when seconds count.

I don't like angst. Angst is bad. I'm having trouble grasping that you can't have an additional logging requirement, but you can have the finder perform a minor task. What is the difference? I have a cache that required the finder to drop me an email. Is that now an ALR, or a minor task? I agree with David, though it's a moot agreement, since the string has already been pulled by TPTB.

To quote a great Man: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Be considerate. I appreciate others who replace logs (or add a fresh log) in my caches when it is time. Just do what you would appreciate having done for you. If it turns out the CO is odd and doesn't like what you did, you can always apologize for your thoughtfulness.

Not me. We're about as rural as anyone can get, but toting a gun for anything other than hunting is asking for trouble.

"Not up to snuff" is a perfectly good qualifier, as long as you are the only person involved........... Ah. Here's the problem. Using "up to snuff" as a rating basis would most likely not work, because you then have a whole 'nother set of problems to contend with. First and foremost, whose snuff will be used as the benchmark? If your snuff is used, but it turns out the cache you are rating was placed by someone who prefers his snuff a bit more moist than you like yours, well, we now have an impasse. First, some level of appropriate snuff has to be defined. Then, we have another set of issues. Since youngsters under the age of 18 cannot have snuff (by law), then do we prohibit youngsters from rating caches, or illegally provide them with snuff so they can make comparisons. See the bottomless bag of snakes this can create? What if you have a cacher who believes snuff is bad, and refuses to buy it, use it, or possess it? I can see all sorts of problems here with this rating system. I much prefer a rating system where we decide if a cache cuts the mustard or not. Yes, French's Classic Yellow is legal everywhere, without restrictions, and is loved by all, except, of course, for the few anarchists who prefer mayonnaise. Snuff? No. Fraught with problems. Mustard? Yes. It's a standard we all understand.

Could this be it?

Periodically, I'll go through all my hides, and delete notes that have no longer have relevance. For example, a "needs maintenance" note from two years ago, on a cache that was fixed immediately? No relevance. Away it goes. "Fluff" notes get the same treatment. I agree with you doing that, and it shouldn't bother anyone (thought it probably will <G>).

He included Girl Scouts. OP ended with "How many of the ladies here were in Girl Scouts and how far did you get in it?". Glad you replied.

Made it to First Class in the 1960's. Made it to Scoutmaster in the second millennium.

One idea would be to add another tool to your arsenal. A used Dell Axim Pocket PC can be had off ebay for around $50. This, combined with Cachemate, lets you carry all the listing details with you right to the cache location. Sometimes it's good to be able to re-read the listing after a half mile hike, to to recall what you forgot. GSAK will load your coords into your GPS, and also into the Axim.

They make excellent containers. You can get Krylon plastic adhering camo paint (spray can) at Wal-Mart or other retailers, and it sticks really well. I've had one out in the weather for two years, still looks good, still dry inside.

If the cache was obstructed by winter ice (a cache on an island comes to mind), or by being in a place that was inaccessible due to winter roads conditions, perhaps. Maybe a cache in an area that's closed during winter months.

For me, it's got nothing to do with size, or difficulty. A quality cache is one that either makes me smile, or go "Aha!" when I'm at the cache site. It can be any size, anywhere. If it's a novel hide technique, or a neat place I would not have experienced otherwise, etc., then it's a good cache hide. Puzzles with a fun twist to them are the same way. Just realize that the more in-depth the puzzle, the less often the cache will be found.

I agree with the 20' average. Assume 10', but expect a reality of 20'. Experience is the best teacher in this hobby. meet some other cacher,s go cahcing all day one day with some experienced cachers, and you'll learn more than you would in six months on your own.

I don't have a Garmin, but I cache with a lot of people who do. The Colorado has lots of nice bells and whistles, but for pure-dee cache finding, the 60CSX seems to be the hands-down favorite. It zeroes in quickly, it cuts through tree cover easily, and is becoming more affordable as the newer units gain favor. I listened to three Garmin owners have this discussion a couple of weeks ago, and that was their consensus. Hope that helps.

Are you sure there are caches along that route? There are long stretchs of road around here that have zero caches on them. Try created a Pocket Query for your route, and show all caches within a five mile range, and see what you get. The query will return a gpx file, just like any other Pocket Query, and that should contain all your caches. To see the caches it returned, open the gpx file in GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife). You can try it for free, if you haven't already tried it. To actually see the caches on a map, there are several options, but the easiest to use is probably Microsoft Streets and Trips. To do that, open your gps file in GSAK. Use the Export function (File > Export) tio generate a file in Microsoft Streets and Trips format. (This will be a csv file, much like and Excel file). Open Streets and Trips, and use the import function (Data > Import) to import the file that was generated by GSAK. The caches will pop up on your map as little pushpins. Hope this helps.

I have a cache that's been out in the weather for over two years, and it's still in great shape. It's a lock and lock spray-painted camo green.

I realize I'm chiming in on this really, really late in the thread, but I wanted to throw in my 2c. From time to time, a cache finder and a cache owner will be at odds for one reason or another. One of the parties may not even be aware that the conflict exists. If the conflict ends up in the forums, there's a good chance that will exacerbate whatever is going on, rather than alleviate it. In most cases, if you can't work it out one-on-one with the other party, it's best to let it rest, and bring it up much later, hoping for resolution. Time cures most things. If that doesn't work, just forget the whole thing, and move on. Life is too short for angst. Challenging the CO over one smiley on one hide isn't worth the fallout, in most cases. The only time I can think that it might be worth it to press for resolution involving a third party mediator is if the deleted log was a final find on a large-scale challenge completion. Again, just my 2c worth. (No need to make change. )

Dragging us back to the original topic............... It would have to be an improvement over those round, plastic, red Folgers containers that so many people think are using now for cache containers. The leak like sieves. Is the new Folger's container a real Lock and Lock, or just a look-a-like? Our Scout troop has used these for carrying flour, sugar, and meal for a long time. They are great for protection against the elements. I placed three new caches yesterday, and two of them were in Lock and Locks.

Bike Path bridge cache gave all three of us fits at one time. We made three visits, came up empty each time, and finally ate my pride and called a lifeline. It's still a great, frustrating cache for new or experience cachers. Right now it has about 90 finds, and about 20 DNFs.

Hmmmm............. I don't know about the top ten, but if you're making a list of tough caches, SpiderFish in Alabama has to be either on the list, or be first alternate. This one is a brain-buster.

The sticker has a sentence that ends with a preposition: "... and properly disposed of." The Grammar Police will now be hot on the trail of the sticker stickers, I imagine.

I like to put out puzzle caches, not because I'm enamored with finding them, but because I really enjoy writing a puzzle that might be novel for the searcher. These caches usually require research. Some can be done using Google. Some require a trip to the library. Some require good old cognitive thought. Some are 5 difficulty. Some are 2 difficulty. The one thing they have in common is that they will be found very few times in relation to the 1.5/1.5 caches out there. And, that's okay. There are those who will show up at the final coords and sign the log without having solved the puzzle. That's sad for them, because they have missed the point of the cache in the first place. But, as COs, we have no control over that. If the signature is in the log book, the smiley stands. Kind of hard to understand and accept? Yes, at times, it is. But, unless you want to spend your time being the cache police (a fruitless and frustrating occupation), just accept that some people are not going to abide by the ideas you have for how things should be done. The more roadblocks you construct to prevent your idea of cheating, the less likely it will become that the cache will be found by those who really do want to find it by the methods you devised. A previous poster mentioned that the only real rules for geocaching are to find the cache, sign the log book, and report your find online. I think those rules are brief for good reason. If you want to add a rule for a specific cache (Additional Logging Requirement, aka ALR), keep it simple and fun. I can think of only one cache I've hidden that has ALRs, and it's two simple things: Find the cache in the dark of the night, and drop me an email telling me a specific thing about the cache. Those ALRs were added solely to add a bit of spark to what would have been an otherwise dull hide. Happy trails...............

I can tell this, because the cache has now been archived. I spent the better part of half an hour looking for a cache container in the back of a building, to no avail. I finally leaned over, and put my hand on a PVC 90 degree drain pipe at the bottom of a central air evaporator housing. It turned out to be a dummy pipe, attached magnetically, and the thing unscrewed and the log was inside. I still shake my head over that one. There are several other cool hides I've seen, but they are still active, so I would be hesitant to describe them.

Or, the problem may be just the opposite, that the CO wasn't thinking.