Planet
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Posts posted by Planet
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The new search feature has made the search so much more difficult than it needs to be, that I want to quit entirely. It's been ruined for me. This is by far the saddest change since I began caching 2002. I wish Groundspeak would put it back the way it was. It caused quite a lot of anguish in this neck of the woods. It's not just me. The fun is gone. I can no longer pull up upcoming events searching by state. Why not?
We don't need change for the sake of change.
This is indeed a sad time for me. You have to know where events are going to be held to look up the zip code. Bring it back please!
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I grabbed this Baby Leg TB from the Live From Space event on Thursday. It immediately caught my eye and called to me. I've emailed the owner asking how carried away I can get with it. I have to keep my eye on upcoming events to the west!
What growth?
T-Rex impersonator:
Hanging out on the Night Hudson River:
Adding an ankle bracelet (if the owner says no, it will come off.)
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On top of that, there was a second TB also held for that long that they released. Woo Hop!
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TB3D - A very early travel bug, Ttepee's Old Bet TB comes back from the great beyond. How's that? Pretty darn cool.
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Same log on every single cache? Boring!
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Another thing, and this conversation just happened in another forum. How lazy can we get? I hide caches so other people can have an adventure. And I want to hear about it. All these smartphone apps are causing more and more "TFTC" or "Found it" or worse, "
" logs. No story, nothing about how hard it was, how easy it was, how fun it was. I might as well archive the cache. Because I don't want to read a log that I can take in in the blink of an eye. Why bother even logging my cache at all?! It tells me they don't care how much time and effort I put into my hide.Here is my post from the other forum.
Now, when I get a log from the likes of RobDJr, well it makes my day, I fall in love with with his writing, and I'm proud that I know him and have cached with him. And he writes the most awesome logs!Like this one:
Found itI dreamed Ahab dreams. Dreams dark and grim, of blood and steel, of violence and fury, of black water and white foam. I awoke drenched in cold sweat, shouts and screams fading in my mind. Today, for better or for worse, I would see the end of my feud with this cache. For better or for worse, it would be done. For better or for worse, this day, this cache, the end.
When I left the house, I glanced at the old tool bench, at my Father’s masonry hammer hanging where he had left it. It has a three pound head and a wooden handle polished smooth by nearly three decades of contact with his rough and calloused hands. For a fleeting moment I thought of bringing it; that hammer would make a magnificent dent in an ammo can.
But no, as much as the thought appealed (and oh did it appeal), the hammer had been my Father’s tool of choice. For precision and creation or for glorious destruction, he had swung it with a practiced and seemingly careless ease. I would use my own tool of choice, the one he had never quite understood and at times barely seemed to accept. On this day, I would create or destroy by wit and by word. And I would only hope to achieve the same magnificence of creation and destruction as I had witnessed from a calloused hand and an old hammer. Careless ease be damned.
I arrived at the parking area early. I was meeting others, but first there was something I wanted to do. Something I needed to do, alone. I sat in my car, watching and in my own way, listening. I watched leaves flutter in the breeze, and a bright red cardinal hopping from tree to tree. I watched the brook swirl and splash, from time to time throwing brilliant lances of reflected sunlight. I watched people come and go, I watched, I waited, I listened.
At length I became aware of what I had been searching for, at first faint and indistinct, not quite a sound and not quite a vibration but a tremor of sorts, a disturbance. It slowly grew clearer and more distinct as I became attuned to it, a gentle and steady thubba-thud, thubba-thud. I smiled to myself. Beat, black heart, beat! In the depths of my soul, Ahab howled with glee.
Then Reno8 arrived, and shortly after, Planet and the Mann. Upon sight of Planet, Ahab cut loose another primal scream of joy. With Planet’s presence the playing field was leveled as it had never been before.. For the first time ever, I had a true shot at this beast. I felt an Ahabbian glimmer growing in my eyes, and a hunger in my soul soon to be sated.
Small wonder I had never had success with this one before. All Planet did was get us as close as a GPS unit would, nothing more. But that was five hundred feet closer than I had ever gotten before, five hundred impossible and immeasurable feet. I have no idea how that cache accomplished this, that wily and treacherous beast, but the coordinates had been skewed. Another score to be settled, and settled soon.
Stage two fell quickly, despite a fair amount of bounce that gave us some difficulty. But stage three was once again nearly impossible. The thubba-thud had now accelerated to a quick and steady thudda-thudda; the foul beast was now aware, was now resisting. Eventually, Reno8 put a call through to Planet (who by that time was probably floating happily along in her kayak up on the pond). It quickly became clear that dark forces and evil will were once again warping the coordinates and leading us further, leading us away. I imagine that Planet gave a small sigh as this vexatious cache intruded into her bubble of kayaking bliss, but she gave the playing field a solid kick and it was once again level. The third stage fell and with it Ahab lapsed into dangerous silence.
It took him two logs to finish:
Write note(cont'd)
As we approached the final, I could only grit my teeth and share Ahab’s wave of frustrated angst. Two weeks earlier Reno8 and I had given up on the search at pseudo-stage one and I had theorized on potential locations for the final. We had tried and failed. We had been less than one hundred feet away from glory. Gaaaaaah!
Shortly thereafter, I saw Reno8 signaling the find. I had (and barely suppressed) the urge to shout out, You hold ‘im down now, Reno! Don’t let ‘im get 'way! It was now over three years since my first attempt. It was now over.
I don’t really know what I expected. A defiant and unrepentant hellion at the least, or more likely a ravening, slavering beast lunging against steel chains as it hurled undecipherable obscenities couched in clouds of spittle. A battle, definitely, a counting of fingers afterwards, smudges and droplets of blood next to the signatures in the vanquished logbook.
But what I found was a meek and unassuming ammo can. Most incongruous of all was the smiley face on the side, as if the ammo can was (with wide and innocent eyes) saying, You were looking for me? Why didn’t you just say so? I’ve been here the whooooooole time! For a moment I wanted to smack that ammo can, but then all I could do was smile. Even Ahab couldn’t rouse himself to follow through on any of his vows of rage and blood.
I think I understand now exactly how Dorothy felt when she went behind the curtain and found not a towering, all-knowing, all-powerful figure of mystery but a short, fat, balding, middle-aged man…
Many thanks to Planet for her patience and graciousness throughout the whole ordeal, most especially in leveling the field. And to Reno8 for providing some great company and a much-needed willingness to shoulder some of the burdens of frustration. SL, TNLN, and TFTC!
Now that, my friend, is why I hide caches!
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Simple answer. No. A big resounding no. There's a game you can play if you want to use QR codes. But here we use logbooks.
I've got one I get real compliments on.
A QR code can't do that.
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It took me five logs to fit in the story of my two close encounters with bears in one day.
The two white dots are the bear's eyes. It was 5AM.
In addition, bobcat, deer, wild turkeys, and not while caching, but one mountain lion in CT. (Yes, they do too live here, I don't care what anyone says.)
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The answer is there. I found it in a post by Graculus a volunteer reviewer that put that together for other cachers to use. Pretty sweet.
How have you been?
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I kinda wish you had used a GPS somewhere in that video, or at least mentioned something more about GPS and using coordinates, and how satellites work, since this is a GPS based hobby. Smart phones are handy, but not accurate enough for hiding. And I kinda wish you hadn't called it a treasure hunt, since there is no treasure. And I kinda wish you had left out the lame lamp post and parking lot caches, because those, to me, are the dumbing down of this hobby. Maybe if it had been a nice sunny day, you could have gone for a nicer walk ,in the woods to someplace special. And I hope the cache owners don't mind their cache hides being publicly exposed, giving away the hides, but I'm guessing the cameraman did not know to not publicly give away the location. But it looks like you had fun anyway. It's not real representative of what I know as geocaching, but maybe that's how it is your area. I wish I still had my old computer. I would send you a copy of the geocaching talk I gave at the local library for the land trust near here some years back. They went on to establish a geocaching policy and actually requested that we hide more caches on their lands.
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I think your idea only adds to the degradation of this game and I urge you to reconsider it. The rock pile idea is not funny at all. It's the type of cache that leads me to keep on driving and I would curse you for wasting my gas, my time, and the insult to my intelligence.
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I don't think I want to live in a world where every cacher hides caches. There would be no room to walk.
I do not think the rules need changing.
+2 on niraD's post.
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I'd like to see the whole logbook now. It's gone, and now I have to add another step to get to it. But did you see? You can click on the "Your friends logs" tab, to see if any of your friends logged it.
What I saw this morning was weird. There were no logs, just a link to click on the view logbook. Now the logs are there, as well as the link to view the logbook. So, all is well.
As Emily Litella would say: "Never mind
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No thank you. If your friends want to know what you've been doing, they can click on your profile. Better keep your logs up to date. Agree with others, this is a listing site. Don't overuse the resources.
I'd like to see the whole logbook now. It's gone, and now I have to add another step to get to it. But did you see? You can click on the "Your friends logs" tab, to see if any of your friends logged it.
It reminds of me the recent gmail update, which I could do without as well. I wish all websites would not make change for the sake of change. Make changes we need. But I figure someone must have asked for that feature for it to be implemented. It wasn't me, that's for sure. I liked the cache page logbook just the way it was.
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You're not supposed to actually whack the bushes! (Unless you are in some remote jungle!)
In geocaching terms, bushwhacking just means you are off trail, and then you should be watching what you step on and try not to trample any vegetation.
If you were to go into a park with a machete for the purposes of bushwhacking, I want to be the first one to call the cops on you and have you arrested.
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No food, or items that smell, in caches. Ever. Never ever.
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OK so I thought I would take the kids out on an adventure. 6 & 8 and really up for it. Downloaded the android app and set of for the closest one; a logical pub car park hedge. after 15 mins of watching my children rummaging through piles of dirty rubbish, cans, bottles and other filth I thought `this is ridiculous and so we went to the next one. This was supposedly at the bottom of a pole in a quiet lane. About 30 mins later, all poles checked, and then just about everything that slightly resembled a pole, two very bored & frustrated children (and one adult) returned home. What did we do wrong? Admittedly, the app or phone was absolute pants with the map not giving any accuracy as to where we were in relation to the cache. How do I know if they are still there and not missing? Is there something more I should have done?
You should have started in a much nicer place, where kids can be kids and have fun.
I would not have had kids searching an urban dumpy area, when they could have been hiking and having fun out in nature. Look for larger caches, don't start with lame micros in a lamp post. Or a micro in the bushes. Start with a bigger cache (size is usually indicated) and read some of the previous logs, look for caches with favorite points, and then tell them the first trip was just a joke, you didn't mean it, caching is way more fun than that. You described two caches that I wouldn't even have given the time of day. Because they are no fun to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Some people like them. I don't. Your kids won't. If you end up enjoying the game, you might want to later invest in a hand held GPS. Much more accurate.
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Well, it took a little while to find it. I searched Planet Wraps and came up with a bunch of old threads that mentioned my wraps at past events, but when I searched "hummous" I found it in an old 2003 What's the best geocaching food thread. (Because I spelled it wrong then)
Posted 15 October 2003 - 03:47 AMJust ask dboggny what he thinks of these!
Take large flour tortillas.
Get roast beef, salami, baby spinach, swiss cheese, cream cheese, turkey, hummus, shredded carrots, lettuce, ham., mayo. mustard.
On a flour tortilla spread not quite to the edge a thin coating of mayo and mustard, put one layer of ham, swiss, lettuce, roll it up and toothpick it to hold it closed. Cut it in half and bag it.
on another use cream cheese, salami and spinach.
Turkey lettuce, cheese, mayo.
Roast beef, hummus, spinach.
You get the idea, use your own favorite ingredients. The initial layer should be thin or you end up with a big huge mess.
These sandwiches are packable, and you can cut them into whatever sizes you want, little finger sandwiches, thirds, halves, whole, whatever. It doesn't matter if you squish them down a bit, and they are very tasty too.
Planet
On warm days I do not use mayonnaise, so I don't have to keep it chilled. I use hummus that comes in assorted flavors, and guacamole instead. Mustard is ok. If you let kids decide what they want on them and let them make them, they will enjoy them more.
I toothpick them to hold them together, and put them all in on large baggie. And that baggie doubles as a CITO bag on your way out. No muss, no fuss.
These days, my ingredients have expanded to shredded cabbage, carrots, mixed baby greens, thinly sliced cucumbers, sprouts, you name it, I can put a whole chef salad in a wrap! Just use your favorites. Tomatoes and stuff like that are too wet for a packable wrap. You don't want a soggy sandwich on the trail. Keep your layers thin and layer them on the half facing you, they will spread to the rest of the wrap when you roll it up.
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I'm pretty well known at hiking events for my backpackable wraps. And somewhere in theses forums I posted how to. I'll try to find it.
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How old is your son?
It sounds like the perfect learning opportunity for him, or he and a team of his friend(s) to solve the puzzles, and learn something before going out to play. Or go travel a bit further from home and find places you never would have known about if it weren't for geocaching
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About the "guidelines which the vast majority feel exist for good cause"
Maybe the majority does... but the proximity of caches as well as their interaction with puzzle and multi-stage, seems to be the largest complaint as well. Does a private company which consistently ignore it's #1 complaint remain successful? Look at the first page of this forum category:
Proximity rule should not be affected by a multi-stage
Cacher dominating area
Well, that sucks
528 feet
Almost cleared out the area near hom already! with 50 finds
Unpublished Cache
When to Archive?
That's just the first page. When do you stop and say: "this is becoming a problem that needs to be addressed"?
If you love this spot so much, then place a cache 300' away. That's not that far to walk from a picnic area to find a cache. You can then list the coordinates for the picnic area on your cache description, and mention how nice it would be to take a break or picnic at those coordinates. It really is that simple.
Now, let's address the last part of the above post:
Just because some people come on the forums and mention proximity as an issue (I use "mention" to replace words I'd rather use, which fit much better...) doesn't mean that it is an issue that needs to be "fixed" by reducing the saturation guidelines. What is means is that a few people feel that they need to come to the forums to complain mention that they don't like the guidelines that the majority of the players see as an important and solid guideline for the game. This guideline is fundamental. This guideline is the foundation of agreement that has allowed us to play on lands that otherwise would say, "heck no!" to more caches per square foot.
Do realize that the number of threads in this topic on the subject of saturation and proximity does not indicate a sea change for that guideline on the horizon. It's just not going to happen based on a few threads where people are, really, just complaining about how they wanted to place a cache but couldn't. Until the argument for changing the saturation guidelines to allow a reduction in distance is based on a more substantial reason which actually affects the game of Geocaching for the better, it isn't a valid to say the number of thread complaints equals a need for change.
Really, you have only a few choices: 1) Move on: it's going to be ok. 2) Place your cache where it meets the proximity and saturation guidelines, yet notes your neato place that you want to feature. 3) Quit. Pack up. Take your game play elsewhere.
What's it going to be?
+1
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I don't care about being FTF, and I don't think I have ever congratulated anyone for being FTF on one of my caches. I would have to check. I certainly don't edit the page and make any kind of announcement about it. If someone wants to know who did, the logs are right there on the cache page to look at.
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My first cache ever was hidden in 2002, and is still active.
It was written about in this book:
It's called Cathedral In The Pines and is located near a beautiful waterfall and section of river.
And has even been found by Jeremy.
I hid it so well with camouflage, that on my first maintenance visit, when someone reported that the camouflage had fallen off, it took me what felt like 45 minutes to find my own cache. And it is a large gallon size Rubbermaid jar. (Still on the original container 10 winters later, btw). I did not replace the camouflage!
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Caught in the act with an open ammo can in my lap, sitting a bit off trail, I looked in the ammo can and asked my fellow cacher if they wanted ham and cheese, or peanut butter and jelly, while the muggles kept on walking.
If asked by law enforcement , tell the truth.
" logs. No story, nothing about how hard it was, how easy it was, how fun it was. I might as well archive the cache. Because I don't want to read a log that I can take in in the blink of an eye. Why bother even logging my cache at all?! It tells me they don't care how much time and effort I put into my hide.
Release Notes (Website: New Search) - March 11, 2015
in Geocaching HQ communications
Posted
I followed instructions. Problem is I don't have a home computer. I only have an android phone, and it doesn't work according to instructions. I did finally get it to work, but it's so many hoops to jump through on a small screen, that the thrill is gone. The app behaves the same way.