captainmath

Hiking around the Hudson Valley area yesterday I picked up a very great number of ticks - and they were all deer ticks. I was picking them off all day, and then all night after getting home and showering. Then overnight I found two others, one of which needed tick-surgery from my wife to remove it. That must have been the greatest number of deer ticks I've carried in a single day.

Kevin, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. I too remember Bailey from events. My condolences for you and your family.

For some time now, I've noticed that several local hides have come up without me receiving any notification of them. What's interesting is that I will occasionally get notification of a local (<12 miles) cache, but usually not. At the same time, I'll receive many notifications for caches out in the 20-30 mile range. Now of course I know that the 20-30 mile ring includes much more area than a circle with radius 12 miles so it may be that any new cache has the same chance of being missed, but I'm really surprised at how often I'm failing to receive the notification (I'd guess that I'm getting notified of no more than 1 in 4 or 5 new hides). Is anyone else having a similar issue? Is there any solution to the problem?

Brian, now it all makes sense. We were the GOLD team last year when we cleaned out the entire area and came back with a crazy bunch of finds. And of course we were late to the rendezvous and to lunch on the way. (My kids still love the trophy.) Looks like you kept all of those Gold Team traditions going... and you were still able to get a seat right away and food in front of you in record time! You're amazing! Kevin, thanks again for all the time and hard work you put into making this event the amazing success it is! The stockings hung around the fire at the pre-event meeting spot made for a really memorable start to a great day. Thanks for making CTTS the great tradition it has become for us!

The caches that Stellarscapes mentioned are awesome cache experiences! We just went on our own excursion that we dubbed, the NJ Tunnel Tour, starting with Darkness at Van Nest Gap, hitting several mag-man caches, and then finishing off with Manunka Chunk (this was my second trip to Manunka Chunk and I don't think this place would ever get boring). These caches are all in close enough proximity that it's very easy to get them in a short while. At Van Nest Gap, we walked all the way through the 0.62-mile long tunnel and had a blast with the darkness, mud, and water. I've also visited the PA Turnpike cache, biking through the 1.32-mile long tunnel... very cool! There are 3 or 4 other caches near the tunnel besides the one inside. Unfortunately, some of the other cool tunnel caches around PA and NY can't be bookmarked as such since part of the challenge of finding them is actually figuring out that you've got to go underground. There's one in the Harrisburg area, one in the Carlisle area and another in the Binghamton area that come to mind.

Looks like the event is going to need to take over all of Krogh's for the day! I expect to be bringing along a crew of about 10, including myself, for the pre-event hike and event. We might also be interested in that post-event hike too. I'll want to get a coin again this year, and I'll post again if anyone else in my group wants one.

One of my PQs ran, but three others (all brand new) are sitting there never having run. This is the first time I've had this trouble, and like a previous poster, it couldn't come at a worse time while I'm on the road at the geocoinfest. I hope it gets fixed quickly before it's too late.

Now THAT is the best news I've heard in a long time! If it eventually allows you to save and view caches from an entire PQ that would be even better. And if it does get to the point that Wherigo capability is added, I may finally upgrade from my Touch to the iPhone. All that aside, THANK YOU for this new development - I'll be dropping my $10 ASAP!

I guess I said it in person already, but let me add mine to the list... CONGRATS SHELLY! See you at 2K!

I don't know the degree to which the stretch of I-90 between Syracuse and Rochester is representative of the entire Thruway, but with a simple pocket query along the route you could pretty much get off at every rest area and expect some cache to be there. Wouldn't it be great if that worked along all the major highways?

Unfortunately it won't be easy to catch the I-90 Rest Area stops by searching a keyword. I just drove a shorter section of the Thruway (between Syracuse and Rochester) and grabbed a few rest area caches, but there's no common term in the names to get them. You could use the "find caches along a route" option with the distance set low; even though you'll get some caches that aren't actually at a rest stop, it wasn't hard for me to identify the real ones while on the Thruway. Here are some that I can give you that cover the 70-something-mile stretch from Syracuse to Rochester: GCF9DC, GCG14F, GCHCV3. There is a public bookmark list for I-90 Westbound, but some caches go both ways. HTH.

Hey Shimain! Way to go!!!

Congratulations to 89Ranger from Bangor, PA for getting his 100th find at ROCK - MOSS - FERNS. Keep on cachin!

Just about anybody who's a regular cacher in Eastern PA knows the energetic geocaching personality, Tyson Sprandel, who hit the big 3000 yesterday (years or finds, I'm not sure which) at TAKE THE FITNESS CHALLENGE aka MFO #5. Congrats Tyson!!

Hey PJ! Assuming you're only thinking within the city, here are my favorite three caches within the boundaries of Philadelphia: National Treasure 1. If you have time to do the puzzle before going down there, it's memorable to be sure. The final is not available 24/7 - in fact it's fairly limited, but it's really good. It's definitely not the hardest puzzle cache I've done, but it's my personal favorite, very well thought out with a cool ending. My opinion may be influenced by the fact that I'm a fan of the movie. This one is right in one of the areas that it sounds like you'll be visiting, and non-caching friends would appreciate the final location. L.U.R.E. Great to do in a group; you definitely won't forget it. The puzzle part is very easy; my son solved it quickly. But that's when the real adventure begins... This one would take more time, and if you've got non-caching friends with you they might doubt your sanity by the time you're done... but it's worth it. But seriously, I guess you ought to save it for when you're in caching-friendly company. Anne Rice's "The Mummy" I took a previously non-caching friend with me to do this one and several others, and she still talks about this one. This one is also in an area that you'll very likely visit. I'm sure there are many other good ones - I've done a bunch of puzzles but when I'm down there I never seem to get anywhere near the final locations with time to get them. If you get a chance to do any of M&W's puzzles, they're pretty neat and different than any I've seen elsewhere (e.g., this one). Based on the traditionals I've done they are quicker and easier other than the traffic and muggle factors. (I trust you've already noticed there's one right outside the ballpark... a super-easy grab that will test your ability to cache around muggles.) I'll look forward to seeing what cool caches others identify.

Believe it or not, I left out a big milestone... KaylaBee, daughter of BrianB, and night-caching wunderkind, scored her big 100th find at Tri-State Treasures TWO! Way to go, Kayla - got to love it when the kids score big!!! Here's the updated list of milestones scored 6/29 at TST2... KaylaBee, find #100 JakeWilliams3, find #100 WaylessWood, find #300 LargeFryCT, find #400 Back2School, find #500 DominoCT, find #1000 MSTzilla, find #1000 WalnutTripper, find #1100 Treefrogz, find #2000 Unnamed, find #2500 The Caching Nuts, find #2500

And yet another Keystone cacher scores a big milestone at TST2... while it's not yet logged, congratulations to Unnamed for scoring find #2500 at Tri-State Treasures TWO! Way to go, Mike! I wonder if any but the mega-events get this many big milestones (multiples of 500) all at a single event!

Not done yet! Pennsylvania cachers, Back2School, registered find #500 yesterday at Tri-State Treasures TWO! Way to go, Kathy and family!

Not to be outdone, New York also had a cacher score a big milestone at the Tri-State Treasures TWO! event. Congratulations to MSTzilla on find #1000! Way to go, Rich!

Also at Tri-State Treasures TWO!, Pennsylvanians weren't the only ones to register big milestones. With attendees from seven different states, there are many congratulations to spread around! A big congratulations goes to DominoCT from Connecticut for scoring find #1000!

Yesterday was a big milestone day for several cachers at the Tri-State Treasures TWO! event. Among them were caching partners Treefrogz and the Caching Nuts, who registered #2000 and #2500, respectively. (To add to the fun, they also scored nicely at the event raffle too!) Congratulations!!

Congrats to Stellar Jr. Here's a picture of Stellar Jr after she made this milestone find. Way to go StellarJr! And congrats to both Mom & Daughter for scoring a "big" find on the APE cache!

I'm from the Northeastern tip of PA, Pike County, and I love to meet up with other cachers.

For the All Counties Challenge, if you're a premium member I'd recommend using the website, itsnotaboutthenumbers.com to track the counties you've finished. All you need to do is download your pocket query of finds and then upload that file to itsnotaboutthenumbers and it gives you some great stats breakdowns on your finds, including very good maps. You can view a color-coded map showing which counties you've already completed. It's much less work than doing bookmarks and the website takes care of classifying each find by county, and not just for you but also for the reviewer that has to review your finds before giving you the coords for the final - the reviewers accept your stats on itsnotaboutthenumbers as proof of the counties you've hit. And the website is just plain fun, especially the maps. And it doesn't cost you anything to use it once you've already paid geocaching.com for your premium membership. A word of note: itsnotaboutthenumbers.com has been having some technical difficulties lately that affect the way it classifies a very small portion of your caches (about 4 in 3000 in my case); there is currently a glitch that causes it to think some caches are far from where they actually are. But it's extremely unlikely to make a difference in the All Counties Challenge since an incorrectly identified cache is probably not going to show up in another PA county anyway. And I'm sure itsnotaboutthenumbers will have the issue solved soon. Good luck! The All Counties challenge was a lot of fun to complete, and I saw so many cool places around our state while getting a great lesson in PA geography. Here's an example of the counties mapping output you get from itsnotaboutthenumbers.

The second annual Tri-State Treasures picnic event is scheduled for Sunday, June 29 in Airport Park, Matamoras, PA. Besides the fun of an early-Summer picnic event, TST2 is also a great starting point for caching runs through the three different states, and at least nine new caches should be revealed for the day of the event. This year we have custom event geocoins and event t-shirts available, but we're suggesting that attendees pre-order to reserve their coins and shirts. Only 100 coins are being made available, and t-shirts must be pre-ordered by June 13 in order to guarantee that we'll have one in your size set aside. To pre-order coins or t-shirts, visit the event page. Hope to see an even bigger TST event this year!