Ghengis Jon

My wife encourages geo-caching, so long as I take the kids with me. Her one complaint is that I don't find caches big enough to put the offspring into....and that GPS doesn't allow me to get hopelessly lost....

Polished rocks are an interesting idea. Other than cachers from Michigan, how many people know about Petosky stones? Found in MI, they're a fossilized type of coral that looks really cool when wet or polished. That might be a neat swag item when caching out-of-state.

I always give and rarely take unless of the kids are with me. What annoys me is that I'll leave a signature coin(s) and it'll never be reported as taken. I've put 3 dozen sig coins in my cache over the months, only to have a handful of cachers report they've taken one. Yet when I visit my cache, none will be left. Kind of disappointing. Same holds true for coins I've left in other caches. Are people embarrassed to admit they swap swag?

Reviewing my logs, it is much to my chagrin that I'm only finding 4 out of every 5 caches I attempt. So I looked for a pattern. Seems most of mine are when I search in the winter, especially for micros. Some of my DNFs are self inflicted, like when I went caching in Finland, during the winter, up in the Arctic Circle. Others, I can't explain. Today I DNF'd a cache that all previous cachers found, described as 'you don't need to even get out of the car!', but the coords led me to the middle of a desolate field.

Es tut mir leid aber kein frei Premium Memberships. Deine Auskunft ist nicht so gut.

I used to leave a camera in my cache, but stopped last summer when the local WallyWorld would not develop them or return the negatives. Seems the 'racy' pix on the film offended some anal retentive film jockey's puritan values and I was informed that 'those type of photos' would not be developed there and oh by the way your film was damaged beyond recovery.

I use the name I use on other forums. Makes it easy to remember logins and passwords.

I rarely take anything, but thats a big thrill for my kids. So I always (kids in tow or naught) leave something cool for kids. In the last year its been a signature coin - an ID'ed and 'flipped' coin (with my handle) that is somewhere between 1500 and 2000 years old. Now I've taken the occasional fishing lure or an item that I can use in other hobbies, but otherwise the joy is in the giving, not the receiving.

I always leave a prestigious, highly coveted Ghengis Jon signature coin but I rarely take anything, other than removing broken McCrap. My kids, on the other hand, view caches as the depostitory of the Holy Grail, clutching to their breasts trinkets that they KNOW they will take to their graves.

People to actually log what they take and leave at a geo-cache.

Oops.

Geo-Maggie Faithful hound and one of the CacheBoyz

Gallant always leaves higher value swag than he takes. Goofus is a Yankees fan.

GPSr, pen, swag, and Crown Royal Special Reserve.

I leave good swag and am usually disappointed that future finders rarely log what they actually take. Of the last 30 items I've left, less than half a dozen have been reported as removed. This also goes for the cache I own. Only twice has the item been listed as taken, despite 10-15 being placed in there. I check the cache today, and sure enough, all are gone. I place a nice item for people to take. Since it is rather unusual swag, I would hope to get at least a comment. But for the most part no. I wonder why that is. Perhaps embarassment for trading it for a broken McToy?

I think I'll start a complaint thread about complaint thread complainers complaining about complainer's complaint threads. Clear?

So geocoins are treated like travel bugs? Log 'em and move 'em? Sorry about the noob-ish question, but I rarely even look at the swag much less take something (I always leave a signature item though).

I find that firing a few warning shots to be effective. Muggles will flee in terror. Geocachers dive to the ground, but hold up the hand clutching the GPSr so it won't be damaged by the impact. I then generally offer to help the 'cachers up.....

Col, I was more venting than anything else. The cache owner, a tad over sensitive imho, could have been a lot nastier. But her note was non-confrontational which is to be commended. But it was clear she had no clue as to what the expression meant. The cache finder changed his log, which was gracious on his part. I hope he sent an explanation of the phrase to the cache owner in the spirit of enlightenment. Geocaching is a FUN pasttime. There is no reason to get worked up about an innocent log.

People need to just lighten up. Over the last 10 years here in the States, our society has become rather polarized, giving anyone an excuse to whine (or be offended) by just about anything. Usually people with an IQ larger than their hat size can correctly interpert when something said innocently as an expression and when something is said hatefully. The thinskins have simply allowed a victim mentality to over-ride common sense. The explosion of the internet has further allowed a sense of anonymity that emboldens people to be not only more forward, but more coarse and over-sensitive. I tend to ignore such whiny-butts, denying them the attention they so desperately crave. Perhaps if they got dressed, got out of their mother's basement and experienced the world (beyond hunting micros in Wal-Mart parking lots), they'd realize how much time and effort they're wasting trying to be offended. Look at the spirit of the statement, not the letter - and realize that you too can occassionally misunderstand. <Steps off soapbox> And if you don't agree with me, you must be an [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted], and can [activity deleted] your sorry [expletive deleted] for the rest of your [expletive deleted] miserable [expletive deleted] life, you [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted]. [impossible contortionist activity deleted] !

I always leave a sig item and only take swag when forced to by accompanying children. I usually don't bother with micros/nanos because there's no room for a parting gift.

My signature item is a fully attributed, cleaned, and flipped 2000 year old coin with my geo-handle on the label. I have yet to see them rest in a cache for long or be referred to/thrown out as 'litter'. I rarely remove anything from a cache but leave my sig item for others to take/swap. Finding one seems to provide a thrill for kids between 8 and 88, which is my intent all along.

A drunken naked Jennifer Alba would be good swag......

A proctologist's bio-hazard disposal container.

I don't think that a DNF is a that big a deal. I look at my log as a geo-diary. It records my follies, for good and for bad. If I put a legitimate effort into the search and don't find it, I record a DNF. I'm not ashamed of it nor should the cacher owner be proud. It is what it is. I just back from a biz trip to TN. There were 5 caches that were close enough to the highway I was travelling to stop for. Embarrassingly, I could find only 3 and my log reflects that. If and when I return, I can use the DNFs in my log to flag the cache sites I want to return to.