3doxies

Sad to hear this. First met Joe on the infamous "Pirates of the Cherokee" cruise - wonderful guy. Learned a lot from him, including some things I did not wish to know, but am thankful for now. Truly of the few good guys. His passing leaves a vacuum in the game.

Did it have "In God we trust" written on it? Puritan literature...

There now. Reason has nothing to do with caches...everything to do with cachers.

Had some good friends from the Newport TN area back in my racing days...purportedly the 'shine capital of Tennessee even in those relatively recent days. Between them and the good folks of Hickory Tree, a little white lightnin' was never hard to find. Haven't run upon any overt meth operations or their remnants while caching, nor an active still...but I've driven past a house or two out on the mountain that had plastic milk jugs hanging upside down from the trees in the back yard.

Back before geocaching was a twinkle in the Frog's eye, a friend and I had occasion to stumble upon a (thankfully) inactive still while hunting out on the mountain. We knew what it was, and what could happen to "intruders", so we skedaddled outta that holler and headed back to my grandaddy's house, where I eagerly babbled on about the adventure while my grandparents just sat and smiled. My uncle, overhearing the conversation, asked again about the location. When we confirmed what he thought he heard, he grinned, pointed out the window at his relatively new Peterbuilt bobcat, and explained how our discovery had paid for his new job as an OTR driver. A few years later, my Dad was talking about a souped-up '40 Ford he had...when he got around to disclosing that he'd leaded the frame rails and made a few alterations the rear suspension, a little light bulb went off in my head. When I asked him if he ever "worked" for Uncle ____, he got this sheepish look, and just mumbled something to the effect of "Times were hard."...

Ahhhh, the inner workings of the amphibian brain...who knows what goes on in there? Good luck in your quest, Toz... IIRC, we've found and signed logs (oak, pine, maybe a locust or two), zip-ties, a dog bowl, too many magnetic sheets to count, a strip of waterproof paper stuck to the inside of an outlet cover plate, and the fender of an abandoned car out in the woods. Most of these gave far more entertainment value than the myriads of paper strips housed within plastic bags and then housed within another container. Guess that's where we got it wrong...thought this was a game, thus implying some inherent entertainment component instead of an exercise in rule-book reading and interpretaton. Some of y'all need to return to the courtroom...your fee meter is running.

Several in this area got caught up in some controlled burns in local forests a couple of years ago.

Can some enterprising website designer-type person come up with an emoticon for GeoProzac? I'm guessing it might become the most widely used icon on this board... And +1 to GrateBear - that's a highly valuable lesson, and one waaaaayyyyyyyy too many folks never learned.

<<Whats the point of just a bunch of easy to find 1/1 park n grabs?>> What's the point of the whole game/hobby/sport/whateveryamaycallit? Nada.

Never had any problem with ammo cans doing what they were designed to do...all the ammo I've ever stored in one did just fine. Have hidden several as cache containers, too...while I dont hide caches within 300 miles of salt water, dont hide caches under water, and havent had one caught up in a fire yet, I have to say that they have performed this secondary task just fine, too. But they do apparently make fun toys for black bears...and opening/closing them properly seems to be beyond the abilities of some cachers.

Sure. For a LOT less, in fact...pretty much for free. Many, many other entertainment options out there, some of which are already seriously eroding interest and time in this one.

I've often thought that the Frog should preface the "Guidelines" with a statement such as this: "This guidance represents the XXXXXXXXXXXXXs (XXXXX) current thinking on this topic. It does not create or confer any rights for or on any person and does not operate to bind XXXXXX or the public. You can use an alternative approach if the approach satisfies the requirements of the applicable statutes and regulations. If you want to discuss an alternative approach, contact the XXXXX staff responsible for implementing this guidance. If you cannot identify the appropriate XXXXX staff, call the appropriate number listed on the title page of this guidance." Kinda sums up the way the swamp works.

Eh...what is quality TV to one is just gawd-awful banter to another. Sport (or in this case, entertainment) mirrors life. Not a PT fan, myself...never done one, no intention to. But the Frog has seen fit to allow them into the pond. Same deal with ECs, Waymarks, Challenges, and lots more detritus. Just gotta choose the parts of the pond you play in, and hold your nose while navigating the slime. The postiive side is that it provides plenty of impetus to broaden your entertainment horizons beyond the swamp. Lotsa good options out there.

This is simply another form of entertainment...nothing more, nothing less. It seems many folks intertwine their lives and existence around this entertainment to the point that they begin to live and breathe it. It becomes the thing by which they define themselves. And so, when a corner of their world turns on them (OMG, another evil power trail! OMG, someone criticized MY chosen entertainemnt (ergo, MY life), etc), they react viscerally. Its not even a true game, folks - its entertainment...pure and simple. Find the movie/channel/station you like, and don't turn the dial to those you don't. Interstig, though, is the concern about the negative impact of PTs: "They take a low impact, low visibility activity and turn it into a high impact, high visibility activity. Bad, bad for geoaching." Why so? Is there an aspect(s) of geocaching that needs to stay low visibility? Surely not. That would almost seem to suggest that there's a less desirable aspect/effect that somehow should be minimized, or fly under the radar? Interesting to see that thought...

+1. When we were hidig caches, we hid caches of a type and in the manner that we would like to hunt. Those that enjoyed hunting for them - good. Those that didn't - well, the sun came up the next day anyway. As tastes changed, hides changed to reflect that...and when the day came that hiding was no longer attractive, they were all either farmed out or archived. You-the-hider are the driver in this entertainment. At least make it entertaining to you.

Good idea. Do this quite a lot just to jerk some chains. Have a few that I use solely as a starting place to fire up the map. But then, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't REALLY after ya, does it??

Been caught once or twice sans writing utensil, and used instead the blade of my pocketknife to make a distinct pattern of cuts/punctures on the log. Can do so in the same (or even less) space than a pen sig, and (before anyone blows a gasket) they are done in a pattern and manner so as to not compromise the structural integrity of the logsheet. Then describe the mark in the log (or in an email to the CO), and all is well. YMMV, and YOMD.

Another approach is to buy bulk ammo that comes in a can and shoot till its empty. My preferred way of acquiring cans, at least...

A close friend was caching alone in our area early on a Saturday morning. Exited the interstate on the way to a cache. Near the bottom of the ramp, encountered a scraggly dude holding a "Work for food" sign...payed him no mind and rolled to a stop at the bottom of the ramp. While friend was waiting on a series of oncoming cars in order to turn left, 'sign dude' walks backin front of the car, wigglin and wavin the sign as if to garner attention. Ignoring him still, friend looks back at upstream traffic. A movement catches my friends eye, and he turns and looks back further over his R shoulder to see another previously unseen scraggly fellar only a few feet from his car, walking toward it with his hand extended reaching for the door handle to the passenger side rear door. Friend instinctively reaches for his .45 Springer and lets scraggly fellar stare down the business end, at which point scraggly fellar hastily beats a path back into the bushes from whence he came. Friend glanced back to the front where sign dude had been: he too had mysteriously disappeared, perhaps to meet up with scraggly fellar at the nearest dry cleaners.

Gonna run just a bit countercurrent here: caching partners and I got out of our car in the nearby hometown of Andy Griffith, and less than 5 feet away found a wallet and cell phone. A quick glance at the wallet contents suggested it belonged to a non-local, and we called the local police. An officer arrived on the scene in maybe 10 minutes or so, we showed him the find, answered a few questions, and moved onto the rest of our day with his thanks. On another occasion, we too found a busted-open safe in the woods...turns out, its WAS the cache...

Wow! I am now the proud owner of a warrior coin - thanks mystery person!

Much appreciated. Noticed that caches that are placed on an ignore list contnue to be visible on the "Recently Viewed" list...which seems kinda counterintuitive, since if I placed them on an ignore list I likely really won't have any reason to either go back to them or be reminded that I placed them on that list. Would it be perhaps possible to integrate their (ignored caches) disappearance from this list in the subsequent update referenced above?

Oh boy! It's been a while since I received a new coin but lo and behold, one of these was waiting for me today. Many thanks, whoever you are!

If you are hiding caches just for your enjoyment of the logs it receives, perhaps you are hiding caches for the wrong reason. Always approached it as "hide a cache that I'd like to hunt", and gave no real thought to the perceived quality of the log.

To further back up the point Ecylram made: when I was taking my handgun carry permit (HCP) class in TN, the latest available data for HCP holders involvement in reported shootings was available through 2007. At that time, over 200,000 people in TN had obtained HCPs: only 6 had been involved in a reported shooting, and all 6 had been adjudicated as justified. The percentage of people with revoked permits was on the order of 0.01%, with only a miniscule number of those revocations attributable to "brandishing" or other actions indicative of careless or reckless behavior. My own experience with contacts with other HCP holders who are carrying is that they are indeed quite cautious, and extraordinarily aware of safety and proper handling of their firearm. But, just as with practitioners of this game, your mileage may certainly vary...