niraD

There is was a bug reported a few weeks ago, saying that this feature no longer works.

Yep. I've seen cases like that too. In some cases, caches were archived because the COs didn't want seekers to be harrassed, even though the caches were on public land with a geocaching policy that allowed them to be there. I've seen the opposite situation, where private land was donated to a public open space district. The district removed all the "private property" and "no trespassing" signs they could, but knew they had probably missed some. They actually asked geocachers to report the GPS coordinates of any remaining signs they discovered. There's also a location where a county park and an open space (part of the same public open space district) are next to each other, and have the same name. It's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins without looking at a current map. Fortunately, both the county park system and the open space district have geocaching policies that permit geocaches, but the details of the policies vary a bit. It's conceivable (albeit unlikely) that someone might comply with the guidelines for the wrong part of the park/open space, and not comply with the part where the geocache is actually located.

For what it's worth, you seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding about how geocaching works. (It's a common misunderstanding.) The geocache found (and removed) by the property owner was not placed by the geocaching.com site. It is not "their crap" to remove. The geocaching.com site is just a listing service. The geocache found (and removed) by the property owner was placed more than 20 years ago by jmariner, who confirmed "adequate permission" at that time. It is therefore jmariner's "crap" to remove. We now return to the regularly scheduled programming, already in progress...

Before we moved in 2020, I had been working on a USGS quadrangle challenge and a "bingo" challenge. The USGS quadrangle challenge is grandfathered; new location-based challenges using USGS quadrangles or other GPS coordinates are no longer allowed. And the "bingo" challenge had 24 different challenges; you have to complete 5 challenges that form a line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally (or only 4 challenges if you use the "free" middle square). Alas, I didn't complete either one before we moved. I haven't started working on any other challenges since then.

Few of those around! It wouldn't have to be a big numbers trail like the one on the ET Highway (which could be used to keep a supposed streak going for YEARS). A hiking trail in a big park could easily have a couple dozen caches, enough for the 20 days needed for the recent hard challenge when the actual Find logs are spread out over time this way.

Just a note to add to Keystone's advice: I would argue that you probably found the camouflage rather than the container. For a cache like this: the container is the Bison tube that holds the log. The fake rock is just the camouflage. In such situations, I would post a Needs Owner Attention log (formerly a Needs Maintenance log). I wouldn't leave an extra log sheet.

It isn't really a geocaching-specific acronym...

Took nothing. Left nothing. Signed log. Also note that there are more terms and abbreviations listed on the geocaching.com glossary page.

Even then, you only restrict who can view the cache page, not who can find (or log) the cache.

Not that I see:

If the geocaching policy says that virtual caches, including EarthCaches, don't require explicit permission via the application form, then that should be good enough. My EarthCache was placed in an open space with a geocaching policy that gave permission for caches that complied with its requirements. There were additional requirements (beyond Groundspeak's guidelines) for physical caches, but not for virtual caches, including EarthCaches.

I do wish it was possible to put a personal trackable in my collection, so that others can only discover (not grab) it, but that I would still be able to use it to visit events (or in some cases, actual caches). As it is, these personal trackables are either grabbable by others, or protected so even I can't visit them to events/caches.

At the bottom of every page is a "Contact Us" link. On the form to contact the staff of Groundspeak, there is no option for "Report spam", but you can use the "Geocacher disagreement" option instead.

When I offer hints on site, they're generally when most of the people in the group have found it, and the last couple people are still searching. Then those of us who have found it start giving "warmer" and "colder" hints. When I offer hints via email, I start by asking what the person has tried, and then figure out how to give a small nudge in the right direction (or a small nudge away from the wrong direction, depending on the situation). I'm careful to avoid spoilers, largely because I've received unsolicited spoilers from COs before.

I haven't used my Magellan device in a few years either, but the Garmin software isn't going to work with it. For my Magellan device, I always ran a PQ, downloaded the ZIP file, unzipped it to get a pair of GPX files, connected the Magellan with the USB cable, and copied the GPX files to the device. I haven't done it in a while, but I looked it up and the main GPX file goes in the Geocaches directory/folder, and "wpt" in its filename goes into the Waypoints subdirectory/subfolder.

We used it all after finding the previous science experiment cache...

So... was the log under a hidden panel or something? How would you find the "first stage" and not realize that it is also the final? I've found offset multis with very short offsets ("where I could touch the first stage with one hand while touching the final stage with the other"). And I've found mystery/puzzle caches hidden at the posted coordinates, where the challenge was to figure out how to access the log. And I've found containers hidden directly under decoys. But I'm having difficulty figuring out how a single-container multi-cache could even work.

I can't say how "likely" it is, but I don't delete my notes of tracking codes after I drop the trackables in a cache. And if I had the trackable visit a goal-related cache before dropping it in another cache, you can be sure that I'll grab it back if someone prematurely grabs it from me.

Until they grab it back and drop it in the cache where they left it.

I find your emphasis on parking interesting, mainly because I've seen complaints about the lack of parking for caches along a roadside multi-use trail. Those complaining were upset that there was no safe parking at the cache site, that they weren't P&G caches. Which was true, because there was no stopping or parking allowed on the 2-lane road. But the multi-use trail next to the road provided a nice walk (or jog, or bike ride, or whatever) from multiple safe parking locations.

Immediately? Not everyone logs everything in the field with a smartphone. Give the person who dropped it in the cache where you found it time to log it. But with that said, a week and a half is enough time.

The guidelines state, "The cache owner must visit the geocache location to get accurate coordinates with a GPS-enabled device." So as, RuideAlmeida wrote, use the coordinates you collected yourself with a GPS-enabled device at the actual location. I used to live in an area where Google's satellite imagery was spot on, or at least calibrated as accurately as any consumer GPS device. But I always confirmed my coordinates with a GPS-enabled device at the actual location. And I've seen areas where it was off by significant distances, and I've seen the calibration error change when the satellite imagery is updated. Anyway, if you don't trust your coordinates, then test them. Enter your coordinates into your device, and then approach the cache location from at least 100ft/30m away. The arrow should point right at the cache location as you approach. Repeat the process, approaching the cache location from various directions, from at least 100ft/30m away each time. No matter which direction you approach from, the arrow should point right at the cache location. If it doesn't, then adjust your coordinates until it does. Bonus points for repeating the test on another day when the GPS satellites are in a different configuration. Also, the Help Center article How to Get Accurate Coordinates should prove useful.

A week should be plenty of time for the other geocacher to at least get back to you. At this point, I'd grab the trackable, drop it into the cache where I found it, and then retrieve it. (I'd also send the other geocacher email explaining what I did and why.) If there's no rush, then you could wait a little longer, but definitely get it done before your trip abroad.

Note that COs and watchers will see only your original log in the email notices sent by the geocaching.com site. Editing the log does not send a new email with the new (real) log content.