OuttaHand

Ditto this for me. I like to trade and have something (even if it's worthless junk) to show for my search. Looking thru the box of 'stuff' to choose something is great. Looking back at the cache to see who may have taken the item I dropped into it is also fun! Gotta have something to put in my display shelves.

From Milwaukee, WI main zip code of 53201, there are 3563 caches in 100 mi. radius But bear in mind -- HALF of the 100 mile radius is Lake Michigan. Imagine what it might be if there was land out there!

if you look to the left (at my avatar) you'll see my "Big Hill" I figure geocaching has, at the very least, kept me from getting a lot heavier. But I know my feet would be a lot happier if I cached more and lost a little more of that "Big Hill"

nevermind

This is related to you folks who use it as a speedo. I used to work in an auto shop as the shop manager. Had a customer come in who had gotten a speeding ticket. He honestly believed his speedo was off and was trying to get the ticket reduced from speeding to 'defective equipment' or some such. He wanted us to test his speede. So I ran home, got my GPS, and took the car for a leisurely ride. I found his speed to be about 3mph off and noted it on the work card for him. Weather or not he actually got the ticket reduced, I don't know.

Just found a great item that I think will be very popular. I just got my order of 50 of them and they seem to be very high quality. At a touch under $2 each including shipping, I think they make an excellent trade item. They are Laser Engraved Keychain Flashlights

you wrote: "That is not what the game is about." ??? That is EXACTLY what the game is about. You HIDE the cache. You don't lay it out in the middle of an open area. Now -- whether it is hidden TOO WELL is strictly a matter of what difficulty rating it was given. If it is rated 1-star for difficulty, it ought to be laying out in the open with a sign pointing at it. If it's rated 5-stars for difficulty, you'd better figure on several hours searching, and perhaps two or more trips there to find it. So, realistically, the only time a cache is hidden "too well" is when the difficulty rating is too low for the actual hide job. If it's rated a 2-star for difficulty, I expect to be able to find it in about 20 minutes max. If I've been searching on-site for an hour and still haven't found it, then I'm gonna get a little frustrated. But that's simply because I have to believe it was mis-rated. You may also want to check this earlier thread on this subject.

I have 4 current caches. Their difficulty ratings are: 1 1 1.5 1.5 I used to have another cache that had a 4-star difficulty. It was a multi-cache, in the woods, in which two stages were micro size. And one of those was really micro. I got real sick of having to go out to that woods every other weekend to check on things because someone posted a no-find. I mean, it's a 4 star difficulty. According to the rating system, you are supposed to expect a half-day search for something like that. But it seemed some of these searchers were giving it a good solid 15 minutes or so. We would get a no-find notification, go out to the woods in the next day or two, and there it was! Right where I put it! After a summer of that nonsense, I disabled the cache. It wasn't worth it.

If it's mountain climbing, there are going to be an awful lot of disppointed climbers! If I'm not mistaken, the highest point in Florida is only a hundred or two feet high. That's a pretty miserable mountain! That does sound like a pretty interesting vacation. We did a cache in Florida that was right near the shoreline. A canoe or kayak would have been perfect to get it!

It wasn't MY cache, but I know of a virtual that disappeared. The cache was a virtual of an old blacksmith's shop. When we got to the location, there were a couple of old barns, but nothing that looked like a blacksmith shop. The people who owned the farm happened to be out in the yard so we asked them if they knew of an old blacksmith's shop that might be nearby. They chuckled. "Yup -- there was an old blacksmith's shop right there (pointing) up til last weekend. We donated it to the local historical society. They loaded it onto a flatbed truck and hauled it away, contents and all, last weekend." So in this case the cache, an entire building, was hauled away and moved to a park.

I've been using the Rino 120 since it came out. I've been VERY happy with it overall. It receives very well under trees, the mapping is wonderful, etc. etc. Yes -- the microphone is covered with a membrane to make the unit waterproof. That means people hearing you are going to have a little trouble unless you try to be very clear and loud. And yes --- the needle has 'stuck' on me a couple times. I'm hoping a firmware update will solve this (are you reading this, Garmin???) But it's been an excellent, sturdy unit that I've found MANY caches with.

This sounds WAY cool !!!! As a person who already has limited vision, and the prospect of losing what I have, this is very good news! Right now, I have one eye that is completely blind and the other can only see straight ahead. The docs "hope" that I will keep what I have. If it goes, it's great to know there's something like this that would still allow me to be a bit independent. (not to mention I could still geocache!!!)

There are a few I can think of here in Wisconsin: * Wonderful Wisconsin Waterfalls (MANY nice waterfalls in Northeast WI) * Monopolize Your Time (each cache has name of property in game Monopoly) * [insert forgotten name here] Series of caches with different army ranks (Lieutenant, General, etc. etc.) * State of Mind (each cache with a different state name) * US Submarines (each has a name of a submarine built in a Wisconsin shipyard) * Leopold Legacy (based on the teachings of naturalist, Aldo Leopold) * Mother Goose (was a mother cache with other micro-caches in it. You were to take a micro, place it, and name it as a child of Mother Goose's. Ended up with several in the area) And there are probably many others I've either forgotten, or don't know about yet.

Best: have a couple in mind. First is a hand-made pottery mug. Very nice. Second is a marble egg. Worst: too numerous to mention. Have seen many of the things mentioned by others including soggy religious tracts, soggy business cards, wet, smeared kids tatoo sheets, etc. etc.

I have three main goals in geocaching: 1) Have fun enjoying time with my wife and family 2) Get exercise and learn about new places 3) Do at least one cache per calendar month There were other numerical goals at times. In 2003 I wanted to get at least 75 finds by year's end. (I did). Then I wanted at least 100 finds by my 2nd anniversary of caching. (I did). Currently, I don't really have a numerical goal running. In the back of my mind I would like to hit 200 finds by my 3rd anniversary of caching. I'm at about 170 right now and the anniversary is in June. So it should be do-able. But if I don't, oh well. Life goes on.

Don't they just burn up? I think so, but wouldn't it be great! edit: The space shuttle is capable of bringing staelites back to earth in the cargo bay. Naturally that will cost around 5 bazzilion dollars, so I think they just leave them up there. That's why I wrote "acquire" one of them -- not pick it up from where it falls. Because yes, they would normally burn up on re-entry to the atmosphere. But, being the Smithsonian, I would say they'd have enough pull to have NASA bring one back using the shuttle.

how have we gotten this far in the discussion and nobody has mentioned... ** an ammo can ** tupperware ** a film cannister ** a hide-a-key and -- being the Smithsonian, maybe the could arrange to acqure a decommisioned GPS satellite!!

I bought my Garmin 45 in about '95, '96 or so. I know others were out there prior to that.

It's happened to us just twice: First time we were doing a maintenance check on one of our own caches. We pulled in to park and there was a car there. That's VERY unusual for this particular place so we wondered if it might be someone finding our cache. Sure enough -- we walked in (about 100yds) and he was just walking away from the cache. Introduced ourselves as the cache owners, chatted, etc. Other time was at a cache we had just found. I was sitting on a log signing the log book and Mrs.OuttaHand says 'there's some people coming". This cache was only about 5' off the trail so what was I to do? A few seconds later she says, "I think they're geocachers too. They're standing there with something in their hand and talking. Looks like they want to come this way but aren't sure." A minute later they walked up and, sure enough, they were from out-of-state visiting family and decided to do a local cache. This one ended up being a free find since I already had it out. But we chatted for a bit.

oops (says to self: you really only need to click that once, dopey)

I almost always use Lost Outdoors to get satellite views. I like to see how far from parking, if there is water to consider, etc. etc. I've always liked to do a lot of planning for my caches. So this might not be considered "necessary" for many cachers. But I enjoy using it to add to it.

Crazy? Let's see: Present hobby---geocaching. costs so far (after 2 and 1/2 years)... 2 different GPSr's = approx $500 various trade items = $50 hiking boots = $20 fanny pack w/water bottles = $20 Gatorade & snacks = $30 Total = (around) $620 Past hobby --- cars & trucks. Cost PER VEHICLE (several vehicles over past 15 yrs)... new wheels & tires = $1000 (on at least 3 of those vehicles) engine modifications = $3000 (on 2 of the vehicles) body work = $1000 (on several of the vehicles) new stereo = $500 (in a few of the vehicles) tools to do the work = $1000 misc that I didn't tell my wife = $1000 (or more) Total = (more than) $12,500.00 Suddenly I don't see geocaching as QUITE so insane!!!

ahhh -- you may be right about it being Georgia. I wasn't real sure.

No restrictions? OK How about ...... Top of the antenna at top of the Empire State Building. (where King Kong hung on) (called "King Kong Kache") At the very tip-top of the Washington Monument (called "Monumental Mistake") Inside Mammoth Cave in KY (GPS reception a tad iffy) (called "Mammoth Adventure") At the base of Hoover Dam (rappeling equipment required) (called "Aww -- Dam It") Within the wreck of the Titanic (called Where's Leonardo?") Attached to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (also called "Where's Leonardo?") In a flooded canyon in Tennessee which did not used to be flooded (called "Squeal Like A Pig") -- how many of you will get this one?

Our dog sometimes "helps"...