blackhorse221

40mm ammo cans might work as well, if you can get them. http://www.armysurpluswarehouse.com/ammo-cans-storage-containers/40mm-ammo-box.html

This post isn't intended to become an argument about civil rights and police not understanding the law. I'm in full agreement that not every police officer is as versed in the law as they should be. The post is intended as a basic guide, especially for newer cachers, on how to make police contact go a little smoother.

Some do. The Sedona (Arizona) Police Department placed one in their lobby. (http://coord.info/GC45297) It's a great idea. But some agencies just won't play along with it. And that's fine. My post was directed towards Geocachers and what we can do to make those inevitable police contacts go a little bit smoother.

How to Deal with Police While Geocaching There have been several recent posts about dealing with police while Geocaching. As a police officer, I'm going to share a few pointers that may help make your interaction with law enforcement a little smoother, and help you educate police in your jurisdiction about Geocaching. There are two main points to keep in mind while dealing with law enforcement: 1. Geocaching is not illegal. 2. Not all police officers know point #1. Geocaching is not illegal. We know that. But the police officer who just saw you duck behind a guard rail, disappear behind a building or appear to grab and conceal something in your hand doesn't realize that. As police officers, we are trained to look for and investigate suspicious behavior. And someone poking around behind a utility box is inherently suspicious. Someone parking on the side of a highway and leaving his vehicle to go uphill is suspicious. And someone leaving a small bottle underneath a lamp skirt is obviously suspicious. Many of the above actions could also be utilized by people looking to conceal or pick up drugs or other contraband. This is the first thought in a police officer's mind. Not that someone is playing a hide-and-seek game. So please keep this in mind when a police officer contacts you and asks what you are doing. Tips to handle a police contact: 1. Be courteous. Remember that the police officer contacting you is DOING HIS JOB. It is our job to contact people that are being suspicious or look out of place. Remember that old "Golden Rule." It really applies here. Remember that police officers are also concerned about their safety. Keep your hands visible, don't dig into a bag until instructed to do so, and follow instructions. 2. Be mindful of the relevant laws. Although Geocaching is legal, you may be parked illegally, close to a trespassing sign, or violating a city ordinance. 2. Explain what you are doing. I realize the police officer is probably a "muggle." But at this point, being evasive and telling him you are conducting a barn owl census is probably not going to fly. (pun intended) 3. Carry a copy of the Geocaching brochure to give to the police officer. (http://www.geocaching.com/articles/Brochures/EN/EN_Geocaching_BROCHURE.pdf) Or, if you have the resources to print it, print the Guide for Parks and Law Enforcement, available here: http://www.geocaching.com/articles/parksandpolice/GuideForParksandLawEnforcement.pdf 4. Show him your GPS, the cache (if you found it), and other tools so he can see that it really is innocent. 5. And lastly, if the police officer tells you to leave, do it. You may not be doing anything wrong, but it's better to avoid more scrutiny than create an issue on the spot. You can always contact the law enforcement agency later and share the information above in order to better educate your police department. Protecting your cache from the bomb squad: 1. Think about where you are going to place the cache, and be aware of any obvious security concerns. Placing your cache just outside a government building, bank or large gathering place (ie. a stadium) is a sure fire way to get the bomb squad called out. 2. Be sure your cache is prominently labeled. The official Geocaching sticker, or just writing "Official Geocache, learn more at Geocaching.com" can mean the difference between a police officer looking closely and the death of your cache container by water cannon. 3. Have the permission of the land owner. Police should be contacting the land owner to determine if the object is known about. 4. If your cache is going to be electrical, battery powered, contain wires, etc., contact your local law enforcement agency and let them know about it. Provide photos and the exact location. Offer to show it to a representative of the agency. 5. Provide your contact information on or inside the cache. An email address should suffice. Hopefully these tips help avoid or minimize uncomfortable encounters with Police. Happy caching!

Greetings Tygerkat. I'm a "stupid police" detective(no offense taken, I actually found it funny.) I'm not in Ohio, but I tried to read through your state's laws to get some perspective. The law that I believe is being quoted by Detective Petrycki in your news article is http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2917.31 which states: (A) No person shall cause the evacuation of any public place, or otherwise cause serious public inconvenience or alarm, by doing any of the following: (3) Committing any offense, with reckless disregard of the likelihood that its commission will cause serious public inconvenience or alarm. The key part that the state would have to prove is "reckless disregard". I found this defined here: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2901.22 © A person acts recklessly when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that his conduct is likely to cause a certain result or is likely to be of a certain nature. A person is reckless with respect to circumstances when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that such circumstances are likely to exist. So the state (prosecutor) would have to prove that you had "heedless indifference to the consequences" and "disregarded a known risk that your conduct is likely to cause a certain result." If you in fact had permission of the park manager, and can prove that you did, you should be clear of any criminal culpability. Please do not take any of this as any binding legal advice. But I hope things work out for you.

I will second what Ahern Clan said about The Raven's caches in Prescott. They are some of the most amazing experiences in Geocaching that I've had in my short time. If you take a look at http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?u=The+Raven&submit4=Go you will see how many favorite points his caches have accumulated. The Raven's Labyrinth and Best Friends are two that absolutely can not be missed, and I still have the two Indiana Jones and the Flame of Chantico (GC2P5PD and GC2P5PR) and the Keyhole on my "must do" list. If your destination is Sedona, Prescott is about 90 minutes away and well worth the time. Safe travels!

I noticed you are not a premium member. Is there a possibility that this was a premium only cache? I searched that username (jennimags) and while it appears to be a created account, there are no caches placed or found to that name. Curious...

There is no cache theft. Just hungry cachers.

Most tablets do not use a similar operating system that will work with or recognize a GPS. I have a Google Nexus7 and I know there is no functionality for that. I haven't looked into the few GPSrs that are Wi-Fi enabled, however. If anyone has any other information, I'd be curious.

I recently did my first Chirp cache in the Tucson, AZ area http://coord.info/GC2HZYR It was fun and I saw a lot of potential for it. The biggest issue is that it excludes anyone who doesn't have a chirp-capable GPSr. Once my Garmin picked up the chirp signal, the chirp sent back updated coordinates for the next stage of the cache. It was basically a two-stage multi. As I understand it, the chirp is pretty limited in what you can program in it.

I'm getting icons, but I can not click on the icons to get the popup windows or details. Both Chrome and Firefox on Win7.

GLONASS is the Russian version of GPS. Some receivers can use both GPS and GLONASS, improving accuracy in urban areas and deep canyons. Basically working off almost 50 satellites, instead of the 24 currently in the GPS base. From Wikipedia: Some modern receivers are able to use both GLONASS and GPS satellites together, providing greatly improved coverage in urban canyons and giving a very fast time to fix due to over 50 satellites being available. In indoor, urban canyon or mountainous areas, accuracy can be greatly improved over using GPS alone. For using both navigation systems simultaneously, precisions of GLONASS/GPS navigation definitions were 2.37—4.65 m with mean number of NSV equals 14—19 (depends on station). In short, use GPS + GLONASS for better accuracy or when having a hard time getting a signal. But it drains the battery faster, as I recall.

Check here: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=304869&pid=5164579&st=0entry5164579

+1. Along with the ability to perhaps create a page of public lists that we want to keep. A list of lists, if you will.

I'd also suggest looking for a local Facebook group. I found the following which might help: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5407486306/?fref=ts Good luck, and welcome to a wonderful hobby!

I've even sought out a couple caches on my own beforehand and stocked it with some swag for my kids to find on a later trip. They stay much more interested if I can promise them they'll like "the next one." I get to log a couple numbers and then the kids get to treasure hunt.

I think that's an amazing idea. It makes your geocaching experience more significant. While obviously it wouldn't work for nanos/micros, it would be perfect for those larger caches. I agree it would be a fair amount of work, but how much more special it would be for a cache owner (or another cacher) to find your SWAG that had so much meaning and work put into it. I'd say go for it, and please post a photo if you move forward with this plan!

Absolutely amazing, Johnny. My compliments to you and your colleagues. This is definitely taking creative hides to a new level!

Thanks. I didn't know what the term was. I'll hunt around for more Geoart.

I recently saw the following area discussed on a local Facebook group and thought this was just the neatest thing. I'm not sure I could ever be so creative or have the time to put in the effort. at http://www.geocaching.com/map/default.aspx?lat=42.894167&lng=-116.099833 I thought this little sample of cache icon artwork was pretty cool. Has anyone seen any others like this?

Big plus to Legochugglers' answer. My kids are four and seven. The seven year old gets the hang of looking at a map and GPS. The four year old just wants to find the box full of toys. I've learned to save the micros and nanos for myself and try to find nice sized ammo cans and lock & locks for the kids. A quick visit beforehand to make sure it is well stocked has kept the kids happy. I've also found it helps to print out a map with satellite view of the area showing the cache so the kids can see where the cache is supposed to be located and they can relate it to the area. I take advantage of this chance to teach them about directions, etc.

Acacia #42 F. & A.M. in Avondale, Arizona. And a member of the Masonic Geocaching Society on FB.

One other issue when using Word is that it often formats certain characters into non-ASCII characters that the text box field for short description may not accept. For example, the " symbol gets converted in Word into a beginning quote or ending quote depending on where it is located. Neither of these characters are recognized as regular ASCII. It is possible that the "exceeded character limit" error message is a default error message that crops up when any error is found in the short description field. Just a thought. I try to limit use of Word if I know I'm going to copy something into another format.

When I click the attachment link I receive the following error message: ! [#10171] You do not have permission to view this attachment. Am I the only one getting this error?

That's not only pretty specialized software that someone would need (not IE or their browser) but also specific knowledge. Not everyone understands RGB values. It'd be similar to hiding clues in the metadata of a referenced website. Unless someone knows to view the HTML code of that page, they would have no idea how to solve it. In my opinion, "special tool required" speaks to equipment to actually retrieve the cache. Tweezers, tools, ladders, etc. For something like yours, I would either provide a pretty detailed hint or prepare for a lot of emails. I know a lot of people purposely skip over mysteries like this just because it's outside of their grasp. Good luck either way. For a tech geek like me it sounds intriguing.