norsehawk

Brighthouse networks Bay News 9 has done a report on geocaching and its available on their on demand network (channel 340) 4 minute long video, it focuses on the Brooker Creek Reserve (where I have a cache hidden) where a ranger(I'm guessing here) introduces people to the game, and then guides them thru their first hunt. They work their way through a multi cache, and find a travel bug at the end as well. The final cache looks to have been placed by the park itself as it was full of park swag. I have no way to grab the video from the tv, otherwise I would put it up on youtube or something similar.

I have never been confronted yet, but I was searching for a now archived cache, was a stand of trees behind a baseball field, trashcan, and a bush in the middle of the trees. I'm drinking the mountain dew I got from the nearby convienence store, starting to do some searching, and a police car pulls up, parks right next to the tree, about 5 feet from where I am searching, and proceeds to start eating lunch. I finish my drink, drop the bottle in the trash can, and decide not to wait him out otherwise he might start getting suspicious. Cache was called "Frank Tack's Oasis" I didn't notice if he was Officer Tack or not.

I have had some pretty funny logs on caches, one hit me really recently that caused me to laugh quite a bit, here it is: [1,132] With sfwife for #4 of 15 finds on a fantastic day--sure makes a [bIG] difference when we used our bikes to get around the Park from one hide to another! Last time we were here in Flatwoods was in the summer; heck of alot cooler now!! Found with no problems; VERY NICE CACHE CONTAINER in a very nice location--[well done!!]; coords were spot on!! (GC War Story)..A jogger passed us as we were dismounting from our bikes to hunt this hide, turned his head and said "by the tree trunk"...and just kept on jogging until out of sight...I was so surprised I almost dropped the durn Garmin--LOL!! Sfwife and I nodded sagely--thanked the gentleman--and went to hunt. Hope all GC had a very Merry Christmas and all y'all have a Happy [safe] New Years 2007!!!

My caches get hit pretty often, my least popular one right now is Lakeview, its a cache on a TINY nature trail, with a great view of a lake, hasn't been found in 2 months. The cache that I love reading the logs best from is Over the Lion's Den, its an uncamoflaged nano hanging on a branch over (when I placed it) a bunch of antlions cache has 38 visits, lots of dnfs and I almost always get a good laugh from them.

When I go out for a day of hiking/geocaching, I carry my Garmin 60csx on my belt, my Magellan xplorist 210 in the backpack, a cheap hiking pole with compass in the handle, and a compass in the backpack (cheap 10 buck one from walmart but it works well enough) Heck, when I went on vacation to Japan for a month, the 60csx and the 10 buck compass were manditory equipment for leaving the apartment I was renting, for the first few weeks, I needed the gps to get to/from the apartment, then the 3rd week I could usually get pretty close to my desitination, and the last week I could walk it with no problems, but I still carried the gps and compass so I could find my way back to whatever station I got off at. I've also seen the electronic compass get confused too many times not to carry a normal compass with me.

Now thats a good one! Until your real cell phone rings while you are talking to the gps, that or another geocacher comes up and askes how good the cell phone reception is on that garmin you are holding

I like micros, lamp post hides are easy finds. The type I hate the most are caches in prickly bushes. (I better like micros, I only have about 250 containers in varying states of readiness (and about 10 larger ones)

I received The Melfi, Italy tb yesterday in the mail, there are 2 caches near it, one a virtual that was never found, the other a multi, last found in '04 I wish it luck in making it there!

I do, but I want to put out something a bit more unique.

I am currently in Japan right now, and one of the things I noticed at Osaka castle is a machine that will stamp a coin with whatever you want to put on the coin. What I am wondering is, would it be cool/acceptable to have the tracking number of the missing bug onto the coin, then release it into the wild that way?

Palmetto is seconded here by this lil Norsehawk

Welcome to the game, Ammo cans are definately the best large container out there, in smaller containers, military decon containers are also excellent, The military is definately good at making containers that are tough, water proof, and stand up well to the test of time. Other containers usually pale in comparison in usually many ways. a good easily obtainable second best would probably be a lock and lock, but they are nowhere near as rugged as an ammocan. I've seen many containers that you would think are perfect for geocaches, but when rain hits them, they leak like a sieve.

I got the exact same clip with an ipod case that I bought at best buy, you have best buys and future shops up there that should have the same.

So there is a big difference if the cache in the boulder field is a micro or ammocan? I dislike bush hides, I dislike boulder field hides, sadly there is no attribute that lets me filter out that time of cache before I go hunting for them. Micros however are easily filtered out, I've never gone after a normal cache container and found a micro. Hunt what you want, Hide what you want. If you don't like the micro in the woods, Don't look for it.

Summer is super hot down here, so Fall thru spring are my favorite times.

I've usually had a bit of luck with that, the most i've ever had a cache be off from where my gps took me was about 20 feet, and that was one where the coords were known to be off a bit. the other time that comes to mind was about 15 feet off, but it was such a likely hiding spot I checked there on the way to ground zero, and the clink was unmistakable when my hiking pole connected with the jar.

As long as the rubber seal along the lid is in good shape, they are good sealed containers, once that rubber seal lets go, they are just another box in the woods. Overall tho, Ammo Cans are the best, lock & locks seem to be a good 2nd choice. Film Canisters, while popular, have almost no protection from water so using those isn't good. Decon containers, while I have found a few are good, but if you lose the top aren't very good . Bison tubes are great for micros, small enough to be hard to spot, big enough inside to hold a small logsheet where you can still sign your name, have a rubber ring to keep the water out, and have a ring at top for easy hanging.

paint it to look like a leaf, and then hang it in a tree. definately would get points for originality

how about 'really evily hidden micro hidden a half mile away' vs 'ammo can hidden 3 miles away' for the challenge instead? and my evil, I mean along the lines of a mr magneto on a very intricate steel statue, with coords off by a small bit as well

I am not a major FTF hound, but I have gotten a good percentage of my finds as FTF's I think my total is about 7 out of 109 caches that I've found. In my area, we have a few good FTF hounds, If a new cache pops up, and I think I can get to it quickly, I get out and go. I have gotten a few of my FTF's that way. I log my finds very quickly after finding the cache, since I might go out for 1-3 caches on a trip, unless I am going to a specific location to go caching, then I go for up to 8 or so. If I do this, the FTF hounds don't head for the cache since I already logged it as found. what my question is. Would it be wrong of me not to log my find online until the next day, or even later in the day when I already found the cache and have gotten the FTF?

Hiking poles/walking staff are invaluable. it lets you poke and prod around the cache before you stick your hand in there. Necessary in any state/area that has dangerous snakes or other assorted nasties. Always carry a good amount of water. Batteries as people said, I'm lucky, both my gps's take double a's and I get 48 for 6 bucks at work, they may not last quite as long, but 48 goes a long way. I don't have the maps on my gps, I don't really cache too far from my known area, and still have found many really cool places. Having the major highways only makes for a nice clean screen when you are approaching the cache site. I would buy the maps when I move to a new area, but as of yet, there are no buyable maps for the area I plan to go. (tokyo, definately gonna be using my gps there a lot, easy to get lost) I find the premium membership to be very worth it as well, pq's, notifications, member only caches, all are great. Good hiking shoes, a must if you are going for more than urban caches. comfort is the key. /rambling, I really should go to bed.

My notification sends it when the reviewer hits the 'publish' button so using an old number wouldn't make a difference, only when it was published. I'm not a ftf hound per say, but I have gotten a few, mabye 5 or so.

I have 2 travelbugs that I have released into the wild. the first got grabbed from a cache by a new geocacher, who then prompty quit the game, emails have gone unanswered, so that travelbug is 'dead' now apparently. I have another travelbug that has been moving a bit, and just hit up in Alabama (if memory serves me) I have read too many cache logs stating 'saw geocoin listed, but it was not in the cache' and have come across the same thing many times as well. to the point that I don't see any benefit for me to waste money on buying coins to release them just for someone to steal them. Travelbugs are still ok in my mind because they are cheaper, as well as they aren't limited edition so much less likely to be stolen. It sucks that thieves ruin this part of the game.

I'm not the tallest person out there, I am about 6'3" I definately don't like people I need to look up to. just seems freaky. On the shoe front, I've never had a problem going after shoes very much, they stopped growing at a size 13. The stores I go to for shoes always have a decent selection in my size. I do have a lot of my height in my torso, and I have decently long arms so if I were truly evil, I would hide my caches up high, but I behave and place them at my eye level or slightly above maximum, however, I do need to put one somewhere high just to be 'difficult' If it requires a ladder, would that be a difficulty 5?

45 minutes is my longest time searching at ground zero for a cache. I usually look for 10-15 minutes, walk off, sit down just studying the area trying to spot any hiding spots I didn't notice up close, then go back and do more searching. One time I seached off and on for about 45 minutes, didn't find it, came back after thinking about the problem and having someone tell me that it might be a magnetic cache, and found it within 1 minute on the 2nd try