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nekom

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Everything posted by nekom

  1. Who hasn't! Worst injury: Severely bruised hand when looking for a micro (in the wrong place anyway) and rocks fell on me. Worst `ugh': Bushwhacking (SERIOUS bushwhacking) almost a quarter mile only to find that there was another parking spot within 100 feet of the cache. Worst fail yet somehow win: Looking for a cache near the entrance to a tunnel, only to realize that the cache was actually INSIDE the tunnel, yet finding a DIFFERENT cache there. Worst getting lost: Confusing trails, forgot to waypoint the car. Walking around for almost 2 hours before finally finding my way back. Wife (at the car) kept yelling and yelling, I tried to follow her voice in a straight line, kept running into steep hills or quagmires, and I had my 4 year old daughter with me! Eventually we FINALLY found the right trail. Oh well, at least we saw a turtle along the way. Misadventure is the norm for me and my crew.
  2. For me, and this is just MY personal taste, my favorite caches have been in abandoned ruins of something that once stood. An abandoned tunnel, industrial ruins, old foundations, etc. ESPECIALLY when the CO takes the time to explain the history behind it. If I had to name my top 5 caches without the name, just saying what was there, I'd go with 1. An abandoned railroad tunnel (which is no longer there :/) 2. An abandoned world wars era gunpowder factory (still there, cache archived though) 3. Another abandoned railroad tunnel which is soon to be rails to trails. 4. A town with a coal mine fire (lots of caches there now, including an earthcache. Bet anyone who has been there can guess where I mean. 5. A cemetery cache (TASTEFULLY done) where a person of historic interest in interred (I've seen quite a few) My favorite of my own hides: Another abandoned railroad tunnel.
  3. Yeah the GPS and being in an area where no one really ought to be are dead giveaways. On my last trip to Florida (or back, I forget which), I was looking for a rest area hide in one of the Carolinas, not a micro this was off in the woods a ways, saw a guy walking around with a GPS. Now I'm not shy so I waved and said "I'd guess we're looking for the same thing". The 3 other times I can remember meeting cachers in the field (one time, met one cacher while on a hunt then later another), the tell tale signs were the same. We're not exactly inconspicuous.
  4. My old(ish) Garmin eTrex legend C routinely reports +/- 6-7 feet, and judging by how close it USUALLY gets me, it's not lying. That's on top of a hill, though. In a valley, not so much. It's all about line of sight. Clouds and sunspot activity matter as well.
  5. You can't cheat in a game that you can't win. You set your own rules. There's a fellow around here who doesn't even use a GPS, he uses topo maps, satellite maps, a compass and human tracking, and he gets quite a lot of finds that way, some of the tougher ones in the area are on his list of finds. Now I certainly prefer to use my GPS, though I've found a few caches without it using satellite views and landmarks. There are some caches that I wouldn't even think of setting out after without having a topo map of the area, and there are others I could grab after a cursory glance at google. How you play is up to you.
  6. I never really understood why. My sentiment when someone leaves a NM log on one of my caches is "Thank you for bringing this to my attention." It's kind of an important part of cache maintenance, you know, being made aware of when it is necessary.
  7. There are many cemetery caches in these parts, and for the most part, the hides in them have been done respectfully. As has been said, it's kind of subjective. These are my PERSONAL rules when caching in a cemetery: 1. I always remove my hat. No idea why, but I was raised to do this to show respect. 2. Don't be there after dark. It's prohibited in most cemeteries rules anyway, probably to curb vandalism and theft. 3. I will not look for a cache ON a gravestone. No, just... no. Reading numbers to get the coordinates for a multi is fine though, especially if the grave itself is of historic interest. 4. I will pass it on by and return another day if there are mourners or a service. The last thing I want to do is upset someone who is grieving. It can always wait for another day. 5. I keep to the beaten path or road until I get near the cache site. I avoid unnecessarily walking over the graves. That's just me, your opinion of what is and is not respectful may vary.
  8. If you have that attitude, you'll never be disappointed. I've had very mixed results. A couple of my geocoins still travel maybe once every couple of months. Most of my travel bugs have been stuck in a cash or lost for years. I more or less gave up on my own, though I do try to move the ones that I find, especially if I can assist it in reaching its goal.
  9. I'll tell a cop he "can't" talk to my daughter. If he wants to get pissed because a layperson told him he can't do something, then he is welcome to make an a** of himself and get a warrant. Good for you, I guess. Personally, I don't see the value in pointlessly angering people who have the power to make me miserable. Even if you win, you lose. There is middle ground. Nothing wrong with politely saying "I'm sorry, officer, I will not consent to that." You will never get ANYWHERE being a jerk to a cop. They are well aware of what they can and can not do, and when they need consent and when they don't. You don't need to point that out to them. Whatever attitude you give them, they'll give you back. Being polite goes a long way in this world.
  10. I think it depends on the child and how they were raised. I have no inkling at all that my 4 year old daughter is in any way afraid of police, I certainly don't put any such fear in her and honestly I don't think she's even spoken to one for any reason. But I can see how some might be, lots of people are suspicious of cops and as such project that onto their children. Stuff like this is why I don't envy police and would not want that job. On a call like this, the cop knows it's `probably nothing' but there's also a slight chance they're going to come up on some child molesting freak, and an even more remote though possible chance that you'll find a maniacal madman who will open fire on you on sight. That kind of uncertainty on pretty much every routine call can't be fun.
  11. If I found a geocache and had never heard of it before, the first thing I would do is open it of course, I'd see the stash note, I'd definitely be interested in finding out more. At the very least I'd put the thing back where it was. But I guess some people are just schmucks. I found a cache once where a hunter (non-geocacher) had stumbled upon it, he signed the log and left a musket ball. I like to think that MOST people are well natured and once they realize it's part of a game they'd have the decency to at least leave it alone. I wish I agreed with you. But sadly, I think most people who are likely to stumble on a cache are teenagers who are likely mischievous. These folks are likely to somehow ruin the cache. I admit that my 15 year old self among my idiot 15 year old friends might handle it very differently. Hey what should we do with this? I know man, let's chuck it in the river! But as an adult, I see no reason to spoil anyone's fun just to be a jerk. I've only ever stumbled on one cache that was ruined, and it was obviously done by teenagers who happened upon it, the vast majority are left be and I've even seen logs (in the log books but not online) by non geocachers who found it and figured hey, neat, guess I'll sign the log book and put it back and go on about my day. I guess it's all in who finds it. Now if there are SEVERAL going missing in the area, that almost has to be a cacher or at least someone with a gc account who finds them to steal the cans. Unfortunately there's absolutely no way to know who.
  12. At least one law enforcement officer has participated in this thread. Yes I see that, I meant perhaps one can confirm whether or not it's true that on such a call they would generally believe that `it's probably nothing' but check on it on the very outside chance that some criminal activity is underway.
  13. If I found a geocache and had never heard of it before, the first thing I would do is open it of course, I'd see the stash note, I'd definitely be interested in finding out more. At the very least I'd put the thing back where it was. But I guess some people are just schmucks. I found a cache once where a hunter (non-geocacher) had stumbled upon it, he signed the log and left a musket ball. I like to think that MOST people are well natured and once they realize it's part of a game they'd have the decency to at least leave it alone.
  14. I think it varies greatly how (or even if) the real estate is disposed of when a railroad goes under or a line goes dead. If it's a closed line but the railroad still exists, they may hold on to the right of way even if the track is removed just in case they ever see fit to reopen the line. In at least one case around here a line was abandoned in the 70's and the real estate was simply sold off. One guy I know who owns a coal reclamation business owns a big chunk of land and a narrow strip a few miles long but only a hundred or so feet wide of former raliroad proprety. Kinda an odd bit of land to own, not of much use if you're not operating a railroad, but that's what happened in that case. In many cases they wind up rails to trails, which is almost always an excellent place to put a cache. As to current railroad operations, take that no trespassing seriously because they darn sure do. Long before geocaching I know someone who was arrested by railroad police for fishing too close to railroad property. The whole group was fined $350 a piece. Serious business.
  15. I don't know any law enforcement types so if any out there would like to weigh in on this, I'd be interested in hearing it. It seems to me that the vast majority of `go check out this guy in the woods' calls end up being nothing. So perhaps many cops, when called to such a thing actually assume it's probably nothing, and go check it out because they were called, not really expecting anything bad to be happening, just checking it out on the off chance that some bad stuff is going down.
  16. This isn't my original idea, read it on the forums before, but remember to recycle! That receipt you have from buying the magnetic hide a key from wal-mart? Don't throw it away! Use it as the log book!
  17. what exactly is the point of that? To protect the contents, of course!
  18. Or put a small Lock-N-Lock inside of it.... That would protect the contents within the lock-n-lock, but the wood container would probably still rot. Even if it is cedar, wood just isn't the greatest material to put out in the elements.
  19. I know you are correct, however I have never understood this as one of the intentions of cemeteries was/is for recreational purposes. I never got it either, many of the larger cemeteries here in Pennsylvania double as parks. One in particular I drive by every day I VERY frequently see people jogging, walking their dogs, etc. I have loved ones interred there and I am not the slightest bit offended by it, in fact I'm sure my loved ones would be smiling that people were enjoying the area. I understand that in many religions such grounds are hallowed and sacred, but honestly I see no disrespect in allowing the living to enjoy the park.
  20. Well the out of state part isn't TOO far for me to reasonably maintain something, but I was thinking on that being a virtual stage anyway, just get some numbers off of headstones from there and keep the physical cache or cache components closer. I'm not sure if that could still be considered a true `multi' though or if having virtual stages would classify it as a puzzle.
  21. Good thought but I have had NO luck with travel bugs or geocoins. Most of mine are either long gone or get logged every 6 months, which I guess is still moving.
  22. My grandfather passed away one year to the day his brother, my great uncle, passed away. I was considering perhaps developing a cache in honor of them as well as an older ancestor who founded a town nearby. I had thought of either having various stages leading to the next with some quick math based on dates from the headstones which I guess would be considered a multi? My other idea would be to make it a puzzle cache, list the cemeteries as waypoints and have only one puzzle, the final, and some simple math based on data from several headstones. Which would work better? Difficulty: Two of the cemeteries I had in mind to gather information from are very near here, in southwestern Pennsylvania, but one is in Wooster, Ohio. So I guess my questions are 1. Are multi-state multis or puzzles frowned upon or is there any compelling reason not to do this? and 2. Would this be better setup as a multi or a puzzle cache? Which would be more appropriate?
  23. As for containers, I recall a multi I found a few years back where the first stage was a container placed into a log, I mean the log was cut out enough for the container to be placed in, then placed face down on the ground. Looked like an ordinary log, very well camo'ed indeed. Just yesterday I found a pretty unique guardrail hide. I don't know what the heck the thing was but it was magnetic and to open it you had to unscrew the threaded top. Somewhat on topic I guess I have found 2 caches that were in some sort of cylindrical tubes that were both similar. Anybody know what these things were? I forget how they latched on top but they were rather large, the size of a medium ammo can I'd say but cylindrical. They were about the right color (green or brown I think) to be Army surplus but I don't recall any markings on them. I've only ever seen them on 2 hides.
  24. Wow! What a boring place to live!! haha, of course I MEANT any such activity is prohibited in a cemetery.
  25. I seem to recall that there is at least one state where any recreational activity is outlawed statewide, but I can't recall which. That would encompass, I would imagine, anything from geocaching to frisbee. I think it was in the south, perhaps Georgia or Alabama. I can't recall a single cache I have found that was actually IN a cemetery, most I've found are in nearby tracts of forest, and I think that's the best place for them.
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