Tobias & Petronella

In the Seattle, WA area there has been a problem with some frayed and exposed wires in the lampposts. So far the only death has been a German shorthair pointer. Below are links to the news stories. Normally things like this would be of local interest only. But I feel that with a lot of new people caching and the possibility of this happening elsewhere, this real danger should be made known. Dog electrocuted from Seattle sidewalk power plate 2nd dog suffered shock on holiday; this one wasn't fatal 3 more potentially dangerous light poles found in Seattle

So that is what Groundspeak's plan is. They are protecting the information on their site by not allowing us access to it.

Now we are free to put them on active railroad tracks, on school grounds and in National Parks. Gotta love anarchy. Explain this one to me? Where does it say that Geocaching means no caches in active railroads, school grounds and in National Parks? Who made those rules? Why are they the rules that *every* cache has to abide? Why does any other geocaching site have to abide to those rules? All this talk about reviewers and rules and guidelines and stuff makes me wonder who decided that Groundspeak rules are to be enforced by everybody and if a competitor decides to have (or not) rules then it automatically has to be buried to the ground?? Being sued and jail time is a good reason to have certain rules. The railroads owns the land near the tracks. In some areas its only a few feet away and in others a couple hundred feet. They can and have charge caches with trespassing and I believe someone was even sued by them. On school grounds, it can be trespassing and public nuisance. In many areas it is simply illegal to leave a cache. If you don't think so, join OC.com and have at it. But don't tell the press or the police that you were geocaching since it will make us all look bad.

In y'all's profile, you say you're not power cachers. So how do you define it? That's the problem, I (Tobias) don't have a good definition. By looking at our stats you will see that our best day is 55 and our best month 221, which I feel are good numbers and we are happy with them. But what it doesn't show is that for a time we really pushed ourselves just to see what we could do. In our minds a power cacher would have a much higher numbers than ours, especially if they live near a large city (Seattle, WA) as we do. Most consecutive days with a find: 9 Find Rate: 2.491 per day Total days cached: 426 (every 1.9 days or 52.9%) Number of days with 20 or more finds: 15 ( 3.52% of total days cache) I would guess a power cacher would have a find rate of at least a 5 per day and at least 10% of the time fine 20 or more in a day. This is why I ask the question "What is your definition of Power Cacher" since we don't have a good one and would like to find out what others think.

I agree. But since words have meaning and the term "Power Cacher" has been used when talking about this game we play, what is meant when someone says it? I normally don't put things or people into small little categories, but instead broad, open-ended concepts, such as "Puzzle People" to described those that like and are good at making and solving puzzles. Even though these same people may be good at other things, for simplistic sake I would use that term when talking about them in relations to puzzles or the type of caches that they are most known for or their ability to work puzzles. One of the reasons I asked the question, "What is your definition of "Power Cacher" is that I don't have a good definition for it. On our profile page I state that we are not power cachers. Up until now, anyone who found a lot of caches in a short space of time, I felt would be one. But after looking at our stats from the past year, I see that we might fall into that category according to some, but not others. As far as I'm concerned we are not, but at the same time I was wondering who might be a power cacher, and where is line that they crossed to become one.

I have a plan... We up load all our caches to OC.com using the GPX files from GC.com Groundspeak then sues Garmin for obtaining the information through illegally means. Then Jeremy buys all of us a new GPSr with the settlement money.

I have seen this term used here and there. I have even used it a couple of times. But what does it take to be a "Power Cacher"? Do you become one after a single big run or do you need to do a certain number caches a year to become a power cacher. If you do 5 caches a day every day of the week year round, are you more of a power cacher than someone that only caches on the weekends for a total of 40 over two days and does this each and every weekend. So the question is: What is your definition of a Power Cacher?

I just listened to the podcast with Jake from Garmin. Sounds like they expect us geocachers to be their reviewers. And when pushed for a number of caches that he found, he danced around the question with - I've found some but the numbers are not important. As far as his PR skills on a scale 1-10 (with 10 being best), I would give him maybe a 3. And on the BS scale a 8. He and their geocaching team clearly have no idea what it is like to cache in the real world. This is from their site: Keep your fellow geocachers safe. Don’t hide your caches on cliffs, down abandoned mines, in trenches or anywhere that might put the safety of geocachers in peril. First of all, that is what a rating system is for. Almost any place can be dangerous. A busy street, a bad neighborhood, or any trail where you could slip and fall down the side of a hill or cliff. And let's not forget about about all the nasty spiders, snakes, bears and other things that could mess you up. Do they think that caches should only go in city parks? They should stick with what they do best, and that is making really great GPSr systems and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

This is from the OC.com site: "Caches should be placed at least 0.1 miles from each other so there’s no confusion about which cache someone has found." It says caches should be place at least .1 miles from each other, not that they have too. If you show that there is "no confusion about which cache someone has found" then you should be able to place caches side by side. Just write the cache number on the logbook so the finder knows which cache they found.

I think geocaching is going to get really wild, real fast. If you are told NO by GC.com then just list at OC.com since I don't think they have reviewers If opencaching.com doesn't have good reviewers then anything goes. Which means every skirt lifter will have a Micro and every tree & bush will have a 35mm film canister regardless of how close they are to another cache. And some idiot will do it just because they can. If a newbie wants everyone to find their caches they will list it everywhere. If someone has a problem with GC.com they will move all there hides to OC.com and within a year OC.com could have as many as GC.com. If you think the police get called a lot now what is going to happen when the flood gates open. Garmin is in the business to sell GPSr so why would they care about what kind of caches get listed at OC.com?

We use the 1350T also and find it to be a wonderful unit. What they say about the battery life is true. One time after a 5.5 mile hike along wooded trails the battery finally gave out. And yes it's not water proof like some other units, thats why living near Seattle Washington, we slip it in to a light weight plastic bag while its raining. Go to this page to read one of my other post about this unit. Then check out our Profile page to see what we have done using the 1350T (which is our current GPS) or 255W (which we started with). Like with any tool, once you learn how to use it correctly you can do a lot with it. Here is a quick tip... When you go "off road", put it in Bicycle mode not Pedestrian mode. Someday we might also get a hand held unit. But after 2 years and 1973 finds and getting 219 FTFs, we are not in a hurry to do so. To be totally honest, about 95% of all our finds have been with in a half mile or less of where we park our truck. And when we do go on longer hikes we simply turn the unit off when we are not using it.

Petronella just sent me this link to a geocaching news item. I don't know if others have seen it so here it is. http://www.komonews.com/news/local/103833198.html

I started with the 255w nuvi and now use the 1350 nuvi. I load them in as a POI, using the POI Loader from Garmin. The file type you will need to make is a "*.CSV" file. There is some software that will convert it for you. So far I have not found one that I like so I do it myself. It takes time but I get what I want, they way I like it. You will discover that you can download thousands and thousands of cache files in to your Nuvi and it won't take up much room but don't do it. The info about caches change so fast with updates, temp disables, archives and new caches, to keep it current would be a part time job. Why work when you can play.

That is not really a true statement. There are about 75 different Nuvi models. Some may not have compasses but the one I have (1350), does have a compass. When people talk about how "bad" the Nuvi is, a lot of them are talking about the older units or are simply not aware what the Nuvi has to offer or don't know how to use it correctly. So to keep things clear, it would be nice to state which model you are talking about. That way you can be proved right or wrong by those who know.

Here are two sites I use to find out when Sunrise, Sunset, Dawn and Dusk are. http://www.sunrisesunset.com/custom_srss_calendar.asp http://www.gaisma.com/en/ For easy numbers, there is about 25-30 minutes difference between Dawn / Sunrise and Sunset / Dusk.

This is why you should have a your own back-up copy of the Internet. If an info site goes down, no problem, just use the copy.

Being someone that goes after a lot of FTFs, I've seen a large number of problems with caches put out by newbies. I've also seen a lot of problems from cachers that should know better but don't care. There have been some very good caches put out by newbie cachers and when there is a problem most (not all) are will to fix them right away after I drop them a note about the problem. Even though I'm willing to help out any cacher, I do think there should be a minimum number of finds before they can put out their first cache. My first thought is at least 100, I would prefer to see it be 200 caches and 2 months before they can put one out. Unless they have someone who is willing to help them and be willing to put their name next to the newbie as cache placer. Some will say "That's not fair to someone that has been caching for a long time under a shared account and now is starting fresh". My answer to that is... If you have been playing awhile then getting 100 caches should be no problem. We just did 43 finds this past Sunday (personal best) but normally it would take us about 1.5 to 2 months to get 100. If someone is not willing to wait till they find 100 caches or to get someone to work with them, then maybe they should not be caching at all. This game is not for everybody and not everyone should play this game. For myself I waited till I had found 500 but that's me.

A local cacher did just that. GC1YE61 There was a prize for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

I like to keep mine simple. I add something like this to the listing. <center><b>*** Congratulations to XXXXXX on a quick FTF ***</b></center>

A well placed LPC could get 100 finds in less than a month. Which proves that "nobody" does them.

Here is one of our caches that goes along with this thread. GC2250Q

Just wait till you refer to a fake rock hide as a Geo-rock.

There are a few of us that use a Garmin Nuvi for caching. Some car unites work better than others for Geocaching, and some can do more than others. So as NordicMan ask, "Which one did you buy?".

I would have the scout find a Traditional Cache, a Multi-Cache (Offset Cache), and a Puzzle Cache and the explain why someone might hide those different types. Convert from Decimal minutes to Decimal Degrees and back using only pencil and paper. Explain why someone might want to become a geocacher. Just my thoughts.