JimmyEv

A geocaching.com gift card to be redeemed on this site, like an amazon.com gift card, would probably be a pretty good idea. I've read logs where the FTF prize is a $20-50 gift card to a restaurant, Best Buy or whatever. I suppose a gift card that would actually support this site would be a choice many people might use instead.

Instead of: "Would you like to see a feature implimented that indicates the last time a cache owner visited their cache page?" It should probably be: "Would you like to see a feature implemented on the cache page that indicates the last time a cache owner visited geocaching.com?" This is because so many owners check the health of their cache through e-mail, not by visiting the cache page. I was doing a whole lot of caches by one owner about 100 miles from my house over a weekend. Couldn't find half of them; Not many had DNFs posted, nor had they been found recently. Upon returning home, I discovered that the cache owner hadn't been to gc.com in over six months. This might have been helpful if I had known beforehand.

Everybody that 'TNLNSL' probably has their own, valid reason for it. When I first started, I traded stuff. Then I decided to leave books, so I'd carry books in ziplock bags around in my car and carry them to the cache. But I started running into cache after cache after cache that were too small for the books. After this happened 100 times or so, I just gave up and now 'TNLN.' At least until I develop some kind of small sig item...Then I can either trade again or just leave something.

What's wrong with a phone booth on a public street in the public right-of-way? There's an art to doing these types of micros, but I don't think it produces a 'rush.' Get an idea of where the cache is with your gps before approaching it. Then put the thing away or pretend its something else. Talk on the pay phone. Ride your bike up and rest leaning against the booth (people don't look twice at tired bicyclists). One idea from a fellow cacher that I've used on occassion is to use my work clothes --- reflective vest and hardhat. Works like a charm..only trouble I have is when I run into a cache that requires discretion and I don't realize it until its too late.

I've hiked miles and miles of Texas trails. I have yet to see any 'environmental impact' from mountain biking. They say that it exists, and this is the reason mountain bikes are banned in several places, like NPS. However, the only erosion I come across either has hoof prints or tire treads. Although lacking evidence that mountain biking causes erosion, it is perceived (and assumed) to cause erosion. This has led to the bans. The same thing can happen, and apparently has happened with NPS, to geocaching. It won't matter if it actually does or does not cause erosion; What matters is the perception. Botttom line with geocaching is that a large number of people visiting a single area will cause erosion; The same thing happens to popular hiking trails. I just have yet to see 10 people a day every day hit the same cache.

A while ago, I read a thread (can't find it now) about running across couples in compromising postions while cacheing. These couples were men and women, and the responses of the posters were completely different from what I'm reading on this thread. Most thought it was funny; Some were glad there children weren't with them; Yet NOT ONE suggested that this be noted on the cache's log or that police be called. Seems to be a more than a little contradictory.

Hmmm...and this was a Coke vending machine: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1140299.htm Must be news leaks from Pepsi...

Just out of curiosity, what would make someone think that a bomb was adjacent to a greenbelt? I'm not familiar with southern CA, but if greenbelts there are like greenbelts here, they aren't places where a lot of people normally hang out. Usually they're empty, so what would be the purpose of planting a bomb? Scaring the wildlife? A little bit of common sense does go a long way.

This decisions are being made by mid-level beauraucrats that don't want to make an effort to learn about what they're deciding. I'd say we should make them work --- start filing FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to Department of Interior, National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service asking for all documents pertaining to their policies on geocaching, documents pertaining to the development of such policies, documents pertaining to legal interpretations of geocaching, documents pertaining to any prosecutions of individuals for participating in geocaching, etc. (You might want to ask for the same documents for hide-and-go-seek, since this is basically just a variant of that game). By law, each FOIA request must be filled within a certain period of time. There are several exemptions to the FOIA that allow one to have these requests filled at no cost. FOIAs are the biggest pain in the a** for my agency, I'm sure it is for DOI also. Furthermore, if I have this right, neither the NPS, BLM nor USFS can actually ban geocaching without going through a rule making process, open for public comment, and published in the Federal Register. The process may be opposite for USFWS, where they have to publish permissable new uses of their lands in the Federal Register and open those up for public comment.