Dread_Pirate_Bruce

When naming caches which are a part of a series, please try to put some unique identifier in the first few letters of the name if it is a long name. Here is why: Some hardware and/or software only recognizes the first 15 or so characters of the name. As a result, the name may be truncated, making it hard to distinguish one cache from another. Here is an example that happened to me twice in the past week. (The names have been changed so no one in particular is offended.) There were a series of 11 caches, named "My Most Wonderful Cache Hide Ever#1", "My Most Wonderful Cache Hide Ever #2" etc. They were all truncated to "My Most Wonderful Cache" and they all looked the same on my GPS. While I was able to differentiate these by looking at the cache identification number ("GCxxxx"), it was awkward to do so. Therefore, please consider naming caches something like "#1 My Most Wonderful Cache Hide Ever". Or so they are grouped together in a list: "My Most (#1) Wonderful Cache Hide Ever." Thanks

I often travel and usually take the opportunity to look for caches. When I started doing this, I'd figure out what city I'd be in and use google to get the zip code. Usually, I'd use the zip code for the hotel I'd be at. Then, I get a list of the caches in that zip code. I would pick just one of those and click on the link for "Geocaching.com Google Map." I will print the map out so I have a general idea where the caches are. If I needed driving directions, I'd put the nearest intersection into my car's gps. As I got more experienced, I became a premium member and then created a pocket query (PQ) for that zip code. I'd download the resulting file into my GPS. I'd still get a map and I'd still enter an intersection into my car's gps if I needed driving directions. Now, I have an iPhone and the geocaching application. Wherever I am, it will tell me about nearby caches (or caches near any set of coordinates) and will give me driving directions. Hope this helped.

A very well done bulletin that all geocachers should read and take into account when hiding caches. The bulletin prompts the following question: What is wrong with placing caches out in the woods or mountains or places where they cannot be mistaken for dangerous devices?

I do not have any problem with their policy on new caches. I ate at one of their places once. I cannot recall a worse experience. I told myself that the only reason I'd go back to a CB is if I was really hungry and there was nothing else around. Their policy is the clincher. ... And now I don't have to worry about being hungry while nearby.

There is a reason the military uses these boxes to hold ammo. It is because they are durable.

1. Set a waypoint for your car. 2. Bring spare batteries so you can use the waypoint you set for your car to get back to it.

Clever hides are great. If they are also humorous, that is even better. However, there is a fine line between clever and/or humorous on the one hand and tedious and lame on the other. A cache in a 35mm film can hidden in a pile of similar cans or a cache in a rock in a pile of rocks is tedious and lame. A cacher may get a momentary chuckle when he or she first sees it, but it quickly becomes lame. You know what it is, you know where it is, you know what you need to do to find it and you know it is just a matter of going through enough film cans or rocks. That is not a good hide, especially if there is nothing about the location to make it worth visiting.

I came upon a huge collection of newspaper machines. It was so huge a collection that I had to commemorate it with a cache. I put it in a tree that was just about in the middle of the collection. I described the collection and my desire to commemorate it with a cache. However, I never said the cache was under one of the machines. Nonetheless, many people made multiple visits so that they could look under each of the machines. One even used a lifeline and asked if it was under one of the machines to the left of the tree. I truthfully answered "no." He carefully examined every machine to the right of the tree before logging a DNF. BTW: this was located at muggle central.

Since I got the geocaching app, I have used my trusty old Palm only once and that was a while ago.

I do not understand how archiving one's caches to protest a particular issue, which is not connected with geocaching, promotes one's stance on that issue. It makes those who it inconveniences AWARE of the cache owner's stance and perhaps the depth of the cache owner's feelings. But, I fail to see how inconveniencing people makes them sympathetic. (And, archiving one's own caches does not really impress me with the depth of the owner's feelings.) If I was going to archive any of my caches to protest a particular issue, I'd archive the ones that would inconvenience those who supported my OPPONENTS. If nothing else, it would serve as a punishment for those who supported my opponents. However, I'd think twice or three times before archiving those that would inconvenience my supporters or friends. It might just be enough to turn them against me.

Winter caching can be tough. Right now, I'm nursing a very nasty sunburn.

I'm not sure I agree with this last point. When I hide a cache, I expect it to stay there. Only if someone can't find it do I even begin to think that maybe it is gone. While I do not usually go around checking my caches, I monitor the logs religiously (and that does not mean only on Sundays).

1. Regarding the rebar ... For a recent event I made up about 20 of them as give-aways. I bought a length of rebar for something like 3 dollars and laid into it with my angle grinder. 20 minutes later I had a mess of rebar pieces drilled with ring-a-dings. All the hider had to do was attache a bison tube. 2. Small ... I'm in the process of making some caches out of unused IV needles. They are 8 mm long and 2 mm in diameter. I'm working on getting a sliver of paper into them. I'm not sure how anyone will sign them or replace the "log" once signed, but they will be truly evil hides. They will be especially useful for people who want to hide caches in empty rooms or large parking lots with nothing in them or who want to be able to hide a cache every 500 feet along a 10 mile hiking trail (imagine trying to carry enough ammo cans).

I've always liked caches in fake boltts. And, every time I find one, I am pleasantly surprised. I also enjoy Trojan junction boxes and junction box covers, especially if they look like they belong. The same goes for pipes and drains that look like they belong, but are just there. One of my all time favorites was a 35 mm film can to which a magnet was glued, that was dropped down a fence post. To grab it one had to lower a piece of iron on a string. I am also fond of a hide in which a bison tube was attached to the end of a rusty carriage bolt that was inserted into a hole in a manhole cover. And, who could forget caches attached to the rebar that is inserted into concrete curbs in parking lots? OTOH:

I think I have to go with "White Point Hydrothermal Vents" (GC1576V). Scuba gear is required.

If I've really looked for a cache and not found it, I log it as a DNF. If I've made a half-hearted effort, as would be the case in fading daylight or lots of muggles, etc., I may or may not consider it a DNF. Just because the last person or two has logged a DNF on a cache, that is no reason not to look for it. However, if it is supposedly easy and the most recent logs are DNF and I can't seem to find it, I may give up quicker than if the most recent logs report finds. Likewise, if it is supposedly easy and the most recent logs very old and I can't seem to find it, I may give up quicker than if the most recent logs were more timely.

The only problem I've had is when flying from Los Angeles to Hawaii ... they felt I was cheating on the half-way-over game.

I don't like looking for a needle in a haystack unless the only place to hide a cache is in the haystack and anything bigger than a needle will be muggled. I enjoy clever hides. I like the micro in the end of an old log ... so long as the old log is not too hard to find, i.e. it is not among dozens of similar old logs. I like switchplate covers that are out in the open and look like they belong where they are. Micros lend themselves to clever hides. One advantage of micros, even in the wilderness, is that it is not too much trouble to carry and hide a dozen micros along a trail. Carrying a couple of ammo cans could be quite a chore.

There are lots of places to hide caches. Normal people would never think anything might be hidden in many such places. Just because something looks like it belongs where you see it, that does not mean that it actually belongs there. Others on this forum have learned many of the same things as I have, but I didn't realize I'd learned those things until I read this thread. There are some very stupid threads and they never seem to quite die away. Most hide-a-key boxes are not used to hide keys. Executives of hide-a-key manufacturing companies erroneously believe they provide a valuable public service by providing a means of hiding keys under cars. Car thieves are always amazed at how few hidden keys they find given the glowing sales figures contained in hide-a-key manufacturing company annual reports. There is no good way for an adult to look under a newspaper machine and look natural about it. However, a child looking under a newspaper machine draws no attention if an adult is nearby yelling "get out from under there."

GC1DN4Q can be seen from the satellite photo!

I have run into the same problem and would expect everyone has run into it at one time or another. However, occasional errors on not, it is a lot easier than just having a range and bearing. While it did not involve driving directions, I went after one cache this summer where my GPS said the cache was 250 feet from me. I was on foot. The GPS said the cache was west, 250 feet. The dirt road on was on ran north and south. To the west was a very steep hillside. I figured I'd follow the road. After a bit, it did a hairpin turn and brought me back to the point where the cache was again west; this time 225 feet away. The road was still north south and the hillside to the west was very steep. I followed the road to the next hairpin. That got me to 200 feet. I walked nearly another mile, each time getting 15 to 40 feet closer to the cache. But, that's caching.

I agree with Mushtang. It is a stretch to think that your electric box will either lead others to use similar boxes, but in bad places or will lead others to look in electric boxes that they should not be touching. Even if no one had ever used an electrical box as a cache, if GZ puts you by a box and you can't otherwise find the cache, you will likely look at the box. While I would tend not to put caches near live electricity without an adequate warning in the description, many caches are located in places that could be hazardous. Yet no one says the cache is a bad idea. And, if it were me, I would not put the combination in the cache description unless you want to make it easy to find. You might consider grinding the lock so that it opens with just a pull, with or without the combination.

Your GPS will give you good, accurate coordinates nearly anywhere you go. However, I hope you are competent with a sextant, air almanac and HO249. If not, get these and a simple book on celestial navigation and use your time at sea to learn it. (I learned in the mid-70s using a book that I seem to recall was by Kittredge.) Best of luck. It is something I always wanted to do, but I now recognize that my window of opportunity has probably closed.

I've got a Garmin 76map and am thrilled with it. It is very gc.com friendly, even with my Mac.

What makes you think your wife would hang around? Seriously, though, I think that giving the coords during the meeting will be a disaster. If everyone gets them at the same time, they will all run off to be FTF and even the slower ones will not have much of a hunt as they will see everyone else grabbing the caches. I like the idea of the playing cards. To keep it "fair," however, you should release the coords on one cache per day every day for a week or so before the meeting. That way, people can actually compete for FTF if they feel so inclined, you won't have people stumbling over each other, and you won't have people running out of the meeting. You will need some way to ensure that when a cacher takes a card from a cache, he or she will have no way of knowing what cards are available from subsequent caches. You might consider having multiple copies of say 5 cards in the first cache, multiple copies of 5 other cards in the second cache, etc. That way, no one can expect to get an ace from each cache, even if that person is FTF on every one. The cards should be marked so that only "official" cards are in play and no one uses more than one card from any one cache. Just a thought.