Oxford Stone

For what it's worth, here's mine: https://coord.info/GC718C2 a tribute to my late parents and keen Dartmoor letterboxers. It's an ammo box (as many Dartmoor letterboxes are), hidden like a trad (except the log is in one of the 20 or so Kinder egg capsules in the box) - if you have time, read the cache page.

Interesting, the cache in the series you highlight has had only one find since it was hidden 9 moths ago! Somewhere remote?

As per the 2nd paragraph of my original post, I'd love to do a series where the DT ratings have been properly thought out, making for an adventure that gets progressively harder.

Thanks, lots of useful answers! Might have to get to one of these one day. My last interesting combo was a D3.5T5 - brief but tough puzzle then a cache on a girder under a bridge over a river, high enough to necessitate standing (or using a stick and throwing back...) from a rubber dinghy. Absolutely deserved its rating.

Filling that DT grid takes a lot of time and effort. Rare combinations; puzzles to solve; inflatable kayaks to blow up... my first loop took just under 3 years (culminating in a kayak trip), another 3 to the next (100-mile drive with stepladder in small car)... Has anyone ever devised a trail, or a group of caches in a reasonably small area, of all 81 combinations? Doable in a day or two? I'm picturing all the low ones in an urban area (but not necessarily) then striking out into the countryside for some high Ts up trees or only accessible by boat.

I stood on a concrete block ,diagonally embedded in the ground, to lean over a metal gate and peer to see if there was a cache at base of post... slipped off block several inches onto top of gate. So the same effect as if you'd hit me in the chest with an iron bar. Cracked a couple of ribs.

The 2 "miles away" ones I know about (in Oxord, UK) were put out in 2004 and 2005. No particular reason for the distance, other than putting the original icon in the city where it gets noticed? Both epic caches as it happens. GCNN7R, GCKF0M. I have a multi which requires visits to London and Paris (and I'm told it's inspired one in the opposite direction) - I hope they never change the rule on multis as it leaves some intriguing possibilities.

I've just seen this story on bbc.co.uk https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/must_see/45903825/baby-joins-the-all-50-states-club - in case the link doesn't work in the US (BBC have a strange set-up on their website), this is about a 6-month-old baby who's visited all 50 states! Future geocacher???

(apologies for latching on to this aspect of the thread, slightly off topic) - my https://coord.info/GC5G49W multi takes you from Paris to London, and several people have had the log signed for them, having provided half the info. I just couldn't be bothered to delete them though. I think it stems from some Parisians being completist about doing all the caches in the city. I also got abuse at first from Parisians who said the cache broke the rules by having the icon in Paris and the cache in London! Most people do most caches in the right spirit, luckily...

It's made me much more observant (cachers' trails, camouflage...), and I now know many pockets of countryside within 15 miles or so of home that I'd never have explored otherwise - and the lanes that link them together. Not to mention some bits of urbex (underground rivers etc), and more legitimately, exploring disused railway lines that are now trails, and occasionally jumping in a kayak and seeing the world from water level. All fascinating stuff.

I've always been tempted to have a magnetic nano, containing the log paper, inside an ammo box. Then make the hide everyone's favourite, an ivy-covered tree. And say truthfully, that you need to find a nano in an ICT.

I own a few dozen puzzles and am always happy to give nudges. I'm often baffled by logs along the lines of "I have no interest whatsoever in... [football / Jeremy Clarkson / Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells] as if I've ruined their lives by getting them to research something different. Humph. Must get back to that boring bell-ringing sequence puzzle...

GPS owners with superiority complexes over smartphone users - people who started caching since the advent of the smartphone, tend to do very well finding and hiding caches with one. The same people writing logs such as "the coords were 27.3 feet out" as if their Gremlin Ewok has accuracy down to 1/8".

I live quite close to GC7R116 (it's on a hillside where there are already 2 early Wherigoes - both of the "now navigate to this point" type rather than answering a Q at each point) - it's had one successful find so I'm willing to give it a go with Mrs OS and OS Junior in tow. Might be this Sunday, probably the one after - I'll report back. App downloaded OK on Android phone.

A clever one in my town is that waypoint one is near the CO's house and he's re-named his Wi-Fi with the co-ords for Waypoint 2!

I did 100 - can't remember why I didn't go caching on day 101. A cacher local to me completed 5 years on 9 May, and I was honoured that he chose a cache of mine to complete the 5th year. He shows no signs of stopping. At some point in the last 5 years he's stopped being a teacher and become a postman - so 2 non-office jobs that probably help. It's funny doing a cache trail and finding his logs all on different days, sometimes done in the dark a mile or more from the nearest road. My longest slump is still only 9 days and that was in my first couple of weeks, 5 years ago! I don't think I've missed a weekend since. Caching is very much a weekend hobby nowadays though and even then I have to drive 15+ miles for new caches.

That's funny, I'm quite the opposite. I'd enjoy the walk in the woods and the big container; at the great view I'd be thinking "is that the best they can do for a container?", and forget about it. It's a shame when someone puts out a cache that fails to acknowledge something interesting in the area - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83701713/john-renie being a case in point, local church cache doesn't mention this gem, I think the CO's thought ooh there's a church better chuck down a film pot by the gatepost and not really researched what was of interest in the area. Conversely when I did a church micro at Malmesbury Abbey (Wiltshire, UK) which involved researching the grave of the 1st person in England to be mauled to death by a tiger, I was delighted to have something so bizarre brought to my attention, that I might otherwise have missed.

Time for a minimum number of finds or time as a member, before being allowed to hide caches. Nothing huge, say 100 finds / 6 months - but it would up the quality and reduce the noob horrors.

Thank you for being part of the inspiration to put out a cache called Ray Gam - ie Hungarian backwards. I'll let you guess the rest... oh and it's a bison 20+ feet up a tree. D5T4.5...

I own a few dozen puzzle caches and have lost count of the number of "got a hint for this puzzle at a recent cachers' meeting" - it doesn't bother me over much. Similarly if OS Junior (separate account) comes caching with me, he logs finds on puzzles I solved. No big deal. There are one or 2 COs who are prickly about solutions being given away, mind you.

Ah of course, in the US of A you'd figure it out, not suss it. I still can't get my head round a variant of English where, balm, bomb and bum are all pronounced the same... Back on-topic, yes the satisfaction of resussing / resuscitating a cache / finding it after a long gap / multiple DNFs, always satisfying. I once solved a multi, unfound for a couple of years, battled my way through a couple of years' worth of undergrowth to an obvious tree stump - nothing there! Rocked it in pure frustration and heard the beautiful clonk-clonk sound of an ammo box having a tree stump rocked on top of it. How it had got underneath I don't know - but there it stays, so anyone reading found logs knows what to do.

Exactly that. Would you spell it resusc?!? I arrange nearby unfound caches in reverse last found order, to see which ones are longest unfound. Often badly maintained ones but every so often there is something quite easy to resusc... itate. Forgot to add decent field puzzles.

OK I'm bored of the What Irks You Most thread, so here goes - stuff that puts a smile on my face... Finding a previous DNF is of course right up there. A resuss always makes me feel proud. When the long-suffering Mrs OS gives a polite "er-hem" cough because she's found the cache. OS Junior (hardened veteran on nearly 2900 caches, aged 8 3/4) often gets his fair share on a walk too. Bumping into another cacher in the middle of nowhere. Reassuring a muggle when I'm jumping out of a hedge that I'm not a weirdo, and explaining the hobby to them. Unexpected wildlife (flora or fauna) sightings. Saw a beautiful little egret (small white heron) last weekend in the snow. Last spring was great for orchids. Ammo boxes! Tree climbs, small or large. Happy logs on my hides. The "I didn't know that was there" moment (George Orwell's grave as an example) Discovering a new rural pub on / at the start of the day's walk That'll do to be going on with - what about you?

As we all know, GPS jumps around under trees - and you just know the hint will be Base of Tree...

An irk of mine is the GPS Arbiters. The people who, because they've spent £$€1,000,000 on a Gremlin Ibex 340Z, feel free to put "coords were out by 6m" etc etc in their logs (A couple of people local to me make a real habit of it). Who's to say that their gadget is more accurate than someone else's older / cheaper unit or (whisper it) smartphone? Occasionally if I sense coords are a bit off, or if on satellite view (ye, I've seen the current thread about accuracy of these) the icon is pointing to the middle of the path, I'll put "found, wooded side of the track" or similar but I try not to comment on inaccuracy unless multiple people have commented on inaccuracy, supplied alternative coords etc and CO has done nothing - even then I'll put "I got coords ending 234, 876) or similar.