Hedge

What you meant to say was, "All I bring is a pen and my droid x ... and my swag bag to trade items." Right? Right.

Traveling Caches aren't disallowed, they're just not getting published. There really should be a difference there. To Quote: When you report a cache on the Geocaching.com web site, geocachers should (and will) expect the cache to be there for a realistic and extended period of time. Therefore, caches that have the goal to move (“traveling caches”), or temporary caches (caches hidden for less than 3 months or for events) most likely will not be published. Less likely, but still able to get a publish!

The consensus was that any payment goes to Hedge via the upcoming "Bank of Hedge" ATM lookalike cache. Your instructions for the event are great; no one read them and everyone agrees that they're the best instructions they've ever not seen. Bako1313 hooked me up with a silver Porsche Cayman S at Tony's. It's so fast I've already lapped everyone else twice. Bring on the racin'!

Okay, here's my 3¢ on the logo. I'll bring some printouts to tonight's Tony-ness, save yer ink Grassies.

>>It seems I have to organize an event and that I can't organize a hunt. I was up all night wondering what the difference was between an Event and a Hunt was ... now I'm assured there is a difference! I love Marko Ramius for that. There's not enough anal retentives in this world, so we need one to preside over us in the Geo-world. Thank you Marko! What would we do without the Rules? As for a logo, uh, I can try to work one up too. Unless we're all going to pitch in and mint some coins, why do we need one again? We're not a corporation, are we? Too bad a frog with an antenna sticking out of the top of his head is taken, that would be huge for Kern County! Maybe we can buy a floppy sponge suit and take turns walking around in it - so much better than a boring logo! Nice set up on the rules Rojo. I think 4 months is about what ppl can handle. Me, I'd like to see it go 6 months, but my experience with the Redneck Race was that folks can only take 16 weeks at a time. That's about the length of football season, right? Ok, then we have the Super Bowl party at Rojo's house in Taft!! Unless Marko rules against it...

This thread's rolled into Kern County's new post-place: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...587&hl=kern

Yeah, I expect a full update on Geowoodstock since I couldn't be there.

GC1C7D0 ... Bummed to miss the last one, hoping to catch all the rest. I don't have my calendar before me, so no yay or nay yet - but a big THANK YOU to the grassy ones for heading this up. If life didn't have me by the short hairs just now (ow!) I'd be more involved. Where is that independently-wealthy early retirement I ordered?

Is it a hate crime in California to call Bako1313 a Crackerjack?

I would've thought a caravan to Sacramento for GeoWoodstock would've been fun, but I'm in Florida on business on May 25. We gonna have a hearty Kern Cachers delegation there to represent? D3 and Cappie are doing all they can to be fruitful and multiply our numbers. Along those lines, Bakersfield Magazine interviewed me about caching yesterday. Looks like one of the annual "How to get out there and do something weerd - like Geocaching!" columns is coming and this will probably stink. Hopefully, any quotes will make me sound like a complete buffoon and we'll keep the trampling newbie hordes to a minimum. Oops! Or, if I do sound stoopid, maybe that will only bring hordes of the worst out of the woodwork. Bah, you can't win. ElRojo, I've got some leftover goodies from Backcountry.com for prizes - the ones that came in the mail one day after the Redneck awards. I'll be sure and put 'em up for you to hand out at the event. Or maybe I'll put them in a cache and make you work for 'em. Muahahaahaaa!

Hey! I'm in Kern County!

Selfishness is the root and source of all natural and moral evils. - Nathaniel Emmons Geocachers are people, and most people are focused only on what concerns them. Coins get stolen, TBs get forklifted, swag gets hoovered up, caches get replaced poorly or replaced when muggles are looking because even geocachers are thinking of themselves first. 80% are takers; let's hear it for the 20% who are givers and keep it all going! ... er, if only so the 80% can devour it all again. Such is life.

Hey there new guy! You want to place your cache, and you want to do it right. Here's some advice I've not seen in other places. First off, I'd say don't try to place caches till you've found 75 to 100 of 'em. You'll have the hankering to do it sooner, but after seeing what's out there, you'll know better what's a lame hide and what's a good one. Then the ones you make will be better, less likely to get stolen, etc. I remember finding my first skirt lifter and thinking, "Pretty ingenious hide!" ... and then I found another, and another, and another ... good thing I didn't place one under a skirt early on, I'd have kicked myself later. Be certain when you do hide one, that the only people who can find it are geocachers - if you're worried that it might get muggled when you place it, then it is probably going to get muggled... And muggled sooner rather than later. If you walk away thinking that it's hidden well, you'll sleep better at night. Nothing's more demoralizing than reading DNF logs from frustrated cachers who came to find your cache but it wasn't there - face it - because you didn't hide it well enough. Not to mention the time and expense of replacing the cache and contents. I've also found with my unit that having different batteries makes a big difference. Rechargeables at 1.25 volts lead me 40 feet away from every cache, where 1.5 volt non-rechargeables give me dead-on coords. Guess what? It's right there in the owner's manual: my GPS is rated for 1.5 volt batteries. Finding out what voltage batteries your GPSr is made to use is so simple, but can make a huge difference when finding and marking! I know I sweated bullets placing my first few because I didn't trust my marked coordinates. I have a cheapy yellow eTrex, which is just fine for finding caches, but I still want to make sure that my posted coords are dead on the mark. For my first couple of caches, I made sure to come back on multiple days to test the coords. That doesn't hurt one bit! But one thing you should do each visit when placing is to take a few marks, then go away a good football field or so, turn your GPSr off and then back on, then walk back trying to find your cache using the GPS. You'll see in a hurry which mark is the best, and how far off the bad ones are. You can also take a moment to adjust the coords using your compass, then find again, and again, until you're right on the money. (How to do this? Say you're now standing on your cache again, but the GPS is saying it's 22 feet South. You have "too much South and not enough North." Just raise the N coordinate number, say by a couple of ticks. Alternately, if the GPS is saying it's 22 feet SouthWest, you have "too much South and West." You'd raise the North number a tick or two, and lower the West number a tick or two. Doing this a few times should get you spot on, even under weerd conditions.) If you're under power lines, or between high walls and having wacky readings, you can do what I call "Bi-angulation." Walk directly North until you have clear sky. Here, your North reading will be totally off (it will be higher than the cache), but your West reading will be the same as the cache location. Make a note of the West coord, then do the same directly West of your cache location - and you have a good North coord for your cache, too. Finally, don't be in a hurry to place and publish your cache. Be sure before you pull the trigger on it. Feeling like you gotta get it done so you can get the reviewer to publish it today will only cause you to make a mistake, or settle for a worse placement or concept than you should. Take your time! Take your Time! Place the cache container, and wait for a day or two. Come back and find it under a fresh constellation of satellites to re-check your coords. If you have a fellow cacher who's willing, have them pre-publish find it and tell you what they experienced. Feel free to move it if they think there's a better hide 10 feet away. Feel free to change the coords if their GPS didn't agree with your mark. Feel free to upgrade the container, add camo, add swag, ruminate on a good hint... Giving it time can improve your cache in so many ways. Don't feel that you have to publish it right NOW. Look at it this way, if you think the cache is going to stay in place for years for cachers to enjoy and find, what's another day or two for it to sit in place before it's published? It's just additional time for the hide to weather a bit, get good and dusty and blend in, so the FTF has to work for their trophy. Right? There's lots of other stuff to say, but let's not go overly long. I'll keep it short by saying simply, PLEASE FOR PETE'S SAKE DON'T PLACE MICROS UNLESS YOU HAVE A GOOD REASON! Trade up! Replace 'em better than you found 'em! Give other hiders positive feedback! Add some TBs and Geocoins to the pool! and Thanks for hiding one! Without you, there's no geocache to find, and no geocaching! See some other good advice in this related topic here.

Here's a recent log from BBB&BH#12: >>Nice hunt while visiting for the Brewfest from Bend, OR. Took parafoil and butterfly TB. Left Bend Brewing Co. coaster. Thanks for the hunt! An $18 Pouch kite and a TB for a disposable bar coaster. Nice trade! Why not just shake the container til it's empty and leave a fart in it? Then you can log: >>Nice hunt! The container was a little empty but I left it full! A real relief to find it. It's little wonder that cache contents degrade over time with selfish cachers like this out there. Trade up people!

I saw a troutman. Weerdest thing on two legs ever. Actually, I spent some quality time with 3 deer at BBB&BH #13 as I tested coords and placed the cache. I think they bed near there.

Hey all, be forewarned that the Quadratic Weeds cache (GCN7HR - you know, the puzzle cache math problem that involves radians) is a shill for another of Sliderule's caches. Imagine my surprise when after finally solving the (beyond my puny mathematics skills) equation and driving 15 minutes out to the cache site, I discovered that this was a cache that I'd found 3 months ago under a different name. That's right, two cache listings, one physical cache. I felt completely ripped off. It's the same cache as his Novice - Garlic Cache (GCN94M). So, if you do the math and have bagged the other cache, give yourself a smiley - you've earned it. I said as much in my found it log, but Sliderule deleted my log and asked me to "rewrite you log to eliminate the fact that the two caches are in fact, One and the same?" I did rewrite the log, but wanted to warn you all so you don't go through what I did and feel what I felt.

Castleman emailed me about a Porterville event they're having at a coffee shop up there on the 19th. It's cache GCXHZH - Green Jeeps & Coffee In The Jungle . They're using it as an opportunity to distribute Green Jeeps and some new geocoins. I think I'll be in attendance, but it's not official (read: not cleared with my social secretary and loving wife). <<event info - saving you a trip to the site>> Welcome to the first Geocaching Event ever held in the Metropolis of Porterville. This event is a Coffee, Scone and Latte Event with a twist. There will be a number of “NEW” 2006 Green Jeep Travel Bugs to be given out to lucky raffle winners. Along with these Green Jeeps there will be a number of Geocoins…New and Unactivated. And then of course a few odds & ends that we get put together. There is no charge for this raffle. The event times: Saturday August 19th from 9 A.M. to 11 A.M. Come and join in on this give-a-way festival. The physical address of this event (just in case your GPSr is not going to guide you is: 839 W. Henderson in Porterville. Oh, and the Southern California Geoevent is SCG GeoFest 2006 - Sat, Sept 9th - cache GCX3BW.

Just testing the waters to see if there are cachers in the Bakersfield area who would like to stay in touch via this forum, email, or events - or all! Looking to beef up the Bakersfield area, maybe some communication will help. Sign in below, or just sound off about whatever's on your mind - let's start a thread and see where it goes. Hedge777

What we need is a user-compiled rating system for all caches. That way the cream can rise and the stank can sink. The problem isn't micros, it's not knowing which micros suck before wasting an hour on them. If the FTF can say, "this one's really great" and give it five stars, or "thanks for placing the cache, SL, yawn" and give it 1 star, those of us who follow after can at least figure out which are worth the trip.