Scratch Ankle

Add Malcom5759 to the list. If you search for caches using the user name none are his and none are in my area or any area where I have played. Definitely spam of some sort. First and only instant message I've gotten.

First to Find ain't hard. I know my first time I rushed out the door a month after it was placed in order to be the first to find. Pays to go to remote locations I guess. Funny thing was I was at that location the day the CO placed it.

And how much have you contributed to pollution posting to this forum and looking up caches to go find? All those servers hosting this site and whatever you used to read and post to this forum gets their electrons out of the wall socket connected to an electric power plant (that includes charging a cell phone) and everyone's screaming about that carbon footprint. If you're really serious about not contributing to pollution and global warming you ought to be getting rid of your computer and cell phone devices. And televisions, mp3 players, cd and dvd/blue ray players for us old timers, Rokus and other streaming devices for movies, microwaves, blow dryers ...

I've been telling Google for 10 years or so that 911 addressing in my county caused quite a few roads in my county to be renamed. They haven't responded. That doesn't include that I have learned not to trust the location of businesses as shown on Google maps and this isn't just my county. It is unbelievable how far off they are -- many by several miles. Garmin Nuvi map was updated to our current road names about 5 years ago. You are at the mercy of how up to date the map makers are. Best bet is to have coordinates to work with.

Not everybody uses a smart phone with gps capabilities making print outs very handy. For that matter, not everyone has a cell phone -- it is quite possible to manage your life without one. And if you're an occasional cacher those print outs can be shuffled for today's trip and placed in the order for your route that day. Caches not tried (or not found) that day can have printouts returned to the file (a box in the trunk) for later attempts which is especially handy for impromptu trips. And those caches found can have notes entered on the print out about the search for later posting at home of the found it log. Unless you prefer just seeing those "tftc" posts. And it's funny how the holier than thou people complain about the way someone else does something will complain when someone else pulls their holier than thou preferences on them. For example, how much pollution and climate change are you folks causing by having to charge your smart phones every day or even twice a day as some folks have complained about? All them little electrons coming out of the wall outlet have a carbon foot print. Some of you may be doing solar or wind power for that but it's definitely a minority of you and those things have their own foot print of issues if you care to look. We all have a way that works for us. I don't see any reason I should get on my high horse and complain about the way someone else operates short of illegality of the method. I realize that puts me in the minority.

Just about the time I started caching I read a story about a cacher who was a serial killer and used a coin with a location device in it to find families to kill. It wasn't very good and finishing it had more to do with it being about geocaching that being a good mystery read. I don't remember the title. I got it as a free Kindle book two years or so ago.

You're doing way better than me. My "success" rate is 0%. I put one out that disappeared several states away and was confirmed as missing by a cache owner after someone posted it wasn't in the cache. It reappeared several months later in the same cache but disappeared again from a cache fairly close to me. My second one is in the hands of the second person to pick it up who logged he would move it on along with another one he picked up (which happened to be one I had also handled earlier). He was a new cacher by a day or two and hasn't logged in since after two weeks or so in the game nor has he responded to my inquiry. I'm looking at doing some proxy's but don't think I'll continue with trackables at this point. The loss of the relatively inexpensive trinkets isn't causing me distress like it seems to for many people. I did it for the fun of seeing it move to the destination I set for it. Trouble is that they don't seem to follow my instructions. They had tags specifying where they were to go and mostly they didn't go there. Lots of "visits" and several drops in the wrong direction but basically local moves. Someone did move it from New York to Michigan which got it a good step on the way to Arizona. It moved around there and then someone took it to Texas which thrilled me until the cacher that picked it up in Texas took it back to Michigan. It made it's way back to Kentucky and then got lost due to some maintenance work by the rest area. Two years to simply end up more or less back home and never getting close to the destination wasn't all that interesting especially with the several pages of "visit" logs. If your voluntary pastime isn't interesting why do it?

If you think the area is so bad that bringing your husband with his Glock is necessary I think that is a place you should avoid no matter how good the cache itself is. I carry a Glock myself but I don't go dicey places that I can avoid unless there is an absolute necessity for me to be there and a geocache is NOT a necessity. That may be heresy to some but it's common sense to me.

I had one I recently released which was moved once and two weeks later retrieved by a new cacher that found 78 caches and hasn't logged in since. I had hopes that since he had two trackables he would be moving it on eventually. Turns out both were picked up the same place and same time and the other was even one I had handled not too long prior to that. I contacted him and got no response and I assume there will be no further movement of this trackable. That's the cost of doing business if you play this game. You will lose some trinkets and you may find that's what happens with this one. Don't obsess over it. There are serious problems to get upset about and this ain't one of them. Put some more out there. You can also mark this one missing and send out a proxy. As soon as I can find something I like I will do that with this one and the other one I had out that disappeared during maintenance work.

The cost of business (playing the trackable game) is that at least some of your trackables are probably going to disappear. My first one did (noted by a cacher and later confirmed by cache owner) but it reappeared several months later in the same cache. Later it disappeared the day before I went to pick it up from it's location to try and take it somewhere to move where I wanted it to move to. Seems the rest area did maintenance on the trees and that was the end of it. My second one hasn't shown up since being picked up by the second person to retrieve it. After 5 months I messaged him and there has been no response. In a while I will mark that one missing as well. That's a 100% failure rate but others have had much better luck. What I am doing is looking for something I can use as a substitute and will reuse the numbers and re-release them. Saves the expense of buying more. These were about $8 with shipping IIRC. What I am not doing is obsessing over having a couple of trinkets with little value disappear. It's a minor annoyance at best. A serious problem was the idiot who decided to cover up his theft of my son's TV by burning the house down. Keep things in perspective.

I've had one first to find at an out of the way site but hardly in the middle of nowhere that had been in published a couple months earlier but hadn't been found. A marching band came out of nowhere as did 30 dancing girls in teeny bikinis. There was a ticker tape parade to the state capitol where the governor spoke, the mayor gave me the key to the city, and they served surf n turf for dinner. The dancing girls were pretty interesting but the rest was a serious waste of time and I've made a point of avoiding being first to find ever since.

Interesting. I informed Google Maps at least 12 years ago that 911 addressing had changed most of the road names in my county. Google acknowledged my report but they still show the old road names.

"Why didn't you ask permission to replace the caches BEFORE doing it? Did you even think that those Cache Owners may have wanted to Archive for some reason? " If that cache owner wanted to archive the cache for some reason why didn't he? And of course he still can if he wants to.

There have been times where there was a significant difference in signal strength between my wife's phone and mine. We had the same phone and same carrier. Just because I have a signal doesn't mean you will nor will you having a signal mean I will have a signal. GPS does a much better job but then there are also times it doesn't have a reliable signal either.

I'm not sure what to suggest as to where to drop one other than think about likelihood of it being retrieved -- don't pick a cache at the top of a mountain requiring a 10 mile hike which gets only two visits a year. If you're looking for traveling on a certain type of transport I'd suggest a cache near that certain kind of transport. A tractor trailer transport would be good at a rest stop -- some of the drivers do play the game. Near an airport or near a train station. As to whether they get lost, yes they do. Some are kids finding the trackable interesting and want to keep it and the parents won't say no. Some folks do actually "collect" them and keep them -- some folks call that stealing. Some get lost after being picked up -- they fall between seats (like one I retrieved and took a month to find), get left in a pocket in a jacket, just get dropped on the ground at some point, someone loses interest in the game, whatever. It is the nature of the game and if you are going to do trackables you are going to lose them. But then again some will show back up. I have my first one that disappeared out of a cache noted by another cacher and confirmed by the cache owner. Several months later it reappeared in that same cache. It got picked up and dropped off and picked up by someone who kept it for about 8 months while actively caching -- no idea why. She finally dropped it and I tried to retrieve thinking I would move it someplace so it would maybe travel like I wanted instead of randomly going places. Two days before I tried the trees the cache was placed in were severely trimmed and the cache is no more as far as we can tell. Maybe it will be resurrected again. Who knows.

Don't give up hope. My first TB went missing from a cache for about 5 months. A cacher noted it wasn't in the cache even though inventory showed it there and the co marked it missing later when he visited the cache. Then it reappeared in that same cache and started moving again. Later it was picked up in August of last year and while the cacher was active for the entire time, it wasn't dropped until April of this year. Other than don't give up the only other advice is don't lose sleep over it. It's out of your hands whatever happens. Lots of folks tie themselves up in knots over this.

I have one I released in New York to go to London Bridge in Arizona and then to London KY. It never made it to Arizona and somebody dropped it in Northern Kentucky instead of London like he said he was going to. Someone from London picked it up last August and finally dropped it in a cache a couple days ago (late April) -- back in Northern Kentucky rather than London. My guess is that it is a crap shoot even if it survives to travel back where you want it. And that's a crap shoot in itself. I've been lucky with that one I figure. It kept going northeast instead of southwest but someone finally took it to Michigan. From Michigan someone finally took it to Texas where someone picked it up and said he would move it on. He did do so -- back to Michigan. There it was marked missing from the cache it was dropped in for several months and then reappeared in the same cache it disappeared from. So now it's moving againi and hopefully will make it to Arizona at some point. But I ain't holding my breath.

A month is not much time. Ideally they move quickly but practically they don't for lots of reasons. One being weather. Another issue is a proper place to put it. Small/micro caches abound at least around me and there often isn't a place for even a geocoin. Another thing is history of the cache -- it may be big enough but gets muggled often. That isn't the best place to put a trackable. One of the few caches locally to me large enough to put something in gets muggled often and gets some awful "swag" -- like a used condom once. I don't recommend that cache to anyone. Another issue is just time -- people have jobs and other responsibilities so that they don't get out caching. My wife is one of these and often with trackables I will have to drive a half hour or so to get one to a location where I feel it's a good idea to leave it. We cache together not singly. I'm retired and could spend a lot of time but it is something we do together unless I need to find a drop for a trackable I've picked up. My son picked up a trackable and took it back with him to the large city he just moved to for a new job that had him chasing his tail. Several months later I realized he still had it so he passed it to me and I dropped it -- after I lost it in the car for another month or so. Sometimes a trackable gets lost and a geocoin is easier to lose than some other trackables. Add in illnesses and other calamities to keep people from doing things they would do otherwise. My back for instance. I am just recovering from a month using a cane and it isn't up to serious walking in rough terrain so our trip Sunday will not be to my first choice to a state park on a rough trail but to a nearby city and mostly park and grabs. Almost none look to be large enough to handle a trackable. So for a month I wouldn't get excited. And as was pointed out you did your job. You moved it and properly logged it. The new person logged retrieving it. Fault (if earned) is on her. You aren't responsible for someone else's actions or inaction.

I have back troubles and sometimes move too slow for the compass to realize I'm moving. At least that's what I think my problem is. Speeding up seems to resolve the problem.

I generally think of the kids when I think about swag and you can work to them with simple things like bags of army men as someone suggested. One out of the bag for each cache doesn't take much investment. Of course, you can start with one item for a swap at the first cache and take that swapped item and drop it into the second cache and use the traded item from it to drop into the third and so on. That way you only have an investment of one item. Now to fill up empty caches is a different story but looking around the house (or your parent's house) you may find some stuff that is just collecting dust. To my wife's serious annoyance I gave away a bunch of my son's toys and books to a co-worker in very poor financial condition so they would have a less meager Christmas. She got even more annoyed when shortly after that Stars Wars movies started the second round of popularity and there was a resurgence in interest in the old original toys which were drawing hefty prices although she would have preferred to still have them rather than getting money for them. Price of them was simply something else to fuss at me about. As if I didn't already give her plenty of reason. You may be surprised to find out what your parents have saved of your stuff that you don't have any interest in. My son sure hasn't and I'm fighting to get rid of a lot of stuff. For myself, I seldom actually take something out although my wife will take anything turtle or hummingbird related. Usually I'll just leave something anyway and often it's a dollar coin. I've seen lots quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies in caches too. Unfortunately an awful lot of caches here are film containers, medicine bottles, Altoids tins and so on where swag isn't an option or where very small items like coins are the only option so there isn't much swapping.

I have run across a couple logs that literally only had room for a dot. I generally have blank log sheets and add them. Usually the problem I get into is a soaked log that you cannot sign. Generally these are poorly designed or damaged to the point that a new log and baggie will simply be soaked the next time it rains. Often there are months of notes stating this is a problem. In that case I simply note it is still soaked and go on and add a needs maintenance that probably gets ignored too. If it's a recent issue and appears to be in good shape I'll replace the log and note it but I do hate getting a thank you note from the CO explaining they can't maintain it because they live two states away. Once I had a cache that required using a Sharpie due to the material the log was made out of. For some reason my Sharpie wouldn't really leave much of a mark although it worked fine on similar materials later. Note it and go on. So far I haven't run across any problem with a log deletion when I haven't signed but in those cases it usually appears the CO isn't all that concerned about maintenance so he/she certainly isn't checking logs. Frankly I suspect that the percentage of COs who actually check their physical logs is very low. I also suspect that those who do actually check it stop doing so after a while because it is a lot of effort for minimal return. I had a job where I had to be very anal about making sure everything was backed up by documentation and now that I'm retired I just don't think I could find it in me to be that concerned about something like this -- if I ever place a cache.

I figured out that if I do an update I need to turn the unit on and let it load the update and then download the files. If I don't, the files download but they don't show up on the unit until I connect to the computer and do a file search. Took a couple times with my Etrex to figure that out. As for Garmin support, I had an issue with the Etrex when I first bought it. Support via chat was never responded to, email to the company was not responded to and calling several times resulting in on hold waits that were so long (45 minutes plus for two of them) that I just gave up and went to Google to find the answer to my problem. That took all of about 10 minutes.

Since some loaded and others didn't I doubt this is your problem but I've finally figured out why this has happened to me a couple times with my E-trex. I have a couple times found an update when I connected the unit to the computer so I diownloadedthe update and then downloaded the caches I wanted. Problem was I didn't stop after downloading and start the unit giving it a chance to actually update the unit before downloading the caches. Later in the field when I went to start the unit it would then update the unit and when I finally got to try to find the cache it didn't show on the map. However, when I got back home the cache was listed in the GPX file -- just not on the map.

It would not surprise me a bit if you were to find that your cache would disappear completely within a few finds. Someone is going to be seriously annoyed about this just for the inhalation and eye irritation possibilities. Then there is the difficulty in getting rid of the stuff from their clothes. I bought a used car over a year ago that I figured I would be able to get rid of the glitter that was stuck to the back seats and the floor of the cargo area. Still trying to do that. It should have occurred to me that if CarMax had the car on the lot with glitter on the upholstery that it probably wasn't going to go away easily.

It isn't just the different carriers that affect the availability of a signal being present. There is a difference in whether you have a prepaid plan or a contract. Prepaid plans do not have the same coverage as a contract plan does. I had this pointed out to me by a guy at a Verizon store who knew I was only interested in information on their prepaid plans. He told me that if I was not interested in a contract plan he could not recommend their prepaid plan because "the coverage sucks". This guy works on commission by the way. The other factor is what phone you have. Some phones have better reception than others. A coworker on the same plan but with a different phone had a half strength signal where I had none. My son had a Straight Talk (prepaid) phone using ATT cell towers. He had no coverage in the home in was living in in a major city and was only 3 miles or so from one of the ATT towers. Combination of both the phone and the prepaid plan.