TKDenizen

New Years Day 2008. I usually Cache alone and one thing I've always noticed is how quiet this game usually is. However, on this day I went out to look for a fairly new cache placed by one of the well known locals. As I approached GZ, I heard Hip Hop music? coming from the bushes. I thought it might be some clever twist like one of those frogs you put on the porch that croaks when someone comes near that had been modified. GPSr was telling me the cache was closer to the bridge so I continued. A little while later, I heard the music? again and ran over getting a little closer to the source. It stopped again. Then it started again and i found a pile of beer cans, presumably from the night before with a cell phone in the middle. I tried to answer it but it stopped ringing. Then it started again so I tried to answer to tell the owner where the phone is. But this clever subscriber had enabled a security feature that prevented me from using his phone. Several more Hip Hop ring tones in a row then silence. I found the cache and was about to leave when three teenagers came through. They tried to ignore the old man in the cargo pants till I asked if anybody lost a phone. One of the boys asked me where I found it and I said "in that pile of beer cans over there. I tried to answer it to tell you where it is but you had it locked up." He was glad to have his little buddy back but seemed a little annoyed that I knew about their secret pile of cans.

I've found that if the cacher who placed the cache used a Garmin and you have a Magellan you'll be about 20 to 30 feet off from GZ. I've been told its because they use different logic in their program that reads the satellites. Kind of a big deal if your looking for a bison tube in a hedge row. I've also noticed way more Garmin than Magellan, though not quite 99%, so most of the caches were placed using a Garmin. I've been using a Magellan for about a year and found that for my unit, in this part of the world, if I add 3 to the longitude, I'll often get a lot closer.

Please remember a little history about caches before you cop an attitude about being a little covert. During the Cold War, covert operatives would hide a cache in the woods in case they were discovered. It was often, and you may find this remarkable, ammo cans with money, travel papers for neighboring countries, a change of clothes, and numerous passports with assumed identities. There are more similarities. You know that micro in a film can inside a brick or knothole in a tree? It used to be called a dead drop and was used to pass Minox film, AKA micro film, off to another spy without being spotted together. Some of us actually know each other and want to pass things off to each other but know we'll pass a cache before we see each other again and use the system that way. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm! Ever think of those things? Next time you drive by a cache you've done and see someone poking around, honk and wave, because you know what they are up to. Before I invite someone to join in, I like to know a little about them, like their name. Will they take the coins, some are quite expensive, or be a problem because they can? We aren't an "exclusive club" but it does pay to be selective. Some of us put out member only caches to greatly reduce traffic so the cache doesn't get muggled. Have any of your caches been muggled? No. Yes would imply that you have gone to that expense and trouble to think up a concept, BUY some stuff, and actually contribute to the caching community. From what I can tell, you have not. Are you ready to take that risk with someone else's time and money? Sounds like you are totally ready to take that risk with my caches or anyone else who has gone to the trouble. Let me know, I'll be glad to return the favor. Please let me return the favor? Please? Please? Now, my answer as to how to answer the "Watcha doin?" question is simple. A) Cops asking. I show them a printout from the cache page. They can find all the answers to all their questions and I don't sound like a Kook. others. I'm looking for a game piece. I went to one here in town behind a doctor's office and ane employee came out for a cigarette. (how bright can he be) He asked me what I was up to and I said looking for a game piece. As he finished his cigarette, he said "Game piece?" I said someone else must have gotten it. I don't think we need that moron pilfering the boxes for the good stuff and I don't want to be the moron who brought him in. A smoking health care professional?????????????????????

Magellan 200 GPS ?.00 it was a gift Flashlight ?.00 Secret Santa Swag 0.00 Happy Meal toys, Mardi Gras Beads, Rubber duckies from some celebration at work Swag 10.00 Play money from the Chinese Super Market, Three $2 bills in my wallet and a George Washington dollar coin for those very special caches. (Micros usually don't qualify. The $$ is usually for my own caches to reward a FTF but I've been known to leave something for the owner ) Answer for me on this topic is not much money in my cache bag at all. In fact, I have no cache bag. I wear BDU pants for the pockets and unless I know I need a string with a hook or a gallon of water to extract the cache, If it doesn't fit in those pockets, I'll have to come back for it.

Wet ones are a problem but not for me. I always carry a few logs in my wallet in little baggies too small for a pencil. I always carry a pen too so I can log my find and the next few can do the same till the owner can do maintenance. People are surprised that I have them but hey, it makes my life a little better and 5 or 6 take up no more room in my wallet than a credit card. They're about 1.5 inches wide and 8.5 inches long with lines on both sides and can fit in a micro film can or smaller. I don't leave the pen.

I like to leave a two dollar bill. Not too flashy but kind of unusual.

I wear a pair of military BDU cammo pants. I'm sure some of the locals wonder if I have any others. Two extra large pockets for geoswag a flashlight, and, (do you need much else?) I've found that if you have twice the space, you'll carry twice the stuff. I try to always carry a pen and a fresh log in a little zip top in my wallet for those soggy logs. Start with the cargo pockets. If you if you fill those up with stuff you usually need, then look at a fanny pack. If you trek .22 miles and need that little gizmo, you can go back to the car. However, a 22 mile hike requires a little more planning. Happy caching and don't weigh your self down too much.

I must say that theses are all good tips. I think that doing your homework is probably most important. Look at the clues and spoilers. Print it out. You may need to check the coords or clues and it'll help answer a lot of questions the cops may have and avoid sounding like a kook. Read the previous posts for clues. Know when the it was last found. Did the finder back in September talk about it being way up high or under something? As far as the GPS having a problem, that is certainly a possibility but there may another one. I've caught some grief over the coords I publish for my caches. On any given cache, they would be dead on or 20 feet off. I was told the there are two formulas that the GPS manufacturers use to read the sats. I thought I was pulling one over by going to a cache site before my buddy had a chance. DNF!!! We showed up together, he went straight to it. My arrow was pointing 20 feet to the east where I'd been looking earlier. Also, most cachers are pretty good about helping each other out. Especially helping the newbies. Try emailing someone who found it recently who had something to say. Good luck and have fun.

Maybe so but he did teach me how to get ahead. That IS what I paid for, don't you know?. My life isn't over because I went to school and learned how to get ahead. I know we're all headed for the short trench but face it, I want to leave mine, more toys than you want to. Does that make me evil??? At the end of the day, the more I have at the end of the day, the more pleasures I can have. Simple or otherwise. Accounting ensures that outcome.

I would offer a few points of my own. All of my points have probably been addressed in this thread but I'll offer them anyway. First The one hiding the cache has a "within X feet" on his GPS. You also have "within X feet" on yours. If your model and theirs doesn't match, It can throw you off even more. The GPS will take you to a spot and you often have to circle out to find it especially if you are in the woods. Second Take a print out with you. I used to arrive at gz thinking I'm looking for an ammo can only to find out it was a micro when I got back home. You also have the clue with you which is often helpful. And...The number One reason to bring a printout with you....If confronted by security or the local constabulary, you have something in writing that can be verified pretty quickly. Not a free pass if trespassing, but it can answer a lot of questions if they need to be answered. Third Read the posts, especially the early ones. The first few finders can give great clues though cryptic at times. That also can help you understand the hider. We have a cacher in town who just LOVES micros. When I'm looking for one of his, my first trip is just a look-see and then the cryptic hints are a little less so. Other suggestions Do some Event Caches. Meet and eat with like minded folk. Get to know some of the other cachers in your area. They love to talk about their experiences and encourage "newbies". Put out a cache of your own and see who comes by. The first few are going to be the die-hards, followed by the serious, followed by a lull, followed by cache run types. That's okay, thats the cycle. I also suspect that your weather is about to become perfect. Being from Alabama, I can't imagine caching in the snow. Take care TKD

My recollection of that quote is Those who do not LEARN from history are doomed to repeat it. In other words, history is a CAUTION to future generations. In order to learn from history and not repeat those mistakes, one must learn and understand the facts. The historical facts here in the south are muddled by "Political Correctness" which is not a new term. It was actually coined by Jews in Bismark's Germany over a hundred years ago. I think we all know how that turned out. My family did fight in the War Between the States for a cause they believed in and won. They were abolitionists. But you know what? It was a fight over taxes, period. Fail to learn that and you are doomed to repeat it. The Revolutionary War was also a fight over taxes. It could also be asked 'Why Geocache'. It seems a little silly for adults to go looking for Tupperware full of McToys for nothing more than a Smilie by your name. What does THAT really count for? Absolutely nothing, ...except that it's fun. There can be a redeeming quality and social significance to benchmarking. If a benchmarker logs his finds on GC.com - or more particularly with the NGS - that benchmarker is helping to further the Geodetic and scientific studies of a particular area. Future surveyors and engineers can read and learn from those logs, and further their work. It is true that the search for benchmarks often teaches a local history. Few caches do that. Whether that local history is good or bad is not as relevant as the possible personal growth obtained by the benchmark hunter. There are parts of the country (and world) where people have done some unconscionable things in the name of race, gender, religion, politics, even safety. There is no doubt about that. But to NOT do an activity simply because it invokes memories of those unconscionable things isn't too intelligent either. George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905) If benchmarking helps an individual move forward, farther from that history that we may not want to remember, that's a good reason to do it. - Kewaneh

History for us in the south is just wrong. Those of us who love history are just evil racist thug conservatives. We stood at the school house door preventing blacks from entering the university of Alabama. No, that was Wallace, a Democrat. Those evil conservatives established the pole tax to keep undesirables from voting. No, democrats again. I understand the local history and will not go to a dangerous place to prove it to....no one???? If you don't count it I won't do it.

While in college, I had a professor advise us to "Do only that which is counted. Many of you are working your way through school so here's the context. You my be the best refrigerator sales person that Lowe's ever had. But, if the boss wants you to sell the discontinued washer dryer set, don't even try to sell the fridge. Do that which is counted." If I can find a few more pill bottles, and my buddies want to give me an ammo can to honor my achievement, bring it on. Count it or I won't do it. Tracy

Why bother with benchmarking? What are the benefits? It takes about as long, Lhe coords are off even more than usual, and there is no GC credit for a find. I have a hard enough time finding for Geocaching. Why bother?

Why bother with benchmarking? What are the benefits? It takes about as long, The coords are off even more than usual, and there is no GC credit for a find. I have a hard enough time finding for Geocaching. Why bother?

I'm a new geocacher and I must say I'm disappointed and put off by this thread. I have logged the caches we've found and also the ones we haven't (2, I think), one of which may be gone, since I am not the only one to have a problem, and someone else cryptically stated that the coordinates were off but did not state the correct ones (not to mention that there is no nearby place to hide anything). If I am violating some unwritten Code of the Geocacher, I apologize, but I can't help but feel miffed at the view that my new efforts are somehow diluting the appeal of geocaching for the Privileged Early Geocachers. Should I just stay off the boards until I'm an old timer and can grouse about the way the world is going to heck in a handbasket?