cimawr

It's exactly what geocaching was originally intended to be about. There are FAR too many caches in my area that take me nowhere but the grimy areas behind shopping centers. Even if the hide is clever (which most of the time they're not), they annoy me - especially because I've seen some extremely clever ways to hide things in a shopping center without making other cachers slink around the dumpster areas, touch places where electric wiring goes, OR be ridiculously conspicuous.

Having been sucked back into this addiction recently... Couple of days ago, I got my first new purchase, namely the Welsh Dragon mini-coin. Today I got my black Geo-Rattler mini, which I am now wearing.

Don't know! It shouldn't be that high for a geocoin... I'll check the listing settings. Ah, found part of the problem - last time I sold something (a couple of years ago), I'd added a $2.00 handling fee because the item was fragile... EBay "helpfully" automatically tacked it on again. I've removed that! EBay is doing the shipping calculations, btw, after being told that the item would be a thick envelope sent USPS. Editing to add: Found the other part of the problem - Ebay's "calculating" is obviously off kilter. Changed it to flat rate of $3.00 which ought to cover shipping a geocoin!

Don't know! It shouldn't be that high for a geocoin... I'll check the listing settings.

I'm doing some clearing out & will be selling off some of my duplicate geocoins.. all are brand new, unactivated, and trackable on geocaching.com. First one I've put up is the 2006 Scorpio - the "Buy it Now" is higher than most others will mostly likely be since I've been told this one is particularly desirable/hard to find. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190519180035&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Mine is a picture of my "handle" nearly everywhere EXCEPT geocaching.com/Groundspeak, namely Sionnach Dhu ("Black Fox" in Scots Gaelic). Can't remember now why I used my secondary one (Cimawr is "big dog" in Cymraeg) instead.

I'm guessing it was placed on the vertical fence post, or on some other part of the fence that wasn't "hot". The "hot" part of an electric livestock fence is a horizontal wire or wires; the problem is that a person may grasp the wire without realizing that it's "hot".

Adding to the consensus: If you put a cache on someone's fence - electric livestock fence or not - you've placed it on private property without the owner's permission. It should be removed and archived on that basis alone, let alone the issue that most livestock owners I know would not appreciate strangers messing around with their fences and/or disturbing their animals. Safety to cachers is a lesser issue, but even if you had the owner's permission & warned people the fence is electric I wouldn't consider the placement appropriate.

I'm in the "easy isn't the same as bad" camp. My definition of good and bad hides is more about how much care has been taken in choosing the location than difficulty, although I do enjoy *clever* hides - IF they're in a location I feel comfortable with. My general "bad hides/pet peeves" categories: 1) Shopping mall/urban caches near or on dumpsters that contain *garbage*, or have large amounts of broken glass and other hazardous trash scattered around. Double my dislike if there are perfectly good trees, bushes, etc. nearby. 2) Caches placed in areas where there's broken glass everywhere. CITO is fine, but don't send me into an area where local lowlifes hang out and smash bottles without giving me fair warning. 3) Caches placed in sketchy areas - ESPECIALLY caches placed with disregard for the fact that someone homeless is living nearby. There was a notorious one in my area that required walking directly through a large homeless camp, and the CO KNEW it. Not only unsafe and uncomfortable for the cacher, it's dadgum rude to the people living there! 4) Caches placed on private residential or agricultural property without the owner's permission, and/or caches placed in locations that make me feel I'm invading a homeowner's privacy. Double black marks for ASSuming private property is public simply because the area is 10 feet outside somebody's back yard fence. Fences are not always directly on property lines! 5) "Stealth" caches in high-traffic commercial areas, as mentioned by several others in the thread. 6) Caches placed in high places by tall people who don't take into consideration that people of all heights cache. I'm talking about ones that are literally unfindable/unreachable if you're not as tall as the person who placed it. Specific "worst caches I've ever looked for": A rusty Altoids tin dropped into a ventilation grille behind a supermarket, five feet from the dumpsters, about 30 feet from the loading dock (e.g. if a truck was being unloaded, there was no way to retrieve the cache without being seen), and DIRECTLY BEHIND the area where pallets of flattened boxes were stacked DAILY. IOW, at least 50% of the time the cache was completely inaccessible - and the CO was fully aware of it, because he stated in the cache listing that "temporary objects" might be in the way. He failed to mention that said "temporary objects" weren't movable without a forklift! A cache buried in pine needles in the drivethrough drug pickup of a CVS, AND right next to the dumpster... literally unsafe in a number of ways. I gave it a pass after realizing that finding it would require sticking my hands into an area with broken glass and other nasty trash, and so did a lot of other people. A cache placed in a narrow (approximately 30 feet wide) gully which between the back and side yards of several private residences, in full view of all (several cache logs relate being watched and/or approached and questioned by residents) and which I strongly suspect is private property. Access to the area is only possible by trespassing, or by going so close to a private yard that you might as well be. To complete the stupidity of the hide, it's listed as "dogs allowed", yet there are dogs in at least one of the yards who are reported barking at cachers. I gave it a pass after driving by and looking at the area.

Thanks Eartha! . (I found the guidelines & edited my post as you were posting your reply, I believe.)

I'm going to be selling off some of my duplicate geocoins (all unactivated). It's been quite a while since I regularly participated on this forum (life events got in the way of both geocaching and coin collecting for a few years), and I can't recall whether or not posting links to EBay auctions is frowned on... can someone enlighten me? Editing to add: Dur, never mind, I found the guidelines.

I just ordered two with the celtic design... yeah, it's a tad "generic", but the feathers are associated with the Prince of Wales, who is not - and never has been - Welsh. (And for those who aren't aware... "Ich dien" is GERMAN, not Cymraeg. )

I believe the military geocoin that was produced several years ago is not supposed to be sold or traded - it was given out only as a gift to people who were serving or had served as active military. (The producer very kindly sent me one to gift to a geocaching friend who's retired Army but doesn't use the forums.)

My S.O. called me up one day and said "Hey, are you near your computer? If you are, go to geocaching.com." *He* had heard about it from a friend, and immediately thought it sounded cool - he was, in fact, standing in Wallyworld choosing a GPS when he called. So I I looked it up, and since I like puzzles, I like being out of doors/hiking, and I like gadgets, it intrigued me, as well. The following weekend, he, his son, and I went out and did a cache run, and I was well and truly hooked - went home, bought myself a GPS, and started hunting on my own. I've now been at it for about 18 months - no huge numbers since I'm a busy person, and a hiatus the last few months due to family stuff, but I'm still at it.

I agree. And even more so with this! I'm in a saturated area; plenty of people who make hides, and several who put out a high number of good-quality, imaginative caches. There's absolutely no reason for those with less time and motivation to put out caches just for the sake of doing it.

What Nishna said! There's absolutely no reason, IMO, for anyone to consider an item of ordinary underwear "inappropriate". What, we should put blindfolds on kids every time they go in WallyWorld, for fear they'll see a bra or a pair of briefs? Gosh, maybe my sister should have made the kids put bags over their heads in the laundromat, too.... Now, if it were something like black lace crotchless panties, I could maybe see the viewpoint - but even then any parent with half a brain can find a way to "explain" those.

I live just north of Baltimore, but I don't cache in the city (in fact, I avoid going into the city, full stop ), so I can't give you specific cache suggestions. However, I CAN suggest going to the Maryland Geocaching Society site forums and asking there - it's a pretty friendly and helpful group: Maryland Geocaching Society I'll also suggest that if you'll have a vehicle, and interest in doing some non-urban caches, there are several parks within 5-10 miles of the city which have multiple caches - Robert E. Lee, which is just north of the city line, is about 500 acres of mostly woods and trails, and has 6-7 caches; Cromwell Valley, which is in Towson (about a half hour drive from downtown) is 700 acres of farmland and woods, and has about 6.

Yah, those popped up about half a day after the original listings I referred to. :-P Both crazy and sad.

Common Internet acronym/shorthand for "with reference to". ah - I think I must have conflated the "unscrewing" to mean that you took it apart with the screwdriver, same as you did with the access plate; an impression enhanced by you saying you'd damaged it. Also, for some odd reason - probably because 1) I had the flu and 2) I'd just been talking to someone who inspects fire safety equipment (aka sprinkler systems) for a living - I originally had the mental picture of a fire safety sprinkler, not a landscaping watering sprinkler. Well yes, I do have a personal preference for using common sense, and for not damaging other people's property, as well as for not screwing around (pun intended, sorry!) with live electrical equipment, if you want to look at it that way. However, that's a GENERAL preference, not just something caching-related. Yes, I live in a fairly saturated area. However, I wasn't aware of that until I'd been caching for several weeks, and it doesn't change the fact that in my first week of caching, I would not have taken out a screwdriver and unscrewed an access plate - nor would I do so now. Incidentally, I'm not talking in a vacuum; I DID walk away from a cache which appeared to require unscrewing an electrical plate within my first two weeks of caching. And I'm sorry, but I don't buy the argument you appear to be making, e.g. that having less caches available means that it's ok for a cacher to suspend common sense and/or common courtesy. Your last two sentences are, I'm afraid, irrelevant to the discussion - unless you're now saying there were geocaching logos on the access plate and the sprinkler head. Rather obviously, this discussion isn't about cache containers which are clearly marked as such.

I agree with you in general, however.... take another look at those listings. Those particular Compass Rose coins are actually being sold [/b] by the maker , and they aren't the finishes that were sold for $10 on the coinsandpins website; they're gold on one side and nickel on the other, which makes them even higher value as a collector's item.

No, I'm not confusing the two caches. My entire post is referring to your destruction of private property at the prison; again, sorry, but I find it astonishing that anyone - no matter how new to the game - could think that the clue in question translates to "get out tools and take apart safety equipment". Sorry, but "Lift and look", to me, simply does not translate to "take apart with tools". WRT common sense and time spent caching.... I've been caching for six months, but had I been caching for ONE DAY, I would never have taken out a screwdriver and disassembled a working sprinkler head, regardless of its location - just as, when I had been caching one week, I walked away from a cache that appeared to require unscrewing a small box on a light pole, and would have walked away from one that required unscrewing an access panel. And WRT hiding OR seeking a cache on prison grounds, lack of common sense on the part of the cache hider does not excuse lack of common sense on the part of the cache seeker.

Now who doesn't know what they're talking about? I never met my maternal grandfather because he died on D-Day. My father-in-law served in Europe and was fortunate to make it back home in one piece. Apologies, sbell, but I believe you're the one a bit off base with this. I don't believe he was referring to speaking to someone who survived WWII, nor to WWII in general; rather, when he said "it", he was referring to the Holocaust and/or Nazi concentration camps - which is what the quote in question refers to. My father is a WWII vet; but growing up with him did not make me personally aware of the reality of the Holocaust.... learning about it in school is not even *remotely* the same as knowing people who directly survived the death camps, or who escaped but lost most of their families - which I did not experience until I was in high school and a bit later. Have you ever seen a Nazi ID number tattooed on someone's arm, or worked on a day-to-day basis with someone who escaped (he managed to jump out the tiny window of a death train)- and was the only member of his immediate family to live? I have, and I'm sorry, but I have to agree with the OP that geocaching - a game played for fun - does not exactly equate to the sort of situation the quote refers to.

Erm.... sorry, again, but I'm not quite understanding how "lift and look, not hard to miss" translates into "take out a screwdriver and disassemble safety equipment on private property". I'm also really not understanding how anyone could read numerous logs saying a cache was easy to find, and leap to the conclusion that an easy find would involve - again - getting out tools and disassembling safety equipment.

Golly. Do you always tear up the area that you are searching in? I've found a few caches and have never felt the need to take a screwdriver to any piece of equipment. I've also found a few sprinkler head caches. They were all obvious. A quick inspection (without disassembly) determines whether a sprinkler head is real or fake. For some reason, everyone is quick to read your post and jump on the band wagon to ban LPMs. However, you didn't know that either of those caches were LPMs. In fact, you didn't check to see if they were LPMs. The real moral of the story is that we should all use our heads when looking for a cache and not do damage to the area. This is true whether you are looking for a cache in the woods or in the asphalt jungle. What sbell said. Sorry, cache-n-dash, but your post didn't make me think "Gosh, perhaps we should ban caches where somebody might think s/he needs a screwdriver, and mistakenly take apart or destroy private property"; it made me think "Geez, why on earth would anyone take out a screwdriver and do that in the first place??" Even if the caches HAD been hidden where you thought they were, IMO a person exercising common sense and common courtesy** would have refrained from taking apart items such as you describe. **In reference to which, I shall quote my grandmother: "Common sense ain't".

In fairness to Basset Hounds, isn't that slobber from one of the Bloodhounds?