PlantAKiss

I have a FitBit. Generally speaking the goal isn't really about continually increasing step numbers. 10,000 steps a day is the recommended goal for "healthy activity." A FitBit makes you aware of what type/amount of activity is needed to achieve that daily benchmark. And of course it's great to do more if you like. But it's not about continually increasing step numbers. While with caching stats, it IS about continually raising numbers of souvenirs, finds or what ever. In my First Caching Life there were no such things as grids, stats, souvenirs, powertrails, etc. It was just having a good time being outdoors hunting for a cache--woohooo--I found it!!!. I'm a little surprised to see so many comments about caring about stats. I wonder if it's the influence of computer gaming where scores/achievements/stats/badges etc. are the objective. I don't pay attention to that stuff. I didn't even know I had any souvenirs til recently (or for that matter what a souvenir was). It's definitely harder to find experience-based caches these days. Gotta weed through slews of nanos and LPCs "to help your numbers" or "fill your grid" or meet a numbers "challenge." I will continue to Cache Simple and... keep an eye for the magic 10,000 on my FitBit! Caching is a great way to hit that FitBit number!

I saw a mention today about souvenirs for Leap Day. I'm not really into the souvenir thing but do like to mark an "occasion" with a cache find sometimes. Why is a Leap Day souvenir being offered for 3 days? Why would finding a cache on the 27th and 28th be any different than any other day? The 29th is the "special day." And is there a different souvenir for attending an event AND finding a cache? Something was hinted. Anyone have any special plans for Leap Day?

Bozeman?!! Have you ever met Paul Andersen?!! He's my hero! An amazing teacher/videographer. I hope you are successful with your documentary.

I'm not but I think that's a great idea! Family caching! I hope to get out caching sometime over the holidays.

That's beautiful!

Couldn't have said it better myself! Thank you NYPC! CCs often seem to become a game in itself to create crazy--let's call it what ithey are--ALRs which exclude a lot of cachers and encourage real-estate-eating spew so people can get the numbers to qualify. Maybe if it can be set up so all can hunt and log a Find and but give those that meet the ALRs 100 gold stars or souvenir or a recognition they feel happy with for meeting the requirements. I think if ALRs are allowed, it's hard to control what encourages spew and what is truly a challenging CACHE. Are the NUMBERS challenging or is the cache itself challenging like a hard puzzle or a D/T 5? I always thought it was terrain and difficulty that made for a challenging cache. I don't really care about numbers, souvenirs, badges, grids...I just like a good hunt, good journey, good location. Maybe at least give CCs their own icon if they are continued. BTW, everyone here is expressing their OPINIONS and have a right to them. No need to be insulting or derogatory if you disagree.

Get rid of Challenge caches. They are ALRs. While I'm sure there are good ones the ones I've seen are all about high numbers and encourage nano spew in order for cachers to be able to fulfill the ALRs. It seems so remote from the original "hide and seek" type of game. Find 25 caches every day for 6 months...so you can log a Found It on a nano stuck on a metal sign. I don't get it... It's sad. So many LPCs, nanos, micros to build numbers. It's so nice but getting rarer to find a cache someone put any thought into. I appreciate all the hiders that put some effort into making it about the journey and/or clever hide.

I have to say I hate the mobile version of this forum. It's horrible. It won't let me edit my post to fix the autocorrect. Text is so minuscule I can barely read it. The "loading" alert gets stuck all the time. Anyway, my post was supposed to say "...a lock feature over a TB..."

Hmmmm. It IS nice to have a lock feature over nothing...and that GS listened to members concerns over rampant fake discoveries, but it would have been nice to block discoveries as opposed to locking up all activities on a TB. I just had an MIA TB "discovered" in Germany. No way!

Well this explains the mysterious log I got recently...on A TB that' went missing in 2008! Same person...nrohcs in Germany. "nachlog! danke fürs zeigen! wo gesehen kann leider nicht mehr genau eruiert werden" "After log! Thanks for the show! where seen can unfortunately no longer accurately be determined" <removed by moderator> I don't know how they got the tracking no. since it was never displayed publicly. Randomized? It got my hopes up for a second...the TB honored my Rainbow geodog.

I'm so sorry! I know how hard it is. Hope Molly meets my geodog up there.

Has anyone used naval jelly on a coin? I was worried about the enamel paint. Thanks for the suggestions!

I just recently found a coin in a cache that was impacted with mud and had been like that for quite some time. There were 2 coins actually and I took them home to get them cleaned up. Turns out one is a Pathtag (first one I've seen) and I'm not quite sure what the other one is. Both have rust on them. My question is....has anyone ever found a geocoin that was rusted and were you able to de-rust it without destroying the finish on the coin? I don't want to use an abrasive and something like naval jelly scares me too. It'll never be "normal" but I'd love to get it a little nicer looking if possible. Thanks!

"DUH." "OW!"

Aww! I watch House Hunters! But I haven't seen that one. Maybe on a rerun.

I can remember the day when it was fun looking over SWAG in a cache. That was part of the treasure hunt! While it's not the most important part by far, it's still disappointing to see what some people leave. And so much SWAG just for kids. Hey, I might like something too if there was anything interesting. I usually leave something but rarely take. I try to put something that could appeal to an adult or child...mineral specimens like Quartz points, amethyst, geodes; civil war bullets, vintage bottle caps, milk bottle caps, beautifully lithographed vintage seed envelopes, vintage wooden ice cream spoons, foreign coins, 99-cent bandanas, mosquito wipes, shawty pens and pencils.... I'm always looking for something cheap and interesting. I just bought a bag of about 300 Tibet Quartz crystals. I bagged em up 5 to a bag. I'm always trying to think of GOOD swag! Bring back the day of ammo cans and digging through "treasure" that you worked hard to find!

Oops...I just saw this part: "But you already knew that, as you've published two multis." Some people make mistakes. Yes I own two multis published in 2007 I believe. It was my undertanding at that time, apparently incorrectly, that stages had to be 528 ft apart. So my multi stages ARE 528 ft apart. So in fact, I did not "already know" stages could be less. I am an imperfect cacher. I did look through the guidelines, mostly trying to find out what an offset cache entailed. I did not see tbe "can have stages 100 feet apart." Im so sorry I missed that and you had to point it out to me since "I already knew that." I did not read the guidelines on multis because I THOUGHT I knew they had to be 528 ft. apart. If I "already knew" stages could be less, I would have known I could create a multi to accomplish what I'd like to do and never asked the question to begin with. While I HAVE read the guidelines, numbers of times over the years, I do not have each section memorized. And the guidelines change. I could read through the whole thing right now and not remember EVERYTHING I read. I'm sure all the moderators have much more familiarity with all the sections as they should. It would be easier for you to hop to the proper section than the average cacher. Being here to answer the endless stupid questions over and over is why mods exist. I KNOW the job. I was a moderator on a forum for many years. It's work, takes a lot of time and dedication, can be frustrating, and isn't nearly as appreciated as it should be. So I appreciate having the multi guidelines pointed out to me for my edification since I obviously didn't understand it. I do not appreciate the unnecessary comment "but you already knew that." That was kind of offensive. These forums exist to help people because nobody knows or understands EVERYTHING perfectly. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions to me without judgement. ALL suggestions were/are helpful! EDIT: my apologies to Pup Patrol. I made an assumption you are a moderator because you frequently do quote guidelines. I don't know if you are or not. But I still think the added comment was not necessary to answer my question.

I know about the cache sat rule. But I am really confused. When I put down my first caches (long ago) I was under the understanding that any physical stage must be 528 feet apart. So that is how I set up my multi caches. But then I found a cache where the second stage was only 80 feet from the first stage. Just the other day somewhere on here I read that any physical object related to a cache must be 528 feet apart. And no I don't remember where that was I can look and try to find it. At any rate, thank you for the help. If the sat rule doesn't apply to stages then a multi is the way to go. Although I know many people hate multis. It would be a very short one though. Please pardon any weird typos. The dictation feature does odd things and the text for the Reply box is minuscule on the phone.

Hello all, Before someone suggests this, yes I have use the search feature and read a number of topics to find the answer to my question but I'm not finding it. I'm having to use my phone to use this site which is not a very easy way to search and type out things. I'm considering placing a cache in an area that has two interesting spots but they are very close to one another, within eye sight. So I obviously cannot make it a multistage. Is there a way to set up a cache so that you bring cachers to one spot to see something and then move them to another nearby spot where the cache is actually hidden. The location is in the woods in a park. Thanks for your help. --PAK

Things that IRK? Really...a chance to rant on your pet peeves? Not a new topic but always temporarily cathartic. -- Non-waterproof containers -- LPCs -- Powertrails -- Challenge caches -- Laconic logs -- Broken toy bits as swag -- Micros eating up valuable woodland real estate -- New search system -- TB Hotels with restrictions placed by experienced cachers who should know better!

I drove quite a ways out this past weekend to get a TB out to a TB Hotel near the airport as it needed to jump the pond. I was shocked to find the "TB Hotel" was a small pill bottle!! REALLY?? It had an inventory of 7 listed (which of course we're t there). There was no way my TB would fit in that little thing!! So "when it didn't fit...", I had to locate another larger cache to drop it. Wasted gas out there. Could have dropped it in any ol' reg cache closer to home. Seriously, why use such a small container as a hotel near an airport?? COMMON SENSE PEOPLE!!! Ok. Whew. Got that off my chest. Thanks! ?

<quote>the cache itself being nothing more than a piece of carp</quote> I'm really surprised that got past the Reviewer. Or maybe a piece of rotting fish meat is the best camo ever.

I have a coin that traveled in 2007 from the USA to Germany. It's been in one person's possession for over 2 years. He has dipped it for miles but not logged in almost a year. Someone sent a nice note in German...no response. Breaks my heart.

I've put FTF gifts in my caches, usually gift cards. I also put a 15th to Find prize for cachers like me who can never seem to be ahead of the usual FTFers. I think my best FTF gift was an awesome miniature ammo can which was greatly appreciated by the finder. I think years later I saw some for sale at GC.com. I currently have gift cards in an unpublished cache. I need to go get those back I reckon.

Those are some very sad stories. Bones decades old. Wow. One thing I was happy about was the fact that this man I found was identified and claimed. His loved ones didn't have to wonder where he was. I'm not religious but I maintain that area, and have a marker there to honor his passing. I think it's terribly sad he died out there alone. Because of a creek, it wasn't likely a cacher would have found him but he was actually quite close to my cache's final stage. That body cache would be kinda creepy to find in a cool way. A great one for Halloween caching.