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PlantAKiss

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Everything posted by PlantAKiss

  1. I was wondering about this on Saturday as I ended up in a spot in the GZ area where a body could easily have been dumped and probably never found. It comes to mind because I did find a dead man in the woods once. I wasn't actually caching at the time but was exploring off-trail along the edge of the small park where all my caches are located. While the body wasn't terribly far from one of my caches, it wasn't where anyone would normally be. A policeman said if I hadn't come across him, he would probably never have been found. (Which would have been really sad. ) Since that time, when I'm out either exploring or caching in isolated areas, I kinda keep my eyes peeled since I now know coming across a body is not out of the realm of possibility. Cacher are so out-and-about in random areas I would think perhaps someone else has had this experience.
  2. A little while back I had an epiphany. I decided there was no one but myself making me go look for caches I find uncomfortable to hunt for--caches (usually micros) in very public, high muggle areas. I hate those caches--they make me feel exposed, awkward and guilty. Now that's just ME. Other people don't mind in the least raising a LP skirt in front of hordes of people or searching in front of a glass storefront. So now if I know ahead of time if a cache is mugglicious, I ignore it. If I get there and find it's mugglicious, I just leave. I no longer feel like I HAVE to find a cache just because it's there. I'll make a judgement if I can git 'er done without feeling uncomfortable, if so, I'll hunt. It's about having fun geocaching. So now it's even more fun because I ignore what are often thoughtless cache hides in leaky containers in public places with no real purpose other than "for your numbers."
  3. Wow...nice Arthur & Trillian! That looks awesome! I wanted to go after the third in a series down a trail to celebrate the Anniversary. I had gotten the other two on a day when it was raining and when I got to the creek, there was no way to cross without getting wet(ter) so I decided what better day to go back than a beautiful Anniversary Saturday. I had a great time! I was escorted down the trail by a cloud of dragonflies. There were ferns and mosses along the way. And inch worms floating by on their silk parachutes. The creek was a little challenge but I bushwhacked to a place where I could cross and not get too wet. And best of all, the cache was located at a WETLAND! A DESIGNATED wetland no less! (So good to see!). I found the cache and then went exploring! I was having a blast. The only negative was I did come across a scary "camp"--campfire, soggy clothes strewn about, debris. That made me a little nervous because I was alone in a rather isolated location. So I headed back and made it back to by car without issues other than other wet foot. I found 2 more small mall-parking-lot caches one of which was located next to a open field full of wildflowers so I had a "field day" (haha) taking flower photos. So I had great fun in celebrating the 15th Anniversary and got home in time to see American Pharoah win the derby!! Yesterday I went out and found one "meh" cache but that gave me finds for both days. I was happy!
  4. Now I LIKE that idea! Probably an old one but considering TB prisons are a pet peeve of mine, I think that's awesome. Lol Kinda like the old game Kick the Can which was so fun to play!
  5. Recently: soggy pack of peppermint gum (could smell the cache before I saw it), skateboard wheel (?), skateboard ball bearing (that the cacher responsible actually noted in his log he left ...), cigarette butt, religious pamphlets, soggy hard candy, a pretty little lpaper box containing chocolate pretzel candy. I never used to find food. ? And let me speak up for rocks and fossils since there has been a lot of dis'ing. Lol While I admit a piece of gravel left in a cache is irritating (I've found that in mine), I have left mineral specimens and fossils, all properly IDed with age and location data. Not to everyone's taste but provided for science/nature lovers, adult and child alike. And I've left civil war bullets labeled with general location data for history buffs. So, not everyone is disgruntled to find a rock...if it's a cool one! ? ?
  6. At one time it was not believed to be wrong to remove other people from their families and homes and make them slaves. Time and knowledge enlightened folks and it was realized this was a bad practice. As we increase our knowlege about what harms our environment, we adjust some of our practices. People learned to dump trash on the ground because it didn't matter. But geocachers know it DOES matter and thus a new practice was born--CITO. You (and Groundspeak) can continue to climb trees because you always have and by God you're not going stop! You can leave that harmless trash on the ground too! . Meanwhile I won't climb trees and me and other cachers who believe in protection for the environment that sustains the game will CITO and continue to "Do No Harm""...or as little as possible. You gotta answer your own caching and personal calling.
  7. I didn't get to read all the thread. But I expected the cat-freak reaction to my comment about tree climbing. You can obfuscate the issue with tales about animals, wind, lightening, chainsaws, etc. but it's a fact--tree bark is armor to protect the more delicate "guts". 1 person, 1 raccoon, a few bird talons ...don't compare to possibly hundreds of cachers climbing up and then back down the same one tree over and over. Bark damage (ever heard of girdling a tree?) IS what allows "death" in, particularly fungus, "the Great Decomposer. I mentioned it because I believed GS had a Do No Harm policy. Now if GS chooses to see digging holes and hammering nails into trees as harmful acts but not tree climbing, so be it. I won't do it because I know better. (Pssst...the reason it's bad to put nails and screws in trees...is because.... it lets in pathogens, insects and fungus.) it's up to each cacher as to what they see as environmentally safe and sound. I mean REALLLLY is digging a hole all that bad?? Animals dig holes! Anyhoo...I just wondered about rule breaking hides because I see them fairly often. Particularly caches hidden on electrical boxes, poles, areas. And half-buried caches. I wondered how they get published. Listers not giving full facts to reviewers or rules getting "flexed".?
  8. I've left cards but not in place of signing a logbook. I always sign unless the log is a glob of goo. In that case I'll log a find and NM. I figure a COs lack of attentiveness does not trump my right to log a cache I found.
  9. I've left cards but not in place of signing a logbook. I always sign unless the log is a glob of goo. In that case I'll log a find and NM. I figure a COs lack of attentiveness does not trump my right to log a cach I found.
  10. Oh wow! What good news! My unimportant opinion is that some people are making "the game" not about THE HIDE but how complex and/or absurd they can make the ALRs (which I thought weren't allowed...except in the case of Challenge caches...which means they are allowed). I took the difficulty ratings to be the challenge (from easy to difficult). Isn't (wasn't) it a game about HIDING and FINDING things??
  11. I'm glad this topic came up. I've seen lampposts with wires showing underneath. I've seen many a cache on electrical boxes, electrical poles, areas near wiring. I always thought any electrical anything was off limits as a safety hazard and wondered how such a cache got approved. You've got newbies so frantic for a smiley that are prying open metal boxes to look inside even if the cleverly camo'ed nano is right under their noses, not actually INSIDE an electric panel. Not everybody realizes that. There are people who don't have a geo-sense yet and get very literal about where a cache might be hidden. I made the "note to self" to no longer hunt for a cache I felt uncomfortable about after going for a nano on electric sign in the middle of a busy shopping center. There were wires pulled out near GZ. I said that is IT! I would never seek a cache on an electrical device of ANY kind ever again. I remember back in the day the mantra of "Do no harm!"--no nails or screws put in trees, no digging holes. Yet people seem to LOVE caches where they have to climb a tree! There is nothing will do AS MUCH damage to a tree as having many people scrambling up their limbs, breaching the bark and allowing in insects, pathogens and fungi that will bring a quick demise to a tree. Or tying a bison tube at the top of sapling so everyone is grabbing the young branches to bring the top lower thereby breaking off all the branches. That sapling will be dead of abuse in no time. I just found out caches are no longer allowed on Wildlife Management Areas and VDOT has banned all guardrail caches (I assume safety reasons on both). But I just rescued 2 TBs out of a TB Prison on a WMA before I knew they were no longer allowed. All guardrails and WMA land caches are supposed to be archived. I just went for 3 caches that are on land clearly marked No Trespassing but was assured it was OK if I went around to the other side where there are no NT signs. (Same land). And I've seen many a preforms 90% buried, particularly along the PT I found. I think some of the caches are innocent mistakes and sometimes its just a cacher who think they can do whatever they want to because they don't give ALL the details about their listings to the reviewer, and it's not likely they'll get caught, or the reviewer is complicit; or some cachers just like to operate under the radar. I dunno. But I'm often shocked by some of the things I see. I know the reviewers don't have X-ray eyes or eyes in the back of their heads. I mostly get upset seeing nature damaged. Thankfully not a lot.
  12. When a friend asks you to go walking with her in a new park but not "do that" and you're thinking to yourself "ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!!! THERE ARE10 CACHES OUT THERE!!!!"
  13. Yes, I've already gotten the message.There is no point in appealing if there is no hope for consideration. I might just leave it down and let cachers who don't care about a smiley find it. Thank you all for the help.
  14. Thank you. The instructions were clearly stated in the cache description and a reviewer published it. So I figured it must be a cache type "new" (to me) like a power trail.
  15. That's what I thought as far as my Stage goes. Keystone had just said "physical container" so that's why I asked if that was literal. I do not consider my first Stage virtual. It's not hints or clues. It's the coords to the next stage. It's very defeating to try so hard to create a fun caching experience for people who like something a little different than tupperware under a log or LPCs, who like a nice walk in the woods, who like to learn about nature. Save for several feet of land, I threw away hours and hours and hours of time, thought, planning....money on container, camo, decent swag, nice FTF gifts, 15th find gift, gas on repeated trips to get it all worked out. All such a total waste. I had one cache exempted for exactly the same situation as I have now so I would never have placed it at all had I known there is NO flexibility as in the past. I understand there are THE RULES...but it seems silly (to me) to let a few feet of land stand in the way of a good hide and some good caching fun. I obviously would never have wasted the time, money and effort. Live and learn. Maybe I'll let the cachers who have been waiting for this to get published go find it if they don't mind not being able to get a "smiley" out of it. I hate knowing the log book will remain empty. Thanks for all the question answering. I'll know better next time what is important for placing a cache. I've definitely learned a lot (truly). Thanks all.
  16. Why does it matter if one person owns all the caches or it's a different person? Oh and is "container" literal or does that mean any method for conveying coordinates? My interfering first stage is a magnetic with coords on it. Not a container if that matters.
  17. Thank you Pup Patrol--I had already read most of what you posted (I do TRY to find answers first...I don't always "get it"). I was still confused. Sorry... I tried looking up offset and got 0 results. And I don't have any virtual anythings. All my caches/stages are physical. I didn't know virt stages existed until someone mentioned that to me recently (that's one of those things that are "new" to me. Keystone, yes my questions are related to my previous question about the appeals process. I am trying everything possible to "save" a cache I worked hard on and I can't move it. Moving would ruin the reason for placing it there to begin with. I think I do remember now that multis were called offsets at one time. Pup Patrol... The cache I mentioned was not a multi cache. It was a regular cache. That's why I was surprised I had to walk quite aways away by instruction from "GZ" to find the cache. In other words, cache not anywhere close to GZ. I still don't understand that. I could well be "disremembering", but I THOUGHT at the time I placed my caches in 2007, the rule was a minimum of the Magic528 between each stage of a multi. Hence, my two multis do not have any stage closer than 528. I was given permission by the reviewer at that time to place a single cache less than 528 from a cache stage. So...am I understanding that a physical CACHE STAGE of a multi is NOT counted for the sat rule? It is the first stage of a multi that is too close to the new cache I'm trying to place. IS THERE HOPE? :-)
  18. I should clarify....rules changes that could have occurred many years ago during my absence from caching. From my original start....gap....start again...things ARE different! I don't remember anything called virtual stages so I have no idea how they work exactly. Nor offset caches. ??
  19. I looked for this information but couldn't find it. I'm sure Pup Patrol will come along and show me where they are. But in the mean time I need to know: 1) What is an offset cache (couldn't find in Gallery of Terms or Cache type). 2) What is a virtual stage? [i know Virt caches have been grandfathered.] Do virtual stages have the 528ft restrictions? 3) With a multi-stage cache, is the first-stage always considered "the cache" and that is the point from which the cache sat. is determined? And the physical stages of a multi must be 528 ft. between stages? (I've seen a multi where the first stage was only 80 feet from the first stage... ). Or can physical multi stages be closer than 528? Does a stage have to be 528ft away from an unrelated cache? I did a cache recently where GZ was a location where you read something off a plaque. You were then told IN THE CACHE DESCRIPTION "to walk South, down a hill a to a boom boom and there you'd find the cache." I've never seen a cache like that before. Was that an offset cache where the cache isn't at the posted coords? Does the offset have to be 528ft.? I'm sorry but I need to understand these things--some rules have changed from the past and some changes are new, and I'm trying to figure it all out and how I can apply it.
  20. I see spoiler logs and photos all the time. I remember when that was such a NO NO! I happen to enjoy reading logs...not particularly for hints, although sometimes. But some of them are downright hilarious! (I often wish there was a Like button for logs...just as I wish there was a Like button for posts so you don't have to quote comments to express approval of a post...but I digress). I'm shocked when I read "It's behind the log next to the oak tree a few feet off the trail." I also love photos and enjoy looking at what other people see at a cache location--nature pics, historic building, etc. Now it seems there are always photos of someone standing right at the location with the cache container in their hand. So I'm hesitant to ever look at the photos which is a shame. I'll post pics of something I saw at a cache that I thought was cool--like a flower or a mushroom--NOT the cache/location. I found a cache yesterday that the CO said was "EYE" level. So just for the record..."eye level" is relative...to how tall (or short!) a person is! lol Just saying'....
  21. Awesome! Thank you for the quick reply Touchstone! Oops. And Pup Patrol!
  22. Topic says it all. Is there an appeals process for a cache placement that gets denied? I've looked around on the forums for an answer prior to asking this question and didn't find anything. I didn't spend 3 hrs looking so if I missed this topic, my apologies. Thanks!
  23. I'd love to see that movie again!!! I'll have to watch the vid of the most difficult cache. Sounds interesting.
  24. Hints in logs. Personally I hate 'em! I don't want them in my cache logs. I really never saw a problem with that until "now." [There was my Previous Caching Life...a gap of years...and Current Caching Life.] I see so many things that are different now and that is one of them. People actually logging, not just HINTS, but actually telling you where to look!! I think that absolutely spoils the whole intent of the game ....a hunt for "hidden treasure!" I don't mind if someone makes kind of riddle-like comments that makes the cacher's wheels turn and think. But to outright state where it is? OR post photos of specially camo'ed container. Nope...I made up my mind not to tolerate it. Neither am I going to tell somebody exactly what the container is ("a painted peanut butter jar hidden in under the holly shrubs"). I don't get that either. Why do people TELL what they are looking for? I thought that was part of the game??! NOT knowing everything and everywhere. Figure it out...look around....HUNT! Then feel the wash of satisfaction when you find it. So...I will be deleting spoilers.And that will be clearly stated up front.
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