pandaphil

Just remember to wear warm socks. Of course you won't catch ME doing it. Watched Blair Witch Project just too many times.

God luck gipsie! We all have good and bad caching days (speaking from personal experience) so don't let it get you down. You might also want to check maps of your general area. My first find was located about a black and a half from my house. Been hooked ever since.

cimawr - Mmmm, sounds like a wonderful trip in spite of the NF's. Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Things have improved a bit and I've added a few finds to my list since I started this thread. I do feel kinda bad about sounding so whiny earlier. Last week was nit a good time for me. Thanks everyone for your patience.

Bad CRC, Hmmmm, pawn shop. Great idea, I'll have a look this week. Super Nate - You're probably right. Was the discouragement talking. On a more positive note, one of the local owners sent me a hint, and I managed to find it right away. I feel like a dunce, but at least it's helped recharge my caching battieries a bit.

Meh, second day of searching and still no love. Of course, six inches of wet leaves on the ground don't help. I think I'm gonna have to admit defeat and write the owners for hints. Or else just break into my emergency money and get a bloody GPS.

Fortunately I've only seen this once in my 40 or so finds. Someone had scribbled "What the f**k is this?" in the log.

Thanks for the kind words. It's just very frustrating, because I've actually had a very good 'Geo-sense' in the past, and usually manage to come up with the goods after just a little searching. Ah well, tomorrows another day.

*sigh* Since it's my birthday, I thought I'd go out and look for some new caches in the surrounding area. There are a lot of parks, hiking trails, etc in the area, so hiding geocaches is like a cottage industry. Unfortunately it was a very bad day. Only found one out of the six I looked for, and that was strictly dumb luck. I'm tired and sore from scrambling around trees and over rocks, and very discouraged. They weren't even particularly hard ones. Wish I could afford a GPS unit. Needless to say I feel like the worst cacher in the world. Anyone else ever just have one of those days?

* It's a fun way to get some much needed exercise. * An old friend introduced me to it, so caching is a good excuse to spend time with her and get re-aquainted. * The excitement of wonderign what'll be inside. * And to me the most important, visiting little hidden parks and wonderful out of the way locations I otherwise never would have known existed.

I've found about half my finds without a GPS. I just have to do a little detective work, reading the logs, the hints, and taking the title into account. Then I'll hit the Satellite view in Google Maps and draw myself a little map showing nearby landmarks, paths, etc. It also helps that I live in an area that has a ton of caches close together. Most of the time it works. And then I have days like today when I only found 1 out of 5.

Never seen it done, but if I were able, I'd probably place a cache behind a fake "No Tresspassing" sign.

Actually a creative paintjob is probably your best and most durable cammo option.

I'll usually just strip down to my trousers and challenge them to a knife fight. I'm kinda territorial that way. Actually, the 'introduce yourself and ask how they'd like to handle it' method sounds like the best way.

Okay, time for a silly question. I'm thinking of starting a couple of TB's, but I'm a bit confused when I visit the Geoswag site. What's the difference between the Groundspeak tag, and the Travel Bug Buddy? Do I need both?

Glowsticks, compass, plastic encased thermometer (is it really as hot/cold out as it feels?).

A backpacks probably your best bet for hauling stuff. Just make sure it has extra-comfy shoulder straps. Now personally I'm thinking about getting one of those photographers vests that has like twenty pockets for carrying various items. I suspect they're expensive though.

Hmmmm, coulda sworn I had an Elvish Cloak of Invisibility out in the garage SOMEWHERE... Good tips everyone. I liked the one with the clipboard. I may go with that. And maybe go price green reflective vests too. It'd come in handy while biking. Wonder how much they cost?

Welcome aboard! I'm new myself at 14 finds. Haven't done any caching in the deep woods yet, so my load is usually small. A lightweight bag or backpack, a bottle of water, plenty of pens and pencils, a small notepad for taking notes, and a plastic handheld tacklebox for holding small cache items. A few packs of Wet Naps are good too, for cleaning up after poking around in dusty holes. And of course, lotsa cache items ranging from tiny to paperback sized. Most times if I find a good cache in need of restocking I'll just add a few goodies for the heck of it. Extra ziplocks are good too, in case the cache needs them. It's always good to try to leave things in better shape than you find it. Oh, and after yesterday, a little bag of snacks in case I run into more hungry squirrels.

I like it. As long as they're specific to Geocaching and not just a persons regular businesscard. And of course the fancier the better!

A Geofundie? Hallalujah! (currently up to 14 finds)

About 350 feet from my front door.

To put it kindly, I'm kind of a suspicious looking individual, so I worry a lot about catching someones attention while wandering around searching for urban or suburban caches. Especially in todays rather paranoid environment. Does anyone have any tips on how to search effectively without drawing undo attention to yourself from passing Muggles or even worse, police or security guards.

Words to live by. I've only been into this for about a week, but after finding way too much useless junk I've decided to declare a personal crusade against lame cache items! Now, unless there's something truely amazing to be found (and I have something cool to leave), I'll be selecting the bus transfers, the drill bits, the car dealership keychains, the 'Have You Found Jesus?' cards, and the coffee shop receipts and replacing them with little plastic 3D puzzles, glow sticks, decks of cards, those little springloaded clips for attaching stuff to backpacks, or any other of my 30 years of accumulated knick-nacks. A lot of the aforementioned stuff I found at Fred Meyers for around $1 when I went to restock my cache supplies.

I'm definately a big fan of trading up, and plan on doing it as often as possible. So far I've exchanged a poetry book for a drill bit , and a small gemstone for a coffee shop sales receipt. Heck, a couple of times I've just left an item behind without taking because a cache needed one. I can understand not having anything cool to leave behind, and that getting stuff isn't the point of this hobby, but come on, if all you're gonna leave behind an old bus tranfer, why even bother?

Congrats! I'm just one behind you, but plan on adding #10 within the next day or so. Can't really afford a GPS right now (am I still really a Geocacher?), just rely on online maps, copious notes, and spoilers left in the log entries. Sure I might being making it too easy, but I'm still having fun, and more importantly, getting some much needed exercise.