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NevaP

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Everything posted by NevaP

  1. There's an endless variety of puzzle caches, each is different and there is no general rule for solving them. Some take familiar forms, crosswords or sudokus for example. Others involve various mathematical devices and special calculations. Some are literary or word puzzle based. Some use common substitution codes, familiar to kids, such as pigpen code and others use complicated ciphers. Sometimes running your cursor over the page or highlighting sections will reveal hidden information. Sometimes Internet research will lead you to the method you need. Last week I googled up how to do polyalphabetic ciphers and found a puzzle cache very near my home, which I have ignored for over two years. The name of the puzzle was the hint for that one. But usually when I look at a puzzle cache I haven't the foggiest idea how to proceed and sometimes it's really a rather obvious solution, like reading the first letter of each line in a poem. But unless I get a hint from the cache owner or from somebody who has solved it (we have some puzzle cache fanatics in our area and I'm not one of them) most of them just sit there, ignored, to maybe do someday.
  2. Is there a way to delete routes you have created for pocket queries? We roam around a lot and I have 48 created routes many of which I will never use again for a pocket query. But I can't find a way to get rid of them.
  3. Go to your account detail page. On the right side, under Premium Features click on Build Pocket Queries. There is some information of the page. You need to play around with them a while. At the top of the pocket queries page ,on the right, click on Find Caches Along a route. You will find fairly detailed instruction about this at the bottom of the page. For much more details (for this and a lot of other stuff) try Markwell's site Go to Markwell's updates to FAQs and you will find a section about Pocket Queries and Caches along a route that has lots of good detailed "how to" instructions. Geocacher U also has a section about pocket queries with detailed examples of what to do. Google "Caches along a route" and you will get some links. Have a fine trip.
  4. If I have binoculars around my neck, and I often do, I just revert to birding mode which I am usually doing anyway. But I also often explain what I am doing and hand out a brochure if I have one with me.. I have made a couple converts that way. I really see no reason why Geocaching should be a clandestine secretive activity.
  5. Gee, you have an XL that still works? I gave up on mine after it froze up for the umpteenth time. Service from Magellan took three months and several phone calls the one time I sent it in.
  6. Ignore these jokers and just send Mtn Man a polite note asking why the cache isn't published yet.
  7. I just noticed that the three caches I logged in Kruger NP last July had been archived. I posted a note with my thoughts on this on the Leadwood Strangler page.. I'm pleased to see that progress has been made on this issue and negotiations are open. If the viewpoint of a foreign visitor is useful please feel free to use my comment any way you wish. Neva Pruess, caching as NevaP Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
  8. I DID IT! After obsessing about this for two years ,and watching my numbers all the way, I managed to log # 2008 yesterday on the last day of the year and #2009 this morning, as the first cache of 2009. I do not plan to wait 365 days to find another cache.
  9. I DID IT! After obsessing about this for two years ,and watching my numbers all the way, I managed to log # 2008 yesterday on the last day of the year and #2009 this morning, as the first cache of 2009. I do not plan to wait 365 days to find another cache.
  10. Yeah, she didn't have to be carried out when she broke her ankle I think Moose Mob was just a few weeks out of his cast and I was a year and a half out of mine when we were out tramping in the Nevada desert so I don't really win. And we spent more time in the jeep, going places I never realized a jeep could go, than we did hiking.
  11. It was only one mile. And only at about 9500' altitude. And I didn't know it was broken until we got it X-rayed a few hours later. I decided the purple cast was too big to be a TB. I did manage to find a few caches while wearing it and keep alive my record of logging caches in every month since I started this. Caching with a purple cast
  12. The age of cachers thread has bounced lately and while there are reasons to suspect the validity of the numbers in the higher age categories there really ARE senior citizens out there caching and we are not all just doing park and grabs. I know because I am one of them, midway through the 71-80 age bracket. (Really, truly, I can provide references for you sceptics) So I would like to hear from some of the older cachers. What sort of caching do you do? Do you go solo or only with other people? What difficulties do you have that - even though you hate to admit it - are age related. From my viewpoint: I frequently have difficulty, with my increasingly arthritic hands, opening a PVC pipe cache or a jar with a tight wide lid. If I give up I write or scratch my initials on the container and so note in my online log. Nobody has deleted a log of this type yet. If I am caching solo I avoid higher difficulty terrains and I carry my cell phone in case I have to call for the paramedics. Currently I have a gimpy knee and I'm avoiding hikes of more than a half mile so I really appreciate an estimate of distance from parking in the cache descriptions. I have done a 5/5 cache, ( The Journal 11/12/2005 log) as part of a team approach, but I was younger then, only 71 Of course being vertically challenged I always have a problem with caches placed by a 6' 4'' person who was reaching up to hide it. But that's not age related.
  13. Here's one in Kruger Park, South Africa, which MUST be done from your vehicle because it's in an area where you are not allowed to get out of your vehicle - and this is how it is in most of the park. (In Kruger the people are confined and the animals roam free.) Survivor Tree Mail I got a few caches in the park last July (inside fenced areas) but we didn't go to this particular site.
  14. Also, if you are selected for additional searching while going through the security screening keep an eye (or have someone keep an eye) on your carry on which is going through on the machines. The whole bag and your electronics can vanish if your back is turned.
  15. And to get the tiny log paper back in roll it as tight as you can, insert it in the LID of the tube, then insert it into the tube and tighten the lid.
  16. There isn't a box just like that. The bottom of the page box shows up on the page for logging the cache not on the page for the coin or TB. It contains a list of trackables (with their numbers) you have in your possession. To show that you have found a TB and to get the TB listed in this inventory box you go to the TB's page, click add a log entry in the upper right hand box which will then show its current location ( either in a cache or in the someone's possession or unknown) Then on the post a new log page select the retreive from cache or grab from somewhere else option. This will remove the trackable from where it was and put it into your inventory box. You have to enter the trackables number here. Then when you are on the cache page doing your log for the cache, after you have written your log scroll down to the bottom and highlight the TB you are dropping. Then click the submit button. This removes the bug from your inventory box and lists it at the top of the cache page. Markwell's website has a very detailed illustrated account of this process. Travel Bugs
  17. All electronic devices, cell phone, cameras, PDA. GPSr whatever, go in my carryon because I don't want them stolen or lost. There are no"Federal Regulations" banning use of a GPS on a plane. Yes, you might run into airline personnel who think different but that's unlikely. On a very long flight to South Africa last summer I amused myself by trying to mark waypoints as we crossed the E-W meridian, the equator, confluence points etc. No, we weren't flying that low. The unit has a barometric altimeter and it was reading the cabin pressure.
  18. Never a problem. I've taken GPSr units into Germany, Russia and South Africa. Travel bugs always go in the carryon because I would hate to lose one.
  19. Being a compulsive birder I always have binoculars around my neck whenever I'm in a park or on a trail so they are good camouflage. For caches in high muggle traffic areas I just do what others have described. I go for it, I'm usually ignored and if anybody asks I tell them what I'm doing.
  20. What this thread will demonstrate is that everybody is different. That's why the sport needs a variety of options from PNG micros to super multi puzzle caches like This one Myself: I've been logging about 400 a year since starting in late 2002. I enjoy events and attend as often as I can work them in the schedule. The social aspect is part of the game. We are retired and traveling a lot and I do much of my caching while traveling. So I am having a great time coloring in the county, state and country maps. Only about a third of my finds are in my home state. About half of those are more than 50 miles from home. I cache alone, with my husband tagging along on trips, and with others when I find the opportunity. I've taken multi-day trips by myself to add counties and dates to my stats. I prefer a hike back in the woods regular sized cache but I look for micros if they are right where I happen to be. I avoid looking for high difficulty micros because I usually can't find them. I love Travel Bugs. I have a bunch of them. I usually grab them if I think I can help them along. I personalize all of mine, give them back stories and cute names (I have yet to decide what I will do when I grow up). I check into the forums now and then, often at long intervals. I have several other compulsive interests to keep up with and my petition for 36 hours days hasn't been approved so time is limited. And don't try to tell a lifelong birder that it's Not About The Numbers. Enjoy and be tolerant of the parts of the activity you don't do.
  21. Last month we found a new twist on the parking lot skirt that was quite fun. It was a metal skirt on one of those information signs in an outdoor shopping mall, right in front of the main doorway into a woman's clothing shop with considerable traffic. The funny thing was that we just lifted the skirt (noise and all) and pulled out the cache with people walking everywhere, and they literally ignored us. This has been my experience with muggles -- that except for the police and security folks people are so used to seeing strange things or focused on their own thoughts (most likely the latter) -- they don't notice you pulling out a cache right next to them. So we don't worry too much anymore about whether we are being watched or not, and to date it has not led to any muggle stolen micros -- we watchlist them. This has been my attitude about muggles and caches described as "stealth required". I just go after them and almost all the time nobody pays any attention to me. Sometimes, when I am down on my knees peering under a park bench someone will kindly ask the old lady if she needs help or they will ask if I have lost something. I just reply no, it's a game called geocaching". This can get an "Oh, I've heard about that" response which can lead into my short Caching 101 lecture.
  22. Moose Mob took me to some awesome desert caches earlier this year - in February. I wouldn't recommend this time of year. I have 3 not found caches within a mile, 14 within 2 miles, 123 within 5 miles. Almost all of them are micros (or puzzle caches for which I haven't a clue). I may never look for most of them. One the weather colos off ,and my gimpy knee gets fixed, the price of gas will not keep me from driving to parks/preserves/wildlife management areas etc. where I can hike and find several "real" caches. I'll work the gas cost into the recreation budget somehow. If there are micros right along the way there I might stop for them if I have time.
  23. Farthest traveling east: D.L.I. GC16R6H in Durban, South Africa 9429.24 miles Farthest traveling west: Careful With That Axe Eugene GC2066 in Victoria, Australia. 9198.91 miles. That one is now archived but two others almost as far away are still active: Irish Memories, GCEEDE, 9195.56 and Melbourne's First, GC7A (one of the oldest caches anywhere) 9175,24 miles. Farthest on my home continent is Bowhead, in Barrow Alaska, GCB266, 2916.87 miles. I think that one is the farthest north cache in the United States.
  24. 2008- In South Africa, 14 caches, 8917 miles to 9429 miles from home. 2004- In Australia, 12 caches, 8401miles to 9199 miles from home. (home is Lincoln, Nebraska)
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