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Dj Storm

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Everything posted by Dj Storm

  1. I don't want an automatic archive to caches after a period of time, or after the owner went missing. If a cache needs archiving, the current method, using the NA log, works better. Two years ago, when I started geocaching, there were 44 caches in my country. Now there are 238 on this site, many of them being published a month ago, cross-listed from a site I didn't know about. The closest cache to my home is 100+ km (60+ miles) away, the round-trip is something like 250 miles. Didn't found it yet, planning to seek it this autumn. Two months ago I hiked to a mountain peak, with an elevation gain of 2400+ feet. A month ago a cache was published on that location. I went back and found it last week. The cache is 290 km (180 miles) from my home, the round trip was something like 600 miles. I was in the vicinity on a business trip, vicinity meaning 20+ miles away from the cache. Last year I found the first cache placed in my country, 200+ km (125 miles) away, round trip 430 miles. The owner is missing, I performed some maintenance on the cache, probably the first time since it's placement in 2001. I will go back next month to add a new logbook, and will go back ti it in the future, too. Will I travel 100 miles to cache? Sure, all my finds are farther than that. Will I revisit a cache 100+ miles away? Of course, if it's a great place. Maybe I experience geocaching like it was back in 2001, and I like it this way. I'm not very proud of urban hides, walked away from 4 of them without searching, and found one (which was very well thought, in a scenic park, could be retrieved any time, no matter how many muggles around). I think urban micros placed on sidewalks and in parking lots degrade the spirit of geocaching as it was intended 8 years ago. The game 'evolved' since than, much as quantity, not so much as quality. In a few years, probably my country will be micro spewed, and the good caches fill fall off the first page in searches. To answer further the questions asked: I prefer fewer hides in great locations (and these don't need to be archived), and I'm not bothered by not having a cache to find every day/week/month.
  2. What I would do in this situation: Having the skills/experience and seeking the cache, I will write in my found it/DNF log about the dangers of kayaking to this cache. Having the skills/experience to seek this cache, but without actually going there, I will (probably) send an email to the cache owner, telling him seekers might appreciate to have this information on the cache page. I might send this email also if I hunted for the cache. Some cachers consider it's not their problem to get the owner's attention, some fear of how the owner might react. I sent two emails, one concerning a TB, one about an exposed cache container, and got positive feedback from the owners, so I will continue doing this.
  3. When I stated geocaching, I promised myself to log all my dnf's... after that I came up with exceptions. To this day I have 7 unlogged dnf's, 5 of which are dns's (did not search): GC7468 - stopped 1km ATCF from the cache, no time to get to GZ, DNS; GC12Z08 - 100's of muggles, the hint wasn't useful (now it's updated), DNS; GCQCNC - bad reception, couldn't find the house (!!) at GZ, 1000's of muggles (some kind of fiesta), DNS; GC110J0 - no hint, difficulty 5 (at that time, now 3.5 + hint), very limited time - searched for less than 10 minutes; GC12NF0 - solved the 'armchair mystery', ended up on the wrong side of the river, no time to return... DNS; GC14EFQ - limited time, too many cars passing (at 3:15 AM) - searched for less than 2 minutes; GCVN8A - Too many muggles, DNS. The exception that I come up with, for not logging the dnf's, were: - didn't arrive to GZ, considered that in this situation I was only hiking/sightseeing, not geocaching, so I didn't log. - arrived to GZ, did not search because of muggles. I considered this to be my fault, because the cache description mentioned them. - arrived to GZ, searched for (very) few minutes. Today I will log them as DNF, but at that time I didn't because: - 1 - it was a difficulty 5, and I had only 2 finds, considered myself 'unworthy' of that cache; - 2 - it was in an exposed location, i have been spotted, it was night time, near an airport, in a foreign country, just before my trip back. I didn't want to compromise the hide or have the police called on me, so I quit the search. It could have been my first FTF, 2612 km from my home. Considered logging a dnf, but didn't because of many small reasons (it would reflect badly on me, it was a TB prison, somebody already found it by the time I got home, etc). Today, If I search for a cache I log it (found it, dnf or note); if I didn't search or didn't reach GZ, then a note only if I have something useful to say.
  4. If I'm visiting a town and I see a cache like this, I will visit the museum (be sure to mention the open hours) and hunt for the cache. I like to visit free entry museums, because there are some unknown/less known things to be learned about the place/town/county/someone famous from that town. The trickiest part is to find and read the cache listing. If the town/city has few caches, this is not a problem, but a puzzle/multi between several dozen caches within walking distance might get unnoticed.
  5. Closest found: 178.2 km (110.7 mi) Closest not found: 104.2 km (64.8 mi)
  6. Only 2674.5 km (1662.2 miles). But I think I hold the record for the average distance to found caches: 914 km (568 miles)
  7. 104.2 km (64.7 miles) ATCF from my home coordinates; the round-trip to get this cache is ~ 447 km (278 miles), I have planned to get it this summer. This is also the closest cache from my home.
  8. I think I found the key to the puzzle, however my solution didn't pass the coordinate verification. Maybe I mistyped something, maybe there is something more to decode. (Did the previous posters verify their solutions?) P.S. I like to solve puzzles, but I'm not from the US, so it's more complicated for me to "zip for the cache".
  9. There are another two 'typos': The second to last and the fourth to last rows need an aditional '1' (14 1's on the second to last row and 13 1's on the fourth to last) Solved the puzzle in 2h30min without making any assumption of what the result is. By knowing what to expect, I solved it in 15 minutes. Tip: If you draw the 0's without rounded corners, like a box, this particular puzzle becomes ten times easier to solve.
  10. Here is a nice story of a lost GPSr... http://www.todayscacher.com/2004/aug/humor2.asp
  11. If the earthcache requires to send some answers to the cache owner in order to log a find, then the owner can tell who is the FTF, based on the timestamp of the emails. In the case above, probably the first to log is the FTF, because he/she was first to complete the ALR (sending the picture/answers to the CO).
  12. 0 within 60 miles (closest one: 104.2 km / 64.8 miles) 8 within 100 miles (6 of them are active) is this a "negative record"?
  13. In the above situation, I would have also left a note on the cache page describing the "ravine near ground zero", and why I couldn't make it to GZ. To log a DNF I would have to arrive to GZ and search for a reasonable time. On the other hand, if I abandon the hunt at the trailhead, or halfway to the cache, for reasons not concerning the cache, usually I log nothing.
  14. I think historic caches (5+ years old) should be kept going. High maintenance caches and caches in high muggle area usually don't make it this far. Unless the cache area has massively changed since the hiding date, destroying the cache and/or turning it in a high maintenance one, I'm all for keeping it. From the cache page I see that the location is worth the hike, the area is not oversaturated with caches, the cache is not "in the middle of nowhere" (having 11 other caches on a 5 km / 3 miles radius). I also see that you have another cache near this one, so you can maintain them both with one trip. This august I felt sad when GC8 was archived. Probably I wouldn't search for it anyway (being on the other side of the planet), but I search for the (few) local historic caches. If you decide to archive it, first consider adopting it out. Some of the new cachers love to go after the old, rare or otherwise different cache.
  15. That's what I also found out in all the cars I have traveled with (4 or 5 cars, different models, different manufacturing years). Sometimes the speedometer was off by 10% (55 km/h on the speedometer, 50 on the GPSr), usually was off by 6-7%, but the odometer on the car was the same with that on the GPS. Rumor says the car manufacturers do this on purpose, for the drivers not to go way over the posted speed limit.
  16. Regarding the comment above: in the case of urban caches, caches in high muggle areas, etc, I'm OK to log a DNF; but when the cache is in a remote area, where the owner could not check for it easily, I will log a DNF only after a thorough search. The cache I was talking about (the 36 hour round-trip) was placed 2.5 years ago. This spring somebody found it, not FTF, but first to log online; few months later, a second seeker DNF'ed it. Because of the DNF, I cancelled my plans to seek this cache (the location is only accessible by boat, there are 3 cruises per week). The cache was later found by somebody else, I will probably seek it next year. This is why I log a DNF on remote caches only if I'm pretty sure the cache is missing. The owner might wait for 3 DNF's to check the cache, or is not available to check it, or the cache in question is an old 'vacation cache', and I'm not too eager to invest time and money to seek a cache that could be missing. True, the location is worth the visit, but I prefer a beautiful location with a cache...
  17. When I started geocaching, I promised myself to log all my DNF's (I was reading the forums well before my first search/find). But after that I realized that sometimes a DNF does more bad than good, because of the local situation. I live pretty much in a 'cache free' area, the closest cache is 104 km from my residence. Some of them are in remote areas (beautiful, worth to visit areas), getting 0-3 visits per year, and a DNF will discourage the future seeker (it surely discouraged me doing a 36-hour round-trip to one of them). Now I have the following 'guide to log: - if I don't reach ground zero, I don't log. - even if I reach ground zero, but don't search because of any reason, I don't log - if I search for an insufficient time, I write a note; - if I search thoroughly, I log a DNF; for a newbie like me, thoroughly searching means 15 minutes for a difficulty 1 cache, 30min for diff2, 1 hour for diff3, 2 hours for diff4, more for diff5. I also realized that, if I arrive to ground zero with a group of non-geocachers (from my family, they know what I'm there for), usually I won't find the cache.
  18. What bothers me, someone came 7 months after the cache was disabled, with intent to place a micro, and find it!
  19. Something similar happened to me. In GCNPGT I found a TB tag, and none of the items in the cache seemed to be the TB hitchhiker. Only one logged visit between the TB drop and my log. So I contacted the TB owner, and he told me the TB is just the tag, without a hitchhiker. I'd go with "ask the owner", but its possible that the tag travels alone.
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