Bad_CRC

read a news story about how the police had found a bomb under a tree and blew it up. Turns out it was actually a "geocache" someone had hidden there, so they put the pieces back together and put it back along with some plastic police badges and other knicknacks from the police. I bought a gps and started geocaching within a few days of reading that.

all the touristy areas are fine, just don't wander too far off the beaten path, and you'd probably be best off if you don't cut through one of the parks filled with homeless people, but the mall and memorials are fine, and around the white house is crazy secure. I stopped to take a picture through the fence at 10pm and had 2 bike cops stop me within a couple minutes to ask what I was doing.

if only they would do the same thing for micros. I'm rejecting your cache because it's a micro. Please change to a more appropriately-sized container and re-submit.

I had a micro cache a while back near a golf course that was a hollow golf ball. to make it more interesting, I had about 6 real golf balls also hidden nearby, these had holes drilled into them, and were placed on sticks, they had the words "decoy, please don't steal" written on the bottom of them. someone still stole all of those... why, I don't know. I'm not sure what use someone would have with a golfball that has a big hole in it, and "please don't steal" written on it.

I think the limit should be lowered not raised. I do not geocache very often, perhaps once a month. I often decide at the last minute "hey it's nice out, I want to go geocache" and I'll run the pocket query then go get ready to go out. many times, I will not get the results within a couple hours, a few times not till the next day, one would assume due to server load. I pay the same for my membership as someone who is somehow hitting their limit, yet on many months I'm not getting anything useful for my money because of others who are overloading the system. Perhaps a better solution would be to get rid of scheduled pocket queries alltogether, since one would also assume there are many who schedule weekly or daily pocket queries to run, and then never use the results. One could also say that the only solution to a case like mine is to "be prepared" and schedule the max limit of pocket queries to run every single day so that on the rare day I need the results, they are already waiting... that's a horrible waste of server time if you ask me.

saw a story about a bomb squad blowing up some "georgash" thing and thought it sounded fun. bought a GPS the next day.

I have 2 travel bugs that the owners are understandably impatient to get moving. I went out 3 times, on different days, 2 of which were during blizzards, all of which I had a nasty flu which I am just now finally getting over. and all were DNFs on caches I'd previously visited. been in the -20 windchill range here for a while now, and lots of snow, not good weather for caching. not fun at all, but I was really trying to get those TBs going again. gonna try again today or tomorrow for a cache that just got published, so it should get some visitors.

I like it, but I think a more literal "Knuggle" would be more fun, while still keeping the simplicity and consistency of the idea.

my garmin etrex legend GPS doesn't like WAAS anymore. it just kind asplodes when WAAS is on sometimes, so I leave it turned off now. seems like it never made much of a difference when I did use it, other than killing the batteries faster. edit: Thx for this thread, it finally motivated me to update the firmware in my GPS, hope it helps.

I'd definitely fix it. I've fixed caches before that were broken when I got there, so I know if I broke it myself, I'd fix it and write in the log what happened so the owner knew why the container was different.

is there a reason tptb don't have more reviewers for an area? seems like it should be obvious to have multiple reviewers so turnaround time is shorter and reviewers have less work and worry. You would be stuck with me again in MN. You don't want that now, do you? you were before my time so I dont know if you were good or fast at reviewing so i can't comment on that, but we are blessed with an excellent reviewer in surfer joe, but I see no reason he should be responsible for every cache without some help so he can take some time off and find some caches he hasn't already reviewed.

What's the most time it's taken you to find a cache that you owned, and you hid? I have one that was reported muggled, and when I went out to check on it, I couldn't see it, but it was right where I hid it, someone just put some sand over it so it was hard to see so it took a while to find. I have another one that is hidden in a lake, I paddled around the area for probably 30 minutes, before I gave up and left to go to another cache, then came back and looked for another 20 minutes before I eventually found it.

is there a reason tptb don't have more reviewers for an area? seems like it should be obvious to have multiple reviewers so turnaround time is shorter and reviewers have less work and worry.

That reminds me, we made a special trip back to the truck to get the GPS so we could claim your earth cache there a couple weeks ago, and I forgot to log it.

a large majority of my favorite caching experiences were DNFs. I have no problems logging them.

they need less sizes, not more. I propose eliminating the "micro" category, since it's rarely if ever used. we don't have any "micro" caches around here, and I don't think I've ever even heard of one being hidden, so eliminating that category seems to make a lot of sense.

extrex legend that I don't like because it's inaccurate and tends to drop signal a lot. also a PDA with GPS that I love, but it's fragile so I only use it when traveling or on caches without much chance of falling off a cliff or into water.

once you have over 400 finds, you shouldn't be allowed to cache anymore. there really is no point, and everyone knows you are just going to clutter the logbook with meaningless "TFTC" logs, and then not bother to put the container back where you found it.

I'm more than happy to assume most people from your state have better manners than you. Sounds good to me! Perhaps I'll have to meet you sometime. ... oh wait, I already have.

There are a large number of geocachers who concern themselves greatly with what others are doing, how they play the game, how they log their finds, etc. They live to force others to conform to their own way of playing. But the bottom line is, if you are having fun, and not hurting anyone else, why let them bother you? I'm the same way, for a long time, I only went for caches in what could be really cool areas, because that's what I enjoyed. Recently, I started hitting some urban micros on boring afternoons when my gf and I felt like a walk along some bike trails. After years of caching, I still have less finds than some people can get in one single day. Good for them, but I think I've probably had more fun per cache than any of them, so they can keep their methods, and I'll keep mine. Like life, you'll be better off if you don't worry about what others think, and just concentrate on having fun.

not every spot needs a cache. find a nice spot closer to your home for a cache you can maintain.

is there a way to see archived caches now? you used to be able to go to the geocaching.com map, which was very handy for placing caches so you could see any problems with past caches in the area which caused them to be archived.

Our reviewer isn't exactly hiding behind his pseudo account, he seems to be open about his non-superhero identity. I'd imagine there is a need for some separation though. I think he's posted something to the effect that becoming a reviewer does take some fun out of it, specifically no more FTFs. I'm just glad to have him, I think we have one of the best. Though I really don't understand why TPTB don't have like 20 reviewers per state so one poor guy doesn't have so much work, and reviews would be even quicker (if that's possible)

I have both a garmin and a Dell Axim pocket PC pda with a GPS that fits in the CF slot. I use both, I find the PDA to be so much better in almost every aspect, BUT, it was really expensive, and it is very delicate. Though I did once slip and fall and land right on top of it, which landed right on top of a rock, and I got away with nothing but a scratch on the screen. If you geocache around water, or in muddy or slippery areas, a PDA will never be a good choice in my opinion. I'm always paranoid when I'm walking on a slippery riverbank with my $300 pda/gps setup which will be toast if I fall in, while my GPS is supposed to be waterproof, and I have a cheap model anyway, so I don't care much if it gets dunked.