Crouching Hiker, Hidden Cache

my first find: 5/25/02 my second find: 9/15/02 about 112 days. i have a few 2-3 month periods within my first year.

Crouching Hiker, Hidden Cache. Not Tiger. Man, I thought it was clever at the time, now its just a pain in the a** having to correct folks. Thanks for the kudos though. Regarding the topic, my own method of cache placement has generally been to take larger natural areas and create a single multicache that takes the seeker on a journey through most of the area, or at least to the more interesting parts. Being on SI, I of course have the advantage of very few hiders about and can do this wihout issue. This rather than multiple single caches that offer less apparent purpose by themselves, and may not get the same level of attention to creativity. As Dan noted, there are certain areas where I find these types of caches abound, which seem to be there simply to exist and take up the next allotted square footage of cache space. That can be OK if the cache is hidden in some interesting fashion, but a lot these types are pretty crap-tastic imho. Yes this quite subjective, others will surely find purpose and interest where I will not, and thats great for them. Harriman? Know nothing about it yet, other than that its big and cool.

I own a 60CS however the goto arrow is usually very jumpy and I constantly lose signal. Perhaps for another topic. But I have to say that my ST Color by far out-performs my 60CS when in the woods in a caching situation, and is definitely my caching GPS of choice.

Im let down now, thats a sucky explanation! I want StayFloopy to think up a better explanation than that! How about a Contest! Make up a meaning for the term StayFloopy! Huh. I somehow came to think he had an unruly dog named Floopy.

You're special.

True, what kind of idiot would purposely leave NY to geocache in NJ. They have bears and rattlesnakes.... and Briansnat.

You should contact the owner first. Check their profile, see if they have logged on to the site lately. Its hard to replace a cache in the way it was intended, if you didn't place it in the first place. Email the owner first, wait for a reply. You can always alert the local approver at some point in the future. There are caches that have simply not been found for a year because they haven't been hunted. Unless the owner hasn't logged on in a year, there is no reason to think he has abandoned the cache. edit: Again, imho. And, definitely log a DNF and what you found, as carleenp stated.

no cache, no logbook, no find. imho.

Oh, you mean when you gain all of your caching wisdom, and can begin down the useful and appreciated road of criticizing any cache that doesn't meet your personal approval? I've noticed that some folks accumulate wisdom very quickly and are able to do this after their first few finds. If they strike one of your caches, make sure you listen to them and change your cache until it satisfies them, or remove it completely if they determine it has no place at all. You just have to accept that they are better than you, they have the "pulse" of the other cachers, and they know what caches satisfy the vast majority of other cachers.

... or in busy, patrolled parking lots in the area designated for hikers? Unfortunately I didn't find any of those, wish I had! Its a real bummer if it happens in a patrolled lot like you said. Maybe the rattler idea wasn't so bad. btw, do you have the coords of one of those lots?

I'd take my car if I thought they would steal the thing. I'm getting bored and want something new anyway. Maybe we can work something out, I'm getting bored with my car as well... trade for a few months? Or, let me know when and where you're parking and I'll take it off your hands. Just don't forget to leave the keys in the ignition with the doors unlocked. BOT, I parked in several locations last Thursday and also yesterday, in the High Mountain Wilderness area BP mentioned earlier. They were mostly near dead-ends, circles with obstructed views, or alongside roads that don't see much traffic. I had my pack all ready before I reached the areas, and left nothing of interest visible inside the car. I think thats about as much as you can do to deter possible break-ins (outside of leaving a live rattlesnake inside). I also leave no valuables in case one does occur. Although they are bound to occur either way, every time valuables are found, it offers encouragement for the perps and probably results in more future break-ins in these types of areas. As far as aimless teens vandalizing, I think you're at their mercy.

caves=fun. lmk.

For some reason, I'm having trouble parsing this last bit. Sentence diagram? I believe they're saying that the cops asked to be alerted in advance if folks were hunting that cache, so that if suspicious non-cachers saw folks in the woods and called the cops, the cops would know why and wouldn't go check it out. The sentence "diagram" looks like this: <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> .

Any position change will slightly affect the signal quality. But over the course of a few hours of the units being at varied positions with each other, and never seeing the screen on the Maggie say it lost reception, and having all trackpoints in tact for the time period, vs. the 60CS losing reception intermittently and missing trackpoints, offers enough data for me to say the 60CS's antenna (or at least mine in particular) is simply not as reliable. Further empirical evidence such as caching and hiking side-by-side for several hours, with others carrying Magellan 330 and ST Maps, supports what I'm saying, and is the source of my disappointment. Thanks, but I'm adding my personal thoughts and experiences to this thread which involves being "disappointed" in the unit due to bum satellite reception. The reasons I'm disappointed stem from my previous experience with this and other units, and are quite on-topic. On a side note, this is the only quality of the 60CS I find sub-par, in all other aspects I prefer it over the Maggies.

Well its worse to me anyways Nice introduction, I'm sure your compatriots would be proud of you.

I really hope so. Like I said I have no problem getting a lock ever. Its keeping the lock under tree cover. I'm convinced after side-by-side comparison under identical circumstances with now 2 Maggies vs my 60CS, that the Maggie antennas are simply better. The Maggies will tell you on screen if they lose reception, and mine simply usually do not lose reception. I admit I was slightly jaded after my original GPS, a Vista, had the same tree cover problem. But I assumed the new quad antenna in the 60CS would not suffer the same fate.

Where exactly you were carrying 60CS and Magellan ? Anyway this question was already discussed, the fact that magellan does't beep does't really mean it doesn' loose the signal. The fact that the ST records the track data and creates a trackpoint with position and elevation every 'n' minutes tells me it hasn't lost a lock. Beep or not, I know it still had reception the entire time, more or less. Also, in my usage of the ST to find about 200 of my caches, never had a major reception problem. Vs. the 60CS which lost lock several times for 30 mins to an hour or more.... I was considering purchasing the external antenna.

One in each hand, believe it or not, at more or less the same positions.

I'm disappointed in the antenna quality of the 60CS also. I hadn't done anything "funky" with it when I first turned it on, and all was well, picked up sat locks quickly and located me no problem. All was well until I actually carried it "in the field" the next week. I picked up strong locks before entering the woods, however intermittently I would hear the beep indicating "weak reception". At that time it didn't seem like a huge deal as it would usually have a lock again within 10 seconds or less. Yes, there was fairly heavy tree cover, however I was carrying my old Magellan ST Color with me as comparison and it never lost lock during those same times. Still, I was convinced that my 400.00 GPSr antenna was somehow better. I wasn't super-disappointed until this past weekend when I took my 60CS hiking in the Adirondacks. I like to save my hiking track data and output to my computer to massage into graphs and elevation profiles. Again, I had strong locks before entering the trail, however during the next 8 hours of hiking it lost sat lock for large chunks of 30 mins to an hour or more, or a mile of trail or more, several times. Not very useful for downloading an accurate track profile. Meanwhile, my brother is using his really old Maggie 330 I believe, and has lock the entire time, recording all the track data for the entire hike. I didn't bring my ST Color with me, but I can only assume it would have been fine, since I had used it several times on previous similar hikes and even when kept in my pocket it held lock the entire time. I went on another shorter hike a few days later and the same thing occurred. I noticed some folks mentioned WAAS, I had it enabled the entire time and never had a problem getting a lock to start, only had problem keeping a lock. Is there any real reason why using WAAS would decrease reception? Also anyone note the position of the unit when they carry it? I noticed the 60CS seemed to have slightly better reception if kept inside my pocket with the antenna pointed up, vs carrying it in my hand with the antenna horizontal. This is all BS as far as I'm concerned. A unit that expensive with an antenna that looks that big shouldn't be losing reception under a bit of tree cover. How else were they expecting them to be used? I can understand my even older Vista having that problem. Yes, I'm slightly disappointed, but will probably still use the 60CS for caching as long as it doesn't become notorious for losing sats. However on my next long hiking trip, I'll probably leave the ST in my pack turned on, and will likely track the entire trip that way.

No, as predicted, the logic worked. Elaine says something like "ehhh whatever, go right ahead", then Kramer declares he'd rather give it to Elaine than see it broken. So Kramer ends up with it. I have the episode electronically, maybe I'll correct this to match the exact responses later tonight.

I know I had nothing to do with this, but this reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Elaine are fighting over an old-style kid's bicycle which each has valid claim to. They take the issue to the impartial Newman who uses his Solomon-like wisdom and comes up with a plan. He announces that it is only fair to break it in two and give half to each! Then the "true owner" of the bicycle, err... plaque, should likely not wish to see it broken and will concede it to the other party. Then you can reward the bicycle, err... plaque to the "true owner"! I know this was appreciated, glad I could help.

Congrats! I remember your logs from when you were only a blip on the radar screen!

Congrats to fellow SI'er and forum irregular splicingdan on reaching #200 just recently. Took you long enough man!

I think the easiest way is to first locate any caches in the area using the geocaching.com search tool Plug in Canada and Alberta and search. Take the first cache and open it, click on the geocaching.com maps and scroll to approximately where you're going to be.

Some of the female cachers might say their husbands are animals they trained to find the caches first. I don't know of any such trained animal, but I think a trained hunting squirrel would make a great caching companion. Micro in the woods? No problem!