succotash

And given all that's been reported about Facebook and its numerous privacy issues, it's disappointing that this is the mechanism Groundspeak has chosen to add to encourage simplistic "rating" of caches.

Correctly identifying the size of a cache may not have anything to do with whether your TB fits into it which seems to be the OPs concern. A cache can be properly sized but your TB still might not fit because of the container's shape. Also, previous threads have discussed the question about whether size relates to the outer or inner container and this is reasonable. If someone marks their container as a small due to the outer container when the inner space is micro-sized and can't hold a TB, I wouldn't fault them for that. Otherwise I agree with Starbrand - if we find a magnetic keyholder labeled as a small, we'll add to our cache log in what we hope is a polite way that in our area this kind of hide is considered a micro.

It's great that scouts are getting into geocaching - really great! But I don't know why this situation should be minimized just because it involves girl scouts. Scouts troops have adult leaders who have accepted the responsibility of mentoring and teaching a group of impressionable youngsters. I would think an an adult who is responsible for mentoring and teaching a group of impressionable young people should be expected to know what they're doing and teach their troop well - wouldn't it be best if the caching community associated Scout Troop 4103 with an awesome cache experience, great log entries, cool scout-made signature items, or something like that? Hopefully there is a good explanation in this particular case and hopefully the OP will follow the good advice to gently resolve it.

Practice! Just keep looking for ones in places you enjoy so the whole experience is fun. The more you do, the better your skills will become.

Welcome! This is a great activity to share with your fiance, glad you had fun and hope you continue to enjoy it!

We have a few cans of different color flat spray paint on and - brown, tan, green, and black. I spray a few quick sprays moving across the can at random angles. I'll pick up a few leaves from outside or pluck something from the garden - last time I used some sprigs of flatleaf parsley - and just lay them across the can and run a few quick sprays across. It takes just a few minutes. It results in a can that looks like it's resting in the dappled light of a woods and practically disappears in most of the pine/oak wooded areas around here. We placed one between some boulders. For that one we used a spray paint from the hobby shop that is intended to provide a "stone-like" look and then covered that with a clear finish. It got some compliments and still looks good after a few years outside. (Should I worry that no one has ever "carded" me for buying spray paint!?!) Bean

You can show support for the caches you like right now by creating a public bookmark called "Favorites" and putting all of those caches on it.

This excellent cache was published on February 28, 2009. We found it on March 7, 2009. It still has not been found since. We know others have expressed interest in it and the owner is still actively maintaining it. It would be great if someone else would find it. We normally do not care about FTF but this one is still special to us. We wrote in our log: "This was a great puzzle and physical cache challenge. We really enjoyed it. It is nice to be FTF on a challenging cache, and on one of the beautiful days of the year so far. Another great thing about this cache was that it called our attention to this area; we were really excited to see the other caches near here. We parked at the recommended coordinates for this puzzle, and after completing it, we decided to hike to all of the remaining caches in the area including those on the Wateree Section of the Palmetto trail. It was one of our favorite caching days in a long time, it was a truly wonderful experience. We took the Simpsons puzzle and left a First Aid Kit. StomperSwamp, you continue to impress us. Thanks for the work you put into this puzzle and cache."

We've done several "Flat Stanley" projects for nieces and nephews as part of school projects. The request we get is to have "Stanley" visit places that will highlight our area or to take him along on our travels. We create powerpoints with the photos of the cut-out and add some kid-friendly words explaining where "Stanley" is and/or what he is doing. It's a great idea to use the Flat Stanley concept as a virtual trip for your kids. But if I were doing it for that reason, I'd send some to friends and family around the country (if that is an option) and ask them to participate in addition to creating the travel bugs. The travel bug idea would be exciting and could result in unknowns but might also be a disappointment if they get stuck somewhere. Good luck!

Log writers are always notified if their log is deleted, regardless of the log type. Thanks, Tequila.

I must be dense but I am wondering how you would know if a DNF log were deleted. If a Found log were deleted your cache count would go down and that would be a clue that something had changed, but I'm not sure what would trigger this for a DNF, unless you put all DNFs on a watchlist. Bean

Even when you can't find the cache you can still visit places like this: or this: or this: or this:

We found out about bookcrossing when another cacher left a book in one of our ammo can caches. We liked the idea, registered, and participated for a year or two. We once visited a bookcrossing-crossover cache, opened the container, and the book laying on top was one we had left in a different cache! That was nice. But very few of the books we've placed were ever noted as found or moved, so we lost interest and have returned to donating our used books through other sources.

Mountain Monster, try looking for caches that have a size of "regular" rather than small or micro. Then you can try looking for ones that have a low Difficulty rating combined with a higher Terrain rating. That should give you the more rural hides hidden in "typical" manners. Different parts of the world have different typical hides - where we are, hiding a regular sized cache in the woods under sticks or pine straw is common. You try to train your eye to see something slightly different (like the angle of one corner of the can) or a pile of sticks that looks unnatural. Sometimes you need a stick to poke around with if the ground cover if heavy or if it has not been found in a while (a quick and easy find turns into something harder with a few inches of leaves and pine straw added on top!). As other people have said sometimes the cache is tucked into a hole in a tree and they can be hanging up as well. A year from now your own idea of what is a quick and easy find will probably have changed due to your experience! Enjoy.

t4e, I believe your response helps make my point.

Nathan, look what happens with an innocent question! Good luck with your cache. I completely agree with the privacy issue. There are plenty of threads demonstrating that some cachers and cache owners will jump to negative conclusions without all the facts. That's especially true when they've found their cache has gone missing. There many innocent and positive reasons to watch a cache (it's fun to read the logs for a challenging puzzle or a cache in a beautiful or remote area, for example). I think it's fine to have the PMOC feature of the audit log BUT to make it fair then the community should know that their name will show up on a log - I don't think this feature is as well-advertised as it could be. I also think the fact that a cache is PMOC should be able to be known from all ways to observe a cache so you know BEFORE you click on it. For example right now when you view caches in Google maps this feature is not identified so often I find out after I have already clicked on a cache that I am now on the audit log, and wish I weren't!

Hey Joshism, I have sympathy for you! We've found several like you describe where the logbooks/paper look like a science experiment or preparations for some kind of B-grade movie. I never thought about Don King's hair but I will from now on - thanks Luckless! It is part of the caching experience in the southeast so we just keep some hand sanitizer in our caching bag and try not to breathe in too deeply if it looks like the stuff can go airborne. If we have an extra log we'll add it, sign both logs and let the owner know the situation.

We have had a cache disappear. Please don't let this take any joy out of caching for you and please encourage your children to handle small setbacks with courage and optimism. Perhaps an animal carried off your cache - that has been known to happen. Perhaps someone with good intentions noticed the cache when looking for a insect or plant that interests them and took it to park management. Things are not always the result of evil intent. And even if someone takes a cache with evil intent, well, we are all optimists when we leave them out in the world to be found. We hope for the reward of many years of great finds and positive log entries, but you can't get that reward without taking the risk of leaving something out there. Best of luck to you! Bean

Lennu, you bring up a reasonable topic for discussion. I do agree with those who say that having an English description on the cache page should not be required or recommended. We've tried to translate some cache pages related to our travel bugs that are overseas and have not yet found a good online translator. The translations are often hilarious, but not very helpful! If we were actually going to travel and find caches overseas, we would appreciate the cache owners that did include English translations, but we would not feel it was their responsibility. We would feel it was our responsibility as visitors to figure out whatever we needed to enjoy our visit. I would think that cache owners in popular tourist locations would be more motivated to include multiple languages on the cache pages, versus caches placed in locations less likely to see tourist traffic. (+1 on Briansnat's observation!)

Spring is just around the corner... can't wait! Succotash is "Lost in the Swamp... Again!" in South Carolina. We got small recreational kayaks (Perception Prodigy 10') on the advice of my brother, an experienced kayaker. They've been the best for navigating back in the swamps. We work harder going across lakes, but we think they are overall the perfect choice for us. And, they fit perfectly in the back of the pickup truck with some simple tie-downs, no rack needed.

Nice post. Your goal is worthy and your letterbox hybrid series sounds great!

The one flaw in this argument is that, as noted several times above, so many micro placers place volumes of them. So even if one micro container costs them $1, by the time one hider has thrown down 30 of them, they've spent more than you suggest one well-stocked ammo can would cost. If a micro is the right thing, and it's a great location and/or a creative hide, that's fine! But in our experience cost can't possibility explain the proliferation of hides that lack either of those attributes. There must be other factors in play.

I think you're coming at this from the wrong angle. For most folks that I've talked with, size is never the real issue. Micros are just the whipping boy. Not because they suck, in and of themselves, but because they are typically the cache size of choice for those folks who place lame, uninspired caches. For those who prefer quality, micros get an additional bad rap in that those same folks who place lame hides seem to feel they can make up for the lameness of their hides by multiplying them a hundred fold. If you must judge, blame the hiders, not the hides. This is how we see it. We've found some great micros, but we'll never become "micro lovers" because the ratio of ones we like to those we don't is sooooo small. It really seems that some people who place micros have a giant bag of magnetic keyholders, film canisters or other micro containers in their car ready to go. Going shopping? Stick one there. Got a flat tire? Okay, one there too. Stuck in traffic? Jump out and place one. See a spot with four trees and no cache yet? Drop one in. In contrast, our experience with ammo cans is that it's more likely someone has a few, and finds a good spot, and goes back with the can. So, we generally always prefer the overall experience of a larger cache. We completely agree that if the cache page clearly says its a micro, and we know what we're headed for, we don't complain about it being a micro when we get there! Just our experience, just our opinion.

In the Carolinas, a suspicious pile of sticks is so much more welcome than pine straw! We were worried about this one... ... but fortunately the cache was elsewhere.

Since TAR approved irreverence... I would like to point out that if you freeze the jelly first (with something in it to create a small hole) you can indeed nail jelly to a tree.