OurWoods

sorry to hear about your loss.

I have posted your website on the NYGO forums, it might get a little more exposure there. I think that it is a great thing you are doing. I lived with a family member who was confined to a wheel chair for many years, and knowing in advance where you are going to be able to get makes things alot easier when planning excursions.

The dollar stores around here have a pet section, with lots of great dog toys. Including Rope Pull Toys, Tennis Ball Toys, Squeak Toys. I often leave those. I would avoid leaving dog treats or rawhide type items. Or anything with a strong scent, pez dispensers are neat, but the kind with the candy packets in with them might cause wild animals to smell out the cache and destroy it.

I'm game.. And you were right it was pretty easy. You found the TB: KKF2A Runes TB by Dekaner I met Dekaner at the 2003 NYGO State Picnic in NY. 2 degrees of seperation through travel bugs or You found the cache: Diablo Canyon Cache (in New Mexico) which was also found by Geocacher "The Browns" who also found Downtown 2 which was also found by Geocacher "babrshpdru" whom I met at the NYGO Meet and Greet (in Buffalo, NY) 3 degrees through caches

I have emailed on behalf of NYGO

If you're nervous about it, one thing you could do is post on your regional forum and/or contact your local cache association (texasgeocaching?) and ask if there was anyone in the area who would like to take the reporter on a hunt with you. Or wants to be interviewed with you. There might be someone in your area who has done this type of thing before, never know.

you only had 4 items in your cache? How big was the box? In an ammox box I have generally see about 10 or so items. More vareity = less complaints. That said most "adults" aren't in it for the dollar store stuff you find in a cache box. I almost always buy my stuff from the Dollar Store (most people around here do). I don't see the point hiding 100's of dollars worth of stuff in a box in the woods. Most of my caches have been about $15-20 to place. The one time I left a FTF prize in a school themed cache, I left a Gc.com pencil. 95% of the stuff I put in is for kids. Most adults log a TNLN anyway. Some of the "adult items" I have put in caches have been: Multi Purpose Tool Scrap Booking Itemsk Glue Gun Wind Chimes Decals Books WG$ Some cool things for adults I have seen as trade items are: Pins Disposable Camera Decal/Bumper Sticker Stress Ball $2WG Nothing wrong with your items.. If people are unhappy with the items in a cache, they should leave something, or a few somethings, and take nothing. Not just complain. Kids are usually way easier to please. The dollar store here gets close outs, or whatever they call it, from the regular stores. So you can get some nice stuff for cheap. The latest stuff I got from there was some Magic Kits and Tech Deck toys for kids. As long as your cache isnt full of junky stuff like half a deck of cards, a dirty golfball (I dislike seeing those especially when you have seen 3 or 4 exactly like them on the trail in) or opened McToys dont sweat it. Some people will always complain.

I've met Geocachers on the trail about half a dozen times. Mostly we were just passing by each other going in or coming out from the cache location, we did stop to chat and exchange Geocache Names usually. Once as I was signing the log book and a Cacher came up and said he had been looking for a few minutes (I never saw him) and congratulated us as it was a FTF, asked if he could sign the log book (I was with 2 kids so we would have taken a while doing trades) he put an item in the cache signed the book and was on his way. Overall it's all been very positive. I think its always fun to meet up with someone who is wondering around out in the woods with the same goals as me.

A, now archived, cache in my area had the cache box hidden way up high under a bridge (would not be approved now I suppose). The description said that two people would come in handy. There is no way I could have done it alone, at least without a ladder. Here is the picture, the cement part he is standing on is about 5-6 ft off the ground. You could adapt that idea.

Too funny!

The closest to me is 6.2 and its an offset multi called Nor Any Drop to Drink The next closest is 8.3 and its a multi called Henpecked both are by the same guy. This guys caches are not easy. And now I imagine they are near impossible with a good 30+ inches of snow on the ground. Hurry up spring!

I went out the other day and it was about 8 or 10 degrees. We snowshoed about .75 miles round trip to the cache. There was about 18-20 inches of snow. This was our first time snowshoe-ing. I think most people who are going to be "out and about" in that type of weather are going ot be cachers, cross country skiiers, or snowshoers. Maybe the occasional snowmobiler (where allowed.) I think the majority of those would not steal the cache even if they did find it. You can search for other threads on snow caching, but the basic tips are the same. Once you find the cache walk all around the area or walk out a different way. If you have to dig to find the cache make sure to create 1-2 decoy digs in other areas so as not to bring undue attention to the actual cache. For the most part though I wouldn't worry about prints. If someone knows there is 1-2 feet of snow on the ground and they saw that someone found the cache "yesterday" and they go out to look for it, they should realize they are going to be led right to it. Also the wind and more snow, or warmer temps will take care of your tracks in no time. Picking caches can be tricky. Read some of the logs or read the clues. If the cache is under logs or something its going to be alot harder then a cache in a tree. Or take a metal detector, they are surprisingly light weight (least mine is and the carrying case it came with can double as a bag to carry your other cache gear in. Also, I have found carrying a light weight snow shovel can make things quicker for when you have to dig out a cache, and creating those "decoys" is alot faster too. Just make sure you bring extra batteries if you are going more then .2 from the car, if you are holding your GPS out in front of you the batteries wont last long. So keep your spare batteries some place warm. And keep your GPS in your coat pocket as much time as you can. Bring an extra pair of gloves and extra pair of socks. If you get too wet change (in the car if you can wait.) I started caching last Feburary, when there was about a foot of snow on the ground. I had to dig out my first cache. The second one I found was in a tree (much easier for winter.) Good luck.

Here is my dog Tugs. He also has his own travel bug "Tugs the Newfoundland" the goal of it is to get its picture taken with other dogs. My avatar is my Golden Retriever "Hugs."

<--- My dogs "Hugs" he is a Golden Retriever.

Congrats !!!

MY cousin finding a cache 2 days ago. We snowshoed in through about 18 inches of snow. This is from a DNF. There was way too much snow, and the cache was plastic so the metal detector was no help.

Yes. I went caching a day or so ago and it was about 9 out. The GPS batteries die quick quick quick if you are holding it outstretched in your hand, I keep it in my pocket and pull it out every once in a while to check direction. The longer it is out (and I even have it in a neoprene case) the screens slow down and dont appear to change as fast, when you switch from screen to the other it takes a while to catch up. The cold definetly effects the GPS in that way. I use Magellan though (ST Map and MeriPlat.) The actual sattelite signal was never effected, it gets good reception in the winter because there are no leaves on the trees. Of course the snow clouds seem to never leave.

Rusty O Junk hides some awesome caches. While I haven't found any "that counted" I went to his event (along with wagonburner) last fall. There were a bunch of evil evil event caches. It was a blast. I can't wait til spring to try some of his others!

Looks so small. But each dot represents an adventure.

When you get to about 100 feet, look at what direction the compass screen is pointing you in. Walk about 100 feet in that direction. If the cache description has told you what you are looking for (ammo box, sandwich size tupperware, film can) try to think: Where would I hide an object like that? Then look around for it. But you are correct, in that the GPS will generally not lead you to 0ft and you will be looking down at the cache box. That can happen, but it should mainly just get you to the "cache area," not the precise spot. I suggest starting out with a cache rated 1 or 2. After a few of those, you will be spotting the down logged with braches all around it, the pile of stones, or the bramble with just enough space for a container with no trouble at all! Good luck, and happy caching!

It's fine to revisit caches to swap travel bugs, drop bugs off, or whatever. As far as I know there are no guidelines.. Just make sure if you have already posted a "find" on the online cache log to "post a note" on subsequent visits.. Add a note in the log book indicating what bugs you traded as well..

That's how I did it as well (with some hints from brad32).. I still don't get the numbers part.. The actual Mars Code decrypted is really simple.. You could probably guess the message..

I recently exchanged my Christmas Meridian Platinum because it was making a loud buzzing noise all the time. Anyway.. On the last one I changed the lawyer screen with the MyMeridian software and it worked fine. This time I did it the same as last time, updated to the new firmware (5.12) and changed the mymeridian.ini file to refelect the new warning or whatever (I changed it to "All data is provided") and changed the file name to mg512.hex and when I press esc+goto and then turn the power on its supposed to say 'software upload mode' or something but it says: BURN IN PRESS ENTER TO START what does that mean? Any idea what I am doing wrong?

TNLN Went out to dinner at a 4 star restaurant and then for a 2 week Hawaiian Vacation. Or not.. Seriously though, if someone found $1k in a cache I doubt they log it... I found $20 in a park while DNF'ing a cache last week and I was happy. I can't imagine finding a couple hundred or more

how much money? and which caches has he "reverse plundered" so far? I may need to be taking a road trip to south florida..