Stargazer22

Welcome to the game. It sounds like you had a classic great first day of caching. Congratulations for already discovering what I consider to be the very best aspect of the game, the finding of new places in your area that you did not know about and the wonderful quality time you spent with your family finding them. For us, there is always something a little magical about the first time we visit a new place that we like and didn't know about. It's an adventure experience that is hard to duplicate. As you have already seen, the greatest enjoyment is in the rainbow, not necessarily the "pot of gold" at the end. Don't be discouraged if there are some caches that are difficult for you to find, especially as a beginner. Sometimes when you encounter a hide that is different in nature than what you have seen before, it seems hard until you know what to look for. Then if you encounter another hide like that in the future, you will be one of those folks logging that it was a "quick find" for you. Also remember that there are people who have been playing this game for several years and some hides may be more difficult, being geared towards providing some difficulty level for experienced finders, which may be very difficult for a beginner. As long as you are enjoying yourself and having fun you can't go wrong. Nice photo of the waterfall. Occasionally we go back and look at the photos we have taken. It's amazing to think of all the new places we have been in the last few years due to caching! Good luck on your return to the bridge cache!

You can't delete valid logs by anyone who has their signature on your log, be it hand-written, a stamp, or a sticker. They legitimately found the cache. Putting such a requirement on the cache page would result in the cache not passing review and not being published. You can ask, but you can't require.

I'm with you, Riff. Ammo cans do it for me. (See my sig line)

Both the reviewer note and the website listings seem very clear to me. I had no problem understanding the terminology used. I guess I must be getting old or something. Anytime you encounter a word you don't understand, it's very easy to find a meaning on the internet. Google is your friend.

I would do the cache except for one thing - the final being in a commercial business. That is a cache killer for me. Even if I don't have to interact with the staff or pay anything. I don't like caches inside of commercial locations. Put your final in a waterproof container and hide it somewhere outside the business and I'd support your idea. Reluctance to take the final outside of a business establishment may be perceived as a commercial agenda. In other words, if the cache can't work without the business, then it's a not a viable cache on it's own.

Groundspeak's goal for publishing is 72 hours, or 3 days. Depending on holidays and real life interruptions, your mileage may vary. Remember that the reviewers are volunteers and do have the rest of life to deal with, as do we all. Don't forget to check your cache page at intervals to see if your reviewer has left you a note on the page. They may do this if they need additional information about your cache or have any questions. If they do leave you a note or have questions, be sure to respond back to them by the method they request. If they ask you to leave a note on the cache page, do exactly that, instead of emailing them. If they ask for an email, then do that. They will be expecting your response but due to a possibly large volume of people responding to them, by your responding in the way they expect, it helps them to keep track of you. Good luck on your first hide!

One of the biggest reasons we cache is to find new places. I have been an avid hiker since I was a child. When I moved to Florida 26 years ago I immediately began searching for places to hike. I found quite a few with the aid of maps and other publicly available resources. I thought I had a fair handle on most of the cool places to hike around central Florida. Then along comes geocaching. I had used GPS units for years for hiking, fishing, emergency services, etc... and heard about this crazy game of hiding containers. The wife and I gave it a try for fun and found a few close to home. One of our first finds was in a park that was not 2 miles from home but was a place we didn't know about. Hmmmm....this is interesting, I thought. After doing all the research we had done for years and surfing the web looking for places like this, here I was getting lead directly to a place that was new to me by this little game. The park was there all the time, it was just on a side road we had not explored. There are no signs on any of the roads leading to the park until you are at the park entrance. Since then in the 4 years we have been caching, I couldn't begin to count all the new places we have found as a direct result of caches being hidden there. This includes places with interesting views, places that are so remote that you would be amazed to believe that any people have ever gone there, places that have very interesting history, and places that were heavily populated with wildlife that provided amazing experiences just to be there and see them. We found a cache at a relatively unknown historical site with a well and remainder of a barracks from when the Spanish were in control of Florida. It's literally in the middle of a residential area and is cordoned off with a little plaque to explain the site. There are no signs indicating it is there anywhere that we could find. No signs on the street, entering the neighborhood, nothing. I even checked the local historical literature and tried to find any reference to this place in any other form but I didn't see anything else referencing this site. Without geocaching, it would be difficult if not impossible for the average person living here, let alone a tourist, to find. So geocaching is very helpful for finding new places, both for the person who has lived in the area for years, and for the occasional tourist coming to the area who might want to see something outside the normal "touristy" spots that are so highly publicized. In addition, my wife has managed to lose 80 lbs., mostly fueled by our desire to go out and see all the new places we keep finding. Even after 4 years of doing this, I still manage to find new places. Another new one just opened up about a month ago here in our area with a couple of hiking trails. How did I find out it was newly opened? Some new caches just got put out there. Now I have yet another new place to go and hike. Finding it was easy because of geocaching. Caches are hidden in all kinds of places and environments. If you will give it a chance, caching can really expand your ability to explore the parts of the world you enjoy the most.

You can try hiding the FTF prize a short distance from the cache and put the coordinates in the cache.

Well, here in this part of the deep south (Florida) we say it geocashing, too. MrsB, on a side note about the Lieutenant pronunciation, heres the most widely accepted explanation: The word was initially used by the French. The letters U and V were not established prior to the 18th century. The old French variant of leuf for the modern French lieu, meaning "place" may explain the pronunciation difference. Since the original version of English did not make a distinction between "u" and "v", the word was originally used as "lievtenant", which may mirror more closely the original French form with the "f". There is a propensity of using French words in unusual ways, one of them also explaining why Brits use the word "loo", which was based on a version of the French "gardez l'eau", where they would toss their waste from the top floor. Now if you will excuse me I need to go withdraw some caysh from the ATM.

I agree that DNFs are an important part of the game, and log my own. I disagree that they should be part of a user's public profile. You can see DNF logs on individual caches, where they are most important. Showing them on a public profile WILL cause some folks not to log their DNFs. If you believe DNFs are important, then this suggestion is not going to be good for the game.

I agree. Me and one (or two) of my GeoTeens are planning on going to the Georgia Geocaching Association meeting next Saturday (assuming that Life does not derail the best-laid plans, LOL). Definitely wanna connect with folks who have been doing this longer than me, LOL. Great idea! You will pick up more caching hints at one geo-event than you could learn on your own in a few months. Don't feel bad about not being able to find the larger one. Some days I can't find anything it seems. Other days I am finding things other folks have passed over. Earlier in our caching career, in the same month we DNF'd an easy ammo can hide and had to come back for it later, then found a cleverly hidden micro immediately after a group of 6 very experienced cachers (they had about 20,000 finds cumulatively) DNF'd it. Have fun at your event. Meeting up with other cachers is not only educational but a lot of fun, too! Happy Caching!

I found this cache and enjoyed it. We spotted the real cache pretty early but continued looking around just for the fun of seeing how many other decoys we could find. I can see where it could be a lot of maintenance though. My feeling is that if the decoys don't list different coordinates that take you a significant distance away from the coordinates listed for the cache, then it's a traditional. If the real cache and all the decoys are within a hundred feet or so of each other then I'd call that a traditional. If you only need to walk a short distance away to find the cache, and there are no additional coordinates in the decoy caches, then that's a traditional cache (with decoys)to me. There is a difference between a decoy and a multi.

When I saw this topic, I knew it was something I could relate to. I place cash around the house all the time. The problem is that SwampyGirl always finds it! I think its nice that you want to place a cache on your own land and invite cachers to come find it. I have done a few caches on private land, however, most of those folks were people I had met at local caching events. I'll echo what some of the others have said here. It's important that you let the neighbors all know what is going on so they won't become suspicious of folks showing up there at all hours of the day and night, and sometimes when you won't be home. We went to find a "home" cache once on Halloween night and showed up at the cacher's home in masks. It was a fun night!

My personal take is that a more full-featured unit would be a better choice, however, according to the weekly Groundspeak newsletter I got in my inbox this morning, it looks like they have expanded the capability of the Geomate Jr. to include pocket queries, so the units may work for you if you plan your caches accordingly. It does still require the update kit, though, so it is still near the cost range of other units. You might be able to use one upgrade kit for multiple Geomate Jr.s, that could be a big saver. Here's the wording from the email: Geomate.jr Now Supports Pocket Queries By now you've probably heard of the Geomate.jr - a rugged, affordable, easy-to-use geocaching GPS. And you've probably heard that there's no need to plan ahead or type in any coordinates as the Geomate.jr comes preloaded with about 250,000 geocaches covering all 50 U.S. states. And you may also have heard that with an Update Kit, you can load complete geocache lists for anywhere in the world or setup your own private geocaching course. But have you heard that the Geomate.jr now supports Pocket Queries? Yep, that's right - you now have the final say of what gets loaded onto your Geomate.jr. Armed with an Update Kit and mygeomate.com, just select your Pocket Query and load it into any Geomate.jr!

This is similar to our method, too. We enjoy the pre-planning and looking at maps of the area so that we both know where we are in relation to trails, roads, and natural barriers like rivers or swamps. It took me a little bit of research to figure out, but I discovered a way to go onto Google Earth and lay out a path that follows the trails to each cache. You can make as many paths as you want, and can add waypoints like parking lots, kiosks, and shelters. Then you can export the data (using a free downloadable tool to convert the Google Earth .kml file to a .gpx) back to Mapsource and load that data on the GPSr. That way, we can see our "projected" path on the GPSr. It makes finding the correct trail and turns much easier. We can also estimate our hiking distance pretty accurately this way, except for the unplanned off-trail excursions to see that really big tree or unusual outcropping of beautiful flowers along the way. For us, the pre-planning adds a lot to the fun when we are in the field. We will sometimes go out of our way to check out an interesting feature that we saw on Google Earth that we would not have encountered otherwise if we had just hit the trails "cold".

My first find was almost 4 years ago. Amazing how time flies when you are having fun! I read a lot on the website before trying my first find and went for an ammo can hide in a local park that was only a couple of miles from home. I was excited to think that there were all these hidden items out there that most people just walk right by. We got to the park and there were a bunch of muggles hanging around where the cache seemed to be located. We decided to take a walk around the park to see if we could wait them out since we didn't want to give the cache away. After about 45 minutes of touring the park, the area cleared out enough for us to attempt the find. The GPSr took us around back of one of the park buildings to a little bushy tree that was planted there. I remember that the unit was showing 1 foot distance to the cache when it was directly over the container. That was one of the very few times in almost 4 years of caching that has happened and it was on our first find! We opened the ammo can and looked at the trinkets while I was signing the log. When I looked over at SwampyGirl I could tell she was feeling the same way I was, we were both hooked! So far, I can say that I've never met an ammo can I didn't like!

Sorry, but I'll have to side with the reviewer on this one, too. A real fence between the tracks and the cache might make a difference, but a few plants does not create enough of a barrier. The location is too close to the tracks to be viable as a cache. Also, railroads are generally very strict about trespassing on their property and there is just not enough of a barrier here to prevent searchers from trespassing on railroad property.

You might be having a problem with the coordinate format and the datum you are set for on your unit. Coordinate formats on the geocaching website are in DDD MM.MMM format. You should set your unit to the same format. The datum setup should be set to WGS84. On any geocache page, next to the coordinates, there is a link for "other conversions". You can look there to see if other coordinate conversions look like what you see on your receiver. That will tell you that you are indeed set for other settings instead of the defaults you will see on the coordinates on the website. Most units have an option in the setup menu to change the coordinate format and datum. Check your owner's manual for setting details. Good luck!

Here's an easy 3 step process for you: 1. Smash spider 2. Remove spider detrius from cache container 3. Carry on.....

Your analogy doesn't work. In geocaching, the object is to find the cache. At least for the OP, the act of 'finding' doesn't include signing the logbook. In the sport of beer drinking, drinking the beer is the thing, so the container must be opened. My analogy works perfectly. Looking at a cache without signing the log is just like looking at a beer without drinking it. No, it isn't. You see, in geocaching, the object is to find the cache. At least for the OP, the act of 'finding' doesn't include signing the logbook. In the sport of beer drinking, drinking the beer is the thing, so the container must be opened. I'm sure that you can now see that your analogy doesn't work. I'm glad that I could help. Of course it is! All I can see from your post is that the world according to SBell111 isn't the world according to me. Thanks for being helpful pointing out that your view isn't shared by everyone!! I guess that, for you, the object of geocaching is something other than finding the geocache. No, that is exactly what geocaching is for me. Finding the cache. Not a container that I assume is the cache. So if you find a container that you don't open, you assume you have found the cache. Interesting. I guess you've never found a cache with a decoy or some kind of container in the vicinity of the cache that wasn't the actual cache. I have found both of these. Even found a letterbox in the vicinity of a cache once that I could easily have just assumed must be the cache, but it wasn't. Know how I discovered it wasn't the cache? It's when I opened it up to sign the log and realized what I found wasn't the cache I was looking for. The only way to be sure you have found the actual cache is to open the container and see what's inside. Anything short of that is an assumption on the finder's part. If you want to log a cache that you never opened, based on your assumptions, that's fine with me. Everybody is free to play any way that makes them happy as far as I am concerned. It's the cache owners that really decide what defines a find on their caches. Personally, I don't have X-Ray vision and I have to open them up to find out what's inside. Until I verify what I found is the real cache, to me it's not a find yet.

Your analogy doesn't work. In geocaching, the object is to find the cache. At least for the OP, the act of 'finding' doesn't include signing the logbook. In the sport of beer drinking, drinking the beer is the thing, so the container must be opened. My analogy works perfectly. Looking at a cache without signing the log is just like looking at a beer without drinking it. No, it isn't. You see, in geocaching, the object is to find the cache. At least for the OP, the act of 'finding' doesn't include signing the logbook. In the sport of beer drinking, drinking the beer is the thing, so the container must be opened. I'm sure that you can now see that your analogy doesn't work. I'm glad that I could help. Of course it is! All I can see from your post is that the world according to SBell111 isn't the world according to me. Thanks for being helpful pointing out that your view isn't shared by everyone!!

Your analogy doesn't work. In geocaching, the object is to find the cache. At least for the OP, the act of 'finding' doesn't include signing the logbook. In the sport of beer drinking, drinking the beer is the thing, so the container must be opened. My analogy works perfectly. Looking at a cache without signing the log is just like looking at a beer without drinking it.

A few weeks ago we did a 6+ mile hike with 17 caches we searched for. We found 14 and signed the log on every one of them. One was a real challenge to open since the container had been melted in a fire. I have probably 75 finds or so that I haven't logged online that all have my signature on the log. To me, finding a cache is like having a beer. If I don't open it up to get to the contents inside, the fun from the experience just isn't the same. I always sign the log on every cache I find. I don't expect others to do the same, though.

Unfortunately I don't think it is possible to regulate what shows up in your cache. From what I have seen in our area I can tell you though, that the farther the walk is to the cache, the less likely that you will see trash in it. Seems like the easy park and grabs are the ones that get the most. The ones that require a long hike to get to usually have much higher quality contents, at least that is the way it is around here. The quality of any swag in caches usually goes down with time, but there are a few caches I know of that require a 4 to 5 mile hike in an area with no trails where the quality actually seems to get better with time. I know you are not interested in having any swag in your cache but if you make one big enough to hold travelers, you will get some people that leave swag even if you ask for no swag on the cache page. I'll echo MrsB's request not to put any restrictions on the trading of travel bugs on your cache. Any cacher should be welcome at any time to take any or all of the travel bugs in the cache, whether they leave one or not. Good luck with your cache. I think if you put it somewhere that will require some walking time to get to it, it will stay in better shape.

Thanks much for your helpful reply! I just may give that a shot. The place where I'd hide the first cache is a place I go to frequently, so I could get a couple/few readings each time, see how it averages out. We'll see! Best reply yet, MrsB! When you take your coordinates, be sure to approach from different directions. Average out your coordinate readings over several readings and if possible on different days. I think you will find that you can get coordinates that are accurate enough if you are persistent. Good luck, and don't give up!