Bear_Left
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Posts posted by Bear_Left
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I just started geocaching with my kids. It would be a lot easier to be able to sort caches by size.Did anyone else have the same issue with their kids?
Mama_Bear_Left's kids are grown up, and no grandkids yet, so we cache as a couple without kids, but for our own reasons we too far prefer larger caches. So we too strongly support this suggestion. And we'd like to add a plea to cache-placers:
"Please, don't waste good spots on nanos and micros. Use your imagination and craft and create a clever way of hiding a container eg inside a fake rock, a false post or a banksia cone that unscrews. Far more satisfying for both hider and finder."
In our book, the boring nanos and micros that are popping up everywhere in profusion generally lack the charm, cleverness and the challenge that make for a good caching experience. In many situations, a medium-sized cache would be totally possible. And as Rachelboise points out, the tinies do not tend to have space for the trinkets that so delight kiddie-cachers. Let's not let our wonderful sport degenerate to a numbers game.
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Do bear in mind that you might find your "FTF" will be less thrilled when they realise that they've just won a race that many of the contestants were banned from running in. Sort of takes the shine off the achievement...
If someone is really wanting to share in the thrills of being the FTF a new cache, the cost of a membership isn't that high, is it?
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... it;s up on the othe side of the road on top of a cliff that you cant even get there from here. Now I have to hike back down, retreive cache and figure out what to do with a cache that is made out of a rusty old shock absorber.
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PS other than my first hide, NO ONE CAN SUGGEST that my hide locations or containers are anything but something they have never seen before. - but i am still bitter about this one! (can you tell?)
Did you discuss this with your reviewer? Don't forget, (s)he's almost certainly looking at a lot of caches, and doesn't spend 20 minutes checking each one, or even each problem cache, in Google Earth, etc. to see what the exact deal is. If you reckon there's a significant natural barrier between your cache and that problem waypoint, then make your case with a screenshot or two.
The decision might still stand, but your chances of not wasting your good work can only go up!
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And don't forget that the 0.1mile guideline is a minimum, not a target!
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I have an Ever-ready brand headlamp that my wife gave me, which has a single red LED and dual white LEDs (which are focussed nicely to one blob of light) which is small, light and throws enough light to see where I'm putting my feet, but not enough to choose a path through the bush at night.
I also have a Duracell incandescent torch which is still quite small (3xAA) but bright enough to light the path 20-30m ahead.
For serious lighting, I have a million candlepower rechargeable spotlight in the car, which is great for finding caches at night. The concealing foliage browns and crisps out of the way, and you can follow your nose to the smell of burning PVC or ammo can paint from 100m away!
(I call it "Der Illoominador" <- my attempt at writing an Austrian accent!)
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Based on many of the listings and logs I see, I suspect the various Societies for Prevention of Cruelty to Software would object to the horrible, horrible things that such a spell-checker would have to deal with!
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Until I became a reviewer, we used to enjoy the friendly rivalry of the FTF meta-game, mainly on significant puzzles and/or multis. FTF on most low-terrain-rating trads comes down to luck and geography, mostly; were you near an email program and do you live close to the coords?
If nothing else, the FTF hunt tends to be a social thing, as you meet the (hopefully) STF coming towards you as you walk away from the newly-deflowered logbook!
Apart from having had the time to get insta-notify and other tools set up properly, there's not really any advantage that a multi-kilocache finder has over a relative newcomer. If it's an easy to find trad, all that experience won't mean a thing if you live 20 minutes further away!
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We've used little LED torches with our geocaching logo on them, and some multi-function cards (with compass, magnifying glass, ruler, bottle opener, screwdriver, etc. etc.) as sig items. We've left them in caches that we particularly liked, in caches we were the FTF (as a consolation prize to the STF), and as FTF prizes in our own caches.
A local team had some really nice swag that they often left when they were FTF. We always suspected that this was so potential rivals for the blank logbook might try a leeeetle less hard, hoping to get the consolation prize instead! (I know we followed them around until we finally got the hat we were after!)
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As an ex FTF hound, I can tell you that the prize is signing a blank logbook. If there's a nice gift in there as well, that's a bonus, but I've also been known to leave them there as a consolation prize for the STF as I'd already had my reward!
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No, I don't think so. If you haven't read the description, you may well not have the required piece of string with you.
The test is "If I knew nothing about this cache other than its coordinates, could I find it and make a legitimate log on it?"
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I think NZ, like Australia, has pretty much 100% cellphone saturation and I'd be surprised if more than a tiny handful of them didn't have SMS capability.
However, I think the privacy aspect is the killer, as well some concern about the reliability of the webserver setup. If it could be off-site automated and anonymised, it might fly.
(BTW, in NZ the sender of an SMS pays for it, not the receiver. How much they pay is between them and their telecomm provider. Same as for voice calls, and cellphone numbers are in a completely different sequence, so you won't call one by accident, thinking it's a landline.)
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I can just picture the scene:
Cacher 1 drops an ammo can down the hole, then puts on the rubber gloves.
Cacher 2: "What did you drop that ammoc can in there for?!"
Cacher 1: "Well I'm not going down there just for a MICRO!"
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I sent him an email over an hour ago telling him to log the find because I am tired of the drama but he is continuing to post and give away the cache information after the find was offered back to him. So yes it is sad to say the least. I am very disappointed. I will say no more!
Well, you did rather back him into a corner. In a public forum, you basically called him a cheat for using personal information, and the only way to refute that was to show that anyone with the required logic and mathematical skills could have done the same thing.
Frankly, anyone who could follow his 'hints' would already know how to solve simple substitution cyphers and could choose how they wanted to do your cache.
There is a challenge involved in being the FTF, which tends to trump the fun of following the stages of a long multicache. Ozguff has said that he intended to go back and experience the rest of the cache with friends, which he could've done at any time, but the FTF is only available once!
This is your chance to show some generosity of spirit and both reward his ingenuity in finding your cache and to leave your cache online for others to enjoy.
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Since geocaches are, technically, litter, I don't see any leagal recourse.
Groundspeak could ban the offender's account, but then he'd just sign up with a new account.
Is it someone who cares about his stats? If so, a campaign of getting cache owners to delete his logs might have some effect.
There are other recourses, but they are illegal!
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Clear violation of the guidelines.
only those with a religious agenda would excuse this. if the book was the koran you'd see different attitudes on those same people.
all of those should have a SBA posted.
I'm an athiest. I'm a reviewer. I'd publish these. If a cache used the Quoran as a source of coordinate numbers, I'd publish that too, if that was all the book was used for.
I guess that invalidates your bold assertion!
I've also placed a Christmas-themed cache, even though I don't believe in, or require the belief in, any of the various creeds that this season stands for.
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If (OK, not if;when) some idiot thinks it's a good idea to list'n'archive scores of dud caches to get to the fabled ZZZZ, I'd liove to be the reviewer.
I'd take such delight in 'accidentally' hitting the archive button and saying "Oops! Slipped! Oh, well, no harm done. Just paste the contents into a new listing and I'll publish that instead!"
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There's a new podcast available about geocaching down under.
Find it at http://geotalk.libsyn.com/
At last, a podcast where nobody has an accent!
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There's a new podcast available about geocaching down under.
Find it at http://geotalk.libsyn.com/
At last, a podcast where nobody has an accent!
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Guys, it's been won!
By all means send your local reviewer a vote of thanks, but you can't nominate them anymore!
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Don't forget that these things are going to get repeatedly handled, probably less carefully than you, too!
We had one with some bark glued and wired to a plastic mixing bowl which was used as a cover over the cache proper. It was pretty tough, but it's now almost 'bald' after many months of being picked up and replaced. And that didn't need to be held while the cache was opened and closed...
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As a reviewer (theUMP), I see both good and bad caches from placers with very few finds.
I generally check that they've got a logbook and such, and have a much closer look at the maps to make sure that the placement seems sensible (e.g. in the park they mentioned, not a street a hundred metres away)
I'm also careful to introduce myself, so they don't wonder why someone's sending them emails asking about logbooks and waterproof containers and WGS84 and such!
Overall, though, I'm fairly impressed at the quality of newbie's caches.
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If it's the same container for both cache listings, then it's definitely not within the guidelines.
It's also not the only way to do it...
I have a 'two-speed' cache with a puzzle to solve as well as an auto-emailing webpage that will send you the coords. All I ask is that the finder mentions which method they use, and I'm careful to make the point that there's nothing "better" about solving the puzzle rather than just wanting the walk and the find.
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You can have take-away heat-revealed ink notes, as long as you can keep up with the useage.
Have this waypoint after a couple of other tricky waypoints to keep the riff-raff out, and make sure it's close enough to home!
Have a plain-ink note which looks like it should be a cypher, with the invisible ink written between the lines. Heck, have a real coded message which says something about reading between the lines!
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You can control the start point of a multi fairly easily, using a light box and a standard timer.
Make or modify a box with a lamp inside (flourescent probably, just for heat reasons) and the waypoint coords printed on a clear front panel in dark green (say) on black (so you can't see the letters without the backlight on.)
Attach it to a 24-hour timer set to turn it on at a specified time (you could alter it seasonally if you wished, but put the dates/times on the listing)
Put the whole thing in a street-visible window in your (or a friend's) office or, if you don't mind people wandering into your property at all hours, in a window at home.
Sure, someone could get the coords one night and then find the cache during the day, but at least you've encouraged them to do at least part of it at night, and I think most obsessed cachers will carry one once they've started!
Automating Adding Additional Waypoints
in General geocaching topics
Posted
I happen to know what this is about (I asked for advice from someone who asked the poster, who thought it was a good idea and now wants to know the same answers as me!) and I can assure you that this will only be a wild goose chase if the finders miss the point entirely!
Cluttering up GPSrs, sadly, will happen, but only if the cacher doesn't solve it and find it, so it's just an added incentive!