Celtic_cacher

I first saw hiking poles last spring when I was in an outdoor shop up in Flagstaff, AZ and thought they were 'interesting' but not something I would ever have the need for. Then I got into geocaching. I picked up one of the cheap poles at Target a couple of months ago before I went hiking in the Pinnacle National Monument, and it made all the difference in the world. It was helpful going uphill, but saved me from a couple of falls going downhill. I am firmly in the camp of "I'll never go back to not using one". -CJ

Congratulations on your first week! I had to post a reply when I saw where you are from, I grew up about 30 miles from there near Benton. Got some friends living there in Malvern. Welcome to the wonderful sport/madness/addiction of Geocaching. Have fun! -CJ

Congratulations on the first find and welcome to the wonderful madness of geocaching. Be warned, the addiction sets in after the 2nd or 3rd day, and you're sitting at work looking out the window trying to figure out how to leave a few minutes early so you can stop and just one cache on the way home. Have fun! -CJ

Thanks. I'm going out with my brother either tomorrow or Wed and will be sure to stop by there. I saw on Google earth there are several in the park.

Congratulations! May life bring you the greatest of adventures and may God bless your union.

I haven't found any accidentally, but the other weekend I was out with some non-caching friends in a place where I had looked for a couple of caches before. I remembered what the cache pages said and looked at the sites with fresh eyes...and sure enough found one of them that had eluded me for nearly a month. And without my GPS in hand. -CJ

Howdy everyone. I'm visiting family in Conway, Arkansas for a week and want to take some of them out geocaching. Could you recommend some good caches to look for? I already know I'm taking them down to Pinnacle Mtn State Park in LR to grab the Caching Across American cache. What other ones are around here that would be a good introduction for them to the fun? -CJ

Remember as you are searching for the hidden treasure of caches... All that is gold does not glitter Welcome to the wonderful fun. It is very addictive. I'm taking a trip to Arkansas at the end of the week to visit family and plan to introduce my parents and brother to geocaching. Have fun and let us know how you do. -CJ

Well, I have been caching for a little over a month now, and I have told a number of people about this. Most of them think it's one of the coolest ideas they've heard of and keep coming back to ask me where I went the past weekend, what I saw, and if I found any. Some of them keep coming back to ask more about geocaching. By and large, I have had far more interest and positive feedback than anything negative. That being said, I have had some people question. That's okay. It may not be their thing. But I know I enjoy it, and so I'll keep doing it. Good luck, and have fun doing what you enjoy doing. -CJ

Say it ain't so! Something worse than chiggers? I do hate chiggers, but after spending some time in Texas I would say that fire ants are a bit worse. The only + for fire ants is that they're big enough to see when they bite you so you can kill them. The bad thing about them is, they hurt like the blazes and the only way to make them let go is to kill them. As for ticks, haven't seen any around here yet, but with the number of deer we have running around on this place, I'm sure the ticks are just waiting to come out of hiding. -CJ

Congratulations on finding the caches, and welcome to the madness! It's always good to hear when husband and wife enjoy the caching together. Good luck and have fun!

I found a listing for a new one at nextag.com through Amazon.com. The color is not green, but it does say Men's Approach 2. -CJ

Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to leave foreign coins in caches. In fact, there is even a cache here in Monterey that is a dedicated coin exchange cache where the owner has requested that all trades be different foreign or unusual coins. I for one enjoy looking at them, and would be more than happy to find a foreign coin in a cache. In truth, there are only a few hard and fast 'rules' about what not to leave in caches. Take a look here at the Getting Started page on Geocaching.com and click on geocaching listing guidelines. There is a section that explains what is generally acceptable to put in a cache and what is not. That being said, welcome to the addiction that is geocaching. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have in my first month! -CJ

I had to add my two cents in on this topic. Today is actually the first time I have heard about pathtags, and I am already working on a design for a personal one. I was thinking of getting some geocoins made, but took a look at the price and WOW...a bit out of my price range at this time. The $ is the key at the moment for me. A colorized, personalized sig item for about $100 just makes sense to me. -CJ

Briansnat, thank you for that list. I've been doing this for about a month and have been having trouble thinking of things to leave in caches. You've given me some very good ideas. Now if just I can find more time to go get out and look! -CJ

Out of curiosity, what's the difference between a Member and a Platinum Member? -CJ

Well, mine was a case of creating a name before thinking it through. I live in California, and I love wolves. Therefore, the combination of calif_wolf. A few days after creating my nick...I suddenly realized I should have gone with geowolf. Oh well...maybe next time. -CJ

You know, after years working with computers I really feel bad when I don't think of the simple things. I normally use Firefox. And I didn't even think of maybe reloading the page to try and grab the image again. I didn't get my avatar the first time, but did the second time, and did in IE. Thank you very much for your replies and your help. -CJ

Welcome to this wonderful addiction. It will take you places you've never been, and show you sights you've never seen. Good luck and have fun! -CJ

I'm not sure if this is a good place to post this question, but I'll go ahead. On some of the posts related to pictures, I see the pictures, and on some of them I simply see the words IPB Image. From the following posts, it appears that other people can see the images. Why? I did a search on IPB and saw it is forum software, but I don't know why I can't see some of the images and can see some others. Thanks for any assistance, -CJ

Why? There are several reasons. I have always enjoyed the outdoors, yet in the past several years have found myself increasingly unable to get out and go hiking like I use to. Geocaching provides a welcome reason to do just that. I am also a bit of a gypsy. My grandmother passed on her wanderlust to me. I enjoy finding new places, seeing new things, and going down roads I've never seen. A question was asked on a different topic of how far people had gone for a cache. I haven't been far for JUST a cache yet, but geocaching gives me the permission to go out and take long road trips just because I want to. I guess it provides a welcome distraction for the daily hustle and bustle of life. I wish I'd found it years ago, but now that I am hopelessly addicted I'm enjoying every minute of it. -CJ

Well, my PDA screen cracked on me, so I have been set back a few steps. However, these days I have been using the GTDTiddlyWiki and printing the cache info off on 3x5 index cards. Yes, it still means entering the information by hand into the Wiki, but that way I can make any notes I need to (turn at this road, etc). It took a little work in Firefox to get the index cards to print the way I wanted them, and a little work with my printer, but it's working great now. -CJ

Congratulations and welcome to the addiction! It's a wonderful way to get out of the house and get some exercise. Enjoy! -CJ

Welcome to the madness. It will invade your every thought. It will cause you to look at everyplace you pass with the question "Would that make a good hiding place for a cache?" I've been caching for just two weeks now and my only regret is not having found this years ago. Again, welcome to the group and enjoy! -CJ

It's an epidemic of people getting lost going home from work, even though they carry GPS with them everywhere they go (just in case). I drove right past my house last night and further into the base to locate something that had been on my mind. And yes, I found it. -CJ