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If you can eliminate the presumption of "poor behavior", the best course is to contact them and discuss it with them. They've been geocaching a long time. You have not. If you talk it over with them, you can get better insight into what they think they're doing. My guess is that they are under the impression that TB owners like to see their TBs travel, and that most TOs don't really care whether the TBs stop in any particular cache so they can pass from person to person. That might very well be because that's what they like for their TBs. And since it's happen to you multiple times with various geocachers, it sounds like a cultural position in your area you need to be aware of. Like you, I'm not that interested in mindless visits to vast numbers of run-of-the-mill caches. If you talk to them, you can explain your feelings about it to them. But it won't get you very far if you start by accusing them of being jerks. Yes, it's true, some of them may have entirely forgotten that they grabbed the TB and don't know where they put it, but even if that's the case, it will be counterproductive to lead with that possibility. But, actually, that seems unlikely to me because these are seasoned geocachers. If they're acting poorly, they must be doing this with hundreds of TBs by now, and that's hard for me to believe. So I'd assume they have the mistaken belief that they're doing good over the possibility that they're doing it for no particular reason just because they're not nice people.

Yes, and it leads to a little bit more of a mystery... Went out when I could, and started digging around. I did, in fact, find the station that the carsonite post was for! .. But it was NOT for the station that I had expected - it's for an Azimuth mark for a triangulation station, a 3/4 mile away at the top of a mesa. Station has not been recovered since 1958, so the carsonite post is newer than that. Neither the station that is destroyed there, or the description of the AZ mark make references to each other. I have plans on getting the station on the mesa - I need to talk to the ranch owner first. And will need to get a metal detector, and start sweeping the general area for possible hits.

Have you tried to talk with the leader

Im giving a talk on geocaching for my moms watershed meeting tonight,and Im not really sure how to go about it.I was gonna start by giving the meaning of the word and a brief word on how it got started,then for there Im kinda lost.Any Ideas????

This post is being written as a community member, not as a moderator or Groundspeak volunteer. My opinions are my own. Urwigo is likely the most fleshed-out of the third-party builders, followed by Earwigo. We don't have a more fleshed-out builder because Groundspeak hasn't really done anything to encourage the community. I haven't heard anything to the contrary about reviewers being advised not to publish Wherigo geocaches that specifically cite the (free) third-party builder app used to create the cartridge (yet cache listings involving certain other services that have a premium tier are allowed). Internally, the community has talked about revising the Wherigo specification, which has also likely had an impact upon development (but without the community's hosting the listing service, specification changes wouldn't be able to be listed on Wherigo.com, which would then certainly cause Wherigo geocache listings not to be published). I had created a second version of Kit, but never published it because I'd then have to finish the rest of the site's design and I tired myself out. My job over the past five to six years has willingly and eagerly been interested in consuming all free time I would like to put into developing software. I figure it's better to put the time into my job and have what I create be used than attempt to continue Wherigo development--especially the cartridge listing service--and chance it likely never really being used. Besides, recreating it with a modern API, Blazor front end, and microservices in the back end would increase the cost I pay to host Kit and the Wherigo Foundation site. I already pay a not insignificant cost every year to host everything. It would be sad to double it or more with a microservices-based infrastructure if it's not going to go anywhere. In early February, I requested a meeting be set up with me, but I haven't heard anything since. I wanted to talk about Wherigo's future and what active role Groundspeak could play in the community. I myself am not that good in keeping a group of people engaged in a pursuit. I'd need one or two other people to play off of. I'm willing to give it one more shot if we can keep an active and engaged team. I guess for me, the largest obstacles are lack of encouragement, lack of anyone who might want to assist with developing a professional web-based builder, and Groundspeak's seemingly-apathetic stance on the matter.

AKA Mentor Wanted! Hi all New girl in town and living in the gorgeous Prescott Valley, Az. Just joined the site as a premium member so will be learning about all the functions and offerings. I stumbled over a cache accidentally last year while checking out an historical marker/graveyard and was officially hooked, though I'd been familiar with the site and concept for awhile before then. I was given a Magellan sports trak GPS but wasn't very intuitive and had no manuals, cables or anything and couldn't figure out how to use it. Anyway, I'm browsing Amazon ready to order something solid, reliable, and easy to use in the $300 range. I'm seeing high reviews for the Garmin Rino, so thought I would post and ask if anyone here is using it and how it fares for a complete noob and anything I might need to be aware of, and especially if I'll end up spending more $ on back end accessories that I will need but that don't come with (and worse, aren't even mentioned). Finally, if anyone is in Prescott Valley Az area, I would love to meet you. We're relatively new in town too and I've had little opportunity to meet people so far. Geocaching buds would be ideal! Thanks in advance. I think the email is shown, maybe in profile if you prefer that option too. Have a great evening!

i have asked this question several times before and have yet to receive an empirical answer. where did this idea come from that an activated coin is worth less than a non-activated one? same coin, not circulated. i feel it is a myth, a false concept. if that myth was destroyed, then all coins of one type would be equally valuable, even those that were activated because someone wanted the icon. i can understand if we are talking about a circulated coin versus a non-circulated one. just like in the real coin world. this came up recently because of my "fix walter" sales. someone suggested that some of the coins were less valuable because they had been activated. i have long said to that "baloney!" if i want a coin, i don't give a flying hill of ducks if it has been activated or not. it is the same piece of metal, activated or not. so, let's keep it friendly, but let's talk about this.

I understand now about Muggles - being the general public. But what if you suspect that someone is also attempting to locate a cache. Do the rules state you can talk or is it STEALTH all the way and talk to NO ONE? Thanks The Bax

Is there a place I can read about the various chipsets? MTK v2, Sirf 111, Cartesio, Mediatex? I totally don't understand them. I am not even sure they are chipsets? Is there a chart that compares them? Or a chart that indicates which chipset that the GPS unit has installed? Seriously, I am just trying to learn. Thanks, Yvette

Did anyone listen to yesterday's show? Elliott was talking about how cars will drive up to the top of the parking garage on Rockville Pike, MD, and get out of the car, walk around, get back in the car and drive away. Usually 1 or 2 people and always different cars. A caller called in guessing that it might have been a geocacher--of course Elliott had never heard of it, so he and his morning crew completed busted this caller using words like, dork, loser, etc. What do you guys think?

I wish I could say that I was going on the trip with my parents to Sweden, but being a new father I am unable too. My parents have just learned to use my gps and want me to put in the cords for 2 places in Sweden. I is called Gillersklack (which is a ski resort in Kopparberg) and the 2nd is Arlanda Hotellby, Stockholm, Sweden (Which I believe is a Hotel) It would be very appreciated if someone could email me with these cords. gps_junky@yahoo.com

OK folks, thanks for your help on past issues - Got another one now.... I can't get GSAK to talk to my Garmin Colorao 300. Got the USB box in setup check, and defined the Colorado 300. Have tried all 4 options of Interface in Setup in the Colorado. Error message in GSAK says it"cannot init a USB connection", or something like that. No use trying to learn any more GSAK tricks if I cant get it and Colorado to talk. In the meantime, I'm entering caches one at a time with "sent to GPS" option. TIF for any suggestions.

My Colorado 400t is not being seen when I try to send a geocache to it from geocaching.com. When I go to the Garmin site and do a communication link test, it recognizes my unit and everything looks good. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing software and drivers, but nothing seems to work. I'm out of ideas and seriously bummed out. I used to have no problem downloading caches. The one thing different between successful downloading in the past and now is that I had to do a system restore to an earlier date. I don't know if that would effected it(?) Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

To clarify, the moderating team's message to you explained that your prior post was hidden from view because it described a workflow using an "unauthorized application," but the message went on to say that it is fine to "use the Geocaching forums to discuss the official Geocaching apps and authorized Geocaching Live! partner applications." Therefore, it's fine to talk about solutions involving GSAK or Cachly, for example, because these authorized partners use the Geocaching API. That said, the OP asks about websites, not apps.

First, if there's no issue with the cache, then answering reviewer questions shouldn't be a problem or an issue. Rather it should be great if he can talk to a reviewer and confirm that the cache is good to go; that firms his stance and the cache status. Second, if his initial response to your OAR log is anger given what you said, that is not a nice CO and I wouldn't bat an eye if the reviewer decided to do something about the cache. This is another reason why having a strong community is so important! More local events, let cachers meet each other and get a sense of who each other are and what their ethics are. Even ideally build a good rapport with others around. hmph.

Have others tried to figure this one out: http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/tra...0906/index.html Basically the GPS had an average speed higher than the maxium speed and it was working properly. My intinal thought was it must be (brand deleted to avoid flames ) I also thought maybe it had to do with a time zone or daylight sayings times but could not figure out how that could get the result. I think I might have finally figured it out-but I could be wrong. I will put what I think it is in a rely so you can go read the puzzle first.

I've been all about challenges for years. We started the Challenge Talk podcast in 2020 which is great for challenge enthusiasts. Personally there are so many challenges in Ontario now that I'm not so much working focused on specific challenges any more, but passively working on any I don't qualify for yet As mentioned above, I have a doc that lists all the challenges I know of and I periodically update them all with current progress, and whether they're qualified (then log it as such with a note); and if I sign in first I mark it in the doc as found as I know once it's qualified I can just log it found. Going on trips is prime time to prioritize finding qualifying caches. But I also have them sorted by priority. Dates needing find specific qualifying caches go straight on my calendar so I know "today I've got to find 5 caches, 2 letterboxes, 1 Other, and a 3.5/4" for example. If I'm traveling then region and location becomes priority. Any rare caches in the vicinity of travel go on the stop-and-find list. Especially region oldests, jasmer caches, rare DTs, or even just properties that don't appear nearly as often near to home. Rarely ever on a trip do I just casually find caches. There are too many and the vast majority don't help towards any qualifications. Even so, before casual caching I'd be searching for high favourite points for the best chance at maximizing my travel's experiences. Challenges give that extra goal, a new layer on top of regular geocaching (like geocaching on top of the real world :P)

So, your talk about privacy was misleading. You are affraid of strange motivations. Let's compare this airtag with a logbook. Logbook reveals your private data. Logbook is tracking you not the airtag. You should opt-out all of them because there are huge number of airtag owners with more strange motivations compared to the OP. For example, a business owner may be tracking you when you enter the shop and can count how many times you have visited - spooky - isn't it?

If forum participants want to talk about challenge caches, the General Geocaching Topics forum is the place for that. This is the Creating Adventures forum.

Who's going? Arrg...

OK, I should be getting my tax cash back in a week or so and plan on ordering a GPS system. Dell has these on sale and I think, if I talk to the right person, I can get them to match Amazon's price, which would be bonus to me as I can use my preferred account with them. I kind of wanted to stick around 200-220, but if I could get Dell to match, I'd have a hard time not pulling the trigger. My goal is to use this mainly for geocaching, some summer hiking/camping and some photo outings. For travel on the road, I have a TomTom, so maps aren't a big deal to me. So, I come to you the geocaching community and ask... sell me on this piece of electronics and tell me why I should spend nearly 300 bucks on a GPS unit? And if not -- which one should I get and why? Thanks for any thoughts/help!

When I've introduced people to geocaching, I have never had them create a geocaching.com account or install an app (any app). As kunarion pointed out, that's a lot of finicky technical work, and it's more productive to introduce them to the "finding tupperware in the woods" part of geocaching. When I've taught one-hour classes on geocaching (usually, but not exclusively, to kids at church), I've spent the first half of the class explaining geocaching with as many hands-on examples as possible. Then I've taken everyone outside to a nearby spot where I've hidden a bunch of varied containers, and I've had them raise their hands when they've spotted a hidden container. In the class, I start by explaining that geocaching is like a modern scavenger hunt or game of hide the thimble, using GPS coordinates to show roughly where the container is hidden. (I specifically avoid the term "treasure hunt" because that gives people the wrong idea about what geocaching is.) To demystify GPS, I have three colored strings/ropes hanging from the ceiling. I explain that the GPS device (whether built into a phone or a separate handheld device) measures the precise distance from it to a GPS satellite. I grab one string and show that with one satellite, it defines a circle. Then I grab a second string and show that two satellites define two points, the places where the two circles intersect. I grab the third string and show that three satellites define a single point... except that there's another point "up there" so you have to assume I'm on the ground and not "up there". All this takes just a few minutes. The bulk of the explanation part is explaining and showing them different containers (sizes, types, camouflage), different trade items ("Trade up, trade even, or don't trade."), and different trackables (and that they are NOT trade items). I also explain difficulty and terrain ratings, and I briefly explain that most caches are traditional (a container at the GPS coordinates), but that some are more complicated (multi-caches, puzzles, etc.). By then, it's time to go outside to look for hidden containers. I generally try to have at least one hidden container per kid. If you don't have enough real cache containers, then any recycled jars/bottles covered in camo tape will do. Before the class, I hide them in an area where there are plenty of bushes, trees, and other landscaping features. Vary the hiding spots, and make a few of them really hard. I have the kids stay behind a line and raise their hands when they've spotted a hidden container. I try to call on everyone once before I call on anyone a second time. It's important to have a count of the number of containers hidden, and the number of containers spotted so far. As we get to the end, I let the kids know how many containers are left to find. If we run out of time, then I reveal the ones they missed. The other style of class that I've helped with has met at a trailhead parking lot in a county park. After a brief "chalk talk" explaining the basics (pretty much the same way I described above, without the colored strings/ropes to explain GPS), the new geocachers break up into small groups, with one experienced geocacher assigned to each group as a coach. Each group receives a preprogrammed GPS with real caches hidden along the trail. We used a popular trail that had become naturally saturated with a variety of caches placed by different owners (what we called a "power trail" before the advent of modern numbers trails like the ET Highway trail). Over the course of 2-3 hours, the new geocachers could find an assortment of different caches and be back at the trailhead in time for lunch. The experienced coach in each group was there mainly to answer questions, and to make sure there wasn't any confusion about trackables or replacing the cache as found or things like that.

Thank you whoever you 4 are. This is the way we should all strive to talk to land owners. This came in to Groundspeak today and I thought thanks were in order. It is so nice to get emails like this. It really helps things when cachers are professional in their dealing with land owners and managers. Thanks to all that do this, not just these 4 people.

Talk me out of returning my Colorado and getting a 60 CSx. I'm really disappointed about spending the cash and none of the geocaching features work.

This water fountains, with the intent of providing water to the population - now or in the past - is definitely something deserving its own category. They are usually interesting, many are historic, pure heritage, and still, no place to place them in Waymarking. From time to time there is some talk about creating a category but so far, nothing came up. Fountains - as far as I can remember - only accept decorative fountains.