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Your personal geocaching enviroment


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Reading through these forums, I find so many areas where geocaching is that are so unique. Around here we have no dangers, no scorpions, no snakes, no spiders. The worst we have is the highest percentage of lyme diease in the country, (Plenty of deer, hell, the county I live in is named "bucks".) We have a lot of deer ticks... As I live pretty close to a city, (philly) There is a lot of urban areas, it's not huge expanses of farmland, or desert. Although, we do have plenty of parks owned by the state, or county, such as pennypack park, tyler state park ECT. Not to mention plenty "patches" ff woods. Only about .2 to .3 of a mile in a circle/square form where most geocaches are hidden. I live near a bunch of really nice places to go too, but all of them are 2 - 3 hours away so I rarely go to them, such as wildwood, or the poconos. I have never been to the pconos but go to wildwood every year. I live in a tri-state area, so there is plenty of states that I can cache in that are "nearby" Delaware is 40 mins away, NJ about 15 - 20 mins. Haven't geocached in either. We have some nice geocaches hides here, for example, the MMC, "Micro master challenge" Basically the best hiders in the area were picked to hide 15 micro's all of them are super creative and some of the best I have ever seen. Once you find them all you get the coords to the final. We also have the "murder in bucks county" Where there is a traditional you have to find, and there is coords to all the puzzle, ( that's the only way to get the coords) Sort of a reverse of most caches that require you to find them all to get the final, you find the final and get the rest. Each one tells you if it is the murderer, only one is, they are all logged differently, hidden buy the same user. We have no powertrails nearby unfortunately. We have plenty of the mundane lamp post hides. Most caches are really easy terrain, considering the area we live in. It isn't unless you go into the parks with geologic significance you get hard terrain, such as Schuylkill canal park and penny pack. Those are the most fun to find, I almost fell down a huge cliff at one point : P. There isn't much crime so that isn't a danger, not until you go into west philly, or north philly. People are nice in this area and generally give and recieve help if needed. I've helped multiple people, and multiple people helped me. We don't have any natural occurences that could harm us, we don't have hurricanes, we don't have earth quakes, nothing... We have had tornado warnings, but never an actual tornado.

 

What's your geocaching enviroment like? List things such as dangers, (bugs, crime, animals, natural occurences. List the terrian, (hills, desert, farmland.) Difficulty of caches, and types of caches, intresting series in the area. List the people's niceness or rudeness. Parks nearby.

 

Thanks, I really hope you guys can give me insight into other areas where geocaching is done...

 

~ coldgears.

 

EDIT: We have Bees, Mosquitos, Poison ivy/oak, Stickerbushes, Didn't think they could be listed as dangers, but I decided to list them after another listed them.

Edited by Coldgears
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We are very similar here in Minnesota and Wisconsin. My stereotype image of PA (as well as neighboring NJ) has been busted wide open by a couple of business trips there. I understand that we do have a few rattlesnakes here around the Mississippi river bluffs, but I've never seen them aside from photographs. Poison ivy, ticks, and mosquitoes are our main natural "dangers" around here.

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This will take awhile, but I think it will be fun!

 

Basic Terrain:

We live about 60 miles from the coast, and in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Weather: It rains pretty much all year, but gets fairly hot in the summer (although this summer has been somewhat cool). Beautiful and green hills with conifer trees (Douglas Fir, Spruce, Pine), lots of viney plants, bushes, flowers, grass, blackberry vines, and a lot of water! There are beautiful rivers, creeks, ponds and lakes around here.

 

Demographics:

Eugene is the biggest city in our area outside of Portland, population about 147,000. We live in Junction City, population 5,000 ish; there's a lot of farmland around here, and thus a lot of private property. There is also logging land. Lots of parks and BLM land though too. Where we live specifically is outside of town, and our neighbors are all spread pretty far apart. We have 3 acres.

 

There are a lot of railroads that are quite active.

 

Dangers:

Ticks, Poison Oak, Deadly Nightshade grows wild here (but that's not too dangerous unless you eat it), hemlock, Giant Hogweed, slippery ground, Poky blackberry vines, bees, mosquitos, stinging nettle.

 

The weather around here can get pretty cold and windy and VERY wet, nothing as severe as we encountered when we lived in Denver though...

 

In Eugene specifically there is a large homeless population and more crime than one would expect for such a nice town. There is unfortunately quite a large meth-amphetamine problem there. You have to be careful about leaving bikes, cars, etc unlocked.

 

Interesting Parks/Hikes:

Spencer's Butte and Mt. Pisgah are really nice places to hike and cache. We also like College Hill and Alton Baker Park in Eugene for nice easy walks and beautiful scenery. Taking 126 along the McKenzie River is beautiful and there are tons of really fun caches to find. We recommend going to Belknap Hot Springs (there's an Earthcache there too).

 

Fern Ridge Lake is a wonderful place to go. There's tons to do there, lots of nice trails, walk on the dam, tons of caches, picnic areas, boating, etc, etc , etc

 

Fun Cache Series:

One of our favorite series around here is the Lord of the Rings Series (Here's a link to the first one: GC23W3D), which is a 2 mile hike through some BLM land.

 

I also enjoyed the Robin Hood series put out by this same cache hider. She just rocks!

 

Another series that we're working on that is really interesting is a railroad history/future series. It does span from here to Portland though, but it's been really fun so far: GC2417R

 

Nice/Rude People:

There are SO many really nice cachers around here. The community here is like a big family, and we really enjoy our events and caching with other folks. We've made some great friends. People in Oregon are just really nice in general I think. I love walking down the street and hearing people say hi. Shop owners are friendly, the Law Enforcement folks are friendly too.

 

One cool advantage is that a local cacher used to work as a dispatcher for the Lane County Sheriff's office, and so most of them know what caching is. She even got a Sheriff boat escort to a cache once!

Edited by nymphnsatyr
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I agree with the other Minnesota comment. Also adding that moose can be a natural threat to cachers around where I live. Moose are not as cuddly as the stuffed animals make them out to be. Hunters are also a threat depending on time of years. Lots of warnings on caches about that.

Edited by Chokecherry
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I'm not real far from you, but we have copperheads, rattlesnakes and bear to deal with. The terrain is surprisingly rugged and the views are very nice. We have a ton of public land thankfully and some fairly large swaths of it. All of this in the most densely populated region in the nation.

 

There is also a ton of history here. NJ is called the "Crossroads of the Revolution" because so much of the Revolutionary War action and inaction was here. There are numerous little spots where a colonial era signal beacon existed, or a battle was fought or where the Continental Army camped or where George Washington slept. And being inhabited for over 300 years, the woods are full of the remnants of old homesteads, foundations, stone walls, old wells, all turned back to nature.

 

And being a center of the colonial era iron mining industry there are mines all over the place. Some that go hundreds of feet below the surface and some that aren't much more than a big pit.

 

It is interesting area. You can hike a rocky, rugged trail and not see another person along the way, then get to the summit and see NYC in the distance only 30 miles as the crow flies.

 

I've met cachers from other states and taken them out on some northern NJ hunts. They invariably have two reactions. They are surprised by the rugged terrain and they are shocked at the beauty. Their impression of NJ is what they see on TV. The Sopranos and a few reality shows. What people don't realize is that NJ has the most open space of any major metropolitan area in the country and some of it will challenge the most adventurous geocachers. .

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I'm not real far from you, but we have copperheads, rattlesnakes and bear to deal with. The terrain is surprisingly rugged and the views are very nice. We have a ton of public land thankfully and some fairly large swaths of it. All of this in the most densely populated region in the nation.

 

There is also a ton of history here. NJ is called the "Crossroads of the Revolution" because so much of the Revolutionary War action and inaction was here. There are numerous little spots where a colonial era signal beacon existed, or a battle was fought or where the Continental Army camped or where George Washington slept. And being inhabited for over 300 years, the woods are full of the remnants of old homesteads, foundations, stone walls, old wells, all turned back to nature.

 

And being a center of the colonial era iron mining industry there are mines all over the place. Some that go hundreds of feet below the surface and some that aren't much more than a big pit.

 

It is interesting area. You can hike a rocky, rugged trail and not see another person along the way, then get to the summit and see NYC in the distance only 30 miles as the crow flies.

 

I've met cachers from other states and taken them out on some northern NJ hunts. They invariably have two reactions. They are surprised by the rugged terrain and they are shocked at the beauty. Their impression of NJ is what they see on TV. The Sopranos and a few reality shows. What people don't realize is that NJ has the most open space of any major metropolitan area in the country and some of it will challenge the most adventurous geocachers. .

Our terrain is varied. We have the ocean, and some creative cachers put a scuba cache in it. Our climate is generally in the 60's to 70's, with the Spring and Fall being our warmest months. Our summers and winters are foggy.

I don't have rattlesnakes in my town, but inland about 3 miles there are some. I live next to "The Salad Bowl" of the country, Salinas, but never go there because there are a lot of gangs.

Here on the Monterey Peninsula we have forests, beaches, and urban caches. We're lucky enough to have some really creative caches although no big series yet. The people are nice and friendly and there is a little bit of competition to be FTF, but all in good fun, and we help each other through e-mails.

This next week will be a not to much geocaching time as the US Open for golf is here, and the traffic is crazy busy. I love it here and I love our mountains 5 hours away, where the caches are much different. I just went to an event in South Lake Tahoe, and it was so interesting meeting cachers from all over CA. It was a blast by the way, and I am going to make it an annual trip. I do think that the cachers in an area determine the caches. I'm not aware of any parking lot caches around here, but in Northern CA, where my friend lives, there were a ton. Our cache hiders tend to try and be as creative as they can, which makes it harder but more fun. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of ammo cans in the forests too, so it is great because you can cache in a location depending on your mood. Long hikes? Check. Clever, evil hides nearby? Check. I feel lucky.

We do have ticks, not too many mosquitos, and as I said before, rattlesnakes. Depending on where you go in California, we have bears, mountain lions, and coyotes...There's a mountain lion in my town, which is pretty suburban but has a lot of forest around it.

I'm going to Minnesota and Wisconsin this summer and will cache there. It will be interesting. I'm also going to Geowoodstock and visiting a friend in Seattle, so that will also be fun. Can you tell I love geocaching? My goal for next year (when I turn 50...ouch!) is to go geocaching in another country, maybe Italy or Ireland. That should be quite a challenge.

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In da U.P., we gots the Michigan Air Force -- skeeters that attack by the millions (yes, you can actually breathe them), AND stealth fighters -- black flies. Deer flies too, but they really aren't a problem 'cuz they're dumb and slow. You can grab them out of mid-air.

Later in the summer, the no-see-ums show up. Wanna guess why they are called no-see-ums?

 

You can feel them biting, but they are so small you can't see them on your arm!

 

We have a few ticks too, but they were brought in by somebody outta Wisc. :lol:

 

Outside of that, nothing here to bother you. Hmmm... maybe a few cedar savages, the deer and bear all go the other way (mostly); keep your lap dog on-leash as it's a wolf's favorite snack; recent confirmation (and photo) by the MDNR of cougar presence; the moose -- well when you see something the size of a Mack truck, don't bother it!

 

Lots of forest to get lost in (nearest next road may well be 60+ miles distant), with plenty of swamps, creeks and beaver dams in between. Quite a bit of that forest is climax forest, little underbrush. Some nice hills -- not really any 'mountains' to speak of.

 

Waterfalls -- uncountable numbers; nine EarthCaches within 14 miles of this spot.

 

Seasons -- we only have two -- shovelin' & swattin'!

 

What more could you want? Desert? I don' thin' so... :lol:

 

Oh yeah, we do have shoreline -- a lake that most think is an ocean when they see it for the first time, the 'ponds' around the Lower Peninsula aren't too bad, either -- but that is a different story, a different world.

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In da U.P., we gots the Michigan Air Force -- skeeters that attack by the millions (yes, you can actually breathe them), AND stealth fighters -- black flies. Deer flies too, but they really aren't a problem 'cuz they're dumb and slow. You can grab them out of mid-air.

Later in the summer, the no-see-ums show up. Wanna guess why they are called no-see-ums?

 

You can feel them biting, but they are so small you can't see them on your arm!

 

We have a few ticks too, but they were brought in by somebody outta Wisc. :lol:

 

Outside of that, nothing here to bother you. Hmmm... maybe a few cedar savages, the deer and bear all go the other way (mostly); keep your lap dog on-leash as it's a wolf's favorite snack; recent confirmation (and photo) by the MDNR of cougar presence; the moose -- well when you see something the size of a Mack truck, don't bother it!

 

Lots of forest to get lost in (nearest next road may well be 60+ miles distant), with plenty of swamps, creeks and beaver dams in between. Quite a bit of that forest is climax forest, little underbrush. Some nice hills -- not really any 'mountains' to speak of.

 

Waterfalls -- uncountable numbers; nine EarthCaches within 14 miles of this spot.

 

Seasons -- we only have two -- shovelin' & swattin'!

 

What more could you want? Desert? I don' thin' so... :lol:

 

Oh yeah, we do have shoreline -- a lake that most think is an ocean when they see it for the first time, the 'ponds' around the Lower Peninsula aren't too bad, either -- but that is a different story, a different world.

You forgot to mention the Escanaba River brown trout. You don't even want to think about tubing that river when the mayflies are hatching!!
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SE Florida. The non-urban areas are flat and swampy. Caching during the summer is brutal due to the heat and humidity, not to mention occasional heavy rain and issues with standing water limiting access to some rural caches. Lets not forget the mosquitoes.

 

Local state parks seem to have controlled burns every year and that of course burns up some caches every year.

 

Dangers: gators, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, wild pigs, spiders (dadgum webs are everywhere), poison ivy, ants, heat stroke.

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I'm in a pretty varied area, sandwiched between the Rockies and BC's interior desert, the Okanagan. It's pretty much all mountains, but where I live is pretty special in that we have a small pocket of native grassland. Temperatures swing from -35 in the winter to +40*c in the summer. There are tons of old copper mines in the surrounding area, and numerous black slag piles. The highways tend to take great detours to accommodate the mountains, with towns as close as 25km away being an hour by car. We're also pretty much right on the border.

 

Dangers. Wow, lets see. Rattlesnakes, black widow and hobo spiders. Black, brown and grizzly bears. Mountain lions. Moose. There are so many deer here that our car insurance rates are higher. Various stinging plants, and cacti underfoot. There are also wolves, Elk, and bighorn sheep, but I don't worry about them.

 

What are our caches like? Lots of hill climbing. Lots of ghost towns, and ton and tons and tons of converted rail-grade trails. Overall quality seems to be excellent (compared to the greater Vancouver area anyways), but quantity is lacking.

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in iowa are main natural dangers are poision ivy, tornadoes, and ticks

where i live the people are very nice and we have a range from every type of cache to every size mainly urban traditional micros though

hello from iowa as well and yeah, MICROS MICROS MICROS! People i got some great sig items id like to drop - give me some room please!

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Southern England…

 

We do not have any real dangers. Apparently ticks do exist, but I’ve not seen one. We have one poisonous snake (the adder), but they are rare and generally not deadly to humans. No poisonous insects. Can cache year round; winter means generally lots of mud; snow is rare. Rain is not rare. Actually my biggest fear when caching is cattle.

 

We have urban/suburban caches (but not LPCs); but have very many rural caches. Terrain is hilly in parts (the city of Bath where I live is surrounded by hills); you need to travel further (e.g to Wales) to find mountains. The best thing about caching here (in my view) are the rural caches and the network of public footpaths. We don’t have a lot of “wilderness” nearby, much of the land is owned and cultivated, but the public footpaths provide access, and many caches are placed near these paths. No huge power trails, but lots of “rings” of 10, 20, 30 or so caches in rural areas using public footpaths. Often these rings will be largely in woodland or over fields, with the occasional cache in a village (often with a pub).

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Hi,

 

I live in Germany near the forest in a small to medium-sized city. There aren't tons of caches every 0.1 miles, but the ones that are there are in a beautiful environment and most of them are larger ones. We don't have very many dangers here, mostly ticks and mosquitos. I don't know many cachers, but I think they're all friendly :lol:

 

I spend most of my time in a boarding school in the middle of a city and there are many many micros...

Also, almost every second cache is a Mystery, and I don't like Mysteries very much... :lol:

 

I hope it's interesting :D

 

Mezgrman

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Check his profile. California. (No need to duplicate each and every picture just to ask a question like that, by the way.)

 

ooh come on now, admit it you love scrolling for 5 minutes through the same pictures :lol::lol:

 

Once the images download on your computer, they don't need to be downloaded twice.

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I am blessed to live near some of the most varied terrain in the country. Immediately around my area is the short grass prairie of the high plains. Most of the area South, North and some west of me is just rolling rocky hills with occasional trees and bluffs with broad grassy plains in between. The main dangers around here are the rather common prairie Rattlesnake, ticks, mosquito's, raging winter blizzards and summer heat, spring hail and tornado's and something most touring cyclist hate - puncture vine.

 

To the East and Northeast is the desert/grassland beauty of the great Nebraska Sandhills. Rolling tall dunes of sandy hills mostly stabilized by grasses and interspersed with lakes and rivers. Hot summers and cold winters. Prairie rattle snakes and ticks and terrain problems.

 

To the further west is the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and Northern Colorado within a 90 minute drive. Forests, trees, rocky steep terrain. 2 hours North is the Black hills of South Dakota.

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Here in Southeast Texas the terrain is very flat. I think one of the biggest challenges here is the oppressive heat we experience for many months out of the year! I live on the edge of Houston, where there are a great many urban micros, but there are also many forest and beach environments within easy reach.

 

Other challenges: MOSQUITOES, alligators (in some areas), poison ivy, snakes, spiders, very heavy brush / undergrowth in growing periods, some very wet times of year making swamps out of parks.

 

--Q

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I am in the Niagara region in Canada. We have a very diverse area in a small radius. Some of the examples are the Bruce Trail.

 

98b52930-6dad-4d64-af9c-8b4e7543e459.jpg

 

The old Welland Canal area.

 

d766186b-bb24-45b7-a23d-c8e06c0d4a26.jpg

 

Old mines.

 

70edac0b-594e-4cb2-b31d-b5d453a6e8f9.jpg

 

Historic Places

 

c83e5ccf-6e3c-4bf8-9960-001f654c80e2.jpg

 

As well as many trails, numerous urban caches, all within a 20 minute drive.

 

Some of the dangers are cliffs, ticks, poison ivy and oak. Some of the area around the old canal have some steep walls.

 

I haven't done the cave yet. I was advised not to attempt it alone. The cache page has warning about that.

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St. Louis - Missouri

 

No real animal dangers besides snakes. We do have bobcats but I've never heard of them attacking anyone. We have lots and lots of deer so ticks are a major annoyance. Poison Ivy is a big problem for me but I get it every year even before I start hiking so I just deal with it with some shots from my Doctor.

 

Drowning is pretty common occurrence in Missouri. People underestimate the power of currents when swimming in rivers. Flash floods happen a lot.

 

For Urban Caches, there are definitely some areas I would not go to, even in daylight.

 

We do actually have some very beautiful parks. I don't think we will ever run out of caches to find.

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Good thread.

 

I'm about 2 hours North of San Francisco in California. Small town of 15K called Ukiah. We're about 40 miles as the crow flies from the Pacific (which amounts to an hour and a half drive over one of 4 extremely windy mountain roads), 4 hours from Lake Tahoe Nevada, and about 8 hours or so from Oregon.

 

Seasonally our summers are quite warm, regularly over 100 for weeks at a time, and our winters are pretty wet, however snow here is rare. The white stuff does tend to fall about 30 minutes North of us, but only sticks around for a day or two for the most part. Spring and Fall are wonderful here.

 

Mountains? Yup, we got 'em. Lots of private property up there though, so lots of the area you see when looking that might be good for cache placement is off limits. We have the Eel River, the Russian River, and lots and lots of creeks winding through the area.

 

Watch out for snakes! Lots of Rattlers, especially this time of year. I work at the local hospital and we've had 4 bites come in over the last month. Ticks are plentiful here too, and I've even seen a few scorpions.

 

Our biggest danger though, are the large marijuana gardens that are being grown and tended in the national forests in the area. They don't call it the emerald triangle for no reason, the plant grows extremely well here, and many people from outside the area know it and take advantage of it. It's not uncommon to have folks guarding these gardens with any number of weapon types, booby traps, or dogs. They also have no reservations about using any of the above listed items.

 

Our cache load is a little on the thin side, but many of the hides are quality. I think there's only 2 LPC's in town, and one was archived recently. Ammo cans 'aplenty, that's for sure. There are only 4 or 5 of us who hide caches though, at least for now. Many of the older hides' owners are either out of the game or have stopped placing caches for some reason or another. The few of us that are around are a friendly bunch though, and to my knowledge we have nothing that even remotely resembles a cache maggot.

 

Come on up, we'll show you some nice caches and beautiful area.

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I live near Vienna, Austria - my idea of wilderness is a walk of more than 500m besides the Danube... :lol:

 

No dangerous animals so far, no poison plants...pretty boring. I think the biggest challenge is to be not run over by another cacher while going for an FTF. :D

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the Willamette Valley of Oregon....

 

mosquitos

 

in iowa are main natural dangers are poision ivy, tornadoes, and ticks

 

I grew up in Iowa and moved to Oregon. There are far fewer mosquitoes in Oregon than Iowa.

 

As for tornadoes: those come with frontal systems moving through, so you have advance warning that the weather will get thunderstorms and the possibility of heavy winds or tornadoes.

 

I would say that in Iowa flash flooding of low-lying caches is a greater geocaching threat than tornadoes. Pretty sure most of the caches in Waterworks Park and Grays Lake in Des Moines are very soggy right now. :-)

 

As for Oregon: for sure the largest threat is the plant life, and slippery ground. Dont know how many times I've gotten close to a cache and realized its hidden in the blackberry/raspberry/thorny bushes.

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The small town where I live was the place where mountain biking got its start along fire roads in the back country. And people in my area have been particularly active in preserving open space. So there is much within easy reach, which makes it hard to keep the deer out of my yard.

 

Mt. Tamalpais can be seen throughout the Bay Area, north of San Francisco. Its watershed holds everything from redwoods, lakes, and waterfalls to trails that take you up the mountain through manzanita and sage. Numerous wildflowers, including Calypso Orchids, add to the beauty in season. Beyond that there is the ocean and Point Reyes National Seashore (traditional caching is banned but there are a few remaining virtuals and a growing number of earthcaches).

 

Tamalpais has a number of treasures that are part of its history -- a music camp, throne, a view to the edge of the world, plane crash sites -- and much of them are found through caching. There are other special places nearby. Caches in the Ring Mountain preserve bring you to ancient rock carvings and the Mariposa Lily, which is unique to the area. Along the San Francisco Bay, an old Chinese fishing village is now the center of a state park that is largely open to caching.

 

Its probably good to learn how to recognize poison oak, since it is quite common. We have our share of rattlesnakes, although I have only run into a few. I once found 59 ticks crawling on me while caching, but the Western Fence Lizard does a great job in limiting lyme disease if one slips past. I have seen bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, fox, hawks, eagles, and a host of other wild things while caching. There have been occasional reports of Bigfoot -- but I generally refer such things to my good friend Bud Flout (author of If You Meet A Big Footed Animal on the Trail It's Best to Say 'Howdy").

 

It can get warm in the summer, and the hills are already turning brown (or as we like to say, "golden"), but the reservoirs are now full after a few drought years. This makes it hard to find caches that require bushwhacking down the ridge to the edge of a reservoir where it is best to walk along the steep sides when the water is low. The view is always the same there, so there is no hurry.

 

Of course, there are other things at work. Broom is spreading through the area. Sudden Oak Death has devastated the region. The water district states that every acre it owns has been affected. Entire trails in some parks have been closed. I did my best to help protect an oak next to my house, but the tree guy says its in the early stages of infection. Eventually, all the oaks susceptible to the pathogen will be lost, which will change the ecosystem substantially.

 

My town is sometimes called a "hippie town." "Mayberry on Acid." Its hard to be a hippie anymore considering the price of land and the economy, but there are those that remember our roots. The US poet laureate lives down the street, which gave me inspiration to place a cache. And the history of my county includes a musical heritage from the Grateful Dead and Janis to the guy from Metallica that has closed the fire road through his property. I once nervously walked through there to get a since-archived cache. George Lucas, on the other hand, will let you walk through parts of SkyWalker Ranch, along easements connecting open space areas, but warns you that there may be hunting in season -- many caches there have star wars names.

 

Crime? Depending on the area. Uncle Vinny has been known to cause problems. I once left a few old bikes in front of my house for over a week hoping someone would decide to take them. They stayed there until I put up a "free" sign. My wife tells me I should lock the door more regularly than I do. And I suppose every once in a while someone decides to take a cache. For most emergencies, the fireman living next door could probably help.

 

If you get tired of trails, you can find lots of urban micros -- particularly if you go into San Francisco or across to the East Bay.

 

And, like many other areas, my environment includes some great people who also cache. They help make the area special.

Edited by mulvaney
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Where is that exactly? Or roughly?

 

Desert pictures = Mojave Desert

Mountain Pictures = Pleasant View Ridge (Angeles National Forest)

 

That picture with the railing reminded me of the scene at the end of Star Trek Generations when Captain Picard and Captain Kirk are fighting Malcom McDowell. :D

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I am in northeast GA,

We are not a high lyme disease area, but the ticks are out in force, don't know where they come from sometimes.

I have seen copper-heads

and a number of black widows around

fire ants

scorpions

The town south of my town had a puma siting last year that the DNR shrugged off...This year they had a black bear walk through...no photo evidence of either though.

 

The biggest dangers around here though are college students and nanos :D

Edited by thistleRacers
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Where is that exactly? Or roughly?

 

Desert pictures = Mojave Desert

Mountain Pictures = Pleasant View Ridge (Angeles National Forest)

 

That picture with the railing reminded me of the scene at the end of Star Trek Generations when Captain Picard and Captain Kirk are fighting Malcom McDowell. :D

 

I fought off mentioning that earlier when I saw it. :-)

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My area (South Central Illinois) is pretty flat but does have lots of wooded areas and lots of hills. If you drive an hour south, you get LOTS of hills and cool rock formations. Its Shawnee National Forest. Apparently, that was where the glacier stopped.

 

We're about an hour and a half East of St.Louis.

 

Anyhow. We have poison ivy, poison oak, sticker bushes, ticks, wasps, mosquitos, spiders (brown recluse and black widows are really the only poisonous ones that I know of aroud here) We have copperheads, water moccasins, and pygmy rattlesnakes but I've never seen one. I'm not too worried about snakes. Maybe I should be. I'd be worried if I was face to face with one. There are claims of Black Panthers in the area... There are some kooky people in the hollers of Illinois.

 

We have 4 seasons. We rarely get more than a foot of snow at a time. Normally its just a few inches. In the summer it gets up to the mid to high 90's with a few days in the 100's but it gets pretty humid here. Thats a killer. My area is pretty rural. Farmers abound (I'm married to one)

 

It seems like our area is littered with roadside micros but after looking more closely we have some good regular sized caches too. (I'm just bitter because I'm no good at finding micros yet)

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Where is that exactly? Or roughly?

 

Desert pictures = Mojave Desert

Mountain Pictures = Pleasant View Ridge (Angeles National Forest)

 

That picture with the railing reminded me of the scene at the end of Star Trek Generations when Captain Picard and Captain Kirk are fighting Malcom McDowell. :lol:

 

I fought off mentioning that earlier when I saw it. :-)

 

Oh good! I'm not the only Star Trek nerd here then! :D

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Southern England…

 

We do not have any real dangers. Apparently ticks do exist, but I’ve not seen one.

 

Meh. A woman recently caught Lyme disease from a deer tick in Brede High Woods, near Rye. I read it in the paper. I was *so* happy to be moving away from Lyme disease. Looks like I celebrated too soon.

 

And -- stinging nettles! I know we have them in the States, but they are everywhere in our corner of England. They don't actually do any damage, but it stings for hours afterwords and I canNOT seem to learn not to stick my stupid hand in a clump of them.

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Where is that exactly? Or roughly?

 

Desert pictures = Mojave Desert

Mountain Pictures = Pleasant View Ridge (Angeles National Forest)

 

That picture with the railing reminded me of the scene at the end of Star Trek Generations when Captain Picard and Captain Kirk are fighting Malcom McDowell. :D

 

I've never watched a single Star Trek episode. The railing leads to the Devil's Chair.

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Where is that exactly? Or roughly?

 

Desert pictures = Mojave Desert

Mountain Pictures = Pleasant View Ridge (Angeles National Forest)

 

That picture with the railing reminded me of the scene at the end of Star Trek Generations when Captain Picard and Captain Kirk are fighting Malcom McDowell. :D

 

I've never watched a single Star Trek episode.

 

And you call yourself a geocacher?

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Dangers:

Ticks, Poison Oak, Deadly Nightshade grows wild here (but that's not too dangerous unless you eat it), hemlock, Giant Hogweed, slippery ground, Poky blackberry vines, bees, mosquitos, stinging nettle.

 

I agree and want to add more to that list since I live in the same area. We got a high number of cougar sightings in Willamette valley and our local hills. Thats not counting the mts. We also got black bears, rattlesnakes, and I am sure there is more but cant think of them at this moment.

 

One cool advantage is that a local cacher used to work as a dispatcher for the Lane County Sheriff's office, and so most of them know what caching is. She even got a Sheriff boat escort to a cache once!

 

Oh that story, now I understand how they got that escort ride!!!

Edited by SwineFlew
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stinging nettles!

Wait? Did you just describe 7 - minute itch? We have quite a bit of them around here, I HATE the white mark afterwords...

 

EDIT: Did researching and seven minute itch is actually stinging nettle, I guess it's just the slang around here.

Edited by Coldgears
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Reusing nymphsatyrs categories....

 

Basic Terrain:

Ithaca is at the southern end of one of finger lakes in NY. The Finger Lakes are in west-central part of the state and are artifacts from glacial activity. As a result the entire area is mostly a series of hills, running north and south. The glacial activity carved the deep lakes (Seneca Lake is 618' deep) and lots of gorges with creeks flowing into the lakes. There are lots of waterfalls in the area. I've read a claim of over 100 waterfalls 15' or higher within 10 miles of Ithaca. The hills are fairly steep coming up from the lakes with rolling hills between, mostly made up of farmland. There are, however lots of State Forests in the area and the Finger Lakes National Forests (about 20 miles to the west) is the only National forest in NY (and there are lots of caches in it). Throughout the state forests and in general through forested areas there are many unpaved roads. Many of them are identified as "Seasonal Roads" that are not maintained during winter. They make great areas for geocache placements though.

 

Demographics:

Ithaca is a small city (6.1 sq. miles) of about 30K full time residents. It's basically a college town with Cornell University (~18K students) and the smaller Ithaca College across town. Both universities are up on the hills and for the most part students stay on/near campus. The town has it's own identity and certain doesn't die after the students leave. In fact, the weak after graduation the annual ithaca festival is held and then tourist start arriving in earnest to visit the area. There are about 100 or so wineries in the region and lots of other things for tourists to see and do. Many of the people that work at the universities commute to Ithaca from smaller towns (generally called villages or hamlets) 20-40 miles away. The closest nearby town of any size is Cortland, about 20 miles away. The Binghamton, NY area is a collection of a bunch of towns and the city of Binghamton (about 50K pop) is about 40 miles to the south and Syracuse about 50 miles to the north. Between the lakes is mostly farmland with lots of active dairy farms. I pass by a a dairy farm or two several times a week in my travels around town. Ithaca is often compared to Madison, WI or Burlington, VT.

 

 

Dangers:

Ticks, Poison Ivy, steep terrain with deep gorges, hypothermia, frostbite in winter

Ithaca is generally a pretty safe city. There are a few areas around town where you might run into a few trouble makers but I live on a street that used to be considered "a bad part of town" but it seemed pretty safe to me. I don't make a habit it but I've left the doors unlocked or the garage open all day quite a few times without a problem. There is a small homeless population and one of my favorite flyfishing spots is close to a well known hangout called "the jungle" but I've never been bothered there.

 

Climate:

Wikipedia describes it as moderate. The winters are long and cold. It usually starts to get fairly code near the end of October and occasionally there will be a snow storm in Oct. or Nov. By January, it could get snow almost every day or just get really cold. It's not uncommon to go for a week or more with temperatures never going above single digits (Fahrenheit). Although the winters are often long and can get bitter cold we don't get as much snow as Syracuse, Buffalo, and certainly as much as western mountains. Winter usually starts to brake in late March/April but snow storms are still common in March and sometime even as late a May. Springs and Falls are very pleasant. In may it can snow or be in the high 80's. We've already had a few 90+ degree days here but in general summers are quite pleasant.

 

Interesting Parks/Hikes:

There are lots of state managed lands with trails all through them and lots of city/town parks. There are 5 or so larger state parks that have some amazing hikes with great views, waterfalls, and generally just really nice places to spend a day. Most of them are relatively empty except during tourist season. Cornell is a land trust university and owns *lots* of undeveloped land in the area and has a liberal policy on geocaching.

 

Nice/Rude People:

In general, people in the area are very friendly, the median income is decent, but as you get outside of the city it becomes pretty rural, poorer, and somewhat less friendly to strangers. Ithaca is liberal and culturally diverse and alternative lifestyles are not just tolerated but encouraged. I know quite a few "two mom" families.

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I hail from Central Florida. During the Summer, the heat and humidity combine to make caching an oppressive activity. Winters, however, are quite pleasant, as it rarely gets below freezing. Spring and Fall are amazing times to be outdoors. Our terrain is very flat, with only slight elevation changes all the way across the state, though we do have some towns/cities with "Mt" in their names, which leads to some chuckling on my part. We have a lot of natural lands across the state, as well as gobs of fairly sterile city/county parks. Cypress swamps, oak hammocks, palmetto flats and pine scrubs make up most of the natural habitats.

 

As for dangers, I haven't met anything other than 2 legged critters that can't be effectively avoided with a stout walking stick and some common sense. Critters I've had close encounters with include alligators, wild hogs, feral cattle, 4 species of venomous snakes, black bears, bobcats and panthers. Naturally, we have mosquitoes, chiggers and ticks galore, but those can also generally be avoided.

 

To date, I have never met a cacher I didn't like. Not sure that this is a geographic condition though.

I think cachers the world over just tend to fall on the nicer end of the personality spectrum.

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We are very similar here in Minnesota and Wisconsin. My stereotype image of PA (as well as neighboring NJ) has been busted wide open by a couple of business trips there. I understand that we do have a few rattlesnakes here around the Mississippi river bluffs, but I've never seen them aside from photographs. Poison ivy, ticks, and mosquitoes are our main natural "dangers" around here.

 

Been to Western Wisconsin 3 times (before Geocaching existed). More specifically, Fort McCoy for Army Reserve training. The ticks are so bad there, it's like a freaking horror movie. Do Geocachers have similar problems with them?

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NE Mississippi. Terrain is varied. We got plenty of hills and ridge lines. LOTS of thick undergrowth, likely including thorns. Just over the state line in NW Alabama, terrain gets rocky and much steeper. Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac in abundance. Ticks everywhere, red wasps, guinea wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, mosquitoes as big as horseflies, horseflies as big as hummingbirds (both exaggerations). Copperheads, Cottonmouths, Snapping/ Alligator Snapping Turtles, Alligators, Black Widows/Brown Recluses hiding under many logs. Bobcats, reports of panthers (Wildlife guys deny it, but I personally has spotted some, as well as heard their blood-curdling screams in the woods).

Of course, the oppressive heat/humidity.

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Reusing nymphsatyrs and NYPaddleCacher's categories... :lol:

 

Basic Terrain:

Roseville is pretty flat. It's an urban area, so think of it as the concrete jungle... There are lots of parks and "green space" though, so it isn't horribly ugly (unlike Sacramento, which is downright hideous). Bike trails are well maintained, and the parks are clean. In regards to caching: by far the most common are micros, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's a lot of interesting locations where microcaches are the only appropriate option. It's about the location, really. There's also several entertaining multi and puzzle caches, it all depends on your preference. :)

 

Demographics:

Borrowed from Wikipedia: Roseville is in Placer County, California, United States, located in the metropolitan area of Sacramento. As of January 1, 2009 the population was 112,343. Roseville's population is expected to reach 133,680 by 2015. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 30.5 square miles (79.0 km²), of which, 30.47 square miles (78.9 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.07%) is water.

 

Dangers:

Mosquitoes are the most dangerous thing I've encountered :D but I've heard that Roseville is home to snakes (including rattlesnakes), venomous spiders, killer/swarming bees, the occasional mugging/murder, coyotes, raccoons (can be VERY vicious, as well as carry rabies), ticks, poison ivy/oak, and thorny plants. Oh, and stupid drivers. That's the biggest risk, IMHO.

 

Climate:

Its warm here for most of the year, except in the winter when it rains. It's summer right now, and it gets into the 100s pretty quickly (80s by 8 am). Its dry heat and there's usually a breeze, so it isn't too unbearable. Our weather differs slightly from Sacramento's, because of geography and the wind patterns from the San Francisco Bay.

 

Interesting Parks/Hikes:

There isn't necessarily any "hiking" here-- the terrain is just too flat. Going up the hills to Auburn or down to the coast has great places to hike, though. We're about a two hour drive either direction. ;) Parks here are VERY well taken-care-of, with landscaping, green lawns, and playgrounds. We have about 50 parks of various sizes, and there are always new ones being added with new housing developments. The bike trails are expansive and pass through the green areas of the city: the protected wetlands and the open space that is protected from development. It's a lovely area to relax and walk (or bicycle), without too much exertion or special equipment needed.

 

Nice/Rude People:

Roseville's residents are generally friendly, though everyone typically keeps to themselves. There are some people who associate with unfriendly, violent, or criminal types-- gangs, vandals, thieves mostly-- but they are by far the minority. Roseville is ethnically and economically diverse, and is pretty much tolerant of all lifestyles. There's something for everyone here (just look at our shopping mall, there's over 100 stores)!

 

In general, Roseville is like Sacramento's smaller, pampered cousin. We have some of the best geography, as well as a lot of history and culture, making Roseville a wonderful place to live. Come check it out sometime!

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Reusing nymphsatyrs and NYPaddleCacher's categories... :lol:

 

Basic Terrain:

Roseville is pretty flat. It's an urban area, so think of it as the concrete jungle... There are lots of parks and "green space" though, so it isn't horribly ugly (unlike Sacramento, which is downright hideous). Bike trails are well maintained, and the parks are clean. In regards to caching: by far the most common are micros, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's a lot of interesting locations where microcaches are the only appropriate option. It's about the location, really. There's also several entertaining multi and puzzle caches, it all depends on your preference. :)

 

Demographics:

Borrowed from Wikipedia: Roseville is in Placer County, California, United States, located in the metropolitan area of Sacramento. As of January 1, 2009 the population was 112,343. Roseville's population is expected to reach 133,680 by 2015. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 30.5 square miles (79.0 km²), of which, 30.47 square miles (78.9 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.07%) is water.

 

Dangers:

Mosquitoes are the most dangerous thing I've encountered :D but I've heard that Roseville is home to snakes (including rattlesnakes), venomous spiders, killer/swarming bees, the occasional mugging/murder, coyotes, raccoons (can be VERY vicious, as well as carry rabies), ticks, poison ivy/oak, and thorny plants. Oh, and stupid drivers. That's the biggest risk, IMHO.

 

Climate:

Its warm here for most of the year, except in the winter when it rains. It's summer right now, and it gets into the 100s pretty quickly (80s by 8 am). Its dry heat and there's usually a breeze, so it isn't too unbearable. Our weather differs slightly from Sacramento's, because of geography and the wind patterns from the San Francisco Bay.

 

Interesting Parks/Hikes:

There isn't necessarily any "hiking" here-- the terrain is just too flat. Going up the hills to Auburn or down to the coast has great places to hike, though. We're about a two hour drive either direction. ;) Parks here are VERY well taken-care-of, with landscaping, green lawns, and playgrounds. We have about 50 parks of various sizes, and there are always new ones being added with new housing developments. The bike trails are expansive and pass through the green areas of the city: the protected wetlands and the open space that is protected from development. It's a lovely area to relax and walk (or bicycle), without too much exertion or special equipment needed.

 

Nice/Rude People:

Roseville's residents are generally friendly, though everyone typically keeps to themselves. There are some people who associate with unfriendly, violent, or criminal types-- gangs, vandals, thieves mostly-- but they are by far the minority. Roseville is ethnically and economically diverse, and is pretty much tolerant of all lifestyles. There's something for everyone here (just look at our shopping mall, there's over 100 stores)!

 

In general, Roseville is like Sacramento's smaller, pampered cousin. We have some of the best geography, as well as a lot of history and culture, making Roseville a wonderful place to live. Come check it out sometime!

 

I've not had much luck with friendly people in Roseville. Those I dealt with, and it wasn't on but one or two occasions, seemed very stuck up and overly conservative. Probably (hopefully) the vast minority. It is pretty there though, I have visited a few of the parks and they are quite well maintained and clean.

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