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COINTEST! Cache Wars Gamepiece Cointest!


avroair

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Great idea for a cointest. Here's part of a log from yesterday... I had crawled under dense brush through an opening about 14" high. A completely uncivilized location but only feet from a nice, paved bike path. The ground was bare, wet mud. I'm a middle-aged, grey-haired lady.

 

At one point I was in disbelief and soon afterward was saying out loud "I can't believe I'm doing this." Of course just a moment later, a muggle comes along. There is nothing I can do but stay quiet. D and geodog Mag try to act natural. But Muggle's dogs are pitching a FIT (translated as "High Alert! Alert! There is a woman hiding in the bushes!!!") and the THREE of them draaaagg their muggle towards me. Then I think the muggle eyes caught mine and he let out a loud laugh of surprise! But since I wasn't *positve* I'd been spotted, I stayed quiet, which I think confused and then worried him and he hurried off. As soon as he's out of earshot of course we burst out laughing.

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redwingrr: They probably thought you were using it as a loo! :laughing:

 

Last year before GCF, Eli and I found out that Minnesota has a multi-cache in each of its state parks. When you finished 10 of them, you could get a geocoin. Well, I'm a nut for geocoins (no, really?) and so I convinced him this was a great idea. We only had 4 days, and each state park involved a 1-5 mile hike, and of course there was all the driving between them.. We went from Minneapolis to Ely to Fargo (had to get another state in, of course) back down south to prarie land and then back to Minneapolis. But I'll have you know we made it! We got our final park and our coin on our way back across the state to attend the pre-event. :)

 

My favorite multi involved riddles and finding placed clues within the park. The final step had us walking out on a floating pier. Eli was looking everywhere, but I looked down and saw faintly painted foot steps that led to the side of the pier. I stopped and looked down and sure enough, they led right to the cache, hidden in the water under the pier! I thought it was a really clever way to give a visual hint to the cache location.

 

I would love to go back and do more of the parks and collect the rest of the geocoin rewards, but I think I'd want a bit more time to do it in. ;)

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Recently, my wife, Sara, and I were out adventuring the not-so-rural landscape of the urban parks in Florida. We are natives, but still manage to find areas that we have never explored. On this hot, humid, and painfully sunny day, we found ourselves traversing the wooded area of Walsingham Park. Our finds started off slow. We figured it was going to be one of those days, especially with micros in the woods, which are not uncommon in Florida! The GPS was dead on, but we ended up taking the most difficult paths for each cache. I suppose that was mostly my fault, but who wants to stop to ask for directions? As we approached ground zero, we were confronted by a wall of thick saw palmettos. We bushwhacked our way through to find a clear path that entered the woods only a few feet from where we entered. I'll never live it down! My sights were locked on the GPS. I counted down the feet until our destination. Like usual, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. As I got within 15 feet of ground zero, my wife screamed my name. It startled me so much that I leaped backward. A snake went flying in the air! I didn't see it. My heart was racing as my wife grabbed onto me and pulled me back. My foot contacted the coiled snake as Sara screamed. My startled reaction lifted it off the ground. We quickly backed up to absorb what happened. The snake was red, orange, and brown and rattled its tail as it slithered back into the brush. I think it was as startled as I was. Not being familiar with snake species indigenous to the area, we quickly realized that this was a close call. The rattling of the tail scared us immensely as we knew other cachers had come in contact with Diamondback Rattlesnakes in this park. We knew that rattlesnakes were deadly and that my wife had potentially just saved my life. Being the stubborn man and dedicated geocacher that I am, I insisted on at least spending five more minutes in the area looking for the cache a safe distance from the snake. No luck this time. The whole encounter put a damper on the rest of the day's geocaching, but we managed to have a few more finds. After a little research, we discovered that the snake was actually a non-venomous corn snake. Although the snake was probably in more danger than I was, I learned the importance of minding your surroundings. This will be a geocaching adventure that we will never forget.

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A new cache had been posted about 25 min from our house. It was raining, and dark but I insisted that I go find it. My husband was against it but in the end didn't want me going alone so he grudgingly got in the car.

 

We got all the way there.. and realized I hadn't brought a flash light.. we turned around and went back. I'll never live that one down..

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Light side..

 

When I first started caching we took a picture at one of the first 3 caches we found that night. My friend uploaded a picture of us by the cache that had my maiden name in the historical plaque at that cache. We started caching afterwards and found a bunch the next weekend.

 

I also teach dog obedience classes and at one of my classes I had a student ask to talk to me after class.. I thought there was a problem with her jack russel terrier.. but it actually was a question about geocaching. she had seen my picture on the website and just started and wanted to know more!

 

I just made a trade for 2 jack russel terrier suncatcher coins and one is going to her! I gave her a jack russel terrier travel bug already but I know she's going to be thrilled by this beautiful suncatcher coin!

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Dark side I guess -

I actually started geocaching a long time ago, with my brother. He was much more into it than I was, and I quit after a while as there were only 20 caches or so in our area.

 

Fastforward to a couple of years ago..

One day I was driving up to campus, and the entrance to campus was closed, with a lot of emergency vehicles around. UCSC is built on a hill and there are only two entrances, and with a major section of road closed off it was hard to get up to campus. We managed, and when we got on campus we learned that they had found a bomb in one of the sewer tunnels under the road.

 

I followed the story pretty closely, and after using a robot to "neutralize" the bomb, they bomb squad moved in for investigation. It turned out to be a geocache that was part of a series that led into some tunnels. It made me remember the times I'd had with my brother geocaching, so I looked up how many were in the area. Imagine my surprise when I found out there were close to 500 caches in our small city alone!!

 

I convinced Eli we should give it a try, and we did our first set of caches using our car GPS. It's gotten a lot more involved since then. ;)

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Light side with a little dark inside.... :lol:

 

We were searching for a cache that was very close to a river... (not a real river... it is like a stream during summer.... but it is not easy to pass it during winter!). The area was so pretty! the sound of water, the clean air, the green around... and in the water holes and the stream you could see crabs, frogs and many tiny and extremelly rare Gizani fish! You can only find them here in rhodes I think.... they are highly protected!!

Well.. in this stream I saw the bigest ones I have ever seen...

 

anyway... after some time and by holding the hint photos (it iwas not so easy to find the cache....), we found it... we loged and started going back in the car where my parents were waiting for us... so we can fo for a swim, to the beach! :D

 

I like frogs... so I wanted to catch one and make a joke to my sister too... I managed to catch one but at the same time I was socked! My mobile phone fell from my pocket in the water hole! AAAAA!!!!!

 

I retrieved it immediatelly... it iwas not deep but.. the mobile was covered... I checked it but it was not working! It had turned off! that was bad!!!

 

I opened it, took the basterry out and with the help of my brother in law we started cleaning it and removing the water! we did a good job and I was sooooooo lucky! the mobile phone worked again! I still have it.... :)

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Light side with a little dark inside.... :lol:

 

We were searching for a cache that was very close to a river... (not a real river... it is like a stream during summer.... but it is not easy to pass it during winter!). The area was so pretty! the sound of water, the clean air, the green around... and in the water holes and the stream you could see crabs, frogs and many tiny and extremelly rare Gizani fish! You can only find them here in rhodes I think.... they are highly protected!!

Well.. in this stream I saw the bigest ones I have ever seen...

 

anyway... after some time and by holding the hint photos (it iwas not so easy to find the cache....), we found it... we loged and started going back in the car where my parents were waiting for us... so we can fo for a swim, to the beach! :D

 

I like frogs... so I wanted to catch one and make a joke to my sister too... I managed to catch one but at the same time I was socked! My mobile phone fell from my pocket in the water hole! AAAAA!!!!!

 

I retrieved it immediatelly... it iwas not deep but.. the mobile was covered... I checked it but it was not working! It had turned off! that was bad!!!

 

I opened it, took the basterry out and with the help of my brother in law we started cleaning it and removing the water! we did a good job and I was sooooooo lucky! the mobile phone worked again! I still have it.... :)

 

If that ever happens again Nikos.... try placing the phone in a bag of white rice. It just about always works... I've had to use that several times. I don't know if it would work for GPSr.... but most of them are pretty waterproof anyway.

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Light side..... One day, my wife and I were caching in a cemetery not too far from here. Several civil war markers there... lots of old weird trees.... and just an overall kinda spooky environment. I was retrieving the cache from a tree when suddenly I here.

 

"What are you kids doin?" from behind us. Scared me half to death.

 

I turn around to try to explain to this guy why I am elbow deep in a pine tree in an old cemetery. He just started laughing at my story. Told us that he was the cache owner... and then he went into a history lesson about the area.

 

That was awesome... very memorable and funny to think about now.

Edited by goosefraba1
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Light Side

 

My wife, 2 youngest daughters, and I were on a hunt of a multicache - it was the type where you had to count things along the way to calculate the final coordinates. We completed the walk, made our calculations, and headed to GZ to make the find. When we got there we met up with another cacher that had been looking for the final for a while. We teamed up and started our search - we searched everywhere and just did not see anything that looked like a cache. There were large logs laying around, so we sat on these and re-checked our coordinates and calculations - everything matched up. :huh: My wife broke out her I-phone to see if she could get a better reading than what I was getting. After a moment, she said that her I-phone was telling her that she was sitting right on the cache. Well, we continued our hunt - the other cacher chose a DNF for the day. We were about to call it a day when my youngest walked over and rolled the log over that my wife had been sitting on. Sure enough the cache was attached to the bottom of the log. :P She really had been sitting on it!

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Didn't plan on caching today.. but when we decided to I had the hubby stop for a bottle of water first. Thank goodness we did! We're both quite out of shape from the winter.. the hills and valleys in the park today were insane.. I had to actually stop and rest a few times on our way back out since the slope was so steep.. That's my dark side today.. I really need to get in better shape!

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This was just a few days ago.

 

I went out caching downtown during a work lunch hour. It had been raining all week and I grabbed my baseball cap and an umbrella and figured I would try for one of the busier caches as there may be less people out.

 

After failing to get an underpass cashe due to the foot traffic (its raining you mugg's!) I went out to try for another.

 

This second one turned out to be hidden on the side of a tank in front of an academy. This thing is positioned on a fake bridge with railroad ties across it.

 

Picture a guy in work clothes, trying to reach around dirty/greasy tank treads in the rain. After about 5 minutes I lost my balance and dropped a** first into a rain puddle. I cursed myself and just logged a DNF.

 

Greasy hands and wet underpants!

 

http://coord.info/GC1EQA5

 

If you are interested! :)

 

It was still a fun day caching however!

 

Thanks,

Shaun

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I don't know if I'm too late for the cointest, but the thread is fun, so thank you for it anyways.

Light side: My 13 year old stepson was caching with us one night. It was about 1 a.m. & we were downtown. He has earned his way into having a "turn" to find caches on his own. (We take turns because it works better for us, having a nine month old that stays in the car asleep. Also the reason we mainly cache at night) So, this is one of the first caches he's allowed to go for alone, while we watch from the car.

Well, he goes to stick his head underneath a dumpster looking for this container (I later explained to him that these are moved at least once a week & therefore wouldn't hold a cache) Once he has his head good & wedged underneath there, a law enforcement officer sneaks up behind him. We do nothing, but smile, because we want to see how he handles this. The officer says in what must have been his deepest voice possible, "Son, what are you doing?" You should have seen him jump! I was afraid he was going to rack his head on that dirty dumpster! He stammered out, "I-I-I'm geocaching! M-M-My dad can explain it better! *throws pleading look at his dad*" Ha Ha! Turns out most of the LEO's downtown not only know about geocaching, a few participate. So the LEO laughs & says, "Did you find the one at the police department?" ;) My stepson refused to look for that particular cache by himself anymore & I helped him find it. The LEO kept an eye out for us the rest of the night, & he must have told the caching LEO about us because we met him the very next night. He's been a pleasure to run into whenever we're out since!

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Since I do not know if the cointest is over.... I will post...

 

Light side:

 

In geocaches so far, I have found and fairly traded, coins and 1-2 banknots I didn't have in my other collection!

 

so geocaching helped me in other ways too! :D As I said I traded fairly... and put other coins or banknotes!

Once.. while I was on my way to a cache, I found an old Italian coin from WWII! it was in an excellent condition with a beautiful patina...! Most probably a soldier lost it back in WWII.... WOW!

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This could be the Dark side or the Light side...

 

This is my log from a 5* terrain cache near me...GCX47K

 

3/13/2009 by LewisClan77

I have wanted to do this cache for along time. Yesterday was the day to do it. I found both stage 1 and 2. I didn't have enough time to complete it so I put it off until today. I got off early today and made my way to stage 3. I parked as close as I could get and made the walk to GZ. As soon as I got there I knew what had to be done. I tried to do it fully dressed but my pant leg went into the water up to the knee, so I decided on a different approach. I stripped down to my chonies and went for it. I found a fishing pole and reeled in a whopper. I wrote the final coords on my arm and headed back to solid ground. I can only imagine what the nearby fisherman was thinking. If only there was someone there with a camera, that picture would have made the GC.com homepage for sure. I put my clothes back on and entered the coords. I knew where I needed to go and made my way there. I got to the parking area and tried to find a way that was dry. That wasn't gonna happen, so I went back down to the chonies and into the water. It was a nice waist deep walk to the island where I was quickly greeted by a huge hissing goose that was protecting his girlfriend and their 2 eggs. I tried not to disturb them but their nest was right at GZ. Thedy were very angry with me so I was having a hard time searching. I had been there about 15 minutes when I heard a voice. I looked up to see the cache owner standing there with a look of amazement. Imagine this...You paddle out to an island to find a half naked man standing there with a GPS in his hand. Very Funny. Definitely my most bazzar encounter while caching. Once he realized it was me he asked if I had found it yet. I said that the geese weren't letting me look really good, so no I haven't. He said he thought it might be missing and pointed to where he hid it. I looked and found it right where he left it. I signed in and took Vinnys Nut and headed back to shore. As I was putting my boots back on I see Brad and Joe(MarshallOD) paddling around the island. We chatted for a bit before the headed back across the water. I jogged back around to my van and ran into Brad and Joe again. We chatted for a little bit more before I had to go.

TYVMFTC

 

PS. I am the first to complete this without the use of a watercraft.

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The cointest is over? I have the post 23... but am I the winner? :unsure:

 

I will send you mark an email right away! :D Thank you for the cointest my friend! :)

 

oh... an other bright side.... I think... I have made a new local geocacher! :D a friend of mine.... he is still new.. with no finds... but I will teach him... :D

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The cointest is over? I have the post 23... but am I the winner? :unsure:

 

I will send you mark an email right away! :D Thank you for the cointest my friend! :)

 

oh... an other bright side.... I think... I have made a new local geocacher! :D a friend of mine.... he is still new.. with no finds... but I will teach him... :D

 

Ναι, είστε ο νικητής. Χρειάζομαι τη διεύθυνσή σας του Δία της Κρήτης!

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Rhino,

It is never me when it comes to cointest winners. I don't enter them. This one goes to Gatoulis, and the posts are numbered.

Thanks for answering! I was curious as to how that actually worked..knowing ya'll have had the guidelines set well before me. Sorry if I seemed lost.. It's because I was! ;)

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The cointest is over? I have the post 23... but am I the winner? :unsure:

 

I will send you mark an email right away! :D Thank you for the cointest my friend! :)

 

oh... an other bright side.... I think... I have made a new local geocacher! :D a friend of mine.... he is still new.. with no finds... but I will teach him... :D

 

Ναι, είστε ο νικητής. Χρειάζομαι τη διεύθυνσή σας του Δία της Κρήτης!

 

WOW!!! The 3/4 of the greek was excellent and in the polite plural!!! only the last was....

 

the translations of it is.... Yes, you are the winner. I need your address ... of Zeus of Crete??? :) (after he dots... there is a small problem. :laughing: ) but what you wrote was excellent!!! WOW!!! greek is not so easy... actually many greeks do not even know many of the words, or spelling...

 

I sent a message to you Mark... did you get it? shall I send you a PM? :)

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Rhino,

It is never me when it comes to cointest winners. I don't enter them. This one goes to Gatoulis, and the posts are numbered.

 

Oh, my dear Eartha! I really wish you could play! we trust you and we know that you will not cheat! Play for fun, and... if in the drawing you win.... why not claim your winnings? :)

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Rhino,

It is never me when it comes to cointest winners. I don't enter them. This one goes to Gatoulis, and the posts are numbered.

 

You are always a winner in my book Eartha! You're the best mod on the Planet! :cute::anitongue::laughing:

 

Edit: please close the thread, cointest is over.

Edited by avroair
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