+WARedBear Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Just got back from a family reunion in Georgia and Alabama....of course I had to cache along the way. Found 8 out of 9 caches, lost several gallons of sweat in the woods, received a few scratches from briars and white bumps on my left arms from the briars or maybe poison ??. I usually hate cache "HINTS" that tell you exactly where the cache is located..."the cache is located in the root system of the big magnolia tree". But on this trip I was thankful for those types of hints. Otherwise I would not have found the eight caches that I did. Reason? My GPSr had me literally walking around in circles on most of the caches. I would set the GOTO and start following the arrow into the woods. The arrow would point say north at 90'. I would start walking then the arrow would point west at 70' so I would follow the arrow and then it would point south at 80'...then this direction and then that direction. I actually walked passed the cache container at two different locations. I would finally zero in but the cache was nowhere to be found. I would "cheat" and read the hint, look around, find the spot, look and sure enough there was the cache...20'-60' away. I blamed it on the tree cover and I am sticking to that excuse. Anybody else experience that kind of round about way of finding caches on a regular basis? Quote Link to comment
+mtn-man Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 You must use a Magellan, right? Tree cover is a big factor. I think pine needles scatter the signal a bit too. Welcome to our world. I guess we are used to it. I shoot bearings when things go crazy like that by standing in one spot and waiting for the GPS to settle a bit. I do that in a few locations and set my pack down where I think the zero spot is. That gives me a reference point and a radius to work from. The Leprechauns and carleenp saw me doing that this weekend. It turns out we that we were very close to the final cache location. Quote Link to comment
+Greymane Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 It is not you or your GPSr. Down there they have randomly placed GPS jammers to throw off the Feds when they are looking for stills. Quote Link to comment
+The Leprechauns Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Yes, the pine needles definitely make it harder to get a good fix on the cache location under heavy cover. But the geocachers in the Southeast are very, very lucky. They have the Waffle Fairy. No other region has the Waffle Fairy. Quote Link to comment
+WARedBear Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 You must use a Magellan, right? Tree cover is a big factor. I think pine needles scatter the signal a bit too. Welcome to our world. I guess we are used to it. I shoot bearings when things go crazy like that by standing in one spot and waiting for the GPS to settle a bit. I do that in a few locations and set my pack down where I think the zero spot is. That gives me a reference point and a radius to work from. The Leprechauns and carleenp saw me doing that this weekend. It turns out we that we were very close to the final cache location. Yes, as a matter of fact I do have a Magellan. It has to be a combination of pine needles and Magnolia leaves. I have never experienced anything like that any place I have cached. I literally walked in circles...walking past the cache. Thing is two of the caches were in easy locations but here I am following the arrow into deep dark thick scratchy, biting woods...just to come back out to find the cache near a trail. You (southeastern cachers ) need to add a warning label to your caches... You will have to walk in circles to find this cache. Quote Link to comment
+The Leprechauns Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Or you can just admit defeat, close your eyes, click your heels together and wish really, really hard. Then, the Waffle Fairy will magically appear. He will find the cache for you, and then give you many presents. I *love* geocaching in the Southeast! Quote Link to comment
+WARedBear Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 I will say there is a lot of and I do mean a lot of uncached areas in the south. Town after town, rest areas, parks galore, you name it and it is probably available for a cache. All I have to do now is figure out where these white bumps (pimples) on my forearm came from. I don't know if I hit some poison stuff or if I have thorns stuck in my arm. I got to work this morning and my arm started to itch. I looked at it and found 12 white spots. Some are clustered in 2 to 4 bumps together. I posted a thread in the southeast forum but nobody has responded yet. Any ideas? Breaking out in Spokane Quote Link to comment
El Sapo Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 It could be a tumor! More likely Poison Oak or Ivy... Quote Link to comment
+Prairie Dog Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Been in SC all my life so I'm just used to it. I grew up not knowing any better than to walk i circles. It's kinda like learning to ski in North Carolina. You don't know any different until you go out West. I guess we're a bit more rugged down here. What's the waffle fairy? Quote Link to comment
+The Leprechauns Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 I'm sorry, I thought everyone knew about the Waffle Fairy. I think the cache page is self-explanatory. You mean this doesn't happen all the time? Quote Link to comment
+c88m Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 (edited) the other reason you were walking in circles , solar storm affecting radio signals for the last two or three days . Edited May 31, 2005 by c88m Quote Link to comment
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