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The app from geocaching.com is free, but for non-premium members will only show the three closest caches that are a 2.0 or less. C:geo for androids and Cachly ($4.99) for iphones are MUCH better choices.
And hello, Thread Stealers
I thought Todd was behind on his monthly WGA dues. 😉 Well welcome back Todd!
Looking forward to attending again!
Cami, I’ve been in that situation or something similar to it more than once.
If you just go back to the property owner without any new information, I’d say it is unlikely that the owner would change their mind, and may even become annoyed at your second request. My “second request” approach was/is as follows:
I take pictures of the location, taking into consideration the ideal lighting, angle, and focal point, to best show how approachable and safe the cache location would be. Doing that I’ve been able to get a “yes” when the initial response was “no.” And (hopefully) it wasn’t annoying to the land owner, because my second request was (hopefully) viewed as a clarifying correspondence, since now I was providing additional information to affirm that the location was safe, rather than just repeating myself. All of this is assuming, of course, that the location is indeed safe with minimal impact to the area.
Spent several hours on Lake Winnebago today. There looks like there was some recent fish kill going on recently, don’t know if it was a virus or what. Lots of dead fish floating on top of the water. WE caught six live ones, kept one.
So yesterday I’m driving home from a park that we were scouting for some geocache placements, and Kim is driving right behind me in her car, and my phone is in my pocket. Suddenly my phone rings thru the Bluetooth system and it’s the Subaru dealership, evidently I butt dialed them. I apologized. I didn’t even know I had them saved in my phone contacts. 30 seconds later it starts ringing again, and they answer again. I apologize. Then music starts playing thru my Bluetooth in the car. WTH? Turns out the Bluetooth system was locked into Kim’s phone, who was traveling right behind me. And she couldn’t figure out why her phone calls weren’t going through to the Subaru dealership.
It’s an interesting issue, what type of cache hider does one want to be. For Kim and I, we try to place caches that bring people to worthy, scenic locations. Usually. 😉 Caches that people might list as a favorite, although we never ask for favorite votes. For us that’s tacky. On Groundspeak’s website, somewhere in their tutorial on how to place caches, I seem to recall that they suggest placing caches in locations that are worth visiting, and suggest that if the only reason for placing a cache at a particular location is because there isn’t one there yet, you should keep looking for a better place.
Just brainstorming, here’s some of the possible “cache hider” types:
a. The park & grab cache hider – Whether lamp posts, guardrails, or something similar, placing caches that are very short walks and quick to find, usually micros, nanos, or smalls. Easy to place, easy to replace, easy to find. Plus for some geocachers, this is their favorite or only type of cache to find because they’re more accessible and you can “quickly” build up your find numbers.
b. On the opposite end of the scale, the “scenic location in natural areas” hider, which usually means a longer walk. Usually regular or large size caches. It’s our favorite type of cache, and how geocaching first started out. Taking nice walks in nature is cheaper than therapy! 🙂
c. The cache series hider – hide a bunch of caches with the same theme, often with a mystery cache for the final. People often love to find a whole set of caches and can have a greater sense of accomplishment if they can find all six in a series (or 10, or 20, or 50, or more…). Examples from our neck of the woods: The hundred acre wood series (30 caches), the Meet the WGA series (7 caches), Classic Toys series (49 caches), Capture the Flag series (13 caches), the Old Silo series (over 100), or the Monopoly series (8 caches).
d. The power trail hider – Similar to the above park & grab and series hiders, but usually 50 or more caches, all P&G’s, typically all along the road in a straight line every 550 feet or so. Finders could find over 100 caches in as little as an afternoon. To some it may sound lame, but if you have the right combination of crazy cachers all in the same car, it can be a fun experience to share.
e. The mystery cache hider – The cache locations as well as the containers themselves may or may not be exciting, but the focus is on creating puzzle caches for people to solve.
f. The quality cache hider – There are some people whose caches just never seem to disappoint. All or almost all of their caches you just know are going to be good, because of either well-chosen locations, well-crafted puzzles, or nicely-built custom containers or containers with props attached. When their caches are published they make it to the front of our list. I was going to name names but…
g. The educational cache hider – Caches that highlight historical, geological, & educational information. The caches commonly could be earthcaches or multicaches, but could also be traditionals that take one to an area of interest, perhaps to a historical location.
I’ve noticed that many new cache hiders start out with simple micros, and after a number of years get more choosy and gravitate toward something different. I’ve never been a fan of micros in the woods, but that’s just me (but I’ll still go find them). In urban areas that’s often the only logical choice in a given location. Lately we’ve mainly been placing caches small & regular sized, usually with props that support the theme of the cache.
So best wishes Cami on deciding what type of hider you want to be now and in the future!
Oh one last consideration – the responsibilities as a cache owner just start with placing the cache. Lately I’ve noticed a trend where many are just not taking care of their cache containers, even when finders post “need maintenance” logs. It would be nice if C.O.’s would visit their caches as needed and keep them going for future cachers. That includes checking them out occasionally even if there isn’t a needs maintenance log, to see if the log sheet is dry or full.
Kim and I look forward to the day when we can find a Bennycams’ cache!
60!! I MADE IT!!
As in your 60th birthday?
I think the March picture of the month has already been lost in the shuffle. My suggestion would be to start a new, clean post on FB every month for that month’s picture submissions.
Wow that conference looks FANTASTIC. We hope to attend next year; it’s full for this year.
Fascinating!
Ended up winning an ’08 coin last night on ebay to add to my collection now!
Now just looking to add the ’05, ’06, ’07, ’11, and ’12 to my collection. I know a good number of them to get
but will always try an keep an eye open. Congrats, that’s a hard one to acquire!
Kim and I tend to get one FTF per month and then stop chasing FTFs for the remainder of the month. One and done. Usually. We’ve had a monthly streak going for a long time. Any others that pop us we save until we plan a route in that area. Similarly, if we learn of a cache already found by others that interests us, rather than going to it immediately, we’ll most likely plan a route for later. Our routes usually but not always mean finding a bunch of caches; it may just be a long hike along the Ice Age Trail or some other place, finding just that one cache. When planning a route, we often will cache with others, and if so we consider what goals each person in the party is working on: specific challenge caches, completing segments of the IAT, D/T grid fillers, classic oldies, etc. Working on goals, or working together with others certainly enhances the adventure for us.
Sure I’ll take an FTP.
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but will always try an keep an eye open.