[Team Deejay]

I would say that there have been some rather strange winners. One that comes to mind was a cache (now archived) in a lamppost in a bank parking lot. It was part of a series based in Illinois. In reality, the series was fun and had interesting puzzles, but it was basically an Illinois cache, and was already nominated on the GONIL website. No real reason for it to even be on our list, but someone nominated it, and then someone chose to “campaign” for it, getting many area people to vote for it, enough to result in it winning the month.

The problem with this scenario is two fold. First, people use our lists to find caches “worthy of their time” to visit. When people come from out of the area and find that our COTM is a lamppost hide, well, lets just say we don’t come off in the best light. Second, there obviously were some better choices (I hope!) which were denied that COTM spotlight because of this particular choice.

For me, the COTM (and nominees) should represent caches which we feel are among the best caches the state has to offer. This means something different for everyone, but hopefully you think about what that means to you before you nominate or vote.

[Team Deejay]

@lone_gunman wrote:

@Team Deejay wrote:

feel free to smack them around a bit for me.

Is that an official request?

It is an unofficial order.

[Team Deejay]

@gotta run wrote:

@marc_54140 wrote:

My belief is that the puzzle is the Difficulty part of the cache. Finding the container should not be difficult, UNLESS the cache page also addresses that specifically!

Oh man, did you serve that up just for me? How nice of you 😈

So, just to pose a hypothetical here. What if I want to place a bison tube, hidden in dense foliage, on an island, with coordinates that put you in the middle of the water so you have to scour a large radius without knowing if you’re in the right spot or not. Would you consider that “not difficult?”

Ace….

I would call it unpublishable.

Of course, to get this stuff through, some people lie to the reviewer, claiming that the online maps are wrong. Others have given the reviewer wrong final coordinates, with the puzzle yielding different results. (This is why we ask for a solution on difficult puzzles.) Still others change their puzzle after publication and don’t update the online coordinates. If you run into someone who has done this sort of misdeed to “make the find more challenging”, feel free to smack them around a bit for me.

[Team Deejay]

Just a slight correction. The Geomate Jr. starts out containing only traditional caches (not necessarily regular). They also filter anything with difficulty or terrain over 3.5, and only include caches active for 4 months or more. They are apparently developing an “upgrade kit” (AKA data cable) and are going to provide other choices of filters for cache downloads, including everything in the US. Quite frankly, I think the problem is that everyone (or nearly everyone) recognizes this is a beginner/kids unit, and no one wants to pay big bucks for a toy.

[Team Deejay]

Unfortunately the cheap camo tape (available most places) becomes rather obvious after a winter. The expensive camo tape (especially the textured types) are better, but costly. In my opinion, the best answer is camo PAINT. You need this anyway to cover up the Ammunition markings on the ammo cans, so you can also use this for tupperware, and match containers. Note that film cans and keyholder are not good containers and generally only work when contained and sheltered from weather.

[Team Deejay]

Wisconsin is 87% for us.

[Team Deejay]

My favorite accidental find was a letterbox at GC10E7E. I believe the cache owner was using the letterbox as camo, as they were touching, with the letterbox in front of the geocache!

[Team Deejay]

Basically, you can do most caches at night. It is harder usually, although some types of camo just shine when hit with a light. One to avoid are:

– Those where the owner posts available hours that don’t include when you are wanting to search. Some city parks have posted hours, others don’t.
– Caches in residential areas
– Some cemetery caches where hours are posted. Cemetery hours are basically set to avoid alarming local residents when they see someone lurking around there late at night. This is somewhat unfortunate, as you are least likely to disturb mourners when visiting at night.
– State parks vary from location to location. I know that Bong wants everybody out at 10PM, but I don’t believe there are any operating hours at the Kettle Moraine or Big Foot Beach. Just check on the DNR website for operating hours.

Otherwise, just go for it. If try for a cache and find the area isn’t open, just head for the next one.

[Team Deejay]

FYI, what I do when changing out a log is go through the online logs and look for people who haven’t signed. If I find one, I email them and ask. So far, I have found 5 missing sigs. 2 had logged the wrong cache (there is a virtual nearby), 1 forgot his pen and didn’t log that, and the others were logged as a group with a not obvious name. The “wrong cache” guys deleted their own (both came back and found my cache later), and of course, I didn’t need to delete the others.

[Team Deejay]

Oops, duplicate post.

[Team Deejay]

Actually, as a cache owner, you are, more or less, required to delete their logs. The guidelines require that cache owners maintain their caches, including checking logs to make sure the online entries are not bogus. Now, we all know that nobody is going to check up on you to make sure you are actually performing this duty, but, that said, it is still a duty. I certainly understand that you don’t want to aggravate these “driveby cachers” who might take action against one of your caches (or you!), but that is part of the price of being a cache owner.

Reviewer Note: As reviewers, we are occasionally asked to check this on virtuals, where it is obvious that armchair logging is going on. That is a different situation. As far as I know, in Wisconsin, we have only had to issue a couple warnings, and no caches were ever archived (by us, anyway). There were a handful of virtuals in Milwaukee that the owner shut down after discovering that more than half of the new logs coming in were bogus. (Maybe if he hadn’t added “You don’t have to email me the answer” to the description, he would have had fewer issues?)

[Team Deejay]

The ones I have in my home centered PQ are GC1G6CV, GC14GJV, GC13CTF, GCGKH6, and GCQQ46.

[Team Deejay]

Yes. Try looking here. I believe this version will push the “Create Bookmark” button for you. (The old version I have requires you to push the button each time.)

[Team Deejay]

I don’t have that program loaded right now, but I believe you can export a GPX file from Delorme. As long as you specify to export the track, it should work on gc.com.

[Team Deejay]

Check your coordinates. Typically this problem happens when the coordinates are somewhere like Latitude = 90°. Additionally, make sure you have set the distance to 500 miles. That way, you might get a clue that your location is the north pole when it returns caches in the Yukon.

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