Anyone going Geocaching this weekend? **NEW CACHERS...POP IN!**

[Pin Wizard]

Look! A cache for Disney fans!

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCW2X7

Sounds like it was a good weekend, hdecker! Here...we did nothing but Geocache! Found 26 on the three days. Then there was another cache published while we were out searching. It's just four miles from home, so we got that one last night. I think it's called Muffet's Friend. It's a rubber spider with a bison tube in it tied to a tree limb and covered with ivy. LOL! Not scary, but I let darling son get it. LOLOL! Nineteen to go until we hit 500!

I'm now understanding your not having caches close enough to home. I'm even tired of going to Virginia Beach! We've gotten so many there. Now I'm branching into Portsmouth and Chesapeake. There's no way I would have grabbed the number we did if I went to VB. Now they're farther apart.

Congrats on the FTF! That's GREAT! I STILL don't have one.

This weekend I used Deep Woods Off. Worked well where I sprayed it. I even did the lower part of my jeans and my shirt sleeves. Just had a couple crawlers on my shirt. I could tell by my darling son looking at me that something was on me. Sure enough! At least none attached to skin!

Tomorrow is Thursday already! Yea!!!

How was everyone else's holiday?

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

Wow! I have some catching up to do!
lilallybean: It sounds like the addition to your family will be welcomed by both sides, which is great! And, a neo-cacher to boot! What GPSr did you get?

hdecker: Congrats on the FTF! It sounds like you had a nice holiday despite the ticks.

Sandy: We have a Disney cache in our area that we were FTF last year. I think it's called the Disney Cache and is located in Quakertown.

In our news from the holiday: we got 2 more FTFs for a total of 17. One was a 6-parter up in NJ that took us 3 trips to finish. There was a problem with one of the coords so that had to be worked out with the owner. The second one was a neat micro in a park a few miles from home. It was attached to a piece of fishing line that was thrown up over a tree branch. A small reel was attached at the other end and hidden in a hollow of the tree. We also finished an STF on a 5-parter that had us driving about 120 miles around PA. That one also took 3 trips for various reasons. Along the way, we grabbed a few others so we are almost up to 250 total. We also got to spend some nice time with our DGD, which is always great.
I guess that's about it. Good caching everyone!
Mike

 

[Pin Wizard]

Sounds like you had a good holiday, Mike! Teaching Erin the ropes of Geocaching?

Bless your heart for sticking with the multi that had you visiting around 120 miles. Wow!! That's determination! And congrats on the FTF at the Disney cache!

Another weekend is almost here. I've been working on my listing of what to search for this weekend. Guess I better start entering the coords. Ack! Don't like that part of it, but it's better than wasting my Saturday morning entering them!

Happy caching, everyone!

 

[hdecker]

MiJo - I would love to do a six parter. Guess I'll have to be content with a three part one we are going to do this weekend and see how long that one is going to take us. Like Pin Wizard, I need to start entering coords - not my favorite part and to make it even worse - DH slammed GPS is door this past weekend and cracked the screen so it's hard to see at times. I have issues with getting a new one right now - I've just finally got this one figured out. I guess it's about time considering we've been using it over a year! Hoping to finally hit 100 this weekend - yes, I know - we're behind everyone else but that's okay, we'll get there. Happy Caching!

 

[MiJo]

hdecker: Sorry to hear about your GPSr incident. We used an old Magellan 310 for about 2 1/2 years before finally breaking down and getting the eXplorist 210 in December. What a difference! The $160 we spent was well worth it. Don't fret about your numbers; we've been caching for 3 years and we're still a couple caches shy of 250. We're not out to break any records, that's for sure. The 6-parter we did was all situated around one town in NJ. It included 5 historical markers or monuments and a final cache located in some woods near an old RR structure. The 5-parter we did was spread out over a few counties in PA and took us 3 trips and about 120 miles of driving to complete. That's the most we have driven for one cache by far.

Don't know how much caching we will get to do this weekend due to some other obligations. Maybe Sunday evening we will get out a little.
Good caching, everyone!
Mike

 

[7lords]

I just started doing this with the kids last week and so far we are 10 for 10 I'd like to try it with a handheld GPS like Garmin or E-trex to see what the numbers are like. I have a Palm T5 and a Palm T3 and have a Blue Tooth GPS unit that connects to them and I have all of the descriptions and things in the Palm so we are paperless. Anyway, with my Blue Tooth unit, we've always been within 5 ft of the cache when we get to the coords. We love doing it and the 1st one we did, we left a rubber duck keychain TB and have been watching it's progress

 

[MiJo]

Hi 7lords and welcome to Pin Wizard's great geocaching thread! Also, welcome to geocaching! Ten for ten! That's amazing for a newbie! I don't know anything about your Blue Tooth unit but it sounds like it works great. If we could get within 5 feet of every cache with our Magellan eXplorist 210 we would really be accomplishing something. Paperless is the way to go so you are on the right track there, also.
If you have any questions about our great hobby, fire away!
Mike of Team SAR-Dogs

 

[Pin Wizard]

hdecker...Congrats on 100 being in the near future! It's not about the numbers, it's about the fun you have getting to them!! I absolutely love caching and get a kick out of seeing my son do this. His feelings on caching are mixed. But as a single parent who can't stand to be home on the weekends, and also not wanting to roam the malls spending money, this is a fairly cheap hobby...excluding the gas these days. (My GPS has been turned on an hour already, and I haven't entered one set of coords. yet. )

So sorry to hear about your GPS! At the least, you can get the same one if/when you replace it. But you might find another out there you like even better!

Mike...Hope your weekend is great no matter what you're doing!

7lords...Welcome to Geocaching!! Glad to hear that you're having so much fun with it. A Blue Tooth? Have no idea how that's related to a GPS. I know my cell phone provider told me to look online at Blue Tooth for an ear piece to go with my cell phone. Palm T5 and Palm T3? I see you're more advanced in this than I am. Congrats on being 10/10...spectacular! TBs are fun. I recently sent one out mentioning that I'd like it to stay in the US. Big military area here, so people are always leaving the country. Sure enough, someone picked it up the other day and said he's taking it to France with him in two weeks. LOL! I thought of e-mailing him, but I'll just let it go and see where it ends up. I didn't have a detailed sheet with it. But when I find those like that, I do check their pages online to see what the goal is. Will be interesting to watch. My TB is going somewhere I've never been.

lilallybean...Hope all is well!!

Better get some numbers entered. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy caching!!

 

[hdecker]

Welcome 7lords - you've come to a good place with people who love doing what you do. Are you in an area that has alot of caches?
Pin Wizard - there are 4 of us who cache - me, DH and DDs 14 and 16. DH is just so so - goes to make me happy. DD16 is a priss and if there are bugs involved will whine but always wants to get there first. DD14 is my micro hunter - she can sniff out the smallest of micros, crawl through rotten logs, through a creek - anything and love it. Every once in a while DS21 and wife will join us but she just does it to humor him and doesn't enjoy getting hot, sweaty and buggy. Anyway, the reason I say all this is that, down the line, your DS is going to look back at this with wonderful memories and share the experiences with others the rest of his life so even if sometimes he doesn't appear to be enjoying it as much as you do - he loves you for it anyway!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Thanks, hdecker! You made me misty eyed! Your bunch is probably a lot of fun out there! Can I borrow your micro-finding 14 year old?

I finally entered some numbers, so we better get going. It's been raining here. I hope it's dry in Chesapeake!

Happy caching!

 

[hdecker]

Finally made it to 100 today woo hoo. We found the absolute coolest cache today also. They had taken a 4 foot tall hollow metal fence post and attached it to a parking sign in a parking lot. It really looked like it was supposed to be there - so much so that we walked by it 3 different times before we figured it out. It had a cap on it so we didn't think anything about it. The hint said to bring a gallon of water. Uh, okay. Anyway, you take the cap off and pour the water in to fill up the post and a plastic bottle floated to the top. You had to grab it fast because there are drain holes in the bottom but this was just too cool. After we found it we realized we were in the parking lot of a science center - go figure. Hope everyone had a magical caching weekend

 

[Pin Wizard]

Congratulations on 100, hdecker!!! And that cache sounds like a lot of fun! I'll be keeping that one in mind.

It rained in Chesapeake more than it did here. LOL! I'm hoping for better weather tomorrow.

Today we had more DNFs than finds. Ugh. Some days are like that though.

Happy caching!

 

[7lords]

Welcome 7lords - you've come to a good place with people who love doing what you do. Are you in an area that has alot of caches?

LOT'S of caches in our area. The trick is, the kids want to do it (2 and 4) so when they come with me we need easier ones - fortunately, there are lots of those too.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I would imagine it's fun with the little ones. Too cute!

We're headed to Richmond this coming weekend for a day. I've been busy printing caches out to take with me. I guess I should start entering all those coordinates now!! Wish we were staying the weekend, but there's the pup and the bird at home.

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

For some reason, my Post Reply button isn't working so I'll try this Quick Reply.

hdecker: Congratulations on #100! Sandy is right: it's not about the numbers but it is fun to reach a milestone. You start to feel like a veteran cacher at #100. That cache in the plastic pipe sounds great! We haven't encountered any like that yet but we will keep it in mind for a possible future hide. ;>)

7lords: We hope you're enjoying caching as much as we do. This is an interesting hobby just full of great people who enjoy the outdoors.

Sandy: With all the caching you do (especially on rainy days), you should consider paperless caching at some point. It will actually save you money in the long run by helping you save on paper and ink cartridges. Throw your pennies in a jar and start looking around on Ebay for a used Palm Pilot. We did it for around $35, all inclusive, and it was definitely worth it. No more wet paperwork and all the information about the cache is right there, including past logs. It's great!

I don't know if we'll get any caching in this weekend or not. I'm hacking from a cold I came down with earlier in the week but it's not bad enough to stop me. We do have to check on one of our hides: A Little Riparian Entertainment. It's a micro hidden in a sign post (no water needed). Someone looked for it yesterday, saw a snake, and thought it might be the cache container! Fortunately, it crawled away when they came near it. I added a post to the cache mentioning that we would never hide a cache in a rubber snake; a spider, maybe, but not a snake. They couldn't find the cache but they probably didn't stay around long after seeing the snake. I think a lot of cachers think the word "riparian" has something to do with snakes or reptiles but it doesn't. It has to do with an area near a riverbank, etc. We saw the sign, which states the area is a Riparian No Mow Area and it reminded us of an episode from one of our favorite British comedies: Keeping Up Appearances. We just had to use it for a cache site!

Good caching everyone!
Mike

 

[Pin Wizard]

Mike...So sorry you have a cold. Hope it's gone soon! It wouldn't stop me from caching either.

Riparian...there's a good word! There is someone in this area that put a series of caches around bodies of water. The first few I found were on the edge in the tall grass. I have found a couple that aren't as close now. One at the base of a tree right by the edge, the other in a bunch of woods within view of a lake.

There was a cacher I spoke to here who said he was at a cache and thought a snake was fake and the cache. He actually grabbed it...and dropped it fast! YIKES!

My extent of knowing what a Palm Pilot can do is knowing it exists. Can you pull up the internet and web sites on it? If not, how do you see cache info?

Yesterday was Richmond Rally III. We had a BLAST! It was at Pocahontas State Park near Richmond. Lots of caching, a picnic lunch, chatting with other cachers. We hooked up with others while looking for stage one of a multi. The group that came up at that time included the cache owner! Woooo hoooo!!! Ended up being an artificial plant mixed in with plants around a tree. Amazing how GPSrs differ on where to send you! Three of us were in a different area. Not far away, but you would think we would have been closer. It was a great day, and I hit 500!! I never really thought about getting to that number, but it is a major milestone for me. And to share it with others in a group was the best!!! The owner of that cache was in the group also. Lots of fun!!! Today I wanted to go out caching, but it's been a lazy day. LOL! I guess getting up at 5:30 yesterday, driving to Richmond, a busy and fun day, then the drive home was enough for a weekend. Between the caching at the event and a few before and after, it was 12 for the day. Good day!! But it did feel really strange today to not get out there looking.

Hope everyone here had an opportunity to get out there this weekend or will soon!

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy: CONGRATULATIONS on #500!!! That's a BIG NUMBER for the amount of time you have been doing this! We should reach #250 this weekend and we've enjoyed almost every one.
I'm glad to hear your enjoyed your geo-picnic! We look forward to ours every year and this year's will be on September 24.

We didn't know anything about Palm Pilots either until we decided to look into paperless caching. Ours is about the size of a handheld game. I download the data for around 500 caches into it every week. I can then see a list of the caches in alphabetical order. I scroll through them until I get to the one I want. Once I select it, I can see 5 or 6 pages of data for the cache, which amounts to everything shown on the cache's Web page, including the past 5 logs. It's really handy out in the field and beats carrying lots of paper around.

My cold is doing better but I'm still hacking a little. Now, my DW has it. We may plan a mini geo-vacation for this weekend, possibly Antietam, Maryland. We enjoy touring the Civil War battlefields and we haven't been there since '92 or so. If we do that, we'll be able to grab caches in DE, MD and WVA. We'll see how it goes.

I guess that's it. I'm off to see our wonderful granddaughter!
Good caching!
Mike

 

[Pin Wizard]

Thank you!! It's definitely been a busy year with this. Let us know if you end up going away and caching! Always great to hear about other areas.

Hope you had fun visiting Erin! Is she holding a GPS in her hand yet? Hope you and your wife are feeling much better and are back to 100% soon!

I'll have to look into paperless caching more. I'm sure it's worth it in the long run. And if I could pull up a page (and driving directions,) that's worth it right there.

Looking forward to a couple picnics here also. One is coming up in July. And I guess there's a camping adventure at a park in the plans for probably September. We'll spend the day at that one but skip the camping. I'm not quite fond of camping along with snakes and other things. LOL!

lilallybean...How's the wrist?

Anyone else caching?

Happy caching!!

 

[MiJo]

Erin turns 4 months today so she's not quite up to holding the GPSr yet! She has started holding "teething toys" and they end up going right into her mouth. I guess that's where the GPSr would end up. The baby girl from our church who was born the same day has been caching, though! Unfortunately, the mother and her caching friend have not made any finds so far (0 for 8, I think). We want to take them to help them get their first but it won't be this weekend. We decided to head to the Reading, PA, area for some caching and other things. We will be staying in a B&B tonight and returning tomorrow afternoon. It's just a short get-away but we could use it. Erin and her parents will be in VA for the weekend so we don't have to babysit.
I'll let you know how we do in the field.
Good caching!
Mike

 

[lilallybean]

WOW! 500 finds! We have a long way to go beore we hit that number.
I am doing great now. Fully recovered and back to work and school. I will be done with school in just over a month!!! I am so ready to be free again!
We have not done much caching over the last couple weeks. DH's sister is not doing well and the family is taking turns staying with her around the clock. Since there is only my mom-in-law, sis and bro-in-law (who are up from Texas), DH, and I...well lets just say we spend most of our time there and not out and about. I don't know how she is hanging on, she has been without a feeding tube for over a month and her IV had to be stopped 18 days ago! She has had MS for 6 years and it really hit her hard. Keep us in your prayers please.
This weekend I had to come up to the city to help my sis with a few tasks, so on the way home I plan on hitting a few caches.
Our BIG news is that we have hidden our first cache!!! It is not far from our house so we are able to check on it very often. So far there have been two folks sign the log, and I think one other visitor. There was a travel bug that showed up in it but has yet to be logged into it. The last holder of it was not one of the two that signed our log book. We had a blast hiding it! I have plans for another hide, but have to figure out just where to do it. I will keep you all posted on that. I am very excited about it and have not run into anything like it in our hunts so far.
Happy caching all and I look forward to hearing more of your adventures!!!