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50+ Things I Learned In My First 250 Finds


Ecylram

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Last month I posted a message with the 40 Things I learned in my first 100 Caches. That discussion went pretty well so I'm back with the sequel:

 

Things I've learned in my first 250 caches

  1. Geocaching can ruin shoes, shirts, pants, etc.
  2. Never leave the GeoPen in the GeoShirt when doing the GeoLaundry.
  3. I'm starting to add the prefix 'Geo' to words.
  4. A "1 star" Difficulty cache can be hard.
  5. A "5 star" Difficulty cache can be relatively easy (rarely).
  6. Color blindness makes many hides much more difficult.
  7. I have about a 1-minute search limit on Juniper bush hides.
  8. I may need to shorten my limit Juniper bush searches.
  9. My find rate is slowing because I've already hit those that are conventient.
  10. My find rate is slowing because I'm searching out harder to find caches.
  11. My find rate is slowing because the sun is setting earlier
  12. My find rate will slow further when winter hits.
  13. My find rate is slowing because I'm revisiting previous DNF's.
  14. There is satisfaction in finding a previous DNF.
  15. Some cache owners can be very grateful when you replace a baggie and/or log.
  16. I carry more baggies than a drug dealer.
  17. Some cache owners won't respond to emails.
  18. This is a great low-cost sport/hobby.
  19. I'm spending more on gas.
  20. I'm spending more on pens.
  21. I'm spending money on cache supplies.
  22. I'm spending money on baggies.
  23. I'm spending more on clothes (see above).
  24. I carry more baggies than a drug dealer.
  25. I now have a bag for geocaching 'stuff'.
  26. Those silly walking sticks are starting to seem like a good idea.
  27. Some silly walking sticks are EXPEN$IVE.
  28. The Sharpie Ultra-Fine MARKER is NOT the same thing as the wonderful Sharpie Fine Point PEN.
  29. The Fisher Space Pen is 10 times the cost of a Sharpie Fine Point Pen on Amazon.
  30. I sometimes don't recognize our signature when writing on a crumpled, wet, torn log while juggling a container, container lid, GPSr, log, pen and the keys I didn't put back in my pocket when I got out of the car.
  31. Black nano caps are impossible to find in tall grass after sunset. (We found it the next morning and now have spare nano's in the car.
  32. I really like some of the magnetic hides.
  33. I really like hides where the cache owner spent time crafting something different.
  34. Logs in the wild take 150% of the space they originally took when they are placed.
  35. Some cache owners expect and prepare for their micro's to have hundreds of visiters.
  36. A camoflage cloth bag on a cache is a wonderful place for a colony of pincer bugs to live.
  37. If I don't start paying more attention I'm going to end up with a stick in my eye.
  38. I detest ultra-simple hides where the CO decided to put it in the highest muggle-traffic location possible.
  39. Travel bugs that don't fit in a 'regular' cache are a pain to move on.
  40. I love paperless geocaching because its easy to do impromptu caching.
  41. I hate paperless geocaching when I'm out of cell range without a pocket caches.
  42. A cache owner with multiple GPSr's can mistakenly post 'off' coordinates. (Yes, I'm sure.)
  43. It's awkward to walk up to a FTF opportunity where two cachers have invested considerable minutes in the search and immediately find the cache. (Sorry!)
  44. Going to grab a First-To-Find can lead to a First-To-DNF.
  45. There is a lot of trash in this country.
  46. There are a lot of broken sunglasses and broken pens lying near caches.
  47. Caching on your lunch break may lead to working in pants with grass stains on them.
  48. 4-mil baggies are da bomb.
  49. Sometimes its very hard to find something to write in addition to TFTC.
  50. Cache owners will sometimes replace muggled caches without reporting the muggle or replacement.
  51. Lamp post hides are a gateway drug to full fledged Geocaching.

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51. Lamp post hides are a gateway drug to full fledged Geocaching.

This one stuck out to me. I know a lot of people who hate these types of hides, but it was these that got me interested in the hobby in the first place. I'd like to think my cache tastes have matured since then and I now prefer the higher starred caches, but you have to start somewhere. :unsure:

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The Fisher Space Pen is 10 times the cost of a Sharpie Fine Point Pen on Amazon.
Yes, but the Fisher Space Pen refill is much cheaper, and fits less expensive pen bodies.

 

I've also heard of people wrapping a Fisher Space Pen refill with Gorilla Tape to make a stick pen that writes everywhere.

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One other thing that I've learned:

 

If there are multiple ways of getting to GZ, I will inevitably pick the path of greatest resistance (for which I will kick myself once I reach GZ and realize the nice, easy path is that-a-way).

 

I was reading logs on a cache I didn't find because I got hopelessly lost bushwhacking and on the path of absolute most resistance... seems it's almost a geocaching thing to take the hardest path reading those logs. Person after person did the same thing.

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One other thing that I've learned:

 

If there are multiple ways of getting to GZ, I will inevitably pick the path of greatest resistance (for which I will kick myself once I reach GZ and realize the nice, easy path is that-a-way).

 

Truthfully, I've given up trying to learn to get to GZ the easy way...it's a given that no matter if it's even 15' off the trail, I WILL pick the hard way in.

 

Today was a fine example...the cache was in a quadrant where two trails meet. I went 30' down the north/ south trail, bushwhacked in 20' over and under dense deadfall. After stumbling around for 20 minutes I went back to the trail for a new start. I decided to try from the other trail...a path 2 feet wide, clear of all obstacles and leading directly to GZ.... :unsure:

 

I learned again today for the umpteenth time that if I decide to park and hike the last xx mile because there mightn't be a place to turn around...it's a given that the road will open up into a flippn' parking lot. And vice versa..if I get brave and try to drive the last 100 yds, I'll be backing up or doing a 15 point turn.

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Can I add something to you lists? Or rather maybe comment on one of you items? About caching at lunchtime leads to having grass stains? How about caching on the way to work (I'm a nurse and I wear scrubs) and come in to work and have your co-workers have to pick pine needles out of your hair and check for little sticky burs on the back of your pants? It has happened to me several times. I have also learned NOT to wear Crocs to work, but go back to regular tennis shoes, for obvious reasons.

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52. Someone will come out of the woods bleeding. (Luckily, it hasn't been me...yet. And I'M the clumsy one!)

53. Bring a first aide kit. Even for the short runs.

54. The grabby-magnetic-reachy thing would really be useful, and we intend to get one...when we have extra money after putting gas in our geomobile. :wub:

55. Sometimes people put so much thought into their puzzles and cache description...then are so worn out after that, they put out a crappy container in a crappy final location.

56. Flip flops are NOT good shoes for caching. Even if I DO wear them year round. Broken glass/sharp rocks/ other dangerous pointy things have been much too close to my precious footsies and I SHOULD know better. But luckily, i repeat LUCKILY i havent come out bleeding yet.

57. The multitool i got Dad for father's day 5 years ago (with tweezers) was the best present I ever bought him. He has never used it, but when I started caching, it's turned out to be very very useful. It has been permanently borrowed.

58. Some people get it, some people don't. Dont even try explaining gps and coordinates and bison tubes to every backwoods redneck. You'll get the same question 9 out of 10 times. "What do you get from it? Cash?". Just say scavenger hunt and move on.

59. Eventually, everything starts looking like cache containers. Be aware that this is a symptom and remember that when every coffee container and pill bottle is begging for a trinket and a log. (And in your mother-in-law's kitchen, she has a million friggin lock n locks!!)

60. Paperless caching is wonderful! It takes time to figure out, but once you do you'll be glad you did! Plus, all those old cache pages you printed out at work...well... they help start campfires :ph34r:

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31. Black nano caps are impossible to find in tall grass after sunset. (We found it the next morning and now have spare nano's in the car
Try finding one in knee deep snow. :ph34r:
I once found a blinker near one of those flexible utility markers. As I was putting the blinker back, I tripped and hit the top of the springy utility marker with my hand. The utility marker knocked the blinker out of my hand and launched it into the leaf litter "somewhere over there". I did eventually find it again, but it was much harder to find the second time.
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[*]The Fisher Space Pen is 10 times the cost of a Sharpie Fine Point Pen on Amazon.

 

I never knew there was a Sharpie PEN! I will look for one.

 

Is the Fisher Space Pen worth the money?

Seriously, from what I've heard its an amazing pen.

 

I've had the same Fisher Space pen with the same ink cartridge for roughly thirty years. I use it exclusively for caching.

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I haven't reached 250 yet but have to add one, never attempt one of those confounded nanos on your own if you suffer essential tremors. I had to get a muggle to roll it up and put it back for me. I don't do nanos anymore and the muggle is now a geocacher! So I guess that is karma.

 

I have found that the tweezers in my "Signature" Swiss Army Knife helps roll up small nano logs; just squeeze the tweezer to hold onto the end of the log and then roll it around the tweezers. It is easy to pull the tweezers out of the nice tight rolled log. (The included pen is also useful for signing the log.)

Edited by Nonsuch30
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I haven't reached 250 yet but have to add one, never attempt one of those confounded nanos on your own if you suffer essential tremors. I had to get a muggle to roll it up and put it back for me. I don't do nanos anymore and the muggle is now a geocacher! So I guess that is karma.

 

I have essential tremor but maybe not quite as bad as this. I wouldn't make a good brain surgeon but I can usually handle fiddly stuff if I need to. Still, I do get my husband to handle rolling up nano logs if we're caching together.

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One other thing that I've learned:

 

If there are multiple ways of getting to GZ, I will inevitably pick the path of greatest resistance (for which I will kick myself once I reach GZ and realize the nice, easy path is that-a-way).

 

This is so me and my wife always says there has to be a easier way and inevitably after the cache find we see there was. ?

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It appears you carry more baggies than a drug dealer.

 

:unsure:

 

Twice as many apparently!

(16 and 24)

 

Also: I love sharpie pens. Never use a marker to do a pens job! There is a difference. The pen is for paper, will not blead through, the marker is good for plastic and will most definitely bleed through paper.

I covet the space pen though...have not yet splurged on it, mostly because I tend to lose things...a lot.

 

For me I inevitably find the path that goes through Poison Ivy (I'm highly reactive to it)

Edited by Duskywing
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52. Someone will come out of the woods bleeding. (Luckily, it hasn't been me...yet. And I'M the clumsy one!)

That would be me.

 

Happened (again) this past weekend. Cut my head open again.

 

Luckily someone from St. John Ambulance was in the group and helped patch me up.

 

All my caching friends say I need to buy a helmet, as sadly, this was not an isolated incident :(

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52. Someone will come out of the woods bleeding. (Luckily, it hasn't been me...yet. And I'M the clumsy one!)

That would be me.

 

Happened (again) this past weekend. Cut my head open again.

 

Luckily someone from St. John Ambulance was in the group and helped patch me up.

 

All my caching friends say I need to buy a helmet, as sadly, this was not an isolated incident :(

 

I do a lot of my geocaching by bicycle. I keep my helmet on when I dismount the bike to look for a cache. I can't count the number of times I have whacked my helmet on a stout branch searching in the woods.

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I haven't reached 250 yet but have to add one, never attempt one of those confounded nanos on your own if you suffer essential tremors. I had to get a muggle to roll it up and put it back for me. I don't do nanos anymore and the muggle is now a geocacher! So I guess that is karma.

 

I have found that the tweezers in my "Signature" Swiss Army Knife helps roll up small nano logs; just squeeze the tweezer to hold onto the end of the log and then roll it around the tweezers. It is easy to pull the tweezers out of the nice tight rolled log. (The included pen is also useful for signing the log.)

 

I found one of those knives in a cache. I had no idea the pen was a pen. I thought it was some kind of poker thingie for making holes in leather, until I poked it into something, saw ink, and went "OHHHH, THAT'S what that part does."

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52. Someone will come out of the woods bleeding. (Luckily, it hasn't been me...yet. And I'M the clumsy one!)

That would be me.

 

Happened (again) this past weekend. Cut my head open again.

 

Luckily someone from St. John Ambulance was in the group and helped patch me up.

 

All my caching friends say I need to buy a helmet, as sadly, this was not an isolated incident :(

 

I do a lot of my geocaching by bicycle. I keep my helmet on when I dismount the bike to look for a cache. I can't count the number of times I have whacked my helmet on a stout branch searching in the woods.

 

I wear my Tilley to almost every cache. When the brush gets thick, I put my head down and use the hat like a shield pushing through the branches.

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I'm the one in our group who usually comes out bleeding. It's generally somewhere on my legs from a stick or a bush. Last month it was from a barbed wire fence. First thing I said "Well, I'm glad I'm up to date on my tetanus shots."

That was me 2 years ago when I tore a hole in the back of my leg.

 

I was up to date on my tetanus shots when I left the hospital :o

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