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Upcoming
Maine Events
Hosted by: OBW(?)'s NashvilleJoe
and AbbysGrammy
July 19, 2011 from 2 p.m.
to 4 p.m.
OBW(?) stands for
Older But Wiser, but you
dont have to be either of those things
to attend. :)
Coming
in September 2012...
Caching
Contest Corner
After two months our photo contest has ended.
We didn't get as
many submissions as I had hoped, but those we did get were
great!
Special thanks to all those who entered photos for
consideration. The
BIG winner is msteelee! She submitted these three beautiful
photos she took while out caching in our beautiful state.

The picture above was taken in Milbridge near cache GC13819.

This pretty picture was taken in Orland, not to far from cache GCGD3V.

And last but not least, this is from Phippsburg, and cache GCKJNM.
Special thanks to those who did participate in this
contest.
We are preparing a
really special contest for you coming soon!
Keep watching this contest corner for news of the exciting new
contest and special prizes we have in store for you!
Say What?
TNLN
, TFTC, SL --- Have you ever seen this on a cache and said, "WHAT?"
Well, rest assured, you are not alone. Everyone
who begins caching sees these acronyms and might not figure out what
they
mean. The fine folks at geocachingmaine.org and
geocaching.com
have us covered. On geocaching.com you can go to the glossary of terms, and on
geocachingmaine.org you can go to a great article called
Geojargon
.
Both
of those pages will help you to decipher all the strange terms and
abbreviations you find in this sport. Below are a few of the
more
common ones to get you started:
TNLN - took nothing, left
nothing
TFTC - Thanks for the cache
SL - Signed log
CO - Cache owner
PQ - Pocket
Querry
BYOP - Bring your own pen/pencil
CITO - Cache in /trash
out
FTF - First to find
Muggle
- non geocacher
and the dreaded DNF - Did not find!
Remember
if you run across sometihing you dont understand our website
is
one of the best resources we have. Get on the forum and ask
away...someone is sure to know the answer. Cachers helping
cachers. Thats the way caching should be.
Newbie Nook
Along
these lines, here is a definition for all you new cachers out
there that I have been told is very confusing to the fledgling cacher.
PQ
-
A
Pocket Query (or PQ for short) is a premium member feature of
Geocaching.com. PQs are files which are custom generated by the web
site for a given member based on several criteria, including location,
size, found status, date placed, and more. A single PQ can contain up
to 1000 caches each, and members are allowed to generate up to 5 PQs
per day. PQ files may be utilized by several geocaching applications
and GPS devices. Some geocaching applications like GSAK are capable of
merging and backing up multiple PQs over time, providing an off-line
database of caches. Because PQs are tailored for a specific user,
sharing these files will most likely violate Geocaching.com's terms of
use.
Are you a new cacher?
Do you have a question about a confusing term or aspect of
geocaching? Drop me a PM (private message) and tell me about
it.
Are We There Yet?
The
immortal words that every parent dreads to hear. Usually
spoken
from the back seat of the car with deperate pleading tones, those words
mean that your child is bored. Now what can you do
to keep
those little inquisitive minds busy? Caching I say!
Caching
is the answer to many summertime dulldrums , and it just might be the
answer to that family togetherness thing everyone is striving for
too.
Recently I spoke with several of our members who
take their children geocaching. I wanted to learn more about
caching with kids (how do you know? Maybe I DO mean baby
goats),
and what the good and bad of caching with a child (ok I was talking
about children ...ya caught me) was all about. I wanted to
know
about it from their prespective as parents but also wanted to look at
it as a cache owner who would like their caches to be more child
friendly. Lets face it folks, children are the future of this
sport. Long after we are no longer able to see the numbers on
our
GPS's our children and grandchildren will hopefully still be
able
to take us caching! So I asked these parents some
questions
and we got some wonderful responses. I was VERY pleasantly
surprised to see so many parents jump up to my call for help on this
topic.
I had the chance to ask questions of people
who cache with their children ranging in age from 4-15 years
old.
That gave me a good idea of the differences with the different age
ranges and what special needs if any perhaps the older
children
needed over the younger ones. It might interest you to know,
that
most of these people got into caching due to a co-worker who mentioned
it to them. So don't hesitate too mention to that guy
standing at
the water cooler what a good time you had this weekend caching with
your family. He just might be interested. Ok that
said, I
was also a bit surprised that, most of the parents I talked to biggest
concern was terrian. As a cache owner, I know that although I
always try to accurately depict terrian, I will try to give it a bit
more thought in the future. In addition I found that
attributes
which denote poision ivy or other hazards or benefits was equally of
use to caching parents. Furthermore , a note of how far a
walk
from given parking coordinates to said cache is also helpful for those
who have smaller children. So to a caching parent cache
description is crutial.
The age of a child who goes
caching is very dependant on the preparadiness of the parent from what
I learned. A younger child may need to look at things from a
treasure hunt or pirate game type of thing while an older child may be
more apt to be intrested in how coordinates are arrived at or how the satellites are placed. Although in one case the parent I spoke
with said that now that his child has a permit to drive he is never
bored with caching....as long as he gets to drive! LOL (That
could be an adventure in itself!)
Most
children seem to most enjoy finding a well stocked cache.
Either
small toys or trinkets seem to be the most popular. However; we did
get one young man who perfers currency. Dont know if that was
the
odd dollar bill or the foreign coins but money was the fun
part
. :) The reccuring theme was that the child was
dissapointed when the cache was opened and there was little
inside. So again, as a cache owner, keeping a well stocked
cache
is important to keep the little ones interested. Or perhaps if you are a
TNLN kind of cacher, you could TNLGS (goodstuff)! Be
a Good
Samaritan and stock up an empty cache box.
Most parents try to
avoid nanos and micros when taking their young children with them as
they quickly lose interest in searching for something that holds no
prize. But slightly older children can have a good day doing
a
fun numbers run of micros like those found on stud mill road
caches. Children of all ages enjoyed taking a friend or young
relative on a caching run as well - the more the merrier.
The
biggest takeaway from my interviews is that no matter the age, no
matter the cache, no matter the prize at the end, spending time with
your child doing something as simple as caching is the big payoff for
the parent. Quality family time is so fleeting because before
you
know it they are gone out on their own caching runs with their own
families, so make the most of it while you can. Pack a picnic, log some
caches, but take a child caching today!
Special thanks to
the following cachers who helped me by providing their insight and
wisdom to me so that I could write this article: jabs7386,
Thesacogirls, Shuman road searchers, Happytogether, and last but not
least JFamilySebec. Without the help of these parents and
their
children, this article would not have happened. Way to get
involved in the caching community! YOU GO!
Kid's Kashing Korner
Geotreasure
Hunt
E R M F S Y G D W Q R B D B C
T E W F W R R R Y B B Y T O E
I M T R A I L C V O J Y O F Y
L M G I G L F F M A A R T A C
L U L N Q Q K W K T D N R R P
E S Y V I N O I S I O P U P O
T C A O H H I E N N S U I R F
A I A M M O C A N G S C Y B T
S Y C M L Y T A U G N I K I H
U O L K P E C B C I U Z H L R
X U G I S I E F C O P X W U Q
O P U V M H N G T M E F B O Q
S H L V C A L G E F M G C S H
O B E A A D F E Q O W E K L F
N O C N R L D A M B F D K B J
AMMOCAN
BOATING
BUGSPRAY
CACHE
CAMPING
COORDINATES
FAMILY
GEOCACHING
GPS
HIKING
PICNIC
POISION-IVY
SATELLITE
SUMMER
SWAG
TICKS
TRAIL
If you get stuck go HERE
for the answer key. If you would like a file you can work on
offline, a
PDF version is available to download and print.
Tech Talk
We
here at Ammo Can HQ are working through our liasons to get you a series
of articles and tutorials on GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife).
This is a truely helpful tool to the modern day geocacher,
but if your not familiar with it's operation , it can seem a bit
overwhelming. We hope to bring you an ongoing series of
articles
that will ,over time, give you a good working knowledge of GSAK and
some of its benefits. Not familar with
GSAK, you say? Well here is an overview from the GSAK website
that should give you an idea of what it is.
"GSAK is the all in one Geocaching and waypoint
management tool. Major features include: Multiple databases,
sending/receiving waypoints to GPSr, Google maps, conversion to many
mapping formats, PDA output (including CacheMate support), HTML output,
extensive searching, macro support, backup and restore,
distance/direction from other waypoints (including caches, locations,
post codes) and much more. GSAK only runs on Windows operating systems
(2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7) "
"GSAK is FREE
to download and use, but after 21 days of unrestricted use you get a
nag screen. You can keep using GSAK after the 21 days, but if you want
to remove the nag screen you will need to register the program"
Keep your eye on this
section for future installments on this useful program.
Member
Achievements
Oh dear! Now
see what happens when people rely on me to see
things. Last
month I neglected to mention that inhUMaine achieved his 100th cache.
That is a real milestone that most all of us can remember.
Appologies to Dan for not catching that last month.
He even
did a blog about it. Check it out, as well as the other blogs
there too while you are in the neighborhood.
Let that be a lesson to the rest of you... if you accomplish an
achievement... TELL ME! Send me a PM,
email, or catch me in the chat room.
Here are a few folks whose achievements did make it to me!
And as always thanks for being a part of the Ammo Can!
Congratulations to dufzor for hitting her 300th cache last month.
We received a tip that lexmano has just logged the last of the lower 48 states
and since he already has Alaska, all he needs to get all 50 states is
Hawaii!! Thats awesome!!! You know I think that would make a
great story....when you go to get that last one Ed be sure to purchase
extra tickets for the Ammo Can staff. I will write
a nice
little article and Kevin will take a few snapshots. Now that
would be a GREAT feature story wouldn't it?? (Anyone have any
suntan lotion?)
Dubord207 just logged his 4000 cache
recently. Here he is at that momentous occation pictured
below.
One thing tho.....he is only holding up 4 fingers.....are you
sure your not recycling a picture from your 4th cache? Way to
go
Dan, that is A LOT of caches. Be sure to check out
the nice
writeup all about Dan in our "Getting to Know You" section.
And a big "ATTA GIRL" to Iampaw for making it over the 8000 mark!
WOW,
that's a monumentous number of caches... suppose she has a favorite?
or a least favorite? Do you? Maybe she
will send us a
caching story...or maybe you should send us your caching story.
Hey - why doesn't everyone send us their caching
story? And
keep those member achievements comming in!
Getting to Know
You....
This
month the Ammo Can is proud to be able to bring you another in our
series of getting to know you biographies. This month we are featuring
another one of our board members dubord207!
Thanks Dan for getting this to us.
"Geocaching for me began October
30th, 2007 following a successful opening day of deer
hunting. I had
always carried a GPS (a Garmin 60CSX) in my backpack in case of getting
turned
around in the woods. With my buddies all out chasing deer, I
decided to
chase a geocache and successfully found Kaching Karen's "A Great Place
to
Launch" which turned out to be a great place for me to launch a
geocaching
career.
By way of background, it might be fair to state that I am a
"hobbyist" which means that if I see something that looks like fun, I
will probably try it and if I like it, I'll stay with it.
Geocaching has
fallen into that category. I am also actively involved
in environmental concerns, most involving water quality issues
with Maine Lakes
and Ponds. I founded the China Region Lakes Alliance and also
extended my
environmental experience by serving 8 years as a Trustee at Unity
College. When I got married, my wife and faithful geocaching
companion,
Dianne suggested it might not be a bad thing to give up stock car
racing, sky
diving, fire fighting and other similar hobbies that were likely to
eventually
get me killed! Therefore, geocaching began in
earnest.
A good day of caching for us is a mixed bag of caches.
We like to cache with our two Labs, Nick and Bo and we have shared some
fairly
extravagent picnic lunches on our caching trips. While we
haven't cached
extensively in the United States, every time we go to the Caribbean on
vacation
or on a cruise, we manage to find a geocache on every island.
If asked what my favorite caches are, they would all be
caches sitting on top of mountains where a legitimate hike was required
to make
the find. As far as what I like best about caching, it's the
people I've
met and the places most folks drive by and wouldn't even know about but
for
geocaching.
I became a Board Member with GCM after being nominated and
reflecting on what I think this organization might be able to
achieve.
Presently there are over 2,000 members with only a very small
percentage of
active members but the numbers have grown somewhat during the past
year.
It's clear to me that GCM is a very viable site, provides a tremendous
amount
of information to new cachers and represents the Maine geocaching
community in
a positive light."
Somehow
I just dont see Dan in the stock car drivers seat after hearing about
his bartending skills at the Eustis event last year! Although
it
would of been something to watch I am sure! :) Thanks Dan for
providing this insight to yourself.
We have
several other cachers who are working on getting their bio's to us for
future newsletters. You dont have to wait to be asked....send
your bio to me any old time. We want to have a chance to get to know
all of our Maine cachers. Simply use other bios as a guide or
write up something totally YOU! Submissions are ALWAYS
welcome.
Newsletter
Poll
Last
month we asked you what swag items you HATED in a cache. We
got a
great response to that poll and I thank you for all the great
discussion on that topic. Well this month we would like to
know
what are your FAVORITE items to find in a cache.
Just
like last month if you choose the "other" option please let us know
what you really like by posting a short forum note on this poll
question.
What are your FAVORITE
items to find in a cache?
1. Geocoins,
or Travel Bugs
2. Pathtags, signature items
3. Little toys (matchbox cars, bounce balls, plastic bugs)
4. Unique items like hand made trinkets (hand carved item,
homemade bead necklace)
5.
Other....remember if you choose this please tell us what that
item is by posting in the forum. Inquiring minds
wanna know!!!!
Geotrivia
Question
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