High-Tech Treasure Hunting
Pull on your hiking boots, grab your global positioning system and plug in the coordinates - we're going on a hunt!  Lovers of technology don't have to be stuck inside the house. Geocaching takes you outdoors, across the country and around the globe through all sorts of terrain.  There are more than a million caches hidden in over 200 countries, you and your trusty GPS are going to find as many of them as you can! 

Geocaching Personal Checks pay tribute to a fairly new hobby that has people plugging in latitude and longitude points and heading out on an adventure!

Get your own Geocaching Personal Checks today!
http://new.checkadvantage.com/geocaching-checks


From Jeri / JestrRulz

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If you do not use many checks and more credit, many credit card companies let you use your own image. You might call and ask - you  never can tell! :)

State parks confront nemesis: digital age

Posted: 10:00 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012
By David Barer

Drought, heat, wildfires and funding cuts slammed the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 2011.

Now, weather and revenue are improving, and the parks department is focusing on a different problem: turning parks, which are most popular with older Texans, into a destination for younger, more urbanized and technology-oriented residents.

We want to “engage the urban-based population and get them back to nature,” said Tom Harvey, media communications director for the Parks and Wildlife Department.

The parks department has rolled out, or soon will start, about a dozen programs designed to bring in more visitors, particularly young people, Harvey said. A junior ranger program will allow young people completing activities, such as journal entries describing their park adventures, to receive certificates and badges from park rangers.

Some parks will have rent-a-backpack programs. Bags could have binoculars, microscopes, plant identification books and other goodies focused on a park’s particular eco-region, said Chris Holmes, director of interpretation at the parks department.

One hit introduced last year was the department’s first Geocache Challenge, a GPS-guided, orienteering treasure hunt for objects hidden by fellow geocachers in state parks.

Holmes’ department is looking at ways to reduce the average age of visitors, now 46 years old, and include more racial and ethnic minorities. Nationally, family visitation in parks has been decreasing since the 1980s, when computer games became popular, Holmes said.

His mission is far-reaching. It seeks to improve the department’s website, signs, brochures, maps and state park exhibits to help visitors understand how to enjoy the outdoors easily and safely, Holmes said.

“People want to use the outdoors; they just don’t know how to anymore,” he said.

With these new programs and a slightly cooler, wetter year, park attendance — and therefore revenue — has improved in 2012 over the previous year. During the 2011 drought, the parks department made an unprecedented public appeal for help to increase attendance and even solicited monetary contributions from residents.

This past summer, one-third of Texas parks had 10-year record revenues, including Inks Lake State Park and McKinney Falls in Central Texas. Hunting and fishing license sales are up about 7 percent compared with this time last year, said Carter Smith, executive director of the parks department.

The department also is dealing with recent state budget cuts. The Texas Legislature asked the department to cut its budget by about $150 million, or about 20 percent, in the last legislative session, Smith said.

Rains have increased since a parched 2011, but lake levels, especially in Central Texas, remain stubbornly low. Lakes Travis and Buchanan combined, Central Texas’ major reservoirs, remain at about 43 percent capacity, according to the Lower Colorado River Authority website.

“We are bouncing back. I am cautiously optimistic,” Smith said.

The Geocache Challenge brought more than 18,000 people into state parks, based on email logging of cache sites, Harvey said.

The hobby sits at the intersection of outdoor recreation and modern technology, giving younger Texans the technology fix they’re after while encouraging them to be active, Holmes said.

De Vickery, president of the Texas Geocaching Association, has helped educate families about geocaching through the parks department’s Texas Outdoor Family Program for about four years.

“You are the search engine,” Vickery said. “To search for something that is hidden and to find it, it’s kind of like a video game, but it’s outdoors.”

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Article from the Austin American Statesman
Found on pages of B1 and B3 of the Tuesday Edition of the Austin American Statesman
Original article can be found: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-parks-confront-longtime-nemesis-digital-age/nS3kj/

Here are some great stories about good caches that seems to have gone missing, but some how are found in very odd, mysterious, and fun ways.   This thread was the brainchild of Gigi and JoJo/Barbara.

If you have other stories that you would like to add, please email them to ammocan@geocachingaustin.com



Renters Found it!
GiGi and JoJo/Barbara

Following is an interesting note I received from a fellow geocacher, regarding a bonus cache to a series I have in Kingsland, Texas:  
"I was given one of your caches called Green Acres Bonus, from 2007.  A friend of mine found it in his rental house when his renters moved out!  I would like to get it back to you somehow. Thanks, GeoPatty"  Please note the original cache was last found Feb, 2010!  Before that, August 2009. So this cache has spent almost a year in someone's house.

So I wrote to the person who found my lost bonus cache, and told her to keep the cache.  I did ask her to look at the log and tell me the last date it was signed. Here's what she wrote:

"The last sign in was 6/29/07.  The one on 6/27/07 said "The river was flooded, my little boy found this box under a tree"  The contents were all in good condition.  I will search out a good hide and start a new cache, perhaps over spring break!  Thanks!  -Emily"







Hairy, Man
Soulcachers

Hairy, Man was swept into the middle of Hairy Man Road.
Some muggles found it sitting there, realized what it was, and knew some friends of their parents were geocachers.
I got an email from Soul Cachers saying: "We've never had a cache come TO us before!"
 
This was the first cache that came to us! Appears that Hairy Man floated onto Hairy Man street where upon it was picked up by the daughter of a friend of ours. She was going to take it to the fire department but the son decided to open it. There they found the geocaching info. They new nothing of geocaching but she called her mother (our friend) who knew we were geocachers. She called us and wanted to know if we could find it's owner and we did. Now you know the rest of the story...


It just feel at my feet!
SemperQuesto and pending

Pending and I were out caching one day when we went after a cache that was supposed to be on or near a storm grate.  We looked and looked and came up empty so we called it and started heading back to my truck.   As we were walking along this sidewalk a little something caught my away in the groove between the grass and the walk.  I reached down and picked up a bison tube! 

Sure enough, it was the cache, about 150-175' away from GZ.  At first I thought it may have washed up there, but the  spot I found it was uphill and where GZ was it would washed right down a concrete trough into a creek if it had been subject to a rush of water.  I have no idea how it got there, but pending's expression was priceless as she said, "Holy cow!  Caches just fall at your feet now!"


We found it while playing...
Mrs. Captain Picard

We had a camping event out at Pedernales Falls SP.  I got there early and found the cache that was closest to the camp site.  When others came, I walked with them out to find the cache, and it was GONE!  HMMMMMMmmmmmm.  So on Sunday, before everyone was departing, we happened to hike back past there, and we looked one more time.  It was THERE!  And let's just say that this was a large tupperware bin, so it's not like we wouldn't have seen it previously.

When we opened it up, there was the following in the log book:  My family found this one while we were playing and didn't know what it was, so we brought it back to our camper.  After we opened it up, we realized that we probably should have left it where it was.  It sure looks like a fun game!

Well, at least I wasn't going crazy, like I thought!

That's also the camping trip where it was 85 on Saturday and then a cold front blew in and it was 45 on Sunday.  We still had a cache on the other side of the river we needed to get, and we spent at least an hour trying to find a way to get across the Pedernales River without getting wet.  Finally, we just rolled up our pantlegs and waded in.  D'OH!  The water was as warm as it was the day before and it felt better in the water than out of the water!  Silly us.  Geocaching creates some GREAT stories!



One year hiatus
Keith (Indigo Parrish)

I actually refound a missing cache after a year hiatus AT GZ!

GC1CQ61 Corwin was the first of my 9PA caches to go missing in Apr 2010: http://coord.info/GL3N9F8Z

I searched pretty thoroughly at GZ and even expanded my search wondering if someone had moved it (the original coords were a bit off due to cedar coverage). I replaced it with an exact duplicate container and logbook and moved on. In Jun 2011 after a spate of DNFs I went to check on it again. Sure enough, GZ was empty. But I decided to be extra sure and dug for about 10 minutes about a foot DEEP under GZ. Bingo! I found ... the ORIGINAL missing cache from 2010. Right there exactly at GZ: http://coord.info/GL5RMDZ6

How on earth it got buried so deep I have no idea. Maybe the replacement cache will turn up someday too!

Less interestingly, I also refound GC1CQ6M Eric by chance. It had been attacked by a critter, gnawed on and moved about 50 feet away. I had given it up for muggled and just happened to spot it out of the corner of my eye: http://coord.info/GL1P6NFZ


Two Stories
Brent (banda_geocacher)

I have two such stories. The first one was from one of my night caches. It started with this note to the cache page:

"Well ladies and gents, GOOD NEWS!!! After three years of being MIA, I now have it in my hands. It all start with a little friend request on the this lovely thing we call the world wide web. I was on facebook one night and and found a friend from ten years ago. I sent a request, after a couple days it was excepted. Within ten minutes of being reunited with this guy, a "muggle" sends me a message. "I have a geocoin I would like to return, if you want it." I was confused at first seeing how I only have TBs. I send him a message back and we traded numbers. I then sent this gentlemen a text and he promptly returns it with a phone call. We got to talking about geocaching and what it was all about. Come to find out, he not only has the Night Cachers Coin that has been lost and last seen in this cache, he has THIS cache (in which is lost as well). I now have this beautiful coin, this cache, and a great little story to go with it all. This lost and found story is awesome, seeing how, in 2007, I had no idea what any of this was."

This happened a few years ago, so I am a bit foggy on the details, but basically the cache had been found by muggles, turned in to the parks and recreation dept., and sat in their lost and found for several years. Then someone in parks and rec found out about geocaching, found this cache, and contacted the person above, who just happened to be an old friend and a geocacher!

The other case happened more recently. We had a cache in a park that utilized a decon container. About 4 months after placing it it disappeared. We replaced it with a micro, which I hate to do in a park, but thought it might last longer. Then a few days ago we received this note:

"My daughter found it around Christmas, and one day the box took my attention. I checked it and just I discovered this is a very fun "game" with the family to play. I'll keep playing. sorry we kept it for long time till I knew what it was! :)
Should we have put it back where we found it? :D"

We exchanged a few emails, and they replaced the cache.  There are probably lots of interesting stories like this out there. Just goes to show it is important to put something in the cache explaining geocaching and why this container is where it is.


Color Scheme
Mrs. Captain Picard

I once had placed an ammo can in the Barton Creek Greenbelt that would have been the final to an evil puzzle cache I was working up.  After a while, I ended up deciding I really didn't want to own an evil puzzle, and just never did anything with that ammo can.  At least 2 years later, a geocacher contacted me and said they'd found the container and asked if it was a certain cache, but nope, I had never posted this one.  This wasn't in a place you would just wander to, either!  And it's probably still out there, and if anybody finds it, they can keep it.  The log book would say "Color Scheme."