First I have to give Iowa Copper a big congrats on the 7800th find. Wow, 7000 finds in a weekend. You were moving. Okay, we all know it was a typo, but if I didn’t mention it, I wouldn’t be doing my job.

As you all must see, we have a new location for the website. IGO-WEB.NET is the new address, so move around and if you find any broken links, let the webmaster know.

The NVG has been very busy in the Des Moines area over the last couple weeks. He has placed over 20 caches and I hear there are more to come. Thanks for all the new caches over here. I am going to try to get him to highlight one of his new caches for the next newsletter. If you have a cache you would like to highlight or anything you would like placed in the newsletter, send an email to “newsletter at iowageocachers.org”.

GC.Com Username: The Northwood Goonies

Number of Finds/Hides: 252 / 15

Occupation? Conservation Technician for the Worth County Conservation Board and also I am the Worth County Environmental Health Specialist (Sanitarian). I graduated from Upper Iowa University in 1996 with a BS degree, double majoring in Wildlife Conservation and OUtdoor Recreation.

How you got your username? About everytime my neice and nephew stay overnight we watch the movie The Goonies. I swear we seen it about 100 times. Well they wanted to be the Goonies but that was already taken so since we live in Northwood, we became the Northwood Gonies. If you see Tyler when we are at an event or out caching, ask him to do the "Truffle Shuffle".

How long have you been caching? I started and found my first cache on April 27, 3003.

How did you get started? Our Naturalist showed me an article in one of his naturalist magazines about geocaching. Well I thought I definitely could use some cash. I was disappointed quickly when all you woudl find woudl be useless stuff. I went out and found my first cache and the rest is history. I have actually found cash in a geocache once. In a cahce hidden by reding "Sarge's Stash" he had a FTF prize of $20!! I left at 5am to go and get it.

Favorite cache/why? One of my favorites is "Canned Cans" in Faribault, MN. Fishpounder and Windchill got a chuckle out of this one as well. I don't want to give up the surprise so you will just have to go and find it to find out why. There have been some real good Temporary event caches that I like but due to the weather in Iowa there is no way to make them permanant. Mark's "Got Milk" cache at the Fall Hike n Seek at George Wyth State Park is a cache like that.

Least Favorite/why? Any of King Boreas's caches. Why? You definitely have to look awefully hard for them as his GPS does not place out the last number so he just puts a number in there, and the containers are usually cookie tins, and the lid is rusted shut. Plus to top it off they are sometimes hidden in Walmart bags so you think it is trash laying there.

Current caching goals? To find more "CASH"!!!! I don't have any real goals set out as this is more of a way for me to get out of the house and to get my neice and nephew and our son Grady out into the Great Outdoors. Maybe when I am 50 years old I will have as many finds as Summit Dweller has as of right now. By then he will be at 15,000.

“CACHE SIZES PART 2”

In the last issue, we discussed Large and Regular size geocaches. Today, it’s Small, Micro and Nano sizes. I’ll note from the start that the emotional reaction to a cache seems to be inversely proportionate in strength to its size, that is, the smaller a cache is, the more enthusiastic (sometimes) or “hated” (perhaps more often) the response of the finder is. Just check the logs online for evidence!

A Small cache is defined as one that holds a log and some small items. Typically, these are a military decon container which is about the size of the average box of bandages, a small Tupperware container, or some type of plastic bottle larger than a prescription pill bottle. A good Small cache would be one that holds a small log that is a small notebook or folded sheet of paper, a pencil or two, and items like toy cars, geocoins and other small trade items.

If using any kind of plastic bottle, try to use one where the opening is pretty much the same diameter (width) as the rest of the bottle. I made a mistake early on by choosing some supplement bottles that were about 4 inches wide but had openings of only 1 ½ inches. After putting in my log in a plastic bag and inserting it into the cache, I found that it was hard to get it out of the bottle, because the larger interior width let it move around. I had to use a long pencil to get everything back out, and then I realized it would present the same problems for anyone finding the cache, and they might not have the tools with them to extract the contents. Accordingly, I now use bottles like plastic peanut butter jars, jars that formerly housed things like mixed nuts, candies or beef jerky, and are of a uniform diameter from top to bottom.

Later on, we’ll talk about appropriate placement sites for Small caches as well as the other sizes, but for now, we’ll move on to the often-loved, sometimes-feared, and often-not-loved Micro! Recently, as we drove to Geode State Park for a long hike around the lake that included two cache finds, I mentioned to IowaGerd that I was writing this article and was making mention of the fact that a number of people liked to hate the Micro hide. His response was, “I don’t see why. I like Micros!” So, there you have it. Or not.

A Micro size geocache would commonly include a bottle of any material that is about 4 inches long or less, a waterproof match container, a 35mm film container, a small cosmetic sample container, a mini-Altoids-type tin, or anything similar in size. This type is probably showing the most innovation and evolution in caching, in my opinion. I’ve got an artificial pine cone that I’m looking forward to placing along with an artificial cattail top that I’ll use once I get everything figured out on the interior of it. Many of you have seen the fake screw or bolt that looks right at you, while you fail to see it. One sub-species would be the magnetic Micro which was either made with magnets, like the magnetic key cases sold in many stores, or any of the others above with magnets or soft magnetic strips attached by glue, solder, or other means. Sometimes, Micro caches are liked/not liked for their size, but I would contend it is more what is done with that size, that is, where and how they are hidden that determines the affection that others have for them.

And, finally, there is the Nano size cache, meaning the smallest of the small. Some of these come from everyday containers like the nitroglycerine pill containers used by heart patients, which are available in drug stores. Others, which look like small scuba diving tanks, are available on the internet at Geocaching.com, EBay, and other sites. Some have holes at the end and have circular rings in the holes which help in certain types of placement. I like to remove the ring and glue small, strong magnets to the tube for attachment to bridges, guard rails, and other metal items.

As a side note, it’s amazing how much aluminum, which is non-magnetic, is used in lots of things, like road signs, which you’d think a magnet would stick to. I find this out when the cache falls off, failing to stick! If the main material is not something that a magnet will stick to, the bolt fastening it to something else is usually magnetic, so thinking about sticking it on the bolt.

One other common type of Nano is what I call the “Button” cache, for lack of a better name. It’s a small cylinder about 3/8 of an inch tall and about the same in diameter. The bottom is already magnetized and the top screws off. You can paint these various colors to blend with certain settings, but if you use this type too often, especially in one geographic area, you’ll become identified with that type, and the finders will find them more easily, knowing what to search for before they even arrive. So, mix up your Micros and Nanos to keep ‘em guessing! Or, as a searcher, keep in mind who did the hide, and what patterns they follow.

You may have noticed that my discussion of cache sizes approached the topic from the viewpoint mostly of the hider rather than the finder. That’s probably because I do so many hides, but there’s some value in knowing something about the mind of the hider and the considerations that go into the choices of containers and sizes. And, there is a great deal of satisfaction when you find yourself at the place where your GPS zeroes out at, and you feel that you’ve already got a good idea of where to look.

Coming up next: What locations are appropriate for each geocache size?