NorthWest Arkansas Cachers

Ok, here goes. The first dumb question of the forum. Im relativley new with ony 54 finds. When I'm out searching for a hide with my boys I have come up with a warning for us to use if a muggle pops up. Our warning is to say "Are you hungry?" or if really urgent just, "Hungry?" Does anyone else do this or is there a geocacher phrase that is typicaly used? On the same note is there any greeting to deturmine if the person near a hide is muggle or not?

That is great!! I usually use honesty as the best policy, IF they approach me. One time a lady walked up because I was looking around her car. She asked, Did you lose something? I just said yes, have you ever heard of geo-caching, and I explained the sport to her. She said that sounds fun and went away.

When my daughter hunts with me, we usually just say "Muggle!" Then we stop looking and walk a way a little, sit down, whatever looks natural. Sometimes I put my GPSr up to my ear like a phone. That works good.

Oh yeah!! HA! Vorp and I were GCing couple weekends ago, and muggler car parked 3 spaces from us just as I about to replace a cache!! He just sat there. It would have been obvious. SO, we sit there thinking... I decide to get my cell phone and pretend Im taking pictures while I replace the cache!! It was hilarious!! And I think it worked!!

If i think of more I post it... nice meeting you!!

I usually act like we are doing other things. Birding,collecting samples of whatever we are around.

Gratefulldad wrote:Ok, here goes. The first dumb question of the forum. Im relativley new with ony 54 finds. When I'm out searching for a hide with my boys I have come up with a warning for us to use if a muggle pops up. Our warning is to say "Are you hungry?" or if really urgent just, "Hungry?" Does anyone else do this or is there a geocacher phrase that is typicaly used? On the same note is there any greeting to deturmine if the person near a hide is muggle or not?

That's an excellent idea. I like the secret codeword. Whenever we're caching and a muggle is approaching my kids usually just yell out muggle. Not very conspicuous but we've never had anyone sneak up on us.

You do realise GPSs make exellent cell phones

I have read of people wearing protective clothing, hardhats etc. They will use a clipboard in an attempt to look official.

I usually will return at a later time if there are too many muggles about. If I'm actually at the cache it's usually a good time to sit down and have a rest.

I usually have my camera with me (it is like a part of my body, there all the time) so I take lots of pics (if you've seen some of my logs you know this is true) Sometimes I tell people I work for a magazine or something, or writing a book about bugs or stuff like that. My Granddaughter and I have hidden behind trees and once stood real still in the dark while a woman walked by, she never saw us. I've pretended to be fighting with my boyfriend on the phone (gps) ranting and raving and crying so that I could walk around and look for a cache because a muggle wouldn't leave. We are still coming with ways to fool muggles, it's a lot of fun for us. Usually one of us just says something about taking pics ("Look grandma, here is something you can take a picture of") and I know someone is coming up.

Using the "Hungry" codeword sounds good if you can get your co-cachiers attention before the mugglers get too close.

AutieR and I was out the other day... we were suppose to be bird spotting if anyone else wanted to know. If they had wanted to know more than that I might have been in trouble. I guess I could have always said something like "we looking for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker". So far, we've not been approached.

And I guess if all else fails, the truth would always work.

I am like cache me in, my camera serves as a great cover. (I am usually using it anyway.) A clipboard and an "official" look can work well also. LOL