Thanks ... for the great Valentine's day idea. From Bridget Westhoven , aka 3wildbeans
Thanks for the great idea

Thanks to Jamie Sheffield for the great Valentine's day idea. My husband and I haven't quite sold our kids on geocaching yet, but I think we're closer now. We made created a multi-stage cache just for them for Valentine's Day and they had a ball! They may even have walked off the Hershey's kisses from the first stage along the way.

The article on Benchmarking ... got me turned on ... From David Klug , aka IceCreamMan
Benchmarking

Thanks for the hunt! The article on Benchmarking in the February issue got me turned on to that variation of the sport. I'd dabbled in it in the past, but only when a benchmark was near a cache. I've actually gone out hunting benchmarks and have the goal of reaching 25 this month (up to 18 so far).

I highly recommend Benchmarking to my fellow cachers. It has all the unexpected adventures associated with caching. I've even been "busted" by Johnnie Law while Benchmarking. Great fun!

... surely this is going too far? From Jon Hunter , aka thunderbird30
Disbelief

I've just read the article on Today's Cacher entitled GeoJeeping.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for opening up the great outdoors to people, but surely this is going too far?

I could wax lyrical about how lazy some people are and how they won't leave the comfort of their vehicles, but the real worry for me is how long before places that are renowned for their wilderness and tranquility become full of whooping, 4x4 and motorcross riders/drivers?(delete and insert mode of transport as applicable!)

Not to mention the damage to the surrounding environment? I guess that I'm not the only person that has seen the mess that a track or pathway turns into after it becomes popular with greenlaners ... Have you not got enough places to drive without taking over the trails too?

Imagine the situation: The sun's out and the birds are singing. In fact everything's well with the world. Suddenly the rev of an engine fills the air and causes wildlife for miles to scatter, churning the delicate ground into a muddy mess. All this and in a National Forest too!

More to the point, will the puzzle of trying to find a cache in a remote spot be somewhat spoiled is there are a mass of tire marks leading right to it?

Is six million acres large? From Mark Mercer , aka mmercer60
A Large State Park

Is six million acres large? We have a park near me that is bigger than some STATES! The Adirondack Park in New York State is a mere six million acres. When most people think of New York they think of that densely populated City. They would be surprised to learn that the least densely populated county east of the Mississippi River is here.

Check out the Adirondack Park.

Your editorial touched on the apparent cultural differences between nations - this could have been a far more appropriate topic for an editorial. From Alison MacCarthy, aka Slider & Smurf
Tsunami editorial

I was particularly disappointed to see the subject of this month's editorial. In choosing to comment on the tsunami cache issue, you've effectively resurrected the dead horse that had been sitting quietly after the threads died on the forums some weeks ago. Raising the issue in an editorial format also effectively silences any opposition to the comments published, as there is no immediate right of reply and rebuttal.

I personally disagree with Groundspeak's position on this one - however the decision has been made, and we'll carry on regardless. Yes, Groundspeak could easily have handled the situation much better - not least of which they could have entered into discussion with the cache owners in question to look at modifying the caches to meet published guidelines.

I still believe there is a set of double standards on the forums - there seems to be a group pushing the line "it's not about the numbers," and yet there are other threads boasting about the number of different icon types they've found or hidden. This can appear quite hypocritical.

Your editorial touched on the apparent cultural differences between nations - this could have been a far more appropriate topic for an editorial.

Of course, you could always come back to the Australian Geocaching forums and discuss this with the group of people you've singled out for derision ... perhaps you could give everyone the opportunity to comment, given your publication claims to be for geocachers everywhere.

By your logic, there would never be a charitable event or raffle! From George , aka Ideology
Tsunami editorial

The questioning of people's charitable ethics in your tsunami editorial is ill founded. There are many charity fund-raising events held every day and the ethics of people who participate at those events are never questioned. For example, there was recently a large concert for the Tsunami victims here: None questioned the ethics of the audience or the fact that singing had nothing to do with the tsunami. In fact, people got behind it and raised a lot of money. By your logic, there would never be a charitable event or raffle!

Alternatively, if people had poor charitable ethics and were just wanting a smiley, that's fine: the similes cost nothing to make and the money raised goes to the tsunami victims. Surely you can't be advocating stopping a way to raise money for the victims because you question people's ethics!

We agree that people should get out and try to help, but we disagree that potential methods of raising money were stopped due to inflexible policies and questioning people's ethics.