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Good Luck at the Marathon, I will be working communications for the ambulance service. Check out "Packers Bug School" for a good drop off point "GCY8EH" Shawn

I would say no, I dont think I have ever used the compass feature in my 60CSx.

My 2006 Jeep WK Grand Cherokee Lovin it! Shawn

Hmm, yeah, my storm is on order... been thinking the same wondering if cacheberry will work with it also. Guess Ill just have to try it when the phone comes in next week.

I havent hid any myself yet, but what I would recommend, would be to check its location on 3 different days, and when you get there, set the gps down and let it sit in one spot for 5 minutes or so. If a cache is off by 10 to 30 feet in any given direction its usually not so bad, but if its a nano and its off by 100' thats a different story. I retrieved new coords for a cache owner about a month ago, and I took both my Garmin 60CSx and the Magellan Meridian Gold with, fresh batteries, walked up to the cache and set both down. Waited 5 minutes, wrote down the #'s from both, walked a couple hundred feet away and approached it from another direction and did the same. I did that 3 times giving me 6 sets of numbers. I then averaged the numbers... That maybe going overkill, I would guess the accuracy on that one is less than 3 to 5 feet. I have seen some caches where they specify the cache is within xx feet of the coords, thats not so bad. But if it is a location with difficult terrain and extremely heavy cover, having the accuracy sure helps. Nothing is worse than spending hours looking for a cache after a half hour hike, to claim a dnf to find the coords were off by 200 to 300 feet because of whatever reason. and then spend another half hour hiking back out...

Any more updates?

Looks like an awesome place to go, unfortunately its a bit of a drive from here to colorado...

I know, it just reminded me of a time a newb came out wheelin, got his pavement-pounder all pretty and such, in the cleaning process he used some special tire cleaner on his rig, it made the tires slicker than snot, and was spinning non stop until he wore most of it off.

well I haven't been hassled too much, but here have been the 3 good ones: first time: told the "muggle" that my son was playing there yesterday and lost his key to the house, and I hoped to find it because I didnt want to have to re-key my locks... didn't work so well, they preceded to help me look, so I had to pretend and look for roughly 10 to 15 minutes, by gosh we did find a key, so I pretended it was mine and thanked them as I went on my way... came back another day, because I saw the cache when looking for the "key" second time: had camera, notebook and gps with me, so I told them I was with the US forestry department, and I was inspecting and documenting cases of insect borne diseases that were infecting trees in the county. This one also didn't work so well, the person asking me was a park ranger, but was in normal clothes because he was with his family, then his son whips out an old lowrance and proceeds to look for the cache with me. Later on he does tell me thats the best excuse / reason to be out there digging in the woods he has heard so far. the last time: This was a good one, two older ladies I heard them coming down the path, walking their dogs, blah blah blah, what is that guy doing in the woods... ... ... So then when they get close enough I pull off the old cap'n morgan pose, throw one foot up on a stump, and stand as still as a statue, I think it freaked the one older gal out, because they sure got quiet and picked up the pace considerably. I held the pose for about 3 to 5 minutes (enough for them to get about 1/3 mile up where the path goes out of sight) I can only imagine what they thought... I think I will stick with the tree inspector line though

Yes, that trail will test your equipment for sure. Here is a pic from RM ORS #10-3: French Creek Crossing Those tires look way too shiny! didn't someone tell him puttin the armor all on the tires makes them slippery

To answer a previous question, yes when I put the new batteries in it locked almost immediately, and the sats stayed consistent... To answer the other question, I just checked and it was set for alkaline batteries... Just changed it to NiMH now. I will give that a try, does anyone know what that setting does, I cant seem to figure out why that would matter, its not as if you can recharge the batteries while in the unit.

Has anyone else here experienced strange behavior when using hybrid rechargeable cells on their gps? With mine, the battery indicator will still show 50% left but my gps starts to jump around, and takes forever to lock onto satellites... Is it an inherent issue with hybrid cells?

That alone sells me on having a pair, I cannot tell you how many times when hiking I have gotten caught up in a rainstorm. Makes me think about packing a 4'x7' lightweight nylon tarp also, having a quick to setup lean to would be extremely handy.

What, no WK love around here? I guess I will have to take a few snapshots of my '06 GC. Should have gotten some shot here 2 weeks ago, got into some nice wheelin territory, first time with the new rig out, and I must say for as refined as the new Grand Cherokee's are, it still behaves like a jeep when the trail gets tough. Even had 3 passengers reachin for the holy $h|+ handles I was like, don't worry, its a jeep!

Found a condom tree, several used rubbers hanging off of the branches... I looked around and had to ask myself, who the heck would want to do that around here? Dead, decaying plant material everywhere, ants and spiders... Maybe at a nice sandy beach, but here, really??? Oh yeah and it looked like someone dropped a deuce under that tree...

Heres the deal, I have a iPAQ and it has been decent for me, but it is starting to show its age and being tempermental... So I am looking for a new PDA, should I stick with a Windows Mobile based (another iPAQ) or look for a palm powered device? Also are there models of the palm's I should look for or avoid? what version of palm OS? I know quite a bit about the PPC / Microsoft Windows Mobile devices, but palm's are new to me, and they look like they are a bit cheaper. Thanks

I would recommend hooking up with another fellow 'cacher for the day, hunt down some micros, and get a feel for it. I stink at micros also, most of the time I look right at them and don't realize it.

Yeah I know... it was a Dxxk-headed move, but the reality was I had no idea as it was anything important... Oh well time goes on. I am sure that there is someone else this has happened to.

I hate to say I did this but.... Well about 4 years ago, I came across what I now know to be a cache out in the woods, it was a 5.56nato ammo box. Opened it up saw a bunch of little plastic toys and some weird coins to me, there was a notebook in a plastic bag... To me being a hunter working the treeline, I saw it thinking some kid was out there playing and left it behind. I didnt even think to open the notebook, and there wasn't any stickers or anything, so I picked it up, took it home, threw out the contents and proceeded to use the container to store empty brass in to be reloaded. Now 4 years later, and when I found my first ammo-can-cache, I was like oh s***. I was one of those muggles that destroyed someone else's cache. The lesson to those placing caches, put a official geocache sticker on there, if I would have seen one of those, I would have put it back and left it alone. In fact I may have checked it out and got started in caching myself much earlier than I did.

Yeah Meg and I, both had stinging for almost 16 hours, and for the first 4 to 6 were terrible... But then again we got covered in them twice, once on the way in, and then once agian trying to get back out...

Yeah, my problem is I didnt know what we were walking through until later... Now I know

So who's all up for heading to Fergus Falls, MN on the 27th & 28th?

Any fellow Fargo-Moorhead folks planning on going down to Fergus on the 27th and 28th???

I bought the RAM mount on the way home from work today, two things: 1. Simply an awesome mount kit! 2. I should have bought it a month ago.

Any reputable places online to buy caching accessories and supplies, like containers, stickers, travel bugs and such... If so, please post away... Thanks