Desdinova

I didnt do this last year because i had plans the day it was held, but 7/31 sounds great so count me in

THis thread was an intresting read. While i can see some valid points on both side what bugs me about it is the underlying attitude of the orginal post. Frankly the whole thing strikes me as somewhat elitest. It may not be the intent, but the whole thing smacks of "Don't tell the media about this.. We will give this information out to only the select few that we deem worthy to know it" That kind of attidute will destory the sport a lot faster than a whole bunch of plundered caches. For starters I'm guessing most of the poeple here found the sport from sometype of media report, and i have seen a few people post in this thread that I am glad they are here. As for the exposure from media i dont think it is a real risk, for one thing finding caches tends to be work.. and most people that inclined towrd trashing stuff just aren't that motivated. The exposure also does draw many more real cahchers into the sport so even if a few get plundered it is offset by the new ones popping up. Also the exposure from the media is seen by folks like rangers and land managers, and since the majority of the articles I have seen have put geocaching in a postiive light, I would suspect it has helped *prevent* things like No geocahing signs in alot of areas. I mean without newspaper article the only knowledge most public land managers have about geocaching is that the NPS banned it. Anyway that's just my 1/50th of a dollar

I think they are a great trade item. I recall one time that i ended up out searching for a cahe alot longer than orignally planned.. (little problem with a river and not so stable bridge) and by the time i got to the second cache in the area my GPS was dying. Someone had left batteries in the cache and it literally svaed me from getting lost and made it possible to find my car.

I dont know about buying it on Ebay, bought mine retail. As for the unit itself I have had mine for like a year and half and it has worked great for me the whole time, which is impressive considering how i beat on any equipemnt I own but esp. outdoor stuff ( i tend to fall into rivers and a frighting rate )

I was eyeing this unbit on thier website and the one thing i was wondering about is the use of color on the topo maps. If i get this and thier Topo Mapsend does the unit display the topos maps with the expected colors?

I know on the Etrx Vista (what i have) the manual say you have to recalibate (that spinning in circle thing) the compass every time you chnage the batteries. You could also check Garmin's site to see if they have any firmware updates since flashing the firmware will reset the unit. Justa few things i could think of off the top of my head, though not sure how much it helps in your stuation

For me the main thing is getting me out there more often. I have always loved hiking, once im on the trail but it hard for me sometimes to get motivated to get out there. Geocaching gives me that little boost. It has also given me a chance to get much better with learning how to do navigation etc. It is one thing to be able to follow a trail in a park and being able to navgaite thorugh some more "natual" area, where youreally do have to use maps etc. Nad given me the expierence toknow what hiking thorugh a wide variety of terrain that i normally would hvae avoided (mostly swamps and the like). Finally it gives me something to do when im camping and get those long sometimes boring SAturday afternoons.

I voted for everyone.. Every now and then I see threads about a group of poeple going out together to find caches. They alwasy seem like they have a a lot of fun with it. If I know there a few others who are intrested in finding a cache im intrested in checking out then i might be motivated to try to orginize something like that. At very least though i would say the owner should be able to see. Take for example the recent issue with the "Cache Pritate" I would be willing to guess that they had the caches they raided on thie watch list (esp. if they really were doing it for the reaction) might have given the cache owners a little bit of warning, but then maybe not. but i really cant see any harm to beig able to see that info.

As for the Boonton Park anywy, I have never been a resident of Boonton, adn have used that park man many times over the year and NEVER been asked for a permit

While not all that wierd if you are going for the cars and stuff abanonded in the woods yo cant beat Bottom of Lake Passic II a few older than me in there.