brianweeks

Does anybody know what the problem is with any/all photos on GC.com? Even my avatar is an empty box. I tried downloading some photos I took today on a caching run and can't do that either. The usual two rotating photos at the top of the GC.cpm page are gone too! Photo galleries for individual caches are inaccessible. Yet another glitch...............I hope they fix it soon.

"Some of my Best Friends are ZNTARGVP" Get a T-shirt of the Rolling Stones logo lips & tongue with "EBYYVAT FGBARF" written below. "NANOs: tough, waterproof, self-attaching, self-contained AND cute! What's not to love?" "Mountain CycleCaching: Watch that cliff edge, not the GPSr! Oops! " ---brianweeks (Hayward CA)

Does anyone know how to get and apply the overlay for Google Earth that shows geocaches? I did this a while ago, and now it's not working! And now I forgot where I found it in the first place!

You might be a geocacher if: 1. You can read ROT-13 encryptions without a decoder. 2. You incorporate ROT-13 into cache titles. 3. You can be heard speaking in ROT-13 to others in your group "Zntargvp, abg va gur vil!" 4. You go on shopping trips to military surplus, hardware stores, arts/crafts stores, auto supply shops, marine suppliers, various "--Marts" and pharmacies to look for micro containers, log ziplocs, trade items, camo, and other cache-related items. 5. You walk through a parking lot and check lampposts for loose skirts. 6. You can point out caches you found as you drive along any freeway within 50 miles of home. 7. Suspense and mystery movies remind you of the last Puzzle/Multi-Cache you did. 8. Your living room contains scattered ammo cans, tupperware, spray paint cans, tie wire, hand tools. 9. You have more magnetic micros stuck to your fridge than any other type of object. 10. You have ever taken off work or ignored family obligations specifically to go caching. 11. You try to train your new puppy to sniff out tupperware.

You might be a geocacher if: 1. You can read ROT-13 encryptions without a decoder. 2. You incorporate ROT-13 into cache titles. 3. You can be heard speaking in ROT-13 to others in your group "Zntargvp, abg va gur vil!" 4. You go on shopping trips to military surplus, hardware stores, arts/crafts stores, auto supply shops, marine suppliers, various "--Marts" and pharmacies to look for micro containers, log ziplocs, trade items, camo, and other cache-related items. 5. You walk through a parking lot and check lampposts for loose skirts. 6. You can point out caches you found as you drive along any freeway within 50 miles of home. 7. Suspense and mystery movies remind you of the last Puzzle/Multi-Cache you did. 8. Your living room contains scattered ammo cans, tupperware, spray paint cans, tie wire, hand tools. 9. You have more magnetic micros stuck to your fridge than any other type of object. 10. You have ever taken off work or ignored family obligations specifically to go caching. 11. You try to train your new puppy to sniff out tupperware. Any suggestions for more?

PHOOOEEYYY! Took 80 minutes to get 26 waypoints for an afternoon run, PATHETICALLY SLOW (but at least it worked). GRRRR! I might start doing downloads and logs late at night or early AM. Don't see what else I can do to make this work better (obviously GC.com doesn't care to fix this on-going problem...). HRRRUMMMPPHH!

Why does it take three minutes to download a single waypoint? The site is GARBAGE. I have so much trouble with this crappy server moving at a snail pace all the time. I never know what to expect when I try to get a series of waypoints for a run. I am so frustrated with this. What the hell do we pay for premium membership for anyway????

I always carry tweezers, a flashlight, and a small flathead screwdriver in my kit (along with trade items, travel bugs & coins, ziplocs, signature items, etc.). In the geomobile, I have more tools that may come in handy: a fishing pole section with a line and a strong neodymium magnet on the end, a roll of duct tape, larger screwdrivers, pry bars, a pickaxe, a 12-pound sledgehammer and other stuff. I am thinking of getting a "granny grabber" for reaching caches, but at 6'3", I can reach just about anything that anyone else can hide (it's the cramped, crawling spaces I don't like). I always read the cache descriptions to find out if I need to bring anything the cache site to get to it. Forewarned is forearmed... I just did a numbers run day and got 51 finds. I had to use tools to retrieve the cache three times out of 51. Sometimes the combination of reach and hand strength makes all the difference (and is all that is needed).

Has anybody had their car broken into while you were out on the trail? I was parked near the old brick factory between Crockett and Martinez, CA. I took the mtn. bike out and found a half-dozen caches along a closed road section over about ninety minutes on a Saturday evening. I rode back to the car to discover a rear window smashed in and a toolbox missing. Toolbox only contained assorted car junk and some old rusty hand tools, not much of a score for the criminals. I drove home and patched it with cardboard and a ton of duct tape until I can get a replacement window. Here I am enjoying the local caches and these idiot criminals bust into my car. Made me furious! I have gone caching at night in bad neighborhoods, parked all day while exploring a park trail system, and situations like these. Never had any problem until last night. I guess I just needed to vent. Anybody have a similar experience they care to share/comiserate?

Weird! Now I am on and I am downloading fast as you please. I hate the internet sometimes...spotty at best.

What's going on with the geocaching.com server? I can't even get onto the site to download waypoint coordinates. I have a hard time believing that late morning on a Tuesday would be that busy that the server wouldn't allow access. This sucks!!!!

I had the same problem with my Garmin eTrex Legend. I used strips of double-sided, fabric-mesh carpet tape. Cut it to size so you don't have excess tape sticking out from underneath. It seems to hold well.

Wouldn't gorilla glue crack or does it form a flexible adhesion? I think I need something stickier or gummier. I used it on mine and worked like a charm and that was probably about a year and a half ago. I recommended it to someone else and got an email they had the same results as I did. Nope, Gorilla glue didn't crack. Also, one of the reasons for the problem is the heat. I wouldn't think tape (of any kind) would solve this problem since heat pretty much has the same effect on tape. I will give Gorilla Glue a try, my brother has some. Also, I don't think heat was the problem to begin with. I live (and geocache) in the Bay Area of northern California. It is generally mild to warm concerning temperatures year-round (seldom over ninety F here). What happened in my case was that I took a fall on a slippery hillside going after a cache down near a creek and the GPSr in my right hand scraped along the ground and underbrush as I slid downhill. When I got to my feet to dust off and check the GPSr for damage, I saw that some dirt had worked its way underneath the rubber band. It made a sticky, dusty mess of the adhesive and I cleaned a lot of it out. I used an adhesive remover-soaked pad that I got at the hospital where I work: it has citrus oil, aloe and deobase extract. I didn't want to use Goof-Off with its strong chemicals, might melt the plastic or get inside the GPSr. So, after using the adhesive remover and wiping it all off, the rubber band just kind of hung off the unit loosely since the adhesive strip had been obliterated and removed. After doing the carpet tape repair, I took the GPSr out for a quick trial run yesterday with the carpet tape fix and found four local caches: three park n' grabs and one that was about a mile hike. Everything stayed put for that, so this will probably work for the short-term until I can drop by my brother's and fix it for good. If it worked for others for a year-and-a-half, it should do the trick for me too. Thanks to everybody who responded and gave me helpful suggestions! I do appreciate this forum!

Temporary solution: double-sided, fabric-mesh carpet tape. Seems to stick well enough for now...

Wouldn't gorilla glue crack or does it form a flexible adhesion? I think I need something stickier or gummier.

The adhesive (gummy stuff) under the rubber side grip on my Garmin is slipping off. I need some ideas for adhesives to try to get it to hold in place. This is difficult because I am trying to get soft rubber to stick to hard plastic. I tried rubber cement (peeled right off) and model cement (stuck a little better but was peeled off in no time). I would just remove or cut off the rubber strip, but this rubber strip has the button covers that do the functions (Critical feature). I've got a wide rubber band now holding things in place which will work OK for a while, but I need a more permanent solution to the adhesive problem. Maybe an auto supply has a gummy gasket sealer or something. Any ideas? Anybody have the same problem and find a solution that works for the long-haul? Thanks-- --brianweeks, Hayward, CA

All is well with input gratefully received!!! Thanks for the help. I will be aware of posting sensitive tracking numbers in the future. ****brianweeks

Yes, my Garmin eTrex Legend is blue. I went to the Garmin site and got the update to 3.90 and installed it to the GPSr after I unzipped it with WinZip (cost 30 bucks, but if it makes the GPSr behave, I'm OK with it). Looks like the update has been around since March and I was overdue for an update. Thanks for all your suggestions (EVERYONE ELSE TOO!). I hope this solves the problem. It seems to have worked for a number of other people (see other posts below). I hope this does the trick!!!

1. As far as I can tell, I am using latest code (not exactly sure what "code" means), unit is 9 mos. old and WAAS is enabled... 2. Haven't dropped or physically damaged GPS, just usual wear n' tear: dust, sunlight, sweat, etc. The current version is 3.90 On your gps, access the setup menu page and select System. On the top right is the X and just to the left is a little page icon. Select the left icon and then select Software version. I did the steps you suggested and my version is 3.70. Is there a way to update this? I have the connection cable that came with the unit that I use for downloading waypoints: four contact point cable that goes from computer to GPSr on top of back side of unit. Thanks! I did the steps you suggested and found that the software version is 3.70 in my Garmin eTrex Legend. Is there a way to update this? I use the interface (cord that goes from my computer and hooks into back of unit near the top: four points of contact) that came with the unit for downloading waypoints.

1. As far as I can tell, I am using latest code (not exactly sure what "code" means), unit is 9 mos. old and WAAS is enabled... 2. Haven't dropped or physically damaged GPS, just usual wear n' tear: dust, sunlight, sweat, etc. The current version is 3.90 On your gps, access the setup menu page and select System. On the top right is the X and just to the left is a little page icon. Select the left icon and then select Software version. I did the steps you suggested and found that the software version is 3.70 in my Garmin eTrex Legend. Is there a way to update this? I use the interface (cord that goes from my computer and hooks into back of unit near the top: four points of contact) that came with the unit for downloading waypoints.

1. As far as I can tell, I am using latest code (not exactly sure what "code" means), unit is 9 mos. old and WAAS is enabled... 2. Haven't dropped or physically damaged GPS, just usual wear n' tear: dust, sunlight, sweat, etc.

Today, for the first time, my GPS receiver was having technical difficulties. I would start it up and let it find satellites as usual. Several times, after being turned on for a few minutes the screen would go blank except for one or two vertical lines and none of the controls worked, even to turn on/off. I removed the batteries and restarted. After doing this about five times, it remained on and functioned well for a series of geocache finds and all was OK. I am concerned that I might have marginal performance from my GPS receiver unit in the future. This never happened before and I thought these units were designed for outdoor/rugged use, as what any geocacher will typically experience on the trail and around town (park n' grabs). I try to be careful with it because I know electronics can be tempermental when handled roughly. I bought this unit about nine months ago and it has worked well every time until today. With a balky GPS unit, my favorite activity is in jeopardy! This is my first GPS unit and I am at a loss about what to do next. Has anyone else with a Garmin eTrex Legend had similar problems? Did the problem go away or did it get worse and more unreliable? Can I expect any help from Garmin after nine months? Thanks for any help and input you all can give me about the Garmin eTrex Legend! brianweeks

Hello everyone; I am new to geocaching and have found ten caches in Hayward, California so far. I was wondering where would be good places to get items I can trade for things I find in caches. So far, I have found assorted small toys, geocaching and CITO collectibles, foreign coins, superballs (both whole and half) and a wide array of other items. Where do you all get this stuff? Thanks for any feedback you can give me. ---brianweeks.