TopangaHiker

Return the XL and get the Garmin 60CSx. Doesn't the fact that the interface between Geocaching.com and Garmin tell you something?

No one can fault you for trying to be honest but I'd say that you made a mistake by asking permission. They're rescinding permission is typical corporate CYA BS generated by slippery slope liability fears. Remember: it's easier to seek forgiveness than it is to get permission.

Hate to tell you, they do exist! There is a gaming crew in the Denver area. Map and compass reading is a Boy Scout requirement. If the crew wants to include this in activities, they can. Just my two cents. As technology advances, certain skills become 'obsolete'. At one time, I could work a slide rule very efficiently. Why bother now since I can use a calculator. I also instruct my Scouts (I'm a Scoutmaster in a Troop, in addition to a Crew Advisor) to have a map and compass as a backup. Electronics fail. Remember the Boy Scout motto, 'Be Prepared'. I understand that skills like semaphore have become irrelevant but it was an outdoor skill none-the-less but a gaming crew? How sad. I really hate to see scouting getting dumbed down like that because adults are afraid to stand up and keep scouting real. Oh well, that's a perfect example of the vagaries of a boy run program. That in addition to indulging kids every want.

How do you guys deal with the fact that the extensive use of a GPSr takes away from map and compass reading? Caching is fun but you can easily cross the line into a game creating a dependency on electronics. What's next? An Xbox Venturing crew?

Thank you all for your responses, I am looking forward to my trip!! As TopangaHiker mentioned, we are definitely visiting Bryce, Arches and hopefully the Grand Canyon. I'd love to attend an event out there but they all seem so far from where we are staying. Hey, I just checked out your gallery and since you look like a normal, fun loving human being I'd like to give you another travel tip. If you get to Arches NP you will undoubtedly be in Moab. Do you like brewpubs? The Moab Brewery brews first rate beer and the food is great too. They hand out wooden nickels that are good for discounts in their over priced gift shop. Anyway, the wooden nickels make great souvenirs and even better trade items for when you're caching. If you ask they'll give you a handful of them to take with you. Are you going with BerkshireHiker? Arches is awesome!

There is a waypoints icon and there is a geocaches icon. Are you looking in the right place? Also, you get a confirmation in the pop up window on your computer when the transfer is complete and a confirmation beep tone on the 60CSx as well.

A horror story? Welcome to the world as seen from a satellite where the shortest distance between two points could also be the hardest and steepest if not impossible to travel. Two words: trail map This summer I was in Utah. One day on a hunt the GPSr told me that we were within 300 hundred feet of the cache. There was just one problem. The 300 feet was on a horizontal. The cache was 400 feet up on top of a butte.

You're going to have a wonderful time. Utah has some amazing natural wonders. The advice above is good. Use caution when you're in snake and scorpion habitat and be wary of dehydration. It's still going to be hot and dry in September. Practice principles of Leave No Trace and be especially mindful of cryptobiotic soil when you're tromping around. http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_nati...ut/cry_arch.htm Also, I hope aren't spending the entire two weeks in one place. Zion is great but so is Arches NP, Moab, Bryce Canyon and the mountain passes and valleys on I-70.

SLO-Those nickels are really nice. They make me want to go hunting in CenCal just so I could get one. Really man, nice job. The message is great!

Does your church advocate beheadings? Does it put anybody down? I personally don't care. I see outright political rants in some member signatures here all the time. It's easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission.

Yeah, but NASCAR is categorically a spectator sport although I would argue that there is no athleticism involved in driving a car thus questioning it as a sport but I digress. I don't see the comparison between GCing and NASCAR or even baseball for that matter. What is it now about NASCAR that sux? BTW- I'm no fan of NASCAR. I'm just curious.

How about some pictures? It doesn't count unless you got photos. Anyway, congratulations. I know how you feel. GC151ZC, my first hide

I'm going to agree with you. It is different where you live compared to here in SoCal. People in the south are measurably more polite than they are in other parts of the country. But you have to remember that there's 4.6 million people in your state. There's almost 10 million people in my county alone. Stats here

I'll say this about that: With more people playing the game there will be more plundering and abuse. However, the small percentage of evil doers will remain the same thus making the ratio of ruined caches in all likelihood remain a constant. Plunderers are generally lazy so it will be the more accessible caches that will suffer the most. Adding an element of cost could slow this down. Making players pay to play will reduce the abuse. Right now I benefit from this because it's free but I'm not the problem. Caches that are harder to get to and adding a cost to the game will save it from overexposure for a time. To me caching is a game played with the same respect I give the outdoor playing field in which it takes place. If you recruit a bunch of people who don't have a basic respect for nature and the outdoors then don't expect them to have any regard for the game. Recruiting players just for the sake of recruiting build value in neither the game nor the outdoors. Who's conducting these recruitment drives? I think we may just be dealing with a bunch of "know-it-all" types who want to be on a stage.

So it goes.

Hey man, no offense but I wasn't exactly in the Great American Heartland of the Cornhusker State. I'm talking about Malibu. Two bucks is nothing.

There is a caching team in your area - the PezCachers - who leave Pez dispensers as their sig item. What they do is vacuum pack a new Pez dispenser with the candy. In the vacuum pack this seems to work well. I haven't seen any animal problems since they've started using the vacuum pack. I would suggest you find a different sig item however since everyone already knows that if they find an new Pez dispenser in a cache, the PezCachers have been there. So to clarify, you're saying that a food item is being left in caches by a certain person or persons? I don't know where or how I indicated in this topic that a PEZ dispenser was going to be my sig item but it's not. Today on my way to a hunt while I was getting a cup of coffee at a certain cafe there were some PEZ items for sale by the cash register. The idea hit me there, especially when the cashier said they were two bucks. Further, are you saying that since someone uses PEZ dispensers a their sig item no one else can drop one in a cache? Seems overly proprietary if you ask me. After all, it's only a game.

I don't mean that I found one in a cache and I know that food stuffs are verboten in a hide but they are packaged together rather neatly. Anyway, if I were to use a new PEZ dispenser as swag it seems a shame to break open the sealed package just to remove the candy. I'm not adverse to eating the candy myself. Does anyone use PEZ dispensers as trade items? For two bucks this makes a pretty nice little piece of swag, eh?

Between the paint and the notebook you picked upon the color scheme right away.

GC15CE1

GC15CE1

sorry. dp

Well done but I have one comment and a suggestion: Comment-It's amazing how versatile tubular foam insulation is. I've used it for so many purposes other than covering exposed water pipes. Those pool noodles are the best example for sure. Suggestion-Use larger diameter wheels. Those lawn mower wheels get stuck once you're off anything other than a flat lawn. They'll get bogged down in sand and dirt especially under a load. Look for something like the wheels on jogging strollers if not small pneumatic wheels. It'll make all the difference when you get to a beach or any kind of rocky, gravely and uneven shoreline not to mention the sand or dirt paths that lead to most bodies of water. The cart I have for my S.O.T. kayak has short posts that slip into the scupper holes from the bottom to hold fast to the of the hull.

The 60CSx rocks and is versatile. It's easy to learn, compact, reliable, light weight and only uses two AA's at a time. Tech support is here in the USA. I've had the best of Magellan and the best of Garmin in the space of a couple months and can honestly say Garmin is superior.

Be a big boy and make up your own mind http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=171838