
imajeep
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Everything posted by imajeep
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Rats! Just when I think I've got my mind made up, a pretty green Wrangler comes along and undecides me again! How's the Wrangler on the road? The old two-door was a boneshaker on the interstate, and I'm liable to drive this one up and down I-5, not to mention I-10 over to Phoenix. But as a hiker, I gotta love it!
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Garmin has two topo sets; a 1:100K US set, and a more detailed 1:24K set for the national parks. Many hikers (including me and my wife) have both sets--we download the appropriate maps to the GPSr before a hike.
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I don't give this advice often, but go with the manual trans. That's my preference, actually--but I'm curious. What makes you recommend the manual in this case?
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I'm leaning in that direction. With the light-duty 4 x 4, it should take me anywhere I need to go.
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Streamlining paperless caching
imajeep replied to Team Darcins Digs's topic in GPS technology and devices
We aren't high-volume cachers, so our method may not work for True Fanatics. We dispensed with GSAK--we PQ the caches for a particular outing and transfer the PQ to CacheMate for our Palm Z22. We load the PQ into Google Earth to get aerials of the cache sites, then take screen shot of those aerials, which we transfer to the Palm using Splash Photo. -
I'm mulling over either the Jeep Patriot or the Wrangler Unlimited 4-door. I like the Patriot's gas mileage, but I wonder if it's really sturdy enough for dirt-road use. The Wrangler should be sturdy enough to take over a cliff , but its gas mileage isn't as good, and it apparently still rides rough on the road. Any Jeep mavens out there with opinions on the two models? I'm replacing a red Cherokee.
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I had the same problem last night. I had used GE's Path tool to create the route. Turns out that GE stores a path as a track, not a route. I went back to 'Caches Along a Route' and reread the instructions--they said to use the GE 'Get Directions' feature to generate the route. Worked like a champ.
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We've just gone paperless. We don't use GSAK--we PQ the caches we want to do on an outing, then load the PQ into CacheMate for our Palm Z22. We also load the PQ into Google Earth to see aerials of the sites. We screen shot the aerials and use Splash Photo to transfer the screen shots to the Palm. It works pretty well--only negative is that the Palm can't be read in bright sunlight, so we have to find some sort of shade to read in the field.
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So what do you do if muggles are nearby
imajeep replied to Cinder2007's topic in General geocaching topics
We actually recruited them into the game of a recent search. We were on a mesa overlook, and after some discrete searching, we were coming up DNF. A couple of moms were there with tween kids, and one asked us what we were looking for. We explained, and they got the kids looking. A bicyclist who was up on the mesa joined in as well. Unfortunately, a DNF--we're pretty sure the cache was missing. But everybody had a pretty good time on an otherwise hot, dusty day. -
I'm another newbie, and it drives me nuts, too. "An easy grab!" "A quick find." And my wife and I spend half an hour scratching our heads. I figure it's all part of learning the game. If it came too easy, we'd probably get bored and drop out pretty quickly. Of course, that doesn't help much when we've got five micros on our list and we can't find any of them! So it goes...
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Hmmmmm.... Let me paraphrase: "I can't do puzzle caches; they're too hard. The fact that other people do them, and seem to enjoy them, makes me feel stupid. So, the fact that I feel stupid is the puzzle cache's fault--I'm just a victim. Therefore, they should be banned." I just came across my first puzzle cache in my home area. This thing is gonna drive me nuts, I just know it! Some of the logs say searchers have spent months trying to solve the puzzle. I look at it, and I'm clueless. But the logs of just about everybody who has found the cache rave about how well thought out the puzzle is. So, I guess I'm going to feel a bit dim for a while, as I figure out this puzzle.
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Can you upload from one unit to a PC, and then download from there to a secund PC? I don't know the protocols, but it doesn't seem that the units were designed to communicate with each other, only with hosr PCs.
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New and haven't found a single cache (Mufreesboro, TN area)
imajeep replied to bwellman's topic in How do I...?
Welcome to geocaching. I'm another relative newbie, and I have my share (well, more than my share ) of Did Not Finds. There are really two games. The first is Ammo-Box-In-The-Woods. These are good to start on, because they aren't that difficult to find, and they are larger. I'd recommend going for a few of those first. In my part of the country, most caches are stuck in hollow trees, and loose pieces of bark are used to cover them up. Then there's the micro game, particularly the Dreaded Urban Micro. My wife and I went 0 for 5 a couple of weeks ago in Santa Monica, CA. Couldn't find a single micro on our list! But that made us want to learn the micro game. IMHO, micros are definitely tougher, and some cachers hate them! Complaints about "lame urban micros" are all over this forum, but the really clever ones are a lot of fun. My wife and I got stumped by one yesterday, so I went back today at lunch and tried again. I almost fell over laughing when I finally found it! A very clever hide, and worth the frustration I walked away with yesterday! -
Who has a soft spot for Basic GPS units?
imajeep replied to outdoorsaddix's topic in GPS technology and devices
Not me! I might go for a no-frills unit with a high-sensitivity receiver. But I do 90% of my caching in the woods, and I started with a basic unit. When the leaves came out in April, the thing went dead. I could look at a tree, and it would go dead. I could think about a tree, and it would go dead. After two weeks, I sold it on eBay and bought a Garmin 60Csx, which I also use for hiking. If I didn't hike, I would probably look at one of the Garmin eTrex 'H' models. More basic than the 60Csx, but rumor has it they're just as good in the woods. -
Logs are the most efficient way of keeping track of finds. For example, when I return to an area that I've previously cached (which I'm already starting to do), I can use logs to filter out my previous finds and show only what I haven't found in the area. Lots of folks (particularly those who are in it for the numbers) create minimalist logs ("TNLNSL, TFTC").
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PQs don't get downloaded--they are attached to emails and sent to the user. It sounds like you are simply downloading a single cache listing. Are you selecting "Build Pocket Queries" from the "Premium Features" menu on your account page?
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60Csx and Etrex 'H' models have high-sensitivity receivers--a must if caching in wooded areas. Otherwise, your GPS goes dead when you get under the trees.
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And remember, when you sing, sing on key. It doesn't count if you sing off key.
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REI carries several--including one for day-hiking, and one for backpacking.
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Escape!
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Topo for $30 is a good deal. It's a more detailed set of maps for your unit. The base map has very limited detail, and the Topo maps fill in whats missing from the base maps. I have found them very handy for geocaching, but I do most of my caching in the woods.
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Not always. We did an under-a-bridge cache recently that was between a school and a subdivision--stealth definitely required! But the stream had flooded recently, leaving the bank very muddy, and the cache couldn't be accessed from the bridge deck. It meant stepping into serious mud to get to the cache, after which it was painfully obvious that someone had been through there doing something on the bottom of the bridge. So, quality of the hide is an equally important factor!
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Another vote for CacheMate. And a vote for Splash Photo, which came loaded on our Palm Z22. We use it to store aerial photos of cache sites (usually, hike routes) that we take from Google Earth. Splash Photo lets us save a large picture on our Palm, which we can then zoom into and pan around in to see detail.
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Yup--my mistake I went back and took another look. The additional data is in there, allright! Thanks
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Currently, when a premium member downloads a cache as a GPX (as opposed to an LOC) file, only the waypoint info is downloaded. Why not expand the GPX download to include all info included in a pocket query that includes the cache (description, hints, prior logs)? Those of us who use CacheMate could load these files and avoid having to generate a PQ for a list of three or four caches we want to do.