Tonka_Boy

Nice going, and congratulations! The first find is sweet,and you will discover that every one after is just as fun.

That's my other pastime... naked canoeing. Maybe I'll have to crop that photo a little more. Back on topic. We've been questioned once by a LEO. It was late in the evening and we parked on the shoulder of a county park road. (illegal) We weren't 20 feet down the trail when the office stopped us. We explained that we were attempting a FTF. He completely understood the need to park there. Told us to make it snappy, and gave us his business card in case we were stopped by another officer. We scored the find.

I use Yahoo! mail exclusively. Although I don't have a lot of hides, I have a lot of watches on other caches & trackables - plus notifications from this forum. With Yahoo! mail, I've never missed one. They seem to be real-time to me.

I hate golf balls! But sometimes I will trade up just to get them out of the cache. As mentioned, the Dollar Stores are great for swag - especially around Halloween. I can't believe they sell that stuff for just a dollar! Did anyone mention the dollar isle at Target? But here's the best swag of all. rickrich of Twin Cities fame turned us on to these great LED keychain lights(No spam) These are fabulous little lights that can be used to look into hollow logs, tree stumps, around rock piles before sticking your hand in there. You can order a package of these things and the price comes out to 45 cents each. For most geocachers, that's a year's worth of swag! Best trade item ever.

If you are a premium member, you can do a pocket query - and one of the attributes to choose is winter accessible. We are out in west metro (Twin Cities) and there are bunches to be found out here. With the temps in the 40s this weekend, don't stay in the house. Get out there and get some of those finds. Like Belfrypotters mentioned (and like we experienced) not all those with the winter attribute are easy. But a couple of those we got on New Year's Day had foot prints in the snow that made the finds a bit easier. And very often, the more difficult the find, the greater the bragging rites!

Ask the officer to perform a thorough frisking - or maybe just a quick pat-down behind the car. Insist on being frisked. Tell the officer it's your right a citizen!

Hey, my wife and I are from Minnesota and got 3 for 3 yesterday - our 200th find There are a lot of "winter friendly" caches around, just check the attributes on the cache page. They should be identified. Welcome to the addiction!

hick@heart wrote... What screen do you use like to use to approach a cache? I use a Garmin 12map. (read antique?) I begin most searches with the goto arrow. At average walking speed, though, I out pace the distance reading. So at 100 feet from GZ I stop and wait for the distance to count down. It usually get down to about 40 feet with the arrow making corrections. Assuming decent coverage, it's pretty accurate at that point, and may be pointing exactly to the cache. The only bad thing about this approach, is when I start moving again, the arrow is pretty much worthless. If the cache is not quickly found, I switch to the Lat/Lon readings, and can usually get spot-on the cache. In the case of heavy tree coverage, or nearby hills, I may set the GPSr down or hang it from a branch while we search. This allows the unit to "zero in" on the coordinates. After a small adjustment to the position, we are usually successful. Not bragging, but the only DNFs that we post, already have several others posted. The only time that we really had trouble was here. Those hills blocked most of the signals and my GPSr actually became a liability. We did a lot of unnecessary walking that day!

You may be over-thinking this a bit. A GPS unit, no matter how cheap or expensive will point you to the geocache. Where you get into the bells and whistles is, do you want a color display? Do you want to upload 500 cache locations into it? Do you want streets and a topo map? I am perfectly happy with the unit I purchased over eight years ago. It has no topo maps, no streets, no electronic compass. And I post no more DNFs than anybody else. As far as paperless goes, that's okay, but not essential. Personally, I'd rather not carry another electronic device around with me while hunting for caches. I just write the cache lat/lon on a sheet of paper if I need it as a reference. Maps? If you are caching in an area that has a lot of vertical relief, you may want a topo map. It doesn't have to be in the GPSr. You can print the topo version of the cache right from geocaching.com. Hope that helps.

Welcome to the addiction! The cache you found may be listed for viewing by Premium Members only. My son in CA took his family geocaching and found four in one day. He then joined as a Premium Member and found that he had driven right past more than a dozen caches listed for premium members only. I'll bet he's out there today getting the ones he missed.

Getting daily stats from Groundspeak would be a cool thing. I'm sure the stats exist. What'cha say about public stats? Then we'd know just when Black Friday is. I read a post in the Iowaadmin's Geocaching Blog, that he could tell there was bad weather outside because he reported that only four new placements were submitted all day. So activity indeed drops off when the weather is bad. For us, because of the nine inches of snow on the ground, and the temps below freezing for the last three weeks, we just haven't been out. We made a query of the winter caches in the area and plan to get out this afternoon. I'll take 90 degrees with bugs & poison ivy over this weather!

Welcome to the addiction. My wife loves geocaching! In fact, she's the one that insisted that we get started. If all you've done is look at caches online, just wait till you find your first cache! Our first was a thrill, and now approaching 200, we're still newbe's. And every one is just as thrilling and challenging as the first. Cache on!

I won't give the cache number or the location, that would ruin it. But the cache is the small electric box, attached to the large one by magnets. Some people may frown on electric caches, but this one was safe. And a fun micro.

Although somewhat of a newbe myself (under 200 finds) I’ve learned a lot about using a GPSr and finding caches. My rule #1. I geocache with somebody else. When my wife and I go out, I run the GPSr, she runs the Palm with all the descriptions. Two people will double your chances of success. When you find the cache, you both claim the find. Rule #2. SLOW DOWN. When you get within 100 feet of a cache, stop. Don’t turn left. Don’t turn right. Most units have a bit of lag time to them, and if you walk right down to GZ without slowing down, you’ve already walked 30 past the cache. Stop and give it a minute to adjust. As long as you didn’t turn left or right, the pointer arrow should alter slightly and point very near the cache. And the distance indicator should be relatively accurate. Very often, you will see the hiding spot from where you are standing. Rule #3. When at GZ don’t carry the GPSr around with you. It will only confuse you. Set it upright on a rock or log or hang it from a tree branch, and let it get an accurate reading while you look around. If you failed to locate the cache at that point, go back to the GPRs and adjust your position according to the lat/lon – not the arrow. Moving very slowly, it should put you within a few feet of the cache, if not right on top of it. Rule #4. Know what you are looking for. Read the cache description and past logs carefully. You know that a large ammo can takes a large hiding place. Look for it. Micros are just the opposite. When stumped, don’t give up! Sit down. Listen to the woods, river, wind, whatever is around. When your mind is clear and refreshed (and the satellites have a better fix on you) look around again. Welcome to the addiction!

Why don't you try using a forked stick for a while. When you master that, you're ready to make the big move to a GPS unit. Just kidding! A little humor in the evening here, folks. I'm really no help when it comes to these new-fangled units. The one we use is so old that it has a crank handle on the front to start it up! Hey, the forked stick idea wouldn't be a bad idea for taking a newbe out for the first time. Just take them to a cache that you've already been to, find it with the forked stick, then hand it over and over and say, "Here, give it a try." That would be cool! Sorry I took us off subject, but I couldn't resist. Miragee, I love your blog, and I'm sorry about your lost travel bugs. Hick, let me know what you decide so you can get in the game.

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Being sogmewhat of a newby myself, I can give you some great tips. Most GPSrs have a pointer that guides you to the waypoint. They also may have a compass face that shows direction. Keep in mind that these only work when you are moving. For example, if you are walking alon following your pointer, and stop, then turn right of left without moving forward, your pointer and compass face are now pointing the wrong way. They will only correct after you are moving. (Sometimes quite a distance.) Another thing... depending on your unit, the pointer is worthless within 30 or 40 feet of the waypoint. When you are that close, it's time to depend on the lat-lon readings. Keeping in mind that the west reading goes up the farther west you travel. And the north reading goes up, the farther north you travel. I carry a hand compass with me to help move me into the right coordinates. Using this method, with good coverage, you should get within a few feet of the cache. One last thing - when you are within 100 feet of a cache SLOW DOWN! Many units have quite a lag time, especially with poor coverage. Let us know how it goes.