CharlieP
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Posts posted by CharlieP
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I have whined in this forum about the lack of cachees..is that the collective noun ?, not coming to my caches.
Well the USN Abraham Lincoln has arrived and some of the crew have found one !
They advised me that the Admiral saw my avatar and in honor of 'Monty' diverted the Carrier here.
Anyone top that?
Sorry I could not edit Usn to United States Navy
It is good to know that our tax dollars are having some positive results somewhere in the world.
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I wouldn't agree that stopping is "the worst thing to do". At the point, when the GPSr tells me I am somewhere nearby the cache, I stop and take out my pocket compass. Take the "bearing to the waypoint" from the GPSr, put that on the bezel and get the compass pointer centered on the North arrow. Now just look in the direction the bearing line is pointing and look for the tell tale signs of a hidden cache.
That's good advice. If you keep moving, and there are obstructions nearby, the GPS may keep swapping satellites and will have problems computing a position. If you are having this problem in an area with nearby obstructions (trees, hillsides, buildings) go to the screen that shows the "accuracy" , hold the GPS at least head high, wait a minute and see how good the reception is. If it is not good (20 feet or more), take a few steps (to a more open area if possible) and see if it gets better. When the accuracy is at a good value, take the bearing and use the compass to shoot the bearing and then pace off the range to the cache location.
If you are having these problems in a very open area, that may be due to the GPS having an out of date almanac. Take the unit to an open area and give it about 15 minutes to find some sats and download the almanac info.
Having said all that, there are some locations, e.g. near buildings or rocky hillsides, where signal reflections will cause the GPS to "bounce around". Nothing you can do about that, but try to guess which bounce is the right one, and hope the cache owner used that one too.
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Not really fear, just some things on my mind:
1) Not finding the cache
2) Taking the wrong route and having to backtrack a long distance
3) Chiggers
4) Ticks
5) Injury, such as a sprained ankle, esp. in a remote area where the cellphone does not work and I am alone
6) When my small dog is with me - large unleashed dogs
7) Bad people
8) Wildlife that bites - snakes, bears, wasps, and spiders.
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I doubt that the "expert" ever did any studies on what was effective against a charging bear. The animal people would be all over them before they progressed beyond .32 cal!
Testing is not necessary. There are folks who hunt bears with handguns ... not my idea of fun, but it proves what works and what doesn't.
Basically, he thought of the most powerful handgun that is still commonly available and said that.
That would be a .44 Mag ... but that is not very compact, which was one of the specs.
I'll take a .380 over a pressurized seasoning can any day.I'll agree with that!
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I'm not sure I understand all the views here. Let me try to bullet point them.
- Bears eating children is sad, but not bad
- Bears eat children because we encroach on their territory
- Killing and eating bears that eat children is bad
- Don't mix in the native americans--not sure what that about
Isn't this a forum for folks who people who hunt for boxes in the woods--in bear country and out?
Common sense tells me-
- I won't mess with a bear unless he messes with me or mine
- Eat my kids and you're dead, be you man or beast
- Don't let your tree-hugging cloud your common sense
- OP just was trying to say be careful
Although I've disagreed with him in the past, I agree with Clearpath on this one
UM Ok am I missing something here?
Yes. The first 4 bullets are a creative report of views expressed by others in the discussion. From there NotNutts is making his own observations and expressing his opinions.
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It's too bad the girls family was'nt packing.
I remember another bear attack years ago where a man ran to his car, picked up his .357 revolver and returned to the scene where he killed the bear before it could kill its intended victim. I considered carrying a pistol on hikes in North GA after a bear encounter, but you need at least a .357 to be effective ... these are large animals with heavy bones and thick layers of fat. I went so far as to talk to an expert about what would be an appropriate compact weapon, and he recommended a S&W .357 with at least a 4 inch barrel. He said a .45 or .40 would not penetrate well enough to be effective. I decided that the odds of bear attack were so low, especially in the winter when I do the most hiking, it was not worth the expense and effort.
In the case of the girl recently killed in TN, a man shot the bear with a .380 pistol according to a news report. He is lucky it did not come for him, a .380 would not even slow it down. The noise probably scared it off, not the bullets.
As for the bear rights issue ... almost all black bears in the wild will instinctively avoid people. Those that don't have this instinct or ignore it, for one reason or another, need to be destroyed. Its that simple.
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I have a nice telescoping aluminum stick, but usually only use it when I travel and need something that will fit in a suitcase. Before I got the aluminum stick, I used a wooden broom stick with a lanyard on one end and tapered the business end. If I left the stick at a cache and did not think of it until I was a mile away ... I just forgot it and made another. With the aluminum stick ... its 2 miles round-trip to retrieve it. So I use the cheapo sticks. The wooden stick is also stronger and makes a better club and brush clearing tool, but it is not adjustable.
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As far as the outside of boxes, transformers, poles, etc,,,, yes there is the possibility of a short to the case but if the thing is wired correctly in the first place, then its most likely gonna go to ground. The thing is, anything electrical has the possibility of being a hazard. As someone said above, there are many electrical type items that are placed where people walk by and touch everyday.
I will agree that if the device is "wired correctly in the first place" the danger of accidental electrocution is minimized ... but not eliminated. Insulation and wiring connectors deteriorate and are damaged over time.
This, like many other safety issues, is a matter of numbers. If the electrical box or light pole is in a very public place, where people commonly have contact, then placing a geocache on the device is relatively safe. But caches are more normally placed on a box or pole which is a bit out-of-the-way. Therefore, if the out-of-the-way device is defective, it may remain waiting for a victim for an extended period of time. With lighted devices, the danger may only be present when the light is on, adding another variable.
For example, if only one in 20,000 light poles in a city has defective and dangerous wiring, you may have to touch a lot of poles, at night, to find it. But if 15,000 of these poles are in public places where they are touched often by muggles, then it is also unlikely one of these will be the lurking defective pole. That leaves 5,000 poles. If the bad pole is one of the 5,000, then geocachers have a 1 in 5,000 chance of getting fried, not 1 in 20,000. One in 5,000 seems like long odds, but how many lightpost caches are out there? Say 50 ... now we have about a 1 in 100 chance of a cache on the bad pole. What if there are 200 such cities?
These types of probability discussions always remind me of the young man who killed himself with one round in a 6 shot revolver playing Russian roulette. It was reported he believed that because the probability of being killed was 1 in 6 and less than 50/50, he was safe. It was the fourth time he had tried the stunt, so the probability actually came out about right.
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To see if there were any cases to support my speculation about the danger of light poles, I did a search on "light pole" and electrocution and got over 500 hits. Here are a couple of ones at the top ... both tragic and similar.
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I have done a few caches where the cache was attached to a pad mounted transformer case, similar to the one shown in post #3 above. These boxes are well grounded and they are probably MUCH safer than a metal light pole. When they are located in a public area, such as along a street, people come in contact with them every day. Neighborhood kids often sit on the box across the street from my house. Some people think there is a higher danger because of the high voltages in these transformers (7000 volts or more) but if the case ever did become energized at that voltage, it is likely that something would blow quickly. This is not true with lower voltages, like 110 or 480 volts. Probably the most electrically dangerous geocaches are the ones in the base of a metal light pole or on sign posts. The wiring of these poles/signs is sometimes sloppy and is subject to damage from vehicles and vandals. I often tap these poles with the back of my hand to make sure there are not hot, especially when I can see loose wires, or the access plate is missing or open.
From the larger perspective, it is probably not a good idea to encourage folks to touch electrical equipment, especially outside in wet weather.
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Quote: "What we don’t need to do is to encourage the public to participate in activities that are of no benefit to the earth’s current situation."
Wow, that is a really deep statement. There goes my weekend. Let me see if I can list some activities I have done this week that " are of no benefit to the earth’s current situation."
1. Watched 24 last night.
2. Used bathroom facilites this morning and added to the world's water pollution.
3. Used bathroom facilites this morning and used a scarce resource ... water.
4. Drove my car to the store to buy a part for my boat ... more air pollution ... contributed to oil drilling.
5. Installed part on boat so I can go out and pollute the air some more and cause more drilling.
6. Cooked some fish on the grill, more air pollution.
7. Washed the car ... soap down the storm drain ... more water pollution.
8. Used computer to make this post ... used electricity generated from coal ... more pollution.
For those of you who are still in your "child bearing years", please refrain from any activities which may increase the world's population, since that is clearly "of no benefit to the earth’s current situation." But don't take a cold shower ... that uses precious resources and pollutes the water.
To call this woman a left-wing wacko would be too kind.
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I have been having some reception problems lately here in Georgia, esp. with WAAS and I suspect it is related to the movement of WAAS sat #35 and the testing of some new WAAS sats. I have read that the system will not be fully operational again in the Eastern US until September. I have a Garmin GPS76 so it is not just Maggy's, but they may be having more problems with this transition.
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I downloaded the latest version of FindStats.exe from FizzyMagics web site today. It locks up on my personal finds GPX file and there is no output. The PQStats routine also locks up on the one PQ file I input. Anyone else having these problems? My old version of FindStats still works.
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Dang, what is wrong with LEAVING IT ALONE?
Don't poke it, prod it, throw rocks at it...WALK AWAY! It lives there. YOU go away.
(People are weird, I swear...)
What is wrong with LEAVING IT ALONE? For one thing, it is 8 feet from a geocache, which means that (if it is real) it poses a hazard to geocachers who follow hukilaulau. I would feel pretty badly if a geocacher was bitten by this snake the day after I "WALK AWAY". I would at least want to verify if it was real and alive so I could post a warning.
I came across a 3 foot copperhead on a busy walking trail in a Boy Scout camp years ago and killed it with a stick. Some older scouts told me this was the wrong thing to do ... that the snake was a necessary part of the balance or nature ... etc. Well, from my perspective this snake should have balanced nature in a place where there were NOT a few hundred boys walking around. If I had come across the snake in a less populated place, I would have enjoyed watching it, and then gone on my way.
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It has the head shape of a pit viper, but the coloration is something of a mystery ... close to that of a water moccasin ... do those live in Arizona? Not much water out there or they would call it Humizona. I would also vote for the "long stick method" if you were determined to find out if it is genuine. But I would hope that folks would not place such a realistic fake close to a geocache. I can see some kid on a later cache hunt picking up another fake snake: "look Daddy another fake rattlesnake ... ouch ... this one even bites"!
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The way I played golf it was about the same as geocaching ... I was usually in the woods searching for something. Geocaches are generally easier to find than little white balls, and the GPS is a lot lighter than a bag full of golf clubs and replacement balls.
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This is not that tough. A few words of wisdom will cover it.
Be Prepared - Boy Scout Motto/Boy Scouts of America
A man should know his limitations - Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry
Carry a compass, a map, water, and a cellphone - CharlieP/Geocacher
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Although I do note that the site was originally built as a hobby site so there's a lot of hobby code, it's definitely a different animal compared to even a year ago. We're getting there but it is resource intensive and the premium memberships only support so much labor.
Maybe a bit more advertising revenues would help. I certainly do not want to encourage such things as pop up ads and some of the other annoying marketing that I find on some sites, but I don't have a problem with a banner ad here and there. I actually look at banners and may follow-up. I would not follow-up on a pop-up if they were selling $20 bills for $10. Could the same high traffic that causes the problem be part of the solution? When I think of all the geocachers who drive Jeep products, there should be some bucks there for sure. FWIW, CharlieP
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If you think that you can't be sued because only a brain-dead idiot could get hurt doing your geocache, take a look at this one.
http://www.weitzlaw.com/verdicts/Verdict4-9-98.aspx
Isn't the American legal system wonderful?
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This issue has been discussed many many times on this board. There are a few facts that are durable.
1. Caches tend to deteriorate in value over time.
2. Harder and more remote caches tend to maintain their value better than easy caches.
3. If you put really valuable stuff in an easy cache, the entire cache will likely be stolen.
4. Geocoins tend to mysteriously disappear from caches.
5. If there are no toys in a cache, and a child (with adult) comes to make a trade, he will want the mini-mag light or whatever is the most valuable item in the cache. Many parents are not accustomed to denying their children.
You can bawl and moan over these facts, but you cannot change them. I have always maintained that packing geocaches with valuable items is a really bad idea. That will encourage cache piracy. Inexpensive toys, things that make good souvenirs of the hunt, and unique signature items make good trades.
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I also began geocaching for health reasons. My cardiologist recommended walking for exercise, but walking around the block in our neighborhood quickly became boring. So I tried a geocache one evening instead of walking the block ... and was hooked. In addition to better health, I have found many interesting and beautiful places, learned some history, and met some of the best folks you will find anywhere ... geocachers.
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That's one way. The traditional way is to use dividers to lift the distance off the chart and take it to the scale on the edge. That way you don't have to make a "chart tool" for every chart.
Ever try to use a pair of dividers in a small boat in 5 foot seas with the chart on your lap? You will only do it once.
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I watch the logs and if people are just writing TNLNSL on the logs, then it's probably not good. If the log is nine miles long and talks about how great an adventure was had, that's probably my kind of cache.
Yep, that is one of my methods of selecting the caches that go to the top of my "to do" list. But that requires a lot of searching, and sometimes I stumble on a really neat cache that has been out there for a while and I just had not seen it. Another way to find the gems here in Georgia is to study the lists of caches nominated for the annual GGA Outstanding Geocache awards. But recently I have found another method ... the bookmark lists. I look at the cache pages for the caches I really liked and see if someone has bookmarked it. That can lead to a nice list of caches I might enjoy. I have done my part and made my own list of Recommended Geocaches. If more geocachers will do this, it will make finding the gems easier.
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Topo maps usually have the grid squares (if any) on the UTM scale, so if I want to find my position I change the GPS to output UTM. But my nautical charts use large scale Lat/Long grids and I make my own chart tool from a piece of paper at least as large as the grids. I use the scale on the side of the chart to make tick marks on the paper (usually tenths of a minute) starting from the corner. The Lat units will be different from the Long units unless you are close to the equator. Then to read coords for a point, I position the paper on the closest grid line and read the fractional value from the tick marks. The paper should be labeled with a North arrow so you position it correctly.
Do You Carry Any Sort Of Protection?
in General geocaching topics
Posted
A pair of high-top leather boots will give you some protection, but the best way to avoid snakebite is to watch where you step. A snake is not going to chase you down and bite you ... you have to step on one or otherwise put yourself close enough for it to strike. A firearm is only useful for killing a snake you see first, and that snake is not a threat to you.
FWIW, CharlieP