WCoaster

After caching for many years and now doing caching only very randomly now I may not log a find at all. With the advent of smart phone caching I find that I may go for a cache if I have time to kill. I may sign the log book if I actually open the cache. I will usually upload the find through my phone if I remember. I have not logged a cache back at the PC for years. So I would say live and let live. This sport has become a lot less enjoyable over the years as more and more people who came into it were more focused on rules and ethics than just getting outside and having some fun exploring.

I just can not imagine a world where people go around with the normal assumption that everything that does not fit into there everyday world must be construed as nefarious! Please forgive the vocabulary, I have been reading a lot of Arthur Canon Doyle lately. Still it is sad. I do agree that in this case the placement is indeed just asking for trouble. Evil Micro's!

Not even remotely funny. Yes it was!!! Matter of fact I just missed out on a 52" Plasma screen via very similar circumstances. I would have been laughing for a week. It would be extra ironic because my ex got mine and neither her or her new beau could hook it up to his theater system. Sighh I am too nice a guy for doing that.

Interesting topic. I will be back soon with a longer post. My girls love geocaching, one a lot more than the other but still. By the way is geocaching not a nature walk in disguise? Uh, unless you are a micro hunter. Micro hunters should not be allowed to play with children. Micro hiders, however, should be locked up in a very special geocache, like a D6,T6 but that is for another topic.

A geo bud of mine - not sure if he is still around? Dagg? - once told me that he loved Back road maps. He said they made excellent fire starter and in a pinch toilet paper. Having used them myself I can agree with the former but not absorbent enough for the later. Good Luck though.

A simple thing to check, be sure that the caches you loaded are not multi caches and/or puzzle caches. Also, as your GPS'r may be new to you. Be sure you did not change any of the projection and/or datum settings in your unit that do not match the Groundspeak standards. Happy Hunting

Campbell Valley Park in South Langley is a great area to spend a day or two caching. I think I counted 30 caches in the park itself not counting mysteries. Plus there are hundreds in the surrounding area. Parking is available on 16th Ave, 208th St, or 8th Ave. One of my favorites was Campbell Valley Surprise If you decide to come out this way to play for the day definitely hit the beach in White Rock (just follow 8th Ave until you find the ocean) for some fish and chips, I recommend Moby Dicks, and do couple of caches until dark. Once the lights go out an absolute must do is Path of Illumination. This is one of the best caches I have seen as you can see from all the rave reviews, so bring a flash light. Have fun. WCoaster

Actually in the old days we never had any maps at all and that was actually part of the fun. Not only did you get to find the cache but you also had to find your way to the area and then find parking. Often times you would walk a long way to the cache only to find great parking a few meters away. On the other hand you could also find parking really close but this often took away from the hiders intended experience of the cache. This is what led to the birth of parking coord's. Another old school trick was to actually print out the cache pages and take them with you on the trails. If you didn't have the page then you could have a hard time trying to find the cache. I think I still have my binder around here somewhere of all my finds. Anyway - maps are great and a real source of pride but don't let that stop you from getting started. Just plug in the coord's hop in or on your favorite mode of transportation and have fun.

FizzyCalc is a great tool for doing all kinds of geo math.

HI Searchenuf, I notice that your coords are in the Degree Decimal format or at least they appear to be in your post. The Geocaching cache listing page defaults to the Minutes Decimal format. You can google how to convert your coords to the various formats (there is also a Second Decimal format) but it is simply a matter of multiplying or dividing by 60 the decimal portion of your coords depending on which way you want to convert. Multiply to go from DegDec to MinDec to SecDec and divide to go the other way. Therefore your coords above in MinDec would be 50 deg and 0.92583 * 60 = N 50° 55.5498 and 114 deg and 0.13179 * 60 = W 114° 7.9074. To go to SecDec simply keep everything before the decimal the same and multiply the portion after the decimal by 60 one more time. Now the easiest way of course is to just click the little arrow above the boxes where you enter your hides coords and select the option that matches you format, but math is so much fun!!!! Right???? lol Good Hiding and Hunting. WCoaster

I believe if you activate the TB there will be no need to apply for adoption for it will be yours. I know people often leave unactivated TB's as trinkets. However it is odd to find one with a mission to not be activated. Personally I think you have done your due diligence. I would enjoy the TB as you see fit. Good Hunting

I have coyotes in my back yard. They will take small dogs even big ones if they are city slicker dogs but not country dogs lol; cats; chickens; etc but never while people are around. Keep the dogs on leashes and small children close. The coyotes will watch you and you will probably never see them. If you do see them enjoy as they are very pretty animals. Just remember they are wild and if you feel they are to close just make yourself big and make noise. They'll be gone in a flash. If there not that means they know you are to far away to harm them and your judgment of "too close" may be a little off. lol Close would be within 200ft too close would be less than 100ft. However I have been as close as 20ft when one or the other of us has been caught by surprise (people or coyote). Enjoy the trails. The wildlife should be part of why we go not a reason to stay away -avoid the media hype please. I have seen bears; bobcats; skunks; porcupines; raccoons; dear; elk; lizards; snakes; eagles; you name it. Have not seen a cougar yet but I am sure they have seen me.

I would recommend creating queries around the locals you know you are going to be visiting and perhaps a few routes for the longer trips you plan to take. If you are really going free spirit then hopefully you can bring a laptop and create queries on the fly. I guess nowadays though the best bet may be to just use your 3G phone & a geo app whenever the urge strikes. Of course if you plan to get out in to the wilderness this service may be inconsistent also. I always found that planing my caches for a trip was all part of the fun of discovery of an area. If you hunt the website you will have better luck finding those true gems of a cache rather than lamp post caches (not that there's anything wrong with that! ) Good Luck.

Off topic, sorry. I never was interested in hiking until Geocaching. It has taken me to some amazing places I would never have seen. I especially like to do a hike when on vacation. I usually end up in some magnificent "locals only" spot that is not in the tourist guides. Always a treat.

Just to clarify my thought. These baubles would be taken and removed by the parent toddler hunters. A christmas gift for FTF'ers. I like the idea and the main cache would meet all the proper criteria.

Glad you guys found a hobby that you can all get into. "Anything that gets a geek outdoors is a good thing." Not sure about your cache idea. I think it would be a tough sell. One way to go about it is to place a traditional cache - say "The 12 days of Christmas Cache". Inside the the cache and on the website you could let hunters know that the first 12 parent toddler combo can go for the bonus bauble. Perhaps a list of 12 coordinates inside the log book or 12 slips of paper. That way the team can take it with them and others won't try to find a bauble that has already been claimed. Now you could scatter these throughout one average size park, or you could still have the baubles scattered far and wide however they may not be picked up by the team if they realize they are too far away. Another option is 12 traditional caches spread around like you suggested, each one caontaining one FTF (First to Find) prize of the coords to one bauble nearby their find. Good Luck & Enjoy

OziExplorer works fantastic with any map image as does the CE version. I have also used NRCAN maps (with Ozi) and they are very nice. There are definitely better, but for the price you can not go wrong. Enjoy

I am pretty sure it is this one. GC1DD Treehugger (BC's First Cache)

Coordinates are recorded in Degrees, Minutes, & Seconds. There are 60 minutes in a degree and 60 seconds in a minute. Since GC.com uses a decimal minutes format, that is no seconds, simply divide the seconds portion of your coord's by 60. Therefore 39'40.56" = 39 + (40.56/60) = 39 + 0.676 = 39.676 23'16.02" = 23 + (16.02/60) = 23 + 0.267 = 23.267 Note that you can do the same thing the other way given a decimal degree coordinate. N 43.661266 = 49 + (.661266 * 60) = 49 39.67596' = 49 39' + (.67596 * 60) = 49 39'40.56" W 79.387783 = 79 + (.387783 * 60) = 79 23.26698' = 79 23' + (.26698 * 60) = 79 23'16.02" Wait that's too complicated. Easy method, change your GPS'r coord format to decimal seconds, enter your coords as a waypoint, change GPS'r settings to decimal minutes, enter waypoint into geocaching website. Used to be this was a sport for geeks! Not so much anymore I see.

If you are looking for Geocaching.com specific events you should view the upcoming upcoming event calendar. http://www.geocaching.com/calendar/ I know you would think it would be easier to find on the main page but it is there once you know about it. Kind of like the cache adoptions page. http://www.geocaching.com/adopt/ It is there and a lot of people ask about it but, unless you know, it is hard to find.

I enjoy doing multi-caches when I have time. I usually enjoy the mini tours these take you on. In my opinion much more interesting than a drive up. I too struggle with puzzle caches and have only done a very few. These were usually ones that led me to some interesting places via the internet to solve. I am pretty selective in the puzzle caches I attempt and do not do a lot of them but they can be fun. Similar with micro's, I have a big angst on these things but in a multi I think they are perfectly warranted and preferable to gathering info from a sign post (historical markers and info panels aside). However, I sometimes find myself looking even for a regular micro just for the heck of it. I think variety is one of the best aspects of the sport. Enjoy!

Any brick and mortar stores where I can find an Oregon in Canada? I can find Colorado's easy enough.

Under the OPTIONS button Click the "Switch to: Standard" Display Mode. I think you may have your forum Display Mode set to Outline view.

If we disregard the complaining old farts, WHAT would we do on these forums?

Here We Go! lol