Blue_Ranger

If you do all your caching in town, your phone should be all you need. In settings like that, you can zoom in close to the marker with satellite view, and pretty much conclude "it has to be either that tree, or the sign next to it." But... if you go out in the woods, phone GPS usually isn't up to the task. Tree cover degrades the already fuzzy accuracy, and looking at the satellite view, one tree looks like another, and you end up with a GZ the size of a football field.

And it weighs 5 kilos... Been thinking of getting one of those TB stickers or magnets for my truck (a Ford Ranger, guess what color?) and seeing how long it takes to end up being listed as being inside a cache.

After today, I'm a firm believer in CITO! That bit of trash snagged in a pine tree... turned out to be fake leaves, ziptied on, with the coords to the next leg of the multi we were working on.

I'm new to geocaching, and checking out caches all over my town. One of the most prolific cachers here is fond of puzzle caches, but I can't make any sense of them. Is there some sort of established format that many puzzles use? I've seen some where you get a huge block of numbers-- it's a puzzle, good luck! Others, the CO tells a totally nonsensical story, and this story is somehow the puzzle. This story doesn't involve moving in different directions for x number of feet, the story involves things like serving bizarre dishes for Christmas dinner. I'm guessing it's actually letter count per word or something, but again-- huge pile of numbers, now what? Do I print them out, cut them up and draw them from a hat?

There's a TB hotel cache near me that's kept pretty much safe by being on private property, the front yard of a house (I'm assuming it's the CO's house!) The description assures cachers that the neighbors know about it, and won't think anything of random cars stopped with someone rummaging through their neighbor's landscaping.

...And now I'm not getting the e-mail that the pocket query is supposed to be sending. I checked my spam folder too, nothing.

Thank you, that did the trick!

windows XP

I'm using Chrome. Getting the same nonsense trying to send individual caches too.

I'm trying to get started with pocket queries, so the website takes me to the Groundspeak user agreement. I check the box and click submit, but every screen after that keeps telling me I have not yet agreed and links me back there before I can do anything. I must have checked agree and submitted a dozen times or more now, but I still get sent back to that screen and can't do anything else.

Thanks everyone, I found a good deal on a slightly used Oregon 400T. I think I'd greatly prefer the touchscreen-- how the heck would you enter coords with a rocker switch? I know, most of the time I'll load from the computer, but the computer is a desktop.

So I'm assuming you're looking at a map. You don't know if the GPS is off, your phone is off, or the map is off. The maps aren't made to be that accurate. They may be ot on in one place, and 2 blocks off in another. Even different maps from the same provider can show different results. One provider has the street, and satellite views off by a block to the east/west and half a block north/south. Map and or satellite view open on the geocaching app. Just looking at it for a minute or two, I'll jump from just outside the side door to the house, over to the neighbor's garage, in my driveway... all the while, with the grey accuracy circle changing size from 9 feet all the way up to 140 feet sometimes.

So the Oregon has a touch screen, where the less expensive ones don't? The descriptions on the store site are too brief, and focus too much on stuff like storage capacity. Touch screen vs. rocker switches would be a rather important detail, I would think!

Thanks for the replies. I found one cache in the same woods, because the hint mentioned its proximity to a tree stand. But some others there, no landmark was mentioned. When the phone GPS got me as close as it was going to, I was still looking at a HUGE GZ. Add in the several inches of snow on the ground we have here, and it was hopeless.

After watching my position jump all over the woods today using my phone, I'm looking at GPSr's on the store site. I'm specifically looking at the eTrex 20 and the Oregon 600. I can afford either one, but I see the Oregon 600 costs twice as much. My question is, is the Oregon 600 twice as awesome, or will I be just as happy with the eTrex 20? I'm brand new to geocaching, found my first 2 earlier today-- and gave up on some others, because I was getting "20 feet dead ahead... no, now 45 feet that way... no, back on the trail? This can't be right!" I'm looking at the units on the site here, because I know they're suitable for geocaching, plus the bonus tracking bugs and the beginner packages, but if anyone can chime in with a different suggestion, I'm all ears.

Is the OP using a proper GPS, or his phone? Because sitting in my living room, my phone's GPS has difficulty placing me on my property, and sometimes on the right block.

The app will help, it will get you close, especially if there's a landmark you can get visual on when you get there. I discovered today though, my phone wasn't very helpful out in the woods. It got me close, sort of, but its accuracy limitations meant GZ was HUGE. If there wasn't some sort of landmark, it was pretty hopeless. I'm shopping for a proper GPS now lol.

Just got started myself, found my first 2 today, and had 4 DNF's... so it sounds like par for the course. One it looks like the tree crotch has filled with water and frozen solid, I bet it's encased in there. Another, I'm pretty sure it's missing- supposed to be in a hole in a tree, and big enough to keep trackables, but I found zilch. The other 2 DNF's... I need a proper GPS unit, my phone doesn't cut it.

Hehe yeah... and I've also chosen the middle of January's deep freeze to get started. I've identified several in my home town to get started on when the temperatures at least rise to the point where it won't be miserable. And GC1EDXN is one of them, actually!

Oh wow... punching the coords into a different GPS app, the waypoint seems to be showing me a specific bush to look at! Safely away from the danger of being submerged or carried off by the creek, too. If this app is really that accurate, the hint may not be needed.

Project-gc.com showed me the same caches as the app and the maps here. I guess it's possible the reference is to "Babbling Brook," which is listed as active but reported missing by the last several geocachers who looked for it. I can hardly miss Murder Creek though, GZ is right at a bridge over it. I hope the CO is aware of how badly Murder Creek floods, on a routine basis-- likely the fate of both "Babbling Brook" and "The Old Skating Rink," also reported missing.

A cache very near my house has a hint, referring to the name of a cache that used to be nearby. (Yavin a Bad Day? is the name of this one, GC4APQT). Problem is, I'm new, and have no idea what the names of caches might have been! No particular hurry here, no way am I climbing down into the GZ this time of year-- several inches of snow, and the creek is high.