Primitive Person

I've got an Etrex 10, and I find it absolutely perfect, not only for caching but for hiking too. Unofficially, you can get some pretty detailed maps for it, and I've used them quite successfully to hike in remote areas. Only disadvantage is that with a map in it, you can't squeeze in many caches, but it does the job brilliantly, and the battery lasts forever.

Someone left a more...err..."solid" reminder of their visit in the first cache I hid, and filled the log with obscenities before carefully hiding the container again. Very unpleasant indeed, but thankfully that's the only time I've come across anything really nasty. I hid the cache very early on in my caching career and it wasn't a very suitable location - people liked it, but it was a bit too exposed and was asking for trouble, really. It led a charmed life for a year, but after that incident, I archived it and didn't replace it. Lee

Hello Froggy - I'm in Scotland too. Anyway, thoughts on phones/GPS units - I'd hold fire buying a standalone GPS for now, if I were you - you'll find a smartphone can do almost everything you need. I started with a standalone GPS, but now almost exclusively use my phone, using the standalone when the phone isn't so good. Phones tend to be capable of more, due to clever software and internet connection, but tend to have two drawbacks - poor battery life and lack of weather/waterproofing. Of course, whether you need long-lasting batteries and rugged waterproofing depends very much on the sort of caching you intend doing. Most of mine is fairly urban in not-particularly-challenging conditions, so I don't find my phone's limitations a problem most of the time, especially because I have a portable external battery pack to charge it up on the go if I need to. Lee

Getting GPS mounts for older models seems rather tricky. I've come across lots of websites still advertising GPS mounts for the Geko 201, but none of them actually have them in stock. Problem is, I now use my phone for most of my caching, so I'm reluctant to fork out for a new GPS, given that I only use it occasionally. That said, there ain't no way I'm going to mount my phone on my bike as I don't consider it anywhere near robust enough. I've got around the problem by using a handlebar-mounted, box-shaped storage bag thingy that clips on and off pretty easily. It's got a transparent pocket in the top that my GPS can live in quite happily, and as long as the bag isn't too full of heavy things, I can angle it upwards so it's at a comfortable viewing angle. Lee

If you go and ask at a photo developing shop, they'll be happy to give you literally thousands of them. Lee

Did I ever mention caches in socks? Socks!!! Good grief. I think people completely fail to realise just how much wear and tear a cache takes out in the wild, especially in an exposed location. Even though plastic won't rot or rust, and a lot of containers are completely waterproof, they can take quite a hammering and sustain damage quite easily. Just what a sock is supposed to do to protect a cache, I can't possibly imagine! All things like this do is attract animals, water, mould, dirt etc. and make the cache potentially very unpleasant. A sturdy lock and lock box, with the contents INSIDE bagged nicely (no bags outside!) does the job just fine. Most 35mm canisters don't fare too well in exposed spots either. Lee

Use a perfectly adequately waterproof container, but wrap it up in a carrier bag that will soon fill up with water completely, and spill all over you when you find the cache. This is a pet peeve of mine - caches don't need to be in bags! Lee

I'm more than happy to meet up with other caching locals - I live in Linlithgow. Lee

Isn't that a bit unreasonable.. I doubt if many people do my caches using Public Transport, bus times will change regularly I guess - I'd never be able to keep the cache page up to date. I'm not asking for a complete timetable - that's obviously unreasonable - but giving people information about where the nearest bus stop or railway station is will be accurate for years as they rarely move or close. The assumption that everyone drives is just lazy. I use public transport for almost all caches that are further than walking distance from my house, and about 99.9% of them have no public transport information on them at all. Some of them - such as Transect Line - are extremely remote indeed, but still do-able without a car. Lee

Entire areas where 95% of the caches are extremely cryptic puzzles that I have no idea how to solve. North Surrey is plagued with these. Nanos marked as "Other". Caches that no-one bothers to maintain, despite lots of "Needs Maintenance" logs. I'll happily fix someone's cache myself if I find it needs doing, but loads of people just ignore this. Caches in dubious areas where you feel likely to get mugged. People who get pedantic about which logs they will accept, who get petty if people break rules they stipulate, although GC.com have clamped down on this a bit now. People who don't bother providing public transport information on cache descriptions. We don't all drive. Lee

Absolutely! As far as I'm concerned, caches are meant to be found, and the clue is there to help you find it. Searching for ages, giving up and going after a long trek is no fun at all. There's no point in making it too hard.

The most I've ever done in a day was 16, consisting of the Climping Gap series in Littlehampton, plus a couple of SideTracked caches on my way home. The series was a lovely long walk around beaches and forests, and consisted of a mixture of cache sizes. None of them were particularly challenging, but it was a great day out. I prefer being fairly unhurried about things and I rarely find more than three or four caches in a day, even in areas with a high cache density. Often, a cache will take me somewhere that I enjoy exploring, and so hunting the Tupperware is not the sole, or even main, reason I'm there. Lee

I've got a Desire, and I LOVE it, it's easily the best phone I've ever owned by a VERY long way. GPS fix is very fast, and it seems easier on the battery than some other phones I've used. Android is a very smart OS and manages itself very efficiently. I can usually get a good few hours continuous use out of the GPS which is enough for a few caches whenever I feel like doing them. I've got a Proporta external 3400mAh battery pack to keep me charged up on the move as well. c:geo is a very nice app that supports more features than the official Geocaching one - I like being able to post my finds to Twitter, and c:geo also handles TB drops nicely. It doesn't always seem to work, though - it hung up on me today so I went back to using the official app which worked fine. Between the pair of them, I can do all I need. Accuracy seems very good indeed - any failure to find a cache with the Desire is down to me, not the phone. Lee

I know that. But lets say truth: basic free membership is enough for me. I don't need premium. I know that XXXXX breaking TOS. But i think it's better, if i'll use XXXXX application and I pay premium membership as kind of some satisfaction. I often using XXXXX for spontaneous geocaching. Now this is impossible. Yeah i can use WAP. But rewriting GPS coordinates from GPS to input fields in WAP? Or prepare everything before as LOC or GPX files? No thanx. If you could show me application, which will find all geocaches near my actual position and give me possibility to write a log, i will be really happy. That makes no sense at all. You're paying for premium membership, even though you don't use the features, to thank someone else for something that Groundspeak don't endorse, and then want your money back? That's ridiculous. You chose to give them your money, knowing exactly what you were supposed to get, and then got angry when unsupported, unofficial and free software stopped working?!? I want an application with The Un-named App's functionality as well, but I'm not getting angry with Groundspeak for this. The app has broken because of a change in GS's code, but as they don't owe the app's users or developers anything, I don't feel too angry about this - it's just one of those things. Lee

I wonder if the "unauthorized application" ever does become "authorized" if the moderators are going to go back through the posts and re-insert all the references that they removed? I doubt it, but does that even remotely matter?

Absolutely - I don't like dogs at all, they make me nervous and I find them to be pretty unpleasant. I don't like being jumped on, slobbered on etc., and it's about time that dog owners understood that not everyone loves them. I know there's plenty of people out there that resent children, and I've got two of those. I love them, but I don't expect everyone else to love them. It's the same with dogs. Be aware that there's plenty of people who are scared of them or don't like them, however harmless you percieve them to be. Lee

I think that really crosses a line...... Agreed, it's a ridiculous assertion. We may all like The Application That Shall Not Be Named, but at the end of the day, it breaks the rules to which we agreed when we signed up, and I think GS's official line here is actually quite reasonable. They could have attempted to prosecute or sue Tom and prevent the distribution of The Application That Shall Not Be Named, but they've effectively turned a blind eye for some time, and in my mind that's quite reasonable. Try doing something illegal in North Korea, and see what happens. That's an offensive and stupid analogy. Lee

Agreed - Live is a very confusing and not tremendously intuitive app, although I do think it has potential if the bugs are ironed out. I couldn't work out how to log caches at all - can someone tell me how to do it? Lee

Absolutely. I think a lot of the screaming, yelling and accusations being thrown around are not going to do anyone any favours, and will turn GS against helping us out here. The solution obviously has to be the user interface and functionality of the Application That Shall Not Be Named, with a legal and agreed data acquisition method. If we can get this sorted, we'll all be happy. At the end of the day, despite my frustration with Tom's app not working, ultimately I can't blame Groundspeak, and I'm not angry with them. Tom wrote the application completely independently of them, and they've never agreed to support it. I think he's obviously known about this, and the illegality of the data acquisition method, for a long time, but has chosen not to tell his users. I admire his work, but I'd have appreciated a bit more honesty from him over this. I doubt it's ever happened, but at least in theory, you could be banned from using the site if you used Tom's app excessively and GS decided to clamp down on it. They'd be perfectly within their rights to do so. Lee

Whilst I agree that Geocaching Live is nowhere near good enough - I tried using it earlier in the week and was about to throw my TyTN II against the wall in frustration - I get very annoyed with all these people asking for money back. Why? Because GS aren't allowing you to use an application that breaks the TOS? The benefits of premium membership are nothing to do with software, and The Application That Shall Not Be Named works with basic accounts anyway. You're still getting what you agreed to pay for, so stop whining.

I absolutely agree. The Application That Shall Not Be Named is easily the best piece of Geocaching software I've ever seen, and the fact that it currently doesn't work is very annoying - but I can't say I'm angry with Groundspeak for wanting to prevent it being named here. They've not prevented it being distributed, and they've not done anything to *deliberately* break it - the only reason it doesn't work at the moment is because it accesses data in a way it shouldn't, and GS don't have any obligation to support software that does that. I can't help but think that WinMo users have shot themselves in the foot massively by squealing to Groundspeak about this, who will probably now clamp down hugely on Tom and his software. If they'd all kept quiet, he'd probably have a fix ready in the next day or two, and it would have snuck under GS's radar. Lee

I'm moving from my home near Wimbledon to Linlithgow in Scotland in a couple of weeks time. I've archived some of my local caches and got the others adopted, but there's one outstanding one that I need to find a new owner for. Sidetracked Boxhill & Westhumble is a simple cache and dash just outside the station - it's fairly quiet as caches go, but people seem to like it and it would be good to keep it going. Any takers? Please let me know and I'll get it started for you. Thanks Lee

Heh! That's right on my doorstep! Sounds like it's a cache I haven't found yet, and I ought to get my act together and look for it soon - I'm moving away in a couple of weeks time...

I started off using a little Geko 201 for caching, and found it fine, but since going paperless with an HTC TyTN II, I've never looked back. It works a treat and I now find the vast majority of my caches with it. I did upgrade to an HTC Touch Pro, but I hate the thing with a passion - it's meant to be better than the TyTN II, but is inferior in just about every way, so I dug the TyTN II out of a drawer and started using it again. I'm really glad I didn't sell it or recycle it. The advantages of using a phone are: ability to install whatever mapping and caching software you like - there's bound to be something that suits your needs "Take two bottles into the shower? Not me!" - portability, only having to carry one device instead of two (although I usually take my Geko as well) Paperless caching Ability to log on the fly with suitable net access - if I've got a good signal where I am, I'll log my finds immediately, which makes it much easier to keep on top of the caching admin. Disadvantages are: Lack of waterproofing. If it's chucking down, the Geko comes out again, as it's much more robust in that respect. Lack of battery life. GPS will run down the phone in just a few hours. If you're using a live application that relies on net access, rather than accessing a previously loaded Pocket Query, you're a bit screwed if you lose the mobile signal, or are abroad where roaming charges are enormous I overcame the battery problem by buying a charger that runs off 4 AA batteries - it keeps the battery in the phone nicely topped up and one set of AA rechargeables will charge the phone a good three or four times. Plus you can buy a set anywhere if you need them. The Geko is still my weapon of choice when I want to enter co-ords on the fly, so when I've collected clues on a multi, I'll use the Geko to navigate, as it's just quicker and simpler. Accuracy of phone and Geko appears to be almost identical, and certainly good enough for the vast majority of caches. Lee

I think the important thing for everyone involved in caching is being able to learn from mistakes. I hid my first cache after I'd found a dozen or so fairly varied ones, and initially I thought it was a good hide. It led a charmed life until it was muggled about a year later, and at that point I realised it wasn't a good hide at all, although most people had been very nice about it. Although I've come across a few caches that have been a bit unimaginative, or disappointing in some other way, very few have been categorically bad. Sometimes I'll wonder why I've devoted so much time and energy to finding one that's dull, and just suck it up, but on one or two occasions I have felt the need to publicly log a serious problem (like one occasion where the area was full of extremely unsavoury litter) because, as others have said, I wouldn't want subsequent cachers to have an accident or something. I've tried to stay polite, and usually it's gone down well with the cacher concerned. Of course, there are always people around who either can't give, or can't take, constructive criticism. What might be a minor annoyance to me could lead someone else to go to DEFCON 1 and start a massive tirade. So much of what we do with caching is subjective - that's the problem. What might be a terrain 2 or 3 for me could appear as a 1 to someone superfit or a 5 to someone with any kind of mobility problem, and others think nothing of solving very cryptic clues, while they make me feel extremely thick. I think it's fine to politely point out problems, and it needs to be done sometimes. Just take it in the spirit it's intended... Lee