mcrow

My God! People are really that sensitive about people asking for basic elements for a cache? IMO, if the cache is surrounded by private land and the correct route to it is in any question as a cache owner I would be more than willing to post a waypoint to the best parking spot and to the trail head if needed. I really don't see what was so offensive about the OP's log, she(i assume) was just suggesting that perhaps it would be a good idea to guide people to the right starting point. I see this as the basic responsibility of the owner, if there is any question as there is in this case. I guess to me you should not have to spit-shine the owner's whoopie cakes in order to express a concern about his cache. I would be glad that someone pointed out a potential problem.

The Etrex Venture HC is my primary GPSr, but sometimes use a Magellon Explorist 300

for some reason I want to take that thing find and find a big stump or find a rocky area and cover it with rocks.

test

Yes, a basic handeld will get you closer than most car units and more likely to survive a drop or weather. Welcome to the addiction!

The Venture HC is the best all around basic GPSr. You can find them for between $88 to $120 on ebay or amazon.

Considering that in my area there are over 60 caches within a 2 mile area and over 400 in the 5 mile area I would say that it would be very possible for someone to rack up a huge amount of them in a day.

Welcome to the addiction!

Prettty much any GPS in the Etrex line will work great. For a newbie who wouldn't use the GPS for much more than Geoaching: Garmin Etrex Venture HC: This is was my first GPS and I still use it. You find them for about $80 refurbished or $120 new. As others have pointed out, it doesn't have a lot of memmory for loading maps. However, you don't need maps to geocache and if you don't plan to use this for in car navigation you really don't need them at all. Because it's a Garmin it has the added bonus of using the "send to GPS" function here on the site and that sure beats entering the locatiion by hand. Another downside is it has a very limited area for cache notes. Still, it has a high sens chipset and is about as accurate as you really need. It will get you within 15 +/- 5 ft most of the time, depending on the accuracy of the cache owner's GPS. Even if you had maps on it seems like it would run slow in realtime car travel. But for Geocaching purposes it has everything you need and it's pretty small (Easily fits in your pocket, a little larger than a cellphone). Etrex H This is the most basic version, I've never owned one but the reviews are pretty good considering the price. I think it has the same chipset as the Venture HC so should have the same accuracy. It's the cheapest unit of the line and can be had for $70 new. The problem you have is that it has no built in memory and does not accept cards either so you can't save anything and you will have to enter all of the waypoints manually or buy the $40 cable. For the sam total price you can have the Venture HC that comes with a USB cable and has plenty of memory to save waypoints. For Garmin, I would suggest the Venture HC as the best overall beginner model unless you plan to use it in the car or upload topo maps and such. Personally, I never use the maps so for me this was/is a great unit. This is now my wife's GPS and she loves it. I've owned a Magellan Explorist 300 and was not impressed with it at all as far as accuracy goes. I took it out and tried to find a few caches with it and couldn't find them and went home got the Venture HC. Turns out that venture got me with in 10 ft, the Explorist was point to an area about 80 ft away. I had this happend more than once the the Explorist, but the Etrex line seems very reliable. Hope that helps.

Did you buy it new? I think they all pretty much come with mapsource. No, you don't need mapsource for geocaching.

I have used this one a few times. The only difference is that I act like my GPS is a phone since the explorist 400 looks about the size of a cell phone and roughly the correct shape.

I generally do my best to make look as though I'm in the area for the same reasons they are. I'll wait to jump into a the woods (where people in the area generally don't go: no path or trail) untill everyone has walked by or is out of sight. There are some caches that are so close to a busy path you can't really open the cache and dig through it without people seeing you do it. In those cases I normally walk a way from where I found it and sign the log and trade items. That way If people get an inkling of what I'm doing they won't now exactly where to look.

With my explorist 400, I can generally get within 30 ft of the cache even with heavy cover. About half of the time it gets me witin 15-20 ft and every now and then the gps actually leads me directly to it.

I think that it might endup feeding into my craftsman hobbies. Building creative caches from logs, rock, and metal.

So far I have been adding more to the cache than I have taken. Some examples: I ordered some pins from www.coinsandpins.com : People seem to like them so far. I also bring fishing lures for caches near lakes, lanyards, older coins, and other things. Other things: I bring a cache repair kit with me that includes and a new log book, pen, duct tape, and extra goodies to restock it. I have been coming across caches that are damaged empty or got wet because of a loose cap. So, in those cases instead of leaving a pin I fix the cache.

Well, I think I'm catching on now. I went out last night and found all four caches I was looking for.

I tend to leave the better stuff in the caches I liked best. If I find one I really like, one so far, I'll stock the thing full of goodies. The really good one i found I stuck four pins, a mini fishing tackle set, lanyard, a clip on pen, and $10 gift certificate to REI. All in all cost me ~$20. Now, I wouldn't put all of that in everyone most of the time I put $1-$3 worth of stuff in there. But that one was a lot of fun to find and didn't have anything in it, so I stocked it up.

Well, just so I'm clear: it doesn't have to be expensive. Most of the stuff I leave is worth ~$2-$3. I just think it should be something a someone might actually want, not a used eraser.

So far on the four I have foud the item were very disappointing. Mostly Junk. I tend to leave things like: Geocaching pins, Fishing Lures (if near a fishing area), Lanyards, and things like that. Most of the stuff I find are like: an eraser, some little rubber toy, or mctoys. I don't have a problem with toys, there should be some stuff in there for kids. One cache I went to didn't have anything in it, so I stocked it up.

My question is: How would you know that it was not just muggled opposed to being mishandled by a Geocacher?

I admit that I'm a newbie, but I prefer caches that are atleast large enough to hold items (at least the size of PB jar). That's the part that I like, being able to take a little token in rememberence of the find and exchanging something for it. I don't hate micros, but the ones I've looked for are much more difficult. I was looking for one the other day where the guy hid a micro in an area with 5000 logs + trees, rocks, and such with no hint. There are atleast 10K places to hide a micro with in that 100 foot area. To make matters worse the area is in a ravine with tons of trees, rock, concrete and rebar so your GPS is all wacked out. I think micros should be urban only and a decent hint should be given. Beyond that i don't have any issues with them. Bottom line is I'm not willing to hike deep into the woods to look for a micro, especially one that is near impossible to find.

I have heard people here say that you have to attach the cord to the back of the GPS so that it runs down the back of it. There's a little notch on the back of the GPS unit, near where the cord connects, that is supposed to line up with the one on the cord. Some people here say that instead of lining them up you attach the cord 180 degrees opposite. I don't have that problem with my 400 though.

I know when we went to Jamaica last winter we couldn't have any elctronics powered up while in the air. I think that's standard policy.

Not a nurse, but am a Lab Tech. My wife is an Occupational Therapist.

Yeah, that'd probly be what would happen with me. I tend to pick up as much trash as I can while I'm out in the woods. I'd spend an hour looking for darn thing and would be in my backpack.