spacejam1

Excuse my newness, but what is ALR? Even though I am a newb, I am already getting tired of skirt caches and the like. I do have a few urban caches that I think are pretty cool and took some time to do. But the ones that are just thrown out there are getting boring to me.

Welcome to geocaching! I too am new with around 60 finds. Seems to be pretty addicting and the few people I've met are really cool. Getting ready to go to my first geo gathering tonight. Around 60 people are showing up so it should be pretty cool! Hope you have as much fun as I have had with this sport/hobby. I would send the owner a maintenance message so they know about it.

I've read some of the lit on Wherigo and I am still confused as to what this really is. Sounds interesting for sure! Since I am a newb in caching I figure anything similiar to it might be fun also. My wife also liked the idea of making cartridges for history walks. Basically, I am asking, is what is this strange thing called Wherigo? What are cartridges? Are they free? What else beside a gps do you need and lastly, What is this about playing Wherigo without actually being in the area of the "game". Thanks for clearing any of this up for me!

IBM'er, you really think that Raliegh,NC is a place that you really need to carry a weapon? You made it sound as if its a very dangerous place to live! I lived there for many years and just like very other city, it all depends upon where you go in the city that you might need a CW. Anyway, so far I"ve not been stopped by a cop. Have met some really nice muggles on the trails and they've stopped and talked about what I am doing. Guess my time is comine!

Went out to see if I could get FTF. There were 2 in the same park, nanos in the woods. I actually found the harder one, but needed help to get it. And believe me, I tried everything. ACtually came up with a couple of good ideas but this nano is HARD to get to. I am self employed house painter, in school with NO insurance, don't need to break a leg/arm getting a dadgum nano! lol The 2nd one seemed to be easier to get but I couldn't find it! Dammit! Thought I had my first FTF today! Thanks for the replys. I will try again Sunday. Probably will not be the FTF but I am getting that one nano!

I am a newb and have never been able to get a FTF. Well it just popped up that there are 2 caches that have not been found yet.All ready to go I noticed that they were placed for some friends of the hider. Now, the hider didn't say to wait till they found out, like I"ve seen done before. But he did mention that both these caches are for what I believe to be a couple. Is it ok for me to try and FTF these? He didn't mention waiting but then again, he did place them for somebody. Just curious as I'd love to finally get a FTF. They are kinda out of the city so that also might be why they have not been found yet. Any help, quickly, on this one? Thanks!

I was just wondering the other day how you and your little blue Legend were getting along! Glad to see you seem to be having fun. Hey NEOS2. I am doing fine! A couple of oldtimers took me out last week to do a couple of finds to see if there was anything wrong with my gps or if it was a operater error! lol Seems that it was an operator error. lol They showed me some tricks and tips and we had a great time caching that whole afternoon. I realized that this whole thing is NOT fool proof and really does take some time working with a particular gps. I am really thankful to Honeychile and MissAngele and hubby for helping me out. Made a lot of difference, but I still need some caching practice! lol I am up to about 60 now, since the beginning of the year. But my caching days are slowing down since I got a HUGE job and school going on. Going to a event this Sat. which I am really looking forward to. Thanks for thinking of me and a huge thanks to Honeychile for all the info!

In your "personal" acct on geocaching.com, there will be a list of your finds. Also when you pull up a map to find more caches, there will be a smiley face on the ones that you found. There is also a cacher around here that sells some small nice books, ring binded and all, that have places for you to keep track of your finds and DNF. It has the date, find # at top, GC number, places to check whether your found it or not, what condition the cache was in, what swag you took, what you placed in exchange, and a place for notes on the bottom. They are pretty cool and I believe hold around 100 finds. I think he sells them for $2.50 apiece and then there would be a mailing cost which would be must as they aren't that big.(which is better then toting around a huge notebook!) Message me and I"ll put you in touch with him if ya want. As far as breadcrumbs, not sure about that. But everytime I get outta the car, or leave a trail, I mark where I am at before I leave that place. That way I can find my way back to where I was. Not sure how yours works, but I have a older Garmin Legend, and to mark where I am at, I simply push the "toggle" button down once, screen pops up with coords for where I am. From there I can either remember the number it assigns or change the number to something I will remember. Hope this helps.

I was going to a cache I was trying to find one day. This was like my 3rd find ever. When I pulled into the park there were 3 people with gps in hands looking for my 1st find! I got all excited to meet some other cachers FINALLY! Helped them look for the cache, it was a rock in a BUNCH of rocks, and they invited me along for the whole afternoon. Gave me a book that was made to keep track of your finds and we had a blast and made some new friends! Got invited to go out yesterday with some oldtimers for some caching. Seemed I was having trouble with my gps and one of them offered to go out with me and see what was wrong! Very nice of her! Had a fun day deep in the woods caching and also learned a lot of tips! Thanks Honeychile where ever you are! lol

I am a newb also with a little over 60 finds. The biggest trouble I ran into was looking at my pointer too much. The gps will get you in the area but not right on it, unless your real lucky! lol This is true especially in the woods. when you hit 40-50 ft near it, put up the gps and start to think of where you would hide a cache. This is not an exact science like I thought! I thought my Garmin Legend was crappy, and its not the best, but I went out with 2 oldtimers yesterday to see what was up with it, it seemed to be doing some crazy stuff. Turns out it was the operator of the gps! I learned some tips and we found some great caches in the deep woods yesterday! I would suggest trying ones near your house that are bigger then a nano at first. Go to events and meet other cachers! Read the clues and cache sheet VERY carefully. Don't make EVERY move the your pointer says to make. lol I am totally addicted now and I am sure you will be as well. Have fun!

Went to the trackables and geocaching and read all about geocoins. Couldn't find ANYWHERE to put in the # of the geocoin to take me to it website so I can log it. Where is the page at geocaching.com that I can put in the # and find the website? I've looked for quite a while and cannot find it. Anyhelp would be great!

Someone mentioned geocaching Flash Mobs. now I've seen and heard about regular Flash Mobs, basically a LOT of people flood a street, park, mall,ect and mill about, do crazy things, ect. What in the heck is a geocaching flash mob event. I saw there was one around here a couple of months ago. Thanks from a newb!

I"ve noticed that a lot of swag is just garbage. And I don't want to be the circulator of garbage. So in light of that, where are some good places to get swag that will not break the bank, and what kinds of swag would some of you like to see in a cache? I've seen rocks(not nice crystals or something of that sort but just plain rocks, and golf balls, used, ect) in caches and I just don't seem to like it. So if you don't like something, then you must do something different! And thats what I intend to do. So any help on what to put in and any places for decent swag would be great! Thanks!

My first cache is in a park right near my house and my wife and I found that first one! But we hadn't been caching in a week or so cause I did'nt have nothing but the car gps. Well I couldn't take it anymore and went out to do some easy caches near roads. Found #2 and #3 and was headed for the #3 cache and pulled into the park where I had my first find. And there in the woods were 3 people with gps in hands walking around! I asked if they were caching and sure enough they were from out of town and looking for my first cache. They wanted some help with it and I didn't know if that was cool or not but one of them was coming up on 3000 caches and assured me it was ok, so I helped. I told them about another cache in the back of the park that I had been trying to find and that was where I was headed now. So we went and found that one. They invited me for the rest of the afternoon for a run of caches! We had a great time and I logged several caches that day. Blindreff also found his 3000 find that day! Was cool being there when he found it. Wish I would run into more cachers around here but I am doing a lot of older caches that many of the cachers around here have already done. So I don't run into any one. Hope to meet some more people at a event here and get some running partners!

Thanks for all the help! I am waiting for a new cache to open up and put the TB there. I figured it wouldn't be much fun to put a TB into a old cache that everyone around here has found. Hoping a few good caches will open here soon!

Little confused about "grabbing" a TB. I found my first one today and picked it up. I have another cache in mind that is new that I plan on dropping it in. But according to geocaching.com you can also just log it and not physically take it from the cache and then drop it in another cache. I don't quite get this. And someone can also grab it from me. I don't understand that. I thought it was simply taking the TB from the cache, logging it, and then dropping it off at another cache or whatever the instructions are for that TB. Please explain to me this "grabbing" of the TB and dropping it into another cache virtually. Thanks

I have heard of people finding and collecting geocoins. I thought you were supposed to keep them moving along. What is the "rule" and is it possible and permissable to collect geocoins that you find. Just wondering....

Just bought a old Legend and having trouble with it in woods, big time. Tried every trick in the book. I am wondering about upgrading to a Legend HCX(is that what its called?) at a fair price. Kinda low on money as I have a painting business and the economy is killing me right now. Plus its winter! lol Anyone have any help for a newb? Thanks!

I bought the legend used and guess it has only a basemap, which doesn't show much at all. How can I a map of NC without having to pay a bunch of money for it. I had read a link a while back about a site that had maps on it for free but I cannot find the link now! You also had to do a little trick with Garmins mapsource but I was unsure of actually doing the "little trick" that someone sent me to. Any advice or knowledge on what I can do to get a map of NC? Thanks for all your help! Spacejam1

It could have even been an alien spaceship, eh spacejam? Wait a minute! I have this same problem with my Etrex Legend HCx. The pointer is completely backwards, the distance counts down correctly but the pointer is exactly 180 degrees the wrong way. So how do you find where your going? Sometime it does point me in the right direction, and sometimes it doesn't. If I knew that it was pointing wrong, then I just could go the opposite way! So, what have you done to counteract that?

Just happened to have my old blue legend in my coat pocket On the Navigation screen, go to the options: There is a toggle between "bearing pointer" and "course pointer". It only shows the one that you can change it to, so if it says 'course', you are set to 'bearing' like you want. Did that. Now I can't wait to see what all these changes will do for it. Long distance it seems to do great, till you get around 50 ft and then I just start looking. Don't understand what happened today. I also d/l all the updates like was suggested. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all this help! I am sure it will have a positive effect on my gps!! THANKS!

The original blue Legend does not have a magnetic compass and requires you to be moving for the pointer to work properly. Perhaps you weren't moving fast or long enough for it to work properly. I walked several 100 ft and still pointed the same way. I don't have a way to set the pointer and I set it to true N. Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it very much!

Been having some trouble with my Etrex Legend. It has several times pointed TOTALLY in the wrong direction. And I mean the total opposite direction from where the cache was. I walked MANY feet and still pointed me in the opposite direction of the cache, did this the whole time until I got near the cache. If I had gone by my pointer, I would have been almost a football field away from it! Luckily I had a clue and was very familiar with the area,or I would have been totally out in left field. So I am checking EVERYTHING on it, and found several settings for North reference. These options are as follows, True, Magnetic, Grid, and User. Which do you think would be the best to set it to. Maybe this will help with solving my problem. Also, any other users of a regular Etrex Legend that could give me some other info on how to work with this gps, would be greatly appreciated!

Sounds like this Legend gps, which is what I just bought, is very tricky to use and to get to know. Most of the caches I found today, when I looked at how close I was on the gps, it almost always said 30 ft away. Almost everytime! Now when I was further away it seemed to work great. So what I did today, is to keep on that track even when the gps started freaking out when I got closer. There were a few times where I would walk N and was 16 ft away then suddenly fly to 50 ft away and go S! lol But I found that when I kept moving it eventually took me to the same area that I had been to before. I also learned today to keep an eye out as soon as the distance was around 50 ft. The BIG problem I am having is the ft. I can walk 10 ft, and it not move an inch. This seems to happen when I am closer to the catch. or seem closer to it anyway. Because who knows where it is. I KNEW about where the cache was today and the gps was telling me it was 10 ft away and it was a good 75! lol I don't know. I learned a few tricks today and will learn more, as you will. Don't give up the hunt!

I went out for my first day of caching by myself with my etrex Legend and it had me all over the place. Look under GPS and Technology forum and look for my post under spacejam1. There were a LOT of helpful sugestions there. Seems that this is not unusual! When I walked my locator would suddenly turn the way I just came! Crazy stuff. I began to wonder if I was on some Indian burial ground or something. But read that post in the Tech forum and I am sure you'll get some good advice as I did. Basically, once you get near 50 ft of the cache, start looking and put down the GPS.