HyperactiveGirl

Hi, Is anyone available Saturday morning (July 4) to do "If you want to run with the big dogs... Mastiff" which is also known as the Fountainhead Four Corners cache? It is located at Fountainhead Regional Park in Northern Virginia. I want to be the first to complete this all by water. I attempted it over the winter once, and made it to all the stages except the last by kayak but ran out of daylight because I started out too late in the day. Here is a link to the cache listing: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...c5-b495acbc93cc I have 3 kayaks and a canoe with a trolling motor for anyone who is interested in joining me without their own flotation. Others with their own water apparatus are welcome. It will take a few hours to complete all the stages by water. I am flexible on the morning start time, as the park opens at dusk. If anyone is interested, please let me know. HyperactiveGirl

I have been having this problem in IE7 on XP for several weeks, but I am luckily able to use Firefox and it works just fine for me, but others in my caching club are getting these same problems in FireFox and IE both.

Hi. I am getting my new kayak on Monday, and the weather is going to be nice on Tuesday, so I want to head out to Fountainhead Regional Park early on Tuesday morning and go at my second attempt at doing "If You Want To Run With The Big Dogs... Mastiff" in a single day. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...c5-b495acbc93cc If anyone is interested and wants to come with me I would be more than happy to have some company on my quest. A touring-style kayak would be preferable, because I tried it two weeks ago in my slow ocean kayak and that just won't do. It is a pretty long paddle. Stage 1 and 2 are 12 miles. Then another 2 miles round trip estimate for Stage 3. Not sure about stage 4 yet, haven't gotten that far. The gate to the park is closed so you will need a dolly or strong arms to get the kayak to the boat launch from the parking area. If anyone is interested just let me know and I will send details. Thanks!

I purchased this item online, but it was shipped missing some parts, and I needed a GPS right away for a hiking trip. So I sent it back to the manufacturer and they sent me a whole new box which has all the parts in it this time. I bought a different gps for my hiking trip and am going to keep that one, so I am selling the Magellan Triton 1500. It is brand new in the box, never been used. Will sell for $349 and I will pay the shipping cost to the U.S. Let me know if you are interested. I can accept payment through my paypal account and ship immediately. It is all boxed up waiting for an address label. I figured I would post it here first, and if I don't get any response then I will put it up on ebay. Thanks.

Well that all makes sense. The first one is on the pier right next to the line between Virginia and Maryland, so it is probably a property boundary like you said. The second one was on a wood pole that had been broken off not far above where those disks are, so it probably was some sort of pole maybe years ago in that area. Thanks for the info!

Hi. I just started caching a month ago, and I have some questions about a couple of possible benchmarks that I stumbled upon. I tried searching for them but am not too sure how to go about it. For this first benchmark, I looked for benchmarks on the site near the coordinates and found some that were very close to the location that were older. It seems this newer one was put in to replace those possibly, but cannot find an entry for this specific one. Since I am new at this maybe I am not searching properly? The coordinates are close to these: N 38° 35.471 W 077° 14.780 and is within a few feet of this cache: For Our Maryland "Peers" For this second item, I don't know if it is a survey mark or what they are, but they looked like little silver disks. So are these benchmarks of some sort too? I didn't save the coordinates for this one but they are in the same park as the one above. Thanks for all your help!

Thanks for all the advice. I have seen different caches do different things, some quite elaborate and expensive, and others nothing, for FTF's. I just didn't want to do too little to too much. Also, thanks for the advice: "BTW - make sure you mark out the military markings on those cans before setting them out." I didn't know I was supposed to mark those out, so luckily you mentioned that before I went and placed the cache!

Hi. I am getting read to place my very first cache. A nice friend gave me two ammo cans and now I am trying to come up with my theme, hide locations, etc. My question is, what is good to put in the cache for the First To Find? A certificate and something cool as a prize? What would you all think would make a great FTF prize? Thanks for your help.

I do most of my purchasing online, have done so for many years. I have never had any problem like this after ordering something. This was the first bad purchase i have run into, and it was surprising coming from NewEgg because I have ordered from them many times before and things were perfect. But I agree it is nice to see something and have it in your hand and check it out right in front of you before you buy it.

More triton images

Here are the pictures I have taken of the unit and the box and such. If there is anything that anyone wants to see that the unit does let me know and I will take a picture of that for you too.

I just got my Triton from NewEgg yesterday. The USB Data Cable and the CD's were missing from the box. Magellan customer support was horrible, as you all have warned, and they don't even have any cables to send me. NewEgg is also charging me a "re-stocking fee" of $50 and I have to pay return shipping to send this thing back even though all of their units do not have cables or cd's in them. I wonder if that is why Radio Shack took them off the site, they realized the packages were not complete? That is just a guess. So I am completely disgusted with both NewEgg and Magellan, and i will no longer be a customer of either of them in the future ever. I posted a whole long thread about my entire experience here If anyone has any specific questions about what it does or looks like or want pictures of anything just let me know and I can do that for you. I will have it in hand a day or two more until I get the return authorization to send it back. I ordered a Delorme Earthmate PN-20 this afternoon. The awesome guys from Delorme offered to send me one and give me free overnight shipping so that i would get it tomorrow and still be able to go on my hiking trip this weekend. How awesome was that?!? Their customer service was awesome when I called them. It was a nice guy in Maine, where the company is located, and where I grew up. He knew everything about the unit and answered every question I had. So, long story short, the Magellan Triton is going back and the Delorme Earthmate PN-20 is on it's way

I ordered a Magellan Triton 1500 on Monday from NewEgg.com. It arrived on Wednesday. I know... I know... you all warned me about Magellan and their terrible support and their sketchiness. But I always love to try new things, so I had to try it out. Plus it was quite a bit cheaper than the Delorme model I was looking at so I thought I would try it out. Well, I learned my lesson. On the outside of the box, the contents are listed, But missing from the box are the USB Data Cable, the VantagePoint Software, and the Quick reference guide and reference manual on CDROM. Those items are all listed on the box, but are not inside the box. I take it out for a day despite not being able to do much of anything with it without the USB Data Cable. I manually type in and go find a couple geocaches. See my notes below about my experiences. I called Magellan yesterday to find out about where my cable is. Magellan says they do not have any cables right now but would send me one when they get them in. They don't know when that will be. Just as many others have said about Magellan's terrible customer service in the past, I had the same exact terrible experience. I was routed from person to person, each one telling me a different story. One telling me I would have the cable in three days, another said a minimum of two weeks, another said they didn't have an estimate, and another said 1 to 2 weeks. All of the operators were foreign and very difficult to understand. Also, every time I told them something they would not understand what I was saying, and I don't have any kind of accent that would make it hard to understand. I argued with them for a few hours straight and finally gave up. This was the second worst customer service experience i have ever had. I called NewEgg.com to find out if they have any cables. They do not have any either. They also have a special return policy for these items and their customer service rep kept telling me that because the picture on the web page does not show the accessories, they only guarantee what is shown on their website so they cannot guarantee what is not shown on their website. They gave me a real run-around which I was very surprised because I have dealt with NewEgg for years building PC's and purchasing other equipment when they have special deals and never had a problem before. After many hours of discussion with support at Magellan and NewEgg, it appears to me that Magellan knowingly shipped many of these boxes to vendors without cables or CD's. In addition, it appears NewEgg knew about this and are using it to hide behind their little "policy" in order to make some quick cash. NewEgg at first was adamant that I would have to return it for the same item. I kept explaining to them that i was not going to do that because all of their other boxes were missing the same items according to Magellan, so I was not about to return the Triton with missing pieces just to get another box of Triton with missing pieces. After I kept explaining how unfair this was since it was not my fault as the consumer that not all the parts that are stated right on the packaging are not inside the package, they would not budge. Then after a while longer of badgering them they finally decided to, and I quote exactly from my chat log: "we can make a one-time exception to issue a refund RMA to you but we will charge the restocking fee." So they want me to pay return shipping, and pay a $50 re-stocking fee for a product that came to me incomplete that they have no replacement product for that is complete. Here is what the customer support rep at NewEgg said from my chat log about their policy: "All the information you see on Newegg.com comes directly from the manufacturer. We guarantee the information provided on our website. I see that on our website, the image shows that there is no CD and cable." So I am no longer going to ever be a customer of Magellan or NewEgg again. ---------------------------- My Review of the Magellan Triton 1500 For it being the "latest and greatest" it seemed to be lacking a lot of features I thought it would have in the higher models. The accuracy was very good while out in the woods, but the navigation on the touch screen wasn't totally touch screen. I am used to having X buttons to close out windows and stuff, but with this unit you have to use the ESC button since there are no little X buttons on the windows. One thing I liked on my old GPS unit was that it would tell you how many feet you were from the cache spot. This one does not do that. It shows you an arrow and the cache location symbol, and they get closer together as you walk towards it, but there is no text saying how far you are from it at any given moment, which I think is very helpful. Another thing that I had a problem with was that I was trying to test out the different features (or what few I could without having a data cable). I recorded some audio, and even speaking at quite a loud voice it was barely audible when played back. Then you are supposed to be able to attach the audio to a specific waypoint. I tried to do that and it gave me some weird application error message in what i would call "engrish" (see engrish.com and you will understand). I turned it off and back on, and tried it again with the same result. So I was unable to save the audio I recorded with my waypoint. It is also slow loading in between screens. When you click on something on the touch-screen, it is slow to respond, so you often stand there looking at it wondering if you need to click it again or not, then it will finally refresh. Overall for the price tag I was not impressed with this unit, and I am sending it back. I would not recommend this product, as the software is slow and buggy. Really the only thing I liked about the unit is the way it looks with its cool orange casing and stuff (because it matches my orange Jeep). Now as far as reviewing anything else it does, I really can't because the map that came loaded on the thing only shows the big major highways on it. Other than that i was seeing lots of blank space everywhere i went. But not having a data cable to load maps or geocaches or anything on it, i can't speak to those features. If anyone is thinking of getting one of these, and you have any questions about anything specific it does, feel free to post your questions and I will answer them and can take pictures if you wish, since i will have it in hand until NewEgg sends me my return authorization. ------------------------------------------ DELORME TO THE RESCUE Delorme PN-20 with Topo USA 7.0 Earthmate GPS PN-20 Handheld Ok, so after being totally mad at NewEgg and at Magellan for scamming, yes I said SCAMMING me, I made a phone call about the other GPS that I had been looking at before I decided to try the Triton. I had been looking at the Delorme PN-20 Earthmate. I am originally from Maine, and Delorme is a family-owned business from Maine and actually started out in the map-making business many years ago. I remember as a kid and a teenager growing up in the Maine wilderness that i never went anywhere without one of their maps. Their maps went with me hiking, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, you name it their maps were in my pocket. Well after my unsettling experience I gave Delorme a phone call to their customer service. What a refreshing change of pace after talking to Magellan. First of all, they answered the phone right away. I didn't even have to wait. Then I told the nice guy on the phone who was actually in America and is actually from America, unlike the outsourced drones at Magellan, that I was in a predicament. I told him the straight facts. I have a hiking trip planned this weekend. I told him my experience with Magellan and ask him some questions about the Earthmate to compare. He was very knowledgeable about the product and what it did, not having to put me on hold for 20 minutes every time i asked a question like Magellan did. He answered every question very thoroughly and was trying to advise me where I could get one of these units by tomorrow so i could still go on my hiking trip. Then he told me to hold on a second and he was going to check something. Then within 30 seconds he came back on the line and told me that if I were able to place my order within the next 20 minutes (their cut-off for fulfillment for the day was 3:30 pm to get stuff shipped that same day by UPS), that he would waive the overnight shipping charge and get it overnighted today and i would have it in hand tomorrow to take on my trip. I was in total SHOCK! After being charged restocking fees for a useless product, this company was giving me completely free overnight shipping because they wanted to make sure I could go on my hiking trip, and not have to run all over town to try to find a unit at one of the stores! Now that is what service is about. Delorme, you have just found a customer for life. I haven't even gotten the GPS unit yet and you have won me over. Your customer service was excellent and your support was just as excellent. I appreciate them helping me out so much. So, tomorrow I will have my new DELORME PN-20 with their American-based customer support personnel, and their American-based support personnel to back me up. He also was very kind to point out that if I had any issues with the unit at all that I could return it for a full refund and they would not even charge me any sort of restocking fee if i was unsatisfied for any reason. Take that, NewEgg! The Delorme was pricier than the Triton, but looking at all the additional features and the fact that Delorme has the full-color aerial photos, like Google Maps for your GPS, that I am going to be very happy with it. I will have to live without the touch screen for now, but I think all the other features will surely make up for it. Thank you Delorme for saving me. I can now go hiking to my heart's content this weekend.

I ordered my Triton 1500 from NewEgg late Monday evening. They charged my card and processed my order yesterday. This morning I woke up to a happy surprise, they shipped it yesterday, gave me a UPS tracking number, and it is in transit and will be here Today! Talk about fast processing, they generally say 1 to 2 business days after ordering they will ship, but they shipped the very next morning after I ordered it late at night. I am very excited. I know there is a lot of controversy over whether these devices will be good or not, and I am always ready to be a guinea pig, so I am taking the plunge. I figure if I get it and I love it, then all is well, but if I get it and I hate it, then on eBay it goes and I will buy a DeLorme. I will let you know today after I get it in hand!

I agree, I do need to find a caching buddy. But right now just having moved to this area and not knowing anyone, that is kind of hard to do. Especially since I spend most of my time wandering around in the woods. Besides, I don't know a whole lot of people that like to spend their weekends hiking through mud and rain in the cold all winter. I am not one to sit around all winter so I won't stay home even if it means I have to spend the day alone, but hopefully I will find some caching buddies soon. I have a great time by myself, but would definately have even more fun like you said to have someone to laugh with and enjoy the good times. I am also worried about the safety factor. I fall a lot and worry I might break my leg or knock myself out, so I always keep my cell phone with me, but sometimes in some places like last weekend in the mountains, reception was intermittent. So having someone with me who could go for help would be ideal. So hopefully I shall make some friends soon.

Hello, my name is Jen, and I am a geocache-aholic. I just started this a couple of weeks ago after getting my first gps and I am severely addicted already. Now if I am just going to the grocery store or anywhere at all, I have to look up on the map to see if there are geocaches on the way. So a regular trip to the grocery store turns into a 3 hour quest for caches, when I only needed one thing from the store. I get up in the morning and plan out which geocache I am going to hit at my lunch break (I telecommute from home), then I try to find caches that I can do at night in the dark after work. On the weekends I get up early and spent my entire day out hunting until the sun goes down, and I am sad on my way home when it gets dark because I want JUST ONE MORE, and right now it gets dark so early. I have found the coolest trails within a few miles of my house that I never had any idea they were there. Since it is getting cold out and I wasnt about to let my addiction go cold over the winter, I went and bought a ski suit so I can cache to my hearts content in the cold all winter long. So, I am addicted, but i guess it could be worse, I could be addicted to drugs or alcohol or something.

Take note of the "up to 5 hours". I have been using my Nuvii 200 to go geocaching after I got it for driving. I have been out on several trails when the battery was running out as I was on my way back on the trail. It says up to 5 hours but if I have it on constantly I have seen it run down in a little over 3 hours. So just be prepared if you are going on a long hike, that you need to make sure it is fully charged before you head into the woods, because these things you cannot just plop in a new set of batteries while out on the trail, and may have to navigate your own way back.

I live in Virginia and some times of the year we regularly get quick bursts of thunderstorms passing through on hot sunny days. Many times if I am out for a 10 hour mountain bike ride on trails deep in the woods, I will get passed over by two or three short lightning storms during that time, with the rest of the day being perfectly sunny or hot. If you are 30 miles into a trail, no chance for getting back. Best thing to do is take cover until it passes over which is what I generally do.

A couple stores like Radio Shack and New Egg have only the Triton 1500 models in stock at the moment. I ordered one from NewEgg, since I have done business with them for several years successfully. I placed my order last night, and this morning they did charge my credit card, so they must truly have them or they would not have charged me until they did. I got overnight shipping, and their site says it should ship within 48 hours. So I should have it by the end of the week I hope, so I can go play in the woods with it this weekend.

I have only been geocaching for a couple of weeks and have a hard time finding the Nano's. I found my first nano, and it was very tiny, like the tip of my thumb. Here is a picture of what one looks like

So I have spent another week hiking every day out in the woods, and spent some time up on the Appalachian Trail over the holiday weekend. Haven't seen a single animal yet although I have heard them on occassion. But I have been making a lot of noise while walking with all the leaf cover so hopefully I have been scaring anything off. I noticed that some people attach "bear bells" to their packs to make bell noises while they are hiking as an extra warning. Does anyone know if that helps? Also, I was wondering, if I am ever charged by a bear or deer or something, what should I do? Does pepper spray work? Right now I have no protection in the unlikely event that something decided I got to close or that I look like lunch. Thanks for your help.

I just ordered a Triton 1500 last night. I should hopefully receive it later this week, so when I do I will play with it for a bit and let you know what I think.

Ok I took the plunge because my Garmin Nuvi car GPS is just not cutting it out in the woods. I just placed my order on NewEgg.com for the Magellan Triton 1500. They are also selling on RadioShack website too, but I have had a good relationship with NewEgg for the past several years so I trust them. Wish me luck!!! I will answer anyone's questions as soon as I have it in hand. I got overnight shipping, so if they ship within the next 48 hours if they truly have them in stock then I should have it before the weekend to go play outside with. I will let you know if/when I get it.

I have brought my Garmin Nuvi touch-screen and my PDA touchscreen into the outdoors hiking and geocaching for a while. I have dropped both several times, and down rocks a couple of times. No problems with the screens even with the abuse I have given them repeatedly. So I am sure they probably made the off-road screens a little sturdier than my on-road screens, so they should be just fine.

I didn't know about the bear poles at the parks, but I guess we did the same thing up home, only we stuck the stuff way up in the trees. Thanks for the explanation, now I know! Ok, now you HAVE to tell me about the bear you almost stepped on!!!