izzyvet

I want to vote for this as a bug also! Just got back into caching after laying off for a few months, and I couldn't get the "My Finds" query either. Thought it was just me, but then I found this thread. I feel much better now and will wait until it is fixed.

Ordered 2 coins in each finish today!! Can't wait to see them!

izzyvet looks good! Thanks so much!!

Ya know, there's not really a prize for FTF or anything, so I wouldn't get so worked up over it. You know you found it by doing it the hard way, and that should be good enough. No need for any other acronyms, and I agree with the other poster that you can call out the other finders in your log. I climb mountains, and I see it as something like a first ascent. Yes that first ascent was probably done by aid-climbing it, then someone else came along and free climbed it, then someone solo-free climbed it and then someone else speed-climbed it. The first guy was the first to summit, even though those other guys might have done it in a more difficult way, he was still the first on top. Doesn't matter how he got there, he still gets to have bragging rights as the first guy (or gal) to summit.

That's my GPSr!!!! LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!! It's my best friend now. When you get it, just play with it a lot. Like the others said, get familiar with all the buttons, the different settings you have, etc. Practice marking waypoints (and using the average feature) then walk away and navigate back to that waypoint. When I first got mine, I played with it while it was connected to my laptop, that way it didn't eat any batteries. I spent about 2 hours on the sofa, just tinkering with the buttons. It's very user friendly. I think I might have looked at the manual for about a minute. Also, don't forget to mark your house as a waypoint. You'll never get lost!

Eek, I guess I commited a mortal insult!! I cleared out all the ones within a mile of my house, then one popped up at 0.9 miles, it's been there a few weeks and still haven't gone for it. Anymore I've been getting pickier and going for ones that will be at least a nice little walk in a park for the dog and I. We have so many parks and Open Space areas here and it seems that they all have geocaches! So now I don't care so much about getting the ones closest to my house, as there will always the be one after that and then after that and so on.

I have the Legend HCX and I love it!! More than enough for me, and I think of myself as a serious geocacher. I bought the City Navigator program initially and it is sooooo useful! Most of my caching is in the suburbs or urban areas too. Now that it is summer and I will be hiking more, I broke down and bought the topo on an SD card and National Geograpic TOPO program, (which is a wonderful program and anyone who hikes, backpacks, 4wheels or mountain bikes would love) (bought mine from Amazon, BTW)

I'm on a Mac too and just started geocaching about 8 months ago. I started out with my lowly Forerunner, but after some research, settled on the purchase of a Garmin Legend HCX. I really like it. I also purchased the City Navigator, but on the pre-programmed micro SD card. (The CD version won't work on your Mac, at least it wasn't compatible back in December when I bought the SD card) I really like my GPS and when we are traveling it works just like an in-car until with turn-by-turn directions and everything. I also am using MacCaching, great program, easy to use and works seamlessly with my mac and GPS. I am paperless with a palm pilot and Cachemate. My most recent purchase has been the Topo SD card and the National Geographic TOPO program. Don't know why I waited so long to get NG TOPO, wonderful program. You can load you PQ gpx files right onto it, and print out maps and routes. Now that summer is coming and I'll be hiking a lot, I can't wait to start taking some maps and finding caches on my hikes. These are just my preferences, but I like everything that I use so far. Have fun!!

Until I refresh my account page or go back in after being out, my counter doesn't change either when I log a new cache. Try reloading the page or logging out and then back in. Hope this helps.

I am also a Geocoin club member and that happened before to a coin I got from them. I sent them an e-mail and they assured me that all of their coins have unique icons. However, it can take some time for the icon itself to get uploaded to whatever magical server does the icons. On the other coin it took about 10 days, but I was told it might take a few weeks. Just wait a bit and I'm sure we will get our icons soon.

Just found this thread after realizing for a few days that INATN was down. Glad to hear it will be back up! I also love it, great for us Mac users and the maps are cool. And it's so easy to use. I am also one who would be willing to pay for this service, but if it is still going to be free, great!! Hope everything works out and thanks Dave for this really cool site

I just bought the CO version of the National Geographic TOPO program and it will work very well for geocaching. You can actually load the GPX file right onto the map, and the caches show up! Very easy to upload waypoints onto your GPS too. I have a Mac and the Garmin map programs don't work well. I also bought the City Navigator SD card, very convenient, just plug into your GPS and go. Nice when you travel, as it will tell you all the nearby restaurants, attractions and so on.

Patience, grasshopper.

Oh and to make it fun, make sure you find large caches first and a 1 or 2 star terrain. My first find was a big 'ol ammo box filled with LOTS of goodies. I found this out by just by reading the cache page. It was under pile of suspicious looking wood. My second was a micro hidden in the woods. It had a very good hint, so I found it pretty easily. I was hooked from there.

I have the same GPS and yes it beeps when you are getting close. I think mine beeps when it's at around 75 ft. I'm not sure if it came that way automatically (I think so) or if I chose that as a setting. I think you can change the distance that it will beep at and also whether or not you want it to beep at all. I don't really care if it beeps or not. I have it set that I see 4 "Data Fields" on my compass page. One of them is set to "Dist to Dest" and that tells me how far away the cache is. The other settings I like are, "Speed", "Time to Dest", and "Destination". You can change these by pressing the "menu" button (lower left button), while in the compass page. Then there are some menu options: "Data Fields" option lets you choose how many data fields to see. The "Choose Data Fields" lets you pick which data you want to see. Some of these, like the distance to the cache, are just as handy as the pointer. I recently found a cache at a ski area, in EXTREMELY deep snow. I couldn't move fast enough to get the pointer to work, just kept moving in the direction that made the distances go down, got to where the distance said "4 FT" and found the cache. To answer your other question: When I first got a GPS, it wasn't this one, just had a pointer and a blank map screen. I found caches that were near my house in areas I was familiar with. I looked on the cache page and from the map that was there, figured out where to park. Then I got out and started walking, following the arrow, but also keeping to trails and sidewalks for as long as possible. As I got more adventurous I would load caches in my GPS of areas I wasn't familier with, drive around sort of following the arrow (you have to stay on those streets!) until I got as close as I thought I could, usually less than 1/4 mile, often quite closer. Now-adays, on my new GPS I have the City Navigator Program loaded on. When I pick which cache to go to, I see it in a background of a very detailed map, just like the one on the cache page. Usually I can figure out how to drive there from that, but if not, I just pick the "Follow Road" option and it gives me driving directions to get to the cache. If the cache is in the middle of a big field though, it doesn't always get me to the right place to park, but by then I usually have figured that out on my own. Hope this wasn't too detailed. I just started out with this about 6 months ago, and I am having so much fun. I got a lot of help too on these boards too. Don't be afraid to ask any other questions. Happy caching!

That's so cool you remember that. It must be this guy then: jeeperz1&2 Doesn't look like he puts this in every log. Seems like mainly the bigger caches. He jotted this down in one of his logs on my caches, and I had seen it a bunch of times before and didn't make the connection that it was the same person each time. Maybe I'll go back to my cache and check out his log and see what it is. This community amazes me, thanks for the help. I was just curious, now I know.

I have seen "left TRAX" in logs for cache finders and after 6 months of doing this haven't figured out what this is. Anyone know?

I also like to leave a log unique to each cache and even if it is a cache-and-dash write at least a few words describing my experience. I'll go into how nice a day it was, if it was my first or last find of the day, how long I had to hunt, or anything else that was unique to that particular find. I figure it doesn't take nearly as long as the actual hunt and I type pretty fast. I also enjoy reading through my logs occasionally, and that' a lot more interesting if I wrote something worthwhile.

Yes, that's the GPS I also bought after doing a bit of research. I LOVE IT!! Was using my Garmin Forerunner before. I love the color screen and how bright it is even in full sunlight with lots of glare from snow on the ground. I also like that it can hold so many waypoints. My old one only held 50, so I was constantly having to delete them and put in new ones. Have fun!!

I love the username you thought up too!! Glad you found out about this great hobby. Don't forget to log the cache you found! If you have a hard time figuring it out, you can go back to the cache. Often the name of the cache is written somewhere in the log book. You could also look at the log and find the user names of the last few finders and contact them for information on the cache. Welcome and have fun. You should be able to find a good deal on a GPS on e-bay or right here. Try to get one that is under 3 or 4 years old, as some of those older units are lucky to get you within 50 feet of the cache! (I know, I tried using my very old, maybe 1999 model and it did not work)

My most memorable was just recently, looking for this cache Mise en Place I was really stupid and made some assumptions about where the cache should be. Ended up struggling through literally waist deep snow to try to find a cache that wasn't there! Really put a kink in my whole ski day. Then a few hours later I couldn't find this one either Lights and Music By now I am ready to give up Geocaching forever. So I put them both on my watchlist. Then while trying to get to sleep that night I had a light bulb go off, and an "Oh Duh" moment and figured out how to find the first cache. Still haven't found the second one, although someone else has found it (of course). I just know if I go back to look for it, I'll end up with a second DNF, but that one might be memorable too.

Hey my name is in there and it looks great!! I love it, how cool!!! Can't wait to see the finished product, good job.

I have tried to find a ski cache. Was at Copper Mountain and after swimming through waist and chest deep snow I gave up on it, but I had a real good time!! I was also surprised to find that there were quite a few hidden at the ski area, but I guess it makes sense, it is on National Forest Land, so very public, and in a very beautiful area. There was also an urban micro at the base that I couldn't find. So even though I haven't had any luck actually FINDING ski caches, it's very nice that they are there and I appreciate people hiding them!

If you do a lot of hiking you probably already have a good supply of USGS topo maps. Those only cost 3 or 4 bucks apiece. I have a couple of shoe boxes full. Grid them all in pencil to the UTM ticks, learn how to mark a point in UTM coords and you won't need expensive topo software. I would never leave on a hike without an old-fashioned USGS map, even if I had a GPS with me. Techno stuff can fail. I have been involved in at least one high-mountain rescue where it was vital to mark the area of the victim on a map and I was the only one on this popular trail with a map and the only one who could relay coords to search and rescue and the Army chopper that was then called in to fly out the victim. Carry those maps and learn how to read them!!! Topo software is just icing on the cake. Now my City Navigator software, I wouldn't live without

Ya, I can't get on either and I am going to bed. Even the forums took a while to load up, but once I was here everything was fine. Do you really think the weather was THAT nice today that every one was out caching and bogged down the server with their logs? Seems kind of hard to believe, although we had a nice morning here!