Shalimarjim

The "do not email" responses are probably correct although I know you want to do it. I put a couple of caches out last week and had them stocked well with items that cost $1-$3 dollars a piece. The FTF took 3 of the items and left a dadgum stamp!! This guy has found 100 or so caches so he should have known that was not "kosher". I thought at first that I would email him and thank him for gracing the cache but I guess I'm lucky that he didn't take everything!

Look in the back of your booklet for a description. You can put it into one of your screens by using the "customize" command. Your SporTrak is pretty accurate--you don't need it.

There have been many threads on this subject. Most folks like to buy at least one level above what their present needs are as once you get one you will find many other uses for the PDA rather than caching. I bought the Palm Tungsten E. I couple it with Cachemate and GSAK. Has all the memory that I presently need.

Pay attention to the difficultity of the cache and the terrain that you're in. Various critters are lurking out there and it is not uncommon that geocachers in our area spot a Rattersnake or Cottonmouth on the treks. Be sure that the kids take a shower afterwards as ticks are alway about. Other than that they can be a real joy and double the fun of a find.

Most folks in our area of the country have no "bag" at all that they lug around. All of us have a tool box or something akin to that in our vehicles that hold all geocaching supplies. When we arrive at the starting point(or should I say walking point) we have a fairly good idea of the distance and terrain and put in our pockets what we need. In my case, I have plenty of pockets as I use a safari photo vest from Vestmate that seems to have thousands of pockets both small and large. I rarely go to a cache over 1 mile from where I park so I never felt the need for a backpack and the fanny packs never seemed to hold all I wanted to carry.

All the answers are pretty well on the money. Micro's have their place as do normal size caches. Downtown Atlanta may not be a suitable place for a standard size cache but it might be well suited for a micro. A micro placed in a remote wooded area would probably be shunned by most cachers.

Croking is not a good thing for you to do.

Hurricane Ivan did a number on those of us in Northwest Florida and YuccaPatrol was correct that most of the damage came to the caches near the water. However, many of our inland caches were also destroyed due to the downed trees. We are gradually getting all of them back to speed and welcome those of you who have never seen the sugar white sands of Northwest Florida to come visit.

Thanks Right Wing. Guess it always help to look at the markings on the battery!! I don't know that Magellon has that built into the SporTrak but I explore the setings.

Maddy is a winner. Nice job on your movie.

I guess I'm battery challenged. I've used a mix of batteries since I've had my SporTrak Pro. It didn't take very long after I started caching that I realized that I needed to go with rechargeables as my unit would use up a pair each time I went out. After viewing many web sites, I bought a MAHA 401FS this was in addition to an Eveready charger I had earlier bought at Sam's. Neither unit ever "fully" charges the batteries. At best, I may be at 90 percent. Alkalines will always show 100 percent when placed in the unit. I can see no difference in the MAHA when it is placed in the slow mode or the fast mode. I have used a variety of sizes from 1900 mAh to 2200. Yes, rechargeables are the way to go but there are issues as to which charger to use to fully recharge them.

Ghostcat, You and I have a lot in common. I guess I'm an 'old dog" but I, too, need something to tell me step one, step two, etc. Somewhere here in the forums someone put all the steps together and explained it well. If I locate it I'll forward the site to you.

My SporTrak Pro, bought in June of '03, now has hairline cracks near all the screws. DC is 4402. I suspect that the French, who own Magellan, will do nothing to correct the problem. This will be another thing on my Do Not Buy French items when it finally dies.

I don't know of any easy way to do that either. Buxley's web site is what I use but the Interstates are difficult to find.

I just received what appeared to be a message from a fellow cacher about a cache I had placed. It looked like a normal email through Geocaching that we all receive from time to time about one of our caches. It had the appropriate wording and format from Geocaching.com but when I opened it my Norton virus program caught it before it infected me.

I generally like the straight face answers that geocachers give to all sorts of questions but Briansnat first responce to the question is the best I've ever read on the forum. I like this guys humor!

Concur with Imajika. I've got a friend that got into geocaching thinking that Blackbeard or someone like him was leaving gold coins or something akin to it. Boy was he shocked at some of the leftovers that appear in the caches.

I've had 2 the last 6 months that have gone the way of yours. The unfortunate thing is that the folks won't reply to repeated emails. I guess that's part of this hobby and to be expected.

Team 360--You can put your slant on this if you want but we lost 3,000 people just a few years ago due to this type of apathetic thinking. In fact, don't do anything but pat yourself on the back for not reporting suspicious activities. Others will cover your backside.

Just saw on the news that increased chatter on the net implies that terrorists may try to due something on American soil this summer. I can't think of a better group of folks than our Geocaching family to provide some eyes and ears for the Homeland Security office. We are the ones traipsing in the boonies and looking all over for likely caches sites. We can smell these things! If you see anything suspicious you owe it to yourself, your family, and nation to report it to Homeland Security or the local FBI office.

bnolan, Good Luck on the birthday. I, too, am in Florida and the nylon venture vest or a fly fishing vest may still be the best bet. I'll bet Jeremy could get a company to design exactly what we need. Many of the vests I've seen will not accept a GPS in the upper pocket. I believe that would be the best place rather than losing it in one of the larger pockets.

Thanks about the photo vest. I forgot about that one. I looked under tools, fly fishing, and vests in general but the photo vest didn't come up. Yes, that does look like something that would interest our community with the Geo logo.

I'm curious to know if most Geocacher's share this situation. At the time I leave my truck to hit the woods, I look like a kid that just robbed the candy store. Every pocket I have is filled. GPS, radio, something for the cache, extra batteries, knife, etc. I have no more pockets! I'm considering something like a mesh fly fishing vest that has oodles of pockets. Anyone have a better solution?

Now we're talking--thanks Geo Leo and Imajika

By the way Shell111, retired USAF here--same rank.