Annie & PB

I have a somewhat different approach to answering this question: I believe the VERY FIRST question you have to be asking is who do I want to find my cache? Are they going to be a pregnant mom pushing her two year old in a stroller or a Dad out for the day with his 10 and 12 year old boys, or a young couple exercising their dog, or a 35 year old guy in a wheelchair and with some memory problems due to a road accident, or a 70yr old retired local historian walking to keep fit, or an ex-military mountain hiker .......... you see my point??? The "perfect" cache for each of these cachers will be quite quite different. So first of all decide what kind of cacher you are aiming to attract, then go create your cache. My two minimums would be that the container must be watertight and the cache is not in an area that is used as a toilet or otherwise unhygienic. Annie

Well, the outright answer is: no it will not find "all caches." On the other hand it will find a good many caches and I am sure some one who uses this GPS or similar will be along shortly to give you some help. We have found a couple with our Nuvi 260, but mostly we do use a handheld - in our case a Garmin Legend HCx. If you are wanting to get started caching I would say give it a go, but just realise that you will need to look for more of the roadside or small local park kind of caches, not one that are long hikes. (Oh, and make sure it is not a rainy day! ) A few hints that we can give are: Set it to car, pedestrian or cyle mode as relevant. On ours the way to do it is: Settings> System> Usage mode You can enter co-ordinates manually. On ours the way to do it is: Where to> Co-ordinates> then enter them! Then select Next>Go I suspect you model may be a bit different but this might give you some idea what to try. Annie

Here is our first one: Elementary My Dear???? GC17VGA We did learn a few things from it I guess: - some people don't like flax bush hides (but funnily enough they still look for it!) and we probably would not do a similar hide now. - it is extremely difficult to get co-ordinates that please everyone - some people don't even read cache pages, never mind hints. We still continue to place caches where actually reading the page is helpful - even essential! - and we continue to give hints. It is a bit over a year old and has had 33 finds and 4 DNFs. Annie

We have that exact same GPS. Once you have entered the co-ordinates (or before), use the little click switch on the front to scroll about so that you highlight the flag (or what ever symbol is there currently) in the top left corner of the screen. Click on it. You will get a page of all the other symbols. Scroll up or down using the click switch until you find the closed treasure chest. Click on it. Now you have a 'geocache' marked rather than some other random waypoint. You can also change the name so that instead of it saying 003 (or what ever number of waypoint you are up to) you can enter the cache name, by using the click switch. Annie

Some of these it's pretty impossible to compare!??? Micro or Regular? Regular Traditional or Multi? Traditional Mystery or Earth? Either - providing we can do te mystery ones!! In a group or alone? Just me & PB but if we really really like you we'll take you caching Hiding or Finding? Both Virtual or Webcam? Virtual (only one WebCam in NZ though!) Letterbox or Wherigo? Letterbox - don't have the technology for Wherigo (though it does sound fun) Favorite GPS? The one we own!!! (Garmin Legend HCx) Social(event) or not? Been to a few events - they were kind of fun FTF'er or not? If it happens, but we don't go all out for them Podcast listener or not? No Out of state or In state? Doesn't apply "Extreme/Hardcore" or Layed back? Pretty Hardcore Urban / Rural? Rural (by a small margin - any cache will do really! Annie

Yep - my newly created one that I did last night my time (about 10 or 11 hours ago), has not arrived in time for our trip today. I usually get them within a couple of minutes of creating them, so I was not at all concerned about doing it just the night before. Hope it arrives in the next 30 mins or so!!!!

ChileHead and Mikenaddeo - thanks for your suggestions! I never knew there were so many options! Unfortunately anything requiring cellphones is outside our budget here in New Zealand, and also the kind of areas that we like to cache in, there usually isn't any coverage anyway. Thanks again Annie

The issue with logging order has to do with milestones. Your milestones won't be in the correct order if you don't log in the correct order. You can use the editor in FSG to straighten things out, but that can be a drag if you have alot. FSG orders the finds by logid which can only be gotten from GC.com AFTER you log the find. Version 1.2.01 of the macro allows you to run RefreshAllGPX to update with your logids. The other way is to not run FSG until you have your MyFinds PQ and loaded that. And for a couple hundred finds I would probably skip the RefreshAllGPX and do the MyFinds PQ route. If you log as you find them and keep the time right, cachematelogging will step you through the caches in the correct order so you should have things correct on GC.com. I have not found any problems over hundreds of caches with the macro not getting things in the correct order if I logged in the correct order. I would be happy to step you through using it, but unless someone else chimes in we can do it off line via email. And I wish you luck on reaching 1,000. I did it a couple weeks ago at the Lily Pad. Jim Ah, that is fine then! I am pretty anal about logging our caches in the correct order (that is partly why the paper notebook and photos!) and I do use the MyFinds PQ to get our info from, so it sounds like our milestones will be fine!! I will send you an email but may not be for an hour or two. Thanks Annie PS We just released a Frog TB this weekend that is heading for the Lily Pad as we will never get there ourselves!!

Drat and bother - if it involves texting it probably won't work here in NZ and it would be outside our budget if it did!!! Thanks for your help. Annie

I assume your trying paperless. What type of PDA do you have? Cachematelogging is for a palm and PPC_cachematelog is for a PPC. Cachematelogging is pretty simple to use. export your caches, on the cachemate export use either %code or %smart for the cachemate waypoint. I prefer %code. hot sync the palm and import the database. Cache and log your caches. Make sure when you check the log box on the log page the cache is changed from unfiled to found (this can be changed by going to and individual cache, tapping the cachmate on the upper left, selecting options and then view options. check set hunt and end time and set catagory, select found from the drop down.) come home, hot sync your palm. Start cachematelogging. Since you used %code for the export make sure you use %code for match. (Or if you use %smart make sure it matches in both export and import) You should be able to step through the caches one at a time, on the cache log page left click in the log area and then right click and paste your pda log. There is a hopefully helpful help file with the macro. If you have any more questions give a shout. Jim Hi jholly!!! Yes - I just figured out today that your macro is the one I need, but truely I am too computer illiterate to get it to work. I've read a bunch of threads at the GSAK forum where you have helped out people, and read the help notes, but I still don't get what I need to do. Plus I do use the FindStatsGen macro to create our stats, and I think I read a comment that if I use the logging macro our logs won't stay in the right order???? (Mind you I've read so many posts today that I could have that completely wrong.) Which is particularly important as sometimes during this trip we will hit 1000 caches, which is a fairly big deal in NZ, and I will want it correctly recorded in our profile stats. Annie

Can you explain this option more - I thought field notes were only an option if you have an Oregon or colarado GPS or something like that?? How does the whole process work? Annie

First I want to thank you for being considerate enough to avoid cut and paste logs. As a cache owner, I appreciate original logs. I've heard of cachers investing in digital recorders to make voice notes for each cache they find. Another option is a notebook. For each cache you find, record the GC # (not the name) then write a sentence or two about the cache. A digital camera could be used to take an image of ground zero to further refresh your memories of each cache. thanks Kit Fox! I don't like seeing copy and paste logs, and I've never yet used them. We do have a notebook and take photos at almost every cache already - but neither of those is going to cut down on the actual hours of logging needed when we get home. Annie

Doh - somehow I've quoted myself rather than Briansnat's post above! annie

I absolutely agree. And this is what I do. However I am hoping to write my usual unique logs in CacheMate (or what ever) while we are away, and then once normal life has resumed when we return home, transfer my logs on to the website via the quickest way possible. If I have to write 200 plus logs when I get home they WILL NOT be able to be long or unique due to the time constrains for my life/new job when we return!!! Annie

At the end of next month we are going on a long holiday (vacation) and expect to find maybe 200 plus caches. What options do people use for when you get back from a trip with a heap of caches to log?? I've been playing with the GSAK macros CachmateLogging and PPC_CachemateLog but I can't get either of them to work as I am not that computer literate. Are there any other methods that people use that might be easier to learn (other than a boring cut and paste log that is the same for each cache!) Annie

Believe me you are not the first, not the only, and won't be the last!!! We've done something similar, so you won't get anything except sympathetic from us. Our cache that it happened with is 10mins down a bush track from our house, and one of our kindly reviewers published it while we were carrying out negotiations with the other one! It was up for about 10 mins before we disabled it too. Then it got 'unpublished' til we finished sorting it. Annie

Can someone please tell me how to set Cachemate up so that when I 'tick the box' for a found log, it automatically puts in the time and/or date??? A few months back I am sure I had the date going in there without having to select it each time, but now I've forgotten how to do it. Thanks Annie

Just create a cache listing as you normally would, and make sure you uncheck the little box that puts it in the review line, and there you have it, an unpublished cache. Annie

If you have a Garmin 60x that is all you need!!! Don't waste money buyinh a new GPS. Learn to enter the co-ords into it, which is easy as, then push GOTO and caching life will be so much easier! Annie

We are both about equally involved here at our house - one male, one female. Although I am the one who spends most of the time on the computer! Our local cachers are a wide mix of couples, families, teens. But I just did a little survey and 'statistically' there are more males involved. From the sociological point of view I have thought that geocaching was more 'male-orientated.' Events I have been to ( the whole two of them!!!LOL) have had more guys there, and our local forum has more males actively involved. So those factors are probably what I formed my opinion on. I don't think geocaching is inherently a more male activity - just that's what the 'facts' in my locale are. It probably IS inherently a more 'middle class' activity due to the expensive nature of the toys. Annie

Hi there! This might get you started. Paris caches I just did a search 'Paris, France' using the address option on the search page of geocaching.com. If you know the name of the suburb that you are going to be in, use that. Annie

Yep - I'm with the folks who want the trackables inventory back where it used to be on the 'My Account' page. I don't need the "Hello Annie & PB" and avatar box at all. I know who I am!!! LOL It would be much more valuable information to have my inventory there -- along with the reminder it used to have when you have them for two weeks. Any chance of getting this back, and the inventory back where it used to be????? And what is the reason for having the hello and avatar picture???? It doese not give any useful information as far as I am concerned. Annie

Hi there Otto, What language do you speak??? There are forums here for many different countries. Perhaps someone can help you in your own language. Annie

Here is another thread that is a little bit further down the front page at the moment may have some ideas too. Geocaching without a GPS

to the OP - yep I know the feeling!! It was kind of annoying, but not too much so that I couldn't wait a couple of months until next in the area. Little Cache Lost Like we did - just wait until you are going back that way, and get the co-ordinates again. You can write up the cache page using the approximate co-ordinates (just make sure you untick the box that gets it reviewed) and then as soon as you get the good co-ordinates, you will be good to go! Annie