WolfWalker

I have, and still use, a Magellan Meridian Platinum. I much prefer it over the apps on cell phones. When I'm out geocaching with my friend I hand her my phone (c:geo) and I use my gpsr. I also have a Garmin etrex (the little yellow one).

When I first started (7/5/2003) I used to try and get out a lot, and my husband would almost always go with me. Eventually I shifted interest towards trying to be ftf. After a while there wasn't a lot of people (in my area) putting out new caches, and I wasn't really wanting to put out caches, I just wanted to find them. I'd still go out occasionally but it wasn't a priority at the time. Then my husband died, and I had nobody to go with me, so I basically stopped for a long, long time. Only lately have I rediscovered this great activity, and my friend goes with me sometimes.......almost 20 years later and I've only found 222.

I have no idea where to locate this information, but I can say my longest "slump" is most likely several years long. LOL!

I don't know the legality of this, but I recently found a 50 cal round (intact) in a cache. I simply removed it, took it home, and gave it to my neighbor who is a gun enthusiast. He found out that it was filled with the wrong type of gun powder, and suspected that if someone were to have tried to shoot it it would have exploded.

Thanks everyone! It must have been a glitch in the system, it's working for me this morning.

I've tried a couple of times today to look at my past finds (through viewing my profile) and I keep getting this : 502 Bad Gateway Is that an error on my side, or something glitching on this site? Thanks!

Surprised, not at all. Upset? Maybe.........I used this same screen name for many, many years.......so while I probably would have been upset, it would have been more upsetting to have lost all caches I've found over the years. A lot of them have been archived, so it wouldn't be possible to do a redo.

I'm glad my user name didn't disappear! I didn't geocache for quite a few years, mainly due to life getting in the way. My husband died, I lost our home to a devastating flood, then was homeless for almost 3 years. Only recently did I remember that I used to like the hunt......and now I'm back, just hit my 200th a week ago.

Thank you for this information!

I found this today in downtown Fayetteville (NC) and took a photo of it, thinking it was a marker. But now I realize it's not because it has no "name" designation on it. Does anyone know what it could be? Any thoughts on this will be greatly appreciated.

Just 9 weeks ago I was out geocaching by myself in a local heavily wooded park. I found all the geocaches there was to find, and as I was making my way out of the woods I was walking down this small hill..........and slipped on my left foot. As it slipped, it turned towards the right and it rolled. I heard a loud snap and went down in the middle of the path. As I lay there on my back I kinda already knew that this was bad, but I still got up and walked the 2/10's of a mile back to my car, then drove (5 speed stick) to my friend's house. She then drove me to a local hospital. Once I got checked in at the er they took me through their "fast track" part. Although my blood pressure was on the high side, my friend and I kept our spirits high, joking around about my antics. They took me back to x-ray and it was determined that I had 3 spiral fractures on the distal end of my left fibula, with 2 bone fragments, one of which was near my ankle joint capsule. Amazingly enough, there just happened to be a well reknown orthopedic foot and ankle specialist there seeing a different patient. He heard them talking about this crazy x-ray (and the semi-crazy patient) so he went and looked at my x-rays, then came to introduce himself as "my doctor." The following week I underwent surgery where I gained 1 metal plate, 8 screws, and lost the 2 bone fragments. Long story short, I had my "final" appointment with the ortho surgeon this morning. In just 8 weeks following surgery my ankle is totally healed. The bones are healed, the screws are set in the bones, and I'm released to (as my doctor said) "resume life!" And in celebration my best friend and I went geocaching afterwards, and logged 5 finds/3 dnfs. All in all a great day! On a side note now: Shoes! Hopefully everyone is wearing good shoes while they're out geocaching, but I just want to share with you what my ortho surgeon told me about shoes. My injury was most likely caused by my shoes. While they look ok, they were not. They were somewhere between 5 to 7 years old. And, as I stood in them, they were worn out enough to shift my weight to the outside edges of my feet. That's what caused my ankle to give and roll. He explained that what we should do is long before our shoes get worn and "comfortable" we should buy new shoes on average every 6 months. The basic "structure" of the shoe starts to break down after that, and then they make us prone to injuries. I've since went to Rack Room where you buy one pair, get one pair half price........and he was quite pleased to see that I took his advice.

Just a follow up to my breaking my fibula while geocaching. I finally got surgery yesterday morning to pull all the pieces back together again. I did manage to give both my surgeon and the anesthesiologist a bit of a scare though. Back in time, like 20+ years ago, I had to have my gallbladder taken out.........and the doctor had to deal with my bile duct being totally clogged with sand-like gallstones. At first I was taken to surgery so that they could place a stent in my bile duct......unfortunately despite being maxed out on their choice of anesthesia, I kept waking up fighting them. So the next day when I was taken to surgery for the removal I warned them that (at that time) I had low blood pressure, but since I had no symptoms of it I wasn't being treated for it. Well, once the anesthesia hit me my bp started dropping........and dropping, until it reached a point where they both got very concerned. They gave me a med to raise my bp, and it worked well. Perhaps too well because next thing they saw was my bp heading into impeding stroke range. They quickly gave me yet another med to bring my bp back down, and my heart stopped. I died.......it took them several moments to get me back. So, knowing this, even though now I have high blood pressure (treated by my gp), I warned them that this could very well happen again. Sure enough, even though I wasn't under deep anesthesia (just sedation with nerve blocking), and I didn't take my bp medicine yesterday morning prior to surgery, yesterday during placing of the hardware in my ankle, my bp started plunging again. Because I warned them that this might happen they just waited and watched........and finished the surgery. Once that was done they quickly woke me and took me into a more monitored recovery area, not the normal recovery are from outpatient surgery. I had to stay there 30 minutes so that they could see my bp had once again stabilized. From there I was taken to outpatient recovery. I gained one metal plate and 8 screws. I'm so thankful to have been taken to this particular hospital because every single person there all show such remarkable compassion to their patients! So far the worse pain has been from the nerve blocking. It's like your foot has gone to sleep, and then when it starts to wake up, you know that momentary "pain"? Well, that's what I've been going through all last night and today. Last night I kept checking my toes on that foot because they were so cold and painful. They've made it through. LOL! My surgeon phoned me this morning just to check on me, and he did say that it may take 24-48 hours (or more) for all the nerve blocks to wear off. I was given a prescription for percocet, and have been sparingly taking it. I'm back in a soft cast for now, and when I return to my surgeon's office on the 16th he'll be deciding whether I graduate to a hard cast, a soft cast, or a boot. So, as far as I'm concerned, the worst is over now, and it's time for me to sit back, enjoy my time of basically doing nothing, and healing. My best friend comes over twice a day to check on me and to take my dog out for walks and to go potty. I'm taking it one day at a time. I have a knee scooter so that I can at least get around some. I also have a pair of crutches, but I'm a bit afraid to use them right now. Once I'm in a hard cast (and the risk of reinjuring my ankle is lower) then I'll practice using them inside until I've got them under control. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but this old dog is willing to learn. Anyway, just take whatever precautions are needed when you're out there hunting geocaches. Take a cellphone with you, better yet, don't go out alone! I'll sit back and enjoy the hunt vicariously through everyone here. (Picture of my newly gained hardware.)

I decided to go hunt a couple of geocaches today in a local (to me) park. I had a heck of a time finding the first one. It was under pretty dense tree cover so the gps app had me walking all over the place. I persisted though, and was rewarded with the find. I look up the one remaining, and set off to locate it. I got to the approximate location, and set off the trail to find it. Once I did find it (a cleverly hidden small bird house) I heard some people walking the trail, so I stayed real still and watched them until they disappeared. I logged it, and went about to hit the trail to return to my car. Here's my biggest mistake..........for some reason my sneakers look like I'm walking on the outer edges. I noticed this just a few days ago and thought "Ok, I need to get a new pair". I haven't done that yet though. As I was about to join the main trail I had a small (tiny) embankment to walk down.........it was covered in pine needles. Yeap, my left foot first slipped, then rolled over towards the outside, I heard a loud snap........and I went down. Hurt like heck. As I laid there on my back I had thoughts going through my head, like dang it, I didn't buy new shoes, how on earth am I gonna get back to my car, and then how the heck am I going to drive home........it's a 5 speed stick! Well, I walked one painful step at a time, all the way down the main trail and to my car. (Although I'll admit, at one point it hurt so bad I felt dizzy and light headed, so I just sat down and waited for that to pass.) Got to my car, got in, and sat there logging the find on this site. I then drove home, in hopes of finding my neighbor (and best friend) home. Thankfully she was indeed home. I pulled into her driveway and was in the process of phoning her when she walked out. I explained what had happened, and she got me into her car and drove me to a hospital. I'm now in a cast with a spiral fracture of the distal fibula, with a splinter of bone loose. After 5 x-rays they're unsure if that splinter is inside the ankle joint or outside...... I'll be seeing an orthopedic surgeon Friday to have this temporary cast removed, further x-rays done, and either another cast put on or to schedule surgery to remove that splinter of bone. So, enjoy the game, the challenge, and the hunt, but please wear good proper footwear.........and don't take a slip lightly! Hunt on, WolfWalker **Update:** I saw the ortho surgeon this morning. After 3 more x-rays were taken, he sat down and explained how my fibula has 3 fractures with two pieces of displaced bone. The one splinter that concerned him Wednesday is "just" at the joint capsule, but may cause issues later on if left as it is.....so yeap, I'll be having surgery on the 9th to gain some hardware (plates and pins). The actual healing time will be the same whether I have surgery or not, but hey, I do want to eventually hunt more caches, and to have my ankle back to as close to normal as possible. (As far as my shoes I was wearing at the time, they're running-type sneakers. Lesson learned, next time I'll be wearing traditional hiking boots!)

My jobs seem way boring compared to some of you! My one long-term M-F job is a school bus driver. I've driven EC school bus for over 30 years. I also have a part-time job M-S as a delivery driver for a local florist. Other jobs I've had are: taxi driver, receptionist at a middle school, waitress/cook, weekend help at an animal hospital, and delivery driver of photography film and supplies. Oh, and when I was much younger I had a newspaper route that I accomplished by riding my horse.

I used to have an 88 Dodge Caravan........it's parked now because it was leaving too dense of a smoke trail. Now I have a 96 Isuzu Rodeo, which is also now a TB too.

I found this TB (http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=14597) and the cache it had been in had been through a controlled burn. The poor thing was crispy, melted, and stinky. I emailed the TB's owners to notify them of it's demise, and they ended up sending me a new hitchiker for it. Of course, this was done with the owner's permission, I just don't feel it's right to make changes to something that doesn't belong to me. WolfWalker

Does a Rodeo that has a 2 wheel drive body built upon a 4 wheel drive chassis count?

I had parked my van on the side of a road here on day so that I could hunt for a micro placed somewhere in a big empty field. Upon returning to my van I saw a highway patrol car parked directly behind mine, so I casually walked over and asked him if there was any problem. He told me that he thought my van had been abandoned (LOL! A 1988 Dodge Caravan that has more rust than paint and smokes enough to kill off it's weight in mosquitos) so he was fixin' on calling it in. I explained to him that I was just geocaching, and at that his eyes lit up and he asked "Why, is there one down there?" No further explanation of my activity was necessary. WolfWalker

I'm actually allergic to tick bites, they itch intensely to me, even worse than a mosquito bite. I hunted a cache last summer in a park that's about 30 miles or so from my home. On my way driving home both of my legs started itching like well.......badly enough I couldn't stand it any more, so I pulled over into some truck stop and got out to pull my jeans legs up. I couldn't see anything so I thought that maybe I walked through some poison ivy or something. Once I got home I got ready for a shower and I finally spotted all these tiny red dots on my legs! Baby ticks......I couldn't even tell you how many there were, but yes, they were ALL attached and feeding! It took me well over an hour to detick myself, and that itching lasted at least 3 weeks, I finally found relief by using deodorant on the bites. I even carry scars now from a few of the worst bites! WolfWalker (who now uses repellent spray.........LOTS of it!)

17 miles

I'm actually allergic to ticks, so when one just starts to bite me that spot will itch intensely. Sounds weird, but it's kinda nice having an "early warning system". I've seen many ticks already this year, seems they get more numerous every year. YUCK!

Thanks! I was kinda worried that something might have been wrong with this eTrex. It'll work fine for my husband..........he's "basic" too!

I recently bought a Garmin eTrex for my husband to use while we're caching, and I took it with me today to give it a trial run. I'm more used to my Meriplat though. It (my meriplat) has a map on it that shows the cities and states (if zoomed out far enough), rivers and roads, but on the screen of the eTrex it doesn't show anything, even when zoomed out to 800 miles! It just shows whatever info I've put in, like caches and my tracks. Is this normal?? If this is normal what can I do to have it show roads and such? Thanks for any help! :-) a very confused WolfWalker

I'm so sorry about your loss! If you've got a Best Buy near you, they've got the Garmin etrex on closeout special for $49.99! You may have to place some long distance phone calls to find any though, like I just did today. Got one coming in from Charlotte, and another coming in from Gastonia......one for hubby, and one for a dear friend. :-) WolfWalker

I just recently downloaded 0.9.3, and gave it a whirl today. Nope, it works fine here, even for profile editing. Maybe something within your download isn't right?