Dosido

Direct Route 2

I put out a cache with special prizes for the first 5 to find, with a bigger version for FTF. However, I'm not sure what you're really looking for here... A 'special prize' for finding the cache? If that's the goal, then seek out caches that have finder buttons placed in them - that are specific to the particular cache. Any finder gets them - not just the first ten. Seems like they're fewer and farther between that when I first started, but they're still out there. I'm not big into the FTF race - I won't go out of my way for one - however, when there are no online logs and you might be FTF, the whole experience changes - you're a bit excited, always wondering if that 'other' car in the lot belonged to another cacher, or if the person you hear in the woods is a cacher, and then when you open the log book, you're excited to see whether the log book is still blank. It's a different experience all together, which you wouldn't get if you were just trying to be 'kind of close to FTF'. That said, if you have an idea, place a cache using that approach - if people think it's cool, it'll get copied down the line.

Ah, theoretically correct, but in the real world, that doesn't mean much. It's very easy to flip a small tripod with a camera on it if the plane of the legs is not flat and/or the camera weight is not evenly distributed. The gorrila pod would allow easy manipulation of the legs to counteract this problem.

I know on a 210 that a friend has, we put all of Massachusetts, Connecticut and NY to Albany on the unit (didn't incude NYC). That might give you an idea of how much you can fit on the unit. It was pretty well maxed out then. Of course, you always have the ability to swap the files off and on once created.

Like the Trail Buzzards, I have both DR and 3D Topo maps on my 500. I find that I use DR as my detail map about 90% of the time, and only on longer hikes and/or stream/river geocaching trips do I switch to the topo detail map. Topo is useful for scouting geocache placements, however, as you can, for example, select 'goto nearest summit' from the menu. I think I could live without the topo, but not without DR if I had to make a choice between the two.

I too use an UltrapodII - pretty sweet small tripod that easily fits into the pack, and velcro wraps around small trees. However, this gorillapod thing looks sweet. You don't need a flat surface, or the proper sized branch. Might have to pick one of these up! Thanks for the link!

I did a cache in the Tampa area that was as close to what you describe - however, it had a casette player in the field. When the batteries were low, you were supposed add a 'needs more fuel' note in your log. I believe the idea was to have an extra set in the case, and when those were used to replace the ones in the player, they'd be replaced by the owner. The idea was cool - it was just a looping tape with Mission Impossible theme to it. I will say, however, that I was greatly disappointed in the final after such a cool first stage - ended up being a very small cache in a container that needed maintenance. If I had found a cassette in the field, I'd be in trouble, as I don't own a tape player.

Also, check out The Army Barracks: Qty 1 = $3.99 + $6.95 = $10.94 Qty 2 = $7.98 + $7.75 = $15.73 Qty 3 = $11.97 + $7.75 = $19.72 Qty 4 = $15.96 + $7.75 = $23.91 Qty 5 = $19.95 + $7.95 = $27.90 Qty 6 =$23.94 + $7.95 = $31.89

Add me to the mix. I blew the 2nd stage of a puzzle multi in the field. Took a long walk with my daughter to the wrong spot, looked for 30-40 minutes, and we gave up. While waiting for her to catch up on the way back, about 1/2 mile from the calculated spot, I decided to 'take a peek' at an interesting location - and bingo - there was the 2nd stage. It happens - and it's fun when it does. The look on her face when I came out with the 2nd stage was priceless.

After I saw that the meter was 1/3 or so, I switched to low for the rest of the trip.

Hmmm...interesting - I had charged the unit fully, and then after we had been out awhile noticed that it was only about 1/3 on the battery meter - but I had not brought the charger with me, and was worried that I'd run out of battery so I turned it off for awhile - however, I didn't actually ever run the battery to zero - so it's possible that in this instance, the battery life is longer than the meter would indicate - Trail Buzzards - have you run yours to the point where it shuts off, or were you just estimating battery life via the meter? TB - does this mean that the odometer is actually only giving me information about my 2D trip, and not computing total distance covered on the ground?

Spent some time looking through this thread and smiling a lot. Perhaps we should use this as a Markwell anytime we find incessant whining/complaining in another thread here? NFA, this is what it's all about - thanks for the smiles.

Here's a pic of my daughter after our first cache in July 2003, with her first travel bug (and enjoying a rice crispie treat) after the hike: And now, 2-1/2 years later, with her cousin, Sienna (left) and Mom:

A couple more Explorist issues (Ex 500 user): I too have seen battery life dwindle precipitously since the firmware upgrade - a fully charged battery goes to about 45% in less than 3 hours. I routinely got 13-15 hours before the upgrade. I think this has been noted, but it's soooo far off, that I'll mention it here. I did a hike today where I reset the trip and deleted the historical track and track log. Upon completion of the hike, the trip odemeter read 2.7 miles. The vertical profile indicated that the total trek was 4.2 miles - this 4.2 miles jibed with another cacher with an Etrex - his was 4.2 as well. How in the world can the trip odometer be that far off? Last item that I've noticed - every so often (happened twice yesterday on a long day of caching) after I turn off the GPSr and restart it later, the detail map I had been using is no longer selected, leaving me with only the basemap for use - of course, I could re-select it, but has anyone else seen this issue, and/or have a solution?

After I had read through an older thread where the Hermit Crabs made the Get Out of (TB) Jail Free TB, I thought that this would be a fantastic thing to do with your missing/stolen/lost TBs - especially if both tags had already gone missing.. Laminate the Get Out of Jail Free card (or use the sheep) and add the TB tag number to them so they can be logged - if they disappear, no problem, just redo it again...and again...and again...

One of my geocoins recently resurfaced - The Colonel's Coin #1 - it went missing 6 days after I placed it - just turned up in a piggy bank in Pawtucket - 2 years and 8 months later! I just drove down to the the cache, and grabbed it to move it along!

Hmmm...never thought about correllating that to the firmware upgrade. I have been surprised at how low my battery indicator has been a few times lately. I had a half-full indication this past weekend heading out, and in the past, that would've been enough for an entire day of caching. However, after just an hour and a half, I was wondering if it would even last for a full 3 hours! I'll have to keep a closer eye on that, TrailBuzzards...

Nah...I use the attended to log that I attended the event - not that I found the event or found a cache at the event. Someone at gc.com decided that events should could in their cache count, not me. Frankly, I don't think events should count as 'finds'. I takes all of .34 seconds to subtract the event caches logged from one's find count, if you so desire. I don't log my own caches, and I don't go around touting that I have 138 caches found to date and I'm better than someone else. I also haven't ever entered a contest in which I received something for having the most finds on my account. So, who in the heck am I cheating?!? Cheating: the act of of deception, trickery or fraud. Logging my own event as 'attended' - I don't really think that falls under that definition.

It seems to me that logging your own events and logging your own caches are two completely different things. The event log is 'attended' - and the owner certainly did attend their own event. No shame here - they aren't 'cheating' where they weren't required to use a GPS, solve a puzzle, or do a 10 stage multi, as when one logs a 'find' on their own caches. I have never logged one of my own caches as 'found', but just hosted my first event, and logged it as 'attended'. Perhaps people are uncomfortable with this simply because gc.com counting events as 'finds', when IMO they should not be included in the total cache find count. Why I logged it as 'attended' is, well, because I attended it, and I wanted that event to be listed under my profile as one I was present for...

Here's my log for this one: Brian

At the meet, my daughter will be 5, my son, 2.

The Dosido crew has joined the fray. We've booked site 24 for the weekend. We've been meaning to get the kids out camping for a couple of years now, and this is just the ticket - camping and caching... Hope Grumble doesn't mind some company, Patrick...

We introduced some friends to geocaching while on vacation in 2004. They (with two kids under 10) were smitten, and promptly went out and bought a GPSr. They returned home from vacation, and immediately went out and found a few caches. They even got in the travel bug game, picking up a TB and a geocoin. And, for whatever reasons, that was the end of the caching train for them. Fast forward to 2005, and I planned a trip to visit them - checked out their geocaching profile, and noticed that they still had two travel bugs from 2004. Shortly before going to visit them, one of my travel bugs - Yosemite Sam - turned up after having been reported missing 6 months ago. A cacher had found it on the ground next to a cache miles away from where it was last reported. We took the trip down to visit our friends, and picked up the wayward bug and coin, and brought them back home to log them, and get them moving again. While logging the bugs and caches from our trip, I noticed an owner's notification email from one of my geocoins - The Colonel's Coin #1 - which I had placed on the 14th of September of 2003, and it went missing 6 days later. Seems it's turned up a couple of States south of where it was last seen. So, on my way to rescue two bugs 'missing' for over a year, I get two of mine back too - one 6 months missing, and the other 2.5 years! I tell ya, that's karma, baby!

I'll admit that I didn't read through all of the historical information on the problem with the E500, but could it be that there is an issue with the particular SD card, Great Redmondo? Did you attempt to use the replacement unit without adding the SD card into the mix?

They're baaaack... Version 2.03. Who's gonna try it first?