hamgran

Geocachers are very interesting people, and I love running into them on the trail. Just yesterday I met a fellow at a cache, who lives a few provinces away from me, and who had just come back from caching in Africa! He had some fascinating stories, and I wish we'd had more time together. - hamgran

It's a toss between Pisces Resting at the Pet Cemetery, and The Old Bridge over Ausable River. No hikes involved, but interesting and neat hides. I'm looking forward to doing dex's 101st - the challenger! - hamgran

a gem from November 28, 2003: ". . Criminal For President"

(it was quite tongue-in-cheek anyway, Keystone...)

If you want to create a virtual cache (and don't want to stand on your head, cross your eyes and recite "War and Peace" to have it approved), simply create a regular one, have it go missing, then post a note on the cache page telling folks they can log it as a virtual until you get around to replacing it! Like this one: The Old Seed House Garden and this one: Winter Wasteland (though this one does look like it's back up and running normally now). - hamgran

This is my geocaching buddy, "Blue the Trusty Geodog". He goes with me on 75% of my cache finds. He's slowing down a bit now - he's over 11 years old.

I have been attacked recently because cachers didn't like the fact they had to wade through mud and water to get to one of my caches, or they didn't like the place where I hid it, or my description, or the bugs, or the fact that the tree cover gave them different co-ords, or... etc., etc., even though the rating system reflected the cache's difficulty quite clearly. Aaah well. This is why I seldom criticize a cache - I don't like to be criticized myself - although I really have to bite my tongue when I attempt to find a brand-new cache (especially multis) that haven't been trialed by the owners before going online, and thus have calculating errors in them, making them impossible to find. One I went to wasn't even actually placed until three days after it went online. Aaah well! - hamgran

I use the topo Canada maps from Garmin, and love them. They are especially useful for my 3-week moose hunting trips in the fall. I can tell where lakes and rivers are, as well as elevation changes. - hamgran

English 101: "Ode on a Geocache" - derived from the old classic, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (Keats) ... and, yes, I do reserve the right to create a cache to my own specs - isn't that what it's all about? Individuality... I've seen caches that are only supposed to trade CDs, or Travel Bugs, or anything blue, or McToys, or... (As has oft been pointed out in these forums, "cachers are free to pick and choose the caches they find".) but we digress from the original question. The overall consensus was basically what I thought it would be. If the terrain/difficulty ratings are accurate, it is of course at the hider's discretion as to what those numbers will be, and there is no (official or otherwise) correlation requirement between the two. My thanks to all who answered. - hamgran

I have been somewhat admonished about one of my caches because it was both difficult to get to, and difficult to find. I had rated the difficulty/terrain properly, I believe, but the cacher in question had been told that if a cache was difficult to get to, it should be easier to find, and vice-versa. Is this actually true? I have never heard of such a thing... especially if both conditions had been reflected accurately through the rating system. - hamgran (GCJ7TC)

I had no idea you were so punny, C-A!

Here's one... "Johnie Cache's Revenge" - hamgran

I just did a wonderful cache tonight, "Algonquin Trail and Tower". Now that's what I call a CACHE! It took me just over two hours of solid work to do. Gorgeous views. And what a sense of accomplishment at the end. A big difference from the ten parking lot caches I did in twenty minutes in Nashville earlier this year. (Why did the cache owners want to bring me there?) - hamgran

Well, not really in the Niagara Region, but fairly close... a new one in Woodstock, Ontario, by Johnie Cache.

If you call Garmin International (Kansas?) and tell them you're not satisfied with the Quebec reps, they'll likely offer a good deal to have it fixed... then you just have to make sure they mark the package going back to Canada as "warranty items" so that it's not charged duty, and also make sure they send it as "first class regular mail" (snailmail) so that the brokers don't get their hands on it. Otherwise, it'll cost you an arm and a leg.

Hi, Circle! It updates itself every few days; you'll see your numbers on the page soon. Awesome that you joined! - hamgran

Cougar Bait is an interesting cache to do in that area... not really much of a hike, but interesting nonetheless. - hamgran

Yes, actually, that's what Garmin (in the States) did for me. Sent me the entire 4-disc set, no charge, since they couldn't replace just the one. Pretty impressive. The Garmin reps in Quebec weren't flexible at all - according to them, I had to rebuy the complete set. - hamgran

Yes, you're right. The first disc is the crucial one - without installing it, you can't access the 2nd, 3rd and 4th disc. Although there is map data on the 1st disc, as well (Southwestern Canada). Do you have a set that's missing the first disc? I cracked my 2nd disc (South Central Canada) and I couldn't just buy the one disc - I had to buy the whole set again. Expensive. So now I have my full set, plus a set of three (disc 1, 3 and 4). - hamgran

I've given some thought to this question, and have come up with six - I just can't seem to pare it down to five. In no particular order, and all for different reasons, my favourites are: 1) Better than Boredom, by Photo Guy (GC33E1)This is a privately-owned trail, and the beauty and serenity experienced in there is beyond words. 2) My Roots, by Coureurs de Bois (GCHBMK). A really awesome conservation area. 3) What Lies Beneath, by Bush Babies (GCG5FJ). In Nova Scotia, this is a real treasure of a cache! 4) Canada Island, by McKinley (GCG9CZ). It was my first cache-by-canoe, done during a lazy Canada Day morning. Great memories. 5) The Falls Tour: Inglis Falls, by Bent & Twisted (GCJJDW). The area is great, but the hide - well, the hide was awesome, and I found it!!! 6) A Garden of Wildflowers, by Jake39 (GCJHY4). I love the richness of wetlands, and this one was exceptional. Death by Traffic, by Tiger Bleu, GCH6KC(mentioned before in this thread) was worth noting, as well. Very interesting spot. - hamgran

I've long been interested in this program, "Seti at Home", whereby anyone with a computer and internet access can download radio astronomy data from the site, and their own computer will analyze it for irregularities which may indicate some form of extraterrestrial life. I see geocaching is represented in two of the groups, or clubs, but there are not a lot of members, and only two from Canada. Anyone else interested in participating? - hamgran The first geocaching group: "Geocachers of the World Unite" The second: "Geocaching"

Hey, isn't it past your bedtime, C-A?

Hi, GeoSteve! No snub here, honest! Stirling's #2 has been on our list of definite "to do's" since it came out - we really enjoyed your other three caches, and are looking forward to doing your new one. Things just quite haven't worked out for us to get there, yet. Got some newer ones in London to do, too. It's really wonderful that caches are increasing in the area. Looking forward to meeting you sometime soon, as well - we've been conversing with Knitter and DNStephens about having some kind of an event cache for our area, maybe in the fall. And who knows? Maybe we'll run into you on the trails sometime! - The tall bald guy, the gorgeous chick, and the big yellow dog. (p.s. keep those great caches coming!)

Strange - I just tried it WITH the PDA in the cradle - by mistake - and it worked! I'll try that next time and see if it still works... if not, I'll try to turn off the synch, cc. I could understand there being a problem with the PDA interfering, if they were both serial items, but the GPSr is serial and the PDA is USB. Over and above my gray-haired head, I'm afraid. Thanks for the input! - hamgran

I thought of the cable problem, so I borrowed another Vista cable from a friend and tried it - same thing. I do have a PDA, and I always make sure it's out of its cradle when I try downloading, so the synch is off. Unfortunately, I have only one COM port on the computer, otherwise I'd try another port. Maybe I'll try completely unhooking the PDA from the USB port. Although that wouldn't explain why the download works sometimes, and not others, when I've never unhooked it before. Thanks for the input! - hamgran