Amazon Annie

Thanks Team Phonenix, I guess it's the speed that they are known for rather than size. A Peregrine Falcon hunting dive or "stoop" can reach speeds of 330 km per hour. Almost as fast as some local cachers I know!

I don't know if you're aware of this but there are a couple of Peregrine falcons who come to the Hamilton Sherton Hotel and check in each year to hatch their chicks. This is a link to the Web Cam where you can watch the eggs and the chicks hatch. If you're lucky, you can see the parents bring in some food and even watch the chicks on their first flights. In the last couple of days while out caching I swear we came across one of these on the trees above us. One was out in the RBG while we were doing Lookout, Lookout, Lookout today (which I recommend highly). They are HUGE birds and it's well worth keeping an eye out for them.

Take another look Logger! You must have caught him while he was posting!

If you're going down to the US then it's simpler than Canada... I just drove down to Florida down the I-75 and to get the caches, I found one in Michigan, I clicked on the Geocaching map and then just kept heading south on the map and checked out the caches along the Interstate. The US maps are great and you can really grab a quick list as you go along. I used 'Geoclipping' to grab some odd ones to my PDA Geoclipping Page While we were down there (and on the way home) we took a bit of a stop and went into a library where you can get free internet access to check out some more caches ('cause of course we did all the ones that I downloaded into my GPS). I think someone said Kinko's charges $12 for 1/2 hr! You can do the same in Canada. I was in PEI and found someone who was thrilled with the concept and off we went to the local library to find some caches around the island. I've had email from people who were planning on caching in an area I had cached in previously and they asked if I knew of the caches in that section. Maybe you could do the same - look around on the GC.com pages in an area and try emailing some of the cachers - you might get some suggestions on ones to go for and ones to avoid! Have fun on your trip!

... er I think the race might just be over. Stand by for tonight's postings!

Welcome to my obsession! (isn't that a song? Or maybe it's "my nightmare"... and I've had a few geocaching nightmares in my day). I'm just north of you, up the escarpment. There is a fabulous group of cachers in this neck of the woods so you've picked a great place to start. Lots of active caches (and more every day) - a few easy ones in Burlington to get you started and then you can head up the hill to those 3 and 4 star terrain ones that will have you puffing and huffing and cursing and... oh ... the nightmares! Make them stop!! The 'get togethers' are a great way to pick up tips and tricks and find a few people to go out on the trails with (who will show you which way to hold the gps and other archane things!) Hope to see you on the trails. I'm the one wandering around in circles trying to figure my way back to the truck.

Hi Jeremy, Being outside the US (but just a bit north) I'm THRILLED to hear of the new maps! When I was planning a trip down to Florida last month I used the maps to figure out the caches along the I-75 on the way down. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You will make my planning much easier. Annie

Royal Botanical Gardens plans to conduct the first in a series of annual prescribed savannah burns to restore rare habitat at Sassafras Point on the south shore of Cootes Paradise in Hamilton. The ignition date has been set at 2PM Sunday April 18, 2004, WEATHER PERMITTING. A safe viewing area will be established for visitors to witness the burn. I received a PSA (Public Service Announcement) from the RBG and I thought I'd give everyone a heads up for this Sunday. I know "Duck Watch cache" is down that way. If you want details, I can forward the PSA to you.

Thanks Purple Fever, this reminds me of my years in Banff. People would ask questions such as: "How much does that mountain weigh?" (Reponse: "With or without the trees?") "Is that snow on the top?" (Response: "No, we paint that on for the effect.") "How do we see bears?" (Response: "Just go out into the woods with a bucket of KFC.") "Are those real mountain goats?" (Response: "Actually, they're sheep but we just glue the horns on.")

Great ! I have in my possession "Mr. Met" Mr. Met Mr. Met told me he wanted to visit every professional sports teams stadium, arena, etc. He'd even checkout college or high school venues if he cannot make it to a professional one during a stopover. But he wants a picture of him taken at the place and added to his log page. Can you help? Annie

Thanks Dirtrunner but the trouble is, I'm not planning on going to the Skydome now and I need someone to take it there. Hear ye, hear ye.. a two-fer! Two Travel Bugs for one location!! Anyone up for it? Annie

I've picked up a baseball themed TB that needs to go to the Skydome (or other baseball field. Due to extenuating circumstances I won't be seeing the person I had planned to hand it off to. Can anyone help me out? Someone in the Golden Horseshoe that can help Mr. Met meet his goal? Will deliver! (Within reason). Annie

I have to say the most creative one I've seen yet is this one: "Mo-Jo" Cincinnati Style If you read the logs, they have gatherings to watch people search. I'm going to see if I can find someone to help me duplicate this in my area. Fabulous cammo job.... Genius!

After listening to Algonquin Bound rave about the newest version (beta) I had to test it out. I like the features, played with everything but... When I try to upload the waypoints to my Magellan Sportrak Map, I get the error: MAGPROTO: No data received from GPS. I checked the setup: - Magellan - Com 2 - Baud Rate: 4800 I'm only uploading 14 waypoints and none of them are the ones I have had trouble with (odd characters) in the past. Mapsend DID upload them (it often kaak's at problems). Yes, the GPS IS on <grin>. I had uninstalled the old GSAK and did a fresh install of the Beta version. I was using a .gpx file. Dunno... at least I don't have to enter by hand (which I did on a recent trip to Florida - I'm getting darned good at it but errors can cost caches!) Annie

Yahoo... I'm #7 (until Algonquin Bound enters his latest and then I'm waaaay back). Thanks Keith !

Hi Rjo, Thanks for all your interest! The site is here: http://66.207.113.44/oga/ The site hasn't been officially launched yet. Annie

I was having the same trouble with my Sportrak Map. Here's a couple of things to check: -Go to Setup Menu and check your "Map Datum" - I've set both my Primary and Secondary to WGS84. - Make sure your Coordination System is Lat/Lon (it should be!) - Try initializing your unit (in Setup Menu) - you won't lose your waypoints if you do this. After I did all of the above, mine seemed to be more accurate. It was 40m out with each cache before I fixed the Map Datum. Good luck!

Well Grand Trunk IS there (note to Trimbles Trek - you can park at the end of Sherman Ave and go up there). Man-O-Man is this one tricky in the snow - everything's frozen in there. I'm sure glad Res2100 was there! I would never have found it. Thanks!

Nope AB, I posted a no find - and that was before the snow! By the way everyone, Ian was called "Scene stealer" in the review of his play in the local paper. Hmmmmm... no wonder Fence is missing!!! He was practicing.

Hmmmm ... wadda ya think Res? If we get enough out do you think we could log it as a mini-event cache? Hey, no best of luck for me AB? <sniff> .... Next time we drag YOU out to Fence !

I don't know that I would find any benefit with the .loc files. I have paid my $ to gc.com and I get my bi-weekly pocket queries in .gpx format. I use them for my PDA (CacheMate) and convert them for MapSend with GSAK. I also use the same method as res2100 - (it's a link on my browser - "Local Unfound") to view the huge amount of local ones that I haven't managed to get yet. Are these .loc files for us or are they sorted and available for visitors (tourists) to the various Ontario regions? Maybe we could post long/lats of the centre of the region or cache of the week (although that might be too much to maintain?) I'll have a look at other clubs and see what they are doing.

Shows are a great place to get discounts! A friend was working the Boat Show in T.O. last month and Radio World was there and I got a good discount on a carmount and power cable for my truck.

I'm not fond of the trillium that is brought forward. If we have anything in there, I'd like it to be quite transparent so it doesn't look quite so busy.

... a Tim Horton's cup and donut? But seriously folks... if you choose a GPS then do you choose a Magellan or Garmin or other? How about transforming the GC logo into a topo map ? Kinda gets the idea across? I imagine you don't want something that distracts from the other part of the logo. Maple Leaf or beaver seems to generic Canuck. Narrow it down to an Ontario item.. hmmm... back to Tim's. Trillium? Just some random thoughts.

I don't know about other GPS's but with my Magellan Sportrak I have customized the screens to give me the date and time as I'm caching. I hate having to ask each time I sign the log book. It gets embarrassing. That and "Where am I?" The log feature is great and I've used it many times but during the winter I usually wait 'til I get back to the truck to log it on my PDA. Brrr..