j.brand

Wheaton here. PM me and perhaps we can catch the odd cache run now and then!

What are the "can't miss" caches in the area?

I must say I am very sad to see this go. I am also highly suspicious of the 200 number, as I probably personally know of about 50 people that use it - just in my little corner of the geosphere. Not the end of the world, bud sad nevertheless.

At one point, I was scouting a place to hide a cache in one of my favorite, little known, local forest preserves. Found a decent spot, in a hollow tree - not too bushwacky. Went to put the cache in, and found another cache! Pulled it out, pristine log. Hmm - I had checked before I left, I knew there were no published caches nearby. I signed the log, put it back and hiked away the requisite distance to hide my own. I figured it was bad timing - and they would both show up on GC. Never hear from the other one again. Checked on it some months later when checking on my own, - and it was gone. Still wondering...

I'll put a plug in for any of the garmin hc models. Probably the best value out there for a GPS. If you want lots of other bells and whistles (yeah they are nice) you may need to look elsewhere - but for a sensative accurate gps, hard to beat for the bucks.

I don't use pocket pc, but palm. That being said, my solution should still work for you. I keep my caches in GSAK. I export it as html, and then read it on my palm using plucker (open source html reader). There is a version of plucker for poclet PC - I don't see why it wouldn't work for you also. Hope this helps.

I was hunting around through a favorite local forest, looking to place my first cache. Came across likely enough spot - hollow tree, sheltered, not too obvious. Captured the coords, and when to put the cache inside: wait a minuite. Whats that. Pulled out a well camoflauged - geocache. Virgin. Empty log. Never been signed. Still not on the website a couple of months later. No name or waymark on it. I signed the log, and found a new spot, more than a tenth of a mile away. And hid my own. I've been waiting for the other one to surface ever since. Did you ever wonder what comes *before* FTF?

I tracked down a standard cache, located along a path in a small wetlands near an elementary school. the log was signed by Mrs *****'s kindergarden class who were excited to have found the "fairy box" in the tree while they were out walking with teacher.