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dkwolf

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Everything posted by dkwolf

  1. If you look at JJsquared's log from April 3rd, 2006, it states that they left a PA Geocacher keyring. That would be my bet. edit...yeah...what sbell said...
  2. Just a point of information, but that has not been done since May of 2000, which incidentally, is right before the birth of Geocaching. When that signal error was still introduced, the best you could hope for with a civilian gps was a couple HUNDRED foot error. The error your gps shows now is due to atmospheric interferance with the signal, has absolutely nothing to do with intentional degredation of signal by the DoD.
  3. What Kind of unit should I get? The etrex legend will get just as good of signal as any other civilian, consumer-grade gps. Which is to say, not anywheres good enough to even consider use for any type of survey. If you want a gps that can actually locate the corner pins, the answer to your last question is... You can't afford it. I just brought one of our survey grade gps units to our main office today to be sent in for repair. It's 3-4 years old now, and we still took out $39,000 in shipping insurance on it. Let's face it. The best thing you can do if you're planning on doing anything with the land is hire a surveyor. It might cost you $900-$1000, but it would be money VERY well spent. They would find out if your neighbors have been cheating their fence over onto your land, or if you're going to encroach on their land. It really would be a good idea.
  4. snarly, I enjoyed your story. We've all got similar ones. Like me, I prefer not to use maps-at all-in my searches. I'll start 30 miles away and follow the arrow, navigating country roads to get to the cache. There's been more than once I've trail hiked and bushwhacked over a mile and several hundred feet of elevation gain/loss, only to find the cache 15 feet from another parking lot I could have driven to. Worst part is having to hike back to the truck!
  5. Or you can go to the USGS National Map viewer, look at the USGS 1:24,000 digital topo, or the NED (National Elevation Dataset) and find the elevation of your neighborhood, or a point you can find on the ground relatively easy. Or, for a closer-to-geocaching activity, go to the gc.com frontpage, search for a benchmark and look through the descriptions to find one for vertical control....typically benchmark control discs. Go find that, and use the recorded elevation for that point.
  6. Is it set as the display image for your profile? You have to also set it as the image for your forum avatar in your profile page.
  7. This will eventually happen especially because you often look at your GPS while you are walking! So use the handtop in the car to navigate and get yourself a basic handheld GPS to use to get the cache! I don't slip and fall I learned orienteering back in the days when it was maps and compasses. The cardinal rule was "Don't look and walk at the same time." The second rule was "Never take a step until you're sure of your footing." I learned the importance of these two while almost going free-fall off a 75 foot drop. It takes longer, but you live longer to enjoy the results. Interestingly enough, one of the caches that we found in KS _was_ actually in a creek bed, complete with slippery rocks and all those other accouterments which seem to have the sole purpose of making you bruise your backside (or worse). The handtop was in an AquaPac, with additional padding, around my neck. It went inside my jacket when I was moving. I might be less protective if it was just a GPSr, but I hate breaking equipment (or myself) regardless. Unless you're going to hunt exclusively urban lamppost and guardrail micros, you fit into one of two Geocaching groups: 1) Those who have slipped and fallen while hunting a cache. -or- 2) Those who are going to slip and fall while hunting a cache. Note that membership in group one does not exclude you from membership in group two. But Membership in group two is simply awaiting induction into group one. You can protect gear all you want, but *someday* that rock you were so sure of is going to slip out from under your foot and send you tumbling downslope. Nothing against your abilities, just sometimes it happens. I'd rather be holding equipment designed for rugged use when it does.
  8. IowaAdmin (Is that it? ) I'll second that.
  9. Eh. For the thousands of posts I have in online forums, google only hit three entries of my username that were actually me. One post on gc.com, one post on iowaoutdoors.org, and one on a waymark I approved a few months ago. Not worried. If you really want a scare, google your name, phone number, address, and if you're brave, social security number.
  10. Hey...wanna send that my way? I took some VBA classes in college, and need to get back up-to-speed on it (use ArcView GIS software at work, and it's VBA-based....would like to write some custom code for it) What better way to brush up on the code than by using it in my hobby
  11. If you refuse to wear blaze orange because of a fashion statement while caching...pal, you have some SERIOUS priority issues. Buy a hat. Put it on when you walk into the woods. Take it off when you get back to the car. No big deal. Another thing to remember. You can geocache year-round. Hunters get only a couple months to work their sport. If I'm going caching this time of year (unlikely...odds are I'm in my treestand with my bow) and I pull into a parking area and see a likely hunting vehicle... I leave. I can come back in February. The coming weeks are a critical time in deer hunting, as the rut (breeding season) is about to start, and deer activity will be at it's highest. If there's already someone out there hunting, do you HAVE to go after that cache today?
  12. You're assuming that in pitch black with no navigation equipment (gps, compass) you can walk a straight line. Stand in an open, empty field, choose a point several hundred yards away, blindfold yourself and walk towards it. You won't stay on the path. If you're right handed, you'll veer slightly to the left--your dominant side is stronger, and subconsiously takes longer, more powerful strides. If you can find a fencerow to walk, you're good.
  13. 1) Spend a few days working on it. Read everything carefully, pay attention to details. 2) If you get stumped and need a hint, email the CACHE OWNER. 3) Spend some more time working on it. Check everything again, even the most insignificant detail. 4) Try the cache owner again, or by now, ask for a nudge from someone who has found it. If the cache has JUST been listed, don't expect any hints. Don't expect help until it's been found at least once, and some owners won't help in the first _____ (week, month...) a cache is listed.
  14. I don't think geocaching is affecting the ammo can supply that much. Hunters & outdoorsmen have long known about them, and have been purchasing them for storage of their gear. I've seen the supply ebb & flow several times, I wonder of the timing of government sales/cycling out of gear has anything to do with it.
  15. It depends on who I'm caching with, my BIL and I use a one finds-it, all sign it method. My college roomate and I (and his wife) use the find it, walk away, announce you found it, and wait for everyone else. Just depends on the day. Nothing wrong with either way. Both ways, you hunted for it. Just depends on if you're working as part of a team, or as a group of individuals.
  16. Are you sure it's magnitite? Northern Minnesota is just across the lake from there, where they have (or, had, past tense) a huge tachonite (iron ore) deposit that fairly covers the whole region. I've had experience with that ore deposit, on my last Boundary Waters trip. Dad was lost for a full day trying to navigate by compass. I quickly went into 'look at landmarks, find landmarks on map' mode and had no problem. The ore would be my guess as to the cause of your compass malfunctions.
  17. To expand a bit, firetacks are coated with a retro-reflective tape--the same stuff they use for the decals on police cars, or road signs. Notice how they really light up at night? The way the coating is designed, it reflects a very high percentage of the light that hits it directly back at the source (your headlights, a flashlight, etc) Some of them can be seen in the daylight, they're about the size of a push pin or thumb tack, most of them are white, some orange. Some of them are brown so they blend in during the daytime. They're usually spaced out far enough that you'd really have a hard time finding them in the daylight though. The key to searching them at night is hold the flashlight at eye level--remember, they reflect back to the light source, so if your light is at eye level and close to your head, they'll shine brightest.
  18. If possible, please add me for one black nickel and one antique brass coin, thanks! those things are awesome!
  19. I for one tend to be one of the follow the arrow crowd. Have been on some interesting bushwacks only to find an easy trail 15' from the cache. Guess what? Often turn around and bushwack my way back out. Timber stands aren't that dense here, so it's not that hard, and frequently more rewarding than the easy path. On top of that, for much of my region, google earth's imagery is POOR at best. I wouldn't use it to research a parking lot micro--I think the most recent image GE has of my hometown is 15 years old.
  20. Just bought a GPSMAP60CSx, haven't had time to play with it too much yet. I do hav ea question though, I use GSAK to load .gpx files onto the unit, and I've noticed that when I search for a cache, the 'notes' section on the display shows the cache name, hider, and d/t. Is there a way to customize what gets sent to the GPS as notes? IE, could I send the D/T and hint as a note instead? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
  21. You used to be able to change names quite easily, but that was recently changed with a forum software upgrade, I believe. The standard response is create a new account using the new name and backlog all of your finds onto that account, but since you have a premium membership on this one, things might get a little more difficult. I guess my next step would be send an email to contact [at] Groundspeak [dot] com Good luck, and welcome to the addicti.......er......hobby!
  22. when you get right down to it, there's some decent stuff there for a buck (well, $0.25 now...) There's also some carp, but use judgement. Good to know, I'll be going to a target tomorrow (nearest one is 45 miles away)
  23. First and foremost: I am NOT asking for help on any specific puzzle. It irritates me when anyone does that here, and I'll be danged if I'm gonna start I enjoy puzzles, mindbenders, etc. but have fallen way out of practice on them. I've solved the puzzle for one cache about 60 miles north of me, but have been unable to go hunt it yet (time constraints). I eventually wish to hide one here, probably with a self-created code. I had an idea for one using an encryption method I learned in college, but actually think the puzzle would be too hard to crack. I'm slowly working on a national treasure-style puzzle/multi cache that will highlight some interesting features of my hometown/county. What I'm looking for is online resources or other methods of how to crack codes, and/or puzzle caches in your area that are relatively easy to moderately difficult to solve; kinda try to work my brain back into this stuff. Given my geographical location, I ask that puzzles in Iowa or Eastern Nebraska not be listed, and if you list a code-breaking method, please do not list a cache that uses that method (or vice versa) Thanks!
  24. I'm going to agree with something sbell said in an earlier post (or it might have been a PM) but this thread is getting a little off-topic....think we can steer it back a bit? Please? Before the mods have to step in? (yes, I know I was a main cause of the tangent, and for that I apologize. Hopefully some good knowledge came out of it though)
  25. I did take the time to read that pamphlet--it's very informative. I'm still not worried. Looks to me like 99% of the concern is from lead dust, which in a cast piece such as a coin will not exist. Pure lead is a very malleable metal, any contact with another metal is going to dent or deform the lead, not grind it to dust. It also looks like the greatest majority of the danger from lead is to small children. I'm guessing the little tykes are not geocaching on their own, so they're going to be trading with adult supervision. If you're suspect, don't let them take it, but don't destroy it--that's someone's craftsmanship. I'd be a lot more worried about them picking up a little stuffed animal (seen lots of TB's of these) that's been in a dark, damp environment for who knows how long. Like I've said, be smart about it and a lead coin isn't going to cause you any problems...and yes, if you're casting your own coins, lead maybe isn't the *best* choice, but if it's what you have, or all you can afford, so be it. If/when I start casting my own, the first runs especially will likely be lead; it's easier to work with. If they get released into the wild, they'll have a protective coating--enamel most likely. Sure, I'd like to have my own crucible and be able to cast better metals, but I really doubt it's going to happen.
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