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Alphatexana

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Everything posted by Alphatexana

  1. We are getting started on CITO early in Texas this year. The Waco Area Geocachers will kick off the CITO season with a "Don't Mess With Lake Waco" event on April 3. The April 3 date was chosen to coincide with a similar event hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers and other community groups.
  2. The Associated Press reports that Scott Peterson's defense lawyer will try to convince the judge in Peterson's double-murder case that global positioning technology is "inaccurate and unreliable." Apparently Peterson was tracked by Global Positioning System devices placed by police in vehicles he drove after his wife, Laci, disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002. Geragos wants all the GPS tracking evidence excluded from the trial. Geragos claims in court papers, "the GPS technology has not been generally accepted by the scientific community." "We all know from how much we use GPS now that it's quite accurate," said Mark Hutchins, senior deputy district attorney in Alameda County. "Airplanes use it. Everyone's got a GPS map thing in their car." The article contains this quote: Here's the complete article.
  3. One of the earlier posts said that WAAS reception depended on longtitude....it is actually latitude (how far North of the equator you are). Here in Central Texas I can usually get a good read on a WAAS satellite about 30 to 40% of the time (I seem to recall it is number 35 or 37 on the Vista). The settings on my Vista are similar to those shared below. I leave the compass on because that's the compass that I use; it is one of the main reasons I paid for a Vista, so I might as well use it. I'm very pleased with mine. Happy caching.
  4. I'm emailing you my son's responses. Alphatexana
  5. These links might be helpful to you: The Georgia Geocachers have a guide on how to start your own organization. A sample set of bylaws--Washington State Geocaching Association A sample code of conduct on placing caches--Georgia Geocaching Association The Maryland organization also has a good list of geocaching organizations in the states that might be a good place to start your research. Good luck.
  6. Are you looking for rules covering the governance of the organization (we have a President, VP, treasurer, etc.) or governing the geocaching activities (we don't leave trash, we don't bury, don't hide in historic areas, etc.)?
  7. Well, here is the Point Washington Cache (GC819E). It sounds like a note with coordinates to a bonus (bogus?) cache were included among the contents so it is difficult to tell from his explanation whether this is even a registered cache. Point Washington isn't a multi-cache. Pirate, I went and read your logs on your other finds. One thing that you might think about is creating a waypoint when you get out of your car. This should help you keep track of where you started (it may also save you having to go back to the house and get that ball of twine). I seem to recall you have a Garmin Etrex. You can also turn on tracklogs (think virtual breadcrumbs) which might help. Good luck. (By the way, you definitely have the concept of "trading up" mastered. Let me know if you are ever near Waco, Texas--you can visit any of my caches! ).
  8. Your GPSr (assuming that it doesn't have a built-in compass--and with the Legend, you don't) can only tell you what the bearing (direction) is between where you are and where you are going when you are standing still. In other words, the GPSr has no way of knowing which way you are facing. This is why you need to be moving in order for it to know what your heading is. By moving, your GPSr is able to figure out (1) where you were a moment ago, (2) where you are now, and (3) the direction to where you are wanting to go (and your GPSr will even point the way). A good link to check out for more explanation isMarkwell's FAQ. Once you know your bearing (make sure you have your GPSr set to use magnetic north), you should be able to turn the large dial of your compass to that heading, match up the north end of the needle toward the north part of the compass body, and figure out where you need to head. This is a drastically simple explanation of using a compass. I'd check out these links for more information: How to Use a Compass Chasetek's How to Use a Compass Good Luck, Alphatexana (edited to reference Legend)
  9. I purchased the "Carry Case" for my Garmin and clip that onto the strap for my backpack, near my shoulder. Seems to keep the signal fairly well that way. Carry Case
  10. I really recommend that you start with something easier that Eastern Lake Trail. Do you see that it has three stars for difficulty and three stars for terrain? That means that the person who hid this cache recognized and wants to caution others that the cache is fairly difficult to get to (more than 2 miles with overgrown trails) and will be "very well hidden." The scale goes from one to five (one is easy, five is very hard in difficulty or terrain). Look for a cache that has one star for difficulty and one star for terrain for your first cache. For example, Old Ferry South. On your first cache, be sure to take a print out from your computer of the page for the cache (you might even want to unencrypt the clues beforehand, just in case you need them, I won't tell anyone ). Enter the waypoint for the cache in your GPS like you were told how to do, and head after it. Good luck. Alphatexana
  11. Be sure to post and tell us all how your first cache experience turns out.
  12. New article on geocaching on Scientific American Magazine's website. Mark Clemens describes in his story his quest to find a cache in Lake George, NY.
  13. I'm in the process of planning as part of a community-wide effort the annual "Clean Up Lake Waco" Day this spring. Various community groups, as well as several governmental entities will participate. This event has taken place for the last several years and typically has several hundred people show up for the event. I'd like to get the local geocachers involved as well by hosting it as a CITO event. The parks around this lake probably contain 20% of the caches in the area, and I have a hunch the geocachers participation would be well-received. Aside from promoting it by word of mouth and announcing the event as a cache, is there anything else I should plan on doing to make this a successful CITO event? I'm planning to create a number of CITO containers ahead of time to hand out at the event to geocachers for further distribution. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance, Alphatexana
  14. I think that there is some exposure to the land owner. I'll review below the general standard of care that the land owner will owe to persons visiting his or her property to search for a cache (in Texas, anyway). It would be more difficult to hold you liable as the cache owner. Generally, as long as you act as a "reasonable and prudent person" in placing and describing the risks that accompany your cache, you will be okay. Back to the land owner, as a general rule the standard of care owed to a person on your property who is injured as a result of a condition on your property will increase as their presence is known, permitted and invited. For example, under Texas law, there are three classes of persons when it comes to "premise liability" claims. The first class is known as a business invitee. Think customers of store. These are persons who are on the premise for some business purpose that benefits the owner (or lessee) of the premises. If you are an invitee, the owner has to a duty to avoid presenting you with an "unreasonable risk of harm" which he or she knew or should have known about. A good example is a banana peel that is dropped in the produce aisle at the grocery store (and there are cases on this). If the evidence shows that the banana peel was "fresh" and only recently dropped then the injured visitor will have a difficult time establishing tha tthe owner knew or should have known o fthe risk of harm, but if the evidence is that it had been there half a day, well, the owner will probably lose on that issue. In Texas, the next class of person is the licensee. This is probably where the average geocacher who is hiking on private land with the owner's permission would fall. This is where you have permission to be on the property, but it really isn't for any business purpose. Think about visiting your neighbor's house for supper. In this type of circumstance, the owner must have actual knowledge of the dangerous condition and then have failed to correct it or warn you about it in order to be liable. Fortunately this is a fairly high standard. It helps us feel better about inviting our friends over for dinner, right? Since a warning is permitted to shift the risk, this could make putting good warnings on cache pages very helpful. The final class of person is the trespasser. If a geocacher does not have permission of the land owner and hikes over their land to get to the cache, they are a trespasser. In Texas, the only duty the owner has is to not injure you intentionally. (There are some exceptions to this rule, such as if you can anticipate children trespassing on the property and the property contains an attractive hazard). I'd always feel better from a liability perspective hiding a cache on public park land with the park manager's permission. Park lands are anticipated to be used by the public for hiking and the type of activity that accompanies geocaching. While governmental entities may have some limits on their tort exposure, they typically are more used to handling and managing these types of risks and liabilities than your average private land owner. Hope this answers your question, Alphatexana
  15. Here's an article on the new unit in MobileMag. It contains a discussion of the "geocaching mode": "For hundreds of thousands of GPS users, geocaching* is a fun outdoor activity. Garmin’s 60 Series provides intuitive pages to aid geocachers in the pursuit of their "quarry." After a cache is found, these units will automatically apply a date stamp, log it in the Outdoor Calendar, and point the user to the next closest cache."
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