dzdiver

Just thought I would let everyone know the outcome of my cache approval.... Mtn-Man approved my cache in just a little bit over 72 hours. Thanks Mtn-Man! And the cache has now been found by some friends and co-workers! We are the proud owner of a new cache! (GCK08J)

I do appreciate the fact that the approvers are volunteers and hopefully have a life other than being an approver. I just did not have any idea how long it is currently taking in Northern California for cache approval. I had a veteran cacher check my cache page for obvious errors. She found none. I feel confident that the cache will be approved without any significant problems. Patience is a lesson that I am still learning. I hope that this will not be a test!

Just curious if other recent California cache placers could tell me how long it took to get their cache approved. It is now coming up on 72 hours and it has not been approved and no notes have been added to the log. Not a gripe at this point, just curious. Thanks.

For a reliable, intense, small flashlight, you cannot beat the Surefire lights. I have a 6P (non-rechargeable) that I keep with my weapon. It throws a tremendous beam. Several people I know use the rechargeable Sure Fire lights and they love them for the same reasons. For geocaching I use a Princeton Tec headlight that has three LED's and one Main bulb. It runs on AA batteries and is quite well made. It offers a choice of soft difuse light with the LED's or a strong beam with the main bulb.

Use some electrician's tape to tape a pair of headphones to your GPSr. Then with some creative acting on your part, it may look like you are simply searching/switching songs on your new MP3 player.

I own a couple of the USA Geocoins. I have placed one into circulation so far. I have had great success with that coin. It is now overseas and travelling aimlessly from cache to cache as I intended. I plan to place the other into my first cache that I place. I for one intend my geocoin to travel and not be collected as personal property by geocachers. I have also purchased travel bugs, but have not placed them into circulation yet, as I have not found something suitable to attach them to. That is what attracted me to the geocoin, it is simple, elegant, and trackable.

I would consider my Garmin 72 to be simple, waterproof, and tough. I wish that I would have purchased the Garmin 76 instead since it adds an external antenna connector. I routinely use my Garmin 72 on my sea kayak to track distance/speed. When I use it in salt water I rinse the entire thing in fresh water at the end of my kayaking. I have dropped it a few times and it has survived with only blemishes. I plan on purchasing the new Garmin 76C for the auto-routing and map functions. I will keep the 72 for my kayak.

I received a response from GC.com admin today. They requested more information from me about the situation. I appreciate the administration's concern regarding the cache location and situation. I have been able to keep a "Found Log" for the cache. Simply states that the log was found and logged. A search of forum postings for the cache owner shows no forum postings. Those of you who "were concerned" because I recently found a cache of yours, are NOT the problem! DZDIVER

Thanks for your feedback! I exercised the "Needs to be archived" option. The cache owner deleted the log with that archive request. Soon afterwards, I noticed that the owner has modified the cache page to specifically state that the cache is not appropriate for children or pets. He also warns of transient traffic and alcohol. I did previously notify the GC.com admin of my concerns about the site. Thank You!

Recently my wife and I were visiting an area and did some geocaching. We came across a cache location that caused some concern. The cache was described as being a micro with historical significance. It did contain a warning not to attempt the cache at night. Previous logs showed that the site may have been a transient camp at one time. Upon arriving at the location I quickly decided that this was a higher than normal crime rate area for this city. The location was an old abandoned building in a commercial area. The building was near highway overpasses. After taking some precautions for physical safety in event of an encounter with a criminal, we approached the building. We saw signs that the area is still frequented by transients. We saw human waste, broken beer bottles, and drug paraphenelia on the ground. The place was also an eyesore with trash, no yard maintenance, etc. Just as we were deciding that scoring another cache wasn't worth the health risks present at the location, my wife found the container. We logged our visit. An on-duty LE Officer stopped by just as we were getting ready to leave. I identified myself as an off-duty Officer from outp-of-the area and explained our reason for being at the location. He told me that he stopped by when he saw us. He said that he thought that we were tourists and were lost. He was concerned for our safety. He then told me that the area was a problem area for transients, assaults, etc. He said that he didn't think the location was suitable for a family themed game. We had a brief but nice talk with him about geocaching and we all left. After we returned home, I thought long and hard about how to log this cache. My wife and I have found about 135 caches so far and have never come across a location as bad as this one. I didn't think that the cache page adequately described the hazards of the location. I honestly didn't think that the location should be a cache, but felt that it wasn't up to me to decide. I logged our find and went on to describe the hazards. I described our visit with the LE Officer and his explanation of the hazards. I stated my opinion that the location was not suitable for families or children. I also sent an email to the cache owner telling him in more detail that I thought the cache location was inappropriate. I kept all of my comments in my email and log professional. He sent back a response that basically stated that everyone makes their own risk assessments and I don't have to do it. He also deleted my log. I agree that everyone should be able to take as little or as much risk as they would like within reason. I do rather extreme sea kayaking, have SCUBA dived in very dangerous conditions, and have made several skydives. I don't want anyone telling me that I shouldn't do those things. But, I did make INFORMED decisions about each. When the cache owner deleted my log and didn't update the cache page with the present conditions, I felt that he did this community a disservice. I also felt slighted as I put a good deal of effort into my log. The reason for this post is to get feedback from this community. What should I do if anything? Nothing at all? I have sent an email in an attempt to contact the cache approvers for that area. Any and all feedback is appreciated. DZDIVER

Would a cache approver for the San Antonio Area of Texas please contact me through my geocaching address? I have a concern I would like to discuss with you. Thank You!

You might consider turning it into the police department having jurisdiction over the area you found it. A couple of reasons: In many states it is required by law. With GPSr's and the registration process, the owner may have contacted the manufacturer to get the serial number and then reported it to law enforcement as lost with a serial number. The property can then be entered into NCIC as lost property by serial number. It can then be automatically matched by serial number when you turn it in as found. Many people do call the police when the lose something to see if it has been turned in. You might also contact the gps manufacturer to see if they can notify the owner that you found it and turned it into police.

Sounds like a lot of fun! There are dry bags made with backpack straps. You might price these too.

I just bought my wife a Palm Tungsten E for her business. This purchase was made for business/personal organization, not geocaching. It seemed like the most Palm for the money. She found it very easy to use and almost "foolproof". I liked hers so much that I bought one for me. I plan to use mine for our geocaching. I like the easy to read color screen, large amount of built in memory, and the expansion slot. Both of us have already dropped our PDA's onto the ground and fortunately they have not suffered any problems. I have not played with the software side of this task yet. Several users offered great ideas on the software.

We have not hidden our first cache yet, but I would like to offer the following. The first cache that I found was a class act cache. It was an ammo box, properly placed, with quality stuff inside. I don't remember how the outside of the cache was marked, but the inside had the hiders name, email address, and phone number. Later in our geocaching we were doing a multi-cache hidden by the same hider. One of the stages was a micro that had leaked during heavy storms. The paper was wet and the ink ran. We could not make out the information needed to complete the final stage of the multi. Through the geocaching web site I sent the hider a couple of emails that were never answered. Finally I decided that I would go back to my first cache which I remembered having his direct email address and phone number. I sent a direct email that was not answered. But the phone call got through and the user was very helpful in providing the information and fixing the micro cache. Now that we are getting ready to hide our first couple of caches, I too am considering how to mark our caches. Working in public safety, I see two concerns: 1. I want public safety officials, land managers, geocachers, and concerned others to have a direct way to reach me. 2. I do not want to reveal information that could put me or my family at risk. I have decided that a disposable yahoo account that I monitor daily and a cell phone number for my personal cell phone with voice mail is the way to go. I will also mark the outside of the cache with geocaching, the cache name, etc. Just some thoughts to consider.

Another thing to consider about WAAS is that, at least with my Garmin 72, with WAAS enabled, it really cuts down on battery life. Most of the time I leave the WAAS setting turned off.

If you are in terrain where there are multiple good hiding spots, or if you are looking for a micro, you might try the following: I will approach the waypoint from a direction and when the GPS indicates somewhere around a couple of feet or less, I will drop a marker. Then I will approach from another direction and do the same. After doing this 3-4 times, you have a very good and distinct area to base your search from. Now I would look at this base area and start looking for good hiding areas. Check inside the boundaries of the markers first, then start working outwards from the boundaries. For makers, red rags tied with a rock inside work good. Some of my finds have been 60 feet away from where my GPS indicates ground zero. Think like a hider. Best wishes.

We really like our Garmin 72. We got it on sale from West Marine for about $140.00. At the time, the Garmin 76 was about $40 more and I wish that I would have bought that one since it has an external antenna connector and comes with the data cable. The 72/76 series have some features that I like: they float, they are highly water resistant, bigger easier to read display than many gps, fairly simple and logical to learn and use. They only thing that I miss in our GPS is mapping. The next unit will be the Garmin Map 76c.

Thanks to everyone who responded. That is exactly the kind of information that I was looking for. These forums are great for learning!

I am looking to purchase the new Garmin map76C when it is released. I am hoping that since the 60c has been released, maybe some of you can answer this question. How much more memory does the color operating system and 256 color display use than the older models? The new Map76c has 115 MB of memory. The old map 76 has 8 MB of memory. Does the Map 76C have 107 MB more of memory or is some/most of that used up by the color display system? I would imagine that the color operating system and color display will use some of that extra memory, so how much more memory am I actually gaining for map storage? Can anyone quantify how many of the city select or topo maps I would be able to load into memory at once? For instance, can I download all of city select California into memory on the new model? Thanks!

Garmin 72. It works well. But after borrowing my neighbors Garmin 76 Map, I will be purchasing an additional Garmin GPSMap 76C or CS when they are available. I want the mapping functions!

My wife and I searched for 6 caches today and found five. The other one is likely under a flooded river right now. We had more daylight left, but had early dinner reservations. It was a great day here to cache.

I have been running into server error messages the past few weeks, but tonight was the worst that I have seen. It was difficult to get four entries in tonight. I am a premium member because I believe in supporting the site. I would be willing to chip in a few more bucks to help upgrade the equipment. I like my satisfaction "Now!". I don't want to wait! Was this a coding/equipment problem or just plain overload tonight?

Viennatech: Sorry to hear that your first geocaching experience wasn't as planned. I would like to post some feedback from the other side. Law Enforcement officers are paid and expected to be curious when they see something abnormal. If an officer sees something that looks abnormal from their perspective and life experience, they SHOULD check it out. That is how crimes are prevented and solved. Also realize that citizens frequently call in and report "suspicious circumstance" calls that generate a police response. Also realize that most of us really do try to be helpful. If we see you doing something that might indicate you need some assistance, stopping to inquire is doing our job. An Officer making contact with you will be very mindful of Officer safety. We want to go home at the end of our shift. This is not the time to assert your right to be in the woods, play lawyer, and walk away. This is the time to keep your hands in plain sight. This is the time to not make any sudden movements. This is the time to do far more listening than speaking. Once you realize that you are being contacted by an officer, and you are out of your vehicle, you might do something like: Acknowledge the fact that you see the Officer and recognize him/her as such. "Hi Officer, we are just geocaching". Keep your hands visible. If you have something in your hands that could be used as a weapon or mistaken as such, consider putting it down slowly. Do Not make any sudden movements. Do not move towards the officer or areas of concealment. Let them tell you what they would like you to do. You will be given a chance to tell them what you are up to. This is the time to tell them that you are geocaching and ask them if they are familiar with it. If not, tell them about the game, the website, the local cache, etc. If you have the cache printout, ask them if they would like to see it. (I think having the cache print out pages is an excellent idea!) Depending upon the circumstances, your group and vehicle might be run for wants and warrants. This is standard. Do not take offense to this. Missing persons, homicides, serious crimes have all been mitigated or solved because of an officer looking into something exactly like this. Your attitude and demeanor will go a long way in deciding on how your contact will go. You might just end up having a very pleasant conversation on geocaching and convert an Officer into a geocacher. When I am not rushing call-to-call, I enjoy pleasant conversations with interesting people who have something to share. This is how I continue to learn. (This is also how something that would appear to be highly suspicious before, might appear to be much less suspicious afterwards.) I hope that your future contacts with LE are more pleasant for you. Have fun! A veteran Officer/Rookie Geocacher.

It looks like you got a good unit for a very fair price. Congratulations! Accessories I suggest: 1. A good neck lanyard for the GPS. The one sold through Groundspeak is very nice for a good price! 2. Rechargeable batteries. See other threads on this subject. You will save a good deal of money if you buy some high capacity Nimh rechargeable batteries. These GPSr's are battery hogs! 3. DC power adaptor for your GPS. 4. According to Garmin's website, your GPS should come with a data cable. If it doesn't pick one up. Very useful for transferring data to and from pc-gps. 5. Any hiking/safety accessories you might need. See other threads on this subject. 6. Expert GPS program. you can download a free trial at www.expertgps.com Try the program and see what you think. I have found this program very useful both for geocaching and other uses of my GPS. Training: 1. Practice, practice, practice with your GPS in your neighborhood. Get very familiar with entering waypoints, navigation, and track back features. When you first step out of your truck when geocaching set your vehicle as a waypoint so you can easily get back to it. Get in the habit of doing this, even on easy caches where you wont get lost. While hiking into the cache, do not blindly follow the GPS pointer. Look around, look at landmarks and the trail from the reverse angle. Be able to remember what your trail looks like for the way out! 2. Read the forums. There is a great deal of information in these forums. I have learned and continue to learn a lot from the regulars in here. Getting started: 1. Choose some easy caches in areas that you are familiar with to start. I would suggest regular caches not micros. For the first few, do your homework first. Get detailed maps and/or aerial photos of the area that you will be going. If you plot the geocache coordinates using software on these maps/photos it will give you a good idea of where you are going. Make sure that the cache has been found recently and the last few hunters have actually found it. Nothing like looking for a cache that has been looted or is lost! 2. Meet other geocachers. The fun is contagious. Go on hunts together. 3. Carry some writing instruments, zip loc bags, quality trade items. 4. Find several caches before you hide your first cache. Once you have found say 30 or more caches you will have learned several things about caches. Things you like about caches and things you don't. The quality of your cache will be better. Have fun!