Geognome57

Thanks so much to everyone for their comments, thoughts, and suggestions. I guess I am going to have to live with manually loading the PQs, which is really not that difficult. So no worries there. And on the plus side of things, these Etrex 30s are really quite remarkable. Caches in deep tree covers which would have had my old Garmin Etrex Legend HCx leading me in circles we now can find quite quickly and accurately. So all in all, it's a fair trade. Again, thanks to all for the comments.

Thanks for your thoughts on this! I deleted all .gpx off the gps, but couldn't find any .loc files, then tried installing both Basecamp and MacCaching on a Mac PowerBook I have that has never had anything geocaching related on it. That didn't work. So I officially give up using software and will just manually load each pocket query into the GPX folder on the GPS. That seems to be the only thing that works. As for the data getting stale, I generally load fresh pocket queries every Sunday, and quite often on Wednesdays as well, so that is not a problem. It sure would be nice if one could get pocket queries larger than 1000! But I don't suppose there is much demand for such. Ah well.... Again, thanks for your input!

What I need to edit, if "edit" is the word, is the over-lap of areas. For instance, to obtain the caches within a certain area, which in my case is 5 counties, I do 5 queries set at 1000 caches each. The area of each query overlaps the others other to make sure I don't miss any caches. With MacCaching I can import them all, one at a time, and will ask me what to do with duplicate caches. I tell it to skip the duplicates. That reduces the amount of caches from 5000 to just over 4000 (as in today's case). Since some caches have way points for parking and such, that usually adds to the total, but doing it this way keeps me from going over 5000 (the capacity of my GPS), and insures that I get the maximum amount of caches in the area I want. The problem is that when I do all that and export them to a GPX file, the GPS loads them as waypoints. What I am trying now it making two files, one for the caches, one for the additional way points. Perhaps that will work. As for iCaching, I'd love to try it, but it won't run on my Mac, which is a 9 year old iMac.

For some time I have used a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and MacCaching software. No problems there. I recently "upgraded" to an Etrex 30... and there is where the problems began. As a side note, the reason for the upgrade was that I wanted the better compass, and the ability to be able to load more than 1000 caches. The compass part worked out okay, it's loading the caches that has been a bit of a trial and error journey. First, I downloaded the pocket queries I wanted that would cover the area that I wished to have access to on my GPS. This was a total of 4 pocket queries, with a total of just over 4000 caches. Now, the problem of how to load them on the GPS became an issue. I called Garmin, and while they were very nice, the "support" they offered was about as useful to me as a trombone would to a fish. Try their Geocaching website, they said. Uh, no... how about NOT. Ok, try their program Basecamp. Yeah, I have that, but since I'm running an older Mac with OSx 10.5.8 I have to use a legacy version of that. With Basecamp I can load the all the pocket queries, but when it loads them on the GPS it loads them as way points, not caches. Well, that's because, according to Garmin, I'm using a legacy version of Basecamp. Upgrade to the new version, they said. Why didn't I think of that? Oh, I did... I cannot upgrade because the newer version requires a more recent version of the Mac OS, which would require a new computer. Try a new computer, they said. Sure... hold the phone and I'll run over to the Apple Store and buy a new computer. Right. Anyhow, Garmin tech support was of no help at all. Meanwhile, a google search showed that I could loaded each pocket query into the GPX folder of the GPS. That actually worked, but I missed the ability to be able to do a bit of editing before loading. So, says I, perhaps I could load them all into MacCaching and then export the entire library of geocaching to a single GPX file. So I did that. Then placed the resulting GPX file into the GPX fold of the GPS. They load not as geocaches, but as way points. Back to square one. Deleted all that from the GPS, tried exporting them all from Basecamp and manually placing the resulting GPX file on the GPS. Again, loads not as geocaches, but as way points. So, here is what I want to know, if anyone has a clue: Is there a way to export from either of these programs (preferably MacCaching) to a GPX file that the GPS will read as geocaches? And while I'm at it, isn't a GPX file a GPX file? Why does the GPS see the GPX from pocket query as geocaches, but when exported from MacCaching or Basecampe it sees them as way points? They both have the .GPX extention, so they should both be the same, or not? Any suggestion would be appreciated. Keep in mind I'm almost 60 and my understanding of all things computer is still founded in DOS and other archaic dead languages. Thanks

I'm looking for a cacher in or around Marhsall, in Clark Co., Illinois who might be able to do us a very small favor. Please PM us if you can.

Does anyone know of a program similar to CacheStats that will work on a Mac?

Well, the cache is in a very visible place, actually. However it is a locking box for which one needs the combonation (it's in the hint for the cache) to open. No, we didn't check the physical log. Didn't even think of that. We will do so. We still have some hope, I guess. I'm hoping that you're right and it was picked up by a vacationer (plenty of those here in Florida) who has yet to log the find. Thanks for your thoughts.

My wife and I have only been geocaching for about 3 weeks now. Being retired it's a great activity and we've really enjoyed it. We decided to put out a few travel bugs so we could enjoy watching them move about. We'd heard about those few which seem to go missing after a while, but it still seemed like something enjoyable to do. So we ordered 6 sets of tags and, once we had them, made our first travel bugs with hitchhikers. She chose a die-cast Volkswagen convertable, and I a Hot Wheels Jeep. I carefully drilled them out and attached their tags with along with a little data sheet. Then we placed them in a local cache which was known to be a good place to drop off travel bugs. We watched them for a week and noted that their had been no movement. A geocaching friend who has been in the hobby for almost two years said that that is not uncommon. So we didn't worry.<br> <br> Yesterday we stopped by that cache again to drop off a TB that we had picked up in a cache. My Jeep was still there, but my wife's Volkswagen was gone. When we got home we checked the logs for both that TB and that particular cache. Nothing had been logged. The cache owner logged that maintenance was done on that cache the day after we placed the TBs there, so we contacted them to see if they could confirm that the the VW TB was there then. No reply as of yet.<tb> <tb> I'm not sure what to think. It is rather discouraging and makes me wonder if we should even waste our time putting out the remaining TBs that we have. We have found several TB in caches and have faithfully moved them on, even if it meant making a special trip to a cache we'd already logged just to deposit that TB there and help it on it's journey. <br> <br> We are hoping that the VW TB is in the hands of someone who is merely a bit slow in logging things, but deep down inside we have to wonder if just has been taken and will not materialize again. But we have no alternative but to wait and see, I suppose.<br> <br> After reading other stories about TBs and geocoins that have gone missing I have to wonder if this part of the hobby is really worth the effort. I know you've heard stories like these before, so I guess I'm just venting.

We've only been geocaching for 2 weeks now, and yesterday logged our 37th find. After lugging around a Moleskine with notes and copies of maps in it we've decided that the paperless idea is better. Sadly my wife's old Palm M105, which works perfectly, won't synch with our Mac as it uses a serial connection and we can't get it to work with with a USB adapter. So I've decided to draft my iPod (60gb video) for carrying notes. Using MacCaching I've uploaded the GPX files to it just fine, but it does not transfer the log for the individual cache. Is there some way to get the logs included in what we transfer to the iPod? Another program perhaps?

Just curious, but in regards to cache etiquette, what's the accepted thought on religious material being placed in caches? I ask because I'm rather new at this and really do not know. So far my wife and I have encountered at least three caches with religious tracts stuck in them (one was almost stuffed with them. I'm not a follower of any religion, and I grant that each has a right to his or her own beliefs, but is really an accepted practice in geocaching?