Team Geo-Rangers

A little clarification: On the 1564 run, Team 1K+ started at midnight with the first of the ET series and finished #1500 at 9:17 PM. It was four geocachers in one vehicle (Owned by Peasinapod). There were other nearby caches not part of the series found along the way too. We went to Tonopah to find more. We stopped around 11:30 PM at 1564 and got rooms to shower/sleep, instead of returning to Rachel: https://coord.info/TB3NYW5 Like others noted in the thread, we ran out of ET caches to find and had time to find more, if that series had been longer? That afternoon, I recall we checked our hourly find rate. It averaged around 96 finds/hour. That rate went down with darkness. We divided up the duties designating one driver, one person to log caches sitting in the back of the truckbed in a folding chair, and two runners/seekers that sat on the back of the truck with a modified platform installed in the tow hitch. We would switch roles when anyone grew tired. Driving from California to meet the others from Arizona, I positioned two large full gas cans in the desert at strategic spots to refuel so we could keep geocaching and not have to divert for gas, as was the case when Peasinapod & I found 626 in the CA desert, doing the now archived trail of the gods/presidents/etc. Peasinapod was very prepared with lots of cold drinks and snacks to keep us going. We all worked together and encouraged each other to keep going. And we didn't suffer a flat tire or close encounter either! It was definitely an adventure and clearly not for everyone that enjoys geocaching. And that's fine since it's all good, when geocaching.

Great question colleda. It seems like a real threat to Geocaching for receivers that rely on the current frequency allocation. If the FCC Decision allows Ligado to interfere with our commercially available signals, then our handheld receivers will not work for position, navigation and timing. Perhaps more DNFs or DNLs until a remedy is available ($$$)? Curious to know what others think about this, including Groundspeak?

There's an opportunity for Recreational GPS users to join the fight on the Hill to protect our GPS frequencies from an FCC decision. Now I don't think the Senators will let Signal testify to represent geocachers (good Photo Op and publicity), but perhaps Groundspeak should join this new advocacy coalition being formed? See article: https://spacenews.com/coalition-of-gps-user-groups-joins-fight-against-fccs-ligado-decision/ What do others on this forum think?

Found it - click on the down arrow next to your geocaching handle on the dashboard. Go to Settings and Preferences to select the preferred Language. Now where is that cat hiding???!!!

Dealing with the same problem today, but every page appears in Greek and need to restore it to English, permanently. Unsure if the cat can be blamed ... where is the page to update and restore? Can someone post a link to cut and paste - thank you!

Each find counts as one point in the smiley column which meets expectations for our clan. Planet Souvies are an added bonus to the profile, so thanks for promoting our solar system this way. By the way, Pluto was demoted by the Scientific Community, so technically it doesn't rate as an official planet. ;>)

Have a related question to geocaches that are published and the pocket query feature. Have noticed on my new to me Garmin GPSMAP64s that when I download a pocket query with the selections, "Caches I have not found" and "enabled," that there seems to be a contention and caches I have found are often downloaded and display on the GPSr as unfound. Thinking that the cache has been archived and replaced, I go to the cache and find it again, only to discover it is the same. What is interesting is that it does not do this for all previous found caches, just a few. I don't know root cause as to why this happens. Here are two caches that were found previously GC43QD1 and GC4ACE8 and yet, when the query is run, show up as unfound. Please advise and/or move to a separate thread. Thank you!

Looks like Podcacher has a new contest (July 2015): ... go to www.podcacher.com to learn more.

Good idea! But next year will be the Rounded Pi event on 3/14/16 but wait, round doesn't work, because "pi's are squared!"

To celebrate an irrational number on the calendar day of the century, numerically speaking, we are trying to align our find count with the date and the first five digits of Pi. So on 3/14/15, we hope to record find #31415 by logging our Pi event. That's the plan. How will you celebrate Pi day?

Thank you Team Podcacher for sharing this story with the world. Congratulations are in order for such an extreme geocache find and for sharing the adventure! Cache on!

All are disabled or archived. What happened?

Having trouble loading photos to logs.

The best ... such a subjective question that can only be answered by each geocacher given their preferences ... From our perspective - the best geocachers are admins and hiders, the great voluntary givers to the game with their free time and resources to support other players. Quantity is one indication (see top 20): My link and for Quality - Wheeler Dealers are at the top of our list because they also maintain so many great quality & family fun hides. Spring and Fall geocaching in the Greater Palm Springs (GPS) area when the weather is pleasant is a great geocaching vacation destination ... it's just the best! Best geocaching partner for a numbers run - Peasinapod Have no idea who is considered the best geocaching forum poster - maybe another thread?

Also waiting on the query results: "Your 'My Finds' Pocket Query has been scheduled to run."

For what it is worth, the new ET Highway caches are posted and extend that power trail to 2000!

All quality hides - a terrific series. If a cacher finds 3 geo-art series in different states, then come to CA to log this final: http://coord.info/GC2CJCM

When we first had published our 58 county challenge in California, we referred to it as a compilation cache on Podcacher. It was created in the same spirit as Haicoole's Northern California DeLorme Map cache that challenged seekers to find a cache for each page, then find the final. The term Challenge Cache came along later and was used to describe a series of challenge caches placed in Northern California near Sacramento. That term caught on versus compilation or achievement so it became the standard. These new virtuals that Groundspeak labeled Challenges really are not since they don't require a hider to do it first or involve anything significant to accomplish other than visiting the location and performing an action. Agree with other posters, the lackeys and staff should have polled the community on what to call these new virtuals as it does add confusion by adopting a label that was already in use by this community. For what it is worth, would prefer they change the name to something that isn't used by the community to truly constitute a new creation. In describing this to another cacher, I used the term nudges because they nudge you to visit a location and perform an action. Perhaps Nudges doesn't sound as cool as challenges, but it's available and would not have caused confusion in the community. It just seems a better label for this new type of virtual cache that doesn't require much effort. As good stewards of the geocaching game, they should support the game's creative evolution, not force it a direction that causes confusion with the community. Cache on!

Besides a great view from a guard rail, sometimes a great hide is encountered: http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=bc4a3ef0-24df-40db-a4fa-1e49f2f33eb9 It's All Good ... when you let it be.

If the allure of an FTF makes you go out and geocache, then that's a good thing. Sure, be safe about it. Just as Alamogul has the most finds to date, whoever claims to have the most FTFs is a noteworthy accomplishment (2k+), even if it can not be verified. It is just a game and everyone plays it by their own preferences with a common goal - to have fun. Some derive enjoyment from posting their opinions and sharing humor in these forums, others choose to spend their time finding geocaches and seek to be first. Hide or Seek? Report the news or make it? The game needs both. Different goals and player motivations help keep the game fresh, so to each their own ... because, it's all good!

A few comments on your post: Those CDs are cheaper than Toyota last time checked. Don't want anything stolen or damaged, so the prius will be alarmed and the GPS receivers will not be left on the car seat to invite a thief to break in. It's the law to have insurance in CA and who really wants to have to use it and the inconvenience implied by the time lost. Again, no one argues the point of what works best now - handhelds win. However, there is an opportunity for a car manufacturer to figure out that an open Nav System is one way to attract a new market segment - geocachers! Sign us up as pathfinders for the beta vehicle!

Posted this thread to find out if anyone that geocaches has the AT in a 2010 Prius or later and has attempted to kluge a way to make the nav system work for them in a way other than manually uploading geocache coordinates ... older prius nav systems allow this. How about it Alamogul? With the bluetooth and autorouting, it may be possible, one at a time. If your smart phone is routing to a location (a geocache) and it is connected to the vehicle NavSystem via bluetooth, then apparently the vehicle will sense it and route to that location. Granted, no little treasure chest overlay on the 7" wide map display, but it does open up the possibility of using a smart phone app to route to the next location ... possibly useful for the driver on a power trail. GPS handheld receivers are much cheaper than a built-in car nav system so having several in the vehicle dedicated to specific tasks is how it is currently done. The nav systems do have a default POI database. Another thought is to substitute your geocache POI pocket query with their default database if they provide access to load it? Would have to translate the .gpx file format in whatever format they use ... if everything is on Toyota DVDs like the maps and cost $250 a piece, forget it. Like the geo-mate experiment, load it once but the database loses currency after a few days/weeks in most urban areas. After routing to a few disabled or archived caches, then it's no longer beneficial. Maybe someone that geocaches and works as a Toyota Nav Engineer would like to comment?

The integrated Toyota units do not have any publicised way to upload waypoints. It is possible that it can be done through the vehicle data bus - there is a lot of unpublicised functionality on that. If anyone knows it will be Coastal E Tech (http://www.coastaletech.com/) - they have all sorts of gizmos that hook into the Toyota bus... Martin Am researching the new high end advanced technology package for the 2012 Toyotas and whether it makes sense to get it for their advertised enhanced Nav system option. The Prius forum suggests that the Nav System difference is that AT has a Premium nav Hard-drive instead of flash memory in the non-AT. In the older Prius, you can manually upload coordinates - too laborious for a numbers run. Has Toyota finally given us the capability to automatically upload geocache waypoints into the car Nav system with this AT package? Am already leaning against the AT package on the grounds that I don't want to pay for the other features ... want to check with this community to see if anyone believes the AT package (enhanced Nav System) better supports geocaching?

1634 consecutive days ... it will end someday!

Seen two different types of rattle snakes in Southern California (might have heard one today and didn't stick around long enough to verify!) Non-venomous snake encounters include garter, gopher, king, and a memorable encounter with a racer in northern san diego county while hiking and caching with the family. I watched the racer come towards me as it hunted a lizard. I remained completely still and watched the drama unfold. The lizard darted into the log that I was standing next to on the trail. The snake persisted relentlessly and emerged from the log with the lizard in its jaws, held at the mid-section. The snake then turned and finally noticed me watching. With lizard in mouth, it turned away from me and raced down the hill, while still holding the lizard in it's mouth. The snake held it's head aloft about 12" above the ground as it raced away, never lowering it. It then disappeared into brush at the bottom of the hill where the creek bed was. It was a memorable encounter; thank you geocaching! Almost forgot - have run into Snake of Snake & Rooster while geocaching in the Temecula Valley - does that count too?