W7WT

With this lousy weather, I have been searching places to go geocaching when it gets nice. I just looked at the area along the Columbia Gorge. I can't believe all the caches that are available. It's like the first time I went pheasant hunting in Nebraska. We flushed about 40 into the air and I was so dumbfounded I just watched them and never shot at all. We use to just drive either on the Washington or Oregon side and pick up whatever was available. Now there are so many, I don't know where to start. I am sure there are bookmarks available of some outstanding caches. Good luck in your search and trip.

The 60CSx is very good at finding the caches but is NOT paperless. We have two of them and also a 76CSx which is the same and load them with GSAK. We use a Nuvi 550 for our routing and paperless information and also load it with GSAK. We find if we just have the size and the hint that is sufficent to find most of them, but we have been geocaching for over 10 years. Good luck.

Congrats to your 10 years and helpful devices you have provided the geocaching community.

I hope you meant edit LOG Yes, sorry

We have finished the Delorme, County and Cities & Towns Challenge and that area is very rugged. While you are at it you might also try to get the caches you need for the County and the Cities & Towns Challenges. We are also keeping an eye on the Pass as while we are too old and too slow for the Cache Machine we want to do the power trail at Ritzville before it gets hot and the snakes come out.

Go to the cache page and click on edit cache and there is an option to delete it.

Forgot to mention. This year the road to Hurricane Ridge will be plowed 7 days a week. The local community kicked in money and well as the National Park hoping to bring more people to the area.

I assume you mean "High on a Windy Hill" GC9C5F on Hurricane Ridge. There is also a Earth Cache Mount Angeles Lookout with in a half mile of the Visitor Center. In my younger days I use to do a lot of Cross Country Skiing up there. Just remember they don't call it Hurricane Ridge for nothing. It can be very pleasant at times. If the visitor's center is closed, your usual pictures will be evidence you were there and can claim a find.

If they do they will bring it out in a new model.

Congrats to jholly for his 6,000 find. Way to go Jim. Not sure which cache was actually his milestone. Dick & Arlene

I had a Big Ruckus Honda Scooter that I used to look for caches. We would trailer it to a Park with our Roadtrek RV and the the wife and I would ride it around looking for caches. I will be 87 in a couple of months and had open heart surgery last year so I gave the Scooter to my Grandson in Jackson, Wy and the van to my Granddaughter. Both are very happy. Now we use either the Land Cruiser or the T5 Scion to geocache. Mostly the Scion as it get twice the MPG over the LC. We did enjoy the scooter when we used it.

Thank you. I've looked around and found some great GSAK macros that I wish I'd found earlier. Apparently I'd been too reliant on Groundspeak to provide what I'd needed. Any suggestions on other tools you found useful? Streets and trips, don't leave home without it. I use GSAK to load my Nuvi 550 and our two 60CSx and then export the data to Streets & Trips which I use to select my route. I then print out the maps with about 5 or 6 caches per page. Helps me keep oriented.

A bobbie pin with about a 1/4" cut off the end to roll back up the little strips in magnetic nano containers. I carry mine in with my little change purse.

My guess is you are a young person. We are in our eightys with over 5,000 finds. Of course age makes a difference. You just do what you can do. Dick & Arlene Don't let this old geezer routine fool you for a second. After a bit of hiking and climbing I find the cache, open the log book and what do I see? W7WT. Dick and Arlene really don't do guardrail and LPC's. I will thank my lucky stars if I'm still out hiking around in the woods finding tupperware when I'm Dick's age. And if you stop and think about it for a minute, Dick started in his 70's! To old, I don't think so. I found my first in 2002, my second in 2007 after I retired. Best thing in the world to stay active and keep the mind working. Don't believe a word that Jim says. If it wasn't for guard rail and LPC's finds, there would be very few finds at all.

My guess is you are a young person. We are in our eightys with over 5,000 finds. Of course age makes a difference. You just do what you can do. Dick & Arlene

Garmin has the Foretrex GPS wrist watch. I have used one quite a few years back and bought one for each of my grandkids. They have one for about $130 at Amazon. Mine was a very basic unit that worked as well as any basic unit for geocaching. I can't speak for the one they have now. My granddaughter used hers in river rafting in Alaska and my grandson used his cross country skiing and mountain biking.

Yes, congrats, way to go. Now just finish the Washington State Town & Cities Challenge. Dick & Arlene

Thank you Keystone for that information. That sure is nice.

I have never liked advice so wouldn't appreciate the request any more than all the e-mails telling me how to vote. Really don't like the request that if I don't pass it on I am not a good citizen.

Being a HAM the pig veins should work fine. I got a new pig aortic valve in November 2010. My veins were in good shape and I didn't need blood thinner after the open heart surgery. I am doing fine now and I am sure a young man like you will do the same. 73 Dick W7WT

Sorry you are having so many problems with the 78S. About a year ago I bought a 78S for myself and a 60CSx for the wife. from REI. I just didn't feel comfortable with the 78S. My 76csx had lost it connection to the 12V power. I have used the 76 line for years. What really bothered me was the 60CSx did a much better job finding GZ than the new 78S. So I sent the 78S back to REI and got my self a new 60CSx which workes as well as my old 76CSx. Got both of the 60CSx for about $220 each. We also have a Nuvi 550 which we use for routing and paperless caching. The combination works well for us. Dick and Arlene

I am a 86 year old WWII navy veteran and my wife welded Nacells for B 24s & B 17s. She is 85 Been geocaching for over a decade and just did get our 5,000 find. Dick & Arlene Bremerton, WA W7WT You do just what you can do and its fun.

Wow, congrats, Dick! You're running circles around us young whippersnappers! Thank you. We are trying to catch up from all the time we missed last year. We were able to get 100 this month. Yesterday, we only needed 14 more to reach the 5K. I blame the solar storm for our out of control 60CSxs. We cached down west of Gig Harbor and Fox Island. Never been to Fox Island. Several of the caches were at view points but we ended up with finding a magnetic nano at a small sub station. Very happy to find it. Arlene is a much better cacher. If we don't find it within 10 to 15 minutes I am ready to move on. Arlene wants to find them all. Geocaching is about all we can do anymore and we do enjoy it. Arlene & Dick

We are in our mid-eightys with physical limitations, so we need to carefully select the caches we look for. I preselect the caches and put them on our watch list. When we get ready to make up a route to look for them, I run a PQ and from it I use GSAK to load our Nuvi 550 and two 60SCxs and export it to MS S&T which I use to make up the route. I print out about 5 or 6 caches per map and write down the size, hint etc for each cache. We find that is usually enough if not we consult the Nuvi 550 for further information. We use the Nuvi 550 to route us to the caches and then the 60CSx to find the caches. We write down the time and any notes on the paper maps. When we get home, I log each cache on-line and then remove them from the watch list. Then I delete all caches from the Nuvi 550 and the 60CSxs and start over. Dick & Arlene