danoshimano

Isn't sex family-friendly? I had to do it to get my family. (Then they went to school and were taught all about it.)

Its my understanding that the display of the distance on the electronic compass page has nothing to do with the calibration of the electronic compass. The electronic compass is just used in the unit figuring out which direction you're pointing in so that you don't have to be traveling to get the arrow pointing in the right direction. Calibrating the compass may impact how easily you zero out, but it shouldn't have significant impact on *where* you zero out. That makes perfect sense.

I use the same setup. Never had a problem with it.

Is the compass related to cache-accuracy? The accuracy depends on a lot of factors, including how accurate the placer's coordinates are. If they are not accurate, then you can have the best GPSr in the world, and it still won't take you to the cache. Or, could be a bad day (or two) for the satellite constellations? I like to keep the GPSr accuracy read-out in the data field, so I can tell what I am dealing with.

They all don't have very many geocaches?

I should probably explain what I meant by way too many people "detracting" from the social aspect: What I like about events the most is when you are moving about doing the activities, you are constantly running into cachers, at the caches and on the trails. Everyone is wearing name tags, and running into people gives the opportunity to chat, sometimes even just for a few seconds. If there were 500+ people milling about together, I don't see it as being the same. Unlike walking down a trail and meeting a small group coming the other way, or coming to a cache and meeting up with a group that is already there, with hundreds of people in, say, a field, it wouldn't be the same. For me, anyway. Now, in Landsharkz' case I can see them having an advantage because you guys get to be in a booth and have a steady stream of people coming to you!

My point was really that you hit a practical socializing limit way before the attend count hits 500. Therefore, I can't see a mega event as offering any more socializing than a regular event. If there were a mega event nearby, I would surely go because I like events AND I don't mind collecting another icon on the list. But I couldn't justify going out of my way to attend one just because it is a "mega."

There's a 161m guideline on cache distance. I don't think these caches broke that guideline. If that is a legitimate complaint, then the majority of caches have the same problem. How many caches are singular and by themselves in an area? If there are already caches along a certain stretch of trail, is there an issue with a geocacher placing more in that area? I don't think so. I found 18 of them. A couple were bungee corded to a tree, the rest were not, so that is not a fair generalization of these hides. Even some of the ones that were bungee corded to a tree were not bad hides at all.

Is the point of a mega event just to get the icon? I was at both recent large events in Ontario, and with 300 people you can only meet and socialize with a fraction. Having even more people wouldn't add to the social aspect, but rather detract from it, in my opinion.

A bunch of people took a hatin' to them, for some reason. If you search the forum, you'll find an old thread with a whole lotta bashing going on. I did a series of them in 2006 (I think) up the east shore of Lake Simcoe and most were perfectly fine. There were a couple I didn't care much for, but the percentage of those was LESS than the overall percentage of "not so good" caches as a whole. Overall, the experience was quite enjoyable.

Thanks for the link to the Wiki. It would be nice to see that build up! I love non-trackables, and agree that the tracking number/icon is a waste when it comes to collecting. I do like collecting icons too, but then that's a different deal. Here is a link to my own site with around 100 non-trackables listed, all with pictures and text. One day I will get back at it and add all the other coins I have lying around waiting to be photographed.

I've seen hides of this type from cachers other than this organization.

That is so very important it should be in bold letters on the cache listing page! (For example, think of what the person who lives in the house might be thinking when they start seeing people lurking beside their home.) But I am off topic a bit. On the Canada Post issue, it seems obvious to me that it should be off limits.

Looks like it's going to be back to the woods. YAY!

You must be missing post #2494 where Ibycus declares you da winner!

Be sure to do the whole "Signal Hill" thing and give yourself lots of time and bring water. The walk is worth it! There are four or five caches in that area, including Piglet's Bottomless Pit that was already mentioned. As you come around the side of the hill, you will enter a residential area. Don't be surprised when the trail goes right over someones front porch. You will literally walk directly between the picnic table on the deck and the front door. On the other side of the harbour entrance from that is Fort Amherst, which is worth visiting for the view of Signal Hill (and the ruins, and the cache that is there).

Can you feel them bite? Do you know they are attached without doing a visual search?

I've actually made a point of finding a couple lamp posts / GO station yellow tube hides by leaning out of the car to get the cache container.... had to be done! I did that exact thing at the liquor store skirt-lifter cache in Angus. Didn't even have to take my seat belt off. But it all depends on the day, because a few weeks later I drove by and there was a camel in a pen right beside the lamp post, which would make it a much tougher find.

Nearest found: 560m Nearest not yet found: 2,050m

How do you get PQ's into GSAK automatically? Under the File menu... "Get data via email". The trick is to have your PQs go to an email address that you use ONLY for PQs (set that at the bottom of the screen on each PQ). Then, you can use that menu item to have them all load automatically.

You have missed the point here! Eric stated with folks 'clearing out their collections' or 'getting rid of duplicates'... Thus these folks would have been packaging coins, traveling to the Post Office and incurring postage costs anyway, not putting those extras into caches. No, I get it, really. My feedback stands. If I was clearing out my collection or getting rid of duplicates, and I did not feel the need to sell them, I would drop them in caches (or give them away at events). If I was packaging coins and traveling to the post office to SELL my coins, that would be worth the time and effort.

Stealth doen't have to mean being sneaky. It just mean not to give away the hide. Act like you belong there and not one will notice you looking for the hide. So true. There are many ways to look for and retrieve a cache in high-traffic areas without looking sneaky. My favourite is "Photographer Guy" disguise. Also, caching on a bicycle can be really handy when you can lean it against the target zone.

I always cache with Topo Canada, but if I didn't want to pop the $100+ for it and didn't mind losing auto-routing, I would go ahead and download the free Ibycus topo maps. The initial download takes quite awhile, but you get some good maps (better than Topo Canada in some ways, such as showing ground cover).

2,111.42 km from my home coordinates to Cape Spear Light in Newfoundland which is pretty much as far east as you can get in North America. (There is another cache at the same spot that is a few hundred meters further east than this one, but it was AWOL when I was there.)

I update my Palm every week. The PQs come into GSAK automatically (currently 12 of them), and I export to the Palm either Friday night or Saturday morning. Every once in a while, I delete ALL unfound caches in Cachemate on the Palm, just to get rid of the junk buildup.