Imajika

Fall and winter are my FAVORITE times to cache! Once my toe has healed, I'll be out caching, not complaining in the forums! No bugs, less leaves on the trees to mess with my GPS signal, not as many muggles around, being able to wear a sweatshirt instead of baking in the hot sun...woohoo! Fall and Winter caching!!!!! YAY!

There are three people on my team that do not log their finds online. They keep journals and scrapbooks of our adventures but have no interest in logging finds on gc.com. I think that's fine, people play the game differently.

Ah well, I think I will still stick with my 60cs. I have City Select 6 for it and I don't mind beeps instead of voice prompts.

We will be going on vacation to Seattle next week. I have picked out maps to upload to my GPS for the area and I have marked waypoints for places we want to see, our hotel, etc. I am using City Select 6 and a Garmin 60cs. If I upload that mapset I created (with my waypoints) and then upload caches from a Seattle area pocket query will my original waypoints be deleted or just mixed in with the caches I load? I'd rather upload caches using a pocket query but I can do one by one if I have to! Thanks!

Garmin is at it again. I went to their website today and saw an ad for the new Quest GPS. That price seems a little high. My 60cs does all the same things this unit does and it cost much less (but I bought CS6 for my unit and I think this one comes with it, which kind of evens out the price difference.). Has anyone tried one of these yet or even seen one up close and in person? Can it be used for caching easily? Not that I am going to buy one...I was just wondering.

Clouds, snow and rain info: link From the Garmin site: GPS satellites transmit two low power radio signals, designated L1 and L2. Civilian GPS uses the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band. The signals travel by line of sight, meaning they will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains. link I never noticed any signal loss during cloudy weather. Your mileage may vary.

No but you can buy a serial to USB adapter at places like CompUSA and Office Depot. They work perfectly from what my friend told me. She bought hers at CompUSA. No they don't. I had nothing but trouble when I was trying to use one to connect my GPS to Microsoft S&T. SOMETIMES they work fine, other times they're a PITA. Okay, my friend got one and hers works fine.

No but you can buy a serial to USB adapter at places like CompUSA and Office Depot. They work perfectly from what my friend told me. She bought hers at CompUSA.

From the Microsoft Web Site: ______________________________________________________ Mapoint: MapPoint® 2002 is a unique business-mapping program that combines powerful mapping and analysis tools with the simplicity of Microsoft Office, letting you see how location can make a big difference in your business. Features: *Create maps with your own data *Apply sales information and demographics to a variety of map types. Make your maps unique by defining data range, legend label, and color palette. *Pinpoint exact customer or business sites: Search for precise addresses on more than six million miles of road in the United States and Canada. *Import customer and contact information: Use data from Excel, Access, or Outlook® to design a customer location map. ____________________________________________________________________ Streets and Trips: Let Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005 help you plan every mile of your local or long distance trip. This comprehensive mapping program gives you a customizable and current array of maps, driving directions, route options, road construction updates, and points of interest. Features: *GPS support: Item B17-00175 keeps you oriented on the road. Simply plug a GPS device running NMEA 2.0 or later into your machine running Streets & Trips. *Updated maps of the United States and Canada: Get more than 5.4 million miles of routable local, city, state, and highway roads in the United States and Canada—representing the 35,000+ United States ZIP codes and 700,000+ Canadian postal codes. *Route Planner: Route Planner lets you view, add, delete, and rearrange destinations. Route Planner also lets you set fuel costs, driving speed, and preferred routes. *Find what’s nearby: Locate more than 550,000 restaurants, 90,700 gas stations, 117,000 ATM locations, 7,950 golf courses, and much more. *Pocket Streets for your Pocket PC: With Microsoft Pocket Streets running on your Pocket PC or Smartphone, you can download maps or export an area from Streets & Trips 2005. ________________________________________________________________ So ones seems geared towards businesses for demographic tracking and ones seems geared to the home user.

THEY ARE GREAT! I got my 60cs through them and some software. They had my new GPS at my doorstep the next day via FedEx. Also, just to show how great their customer service is: I used my credit card to order my GPS. The billing address for my credit card is my PO Box but I wanted the GPS shipped to my house...so the billing and shipping address were not the same. An hour after I completed my online purchase, they called me. They said they always call people when the billing/shipping address is not the same in an effort to prevent credit card fraud. I was very pleased that they did this. I order stuff online all the time and no company has ever done that before. They really are a great company and I highly recommend them! The GPS I ordered and the software arrived in brand new, unopened Garmin packaging. It's not refurb stuff.

My first GPS was a Legend. It helped me find 75+ caches just fine. I liked it and never had any trouble with it.

I have had people call me before when they were at the cache site. They never asked me specifically where the cache was but they wanted a hint. I've also had cachers at events ask me for hints on a hard cache. I will give vague hints sometimes or just tell them if they were WAY off but never tell them exactly where the cache is. It kind of ruins the hunt if you give them exact locations.

REI or Sportsman's Warehouse.

Don't worry! You'll be caching again! Maybe the 5/5's are out but there are plenty of caches out there that are pretty easy for people with disabilities (temporary or permanent). You'll be back! I know it! Good luck in your upcoming surgeries. Keep us posted on how you are doing!

I actually did work today but I got double time and a half for working. Woohoo! I can't cache right now anyway so why not go to work and make some extra cash? I work in law enforcement and on holidays we can choose to work and make extra money or take the day off. I chose to work because Labor Day is not important to me as far as work is concerned. I usually only take Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's off. All other holidays, I'll be at work making the big money. LOL!

Indygo, Switchdoc, The Wife and I decided to try an insane puzzle cache in our area. I think our total time working on this cache was 48 hours. But eventually we found it and we were FTF. So, don't give up! On the other hand, Indygo and I were unable to find some 2/1 micro and we searched for an hour. People have logged it after our DNFs (found it quickly. Thanks for the cache!). Once my toe is better, we're going back out there. No 'easy' micro is going to stymie us!

No, I can't go. We were planning on it but my hubby and I were actually able to take some vacation time from work at the same time so we are going to Seattle for 6 days. Hopefully my toe will be better so I can cache in Seattle! I stayed off my toe all weekend so it wasn't hurting THAT badly. Today I went to work and after walking around all day it feels like it is going to fall off! Yikes! Where is my medicine?

I live in Colorado and I have NEVER had trouble with my 60cs. The only time it has ever lost a signal is when I had it in the door pocket of my car and it didn't have a view of the sky at all. It gets a signal in my house, in dense tree cover (accuracy of +/- 35 feet but it was still getting a signal) and driving in the mountains and canyons here in Colorado. Maybe you just got a weird unit and it needs to be replaced? I would call or email Garmin and explain what the trouble is. Maybe they will have you do a reset and let it build an almanac again or send it in for a replacement.

I use a Palm Tungsten E and cachemate. Cachemate costs $7.00 and is worth every penny!

Ooh ooh! I get an A! I have gone to my own caches with newbies (or caches that I have found before that are not mine) just to show them the ropes and do maintenance (if it is my cache). I let the newbie find the cache completely on their own. They log it as a 'find', I log a note to say I was there again! YAY! An A+ for Imajika!

Okay, maybe I did get the wrong idea from the post and following replies. I thought it meant that caches should be archived for no other reason than they have been around 'long enough'. I do apologize and must explain that I am on meds for a broken toe right now and I not 'all there' right now! So everyone ignore my post. :lol: Maybe I should take a nap and stop posting. LOL!

Racoons can destroy almost anything if they put their mind to it. Just ask my dad how many trash cans he has had to replace! Finally after trial and error he found a good setup and the racoons have moved on to other neighbors trash cans. In any case, scented items are never a good idea as cache swag. As other posters have noted, animals have a much better sense of smell than humans do. Those sandalwood candles can smell like good eatin' to a forest animal.

No one said that would happen for sure. But if I archive a cache because 'everyone has found it', someone else would hide something else there eventually I am sure. I found the spot and I like it. IT'S MINE! :lol: ;) My point was I found the spot, I like it, new cachers appreciate it, old cachers like the area, I can maintain the cache, new cachers pop up every day and it is a 'new' cache to them, so I don't think being forced to archive a cache is a good idea. Maybe I will decide to archive the cache someday. Maybe I will quit caching, find another spot I like better, etc. But the decision to archive it should be left up to me. Not because of another rule.

Okay, I have one cache in an area that doesn't get many visitors. It is in a park, with easy parking nearby but, for some reason, not many people go look for it. So I am to assume that everyone that's going to look for it all ready has and I should archive it now? The cache is still in good shape, everyone that has gone there makes a comment of how nice the area is and I can still maintain the cache when it needs it. I am not going to archive this cache. The cache is a 1/2 and is an easy find. Several people that have found it told me it was their first cache find ever. They told me they appreciated having one close to home, in such a nice area and one that is easy for a first-timer. This is why I am not going to archive it. This cache lets new cachers get a feel for geocaching and how to use their GPS in the field. It lets them work their way up to the harder ones and gain experience. I am not archiving this cache so someone else can place an insane 5/2 micro there. I found the spot and, as long as I am in Colorado and can maintain it, it will stay there. As long as people still log it now and then, it is going to stay there. The park is big enough to hide several other caches in. In fact there is another cache near mine (650 feet away). I have only archived 2 of my caches. One because of problems with the container and the other was archived because it was stolen. As long as my caches get logged every now and then and are in good shape, I am leaving them there. When you first hide a cache there is a mad rush of people going to find it. I expect a lot of logs in the first month. I actually appreciate the logs after that first month a little bit more. It lets me know people are still looking for it and it is a nice surprise to see a found note in your mailbox. I just find it hard to believe that there is NOWHERE else on earth to hide a cache other than my little spot at the Delaney Farm. I think it is silly to archive a cache because 'everyone has found it all ready'. New cachers pop up every day! Just my 2 cents...I've rambled enough. Flame me or whatever, I am on pain meds for a broken toe so I don't care.

All of our caches have stash notes. I think they are handy because if a non-cacher finds this weird container in the woods, it gives an explanation of why it is there and not to move it. I assumed all cachers used the stash note but I guess they don't. All the caches I have found in my area had a note in them. Just as an example: One of my caches was considered stolen after 5 no finds. I went to look for the cache and it was definitely gone. I archived the cache and placed a new one about 100 feet from the old hiding spot (I found a better hiding spot). People started coming to find the new one and had no problems. Then I get an email from a cache hunter. The email said he had the coords for the old cache and decided to try and find it. Sure enough, he found BOTH caches. The old one was about 65 feet from it's original hiding spot but it was there, with everything inside. In the logbook there was a note from a lady named Lisa. She said, "I didn't know what this was so I took it home. After reading the note inside and seeing the WWW address on the can, I went to the geocaching.com website and saw that this can was part of a game. This game looks like fun! I put the can back where I thought I found it. Sorry for ruining your game.". If that note had not been inside to give her a brief description of geocaching, I doubt she would have brought the can back and tried to hide it again. True, I did have the www.geocaching.com address written on the outside of the can, but to someone that has NO IDEA what geocaching is, the front page of the website really wouldn't explain it to them like the note does.