Imajika

I use a Garmin 60cs with City Select 6 and I absolutely love it. It's great for caching and the autorouting is GREAT! 60cs: $400.00 (I bought mine the first week they released it, it may be cheaper now) City Select 6: $115.00

I use a Garmin 60cs and I had this problem once. I called Garmin Tech Support and they suggested recalibrating the compass. I tried it and it worked like a charm! It's never done it again. If you are using a 60cs, remember to recalibrate your compass every time you change the batteries.

EasyGPS does not send the hints to the GPS. The only way to have the hints handy is to either print out the cache page or use a PDA and go paperless.

There are two 'distance' rules: 1. A cache has to be hidden more than 528 feet from another cache (I think it's 528...someone here will correct me if I am wrong). This rule generally does not apply if you are hiding a multi. In other words, if you hide a 3 stage multi, each stage can be exempt from the distance rule in relation to the other stages...but each stage has to be the proper distance from any other caches in the area. 2. The cache has to be within a maintainable distance from your home. For example, I live in Colorado and I took a vacation to Hawaii and wanted to plant a cache there. Since I cannot drive to Hawaii to maintain the cache and I am not there often enough to maintain it, it would not be approved. #2 is the rule being discussed here. I don't think this cache should have been archived either. All of my hides are within a 5 mile distance from my home and I only do maintenence on them once a month unless someone alerts me to a potential problem that needs immediate attention.

You don't have to pay the $30.00 all at once. There is an option to pay $3.00 a month through Paypal (that's what I do). The subscription renews itself automatically every month until you cancel. I just thought that some people might not know about the $3.00 a month option and maybe that would be an affordable option for them. I never really read AS...just because it was way too much to wade through. I actually prefer the off topic section now. You can pick and choose which threads interest you instead of wading through 217 pages of stuff.

I live in Colorado and we've been getting HUGE amounts of rain over the past week or so. I am happy to say that none of my caches went for a swim and my logbooks are dry! Woohoo!

On sale and online. Woohoo! http://www.gpsnow.com/gmetlgacc.htm

I use a 60cs with City Select 6 and it is a GREAT GPS unit! It has autorouting and the color display makes reading maps much easier....seriously, it rules. I got mine for $375.00 online.

I use a Palm PDA and Cachemate. It certainly makes caching MUCH easier! I use a Tungsten E which I got for about $175.00 but there are cheaper ones (check ebay) that will work as well. Before I went paperless, I cut and pasted all the important cache info into word. Then I printed out those sheets and carried them in a binder. By cutting and pasting, I could change the font sizes and not include information I really didn't need...so I used less paper/ink and had a smalled binder to carry around.

www.wayhoo.com might have some of the info you are looking for.

I know which cache is being discussed here and two of the cachers involved are good friends of mine (I haven't met the others in person yet!). I got invited on this caching trip and, unfortunately, couldn't make it. My real issue with this cache is that the owner's rule about "if you didn't go down the mountain, you can't claim it" was NOT posted on the cache page when this group of people went to find the cache. He only added it as an afterthought. If this had been my cache, I would let them log it as a find. Their name is in the logbook and they did indeed help out the group when looking for this cache. If I suddenly had a change of heart and decided to change the 'rule', I would leave those logs as is and consider them grandfathered in since the log was signed before the rule was made. Anyway, this just really disappoints me because the two cachers that are good friends of mine had a great day caching with some new friends and truly put forth a great effort on their hunts that day (they found other ones, not just that one). I can only imagine how I would feel if I logged a difficult cache as a find and then the owner decided that he was going to delete it because of a rule he just thought of. To me, being able to log this as a find is not about the numbers or stats. It is about feeling a sense of accomplishment that your group went for it and succeeded when MANY others wouldn't even attempt such a thing. Then the cache owner decides that I accomplished nothing and my efforts were worthless? If it were me, I would log my find as a note. I would say that I did indeed help find this cache and my name is in the logbook but the rules have changed and I am not allowed to log it as a find. But then again, I can be a trouble maker sometimes. Opinions on whether this was a valid 'find' or not is what the OP was asking about. I think it was a valid find. That is how I feel but I am sure many others will feel differently.

I use a hard case with my Tungsten E and I would definately recommend it. I got my case for about 20 bucks at CompUSA. The hard case protects from digitizer problems and also comes in handy if you drop your PDA on the sidewalk (which I know from experience!). I dropped it on the sidewalk and it fell about 5 feet. I was handing it to a caching buddy and thought she had it in her hand and she didn't. The hard case protected it and it still works perfectly.

The house was still there in 2000. My husband and I went and checked it out the last time we went to Vegas. We decided we had to go check it out and it was pretty cool.

Cachemate turns .gpx files into Palm format but you need to use it at your home PC. Wifi does seem kind of useless in the woods. Perhaps you should check out Cachemate instead or if you have a cell phone with a web browser, you can use the gc.com WAP site when you are out on the road. Keep in mind that if you are way out in the middle of nowhere, a cell phone browser might not work either.

Yep, as long as you traded for the item, it's yours to do whatever you want with it. I would email the person that left it in the cache (if you know who it is) because they might think it's a neat idea and want to add the TB to their watch list.

There is another bug that did this. It is the ashes of his Father-in-law . The goal was to have the TB travel around and have pictures taken of his travels. If you really want to do this, then go for it. The cacher can make a decision to pick it up or leave it in the cache for someone else. I have a degree in Mortuary Science so it does not gross me out. Here is the one I mentioned: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=15390 Here is another one which, if you look at the dedication, seems like it is a joke. At least, that's what some people decided when we talked about this bug in the past. It's a shame though because, if this was a joke, some people thought it was real and went out of their way to meet the bug's goal: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=15877

If you know who your local approver is, it might be faster to email them about the situation. At the bottom of the cache page, I think it shows who approved your cache. Email the person that approved and it explain what happened. Include the cache number (the GCXXXX) number so they know which cache you are talking about.

I upgraded from a Zire 21 to a Tungsten E. The E has a backlight and Cachemate runs on it just fine. Plus, it is cheaper than a Zire 71. It cost me $200.00. Just make sure you get a hard carrying case. Mine is a case covered with some sort of polished metal on the outside that I bought for 20 bucks at CompUSA. I've only dropped my PDA once and (thank goodness!) the case protected it. Check out the Palm website for more info on their PDAs and comparisons: http://www.palmone.com/us/products/

GPSNow has most of their 60cs accessories on sale right now. I ordered my 60cs from them and they are really great with customer service and have fast shipping. 60cs accessories at GPSNow

Out of seven people on my team, only three of us log our finds online. The other four keep journals of their finds and don't care about logging on gc.com. But we ALWAYS sign the physical, paper log in the cache. And we make a note on the physical log of what we took/left.

The 60cs only comes with a USB cable. But I assume you could get a USB to serial adapter and it would then work with S&T. Places like CompUSA sell the adapters. You can probably find them a little cheaper online though. Adapters

Two of my caches are lock 'n' locks. They have survived a Colorado winter just fine. I prefer ammo cans though and there are several army surplus stores in my area that sell them cheap. You might want to buy ammo cans from cheaper than dirt if you are concerned that a lock 'n' lock won't survive in your area. I have seen 2 caches that had been made from cookie tins/coffee cans. Within a few months they were literally falling apart and filled to the brim with water. I don't think they would survive very long unless you are willing to do a lot of maintenence checks and replace the container fairly often.

I use a Palm Tungsten E and Cachemate. There isn't a cache I have loaded onto the PDA that has caused me ANY problems. Cachemate just strips all the graphics out of the cache page. What I am left with is exactly what I need: the cache description, hints (if I want them) and previous logs. Using a PDA to cache has been GREAT for me. A cache page alone will not deter me from trying to find it. Putting a cache in an obvious (still in use) homeless camp, will.

No, it's not illegal to cover the dash VIN plate where I live (I work in law enforcement and I asked!). If they really want to know what your VIN is there are two other places in/on the car that show the VIN.

We have a sign like this that we put on our car's dash, right next to the VIN plate. Most police officers will run your plate first and then run the VIN to make sure the vehicle isn't stolen. Placing the sign by the VIN plate makes sure they will see it right there on the dash. If anyone is interested in receiving a copy of our sign in word format, please email me at imajika@dr.com and I will be happy to send you one!