Team MacKenzie

I may be in the NTB category too, so I'll just ask what may be a stupid question! Why not just use a small (like 75 watt) inverter and be done with it instead trying to find an adapter specific to the GPSr? And the second NTB question is - why do you need an adaptor for it anyways?

I just checked...other than the final cache in a series that has two disabled so I can't get the final co-ordinates and one seasonally disabled cache...the closest cache to me is 10.6 miles. Problem is, that's 'as the crow flies'. Around here, that's probably 20 miles of driving to get to it OTOH, I knowingly choose to live in as close to the wilderness I can get without actually living in the bush, so no close caching is one of the downsides. OTOH, we have only a handful of LPC and GRC withing 30 miles.

Ohhh, I so like this method. I have one cache in particular that keeps migrating. The problem is, it keeps migrating to a higher branch that where I placed it. I placed it at my maximum stretchy reach standing on tiptoes. When someone puts it back on a higher branch I have to use the PAF method of retrieving the cache...I'm running out of 'owe ya's' getting that cache put back where I can reach it myselfl...

And it's important to remember that in large parts of the world what is a 'water based cache' is only so for part of the year. The rest of the year we can walk on the ice to get to the caches. I have a couple here that I want to snag this winter because the lake they're on is known to be too rough most of the time for my little kayak.

Just because things like this amuse me, I took a look at some of the other caches placed by this CO. 1 of them has 9 DNF's and not a single find since it was placed a month ago. I also figured out why the 0 find, 13 hides record.....odds are the CO is the Convention & Visitors Bureau....one of the logs in one of the caches thanked them for putting the caches out and the CO name starts with CVB Several of the caches have logs mentioning way off co-ordinates, a couple were only found regularly once good co-ordinates were posted.

All three of the Garmins' I've owned have had a place to enter my info on it. It's one of the first things I did when I got my new GPSr. The 60CSx is Menu>Setup>Welcome. If I remember correctly so was the 60. It didn't help me get back the 60 that was stolen but I figure the whole back pack ended up in a dumpster when the thieves that broke into my van figured out that there was nothing of value to them in it.

It sounds like you could use a mentor to help you get started. I don't think I've ever met a cacher that wouldn't lend a hand to a newbie. There are geocaching groups all over the world and usually one within fairly easy reach of someone new. If you give us a general idea of where you're located one of us can probably head you in the direction of a lcoal to you group. You can then either approach some of the members through email or attend an event and meet some of them.

If I had to say we had just *1* local type of hide it would have to be 'hung in pine trees'. But that's because I live amidst thousands of acres of forested crown land, so there's millions of trees to choose from.... I guess I'm really, really fortunate. The dozen or so active cachers are pretty amazing in that they go out of their way to do creative hides. I can only think of one or two CO's that I can count on for a consistent hide type. The visitors to our area regularly comment on how nice it is to cache here.

I had a D1, T1 that eluded me for weeks. It was a 'micro' placed at an ancient bridge over a small creek. Every time I drove by the place (which was at least weekly) I stopped to look for it. I made special trips out there to look for it. I was under the bridge, poked fingers in the sign posts and I was all over the small tree 5' from the bridge. I endured sliently the good-natured taunts of the CO (a good friend of mine) for my failure to find. One day I finally spent almost an hour at the cache site. Just as I was about to give and was hanging my head in shame yet again, I looked down. I'd been standing on the @#$%^ thing. No wonder I couldn't find it, it was under my foot. And no, it wasn't buried. Now I try to remember that a 1/1 is supposed to be easy. I'd been making a 3/3 out of it...

I don't think placing any arbitrary number, even if it's self imposed will really work. Someone could find 25 micro LPC's and think that's all there is to this world. Someone else could find 25 matchstick case caches hung in pine trees and do the same thing....see where I'm going with this. If you're going to place an arbitrary number of cache finds on yourself before placing one, then make sure you deliberately seek a wide variety of cache sizes and difficulty/terrain ranges. Me, I guess I was one of the most fortunate - I started caching as the new partner of a well established cacher. I got to go on maintenance runs and was encouraged to find the cache as practice. On day long caching runs we did micro's in the trees, LPC, guardrail caches and hikes far into the forest - just because!! I learned by doing, quite quickly, which types of caches I like to find (any type/size) and where I like to find them (anywhere but in urban areas). I place caches based on those likes and dislikes.

I don't know what to suggest since you don't have a computer! Gotta ask how you manage... I use a Garmin Map 60CSx with topo maps on it. I've not been on a trail yet that wasn't on my mapping! Whatever you decide to use, make sure you can mark waypoints on it so you can mark where you parked your vehicle and that it has tracking on it. I turn my tracking off while I'm driving but set it to on when I park so that no matter how windy and twisty the trail I have a 'breadcrumb trail' of my way back to my vehicle. I don't believe that the Geomate Jr does any of those things. If I'm wrong someone will be along momentarily to correct me AFAIK it's a junior version of a GPS that comes preloaded with easy traditional caches and not much else. Also, if you're starting to go off the beaten path, make sure you pack emergency supplies and that someone knows where you've gone and when you'll be back.

Most being the key word there. I once spent well over a half hour looking for a nano. The only ones' I seen were magnetic and there was a 12' metal gate made of nice square metal (not a farm gate). I had my fingers over every square inch of that thing and poking down inside every end and up every bottom. I knew the CO personally and knew that she tended to be 'creative' Sure enough, that nano was hung on a wire off of the adjoining fence wires, just out of easy looking. Smallest bison I'd ever seen!! I learned never to assume that I knew what it was going to look like until I had it in my hands. Oh, and by the way a good hide is to have the nano painted to match it's surroundings.

Yes, we have quite a few challenge caches in the area that require D/T combinations so there is no way I'm changing the ratings seasonally. Not doing that is what prompted my question in the first place. How does one add a 'winter rating scale' to the cache page. In easy, blonde computer illiterate steps please... How

I was out on the backroads today and found a really neat place to put a cache. After my first 'wow, neat spot', my next thought was 'how in heck do you rate terrain on this one'. During the summer months and before the snow flies (and it does get really deep here), one can drive a normal vehicle to within a 100 feet of the cache. A two lane, well maintained logging road goes right past the cache site. During the snow season and until the road dries in the spring and can be graded, it's about 3 miles from where the snowplow quits and turns around. It would only be accessible by ATV or snowmobile or a really long snowshoe hike in. It's a 1.5 when you can drive and a 5 when you can't. What say y'all??

On the other hand, a spot that is ideal for a small sized cache just became open because another CO archived a multi that had one stage too close to where I want to place the cache. I surveyed the spot this summer, did my research (including getting the smilie for the multi) and put the spot on my list of good hide locations and went on with life. Ok, I did a little bit of sighing... I started a list of 'good hide places' this past year. So far I've got about 20 spots on the list. The only thing I'm short of is time and cache containers. I find these places by always exploring 'that' road. You know the one...it's there, you've never been down it. Take the time to go, somedays it leads to neat places that need caches. I figure that there's always another good spot to hide a cache if you just look, maybe even a better spot!!

I've never asked a CO for permission to log a find when I didn't find it....Why on earth would I want to do that! I didn't find it, I'm not claiming a find....easy peasy!! Now - I do have a list of caches that I need to take someone with me cause I know where the cache is and I'm too $%^^ short to reach it and too old to be climbing on rails, up trees etc. Just because I can see the cache doesn't mean that I can log it. No signed log = no smilie!! I've also got a couple of caches on my ignore list because I know that another cacher replaced a missing cache with a throwdown so he could claim a find. I consider that throwdown to be kinda smelly!! I also have a list of my DNF's that I wear proudly like a collection of war wounds...I've earned every darn one of them. And I fully expect that I will leave a trail of DNF's all over the countryside as I go hunting for caches....oh well!!

Does that mean that the FTF would have to wait a whole year to be able to open it on it's anniversary of the date placed. And that only one person would be allowed to find it per year! A time capsule is meant to be sealed and not opened until. say 50 years, in the future, so I'm not clear on how you think a time capsule would work as a cache!

That 'Royal Scots Fusilier' may be underated even at a 2. There's almost as many DNF's as there are finds on it and considering that not everyone logs their DNF's there's maybe more of them than finds. From the find logs, I would hazard an armchair guess that it's in a flowerbed...lots talk of getting down and dirty, one said he'd never have clean fingernails again! If there's any raised flowerbeds, I'd be checking in the corners and along the edges where the soil meets the wood surround. Since it's been confirmed that it's about 5" long and cylindrical, I'd be looking for something like a camo'd cigar tube or a matchstick case that's been camo'd. While there are 'rules' about not burying anything, that doesn't preclude pushing it down in the soil. I've seen caches that, whilst not being buried and therefore against the rules, you could only see the top of it as the rest was pushed down into the soil. I second contacting a couple of the local cachers and team up with them for some mentoring. Most cachers are more than willing to help a newbie.

It would also be helpful if you can tell us what GPSr you are using. Not all are created equal and some have settings on them that might need to be looked at. If you give us a couple of GC #'s that you've been hunting for, we're a bunch of great armchair hunters in that we can read the logs and give you suggestions on where and what to look for or whether that specific cache(s) should be set aside until you've a bit more practice. Is there any local events coming up that you could attend and meet some of the cachers in your area. A little mentoring goes a long, long way!!

It isn't only students who do this type of shoddy placement though! We had one published here a couple of months ago by a 1 hide cacher. The description was so exact that I knew exactly which corner of the backroads he was talking about. When I pulled up the google mapping, the co-ordinates showed it to be about 4 miles ATCF and a good half mile off the closest road with no trail to it and a swamp between it and civilization. The description had it within 40' of an existing cache. Had the CO's co-ordinates been accurate it would never have been published. The FTF used the description rather than the co-ordinates to find it and did the other cache at the same time... We let a reviewer take care of it.

Just realized that I'd never signed in here!! Caching since 2007 in the Near North of Ontario. I'm the part of the team that can type... Beth

Don't forget too, that you can ask non cachers along - heck some of us are known for dragging, bribing and otherwise coercing non cachers into going along. Sometimes they get converted to cachers sometimes they don't!!...

Thanks for the link - the list was quite informative. The one thing that I did notice is that a large number of the fatal attacks were in campsites or cabins. It's a pity that there was no assessment done in regards to food storage arrangements in those cases. Given the bears unique sense of smell, I would hazard a guess that most of the campsite/living quarter attacks were due to human error (food or other smelly stuff left the campsite). I think, like anything else in life, one has to weigh the danger against the value gained. To me, getting out there on the trails and getting 'out back' just means that I need to be knowledgable. I stand more chance of being harmed by a moose jaywalking at dusk on the roads here than I do meeting up with a bear in the bush.

When I had a caching partner, I used to ignore his caches, even though I hadn't been there for a lot of the hides. Then we went on a maintenance run one day and it took 'me' to find a cache. It had been in play for a couple of years and the township had been doing some work nearby! When I finally found the cache, I figured why not log the darn thing. I had had to find it like anyone else. After that anytime we got to a cache that I hadn't been along with for the hide, he simply waited aside (and did more than enough sniggering ) while I found it. The ones I helped hide, I couldn't justify logging as a find. After it was no longer a caching partner situation they became fair game IMO. Mind you after a couple of years of them being out there and seeing 500 or 600 hides in the meantime, I had to hunt for some of them as hard as if I'd never seen them before. I've had to do the same when I was doing a maintenance run for a friend in need - I'd been there before, vaguely remembered where it was but with cache migration and CRS, it was lightbulb moments, just like finding it brand new...

It IS rated as a 3 difficulty so it's meant to be fairly hard to find. Have you taken a look at the various types of cache containers that are on the market these days. That might help you. I had a nano that was driving me crazy. All of the nanos I'd previously seen were of the same type. This one was placed within 4' of what was a normal hide spot for them. I'd been all over the area with my fingertips looking for it. The nano was a really small version of a bison tube and was hanging in plain sight (well, if it was really, really in plain sight I would have seen it earlier... ). The point is, even cachers with hundreds of finds have to keep thinking outside the box. Mainly because hiders keep thinking outside the box ....