CO Native

That would be one long multi to do that. How many stages do you think that would take? Don't forget the hint to not stray from the course, and don't quit halfway through to come back tomorrow. I love the unexpected uses some people can come up with for stuff like a GPS.

If you just want to retrace your path use the tracback feature. It will lead you along the track you made.

80814 caches within four miles=0 caches with ten miles = 12

This was just posted at a cache near me: Openly admitting you've never been there, just that you know the area. It's a traditional cache too not just a virtual. If someone posted that to one of my caches I'd delete it. Best part too is that this made them the "FTF" on this cache (GCJBNZ). That is of course besides the fact that the owner of the cache logged two finds on it right after it was approved.

I am finding that a lot of the benchmarks I am hunting have been covered and would like to give a metal detector a try. However I have never owned one and would like to know if they work very well for such a purpose. The ground here has a lot of granite which I am told has a high metal content to it. Will that make things difficult? One situation in particular has me wondering. The NGS marks I am looking for were on top of a mountain mounted in the rocks in 1934. Many large rocks have been flipped and moved and I have not been able to locate the benchmarks. The rocks are no more than 2 feet thick, but weigh enough that 2 people can't move them. Would a metal detector be able to get a reading through 2 feet of granite? If I get a reading on one rock that could be flipped back over I may try, but I'm not about to start flipping all the rocks in the area. What should I expect to spend?

My first cache was the easiest in my area. I didn't want to bite off too much on my first attempt. It was rather dissapointing. Drove to the end of a dead end road, and it was hidden between two large rocks blocking the road. No view, no hike, and very little searching. Fortunately I did a few more that day and realized how much of an adventure it can be. Rough start but a lot of fun since then.

I've run across several bears while hiking, hunting, fishing, geocaching, etc. First of all, it is not necessary to be extra loud while hiking. Usually the normal amount of noise people make while having a conversation on the trail is plenty to give a bear enough warning to let him know you are coming. If your not the talking type just put a little bell on your hiking poles. It is not that you are yelling that scares the bear away, it is the fact that you are human. You just want to avoid startling a bear in close proximity. He's only going to attack if he thinks it's too late to run. Contrary to what seems to be popular opinion, bears do not seek out people for meals. Most people attacked by bears were camping with the smells of other food on or around them. When the bear is suddenly suprised by the sneaky humans hiding in their tent he reacts in a defensive but deadly manner. As for the 9mm. Come on. Except for the people with nerves of steel and lots of experience with an attacking bear it will do no good. How good of a shot do you think you are when your adrenaline is pumping like never before. Most people that use hand guns for "defense" against bears do more harm than good. If you do manage to shoot the bear instead of someone in your party (including yourself) you're probably just going to wound him and piss him off more. Also, I don't know if you've ever hunted bears, but it takes a very well placed, high powered shot to bring one down instantly. I was with a friend who put 3 shots with a 30/30 into a bear, and we still had to track it 4 miles to finish the job. I've heard some positives about the bear spray (pepper spray with a much more power) that is being sold now. It's about $40 a bottle, but if you miss and hit yourself it's not lethal just painful. And who knows maybe the bear won't like the taste of you then. Unless he likes his food spicy I guess. It's still a relatively new product so there aren't a lot of real life accounts out there to go by.

Delorme's program is a little more suited for GPS use, however the detail and usability (at least in my opinion) are terrible. National Geographics map give you a lot more detail on the maps, and the ability to make a shaded relief really helps me understand what I am looking at.

Not sure if this cache started before the rules got stricter, but it is a traveling cache that has done quite well. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...fd-6b12669d8240

I own the legend and have been very happy with what I can do with it backpacking. The only way you will be able to put a topo into the legend is to own the Garmin software. I have not been too impressed with that software though. The only use I have for it is to put topos into the legend. I use the National Geographic TOPO! software for everthing else I do with my legend. The maps are far more detailed and easy to read. You can buy a state version for where ever you live and it will have 1:24k of the whole state. It interacts with all types of gpsrs too. The elevation profiles it creates are excellent, and since the maps are very detailed it is easy to create and export a planned hiking route to the gpsr.

For downloading topos into your gps you must use the software that matches your gps product. For the best topo map that works with any type of GPS I recommend National Geographics TOPO! software. Very easy to use and very detailed maps. However the topos do not load into the GPS, just the waypoints and tracks.

After reading your question I came across another idea that I thought could be modified for a team. Follow this link: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=31492 If you had a pipe set up with a floating cache at the bottom where water had to be poured in to get the cache to float to the top you could modify it for a team by drilling holes in the pipe. Other team members would have to cover the holes with their hands while someone poured the water in.

I have never seen a free map that can be used with OziCE. I don't really even know of any decent free maps. When you visit though you can purchase a paper map (I know it's a bit antiquated) for fairly cheap. If you get the right one it will have Lat/Lon markings on it for reference. Glad to hear of more Dutch coming to visit the area. My last name is Friesema which probably doesn't mean much to anyone who isn't Dutch. My geocaching nick name is "CO Native" if you'd like to e-mail me. I'd be happy to help out with planning your trip. I've lived in Colorado all my life and have visited some of the places you are going. Unfortunately I do not speak Dutch (or German) at all.

I have been doing a fair amount of benchmark hunting in my area and have only found one so far. It seems that many of the benchmarks have been destroyed by construction. Oddly enough most of the missing ones seem to be on public land (highways, parks, city buildings) destroyed by those that threaten fines for others who destroy benchmarks. Looking at the ones in the area that have been found it appears that the ones that tend to survive are in low traffic inpopulated areas. I am slow to log one as being missing though as the coordinates can be so far off that it can take hours to find one. Only after several thorough searches of the area will I do so.

How close to you the geocache is doesn't matter, it's how easily you can maintain it. If you are in that vicinity several times a year, than I say go for it. Keep track of peoples reports online they will let you know when your cache needs attention. Please, do not place a cache you will only visit once. I live west of Colorado Springs, and we get a lot of vacationers that think they find a great spot so they place a cache. Then they go home post it with a note saying someone from Colorado should maintain it. If you have no intention of maintaining it yourself don't leave it. That's littering not geocaching.