LSUFan

If you take my 5 drunken college years of DNF's (Did Not Feel) anything, and add them to my logged 33 years, then you have my total posts on the birthday cake.

There is a cacher in MS who makes much sought after walking sticks as ftf prizes and such. He does the coupon/certificate thing, which he puts in the caches. You then send him the certificate with all the info he needs, and he custom builds your hiking stick. He'll then mail it to you in a pvc pipe container. I know he goes to a lot of trouble and expense, but they are very popular in our part of the country. A lot of people watch his profile to see when and where he puts the certificates. His geocacher handle is SuperSquid, and the sticks are called SSO's. (SuperSquid Originals) You're just not a true geocacher down here, unless you have a SSO.

I go down to the local trophy shop and get a small ftf trophy made up. Our local ftf competitiors around here really like them. It's something they can add to their collections. Here is a pic of one for my "Looks Greek to me" cache. I had it printed in Greek fonts to match the theme of the cache. The one pictured cost about $6 bucks, if I remember right.

And they said I was crazy for making a working lava lamp geocoin.

I appreciate the compliment from Semper Questio. My daughter also has a kids oriented cache in the same park as GCHN6V. There are also 2 easy micros extremely close by the parking area after you find the full size caches. Our state geocaching club has a LA Highways cache list that shows caches within 1.5 miles of all the major hwys, including I-20. Here is a link to it, if you're interested. It's updated fairly regularly. Hope this helps and you enjoy caching thru Louisiana. http://www.lageocaching.org/index.php?name...ddetails&lid=20

They were neat-looking. I checked on ebay and they had several for sale there. Thanks for showing this Nomad, I may just have to try and bid on one of the varieties to add to my coin collection. http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?c...ckel&category0=

I have been trying to garner support from our state geocaching organization for a Louisiana state geocoin. I have had a few responses from some members supporting it, but no overall consensus on it. I think our problem is, we don't know where to start. What are the actual processes in getting a state geocoin made ( I mean with GC and the state organizations involvement in it)? Thanks LSUFan LAGeocaching.org member

Paid for 4 last night. Thanks

I carry one in my backpack all the time. Sometimes it's handy to have when doing a multi or such that gives you a bearing to find the cache. I always use it when hiking in offtrail to caches. My partner and I had to use it find our way out of a MS swamp one time after both our GPS's failed. It really saved our rear-ends that day.

Puppyman, I checked out the link to see what you were talking about because I know our Louisiana website is alive and well. The link pinned is incorrect. It should be LAGeocaching.org instead of .com. I'll email Max Cacher and ask him to update that in the pinned forum. Thanks for pointing that out. LAGeocaching.org member LSUFan

I understand that it's ultimately whatever I want to make of the coin, but I do want to make a coin that others will want to collect, trade, buy etc. My thinking is if I make a coin that everyone really likes, then it will be easier to make trades for. How else am I going to be able to get a Kilted Cacher coin since I don't own a dres......sorry kilt. KC, you know I'm kidding. I really do want one of your coins.

Tozainamboku gave a great explanation of some of the differences for the two coordinate formats. As far as one being better than the other, my opinion is the UTM system is much easier if you want to figure the distances between two points without having to do a lot of mathematics. It's all just straight adding and subtracting (as long as you stay within the same zones and bands of the UTM). It's easier using UTM on paper maps in the field for this same purpose also. Once you understand how both formats work and the measurements for which they represent, you can use either system fairly well, but I still think UTM's are easier for the beginner-----as long as the metric system doesn't bother you. I have written an explanation of these different formats in lesson stages for my local geocaching club and will be more than happy to email them to you if you like. It explains the numbers for both formats and how to read/convert them. If anyone didn't know what the zones and bands I referred to earlier, then you need these lessons. I really believe everyone should know what these numbers mean. You can then impress your non-geocaching friends at parties. It beats card tricks.

I am still in the planning stages of designing a geocoin and was pondering different shapes for it. After seeing all the great coins posted here, I was wanting everyones opinion on if I should just make it round, and not a special shape after all. I'm trying to get a feel for what the professional coinnoiseurs here in the forums prefer. Can you please let me know?

Please put me down for two.

Welch and Max Cacher, I really appreciate the trouble you went to checking that information for me. I really owe ya one. Miragee, I want to thank you for educating me on the map stuff. I have never paid attention to that aspect of, but will now. Teamhawaii1981, that was a great website and I want to thank you for sharing that with everyone. I have bookmarked it for future reference. This is what really makes the sport so enjoyable, as how everyone helps out others. Thanks again everyone.

I was wanting to see what the first cache placed in my home state was. I can do pq's by dates that will return results showing active and inactive caches. I was wanting to see if there were some older than these that may have gotten archived. Does anyone know of a way to do this? I figured GC had to keep them in the database for logs from previous finders. Any help would be appreciated.

PayPal'd for my two ----Thanks again.

Kilted Cacher, I would like two coins but will take one for sure if that's all available by the time my name comes up. Thanks LSUFan

Briansnat was absolutely correct in that your pocket pc isn't made for the elements. Sometimes though, when that cache is just within a few feet of the car, human nature is just gonna push you to take the pocket pc with you instead of grabbing a dedicated gps. Take my advice and get you at least one of these from Wal-Mart, and make sure to insert your pocket pc into EVERY time you get out of the car. It's also handy to keep it around your neck. I know all of this from experience. There was no water anywhere around, except where I dropped my pocket pc into it . http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=2553355 As far as software, gpxsonar and mapopolis has been the winning combination for all of my geocaching group. One of the main things you have to keep in mind for your pocket pc is speed and memory. This is where certain programs excel over others. The Maryland Geocachers Sociey has an excellent article on their website about this. They influenced my decisions and I am quite happy with their recommendations. http://www.mdgps.org/modules.php?name=pocketcaching LSUFan

Actually, there are a several cachers down there who are even placing new caches out. I sent a private message thru our LA geocaching organizations website to a geocacher in Kenner, LA for you. This cacher is still active and placing new caches as we speak. Maybe ya will be able to log this cache together.

Another example of "you snooze, you lose". I didn't catch this forum topic until it was all over. If anybody does back out of paying, I would like anywhere from 1-3 coins myself. Just put me on the backup list in case. Thanks LSUFan

WebbWalkers, it definitely sounds like your compass has reversed poles. Getting it too close to a strong magnetic force can cause this. I'm sure you have played with magnets before. You know that when you place two magnets together, that they will only attract to each other in one direction, and if you turn them around, they will actually repel each other. You can call this North and South polarity. North and South attracts, while North/North or South/South won't. You can think of the earth as having a large magnetic bar running from the north, thru the center core, and coming out at the south end of the world. The north end of this magnet has a southern polarity and the south end of the magnet has a northern polarity. Since the earths magnetic north field actually has a southern polarity, it attracts your compass needle, which has been factory magnetized with a northern polarity. If for any reason your compass needle has it's polarity reversed, then the magnetic fields won't attract, but instead repel each other. (Technically, your reversed needle will now be attracting towards the magnetic south that has a northern polarity, but your needle's magnet may not be strong enough for this to actually happen) This sound's like what has happened to your compass. Your compass has been remagnetized by another magnet with a southern polarity. Silva has information on their website about how to fix your compass that this has happened to. http://www.silva.se/outdoor/products/comp_general.htm I'm sure there are more scientific correct terms for what I said, but this is as best I can understand and explain it. Hope it helps you understand what happened. LSUFan

I have started going to a local trophy shop and getting a small ftf trophy made up. I have the name of the cache and the GC # printed on it. They usually cost around $4. The local ftf hounds seem to really like them. They taunt each other, by posting pics of who found the trophy. Here is a link to my "Looks Greek to Me" cache trophy. The trophy shop printed everything in greek fonts to go with the theme of the cache. http://img.Groundspeak.com/cache/log/0b60b...434e58098d7.jpg

Cache-n-dash, if you want to do a little research on your own, these are a few places to begin. The Maryland Geocacher Society has an article about cachemate on their website. http://www.mdgps.org/modules.php?name=Cont...=showpage&pid=1 Also the GPSPassion website has many forums about the globalsat (and just about all other) pda gps. They also have info on all mapping software. You might want to check their site out too, to learn about your choices and pick up some tips. www.gpspassion.com

I wouldn't see any problem with that, Jkibbe. However, my geocaching partner seems to have a bad habit of becoming emotional attached to tb's. I scan his profile and have to physically go over to his house and take travel bugs from him, so they can continue on. He earned the title of the pro-cache-stinator honestly.