rob3k

If I'm going for more than a half dozen or so I usually just jot down the cache names on a slip of paper as I find/DNF. I can usually remember enough once I'm home to type up a decent log, but I should probably start jotting some notes for each as I go. Big days for me (10+) can get muddy. I do use a Colorado so I should really start using the 'log find' feature. It's probably one of those things that once I start using I'll wonder why I didn't start months ago. I keep all findable caches within 50 miles of home on my GPSrs so if I work through the caches I plan to tackle and have more time, I just see what is close and looks good. Often I just look for a location that has a good density and figure I'll work out which to go for on site. I tried the paper thing for my first dozen finds or so, but it just takes so freaking long to prepare and you can't go for any 'caches of opportunity' outside of your plan. Well worth buying something to break away from paper IMO.

But don't PQs already include the cache description? I get them loaded onto my GPSr from PQs that were imported into GSAK.

If I felt fairly certain it's missing I'd do a Needs Maintenance. I did that on one I DNF'ed a few weeks ago that included what amounted to a give-away hint. "On a shelf in a trunk 3 feet off the ground." There was one very prominent trunk that fit that exact description with no cache on it. Took a picture of the spot which I sent to the CO upon request, who then disabled the cache. I wasn't 100% certain it was missing, but more than my typical DNF. Without a give-away hint I'd probably just do a DNF, maybe noting in the DNF it might be time to check on the cache. I've had others I suspected were missing only to be found by the next seeker.

Didn't know you get an e-mail when one of your logs is deleted. Guess that means I haven't had that happen yet. Learnt something new.

Note mine, but I got a kick out of this one reedkickball posted to a cache I found:

I'd contact the owner and offer to return the cache container to him/her. Then I'd put it on a shelf and wait to hear back. Don't think I'd go back and replace it after some cops told me to take it away. Not worth the potential headaches.

I like this idea as well. Another great use would be to enter the coordinates of solved puzzles or the next leg of a multicache. Currently I use a bookmark list for this, but I'd love if I could 'correct' the coordinates just for me on the cache listing and then have those corrected coords be used in my PQs so they load up as is onto my Colorado.

I picked up an Argus Sprout for $15 from walmart.com It takes pretty low quality pictures and is marketed as a kids camera, but it's designed to take a beating and is very small. I just attach it to my pack (it's in the shape of a carabiner) and it's always at hand. If it goes belly up, no big deal. Big downsides to it would be low PQ, built in rechargeable battery (so if it dies in the field you are SOL), no flash, and limited storage capacity.

Kudos to the CO for upping the difficulty after it became clear this was a more difficult hide than expected. Under-rated caches can be extremely frustrating.

Did this just change in the past few weeks? When I first signed up I created a few new queries, checked the current day and they ran almost instantly.

I do the same thing (slap them on my watchlist) there are a few in our area I'm waiting until they're found at least once after my strike out before giving it another go. I log DNFs unless I feel like I didn't have the time to give it a good enough look. But I do think many cachers don't. To me I feel like it helps the CO and other hunters to just log your DNFs. It's also interesting to see how different COs respond to a DNF. Some offer up a hint (though I haven't flat asked for one in a DNF... yet) and others just ignore you.

I noticed that the description for some caches would be colored blue while others would be normal text color. I believe the root cause of this is that the <font color=X> tags in the cacheinfo variable are not all being closed. The final one is (where the coords are set to orange). I added </font> at the end of the 3 other lines and that worked to get the description default text color. (At first I hard coded the description to be white but when my garmin flipped to daytime mode the next day I realized why that wasn't the best plan. [] ) Hope that makes sense. I can post up the line of code (don't have it with me now) if you are interested/not sure exactly what I'm talking about.

Did you deselect 'any cache type'? It deselects it for you automatically when you tick off a specific type - the configuration page is slightly different for a route PQ vs. a standard PQ. But just now I tried deselecting it first and then selecting Traditional + Virtual and had the same results as above. Also tried selecting just one cache type to see if it was some odd problem with filtering on more than one. Same result. Here's a screenshot of the search page as I have it set when I hit Submit Information: I figure it's got to be something I'm missing here but can't figure out what.

I have a PQ based on a route and 1. I've ticked off 'Traditional' and 'Virtual' under the Cache Type section 2. Clicked 'Submit Information' button. 3. When the page refreshes I scroll down to the Cache Type section and nothing is checked. 4. Preview the search and I see multi-stage cache types are included. (I assume it's probably returning all cache types.) 5. Go back to the PQ list and click in to this query to edit/view it again - I see the 'Any Cache Type' box is ticked again. Am I doing something wrong?

Just got this setup today and I love it. Thanks for pulling this together.

Thanks for the great info. I'd been wondering what more experienced cachers keep on hand. Currently the bag I carry out with me contains -headlamp -gloves -couple swag items -any print outs for the caches I'm targeting -GPS case -GPS car charger -Spare pens/pencils -Spare logsheets Probably should throw a pair of socks in there for when I inevitably dunk my feet in a stream/puddle/lake/ocean.