chuckr30
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Posts posted by chuckr30
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I simply carry my GPS, a pocket knife, my microlight, and a loaded skunk with shotgun action. KA-SHK!
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Did your browser upgrade itself for any reason? Which browser and OS are you using? Don't forget to show us the browser version.
I use Firefox 2.0.0.14 on Win XP and I think the maps print for me. Although the maps are too far from the geocache to be of much use for me. I prefer them a little more zoomed in.
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I use the geocaching.com website itself to log my finds.
But when I search for a cache, I print out the cache page, then when I find it I write "found mm/dd/yy" in the upper right corner of the first page. Then I log it on geocaching.com.
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A few years ago someone brought back a puzzle box for me from central America. You have to slide this piece this way, another piece that way, etc. All these pieces you could not tell they would slide unless you actually pushed them. It's really neat. You can sometimes find them in Mexico too.
The story behind it is, peasants would hide their money in them so robbers could not get the money out. This doesn't make sense because the boxes were smaller than a shoe box and could be easily taken with the robber.
And in the early 1970's a girl brought the same basic idea: a wooden puzzle box from China!
Some boxes I found:
http://www.frik-n-frak.com/Heartwood-Puzzl...CFSCTWAodxmNjZA
http://seriouspuzzles.stores.yahoo.net/pu.html
http://www.uniqueboxshop.com/polsecbox1.html
I did a search on Google for "secret puzzle box".
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Spiders...blah. I thought it was from gypsy moth caterpillars.
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I have a Garmin 76csx. If I get this battery powered USB port (https://www.electroids.com/main.php?content=store), is the Garmin voltage regulated at the USB port, or is just the circle port in the back regulated? I would like to use this gadget as a battery backup for my Garmin in the field.
Thanks.
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You're right. The 76csx does come with a 128mb card. I checked the gpscity.com website. I guess I'll have to buy another card if I want street maps.
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I use gpscity.com. Their City Nav is $120. But they seem reliable. I had 2 orders from them, the original 76csx, and later I bought a car kit and bike kit.
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Your constant bumpiness may have cracked a circuit board. These units are not hardened for such abuse like on a bike. They are made for less bumpy situations like walking, driving, or on a boat.
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I have a Garmin 76csx. The basemap comes with US interstates and some state highways. I would like a map to show all the city streets (or most of them) in Michigan. Which software do I need? I will mainly be using the map for geocaching, but occasionally for driving.
I have seen different software, I don't think I need the topo software. But there are several other ones like Garmin City Nav NT 2008.
Also, when I install this map, will I still have the highways visible on my GPS?
Will I lose my geocaches when I install the street map?
Are there any other map packages I can buy that are cheaper than the Garmin one that will show streets on my 76csx?
My unit came with an SD card which I think is 1gb. Will I have enough room to add some more geocaches? Or will I use up most of the card loading the street maps?
Can I load only 1 or 2 states to save room on my GPS SD card? (Like Michigan, which I will use 99% of the time.)
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Studies have shown that GPS units do not interfere with ANY airline instruments during takeoff/landing mode or at crusing altitude. However you still have to do what they say, even if the rule is not based on fact, because they still have the right to take the unit away or kick you off the plane.
Sorry, I do not have the link to the study at this time.
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My chief concern is with caches on steep, soft slopes. They can cause erosion and once that starts it's very difficult to stop. It's not something I've actually observed, but I'm sure it happens.
Just a comment here. Common sense would say that a 100% loose sand with a steep slope would be competely flat within a year due to rain and winds and animals walking on it. Not so. In Michigan there are many areas with sandy dunes. Some are in Sleeping Bear Dunes park, some are in Hoffmaster Park on the west shore of Michigan, some are near Saugatuck. Those dunes have been there for thousands of years, and I"ll be they will be for another thousand more. (Assuming water levels don't continuously rise.)
So, even soft, steep sandy slopes last a long time, even with wind, rain, waves, erosion, and animals (including people) walking on them.
This is why we have science, the scientific method, and scientific studies. Because "common sense" isn't always correct.
I get cheesed about park rangers going off the deep end. What Mr Ranger? You have a park 100 miles from the nearest town that only gets 3 visitors per day and I can't walk 2 feet off the trail to take a picture of a beautiful flower I've never seen before?
That rule does not follow common sense. I live in a good sized city, actually a metropolis. Not as big as Detroit, but it's about 6 towns all connected. In the middle of one heavily populated area is a park. This park is full of wild woods with a path through it. It grows hundreds of trilliums, a protected flower. People don't follow the rules and walk around on these trilliums, yet the flowers still come back every year. This park gets at least 50 visitors every day. Yet the trees and flowers have not been trampled beyond recognition.
If there is a rare flower, like a Lady's Slipper (which I would love to see in the wild), so important that no one should walk near it, put a fence around it. If it's personally important to you, Mr. Ranger, spend $10 for some rope and some stakes and stake out the area.
Let's be a little more moderate here, people. The woods, in most cases, actually NEED people walking in them to trample the sticks and leaves into smaller pieces, so they can more easily broken down so mold and bacteria can break them down into valuable humus.
I've been to a couple caves and they actually told us not to touch the walls or any other items because we'd "destroy the cave!"
I think it's more important for us to control our pollution releases in the the air and streams than it is to stay on the trail (with a few exceptions for rare plants).
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I have a food allergy to gluten, so I understand what is going on here. Peanut allergies run the gamut, from not too bad, to life threatening. If you have a "life threatening" level of peanut allergy, you should be very careful what you are reaching into. And you should carry an Epipen 24/7 anyway (for anaphylactic shock).
When I got a blood test for food allergies the doctor said I was "mildly" allergic to peanuts. I have never noticed a symptom so I continue to eat peanuts and other nuts.
If you have a severe peanut allergy you are in a very, very tiny minority and it is simply rude, and self-centered, to ask the majority to change their habits. I suppose you could ask, but don't really expect much.
At my son's school they do not ban peanuts, but at lunch they always have one table which is "peanut free".
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If you have a Garmin unit, geocaching.com now has a "Send to GPS" button, found on each cache page, free to non-premium members, that works only with Garmin units connected to the PC with a cable. You must also first install the web driver from Garmin (also free).
Works great! I tried it this weekend with Firefox 2.0 and I love that new button!
I used to use GSAK but found it clumsy to use because each time I sent from my PC to my GPS I would get duplicated waypoints. So I had to update the data on the PC, delete all waypoints from my GPS, then upload from my PC to my "clean" GPS. It was just a hassle.
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Go to a cache on geocaching.com. They now have a "Send to GPS" button which works only with Garmin units. You must have your GPS hooked up to the PC via a cable. And you must load the Garmin driver for this onto your PC (different from the driver that came on the CD with your GPS.) Once the special driver is loaded on your PC, click the "Send to GPS" button. It's great, I tried it this weekend!
If you register on geocaching.com and enter your home coordinates, you can click a link "Find caches near my home". It shows you the closest caches first, and the distance to each one.
Registration is free, premium membership is not and gives you a few other features.
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Oddly enough, my NiMh batteries only last about 2 hrs max in my Garmin 76csx. It has a color screen so that really sucks up the juice. NiCads lose their charge quickly in storage, so I like alkalines the best, and I recycle them. They last 5-6 hrs of use or a little more. Plus I can buy 4 alkaline AAs for $1 at the Dollar Store.
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I painted a large, screw top vitamin container for one of my caches. I use screw tops to keep the water and moisture out. It has worked well so far.
Tupperware should be good, but not Gladware containers. Match containers seem to be waterproof as are beach coin containers with a screw top. The beach containers are designed to hold a few dollars, your car keys, and are designed to float.
Anything with a screw top and flexible seal, o-ring, or rubber washer should be good.
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- Buy a Peterson guide to wild plants in your area. They are good guides.
- Audobon also makes plant guides too. Get a guide with color pictures. B&W drawings are not enough, you need to be able to see subtle color variations.
- My son is in Boy Scouts. For one of the activities, one of the leaders went out in the woods and collected poison ivy along with other plants that look like PI. I discovered PI comes in many forms and there are several plants which look like it. Anyway, I mis identified 2 out of 8 samples. Some of the plants which look like PI are box elder (maple family) and young virginia creeper.
- Take a weed wacker to a large patch of poison ivy at a trail head and get it all over your legs and arms. You'll never forget what it looks like after that. (Happened to me.)
- Find someone who REALLY knows poison ivy and have them show it to you and the identifying marks. ID marks are: woody stem, vine is hairy, leaves of 3 with shallow and few serrations/teeth on each leaf, underside is white or silvery. A boy scout leader should know, as should a park ranger. Offer to buy them a pop or lunch at the camp store if they help you.
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Once you get to the location, knowing *how* people hide caches is important. So I'll give you some typical finds I've found.
- In a hollow branch shoved in a large hole in a tree. Clearly looked like it was put there on purpose.
- In the hollow base of a tree. (Found several like this.)
- In the hollow part of a log on the ground (found several like this).
- Magnetically stuck to the metal part under the table part of a picnic table.
- Magnetically stuck to a metal light post, looked like a small electrical box.
- Hidden 8 feet high in the hollow of a dead tree.
- Made out of electrical conduit and electrical box, stuck on the side of a telephone pole. (Outside the hider's house near the street.)
- Hidden under several large rocks or concrete pieces. Though you could see the cache if viewed from the correct angle.
- A bush was shaped like a donut. Film canister was in the center of the bush at ground level. (I found several in different bushes like this.)
Now you can see 2 big trends here:
1. Hidden in hollow parts of trees (branches, stumps, crotches)
2. Disguised as something else manmade.
Some hints:
- Go in the spring after the snow thaws. One of the caches was hidden by snow and easily found when it melted.
- Go in the fall after the leaves have fallen. Leaves from bushes and weeds make things harder to see from a distance.
- Take kids with you. They have a different, creative viewpoint on hiding things, and they are lower to the ground to see things better. Plus they have better eyesight.
- Think to yourself "If I were hiding gold coins, where would be a good place?"
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Hi all, I installed the Garmin plug-in, restarted Firefox (it needs Firefox 1.5 and higher) and it works great. Thanks!
p.s. I am not a premium member FYI.
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On the individual cache page there is a button labeled "Send to GPS" and I would like a little info on how to use it. First, I assume my GPS must be connected to my PC somehow. I have a Garmin 76csx connected via USB.
- Is this button for premium members only or for everyone?
- Does it work with all models or only some? If so, which models does it work with?
Thanks!
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Hello from Kentwood, MI in western Michigan.
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Hi Nate,
Did you go to Ian's Jungle Camp? Or another resort? We went to Ian's and had a great time. A doctor there got dehydrated and VERY sick, he should have known better.
I also found a live Fer De Lance, before Ian explained what it was in his every-other-night "Ian's Jungle Speech".
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Anyone found a cache or know of a cache that used invisable UV ink to display cords? I'm toying around with the idea.
Probably will not be popular. Battery powered UV lights are hard to find, generally you have to order them online.
I just bought the UV LED and made my own light.
GPS76csc: clear all geocaches?
in GPS technology and devices
Posted · Edited by chuckr30
I have a Garmin GPS76csx, and also GSAK 6.6.4 on Win XP. I thought if I cleared the database on GSAK, entered a single waypoint in GSAK, and sent it to my GPS it would clear all the old Geocache waypoints in my GPS. It didn't.
So how do I clear all my geocaches from my GPS? Can I do it from the GPS, GSAK, or other software?
Thanks.