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geodarts

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Everything posted by geodarts

  1. That seems like a great choice. The camera interested me.
  2. I don’t have anything to add about stolen caches, but I want to compliment the OP on the cache in the picture. I would have hated to lose it, but I would have wanted to find it to add to my list of caches that have been found with Captain Aura Raines from Clarian, a friend to geocachers all. I would be impressed if Aura appeared and tracked down the container. . . But it’s hard for a superhero to help if she is fictional.
  3. My goals never focus on numbers, and right now they are dependent on health and manageable pain levels. But my hopes include kayak caching travel caching in the U.K., Southwest US, and Alaska. hiking caching even if the hikes are not as long rock art and ghost town caching I also have a goal of taking a picture of Squatch while caching and getting a caching log printed in a literary journal. .
  4. Caching is about the location, and it was a special year for that since our travels took us to Africa, the Yukon and Alaska, and the Southwest. So . .. Okavango in Botswana probably takes it. The Delta was amazing. But honorable mention to caches we found at rock art sites in Zimbabwe and Arizona.
  5. The strength of ALs should be to extend the game into places where traditional caching is not appropriate or forbidden. The weakness is that they easily become virtual repetitive trails . . . The very similar and dull default. I’ve stopped doing as many as I used to. I wanted to place an AL in a parkland to show people some favorite areas — some stages require moderate walks, some used to have physical caches but they were removed. I don’t think they all need to be done on a single trip. In any event cell service is hit or miss. There are some areas where it can be found, and others where it is unlikely. My advice was to focus on specific stages, open up the AL where there is reception, go to where the answer page comes up, but don’t enter the details until later. It can be a juggling act at best especially if the app closes. I’m fine with that up to a point, but the game would have so much more room for creativity if it had a true offline mode. ALs have the potential to be true adventures. They don’t yet have the capability.
  6. I have a pixel 8 pro that I use with Locus for caching. It is a great combination. I have an iPhone but I like the Locus maps better than anything I have found elsewhere — although OSMAnd also has great maps it’s nice to have caching integrated with Locus,. Both models of the Pixel 8 have dual band gnss — it has always me where I need to go. The main transition issues might be with other iMessage and other Apple apps that do not have Android versions.
  7. This thread brought to mind an old puzzle I owned. I was intrigued by people who found caches before they were published, on trails in the middle of nowhere. So I created one whose main clue that it was within distance guidelines. The final exam for the School of Intuitive Caching (SIC). In hindsight I am a little sorry I archived it during a time when I was simplifying my life. https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC17RPG_final-exam
  8. I hope you are doing better. I spent a couple of months in the hospital and the first thing I asked my doctor once I started to recover was if losing part of my lungs would affect hiking and kayaking. I started to get back into the game as part of rehab, so I hope you found it useful for that as well.
  9. A friend of mine once said that a certain puzzle cache would be easier if I added trigonometry to my repertoire. However since purposefully I chose a profession that did not require higher math I saw no reason to do that for the sake of this game. I also began to get tired of either doing busy work or following someone else’s strained logic so at some point I filtered puzzles out of the search result. After a stroke I began to do some puzzles for brain rehab, but most caching puzzles only give me a headache.
  10. Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe were amazing countries to add on a month long trip. There was not that much room for caching since our travel arrangements took us to places for reasons other than this game but I am not sure whether we would have crossed into Zambia from the other side of Vic Falls if not for the sake of a country. Still our guide stopped at an additional rock art site in Zimbabwe that was not on his original list and was amused by the traditional cache there (ask for Edward at Amalinda) and literally drove through a fire set by poachers to get us to an earthcache site that I earlier expressed interest in - although we assured him that it was not necessary. There were a few interesting coincidences like talking to someone at a lodge near the Tsudilo Hills rock art site and learning that she created aardvark art in Muan that someone else used for a virtual that I had been unable to visit. And of course we saw plenty of wildlife visiting a few other earthcaches that gave us room to explore a wide area. So later today I need to convince my wife that we really need to visit Guatemala. I really do “need” to go there.
  11. I do most of my caching with an Android with a dual frequency gps because I really like Locus Maps. I don’t think there is that much difference for caching, particularly with a rugged device and large battery. I stopped using a handheld GPSr a few years ago and have not looked back. I trust my devices more than I did using an Oregon. And I occasionally do Wherigo caches that Garmin does not support. If the Galaxy is accurate enough for you, get a good case and check out Locus. If you find there is a need to change you can consider the alternatives and make a decision from here. However, in the coming year I expect to buy a Garmin for reasons that have nothing to do with this game. We just returned from a trip to the Yukon and Southern Alaska. There were large areas without a cellular connection. We ended up with two flat tires - on both our Jeep Renegade and a 13 foot travel trailer. We also had to drive a very long way before we could get the tires replaced. Never have a flat in rural Canada on Canada Day. Although we had good spares some faith and hope was involved. Next year we want to return to Alaska and perhaps get up onto the NW territories. It seems more prudent to have an in reach device and I might as well get a Garmin that can also be used for caching. But other than that I cannot think of a reason to switch back to a dedicated handheld.
  12. I think one of the major changes in technology is the advent of dual frequency units , both on some handheld devices and phones. Accuracy is increased and it can help in areas where reception may be weak, but considering all the variables with caching that mat or may not be important.
  13. I don’t scare easily but a but a now archived cache was in an old cabin that had a single chair with most of its stuffing gone and there were skeletal animal bones placed on a 2 x 4 that lined the cabin wall. I thought it was a good place for a dark ceremony or serial killer — or a serial killer who liked dark ceremonies. I’ve known some of those so it did not take that much imagination. The last time I went back there, the cabin had collapsed so that was probably the scariest thing. I’ve been to several caches that have a dark history. An old sanitarium with a creepy history that is said to be haunted. Of course I ignored the cache warning and explored the old buildings and ruins. After Dark Paranormal — a paranormal ranch where I met some interesting people — a paranormal investigator warned me about going there at night. https://coord.info/GLM2AM4F (my log ). And then there is a Halloweeeeen cache that a friend placed complete with a reddish substance and various body parts. Truly disgusting. But the scariest might be a virtual near the US capital. When you think about whay goes on there ir truly is scary,
  14. Before I retired I was caching less and less. Then, a year or so later, right before the pandemic , I had a serious accident and an associated stroke. I was in the hospital for two or three months and had to teach myself how to walk again (with some help). So age is only one of the issues. * In some ways it has kept me caching. I began to cache again for exercise, to help meet goals, and to help with both physical and mental recovery. * Balance is still a major issue so tree climbing is out. * I passed my driving test but I would not go out for a day of caching on my own and limit my driving. * Bending down can be hard. It feels like losing my breath. Headaches are an issue. I usually do better earlier in the day, but I DNF more. * I can’t hike as long as I used to. Since getting Covid elevations are a problem. Two years ago I could cache at 10,000 feet as part of a 4 - 5 mile hike. Almost a year after Covid I still can’t do that. * I can kayak but getting out of a kayak to seek a cache needs the right factors. Biking is still out so caching along bike paths is not the same. My doctor once told me that it was unfair how much we had to work as we got older just to keep healthy. But aging is part of life and in many ways I’m doing better than some. I still have the same type of interests — the type of caches I do have not changed except for the physical limitations.
  15. I do not want to discourage you from using the Garmin. But I just want to note that I do all of my “serious” caching on a phone — one that I only use offline. On both Android and IOS there are caching apps that have great maps and fully support offline caching. There may be reasons to use the Garmin, especially depending on the phone. Get to know each device and it can be great to have both on a trip.
  16. Three weeks after we return from Alaska and the Yukon we will be going to Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. While some caching will be possible, the primary focus is of course on the wildlife and Rock Art. I floated an idea to my wife that we could plan the trip to include layovers that would be practical to add a couple of other countries but that did not go over so well. Ever since a major accident prevented me from going to Pitcairn Island (travel insurance came in handy) I am grateful to be able to go anywhere.
  17. I have never used FTF in an online log so my log won’t change one way or the other — and although I will post a log as soon as it is practicable it may involve photo editing or thinking about what want to write. If the location is exceptional a log might encompass a stream of consciousness or further information that I found about the area. In many cases, the log takes longer than the find. With that said, there are times when I have delayed logging online because someone signed the log first. That might get more complicated if someone does not post online, but it is not insurmountable.
  18. We will be driving to the Yukon and Alaska later this year. I am making pocket queries since our route includes many areas where we will be offline. Apart from a watch, I have not had a garmin for years so you should be fine without it. An app like Cachly (iOS) makes it extremely easy to plan trips, download maps, cache offline, and decide what caches you might be most interested in doing.
  19. I have used tools such as Lab2Gpx or other apps to import lab waypoints and map them out along side of other caches. In areas in which there is a lot of overlap it requires switching from one lab to another and back again. It requires keeping track of the progress on multiple labs but it avoids backtracking.
  20. The Cat s75 is also a dual frequency gps rugged phone that supports 2 way satellite communication.
  21. geodarts

    Mapforge

    I was able to track these v. 3 maps down through a link on the openandromaps site. https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/openstreetmap/openandromaps/mapsV3/ So far I have not been able to get the app to recognize the maps, so perhaps that is another reason to use Geooh Go.
  22. geodarts

    Mapforge

    We are getting ready to travel out of town and I wanted to download Mapforge files for offline use with the Whereyougo app. The Mapforge.org and its mirrors only seem to support v. 5. I have not found v.3 maps. Is there an alternate source?
  23. If the game is decreasing — and locally it appears to be the case — then I don’t see that as a bad thing. As I wrote on my profile, “Am I the only one who thinks there are around 3 million containers too many . . “
  24. Our first long trip later this year will be to the Yukon, not quite a new country but close enough. It’s the first international trip in a while — we had to cancel Pitcairn Island after I had a serious accident and then Covid hit. We are driving, camping, and taking things slowly so my noncaching spouse might be willing to stop here and there. The last time we crossed into Canada the border crossing took quite a while because the Canadian official could not understand why we were planning to go to Writing on Stone park to see rock art. Perhaps they will better understand Gertie’s Can Can revue in Dawson City. A week or so after we get back we will be leaving for Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. We had intended to return to Thula Thula in South Africa but somehow ended up elsewhere. Rock art and animals are our main goals. But there are earthcaches at some of the rock art sites so I should have some new countries.
  25. I noticed that the AMG’s rugged Glory and G2 Guardian have models with dual frequency gps support. Ulefone has a second dual frequency model with a thermometer instead of a thermal imaging. Doogee has a rugged dual frequency model with a 22000mAh battery. A model with only a 10000+ battery also has L1 + L5
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