Brooklyn51

We had a similar problem with our Oregon 550T at first too. We'd use the coords that we downloaded from the page to find the first stage and then enter the new waypoints for the next stage, hit' Go' and bring up the compass only to find ourselves at the original GZ. What we learned since is that you either have to go back to the waypoint screen and stop navigation to the current waypoint (the original) or go to the 'found it' screen and select 'found' and 'done'. Then go the waypoint screen and select your new waypoint for the next stage. Apparently the Oregon give priorty to the cache waypoint over the other if both are selected.

It is supposed to be a gift, just as the cache was to the OP when his/her friends gave it to him/her. Putting it out on a specified day and time would make it more of a social event where whoever wanted to could join in for some good fun. Ok, so this one cache won't be a notch in anyone's belt but it seems ludricous and maybe a bit sad to think that there would be hard feelings over it. There must be a lot of disappointed FTF hounds out there since only one can ever be first. It's just a game. There's certainly nothing wrong with the way the OP is planning to do the honoring now, I just think it would have been ok to make it a planned FTF event too.

In our area, special tribute caches, for a variety of occasions, are set up all the time, often with a request on the cache page to allow the honoree(s) to be FTF, usually with a specified date and time. Usually, too, there is an open invitation for anyone who wants to join at that time for the FTF party. And usually, for the most part, this is respected and as far as I can think, noone has objected. It's fun and entertaining. A nice break from the routine cache runs, it even promotes comraderie and community (oh, the anarchy) There are plenty of caches to compete for "real" FTFs if that's your game. There's nothing wrong with a little fun to show friends you care.

Congrats on your first find, TrekJohnC!! Many more to come. and good luck, Scouters-a-go, you know they're out there!

you'll also have to install MapSource on your computer, a program which most likely came with your GPSr but is also available on the net, to move the maps to your SD card.

Welcome! Good luck of your hunt. Let us know how you did.

You can download some very good -free- maps from the link below. You will need to put them on a micro SD memory card which you can put into your Garmin. Congrats and welcome to the obsession! http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/

Not really a near miss so much as a potential for disaster. My wife and I were caching in South Dakota and had targeted one that seemed interesting alongside one of those lonely country roads. We hadn't seen anyone else on the road for some time. When we got to a place that was as close as we were going to able to drive, we were still quite ways from GZ, a good .2 or so, down a long steep sandy, rocky gorge. It seemed pretty walkable for the first 100 feet or so but then it got much steeper. My wife, who has a lot more sense than I do, refused to go any further so I went on alone. I slid part of the way down, guiding myself along with clumps of grass and the little brush that seems pervade everything in SD but I made it down to the bottom and I do have to say the view was nothing short of spectacular, looking out over a lush green valley. I found the cache and it too met all of my expectations. I could see the little dot up near the top of the huge hill I had just climbed down that was my wife and I began steeling myself for what I knew would be an arduous climb back up. That's when I began to think of all the possibilities, what if I fell or tripped or got bit by a jackalope and feeling something poke me in the leg, I realized it was the car keys in my pocket.. right next to our cell phone.. down here at the bottom of the hill with me. If I met my demise down here, she would have been stranded as well. I wished I had thought of that before. I did make it back up after the long climb but those thoughts did take some of the thrill away until I reached the top again. We did have a bit of a laugh about it afterward but it was one of those nervous laughs when you know things could have gone badly but didn't .. this time. After that, from then on, whenever I want to venture into something a little rough that she, in her good sense doesn't want to try, we'd make sure she has the keys and the phone. edited for gooder grammar

There's all kind of crazy everywhere ya go. I doubt telling him about geocaching would have made a big difference to him if the only thing he was worried about was that you might blow up the building while he was eating.

Well.. you do seem to have a better than average grasp for the lingo and jargon than most newcomers but maybe you read a lot. The only comment I would have is to remind you to log the trackables you've picked up and moved.

I think this sums it up as well as anything. Totally agree with this. Well said. What extra you put into this game will reward you with the satisfaction of having played it well.

If it's the one I think it is, it's a traditional that apparently uses a field puzzle of a sort to open it. This was the FTF's first FTF. The OP could attach the field puzzle attribute, that might help..

Sounds like you're more of an "extreme cacher" than a casual one. No lamp post hides for you, you want the mega-challenge. And that's just fine, everyone plays the way they like to the best but just know that you are going to have a harder time finding those prizes. That's not lack of experience necessarily, it's more the nature of the beast. The advice above is still good though. Play through some of the easier ones until you develop your geosense and consider investing in a more robust dedicated GPSr. -edited fro speling erorrs-

A quick look at your stats shows that you are finding caches though and of a higher difficulty too. It could be that you are simply going after caches that are harder than the norm. I don't use a phone so I can't really speak to that but my opinion would be that a hand held GPSr might be a little more accurate in the wooded areas if only because I think those have a more dedicated receiver than phones do, but I can't say for certain. Try sticking with searching for caches in the difficulty 1.5-2.0 area. As for that one you keep DNFing, it's common enough to come across one that will just keep eluding you, Lord knows we have (it might even be gone) Don't worry, it looks like you're doing fine. Just remember to have fun.

WOW! Those are all awesome!

I spotted this trail of caches in South Dakota on the map and thought it was pretty cool. Someone went to a lot of work and planning for this. Here's the link for the first cache in the series. Be sure to pull it up on the map and scroll back a bit. http://coord.info/GC1GPZ0

I don't see any problem with it. It may change a few stats numbers for those who found it before but going bigger seems like a good thing to me. Just edit your listing.

We were hoping there was a solution that didn't require having to lose/reload them all. They are in the memory, just not dispalying. Are you thinking that we have to start all over again? Bummer. The "remove/reload" step can be just moving the files off the device and then moving them back on afterwards. Hmmmm, that didn't work. There must be something in the files themselves??? Thanks for the help.

We were hoping there was a solution that didn't require having to lose/reload them all. They are in the memory, just not dispalying. Are you thinking that we have to start all over again? Bummer. The "remove/reload" step can be just moving the files off the device and then moving them back on afterwards. Hmmmm, that didn't work. There must be something in the files themselves??? Thanks for the help.

We were hoping there was a solution that didn't require having to lose/reload them all. They are in the memory, just not dispalying. Are you thinking that we have to start all over again? Bummer.

These are all local caches - right near our home. We know they are listed by distance. We've used this GPSr for about two years but it's never done this.

These are all local caches - right near our home. We know they are listed by distance. We've used this GPSr for about two years but it's never done this.

We use a Garmin Oregon 550T. We have several loaded caches but suddenly they no longer display in our "find a geocache" list and none show in the "found" list. We loaded in some caches for 11-11 and 11-12, and used the GPSr for caching both days. Today, no caches loaded prior to these dates appear, although we know we had several loaded. We reloaded one that we wanted to find today and got the "this cache is already loaded" message so we know it's in the memory, but it didn't show. All of our waypoints are gone as well. We can add in new caches but all is gone prior to 11-11-11. We changed batteries but other than that we've completed no upgrades. We tried changing batteries again, but the results were the same. Any ideas?

It happens often on my wife's computer (XP) but it has never happened on mine (Vista) Amusing at times, annoying other times, we were wondering if the operating system had anything to do with it.

We went to a cache in Connecticut that was monitored via camera. It did mention this fact on the cache page and the CO would apparently sometimes shout clues down to the hapless wandering cachers from his apartment window across the street overlooking the hide. When we were there, one of the CO's friends stuck her head out the door to let us know we were close. Apparently there were several people watching. Fun but a little freaky. Not sure if they recorded anything though.