dougp01

If I understand correctly, you're asking about brand and model GPS unit. I have three ways I search for caches. I installed an app on my smart phone that allows me access to geocaching.com almost anywhere. I do everything through the phone. I chose cachesense which is a one-time cost and has more capability than you can shake a stick at. Once your pocket queries are loaded, cachesense can go offline (back country) and it still works great. So if you have a GPS enabled smart phone, that may be the cheapest route. Next, I learned how to load GPX files into my Garmin Nuvi. Yes, this is for cars but it can make due. Mostly I use it while driving to see what is in the vicinity. It has limited battery life so it is best used in the urban setting. Finally, my serious GPSr is the Garmin GPSmap 60csx. It is a handheld specifically designed for back country use. It does well in areas with weak GPS signal, such as deep valleys in our Colorado mountains where I live. I also pull this out when my other options have trouble with signal bounce. However, its not cheap. You really should check on what's available through geocaching.com and visit the review pages for the various devices. All the best, doug

Please consider looking into http://www.chromeexperiments.com/globe I would like to see a global distribution of caches around the world and this WebGL app looks perfect. A city by city graph of total active caches would be outstanding. If you also have population density demographics, you could do caches per capita. I would consider doing this myself, except I do not have access to the entire database of active caches. Thanks a bunch, -Doug

Does anyone have an idea if the missing caches were all public or did they include premium? This may be a clue to finding the person(s). Anyone have a good list?

A good name that we apparently share. http://www.behindthename.com/name/douglas And how many people have a website dedicated to their given name? http://www.dougs.org

All a very interesting history lesson. I may have to dig deeper. In my original question I was only speculating, based on the similarity of counting paces to find the treasure. While not likely that the authors of such stories specifically had letter boxing in mind, the sense of exploration and adventure seem to be a common theme over several generations.

As I understand, letterboxing has been around for a very long time, long before technology made geocaching popular. This morning it occurred to me that the old stories of pirates and buried treasure often had instructions to find treaasure much like letterboxing. "Go 100 paces toward the tree and head to the waterfall for 20 paces, etc." Do you suppose the old authors, like Robert Lewis Stevenson actively participated in such activities as letterboxing?

I was shopping for a GPSr and in reading reviews and forum comments I ran across one response that mentioned using the receiver for geocaching. "That's a new word, I wonder what it means?" Well after digging in I was hooked. BTW - I had as a birthday present from my family on a recommendation from someone else, the Garmin 60CSx. It was my choice as well.

I visted the website and saw some very low acoustic numbers, down in the 30s decibels. This is almost unheard of in my day to day world (pun intended). For those tech-minded folks out there a web site of interest is here: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-decibel.htm

This is a great thing, and I still need to checkout the website. This is one of the things I love about being in Colorado. There are still true wilderness areas here. They are in fact wild and not maintained by the forest or park services. For the unprepared, these areas can even be dangerous. With a little willingness to prepare and some orienteering abilites (not GPS alone), it is possible find places you could swear have never been touch by man. My only problem is not going to these places often enough. [] -doug []

I have a Blackberry 9000 and have used CacheSense (formerly CacheBerry) for some time now. I like it just fine. I use it to supplement my Garmin handheld. I especially use it when I have a need for a few cache-n-dache and the Garmin is still at home. Any limitations in the way of accuracy are a result of the GPS chipset included in the Blackberry, this is the same chipset used by all other smart phones. My phone often reports to the nearest +/- 6 feet when I have a clear sky and no metallic reflecting surfaces nearby. Even with my Garmin, I have the BB in hand as well. While I am in a cell service area, I can double check to see if there are any logs associated with the cache, get the steps to a multi- or puzzle-cache. I can log my finds and now CacheSense has a way of taking photos along the way and associating them with the GC number. I use the phone camera for reference so I can later correlate to my higher quality digital camera. As a result of this I am completely paperless in my caching efforts. Customer service is great and I also joined the CacheSense beta tester's group. Some of my requests and suggestions actually find their way into the final application. All this for a single lifetime fee.

My wife and I do not dress is some special way for caching. But here in Colorado, I suppose we dress in a regional manner. I usually have jeans and a T-shirt or plaid shirt, shirt-jacket or coat depending on temperature. My wife is similar except she always wears a long skirt for urban and non-urban caching. We also were these styles when not caching, so there you go. Being long term residents of the state, we naturally adhere to the advice of layering our clothing. We often see changes in weather that will boggle the mind. Once a while, if the weather seems threatening or we expect to get off the trail, we'll bring our boots. I have some 30 year old Herman Survivors (original brand name) and my wife has Sorrel pack boots. We put these in the vehicle, just in case. As for color, earth tones. And I'm generally not interested in camo. To me camo in urban areas is a fashion statement and not about function. Cache On!!