Team ARK-ville

I found a benchmark today and I too am unable to find a data sheet either on geocaching.com or USGS I have written an email to USGS to see if they can come up with the data sheet. If I could figure out how to post a picture here I would. I tried a couple things and I get "dynamic pages in image tags not allowed."

Don't feel too bad, at least it is still out there and active. My first Geo-coin made 90 miles in three jumps and has vanished. Someone appears to have decided it made a good collectors item. I didn't care what direction it took, I just wanted it to move. Yours will move again soon and probably get back on track somewhere along the way.

I think dropping ones account is being a bit harsh. I presently have a TB I have had for about 3 weeks. Had planned on placing it the next week but the weather took a turn here and we now have a couple feet of snow. I am not physically able to track thru the snow to rehide it. I have emailed the owner and assured them I will place it as soon as possible. I have a couple personal TB's out there that are being held and have been for some time and have not received an email from anyone. I assume they are also having trouble getting out during the winter and will place them when they can. As much as I would like them placed I understand problems can arrise and only hope that spring will find them in a new cache. I would NOT want the accounts cancelled for these cachers. I think we all half expect that when we send out a TB it may well become lost or kidnapped and never heard of again. It's a chance we take. I also have one of mine missing. All part of the game.

I feel the preferred thing to do here is just enjoy the fact you found the travel bug. Since you do not have it in your possession and not moving it along, there should be no logging it on your part.

This sounds interesting, but I have no idea how to get the new coordinates. I searched a few antipod sites to try and figure it out but can't. If my home coords are: N42° 08.992 and W074° 37.144, what are the antipode coords??

Geocoins are a super nice item. I started out with two of them before switching to the travel bug tags. Be prepared to loose your coins. One of mine has gone missing in a very short time. They make nice collectibles. If you want to try to avoid someone keeping the coin drill a hole in it, this will make it less desirable.

Lynx, you can bid on travel bugs on Ebay. Just be careful or you could pay too much with shipping charges.

First To Find

Arkville, NY 66 within 40 miles ( That's air miles)

One of the toughest I have tried required several return trips and a clue from a previous finder. It was Trail Station Park Micro. GCJKZX. One clever hide.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. Started the New Year off by finding our first 7 of the year yesterday. Another great thing about caching this time of year, No Bugs.

Since I live within the Catskill Park and there are very few caches available and no new ones allowed, I am forced to travel a minimum of 40-50 miles to even start to find caches of the type and ability I am able to search for, it would be nice to be able to have a map of an area with all or many of the caches indicated. This way one could plan a day trip to search for several caches in a small area. This may be one of the benefits already, I don't know. So I would also have to ask that possibly a trial period to see what benefits there are already, would be nice. At present I use an Etrex but do not have the software or cables to allow for downloads and am not sure if the downloads would work on this cheaper model. Just got it a couple months ago. I have enjoyed this new sport very much and am very pleased with what is available as a basic member. My wife and I try to get out at least once a month and maybe more when possible, but not sure if a premium membership would beneficial given the time we spend in caching and the distance we need to travel. Keep up the good work and will be watching the premium membership and possibly joining. Thanks for a great sport from Groundspeak and also to all the wonderful folks who have the time to place the cache containers for all of us to find.

We did seven caches finds yesterday in the Saratoga and Glens Falls area and noticed some fluctuation in signal as well. The GPS read poor signal several times but regained in a few seconds. Some of the coords seemed off on the finds we made but not enough to keep us from finding them. I just thought maybe it was the clouds that kept rolling in and out of the area we were in.

Up until this last weekend I had been using a Magellan Blazer 12 bought on Ebay for $25.00 a few years back. Has served me well, with 63 finds in my first year of caching. Only draw back I found was it would not allow loading the last three digits for the longitude and latitude coords. Had borrowed an Etrex and liked how well it performed and just bought my own this week. They are on sale at Dick's Sport for $99.00. Hope it is a good upgrade.

It may have been mentioned before, but either with or without GPS a good tool to use is www.lostoutdoors.com web site. Punch in the coords and you can get a topo or a photo of the area where a cache is hidden. I've used this to help find a cache when a river or other waterway is involved so as to be sure I am on the right side of the river or lake. Saves a lot of going back around to the other side.

Walmart seems to be the winner here. I bought a roll this week in Glens Falls. It was in with the regular duct tape and other colored duct tape. Price was $3.59 a roll. They seemed to have plenty. Can't say that all Walmarts have it. You might want to also try Dick's Sports in the hunting section.

We use old ski poles. They are fairly light weight and I can get them for nothing as they seem to be thrown out at the local transfer station on a regular basis. Guess skiers buy new ones often. They work great for poking in places you may not want to place your hand. Also the sharp point is great for picking up trash on the trails.

The Parade article is finally available on line for those interested. The link to the article is here: http://archive.parade.com/2004/1107/1107_hightech_hunt.html

I just learned that Parade archives their articles one week after they are in print. If you didn't get the actual article you will be able to access it after Nov. 15th on line at parade.com.

If anyone can access Parade The Sunday Newspaper Magazine at www.parade.com there is an article in the insert magazine by Roberta Furger on Geocaching. I tried to access it tonight with no success. I get the HTTP 404 Not Found message. Maybe it isn't available because the paper is dated for Sunday, although it was in our local Saturday paper The Daily Star. This is the paper I found about geocaching from this past spring.

Trail Station Park Micro was one of the best micros I have found. Took several return trips. Great job on this one. If you like micros give it a shot. I do prefer the regular caches but there a some real clever micros. Give them all a try and then decide which are best for you.

Check on Ebay. I bought my Magellan Blazer 12 for 40 bucks there. It is not the fanciest thing going but since I started caching this spring, I have found 62 caches with it.

My first bug "Arkworm" a geocoin has all of a sudden disappeared from What A Nice Day cache. I went there to check the cache and it is gone. Checked the log book and someone wrote they took the coin. I assume they meant my Tb. They, however did not sign the log, so have no idea where it went. I listed it as missing and hope maybe someday it will surface. This is the chance we take with TB's. Some folks seem to want to collect them rather than move them. The geocoin probably was a bad choice to begin with as they are very nice and collectable. If I ever use another one I will drill a big ugly hole in it.

Yes it is Pinky, The Travel Bug. It shows in my profile page, but on the first page you log into, which is My Cache Page, it does not show in the right hand side where it says Your Inventory. All bugs I have ever logged have shown ther but this one. I just started to log a find to see if it shows on the bottom of the page where one would highlight to drop off in another cache and it does show there, so I won't worry about it. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to drop it in a cache, but as long as it shows on that page, all is well. Thanks all for your input.

I picked up a travel bug today and logged it as usual and it shows as being in my hands, yet for some reason it is not showing up in my inventory on my cache page. Has this happened to anyone else? Any idea why it is not there or how to fix it? I relogged it a second time as a note and still not there.