Sol seaker

another possibilty is to join up with some other cachers and go with others. You can take turns "holding" the gps and you can also learn a lot more going with others who have some more experience.

As I just wrote in another thread, I've been actually doing a lot of battery experimenting lately. I have not, however extended my testing to rechargables yet, but others seem to have written about their experiences with those in depth. If you do not want to go with rechargeables, then my experience is this: The "platiunum" batteries meant for long-life in eletronic gear, such as cameras, are the best money for the battery. I think these are Duracells. They lasted roughly four times longer for me than the next highest quality Duracell Copper Tops. I think they cost twice the cost, but lasted four times as long or better. The second is the Duracell Copper Top. It lasted about 3 times as long as the Energizer, and Did Not cost even twice as much. Anything from (and including) the energizer and down in quality is a waste of time, money, and landfills as far as I'm concerned. I had to carry tons of them besides. Changed them constantly. Seemed to be just throwing away my money by the handfuls on these. They also drove me nuts as my GPS gets less efficient, is farther off, the lower the battery gets so I ended up with more time of inaccuracy on my GPS. Also more time changing batteries right when I was coming right up on ground zero. Aarrrggghhh!!! Costco is good for Duracells copper top and also carry rechargables and rechargers, but I don't know the brand. Other than that I look for sales at Target, Fred Meyers and other discount stores. I swore when I began this I'd take stock in Duracell!!

Be sure and read the Groundspeak website!! "Getting started" and "Hide and Seek a Cache" the first two links on the left side of your screen are full of invaluable information and links to more information. write it down, memorize and eat it. GOod stuff!!!

You can call yours Fred if you want to. I call mine a GCM Geo- caching machine. i'ts all I use it for anyway...

Id love to see that rule and I'm not even a male. But even I get funny looks and people moving closer to their children as I walk back and forth trying to zero in. My male geocaching friend doesn't get the playground caches without me along, but one does not always know. You're downloading 30 caches, to look up each one on google earth is tedious to say the least. And what about single males? it's just not fair to them. my biggest complain with them is there are ALWAYS muggles around. I don't cache at night. It's not always safe for a woman to be in parks at night alone. Also these caches are more likely to be muggled because kids are all over everything. I think it's just a dumb idea. (I accidently wrote dump idea at first. That too.) But I guess there are a few that are really dumb ideas for caches. A list of guidelines might be better that covers these things.

But if you're rich, I hear an advantage of the iPhone is that you can download the caches on site, and not have to plan ahead which caches you're going to do. Also I keep hearing the 60csx is better at accuracy than the higher priced 300 and 400t even. My friend is using a 400 t and although it's a heck of a lot more accurate than my garmin e-trex summit (not hard) it would still be nicer to get more accuracy. is it true the 300 does paperless caching? I know the 400t does, but would love to find something cheaper that does paperless caching.

Oh, also, I've been doing some experimenting with batteries. I recently tried using some expensive ones made for lasting long in electronic equipment like cameras. They outlasted the good Duracell Copper Tops by at least four times. These are Platinum batteries I think. I think they're also made by Duracell. More expensive and end up saving money in the long run for sure!! (don't think they are twice the price but last more than four times longer). If I use the Duracell Copper Tops they last three or four times longer than the Energizer batteries. Cheaper brands than the Energizer seem to last 1/4 as long as the Energizer batteries. To put any cheaper brands in my GPS is a waste of time and money I believe. Spend all my time recalibrating my compass and changing batteries right when I'm zeroing in on ground zero every time. Go through them like water through my fingers. Lots of weight to carry, lots of toxins in the landfill, lots of time wasted, not a savings in money at all. At this point I refuse to use anything cheaper than the copper tops and would love to find the platinum batteries again. (on sale is good)

I "inherited" an old garmin e-trek summit. It has been often 40-50 feet off, but then I find caches my 400t partner does not because i'm not looking at just ground zero and many caches do not have accurate listings anyway. If I were to buy one i'd get the garmin 60cxs or whatever it is everyone raves about or the oregon 400t for the paperless caching. I write up all the caches on paper and keep a huge binder of the ones I write up and have not found yet. I spend hours before each caching day we have, while my partner spends ten minutes and gets more information than I have. Even the logs are transferred into his oregon 400t. that unit isn't perfect, and has been off on some caches lately (his unit or the cache?) but the paperless idea spares him hours. I found his Oregon 400t on ebay for 425. I think. It lists for over 600. It works great. No problems. Is new. Oh, by the way, Groundspeak does have the ratings of a ton of units on it's website. Kind of overwhelming for the newbie but good if you want to check on one unit. My question: is there any unit that does paperless caching other than the 400t's?? I'd love to find one cheaper.

My friend caches with a garmin oregon 400 T. We have so far found one of the best ways to delete the caches was to pull them up on the computer and delete them one by one. This has gotten tedious however, and when the machine is full it seems it's not accepting the new caches and not telling us it's not taking them (stupid machine) So at this point, the gps owner is getting a few memory cards for it. He is putting different areas on different cards. One card for cougar and tiger mtn, one card for seattle. etc. Then he deletes the entire card at once. He may not have found all the caches on that card, but it's so easy to load them it's not a big deal next time he wants to cache in that area. I don't know if this helps at all. We're just learning here ourselves. Let us know if you've found a better way.

Every cache I do I learn something. Some of the caches around me I may never learn how to find them. A group of other cachers would be indispensible for me to learn some things. There was a day when I didn't know to look under a lamp post skirt. It took a while before I knew to check under fence post caps. It took longer to.... well you get the idea. I never would have thought of looking under a lamp post skirt if I didn't read the forums. I need to learn from others on some of these. I've only been caching two months. We've been caching alone and are quite ignorant to a lot about caching it appears. I would love the opportunity to learn some tougher caches with a group. I don't relish spending ten hours on one cache. That is not what I cache for. I do it for fun and entertainment and stress relief. Let me tell you, that is not relieving stress to me. We just skip those that we visit three times and then can't find. I'd love to learn more and find them. i've never cached with a group. I'd be interested in a small group if some want to join in in the south of seattle area to get some tough ones together. Would be fun with some other new people. Others with under a few hundred finds would be fun. let me know if you're interested. Not really interested in groups of 100 or something. Maybe ten or so max. Anyone interested e-mail me.

I was geocaching in the snow with my geo-buddy one day. As I was messing with my gloves and walking, I dropped my hiking cane and kept on walkign without realizing it. He was behind me and soon appeared next to me carrying it. He gave me a bad time for "losing" it after all, it is a 50.00 cane. He was really quite mean about it though. AFter the next cache I was still at the cache getting my gloves on and pack together as he walked off. I got up to go and saw his new Garmin Oregon 400T in the snow. I picked it up without saying anything and followed him up the trail. Soon I saw him patting down all of his pockets. "You looking for this?" I asked. I did not point out that it was a 600.00 unit.

There was a thread on this recently where a couple (at least) of people in germany were logging virtual finds all over the world on the same day. In other words, his log would state germany, Italy, Florida and New Mexico all in one day. He had hundreds of finds like this. It's not how the game was meant to be played, but the game is also set up so you can play how you want, as so many people do. Someone was right as it being like cheating at solitare. They're only cheating themselves. (heck for all we know they're wheelchair and house bound and are caching the only way they can)

I had one log deleted because I wrote about the cache being dangerous. Other's had been complaining about that cache for a while. He wrote one line to me: "thanks for the support" I wanted to write back: "thanks for putting others safety first" but let it drop instead. Others carried the fight and the cache was disabled. I didn't appreciate that because others should know if the cache is too dangerous for kids.

Although I haven't been caching for long, the other half of this team has been at it for 8 years. that team member says that in the past you could actually find them all. They were meant to be found. We've got so many around here that are not meant to be found, with no clues. The worst are in areas where there are senstive plants. Micros in wooded areas. Micros disguised as something else. Some are fun, like one, under a rock in a huge jumble pile of over a thousand rocks, not fun. Being new I still like one's I can find. Even my partner doesn't like ones that are incredibly "evil". He said there didn't used to be so many evil ones in the past. One's you can spend hours at and not find. And he's really good at this too!! He keeps saying, why hide something if you don't want it to be found? I guess some like those caches, but a whole city full of them?????

Although I haven't been caching for long, the other half of this team has been at it for 8 years. that team member says that in the past you could actually find them all. They were meant to be found. We've got so many around here that are not meant to be found, with no clues. The worst are in areas where there are senstive plants. Micros in wooded areas. Micros disguised as something else. Some are fun, like one, under a rock in a huge jumble pile of over a thousand rocks, not fun. Being new I still like one's I can find. Even my partner doesn't like ones that are incredibly "evil". He said there didn't used to be so many evil ones in the past. One's you can spend hours at and not find. And he's really good at this too!! He keeps saying, why hide something if you don't want it to be found? I guess some like those caches, but a whole city full of them?????

THis winter we were out caching in the snow. One trip we went on we were hiking around some old mine shafts in the woods. One was near a duck pond. It started snowing really hard on the way there, then it turned to hard rain, and then later turned into intense hail. A couple of hours later the sun came out for about fifteen minutes, then it started the whole cycle all over again. then the wind picked up and tree branches started falling. Time to go. But before we went we found many caches, including one by the duck pond. there was snow all over, but it was on top of mud, which made it incredibly slippery. The pond was like a slurpee drink. I was all over on the other side of the trail searching in the snow, trying to get a good ground zero in the trees and under the clouds, and my geo-partner with the clues, said, "oh, by the way, it's by the water." Oh thanks. OK, I went down by the water and slid, just barely stopped myself before hitting the ice water. Ended up covered in mud. Cache not there. I went back up to the trail and my partner said, "what happened to you?" I went down to the water in another place. Grabbed a tree, but still left big slide marks down the hill toward the water. My firm grip on the tree kept me from getting dunked. I looked, and there was the ammo box, sitting behind the tree out in plain site!! I hung onto the tree and passed the ammo can to my partner to sign the log for us. On the same mountain we found a cache by one of the mine entrances: an ammo can with about a cup of water in it that we dumped out,(but we could hardly dry things out in the weather of the day) and a "costume cache" that you were supposed to put on the costumes and take pictures of yourself with the camera inside. Our GPS's were way off in the weather, so we had to dig around in the snow a while for each cache. I'm sure there must have been people behind us wondering why some areas had messed up snow. It was hardly a help to any cachers who came behind us because we had to look so many places for each cache. One of my favorite incidents was a very simple one. We were just starting to look for a cache by a small backroad, and a truck came screeching up and stopped in front of us, hanging out into the street. "You guys geocachers?" He said. We nodded. "you want a hint?" Its a small world. We talked for some time. It was one of the few times we've run into other cachers. It was fun.

That makes a lot of sense to me why people would not want them on the map, but please leave them available for the rest of us. There are a number of them I'm watching to see when they'll show up again. Also I'm watching to see if their owner does not pay attention to them after a long time (someone hasn't logged in at all in almost a year with a disabled/ missing cache) so I'll request they be archived if no one attends to them. I like to see them moved on if no one takes care of the problems. I also like to know where the disabled ones are so I can see where not to place caches. I'd hate to go through all the trouble of placing a cache only to find out we are still waiting on another cache to see whether it will be archived or repaired. I like the idea of options so everyone is happy. thanks!

I'd really like to see us have an option of not showing what caches I've logged. So if someone runs a query on Sol Seaker, they would see, "Sorry, these logs are private" or some such thing. I need an option to not show my logs to the world. thank you. This is really important to me.

Sure interesting caches are nice, but I also don't like to work so hard at EVERY SINGLE ONE. sometimes it's just nice to go out and easily find them for a change. To have to have EVERY ONE a major challenge gets tiring sometimes. Where I live everyone loves hard-to-find micros. One was hidden in a large field of rocks. The rocks were placed at a drainage place. The cache is under a rock. There are thousands of rocks there. YUCK!!!!!! We said after a while, "this is not fun" and left. I like caches that take me to great places, no matter what the hide is like. One that you would like is a metal plate with 4 bolt heads attached. It is magnetic and is stuck onto a guard rail. It blends in perfectly. Looks like part of the guard rail. The log fits on the back. Another near here is a magnetic reflector on a post next to a pond. Called "time for reflection" it has double meaning as there is a nice spot to look at the pond and reflect on things. almost every cache near my house is something devous. We have tons of lakes around here, and there are a number that are reached only by water. One is actually submerged in a lake, and another is in the middle of a lake. One I got in a hidden lagoon on a lake. I saw many turtles I never knew lived in the area. Never knew that lagoon was there either! That's a cache to remember!!! There is a Scuba cache near here. Only retrievable if you've got scuba gear. Let's see, there's one on the roof the Glass Museum, a fantastic museum highlighting the incredible work of glass blowing artist Dale Chihuli. That's a tough one to find, well hidden, I won't tell you how, but it's clever!!! There's camera's all over this place watching too! OH, one of my favorites is in a FIRE HYDRANT. YES INSIDE it. of course it no longer is hooked up to water. The whole top comes off to hide a regular sized cache. There are tons I haven't found yet because they are SO clever!!! I could make you a list of those. And the one in the pine cone, of course. Perhaps not so unusual. OH, and the one that says it's an ammo box. I was looking for an ammo box and it turned out to be one inch long!!!! Looked just like an ammo box. Just minature!! I can't begin to list all of the clever caches around here. Maybe you want to vacation here to get caches. A beautiful place, you may not go home to southern CA!!!

There are two obvious problems with your argument. First is the fact that the genie is out of the bottle. Caches have been found in sprinkler heads, so sprinkler heads may be suspected as containing caches. Second is the fact that people found the very first cache hidden within a sprinkler head. They searched that sprinkler head without ever having found one previously. (I suspect that that sprinkler head was not the first one ever searched, either.) Therefore, even if we had no caches contained within sprinkler heads, people would still search sprinkler heads. Actually, I looked on ebay to see what containers are out there. People do crazy things in my area and I wanted to be able to find some of them. I found sprinkler heads for sale as caches, so began looking for them. I seriously would not have considered looking for them if I had not seen them sold as containers. Yes the genie is out of the bottle for some of us, but many have still never heard of them.

There are two obvious problems with your argument. First is the fact that the genie is out of the bottle. Caches have been found in sprinkler heads, so sprinkler heads may be suspected as containing caches. Second is the fact that people found the very first cache hidden within a sprinkler head. They searched that sprinkler head without ever having found one previously. (I suspect that that sprinkler head was not the first one ever searched, either.) Therefore, even if we had no caches contained within sprinkler heads, people would still search sprinkler heads. Actually, I looked on ebay to see what containers are out there. People do crazy things in my area and I wanted to be able to find some of them. I found sprinkler heads for sale as caches, so began looking for them. I seriously would not have considered looking for them if I had not seen them sold as containers. Yes the genie is out of the bottle for some of us, but many have still never heard of them.

I came across a cache that did not have business permission last week. I explained the game and told her it is good for her business because it puts them on the map, but i would be happy to have it removed if it is a bother. Things are too tight in these economic times for people to not want to draw business. She said it was fine to leave it there. I was in a hurry the other day and wanted to hit two caches before an appointment. At BOTH ground zero's sat a different woman. I just asked each of them if they had heard of the game and they were sitting at ground zero. The first had never heard of it but was quite intrigued. The second said her mother does it all over the US (both of these women were probably in their 30's). BOTH OF THEM helped me look for the cache. (neither were found) I don't worry much about it really. I live near Seattle and people in seattle tend to not care if people are doing weird things. That's part of the reason I moved here. My geopartner worries about it alot. I'm not afraid to tell people what i'm up to, or just act like I'm examining something (the view, the tree, the fence) and let them think I'm weird for doing it. If they look like they're going to ask questions I'll ask them how they are and ask them questions first. (enjoying the day? Great weather! Nice place for a walk, hey do you know where .... is?) then they forget or don't ask. My favorite was yesterday when we were looking for someone on a road. A truck sped up to us pulling up, blockign part of the road and rolled down the window. There was nothing around but trees, and no one but us. My geo-buddy said, you talk to him. I thought he would ask directions. He said, "ARE YOU GEOCACHERS??" " Do you want a clue?" LOLOL There are a lot more around than we realize.

Is there a way to check results after a while? For those who got in early and want to know the results now (until we know how to check them) age/ number of voters/ percentage as of today, April 24th at 9:45 am 12 - 20 9 voters 4% 21-30 34 17% 31-40 53 26% 41- 50 58 28% 51-60 30 15% 61-70 13 6% 71-80 1 0% 81-90 5 2% I find it interesting we've got more at 61-70 than we do 12-20, but then again, that may represent how many read the forums, rather than how many play the game...

Is there a way to check results after a while? For those who got in early and want to know the results now (until we know how to check them) age/ number of voters/ percentage as of today, April 24th at 9:45 am 12 - 20 9 voters 4% 21-30 34 17% 31-40 53 26% 41- 50 58 28% 51-60 30 15% 61-70 13 6% 71-80 1 0% 81-90 5 2% I find it interesting we've got more at 61-70 than we do 12-20, but then again, that may represent how many read the forums, rather than how many play the game...

Here in the pacific northwest we deal with a lot of WET. pill bottles, film cans, altoid containers (although used a lot in protected places), etc. just don't hold up. Ammo cans and lock and lock boxes are the best here by far. Although I've seen an ammo can with a bad seal I found in the snow. I literally dumped the water out of it. About half a cup or more. That's been the only bad one. Like all containers, they need to be maintained. ALL containers need maintenance. Groundspeak sent out a newsletter for everyone to check on their caches now that winter is letting up yet at least 90% of the caches I find are wet. I think people must not read the newsletter or think it doesn't mean them or something. Sterilite boxes are awful. I've seen some hard plastic screw-cap containers, such as cashew containers that have held up really well. They have to be put through the dishwasher and then set out for a while to make sure all smells are out. The one's I've found have been very dry, and closed well. Not everyone knows how to close a bison correctly or an ammo can, but it seems everyone seems capable of screwing on a lid. I've got some waterproof paper I like, but pencils don't write well on it, and pens freeze in the winter. We all know to bring a pen anyway, with all the micros these days.