The Geocache Hunter

91) After you have given up looking for the cache, pick up your backpack and sign the log.

It requires a bit of knowledge in writing your account details using HTML. The following is an example of how it would look My 1st find was <A HREF="website URL here between Quotations">Aichen Canyon</A>. When you save your profile and view it, it will look like this: My 1st find was Aichen Canyon. The text "Aichen Canyon" in this example is now the link to the cache page.

I have very little experience with ticks. There aren't that many in the Colorado Rockies and even then there is very little brush and no thick weeds. Unfortunately I will be moving to Kentucky in July and will have to deal with them. What repellants are effective? What can I use on my dogs?

Red Rocks isn't closed to geocaching. There are about a dozen in the area. Its not just about the Geocaching either. Its a great area and I'll be assisting in connecting a new parking area to the main trail. Friends of the Peak have many projects going on this year. Do you really consider 120 miles "local"?

Just curious to see if any local Geocachers are taking part in any of the Friends of the Peak trail construction and maintenance projects this spring and summer. Many of the projects take place in popular areas for Geocaching. I have volunteered for Red Rocks open space this coming Sunday and Seven Bridges Trail on the 3rd. I kinda see it as the ultimate CITO. Geocaching has taken me to these wonderful locations and I have enjoyed them tremendously. I see volunteering for these events as a way to give back for the enjoyment I have recieved from hiking and Geocaching in the Pikes Peak region.

It helps to know a bit of HTML also. I placed a photograph on my cache page by uploading the image I wanted into that pages gallery and then used HTML to display that same photograph in the caches description section. It is a cheap way to avoid image hosting and it avoids any problems you may face with an outside source. Feel free to email me for more help or information.

After reading multiple reviews of the Garmin 60 series and the Magellan explorist series I decided on the Garmin and have not regretted it one bit. I used to have a Megellan Sport trac Pro with topo software and now have the garmin Mapsouce Topo. I found Magellans software to be useless in my area. Its topography was absolutely incorrect and had no trails (the roadways it showed were dead-on though and gave enough detail to use for street navigation). Mapsources software for Garmin is very accurate and shows every minor trail in the area (most roadways aren't always labled but they are all there).

Whenever we fear something or avoid something we are only playing the statistics game. It really comes down to asking yourself "What are the chances I'll be affected." We make these decisions every day; should I drive on the highway, should I walk downtown, should I fly, etc. We could all lock ourselves up in our homes and avoid everything that could potentially be dangerous to ourselves and our families but that would be silly. Granted we all take precautions, as we should, but at what point are our fears taking over and controlling our lives. How can we live if we fear life?

I would try and locate a DNR (Department of Natural Resources) office in the area. Should be one in Grayling. They will have extensive maps of the trails for the area. I used to live in Michigan and had a Grandfather that lived near Grayling. I've spent many summers on those trails. Anyways, I know friends who still snowmobile in the area and get maps from the DNR. The trail system can be very complex and will get you from one side of the state to the other. Be safe and have fun!!

Its bad enough when hints aren't even hints but I hate the real ones that are described from the hiders point of view without any real reference. "left side of the big rock" is useless when there is more than one way to approach the location. I also hate it when a clue descibes a hiding location that looks like everything else in the area. "Under a thick bush" in a forest filled with thick bushes doesn't narrow down the search area very much.

I usually just take the can when I am done using the ammo inside it (a minor benifit of being in the Army).

Does someones number of hides ever raise a flag? I often wonder how someone maintains thier caches when they have fifty or more (sometimes way-way more). I'm guessing that some people "assume" thier caches are in good shape and wait for the "needs maintenance" or a certain number of "DNFs" before checking on thier cache.

I am afraid that I don't have enough sense to be afraid of things I should be. "Gee....that rock face doesn't look too hard to climb." "Rattlesnake? Let me see!" "It doesn't look that steep." "You sure its an hourglass shape?" "Wouldn't it be cool to see a bear or a cougar?"

Ah yes, HikerRon. A legend in his own time. If his caches aren't expertly camouflaged then they are very clever and amusing.

I've owned both Garmin and Magellan GPSr's. First a Magellan Sport Pro and now a Garmin 60cs. I think the magellans menus and data input were more user friendly but Garmin has more options and greater data. My Magellan rarely had problems with getting reception under tree cover or in canyons but my Garmin does. However the Garmin says the accuracy is 2-3 meters 90 percent of the time and doesn't need to catch up or average when I stop where as my magellan had to rest a few minutes to get good coordinates. I bought mapping topographic software for both products and found Magellans to be highly inaccurate with very few trails where as Garmins software is very very accurate and has every minor trail on it. Both were good for roads though.

You could always learn how to read a topographical map the way I did.....join the Army. If there are enough terrain features on the map (not barren and flat like a dessert or the plains) I can pin-point my location just by looking at the map and my surroundings. So learning how to read topography is a very worthwhile thing to do. Even though my GPSr has mapping, I always carry a topo map of the area I am in. I real map is still more accurate and includes many significant objects and features that a top of the line GPSr with mapping will not. NEO GEO, speaking of terrain and the Army.....I clicked on your link and was shocked to see someplace I have actually been and seen for myself. I am willing to guess you've done some training here as well.

I am being deployed to Iraq next month and would love the oppurtunity to find a couple of Caches while I am over there. Right now the only safe place to do it is inside our own compounds. The issue of coordinates to locations inside our compounds isn't that big of a deal as the insurgents know we are there anyways. They lack the weaponry to accurately target a specific coordinate anyways. The person placing a cache would still have to use a lot of discretion. I would only place one in the open and away from anything of any tactical importance (HQs, billets, electronic systems, communication systems, landing zones, motor pools). The only real problem with these caches is that they break the rules for cache placement by only allowing members with access to these areas to participate. Allied forces are permitted in our compounds so it is not entirely exclusive but you must still be in the armed forces or a civilian authorized contractor. So the question I pose is should Geocaching.com allow such exclusive caches to be placed at all or should they overlook thier own rules as a gesture of support for Armed Forces serving abroad?

I don't think that the code being used is the problem. People just have to be more creative when they add a hint or a clue to thier caches. Rather than put something about a "pine tree" in the hint for my only cache I chose to describe it as a "coniferous lifeform". Likewise, rock stacks can become " an assemblage of stones," and wood piles can become "a collection of lifeless vegetation limbs." A thesaurus and some imagination can easily alleviate most of the common words we can read undecoded in the hints.

I would eventually like to get a GPSr with a fancy color screen but am wondering how much faster it depletes battery life.

I like to trade up whenever I can. That is, I like to leave a better item than what I take. If there is a great trade item that I would like to have but my trade would be a downgrade than I don't trade. However, sometimes I will leave something even if I don't take anything, especially if I liked the cache or its location.

I wonder if they will be increasing signal strength to help penetrate overhead cover (trees) and cloudy conditions. That would be nice.

I have always seen waterfalls on topographical maps represented as quick little zigzags.

I sometimes annoy myself when I am out looking for caches and no longer see wonderful sights but potential hiding places for future caches.

Living in Colorado Springs gives me the best of both worlds. A difference of 7 miles can take me from down town to 2000 feet above the city in the mountains. But to answer the question at hand, my preference is to play in the mountains while looking over the city.

I voted yes. I don't see the issue here. Whats wrong with having a seperate icon for a micro when you are researching caches in the area? If it helps someone plan thier trip then it is a useful tool. If it doesn't matter what the size is to you then treat it the same as a regular and drive on. Some days I feel like searching for regular caches. Other days I like to look for micros. I don't like it when I am looking for a particular type and have to weed through a dozen pages to figure out what is or isn't what I am looking for. PQs are great but you can't always get them on demand anytime you want one. Plus you have to be a premium member to get them. Its probably safe to say most Geocachers are not premium members and can probably benefit from a icon designating micros.