OzarksJim

After a recent caching trip, I came home and somehow gave my wife poison ivy. It must have somehow gotten in my nails and I must have been scratching her back when I gave it to her. She had a really nasty case of it--this was confirmed by her doctor. He gave her some steroid cream (which I had to apply) and it went away eventually. For some strange reason I wasn't affected at all; I must be immune to it. To make up for the incident, I bought my wife a Kenny Chesney CD. I think she's forgiven me by now. Another time she went caching with me and ended up with two really ugly tick bites, and she didn't even go into the woods! Now she won't go caching with me unless it's on a concrete slab or in an office building

Hey, Matt. You will need to download the latest version of EasyGPS (http://www.easygps.com). I use EasyGPS to download and upload waypoints to my Garmin 60c. Once you have the latest version downloaded and installed, go to Preferences, select the MY GPS Receivers tab, select the Add GPS button, and find your Garmin 60C. When it asks for the Port and Speed, select the Use USB checkbox and you should be good to go. Congratulations on your Garmin 60c purchase. It is an awesome unit and I really love mine. Just wish I could go caching more Good luck! Jim (Edited for spelling and web page link)

Thanks very much for all of your responses! I really do appreciate your support and kind words. I am considering making my logs shorter, but I feel that the amount of time and effort I spent searching for a cache is directly proportional to the amount of detail I include in my logs. I forgot to include this in my original post, but the cache the person who e-mailed me was referring to is this one: Springfield Up/Springfield Down This is one of those caches that I REALLY want to find, because it's the last one I haven't found within the Springfield MO city limits, as well as the closest one to my house. And now the cache hider has sent me some more hints to help me find the cache. Ooh, the temptation... Thanks again, everybody. You guys are great. Jim

Yes, that is true that I do not know this person, they do not own the cache I don't believe they've looked for the cache. I was quite surprised when I received the e-mail. Had it been from the actual cache owner, I wouldn't have been surprised. She's always been very helpful in assisting me when I need more clues for her caches, or when I've found kinks that need to be worked out. I just hope I'm not too annoying! As I stated previously, I always log DNF's, and I really don't care how embarrassing the DNF is. I recently posted 3 DNF's for the same cache that was found by a fellow geocacher's 7-year old daughter within a few minutes! Embarrassing, yes, but that's part of the fun of geocaching. You really can't take yourself too seriously. Jim

Hey everyone. I am one of those really annoying cachers who strongly believes in posting DNF's. If I have 5 DNF's on one cache, I will post all 5 DNF's, and be quite detailed about it. After logging a DNF this evening, I receive the following e-mail from a fellow cacher: Here was my reply, and I hope I wasn't too much of a smart-aleck: So, my question to all of you is, should I just hold up on the DNF's for this one, assuming I go back and try this one again? Thanks in advance for your suggestions. Jim

Congratulations!!! That's an awesome story!

I tried the WAP thing on my Motorola V400 cell phone (which is a relatively new model) and it works like a DREAM. This is one of the coolest things I've come across since...well since I came across geocaching. I posted a test message on one of my own cache pages and it was there within a few seconds. The lookup function also worked great. I can't wait to use this in the field! Thanks for this great feature! Jim

My first GPSr was a Garmin eTrex Legend, and I have since upgraded to a Garmin GPSmap 60C. I still use both of them when caching. I use the 60C for auto-navigation, and use the cheaper Legend while out hiking in the woods.

Ok, thanks Kfam. I've seen the "Offroad" option but never paid much attention to it. I will try your suggestions when I'm caching this weekend. Thanks again!! Jim

Hi. I recently upgraded to a Garmin GPSMAP 60C a couple weeks ago from a Garmin eTrex Legend and am enjoying it immensely. I am using City Select v6. The biggest complaint I have about the 60C is the lack of "as the crow flies" direction and distance to a waypoint. At least, if this feature is available, I can't figure out how to do it. Since I have the City Select auto-navigator maps loaded, the directions I'm given to the waypoint are based on road routes, which is fine as long as I'm driving to the cache. However, when I'm out in the woods, this does not help at all. I need to use my eTrex Legend to get the ATCF directions to the cache. Does anybody know if the ATCF feature is available with the 60C? Ideally, I think it would be great to show 2 Data Fields at the same time while travelling to the cache: the auto-navigational distance (i.e., road distance) and the ATCF distance. Thanks, Jim

When I was using City Select v5, the streets in my subdivision, which is 8 years old, were not provided. The building where I work, which is 7 years old, was not provided as a POI. I now have City Select v6 and both the streets in my subdivision, as well as where I work are now provided. However, my house is about 100 feet away from the correct coords. It's as if the streets in my subdivision have been shifted south 100 feet.

Hi. I have decided that I'm going to upgrade to a GPSMAP 60C (from an eTrex Legend). While researching the compatible City Select software on Garmin's website, I noticed two software titles: City Select and City Navigator. Can anyone tell me what the differences are between the two? Is one better for auto-routing navigation than the other? Also, I saw some posts regarding this topic but couldn't find a definite answer. If I purchase City Select v5, do I FOR SURE get a free upgrade to v6? The reason I'm asking is that I would like to purchase the Auto Navigation Kit, but the only version of City Select that I see comes with it is v5. Thanks in advance for all of your comments and suggestions. ~Jim

DITTO

I had a similar thing happen with one of my own caches. I check on it almost every day, because it has already been missing once. After I knew a couple cachers had found it yesterday, I went to check on it and it was not in its original hiding spot. It was a micro which meant that it could have easily rolled onto the ground or been blown away by a strong gust of wind (which is what I think happened to the original cache). Its proper hiding spot lets it be wedged into a tight hiding space where it would be very unlikely that it could be blown away. I almost posted a note to my cache page about it, but didn't want to embarrass whoever had found it previously and not put it back in its original hiding spot, so I just updated the cache description. Jim

Okay, now that I've got several cache finds under my belt, I'd like to start hiding caches of my own in my area, and have some questions for the geocache experts in these forums. 1. What's the best way for me to find out who owns a certain piece of property so I can ask them for permission to hide a cache there? Is there a place I can go online to determine if a certain piece of property is owned by the city, state, park service, private owner, etc.? Or is that something I would have to go to a library, city hall, courthouse, etc. to look up? Some places where I'm considering hiding caches are obvious (city park), but some are not so obvious (i.e., cemeteries). 2. How do you guys go about getting approval to hide caches, and what have you found to have the fastest response time (telephone, e-mail, in person, written letter)? 3. If you do write a letter, what do you include in the letter? Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions!

Is it possible for me to run a PQ for caches I COULDN'T find (not caches I HAVEN'T found)? In other words, can I run a PQ for caches I logged as DNF? I would like to periodically run this so I can see the caches I couldn't find but have been found recently, so I know they are (almost definitely) there and not muggled. I did not see an option for this when attempting to create the PQ. If this is not possible, I think this would be a good feature to have. Thanks.

I've noticed this too.

* When you're walking your dog and you see her weaving back and forth while sniffing for something and you think, "Hey, she's triangulating!" * When your wife sends you to Wal-Mart to buy an obscure little hard-to-find item and you think, "If I had the lat./lon. coordinates and a decrypted hint, I could find this thing right away." * When your wife loses a sewing needle and you keep searching the same part of the carpet over and over, you can't help but thinking, "It's been MUGGLED!" Following the search, you feel the urge to post a "Found" or "DNF", depending on whether or not you found it.

Carrying around a clipboard can make you look like you're doing some sort of survey.

One of these days I'm going to get myself a t-shirt made that says "STAFF" in big black letters on the back. If people think you work for the park, or maybe an event that is being set up, normally they won't give you a second thought.

I don't keep a logbook, but I do keep the printouts of the caches. Even if I go to paperless caching, I think I'll still print out the cache pages for some kind of scrapbook in the future. I take digital pictures of every search I go on, even the unsuccessful ones. I also keep the *.loc files of caches I've found, as well as a spreadsheet of every search that I've done for a cache. The spreadsheet keeps track of my "found" percentage.

I just viewed the HTML source of the e-mail and it definitely takes me to the PayPal web site.

I don't think so. The link took me directly to the PayPal site (the PayPal URL was visible in the address bar), where I could log on with my normal PayPal e-mail address (it was defaulted to the one I currently use), and my PayPal password. From that same link, I could look up all my PayPal activity, including the Groundspeak activities. I didn't have to log in again to see this info. However, I noticed that my credit card info had been blanked out. JUST TO BE SURE, I haven't entered that info in yet. Jim

No, it's definitely a valid link to PayPal. The URL for PayPal appears when I "hover" over the link. However, that link no longer works. It may have been just a one-time deal because I updated my account info later that evening, making absolutely sure I was on www.paypal.com. I've been using the 'Net for 10 years--hopefully I'm not too dumb to fall for something like that I probably just received that e-mail since I had two activities from Groundspeak within a short period of time (one for the subscription, one for the payment). Thanks, Jim

I recently signed up and paid via PayPal for a premium Groundspeak membership. A few days after I did, I received the following e-mail from PayPal: Dear valued PayPal® member: PayPal® is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of buyers and sellers. To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs some of the most advanced security systems in the world and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity. Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and to ensure that your account has not been compromised, access to your account was limited. Your account access will remain limited until this issue has been resolved. This is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is not compromised. In order to secure your account and quickly restore full access, we may require some specific information from you for the following reason: We would like to ensure that your account was not accessed by an unauthorized third party. Because protecting the security of your account is our primary concern, we have limited access to sensitive PayPal account features. We understand that this may be an inconvenience but please understand that this temporary limitation is for your protection. Case ID Number: (number removed from this post) We encourage you to log in and restore full access as soon as possible. Should access to your account remain limited for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations on the use of your account. However, failure to restore your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records on or before June 30, 2004. Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. To update your Paypal records click on the following link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience. Sincerely, PayPal® Account Review Department I don't think there was any suspicious activity on the part of Groundspeak (nor of any other company--the Groundspeak activity was the only activity I've had on PayPal for over a month). There were 2 activities from Groundspeak: one was a subscription creation, and the other was for the $30.00 premium membership. Did anyone else get this e-mail? Thanks, Jim