FreeFloat

Time to make offers.... it's going on eBay if I can't find a Geocacher who wants it. The vehicle mount has a suction cup for windshield mounting, and plugs into 12V lighter socket. A thumb screw ensures teh GPS won't fall out of the holder while in use.

Older Magellan SporTrak Pro handheld GPS. Monochrome LCD screen with backlight. Works great, just upgraded. Excellent condition, hardly used! Comes with charging mount for car. Asking $60 OBO + shipping within North America. Can accept PayPal. Will post pics later. (didn't realize they had to be hosted outside of Groundspeak)

Yesterday, my truck was broken into and among the other things stolen (jtwo car cell phone chargers, and a radio iPod transmitter) was my 4-years old, scratched up yellow basic Garmin eTrex I never had a cable for it - I would manually input all my waypoints. Ironically, a few months ago during a period of intense boredom while at work, I actually recorded (on paper) all my waypoints..... several pages of them. So I haven't even lost those. I'm pissed at the audacity of random (probably juvenile) burglars who would break into someone's car and not even take the more valuable stuff.... not as though that makes it any better, but at least if more valuable/saleable items were taken, that would suggest it was a more "organized" crime, rather than a random "bored-opportunitstic-kid-passing-by" kind of thing. But I digress. I'd take a yellow, green, or blue eTrex as a replacement... I don't care how "pretty" or how dinged-up it is as long as it WORKS. I'm (obviously) looking to keep costs down as this wasn't exactly a foreseeable expense I live in Toronto, but make occasional forays into Kingston so either location works as far as picking a GPS up... further that that, I'd be looking at paying for shipping. If any of you cachers out there have recently upgraded - or if you will be upgrading for Christmas and already know it - please consider offering your older GPS to a needy cacher.....

I couldn't resist, but recently went out and snagged a cache on lunch break....... I wonder if any nearby joggers found a soldier in combat fatigues, wandering around the waterfront with a GPSr, to be suspicious??

Where is the box to change the avatar text, anyway? Every time I go to Update Profile if bumps me back into gc.com and I can't seem to find a setting for it.

8. You can't go for a hike without mentally rating the terrain. 9. You can't visit a new place for "just the view" without wondering where the best place for a cache would be.... 10. Your kid gets an unusual toy for Christmas or a birthday and you attempt to buy it off him beacuse it would make an awesome TB.

So from what I can see, my cache, Ambitious Snorkeller, is Canada's only underwater cache! Oh don't worry folks, I have plans for two more Canadian underwater caches - one of which will truly require scuba and the other which might just be accessible by freediving (I'm a freediver myself, at least down to 80'). Oh, I just laugh about all the local dive sites that no one thinks have 'anything" to see...! FreeFloat the Scubacacher

Lucky for me, I just happened to be heading home from a scuba dive. Home for me is Toronto which produces waaaaay too much sky-glow to even see bright stars, let alone Northern Lights. But I was an hour north - stopped for gas and as I was pulling out of the service station happened to glance up and my jaw just dropped. Haven't seen real bright Notrhern Lights since my (rural) childhood. From here in Canada, the sky was sheeted with these green dancing curtains - almost directly overhead was a dark void spot, and all the curtains appeared to be hung from that spot but there were enough to cover 360° although the ones to the north were the brightest and most active. The show is supposed to continue tonight. Hope there's no clouds....... I'm gonna have to go for a drive........

I placed one in Kingston, Ontario........ although, to encourage the locals to come an' get it, it's called the Ambitious Snorkeler and sits at only 15' depth. I'm planning a deeper, scuba-necessary cache for my local Toronto area, as well....... Being a scuba diver and self-styled "Scubacacher" myself, this is a geocaching twist I'm thoroughly enjoying...........

Couple of points. Firstly the older Luxfers were never actually 'recalled' - the $50-credit-toward-new-tank offer that Luxfer had til December 2003 was an incentive designed to quash consumer complaints. What the DOT issued was merely an "advisory" that there may be a problem with sustained load cracks formnig in the allow of the necks (this applies to any tank made of 6351 alloy aluminum, which Walter Kidde built tanks and most early Luxfers were.) SLC cracks appear over a long period of time and Hydro and Vis+ (also known as Eddy Current testing) is thought to be able to detect a majoroty of potential problems long before they result in rupture. I should know. I own and still use a Walter Kidde tank in great condition. Second point. Have you found a home for your books yet? I'm particularly interested in the tech (deco) and cave diving manuals if you still have them. I'm in Canada but would be happy to cover shipping. (which you could donate if you want)

Did you ever find an adopter for your caches?

Everything he said. I'm a cache owner too - and if no one logs DNFs, I have no way of knowing if people are even seeking my cache. Has it gone missing? Was there another reason they aren't finding it? (ie. the area suddenly inaccessible, construction, etc) Sometimes, even a DNF is a reason to still maintain a cache instead of giving up and archiving it.

I think the most I've ever had lit up at once was 6 or 7. Garmin yellow e-Trex on a clear sunny day at high noon and NOT under trees

I've been leaving tiny ships in a bottle. I picked up a dozen or so at a knick knack store once upon a time. I'm an avid sailor and diver, and my (so far) only placed cache is a scuba (underwater) one so somehow the ship idea fit. Sorry, no digital camera - but these little items are about 2" long and an inch tall, made of real glass with a wooden stopper in the neck, and have a tiny fully-rigged wooden ship with paper sails contained within. I have two models; a square rigger in an oblong bottle (on its side, fitted to a little wooden black so it will stand on display) and a round bellied bottle sitting upright that contains a gaff schooner. That reminds me, I should hit the shop again and see if they have any more......

I'm another happy yellow-e-Trex cacher! Mine really doesn't like trees at all (jumps around a lot) and it's kind of a relief to learn that I have partners in misery LOL !

Have you ever found a cache, logged a visit, then decided to return back to the same cache again? I'm not talking maintenance visits, I'm talking about caches that aren't yours. If you do go back, do you log the visit? If so, online/the logbook/both? Do you make trades? The reason I ask is because I'm sometimes tempted, when passing an area I've been before, to "drop in" and see how a cache I've found before, is faring. (Usually when I'm in the area, not anywhere near the computer) Sometimes when it's been a cache full of particularly neat goodies I've been more strongly tempted to see what new goodies may be in there. Especially since I always seem to have trade goodies on hand. This question especially strikes me when I'm in places that have very few caches to begin with, and not too many new ones being added.

I have the yellow e-Trex as well (Wal-Mart Super Special!). Bought the thing, slipped new batteries in it, let it do its warm-up thing as I was driving and half an hour later found my first cache. As you suggested, I ignore the arrow once I'm within, oh, 90' of destination, and just watch which way the "distance to go" numbers are incrementing. If they're gainnig I'm moving away, if they're falling I'm approaching, and if they stay about the same (it has happened!) I must be moving at 90° to the waypoint, so I pick a direction 90° from my previous heading and try again. I also find that keeping moving at a steady pace improves its accuracy by a surprising margin. And trees decrease it............. but that's another story altogether (Check my stats - brand newbie, but only one DNF and that because it got dark and I was too deep in unfamiliar backwoods to feel confident continuing the search, not to mention I had no light with me........)

Same here........... bought they yellow e-Trex and a box of batteries. Plugged the batteries in and configured it in the parking lot, and half an hour later logged my first find

You forgot one - how about those of us who hit more than one cache in a day? By the time we get home, the two or three can blur a bit - easy enough to remember which had a great view, or which were frustrating DNFs........ but I couldn't tell you which (for example) I left the pinwheel or which got the ship in a bottle, or which cache gave me the Volkswagen keychain........ Although, I agree with whoever said it's kinda nice to have a surprise as well, rather than seeing exact cache contents listed on the page.

Just how many caches are we talking about, and what types? I'll be moving to Toronto (will likely live in Downsview/North York) pretty soon and will be doing a lot of travelling between Kingston and Toronto, which sounds like it passes through the area you're talking about. However, I'm just a newbie.......... so am a little leery about taking on too much all at once.

Hm, interesting. I hadn't guessed there were other nuts like me.......... This is my first cache, just placed yesterday.......... Ambitious Snorkeler