Half-Canadian

You can purchase a battery clip adapter from many online retailers. I bought one for my Explorist 500 from Cabelas.com for about $8.00 US that I keep loaded with batteries in case my Li-ion battery fries itself again. You just remove the Li-ion battery and put in the clip loaded with 3 AAA. The Duracells only last about 4 hours, though

If I recall, this was a couple in the Skagit county area that was placing caches on geocaching.com -- inside the caches was promotional literature and "discount coupons" to join NW Treasurehunters for a fee. I looked at their website at the time -- you had to sign up for a paid membership and then would be eligible to hunt for caches that had "huge cash rewards" for the finders I believe they were banned from geocaching.com after a few complaints came in from cachers.

The OP is located in Canada, so suggesting that he look up a city on USPS.com is not particularly helpful. Unfortunately, the option to search for geocaches by city is not currently available in Canada. Other than looking up a postal code on Canada Post to start your search with, you can try searching for a cache that contains the name of the city.

A big congratulations to all those who celebrated milestones on such a monumentous weekend! Looks like lots of fun was had by all

I'm guessing you are referring to the low mainland of BC (Vancouver area)? If so, the best source of lock & locks is Zellers. You can also find them sometimes at Canadian Tire.

Way to go, Dick! You are just too cool

Hmmpf my wife wants me to take her to Wenatchee Saturday. Sheesh I wish I could get frequent flyer mileage for the number of times I've been there this year. Heck I should just dig up some of those mason jars jars full of money buried in the backyard and buy a house on the hotside of the state. What are the coords for those jars??

Wow, that really sounds like quite the adventure! Really glad that you made it out with just a few bumps and bruises, but all in one piece! Congratulations on the big 3K!! H-C

I was back in that corner of the park recently on my way to another nearby cache -- the location where Haiku Duck was hidden was still undisturbed on the park side of the barb wire fence. I did glance around but didn't see any sign of the old cache!

I had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with 1701eh at GHAGAFAP last year -- I recall that he stood out as one who really took the time to make me feel a very welcome part of the group at the event. I know that he will be greatly missed by his family and by the Ontario geocaching community. H-C

January may not be the best time to do a Spokane CM! Remember Snolympia? April or May on the other hand... Don't forget the Bellingham CM in January and the 3" of rain...

Congratulations, friends! Great milestones for both of you!!

Will the Birdy(s) be making an appearance at the campout next weekend? Hope to see you there -- if not, hope you find a zillion caches in Idaho to make up for it!

I've seen knock-offs at several of the dollar stores in Delta lately, and they look almost exactly like the much more expensive Lock & Locks. The small to medium size is around $1.25, and the large size $2.50 -- less than half the price of the "real thing". I'm testing a few, so far they seem to be holding up well.

I liked GCG524 -- Elephant's Graveyard -- near Olympia. Enough of a walk for a good stretch and a cool surprise at the end.

I own one of each of those two -- the 60CX and the Explorist 500. While they are both great units and both work well for geocaching, if I had to choose one I would take the Garmin. Why?? Better functions for geocaching. Better mapping and autorouting. The use of easily replaceable AA batteries. And most importantly -- Garmin's customer service and product support. I recently had a problem with my 2 month old Garmin CX -- it developed a short in the power switch and kept randomly turning itself on and off. I was on the phone with Garmin, on hold less than 2 minutes, when I was assisted by a very helpful and personable customer service rep. I was issued a return authorization, and sent it off. In a week's time, I had a brand new unit back in hand, complete with all accessories, a test report on the new one, and a complimentary set of US topo maps. I have had similarly great experiences with Garmin when I have called them regarding software issues and other questions (I own 2 other Garmin models as well). A few months ago, my near-new Explorist's battery self-destructed while I was on a geocaching trip in another state. I wasted most of a day trying to find a replacement battery at various cell phone shops and finally found one, which set me back $50.00. Magellan has now come out with a little plastic carrier that allows you to use 3 AAA batteries instead of their battery pack, but I've noticed only about 4-5 hours lifespan with that setup. You'll be happy with either one, but the new Garmin X series is the way to go. Whatever you end up deciding, though, don't be tempted to save a few dollars and buy the now-discontinued Garmin 60CS!

Wow, what a great trip! I don't know about you, but I was really quite touched when I saw the Original Stash plaque -- not just the plaque itself but what it stood for, and how much my life has changed since geocaching and I discovered each other. It's great that you were able to get out and see some of the wonders of the area we live in around these parts -- that's something else that geocaching has done, to get me out of my little circles of daily travel and see more of this great country. Good luck with your health challenges, too. I've found geocaching is a great motivator to get out and walk/hike/bike/paddle to explore places that I would not have otherwise. Half-CDN

The BCGA hosted this type of event last summer, and it was a big success: ABC's of Geocaching -- Novice Night Special Event! We set up a central meeting point in an unused overflow parking lot of a city park with folding tables, chairs, and a barbecue. We had displays set up in this area with samples of different cache containers, a display board of how to move and log travel bugs, and an assortment of various gps units from within our group that people could look at. Of course this area was well supervised! In this same area, we had someone welcoming new arrivals, passing out nametags and raffle tickets, and collecting donations for the hot dog and pop meal deal. Prior to the event, we set up 5 temporary, non-loggable caches around the perimeter of the parking lot, and had one BCGA member stationed at each location to answer questions and give tips. We made cache page printouts just like a regular cache would have, and people could walk from one station to the next after inputting the coordinates. The caches included an ammo can in a stump, a lock & lock under a footbridge, a magnetic keyholder under a bench, a fake pine cone, and one more that I don't remember. We had discussed during the planning of this event whether or not to have people just drive from one existing cache to the next and then meet up for a meal somewhere, but we decided it would be more worthwhile to keep people in one location so they could have more time to talk, visit, and meet others instead of spending a lot of the time driving. That was the right decision -- people had a super time just sitting in groups in the parking lot with a hotdog and a can of pop, talking and getting hints from other newbies and those of us with more experience. You can see from the photos on the cache page what a good time everyone had -- both the brand new cachers and the "old timers". It was an easy event to host -- several people each prepared a temporary cache and/or a display board, we set up 30 minutes ahead of time, cleaned up, picked up the temporary caches, and were done. People really enjoyed themselves, and a lot of those newbies are still enthusiastically caching.

This place has a pool, but there high speed internet is hardwired. It is the newest hotel in the Smokey Point Marysville area. http://www.hawthorninn.com/reservations/lo....asp?facid=2219 The Hawthorn Inn is completely booked for the weekend -- I checked yesterday. I ended up with a decent deal at Days Inn by the Everett Mall for $67.99/night single. Includes hot breakfast, wifi, and outdoor pool. Everything else in the area is fully booked or a lot more expensive.

I've stayed at the Comfort Inn in Marysville once or twice. I don't know if they have a pool but they have highspeed (don't remember if it's wifi or hardwired). It's surprisingly quiet considering it's right next to the freeway. I've also gotten some pretty good deals in North Lynnwood on priceline on the weekends for 2.5* places

There were a bunch of milestones hit at the Cache Splash event on Saturday: FluteFace: 1,000 Sassy&Gordy: 1,000 Lajoie 5: 1,400 RisingSon: 500 Airzilla: 100 Forgive me if I forgot anyone else!! Congratulations to all!!!

Wow, a beautifully sunny northwest summer day, good friends, good food, lots of prizes, a fun waterpark for the kids -- I don't think we could have had more fun in one day at a geocaching event! We had 79 high quality caches placed for the event, and the judges had a difficult job picking out the best of the best! I'll be posting a listing of the winners in each category on the cache event page in the next day or two if anyone is interested. The lucky winners took home one of these fine trophys -- a golden lock 'n lock for their efforts.

Shearzone hasn't asked one yet... WooHoo I finally got one!!! Sorry about the delay. I was camping in Jasper NP and soaking in the Miette Hot Springs. OK, here's a question that does not involve mass, proper mass or any other form of special or general relativity. GPS monitoring has greatly enhanced the observation of the motions of tectonic plates and the deformation of the Earth's crust. 1) What is the name of the fastest moving plate and how fast is it moving? 2) What is the geologic feature to which this motion is referenced to? I'll take a stab at this one -- 1) The Pacific Plate 2) Continental Drift

I hope you're still planning to try and attend the big Cache Splash event in Burlington on Saturday! The weather promises to be great, there will be lots of caching folks there (around 70 or so at last count) from all over the area, good food, some new geo-games, lots of door prizes, and a chance to meet a bunch of the local enthusiasts. There are also a whole bunch of new caches to find on your way north! Hope to see you then, "Half-Canadian" for the WSGA's 48 North chapter

When I saw OhJoy! was sitting at 2999 a couple of days ago, I figured something big was coming up soon, and sure enough -- I was right! Congratulations, friend. I've enjoyed sharing a few of those 3,000 with you over the years. And to the Globalgirl -- what a great way to celebrate a milestone, and thanks for sharing that great picture with your dad. Brought me a big smile this morning, as have all of your amazing caches. A bit congratulations to all the other recent milestones, too!!