thecaswellfamily

We are currently at #198... and I am hoping to get the entire family out for a nice hike to get number 200. There is a multi near our home that involves an outhouse... since we got married in front of an old outhouse (classy, aren't we?) I am hoping we can do that one and maybe take a fun photo kissing by it or something goofy like that. My favorite milestone so far was #150 which also happened to be our first FTF! We don't go after FTFs, so having that one fall into place was pretty awesome.

This is basically the same thing that Garmin suggested when I e-mailed their support team. I will say that so far (only 1 week) this has not happened again. I am also being extra sure to "remove external devices" in Windows before I disconnect that USB cable.

I have both, the "kid factor" and the "swag factor." Geocaching began for us as a way to get the little noonies to move their feet down the trail, but it has evolved into something much more. If the kids are coming along, we make a point to find larger caches that are more likely to have 'stuff' in them. Notice I did not say 'GOOD stuff', I just said 'stuff'. Some of the things my kids pass up, and some of the 'treasures' they do pick defies all understanding, LOL! One thing I have learned, though: I used to think I could eventually (when they were not looking and after they tire of the item) "reswag". Is that a term? Well, I'm making it one. I planned on re-trading all of the junk they picked up for newer junk down the line. HA HA HA on me! These girls remember each and every item of swag they have picked up, and if asked can tell you which cache it came out of (and it has been a year and a half now)! We keep swag of many different values in our pack so we can trade up or even. If we open a container that is mostly empty, the girls like to pick out items to leave in it for the next kids, so they won't be disappointed. The only time we DIDN'T trade time was when my 7 year old found (and REALLY wanted) a 14k gold charm in a cache, and I made her leave it behind 'cause we didn't have anything of equal value with us. She is still mad at me over that one, but I thought it would set a good example.

Tell me about it. We lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for four years... and it KILLS me to think we could have been caching all that time. *sigh* We did get out and see some pretty amazing sights during our time up there, but I keep thinking of all the amazing places that were probably right under noses but not in the guidebooks. That is my favorite thing about caching, fiding those hidden gems. Oh well, I suppose I should be glad that we got into the game at all!

These caches are all within 10 miles of my house. The whole incident was somewhat troubling, but it is working now and BOY do I love this unit. I can't wait to see what Garmin has to say about it (if anything), LOL!

For an Oregon 450, might I suggest you try here? They are NIB and the price is much nicer than I've seen lately on Amazon or e-bay. I just got one and, other than a small glitch yesterday that resolved itself, I love it!

Oooooh, good point. I just sent the Garmin support team an e-mail (not that I expect to hear back anytime soon). I appreciate hearing all of the little tricks that others are using to try and avoid this. I have to say, other than this weird fluke, I am really LOVING this unit. It is so much easier than the eTrex Legend HCx and pocket PC combo I was using before. I honestly thought I must doing something wrong and just couldn't figure out what! Well, now that I did get it to function, I'd better get out there and get caching, huh?

Thank you. First thing when taking it out of the box I installed a Zagg Invisible Sheild, second thing was getting the latest firmware. I download both the geocache gpx files and the waypoint ones... and the waypoints were fine it was just the geocaches that weren't showing up. Anyhow... I walked away, cried a little, took some deep breaths and then tried again. It works now. I have no idea what was up, but thank you both for trying to help.

Thank you, at least I know I'm not alone now. I have tried deleting them and redownloading them repeatedly... I think maybe I need to just walk away for a little bit. *deep breath* I am using Windows 7, and I have been waiting for that "hardare can be safely removed message". *sigh* This is just frusterating.

Okay, I have a shiney new toy. It is a beautiful Oregon 450 that I dearly love. I played with it all weekend. This morning I deleted the GPX files from the weekend and replaced them with my new PQ (saved to my desktop, unzipped, then copied to the GPX folder on my GPS). But when I power the unit on and go to GEOCACHE it says that none are found. When I plug the USB back in and check the GPX folder the files are in there. What am I doing wrong? If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then I am there! I hope I am just doing something really stupid that is easy to fix.

Thank you so much for posting this link! I was just having the same problem on my new 450, and I was sure the answer was here somewhere but I was having trouble finding it. You just made my life SOOO much easier!

We got it today and absolutely love it! Thank you SOOO much! Installed an ivisible sheild and downloaded all the caches within 10 miles... look out 'cause here we come!

I hereby apologize to all those whose caches I found when I first started. I confess, I was brief. I used a ton of acronyms. In my defense, the newbies who introduced me to the sport (and have since quit) made it sound like we were SUPPOSED to be brief and use acronyms in our logs. I even got on the GC website to memorize these much needed acronyms. Slowly, as time went on (and it really hasn't been all that long), my logs got longer and longer. This activity was just so much fun, I couldn't contain myself to a few letters. I used to feel bad about writing longer logs (and I still do feel bad when some of them go on for a couple of paragraphs). I suspect that many other newbies have been similarly misled.

I'm interested if you still have it available!

My husband and kids got me much needed hiking boots (no more caching in my stylish little ballet flats) and a great pair of rubber boots (after I already went wading in a 40 degree swamp in order to score a rubber ducky cache). My step-mom got me geocaching license plate frame, some geocoins, and a cache attack shirt (that was WAY too big and now belongs to my darling husband). Best of all, they all let me go try out the new boots the very next day!

Our longest streak thus far is 6 days... Momma could probably do better if she wasn't so determined to make this a family activity.

Not completely sure but I would guess Unusual Pile of Logs and Unusual Rock Pile.

Okay, here goes nothin'... my first attempt at stickin' a photo in the forums...

Thank you for keeping us informed... I have seen NO coverage of this here in western Washington... but then again I don't watch much tv. Keep hoping it'll turn out alright, even as doubtful as it is, we keep hoping.

Any word on this today? Have they found him?

Geocoins, those cute micro-ammo-can caches (I tie a red ribbon on them to make cute Christmas ornaments- your friends can then log your christmas tree each year), geocaching liscence plate frames... oh I could go on and on! A ready made cache, lock-n-locks, ammo cans, bison tubes... *sigh* I am dreaming now...

I hope and pray that he is found alive and okay... and I really REALLY want to know what that structure is and I wanna go see it!

Our kids pick some of the strangest things out of caches... sometimes completely surprising us. We like to leave brightly colored compass caribeaner clips and little flashlights for other geocacher/explorer kids out there. Since they are the ones who do most of the trading, kid swag is the stuff we bring. Momma likes coins and wooden nickels, so she keeps a few of those in the swag bag too. We also keep a few adult minded things along in case we feel a need to leave them (mini maglights, etc). Daddy found some small packs of toilet seat covers, we find it fun to leave them in caches that have porta-potties nearby.

Thank you for this topic! I recently adopted a cache that I had been FTF on... I've only ever gotten two... and I wondered if I should delete my FTF log or just let it stand...

I read about geocaching in a magazine shortly after getting married in 2001, and thought it sounded like the best idea ever! Then I looked up GPSr prices and thought "How stupid, a game for rich people." This senario repeated itself several times, until May of 2006 when we went on our annual camping trip and our friends said "Hey, let's go geocaching." They had an inexpensive yellow e-trex they'd gotten for $100 (which still sounded like a lot to us). Once I had actually DONE geocaching (we found 2 that weekend), there was no stopping me! My poor husband had to shell out $150 for an etrex legend HCx that I found on e-bay. Bought our maps on e-bay too. Absolutely the best investment we ever made!