piper28

Might be tough to walk to though.

I see you have a bunch of the marks on the arizona side of the hoover dam, but don't seem to have any of the ones from the nevada side. I know from looking there are several listed on the inside. Unfortunately this was stuff I was looking at several days ago, so I can't remember which benchmarks they were . They do show up in the clark county searches for nevada though.

Hmm, which version did they add that? I wonder if I could have done that and didn't even realize it. Been updating to a new laptop recently, so I haven't had access to mapsource to look at things like that.

I visted one today that was on an airport property. Small airport, and it's apparently there with the airport manager's approval.

Ok, now that's fairly impressive. Geocaching didn't exist when I visted most of them, and for me, geoacaching is kinda an "also-do" when vacationing. I'll grab a cache if it's convenient, but not the primary purpose for my travels.

Ugh, multipost.

Using the 60c means you may have to think a little about your route, and not select everything in a state. As an example, when I took my big trip last year, I was able to build a strip of map regions from Lansing, MI, through the UP, west across a lot of northern states, and then down to Yellowstone. I was able to build a strip along this route that would even allow me some leeway of travel off the route (depending on where I was of course, more populated areas mean smaller regions on the map). Now, if I'd wanted to build something for my entire trip beyond that point, I wouldn't have been able to do that. As it happened I had my laptop on the trip though, so it wasn't a problem. (The rest of the trip involved going down from yellowstone, visiting a solid chunk of utah, across southern colorado, then back along i-80 to i-69 to lansing.) That said, I'm not sure you could have built that entire route even on the 76c.

Hey, slow down. My goal is to reach all 50 states, AND to get there before you do. Keep in mind of course that layovers in airports don't count for this . (I'm not accusing anyone of such, I just hate it when people count that as visiting a state). For me, 48 or 49, because for the life of me I can't remember if I've visited North Dakota. (Alaska being the other). And to stay somewhat on topic, I don't have MOST of the icons .

You know, in the original article there, I'd have to say the cop was pretty decently supportive of geocaching considering the hassle it had just caused them.

I've used my camera tripod sometimes as a walking stick in areas. It can be pretty useful when crossing streams, looking for that right spot for the perfect shot. It was also somewhat useful on the one hike to the bottom of the waterfall on kauai, although a helicopter probably would have been a better accesory for the hike.

Actually, the statement was more to qualify that while I've noticed the social trails, it doesn't necessarily mean that the world should stop and take notice and halt geocaching to Defend Wildlife. That and that I'm more the type that drives and 8cyl Jeep around, advocate drilling in the arctic wildlife refuge, feel that in general recycling is a waste of time, etc. That said, I've spent a fair amount of time outside, and while I'm not up to tracking animals, my personal opinion is that I'd be able to determine the difference between an animal trail and a human one at better than chance. I also should qualify that except in one instance, any trails I've seen formed by geocachers were not in areas that I would consider to be sensitive areas, so it's not a huge deal (as long as it doesn't ultimately get areas closed to geocaching, like 4x4 trails have been closed because of people that don't follow the trails). It's just something that I've noticed while caching. (One person careless with a cigarette is going to cause far more damage than any of these trails have). (Note, I put the statements in here not to start a political discussion about my viewpoints, but to characterize the earlier statement I made. I fully recognize that many of you won't agree with my viewpoints, so let's not derail things into a discussion of that)

Obviously it depends on the area. Some of the urban caches that I've done, like Old Fountain of Light, and Remember the Twins, obviously there's not an issue with it. Also the couple I found in utah along the pony express trail were in pretty rocky areas, and it'd be pretty tough to leave a trail there. But the there are definitely ones like Spartan Cache, and the physical ones along the blue water highway series that I've done where it's pretty noticeable. With Spartan Cache, I was walking along the main trail, and just where the gps indicated I'd have to leave the trail, there was a pretty conspicuous social trail that led right up to the cache and ended. The Blue Water Highway ones were pretty much off old railroad rightaways, and most of them it was pretty obvious when you got to the right spot, because that's where the bushes along the side of the railroad bed had been beaten back. (For that matter, there was at least one not-found there that it was obvious where the cache was too). With Through the Lookingglass, the thing was posted so far back from the parking area, and the nature of the area involved a fair amount of wandering around amongst trees, trying to find the best path, so it's unlikely too many people would take the same path. (Quite frankly, it probably would have been a lot easier if a social path had developed, because I crossed that stream far more times than I should have had to ). Butteryfly Garden, one of the first ones I went looking for I felt was in a terrible location, because finding the cache meant trampling down the plants in the area that formed the butterly garden. Eh, I'm relatively thick-skinned. And that list would indeed be all the caches I've done, except I guess for one outside Mesa Verde that I apparently never logged. And to be honest, I'm not saying that it's a huge issue in my opinion, just that it shouldn't be written off as it doesn't happen. I'm probably one of the least environmentally friendly people around here, but the concept of social trails is something that I've become aware of because of the problems it's caused with getting 4x4 trails shut down because of idiots that decide that they can go off the trails. Now, if someone could only invent a way to create social trails through the mosquitos, so you can follow paths to not get eaten... (Oh, and BTW, I'm not the OP, that seems to have gotten confused up above).

Really? I see them all the time. And when the trail leads right up to the geocache and stops, then I don't really buy the animal trail theory. (And to be perfectly honest, I'd argue that most people using that theory are probably deluding themselves). Now, I'm probably one of the least environmental gung-ho people here, but I've even been within sight of one cache and decided not to finish it, because it seemed like a pretty inappropriate place to trample through. (And for me to say that is pretty surprising.) Heck, I've learned to look for the signs of people trampling the area to help find the cache.

There was some speculation a while back that whether one finds the 60 or 76 more comfortable depends on whether one holds the thing in the palm or in the fingers. And without my gps in front of me, i can't remember which it is I do myself. For me, the 60 fits perfectly in the hand, and I can operate everything with the thumb. Others seem to fit the 76 in their hand better and can still operate everything with one hand.

These pictures are depressing. It seems that all the benchmarks around here are boring.

After watching some infomercial for some other security device (hey, it was late at night and I was bored), the club is only an invitation for a thief to steal your car. I was amazed at how quickly it could be bypassed. (They just cut the steering wheel and take it off).

I wonder if they were doing it to actually buy gas, or to check to see if the card was still good. (Well, ultimately it might have been both). Credit card at a gas station is supposedly a pretty common way of testing to see if you've cancelled the card already before it gets sold off.

I actually like virtuals, if they're in an interesting location. That said, I have a tendancy not to get around to logging a lot of the virtuals I've visited, so I can't even imagine why anyone would bother with looking them up on the web to log. Some of them are nice to visit on vacations though, because they might point out something interesting that's out of the way.

Could be worse: http://eyelab.msu.edu/people/gary/car.jpg Outside the apartment I had in Farmington Hills, Michigan. (Yes, Michigan, that state known for all the flooding ). (Picture not included in thread since it wasn't while geocaching, but I can sympathize with CW Iams. Picture also taken after the water had gone down a little, so it was probably 3 inches higher at one point. Car located in an area that if you told someone it would flood you'd say they were nuts.)

I would guess it's related to the abuse it takes being mounted on the bike. I haven't had this problem using it in the car, and I frequently take it on and off the mount.

First time I'd seen one too. Although, was it my imagination, or was there absolutely no reference to GPS in the ad? I didn't really feel it did well at conveying what they were selling.

No, I'm just saying that there's no imagination involved at all. I also feel that given that accuracy limitations of gps, it's making it more guesswork and luck chance than anything else. (Actually, what amazes me is that two other people found it the same day I went looking, although when my wife and I were there, another caching group came up, and none of them found it either). To be honest, this particular cache was also right next to a set of condos and an office building. Sitting there flipping rocks over isn't exactly going to be discreet.

I don't particularly mind micros myself, as long as they're somewhat interesting. But I do feel micro hiders should play fair. I went searching for one last weekend and it turns out it's a fake rock hidden amongst a strip of rocks along the side of the walkway. (Both sides had a strip maybe 2 feet wide, and the strip extended easily 100 feet along the area). I'm sorry, but gps isn't really all that helpfull to help find something like that. Maybe that type of thing is common. If so, I'll probably find myself doing less micros .

You should be able to get the V6 upgrade for free by unlocking v5 now.