vacacher

Noticed on the Geocache site a button to "send to my phone." But searching help for phone or send to phone finds nothing to help with how this works or what it does. I have, and use, iPhone Geocache App (wondeful) so can't help but think clicking that button will send that particular cache's info to my phone app. Searched help and forums but find nothing about this. Can someone shed some light into this feeble mind of mine? Maybe I am overthinking this... thank you! -VA

I am absolutely dumb. Have 150 caches over the years but haven't done it for year. Cannot seem find guidence how to download my pocket query to Garmin Oregon which I used to do regularly. Frustrating. Want to pick up the sport again but without waypoints I am stuck. I know to attach download cable and can see files on Oregon. But download a file and gps seems not to do anything with it. Which file to I put where? Also used GSAK in the past but it seems completely foreign to me and likewise produces no useful result. thanks to for any help you can give...

When I research info anywhere on this forum or google or whatever, often I am refered to this site for a given subject, lets say GSAK. Is it the intention of the designers of this site that when a user wants to find commonly requested info like GSAK, that the user should SEARCH for individual posts on that topic? or perhaps are common topics located in some single place on here I am not finding it? Other topics where users might want a concentrated set of information might be EZgps or Mapsource. With the individual posts that give a tid bit of info on Mapsource usage, for example, I haven't found enough mass of info in one place to get me to understand what Mapsource might do for me or how it is used. If this forum is merely intended for individual posts of whatever a user wants to post, that is fine with me. I am just trying to determine if this is the location to learn or to "get started" with some of these applications or techniques. With the GSAK, I downloaded it sometime ago but never could understand it enough to use it. So deleted it only to download again. Now I am past my 21 day 'free' window so trying to understand enough to determine if I should pay $25 for it. Only have 120 FINDS to my record so maybe I am not "power geocacher" enough to get much use from it.

You could register a TB in US and give it a destination of that city in England. When it gets nearby to her, she could intercept and log. Maybe register 3 and send them all as racers. She can find and log and rechange their destination back to US, maybe. Also, racers seem to do best if they have a physical tag on them indicating they are in a race. Also, I have always wondered if the ones that are like a race car might also do better. Anyway,.. a point to ponder. By the way, my Brad's Lucky Star Racer was picked up in Florida by someone new to caching and returning to Endland with it. If that was your sister, would you have her drop it someplace. I have heard nothing since the persons (a couple) grabbed it. And it had very few miles... Happy caching

RAMO... It was just recently pointed out to me that when revisiting and logging a NOTE, your number of finds does not increment, if you revisit and log a visit, your number of finds will inappropriately increment. I revisit before I go on vacation a take a few TBs with me. Also, drop any I bring back from vacation in convenient caches near my home.

No. DNFs are like girlfriends. Nobody needs to know...

I usually say something like 'Ahh.. I bet I know what you are doing", while waving my GPSr in an obvious way. I tell them, "you guys go ahead, I will wait over here" and I go away 50 feet or so. Some people want to make the find themselves. If I jumped in and I suddenly show i found it, some folks feel that they did not find it. Also, have met people caching together where one just suddenly walks away upon spying the cache and once they are a bit away they announce to the other they know where it is but will still sit aside allowing the partner to also find it on their own. I always allow the cachers on-site before me the right to privacy and after all, they were there first. The worst etiquette blunder is probably to jump in with others when they are onsite before you and it could be a First To Find situation. Some encroaching cachers have been known to claim a "share" in the FTF. Oh wow.... Anyway... Guess I feel the first to arrive have the call on privacy and we who happen upon them should respect their right to do the cache as they wish. Politeness and respect are still in fashion...

There frequently is a lot of "jumping" by the GPS unit. One tactic I use is to walk away about 30 feet from the probably area you have chosen as "the right place" and get an arrow point to the cache. Then walk around to another side of the probably location staying about 30 feet away. Get these readings from a little distance away and determine where the thing is pointing. Sometimes it just provides a new perspective if your readings from different sides and back away from Ground Zero. Also, if you are new, you haven't yet seen the tricky hides people do. I would encourage you to stick with some of these tough ones. Lots of times it is just a tough or clever hide that keeps you from success. Also, maybe stay away from micros until you get a few more victories. Micros can be real tricky. I have little over 100 finds but I still stay way from micros. They normally don't produce the Geocache experience (woods, streams, forests, wildlife, etc.) that I enjoy. Sometimes they are more liking for you lost keys around the sofa...

FTF might be something to stay away from. Seems like its one of those things that can lead to Obsessive Compulsive. It is an acheivement without virtue. Had a friend that had the highest number of succesive Kiwanis meetings attended of all Kiwanians in the nation. He said if he ever missed, he would never attend another. He was realizing the OC behavior it had created. FTF is very easy to have all you want if you carry a smartphone with GPS app, or a cell that gets your email alert along with your GPSr. If you live in a densley populated area a total of 100 FTFs should rack up quickly. Whereas if you live in the outback of Wyoming, and have no modern gagetry, I would think you should be proud of 2 FTFs. Its all relative. My suggestion is to keep Geocaching a non-competitive sport. Save the competitive instinct for the work place where it pays back.

What is the right way to record the drop of a TB without artificially inflating one's "caches found" stats? My stats show 117 finds, but many of them are from TB drops when I bring bugs back from vacation and have to log a cache find to drop the bug in a cache I have logged repeated before. When I go directly to "Trackables" to log the bug, all I see is option to log a grab, but none for a drop. I to drop the TB without logging a find of the cache. How do I do this? Can't help but think there is something I have been missing for the 4 years I have been caching cause now I have inflated total of finds. Thanks,

Seems like caching integrity is what each of us makes of it. Jumping in when someone is already on-site looking for a FTF and then logging a "shared FTF", getting puzzle solution from someone else, working in a group and 1 person finds it and all persons claim a find, etc, etc. But caching is kind of a wild west sport. Each has different integrity standards and different things we like about the sport. Guess I am saying we can conduct ourselves to our own standards. Like we do everywhere else in life. I personally feel the worst vice we have is to place easy to hide micros in site of public place, in parking lots, and other places where we cachers look suspicious and conspicuous as we do our search. Personally I don't look for hides in these places anymore cause I think it gives caching a bad rap. There is plenty of room in out-of-the-way places for nice hides. Had two incidents of "authorities" rolling up on me last week. My grandkids don't need to learn to poke around a light pole behind Home Depot, or snoop around a guard rail on a busy highway. Maybe we who like the "class A" hides (traditional, in the woods, hides) should reinforce these best of geocaching hides with a thanks to the hider who takes the time to do a first class job. I sure do appreciate their efforts. Thanks to all of you who hide traditionals in places that produce a fun woodsy off-the-road GPSing experience.

OK. Well then.... got it. But I did like the double dipping line the most. So dipping didn't have a specific intention, it just kinda grew into being. Wonder what is the most times a single TB has been dipped. Oh, well. that is a question for another day. Thanks

FTF -- First to Find Adding the competitive component of finding caches before others can become obsessive in nature. Geocaching is also fun if left as a non-competitive leisure past time. These are 2 very different approaches. Personnally I enjoy doing my achieving in other endeavors and using Geocaching as a relaxing outdoor experience and a vehicle to seeing places nearby that I would otherwise never discover.

What is the intended purpose of dipping? I think I have seen cachers dipping their own and running up big miles but isn't this kinda not the right thing? So would I dip the TB of another so they get credit for my journeys until I finally drop it? Would I take a TB to Idaho, dip it, then bring it back near home and dip again and keep it in my possession and keep doing this? If I make frequent business trips to the same location, would I dip the TB each time I go to rack up mileage? For cachers who have those magnetic TBs that go on your car, or a decal on your window, does the owner dip that as the travel to hides, or do others who see it log it? Guess I am just lost in the self dipping part. Dipping the TB of another is less mystical. Not really concerned about the ethics of others, just would like to know the intent of its use. Thanks,

I'm not clear on the point of difficulty. Are the searchers having problems even when using the correct coords? I would like to search for a truely difficult hide. But a puzzle would be an impass for me. (I know, I know, I am a puzzle weenie.)

Climbing trees is not common associated with geocaching. I would not expect a cache to be up at tree any distance at all. So would suggest it be explained as cat 5 due to tree climbing. Unless specified, I expect a cache to be accessible without a shovel, without tools, without anything other than maybe a stick or flashlight. Without specific instructions, would even a person who can climb, just happen to have climbing gear with them? No.. so they would have to drive home and return. I think we are outside the generally accepted notion of caching with this one. Adds nothing to the sport. Let's don't...

Lets say I have a pocket query (which i do). It gets any caches withing 10 miles of my home that have not been logged as found. This is to detect new caches so I can get some First-To-Finds. As a result, I get an email with something not useful. E-mail just has a link that when clicked opens geocaching.com and I then have to do a search on my own. What does the pocket query do for me? If it would just have the ID's of any cache it finds using these criteria that would be cool. But I get the same thing (just a link) if there is a new unreported cache or not, e.g, it gives me same thing if query criteria is met or not. Hmmm.... Or, do you have any suggestions how to be notified of any new cache that has not been reported. Thanks, Vacacher

I have downloaded a Route.gpx file from the cache along a route library. Now it sits on my PC. I plug in my Garmin GPSmap76 and now what? When I have used the waypoint download from a Geocache page, it follow the links in the site and it comes to a point where the user clicks a Download to GPS. But with these routes, how does the transfer take place? Thank you fellow cachers!! Vacacher

Personally I have sworn of micros and really sworn of lamp post caches. Fiddling around lamp posts in a shopping center, I feel, gives our sport a bad name/image. My feeling is the micro is so much easier for the hider that we are getting a flurry of new micros along busy roads, next to restaurants, at edges of parking lots, around dumpsters, etc. These locations are private property. This is not the sylvan experience that best defines this sport. So long micros. Can't say I am going to miss you...

I have created bookmarks. However, from sign-in, where do I come to a place to access my bookmarks? Have searched the so called "Frequently Asked Questions" but buh.... nuttin. Guess I think there is a "my bookmarks" button someplace.

When in the TB area or the general Geocaching functionality I don't see any help function for the workings of the website. I see general FAQs etc. for placing, logging, etc. but that is it. Am looking for help as to where the "Watch a TB" function is accessed. I saw it once, but don't see it anymore. Excuse my using forum for help. I'm sure there is a help function, but guess I am having a brain spasm. I don't see it. thank you.