Team Panda

So it seems like the answer is "Nobody really knows." is this right? If so, when GSAK asks me what symbols are supported by my new 60Cx, what do I select and what happens if I get them wrong?

At least we're not an "Alternative Lifestyle" yet! As far as being "part computer geek" is concerned, if I were even a little bit "computer geek" I wouldn't be having so much %*#(*&*& trouble with this paperless caching thing! It's unfortunate the local LEA pulled such a Barney, but at least we got a nice article out of the deal.

There must be quite a run on PalmIIIxes on Ebay! I bought two "New In Box" in the last week. My wife saw mine and had to have one as well! So far, its doing everything I could ask it to do. GSAK and Cachemate run great with it and with 500 caches (Everything within 60 miles of me) on the PDA, there's still plenty of room to use the PDA for everyday stuff as well. It's become my constant companion almost overnight!

For some of us, getting a cache posted by our local approver is the only reason we're in the game. After all, nobody ELSE approves of anything I do! Welcome to the game. Sport Adventure Whatever, welcome to Geocaching!

Whew! I've gotten so spoiled by nearly instant responses I was beginning to worry my question was either too stupid or too obscure to get an answer! I shoulda knowed better. Maeglin... Thanks, did it. jhwk... Yeah, I know what you mean and I'd agree with you except I went to a small GC event weekend before last that just happened to be a few miles from my house. I turned out to be the "local expert" on area caches as other folks there were from different parts of the state and even one bunch of folks showed up from Louisiana! They were all paperless and using PDAs and when I finally saw how handy they were and found out how cheap I could pick one up on Ebay, I decided to make the leap. The upshot though, is that I saw how nice it was to have the data onhand for the sake of other cachers. So if I meet a cacher out on the trails (happens surprisingly often around here!) and he wants to know about some cache or other, I'll be able to give it to him. (No, I'm not usually this nice but Geocachers are such good folk they tend to bring out the best in me.) Jester... YES! I did keep the original .pdb file in the folder! I assumed (hate that word) GSAK would only upload the specific file I chose. I guess this means I have to clean that folder out after every sync, or will Maeglin's fix prevent the whole problem? Thanks for all the help y'all, I don't think I'd have ever been able to get anywhere in this game without the help of people like you.

BTTT Wringing my hands, banging my head, and hoping somebody knows the answer to this problem. Do I have to set up my PQs by category (Found, Not found, Owned, etc.) or will this even make a difference?

Hey Paul, Let me throw in my two cents as a fellow hunter. I have NO experience with the Lowrance systems and I use a Magellan Platinum that suits my needs just fine. The Platinum, now discontinued from what I understand, has a magnetic compass that works passing fair but I prefer to carry a real compass anyway. If for no other reason, you never have to worry about the batteries dying on a Silva! I was at a geocaching event weekend before last and got to see a couple of Garmin 60CS units in action and I was very impressed with them. Although I get excellent accuracy with my "Magplat" I've got to say the Garmin units seemed to "cook in" on the coordinates MUCH faster and with identical accuracy. There's something else you need to think about as well. Geocachers work their GPSr's for all the accuracy they can get out of them. After all, we're often trying to find a 35mm film can hidden somewhere deep in the woods. A hunter is usually not looking for anything that small. You might be looking for your stand and in that case, anything that gets you within 50 yards is going to be "good enough." For smaller things like trail cameras, licks, etc, you might need to get within 20 yards of it but you'll almost never need the kind of accuracy for hunting that you need for caching. Still, if you think you might want to take up the game/sport/adventure of geocaching some day, then I suspect the Garmin 60 series is just what you need. I'm thinking of "upgrading" to one of these in the very near future myself. Whatever unit you decide to go with, its a pretty safe bet you're going to want to upgrade to a newer/faster/fancier unit in a couple of years anyway. It's just the nature of the beast. Either way, let us know what you decide on and hopefully we'll see you out on the trails some day!

Okay, just when I think I've got it all figured out, I find a new wrinkle. (Of course) I did a PQ for the 500 caches closest to my home coords. Loaded them to a file on my computer named "Waypoints" Loaded onto GSAK (Windows XP) Exported from GSAK to Cachmates via Hotsync (Palm IIIxe) Filed them all where I wanted them, including creating a file for FTFs and filing those accordingly Then, went back and got the .gpx file for ONE single cache not in the PQ, sent that to the same Waypoints file Hotsync'ed And it loaded and over-wrote the ENTIRE 501 caches into "Unfiled" and completely undid all the sorting I'd previously done. Obviously, I'm mis-handling the files some how but I'm too aggravated and annoyed to figure it out. What am I doing wrong? Also, why does it give me the "Select Import Catagory" screen every time I open Cachemates even though I haven't hotsync'ed since the last time I was in there? As always, any and all help is very appreciated and markwells are welcome.

I'm very new to paperless caching myself so I don't know how much help I can be but maybe if you're as mystfied as I was, I can help a little. First, you can't load .gpx or .loc files to the Palm Desktop on your computer. That's why you need GSAK http://www.gsak.net Once you have that, you can download the pocket query to a directory on your computer, I have a folder set up as "Waypoints" but you can put it anywhere you like, as long as you remember where you put it! Again, I apologize if I'm stating the obvious, it wasn't at all obvious to me a few days ago. Then, you can load the data from the PQ into GSAK and from there, directly onto your Palm. As far as getting your PQs in email, Go to "Creat Pocket Query" and scroll down to Attributes to Include/Exclude. Directly below that, you have a choice of having it sent to the email listed in your GC account or a different address make sure your email addy in your profile is current and you should be good to go. Realize, PQs aren't always sent right away even if you set them to be sent on the day you're creating them. Sometimes, it may take awhile before you receive it in email. Hope this helps some.

HA! I GOT IT! I tried to do that earlier but was stymied by not finding any files to move and then after reading your instructions, realized all I needed to do was selecte "all file types" and bada-BING! I'm paperless cachin! Thanks very much for taking the time to help me out, I was STUCK and didn't know if I was on the right track or not. Also, thanks to mtn-man for the move, I didn't think about it going here because I wasn't asking about a GPSr. Ah'm a happy cacher! Thanks again!

Okay, I've managed to DL and install GSAK and Cachemate. I've run a PQ and loaded the results onto GSAK (Although I'm not real sure how I did it) Now how do I get those caches from GSAK on my computer (Win XP home) , to Cachemates on my PalmIIIxe? Any help at all, markwells etc, very appreciated, thanks!

Well, heck. Might as well toss in my two cents! I love dogs and with a few rare exceptions, they love me too. I've "owned" many wonderful dogs in my life and I put quotes around "owned" because a good dog isn't a pet, it's a family member. I cried unconsolably when my German Shepard "Hrothgar" (Roffy) died a few years back and I still miss him. I make instant friends with rottweillers and pits the owners insist "don't like strangers." I actually enjoy being jumped on and wrestling with a big dog and I've found that dog slobber washs right out. My wife is pretty much the same. So, had that been me in the park, your friends dog and I would have said hello to each other, grinned and wagged, and that would have been the end of it. But some people don't like dogs. In fact, some people are scared of dogs, and some people are just plain scared of their own shadows. Some people are looking for any excuse to sue they can find. Some of those people may enjoy geocaching. Some may not. Either way, as a dog owner, your dog is YOUR responsibility and if it is running loose, whether in a park or around the neighborhood, YOU and YOU ALONE are responsible for what that dog does. So, when you're friend let the dog run, they took a chance and they must take responsiblity for their own actions. If your dog jumps on somebody who doesn't want to be jumped on, all sorts of bad things can happen. You can be sued, you or your dog may be shot, stabbed or pepper sprayed, on and on. Its a dangerous world out there. But why you chose to come onto this website and complain about this as if we as geocachers were some how responsible for the actions of a dog your friend allowed to run loose, I can't possibly imagine. It's kind of like having a bad experience with someone wearing a baseball cap and complaining about it to every baseball fan you meet. In the end, you're right. The park belongs to everyone. The Geocacher, the pet owner, the ball player, and the idle pedestrian, etc. Everyone has a right to enjoy the park and all it provides. But with rights come responsibilities and you don't mention any actions on the part of the Geocachers that might have been irresponsible. Wierd and hysterical maybe, but not irresponsible. They were minding their own business. It was your friend's dog who interfered with their activities, not the other way around.

Thanks everyone, looks like a lot of homework here! I knew I could count on y'all to come through with the goods!

My wife and I went out Saturday for an informal geocaching event and met some wonderful folks, woodwalker9, Little'n, paris1time, and ddkds. We had breakfast together and did a bit of caching had a lot of fun, made some new friends, and I discovered just how handy and convenient paperless caching could be. In fact, I was so impressed I went home, did some research and bought a Palm Pilot IIIxe just for paperless caching. Now all I need to know is what I need to know! I know I need something called GSAK and being a lifelong knife guy, I'm willing to bet this stands for "Geocaching Swiss Army Knife" Is this something I can DL free or do I have to buy it? If I've gotta buy, can you please point me in the right direction? Also, if you can think of anything else I need to make the leap from paper, I'd appreciate any help you can offer! Thanks much and thanks to everyone I met this weekend, I had a BLAST!

Thanks for the info y'all, I appreciate it and I'll pass it along!

I have a friend who really wants to get started in Geocaching but is a little financially challenged at present. They have a chance to get a Garmin GPSIII very cheap and asked me if this would do for Geocaching. Unfortunately, I use Magellan and I don't know anything about Garmin units. So, my questions are these... 1. Is the GPSIII unit WAAS enabled? 2. Does it use WGS84? 3. Overall, is it a decent unit for caching? Any and all help will be GREATLY appreciated.

Withdrawn.

God I despise Internet forums. It really doesn't matter what kind of person one is, being snide always makes one sound like a snot nosed brat direly in need of a spanking. I will admit to being rather non-plussed that merely asking questions and expressing concerns relegates me to the status of "some people." As an aside, have you considered the possibility that your admitted lack of understanding really disqualifies you from answering the questions at hand? No, I suppose not. Ah well, neither here nor there. I'll make one attempt to put this simply so that all can understand my obviously very obscure points. GC used to have Virtual Caches and Locationless Caches. GC does not have Virtual Caches and Locationless Caches any more. If there are 10 caches in a given area and three of them are Virtuals and 1 of them is a Locationless, how many caches are left in that given area? Answer: 6 6 is less than 10. Therefore, if we take the Virtual Caches and Locationless Caches away from Geocaching.com, then Geocaching.com logically has LESS caches than it had before we took them away. I hope you will understand at least that much of my post now. If you are still "at loose ends" concerning the rest, I'm sorry but I don't have any more time to devote to explaining it to you. If you don't understand, just tell yourself I'm just "some people" and not worth listening to. Forget all about it, you won't miss a thing and life will go on apace. Moving on... For what its worth, I had somebody log "finds" on several of the Waymarks I created last weekend and from the entries they made and looking at their profile, which shows them as not having found a cache since June of 04, and having all but one of the seven caches they've placed archived, I don't believe the "Finder" was anywhere within 500 miles of the waymarks she "found" today. Hardly what I would call a satisfying cach...er, "MARKING" experience. For that matter, I really can't throw any stones. I have to admit I've been tempted to go log a "Find" on every single McWaymark on the list as I feel you can honestly say that once you've eaten at one McDonald's, you've eaten at all of them. The only thing that stopped me was having too much self-respect to ever actually log having found a McDonalds. Now at this point, I'm sure there are plenty of you who are saying "Well if you don't like Waymarking, then don't do it and shut up about it!" Don't worry, this is my last post on the subject and probably my last post on the forums for quite some time to come. As I said above, I really detest Internet Forums anyway. They tend to bring out the worst in otherwise nice people. But you see, I still have a "stake" in all of this even if I never visit the Waymark site again. Why? Because I'm a Geocacher and there are things being TAKEN AWAY from Geocaching. Weekend before last, I traveled about 300 miles to take pictures and get coords for two Virtual caches I've been wanting to do for a very long time. They're both in a fair sized city within a couple of miles of the Interstate and amazingly, there isn't a single cache of any sort within 20 miles of the whole city! It's truly a "dead spot" that I wanted to try to add a little life to. I can't put a traditional or even a micro cache there because I can't afford to drive that far on a regular basis to maintain the thing. But there are these two REALLY beautiful places with very cool historical significance that would have made truly GREAT virtuals. Sadly, even if I wanted to post them as Waymarks, (which I don't!) NEITHER of them fit any of the current catagories. So, the whole trip was a waste of gas, a waste of time, and the area will remain barren of caches for the forseeable future. But HEY! Look at all Geocaching is GAINING from all these new developments. Like, uhm... Uh... dadgum, nobody ever DID tell me what we were gaining from all this. Maybe that's because they can't.

No, I understand perfectly what Waymarking IS. I just don't understand why it must be so completely differentiated from Geocaching. It seems to me that TPTB's current approach is making Geocaching "less" than it was. As I said in my earlier post, there aren't a lot of caches in my area and due to the advent of Waymarking, there are suddenly quite a few LESS! WMs won't show up on GC maps. WMs won't show up on our GC Stats pages. WMs won't show up on our GC PQs. Etc... Yeah, I can go over to Waymarking and do all of those things there if I want to but whats the advantage in doubling the "workload" to get the same thing we used to get all in one shot at GC? The way its being done, it just seems that TPTB are increasing the unrewarding techinical (computer and GPS programming) effort required without increasing the rewarding (Look at these pics of the cool p[laces we found this weekend!) payoff. Look, I know I get a little long winded at times and I apologize for that, its a bypoduct of an 85wpm typing speed. The short form of the above post is... How is the removal and isolation of previously available caching options and the reduction of future options, going to encourage the further growth of Geocaching? PS I want to make it clear I am NOT against Waymarking. Waymarking has some very attractive aspects. I'm just a little dismayed and confused by the concerted effort to forcefully separate it from the realm of Geocaching.

Thanks for the Markwell, CTD. Can somebody explain to me (or markwell me again) exactly why TPTB are going to such pains to separate Geocaching from Waymarking? I really don't understand it at all and it seems counter to the purpose of "growing" the sport/game of Geocaching. I'm sure that many who live in large metro areas think Geocaching is quite large enough. Some of you can gather in a thousand caches without traveling more than 20 miles away from the house. Out here in the sticks though, pickin's are pretty slim and growing the sport/game is a pretty big goal for cache hungry geocachers like me. So when I see all this about how Waymarking is going to be connected to Geocaching in only the most remote sort of way, I begin to think I should forget about the whole Waymarking thing and concentrate on the Geocaching. After all, I'm a Geocacher, not a Waymarker. If Waymarking is a part of Geocaching, fine, I'm all over it and I'll enjoy the added facet of the sport/game I enjoy so much. I was never that thrilled by either Locationless or Virtual caches but they were part of Geocaching and so I played them as they presented themselves. They were part of the game, even if they weren't my favorite part. But if Waymarking is going to be an almost completely separate entity that will not advance the sport/game of Geocaching, then I have to choose whether I'm going to have to decide whether to devote my energies to Geocaching or Waymarking and since Waymarking is really nothing more than a collection of Locationless and Virtual caches, Waymarking will fall a very distant second. So please, somebody explain to me why there's so much effort being made to ensure a division between the two? I don't understand the reasoning behind it at all, it seems completely counter intuitive to me. What am I missing? Yes, I know this is long winded, I know I'm asking for a lot of explanation, but I ask because like everyone else here, I care a great deal about the future and welfare of Geocaching. Thanks

Yeah, that's true too. I haven't seen a trestle like you describe since I was a kid, just thinking about it brings back a lot of good memories. I know they've still got to be out there somewhere. They're never where you come across them in the course of your regular day for some reason. To me, "harder to find" means a more interesting cache or catagory. Either way, I think maybe it's time I took a look at a good topo map to see if I can find one.

For future reference, it would help your cause a great deal if you would take a moment and choose which side of your mouth you're going to talk out of. I apologize for responding to your original comment to me, I didn't realize you were trolling. Please carry on without me.

As I said above, I'm not going to argue it, I've cast my vote. But I couldn't resist coming back in and making the observation that if you think "Strip Bars" are "apples" to the hooker hangout's "oranges" I suspect you haven't been to a great many strip bars. Most of the time, I'd say comparing strip joints to hooker hangouts was less a case of comparing apples to oranges than it was a case of comparing "Granny Smith" apples to "Red Delicious" apples. For that matter, Waymarking is not a strictly American endeavor, it is a global endeavor and I can promise you that in many countries, "Strip Bars" and "Hooker Hangouts" are not only comparable, they are identical. So that would really be more like comparing hooker hangouts to hooker hangouts, wouldn't it?

I'm not sure if proposals are being accepted now or not. Jeremy made that post some time ago and hasn't commented further on it. So, I'm going to throw this idea out and if it flies it flies, if it don't, it don't. How about a Sub Catagory for bridges that would simply be "Strange & Unusual Bridges." This would not include train trestles, covered bridges, pedestrian suspension bridges (already a subcat for that one) but would be include any bridges either pedestrian or vehicular that were of strange/unusual material or design. Specifically ruled out would be any modern "dime-a-dozen" overpasses, road bridges, or Interstate bridges, we've all seen a million of those. Another cool sub-cat idea would be Antique, Condemned, or Collapsed bridges! So I guess that's actually TWO proposals. 1. "Strange & Unusual Bridges" 2. "Antique, Condemned, or Collapsed Bridges" Whaddy'all think?

I like it! Train trestles are VERY cool structures and would actually require some effort to find some of them. I think it would probably be best placed as a sub-cat of the "Bridges" catagory though. I've been thinking of another Bridges sub-cat myself. I can't really tell whether cat proposals are being "accepted" or not right now but I think I'll go ahead and suggest mine, worst that can happen is I'll get told "No" and I've survived that before. After all, we can discuss now and Jeremy can "accept" later. Right? Wrong? Blue? 31?