Chi-Rho

I recently purchased a mountain bike for geocaching adventures. For those who cache on their bikes, what mount do you use to keep your GPSr safe and not bouncing on the ground behind you after a bump? I have a Garmin GPSmap 60 series unit. Any other helpful hints for biking and caching? Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

I'm 5'0'' and regularly need to climb trees, fences, or rock walls where taller cachers have placed the container within reach of normal people. Perhaps there should be a hobbit terrain rating for us halflings.

I've had my fair share of bushwhacking scrapes and bruises but two geocaching accidents stand out: 1.) Bit by a dog. The dog was on leash at the time but the owner wasn't paying attention. It bit through my jeans to my my calf leaving a deep bruise and a transverse scar that is still visible several months later. The really sad part is that I love dogs and wasn't afraid of them before but now when I'm out caching and I'm approached by even an obviously friendly dog my adrenaline starts to pump. 2.) Slipped on a snowy boulder while bushwhacking and landed with my left hand palm down in the middle of a prickly pear. Nothing to do but sit there and pull hundreds spines out as best as I could while trying not to bleed everywhere. A couple of the big spines hit a tendon or ligament at the base of my ring finger and I couldn't use that part of my hand for a while. Now it looks like I have random tattooed dots on my palm where I couldn't remove all the spines. I'm very careful around cacti now.

I'm in the area if being in the same state counts! Check out the forum on nmgeocaching.com to find more people in your immediate area and introduce yourself. We love newbies! We also have a couple of fun events coming up. You should join us!

Oops. Accidental duplicate of previous post.

When I first started caching I realized I needed experience to find geocaches, especially well-hidden urban hides. The only way to get experience, I reasoned, was to cache often and try to find as many as possible. The goal was to find 100 caches a month for my first several months in the hobby. I now realize that wasn't sane. I had fun, learned a ton, but eventually grew tired of trying to reach a magic round number by a specific date. The best milestone was a recent cache. I tried to find this urban cache 3 times when I first started caching and DNFed every time. Six months of caching experience later I tried again, walked up to GZ, and spotted it immediately. Now perhaps it was just a good day, or perhaps the cache wasn't placed back in the exactly right manner by the previous finder, but to me it meant my caching skill has improved and served as an indication of my progress in this insane hobby.

I typically go on geocaching hikes alone. I know it isn't the best idea but I do several things to decrease the risks. First, I always text my friend with the trailhead I'm departing from and the direction I'm heading. I text her when I'm back at my car and we usually have an agreed upon "start worrying about me" time if she doesn't get that text. Second, on long hikes I leave a note on the floor of my car with the date, time, the path I'm taking, and expected return time. Third, I always err on the side of safety when I'm out alone. Sure scrambling up that 20 ft. rock face would save me 30 minutes of hiking but I just don't take chances when I'm alone. Accidents happen but I try to make good decisions to keep a series of poor decisions from becoming big problems.

Odd: I found three teenagers smoking something illegal down by a baseball park. They freaked out, went back to their car, then returned for the pipe they stashed under a trash can when they realized I wasn't a cop. Cool: I stumbled upon a small historic dump with all manner of old broken glassware. The best were the old medicine bottles in various shades of brown and green. I'm not a historic archaeologist but my guess was the site dated to slightly before the turn of the century.