Cardinal Red

Yes, Garmin manuals are crap - but it really is in there if you look closely on page 27 of the manual. Searching for a Geocache - to find a Geocache: To find a Geocache: 1. Press and hold (not so sure about that) the FIND key to display the Find Menu. 2. Use the ROCKER Key to highlight the Geocache icon and press ENTER to display the Geocache List. Look in the upper right hand corner of page 27 to see the content of the Options Menu (you have to press MENU to see it on the GPS). Delete... is the 4th item down. Use the ROCKER Key to highlight Delete... and press ENTER to display that Menu. If you have more than one caches type loaded (with different icons for each), you can select an individual icon to be given the option to delete ALL caches of that type. Or choose All Symbols to DELETE EVERYTHING.

From a quite humble recent purpose (wonder what its story has been over millenniums - and could you incorporate any of that into your educational experience), it looks like you have transformed it into a real gem. A place I would love to visit. I think the first step is to associate yourself with local Geocachers. They are there, and they can help you turn any creative ideas into viable well maintained caches. Notice that caches without the "c" is just aches. And that is what poorly maintained caches are. I bet some locals are already contemplating the possibility of placing caches. Certainly one of them will read your post here, but you can also seek them out at local events. Perhaps try a bit of Geocaching yourself to get a feel for what your visitors would experience. No better way to meet cachers than to become one, even if only occasionally.

As an ExpertGPS user myself, this got me to take an immediate interest in the problem Russ is having. I thought he might be importing data into ExpertGPS incorrectly. So I tried it myself and found out the problem is that some of the program code to import data into ExpertGPS was not quite right. We both sent very preliminary notes to the ExpertGPS developer, and a partial fix showed up quickly in the next version release. It is better now, but still not quite right. I am now thoroughly checking the new release to be able to provide more targeted feedback for just one more minor bug fix. Before I provide this feedback on what I am seeing, are there any Geocachers out there making their own GPX GEOCACHE files (NOT as waypoints), using acquired or self created data (in Excel for example) imported into ExpertGPS? If you are, I would welcome your feedback about what is working well for you now, or anything that doesn't work quite as well. In the absence of any feedback I will just have to use my own best judgement. I would not expect that to break anything for any other user, but we all have some experience with unintended consequences. The final result can then be used to give a newbie a nearly identical GPS unit learning experience, while tracking down beginner event temporary caches, as they will have later with live GPX downloads from the Groundspeak database.

My least favorite format of the big three is the hdd mm.mmm, but it is the GPS default, so you have to go with it. Otherwise the most popular format is hdd.ddddd, and if you interact with coordinates via cell phone or online in general (other than geocaching) you will soon see just how popular it is. I think UTM will only confuse your target audience. Anyone that understands UTM should be able to deal with hdd mm.mmm and hdd.ddddd That 6th decimal digit of the hdd.ddddd format would confuse newbie GPS users that had somehow found themselves in that format setting (What do I do with the extra digit?), and only 5 decimal digits should be fine for the cell phone crowd. As much as I personally hate the idea of caching with a cell phone, I can not deny the exploding popularity of those devices. So I would probably reverse the order of those coordinate formats and put hdd.ddddd on top. I would also lose the dash after the word Coordinates (looks too much like a negative sign), and substitute a colon instead. And there is room for WGS84 below the word Coordinates. Anyone that does not understand its significance will just ignore it. But it might actually be welcomed by some, and an educational opportunity for others. I think you have already done a pretty good job representing us geocachers to the Trails Committee. Whatever advise you decide is best will work fine. Just make sure you are there to verify the marked coordinates. Is there any chance a location can be so badly compromised after publication that it is no longer viable? What would you do then? Just something I would think about in advance.

More precisely I see you are a new UK cacher. As such I expect your coordinate view of the world to have a British Grid slant. The coordinates you are inquiring about are almost exactly .75 kilometers away from your only logged cache find from last month. They are in the standard Geocaching format (the worst possible US standard format choice available in my opinion, but we have no choice but to live with it now). There is nothing to work out. There are several possible formats to choose from. Converting from any one to any other is not terribly difficult. Is that what you mean by "work out"? Do you want to convert those numbers to a different format? Such as British Grid? Certainly WANT is probably the correct term here. Unless you are working in conjunction with a paper map (possibly in British Grid), there is no NEED to do a conversion. Only convenience and personal preference determine your "NEED". Your GPS unit can be set to match the coordinate format of whatever data you have, instead of converting the data to match the current format setting on your GPS. Did I correctly guess the true nature of your question? There are plenty of UK cachers that frequent the forums, and can discuss what works best for them from a preference and practicality standpoint.

A .loc file does contain quite a bit less information than a .gpx file, but for some users that is good enough. The coordinates and cache name are in there. I am NOT a Magellan user, but I am familiar with free software that works well for me with my older Garmin's, and is compatible with Maggies as well. Of course you don't mention what flavor computer (PC / MAC) you use. It obviously matters, as there are always compatibility issues. This free software (EasyGPS) would allow you to send that .loc "group" to your GPS (when you figure out how to open the .loc file with it - hint: FILE Import Geocaches). I have also been known to just edit the .loc extension to .gpx in some situations. Since it seems your 110 accepts .gpx files directly, perhaps simply editing the extension to .gpx will work without the need for any additional software. If I actually owned a Maggie, I would quickly be able to determine how to make best use of any available .loc file. Don't give up on .loc. Here is where to download EasyGPS And seek more advice from other Maggie users. PQ's do have their advantages (more so for "power cachers", but it looks like you are not there yet). They are not always the solution. Just the one that everyone automatically declares to be the magic pill.

The text explanations provided by the site tend to focus on brevity rather than clarity. Still many of us somehow manage to figure out how to decipher them anyway. Here is what they are trying to say. #1. This method will never send information to anything but your brain by way of your eyes. #2. If you are unsure how to set up the exact PQ you want, do NOT check off a day of the week for it to run when you set up and then Submit Information for a test PQ. This way you can experiment all day without having it count against your daily PQ allotment. Every time you do Submit Information on a PQ page with the day of the week checked off, it will count against your daily PQ allotment, even if it is worthless because it was still not set up right. #3. To see what the PQ would have looked like if you had checked off a day of the week, after clicking Submit Information look to the top of the page for "Thanks! Your pocket query has been saved and currently results in ## caches. You can preview the search here." Click on the underlined link portion of that statement to SEE what would have been created. Sometimes you might only be looking for specific information. So this method could help you locate it without creating an actual PQ. If you really do want a PQ after you are done testing, then submit your finished product with the day of the week checked off. NOTE: If you did create a real PQ (with day of the week checked off), you can still go to that link to look at what is in the PQ you just created. None of this will solve a problem of not being able to download an actual PQ, So you have to keep looking for the solution to that problem.

I am going to go with the assumption that you really did recently acquire an old discontinued yellow model Garmin GPS 60. If that is not the case, you provided incomplete information, and some of what I am about to say will not be 100% valid. Much, but not all. It will probably be a short list of current cachers who have: #1 - experience with EasyGPS (and currently have a copy on their computer). NOTE: ExpertGPS is a more powerful pay version of this software. It is capable of a few handy useful tricks that its FREE little brother is not. #2 - own and have ready access to a nice yellow fully functional Garmin GPS 60. #3 - have ready access to a Basic Member account to re-test the functionality of both of these resources to verify that this option has not been "improved" out of existence by Groundspeak. You were given the short incomplete pay for it PQ solution. The PQ solution is a very good tool to pack a large chunk of cache data into a new modern paperless GPS. An old GPS 60 is incapable of holding much of the gpx file data sent by way of a PQ. However a GPS 60 is quite well suited to store FREE to Basic members loc file data. That is what you have been getting one cache at a time. But there is a way to gather the FREE loc data roughly 20 caches at a time (depending on how many excluded Premium Member caches were on that page of 20 caches. I won't go into detail about how it works. But here is a link more suited to your question, and if you need additional assistance, feel free to contact me through my profile. There are a few steps to it, but it isn't all that bad. And did I mention that it is FREE? 2.7. How do I download geocaches to my GPS device? Basic Members Basic Members can download geocache information in the form of LOC files. This file type contains only general information: the geocache listing title, GC Code, and coordinates. LOC files can be downloaded one at a time from geocache listings by clicking the "LOC Waypoint File", located under the geocache coordinates. Up to twenty LOC files can be downloaded from a search results page, after entering in the required CAPTCHA. Check the box to the right of the listings you want, and then check the "Download Waypoints" button at the bottom of the search page.

This could have been Chapter 1 in my own Geocaching auto-biography. Good memories. Now, not really. The Golden Era is over. And it seems I am at Ground Zero of the acid rain hot zone, according to the map. I have a few Ammo Can hides and more than a few Ammo Can finds. Now and then you encounter a compromised seal on one. But completely rusted out? Never.

Since no one else has made this point I will mention it. I did not do a comparison of internal memory between an Oregon 450 and a 62sc. I have an Oregon 450 and an Oregon 450t. The "t" map is not worth much, but the 450t unit does have more internal memory to support that Topo map. I remember 450t owners commenting that they bought the "t" unit just because of the extra internal memory, and promptly deleted the Topo map. And for one particular software update the "t" unit updated fine for me. The non "t" unit would not, complaining of insufficient memory. Until a bunch of not essential stuff was jettisoned (extra language support for example). This might also be the case with the 62sc unit. Something for you to look into and consider.

The Cache Owner / Puzzle Creator has introduced you to Quadrant Bearings. You can Google it, but your initial intuition about their equivalent azimuths was correct. Look at your property survey lines. They should look familiar now, with just a bit more precision than simple integer degree examples. Makes the conversions a little more interesting. And AutoCAD (perhaps set to Surveyor’s Units) is exactly how I would have determined the crossing point.

I would think this is a must read. Help Center - 1.21. Beacon Geocaches

I don't accept that response by Groundspeak. If I gave an unacceptable reason for deleting a cache find, Groundspeak quite likely would intervene. Guess what. That physical cache container is MY PRIVATE PROPERTY (and if a claim is made that I had abandoned that Cache container in the wild, I would make exactly the same legal argument for a Trackable in the wild). I clearly see a difference between a CACHE and a TRACKABLE. There is a reason to treat them differently. $ay what that reason really is.

Hi gypsy I have been known to be "rude" in past Forum discussions. I didn't think I was, but we all have different tolerance levels for blunt responses. You could drive a bus over me, back over me for good measure, and then just drive away. And I can handle it. But I do respond a lot less often now. It does save a bit of wear and tear on the newbies. I guess there really is something to the old adage about; if you can't say something nice ... Someone else always comes along with the information. You had no idea that previous Forum posters had proposed strengthening the guideline wording of a cache owner’s responsibility for TB inventories, or that cachers sometimes post Needs Maintenance for caches if a TB listed in the inventory is not actually there. That didn't sit well with some cache owners, myself included. We even suggested a new feature that prevented adding a TB to the inventory of any of our caches if we were really expected to be that responsible for it. Good for you that you are excited about all the possibilities that are trackable. But you are now aware that this is not a universal sentiment. And I would not have mentioned any of this except for something quite unrelated that you included in one of your recent replies. And I am not even 100% certain that you meant what I suspect you do. You mention moving trackables to North Carolina. Immediately after that you said "I also will be placing 2 cache and 3 TB's". Here is the part that is not clear. Did you mean that you will be placing those two caches in while still in NC, or near your home after you return? How you answer that question makes a big difference. Please do not leave hides behind in North Carolina without FULLY understanding the no vacation caches allowed guideline. I hope I either totally misunderstood your intentions, or prevented you from placing hides that will not get published without a specifically accepted cache maintenance plan. Either way, have a nice trip. And I hope I didn’t come off as rude. It seems I can’t always tell.

So your major concern with this proposal is its effect on geotrails? You have already lost my support. Anything that discourages geotrails anywhere can't be all bad. I have several PA State Game Land hides. This proposal will not affect me, or any of my hides ... yet. Give them time. The last PA Hunting License I bought was a long time ago. Where I go, I don't see (or use) bicycles in PA SGL's. I see darn few horses, and most of them were OFF TRAIL doing Fox Hunt training. I have seen a few illegal ATV's, going out of their way to spin and slide the tires to effect maximum trail damage. And the under age Beer drinkers won't be buying any permits. A few Non-Hunter users make it bad for all of us. The Hunters themselves are the worst litter offenders, but they are paying for the "privilege". And you do have to get off the bike trails to see that. I think a Non-Hunter use permit is a good idea (for ALL Non-Hunting uses), but with a much lower (single digit?) fee. It should be available instantly online, and should be the same fee for ADULT residents and non-residents. I have zero hope they will adopt my vision. Lets see what they do adopt.

Hi OM You want to find caches PLACED on a particular day of the year? If so, in the PLACED DATE section of a create Pocket Query page, select the third choice down for the Between / And dates. Enter the SAME date for BOTH. The date that you are interested in. Only caches hidden on that date will be returned. If you only want to view them, do NOT check off a day of the week for the PQ to run, and only preview them. No PQ charged against your daily limit that way. 73

I believe your EasyGPS question was prompted by something I posted for your CacheMate question in a different thread. That was when you were looking to keep using your current NON-Paperless GPS unit. You will be happier with the right paperless unit (NOT the etrex 10). EasyGPS can still be used to load caches to the old GPS as a backup device for you, or to share it with a new Geo-friend for a day out caching. For a newer paperless GPS, EasyGPS is not needed at all. However you can also use it just to open a GPX file and study the cache data in it. It is free. When you get that Premium Membership, check it out.

OK. You got some good serious advice about Cachemate from two experienced former users. I even learned something new myself. However, there is a good reason we are both former users. CacheMate was better than nothing, or was an acceptable alternative when the new paperless GPS units were new and EXPENSIVE. My first GPS, a GPSMap 76S cost me $400.00, and yes that was quite a few years ago. I have never paid that much for a unit since. And there are not any typo's there. No Color. No USB. No SD slot. No High Sensitivity receiver. $400'00 - and it works as well as the day I bought it (which was pretty darn good back then). But I don't use it any more either. I have actually upgraded 5 times since then. They all still work, and not one of them holds a candle to the now outdated, now discontinued, now price slashed paperless Oregon 450t I still use today. Get a Premium Membership (for the data). Get a paperless GPS. Let CacheMate rest in peace. But we at least answered your question before I said that. Add $100 bucks or so to the cost of the Palm, a new Battery?, Cachemate, and I promise you WILL have a better caching experience with it. Unless you really love a challenge. There is that.

Yes the M500 works just fine with Cachemate. Basiczally you load the program on to the SD card and install from there. Do some searching here, I've posted a couple times. GSAK is the easiest but I suppose you could process a gpx file and load that. Wait a minute there. An SD card is NOT necessary with CacheMate. I NEVER used one. GSAK is not easy. Yes, you can "process a gpx file" through the cmconvert program (CacheMate File Converter). There were a lot of CacheMate discussions here a long time ago. A dying subject now, but you can still read through them. GSAK is totally unrelated to CacheMate. I had used CacheMate quite often (not for some time though), and I have NEVER used GSAK. BUT, you are not a Premium Member. That would be a bit of a problem. You need to buy a Premium Membership ($30 per Year) to be able to get GPX files. That is where all the data is. CacheMate always was a free download (probably still is) that would load and work perfectly as a demo for a small number of caches. Buying and entering the Registration Code made it fully functional for several thousand caches (even without an optional memory card). If the m500 is a complete package (with charging cradle and software), even as a Non-Premium member you could copy selected text from individual cache pages to the Palm (slow process). But to get bulk data in there quickly, you need that Premium Membership. The last I looked (two years ago?), about $30 for a complete m500 package shipped was a common price point. But you have no guarantee the battery will hold a good charge (several days worth). A new battery was about $10. Some even come with the tool to open the case to allow battery access. If you do get a Premium Membership, generate a GPX file, download it to your computer ... Then you are ready to run the file through the cmconvert program (the CacheMate File Converter). What GPS do you have? How are you getting your caches into your GPS now? A free program, EasyGPS, is how I loaded the same GPX file to my NOT-paperless Garmin. But as you pointed out, I needed the Palm to hold all the cache page details. Then comes the fun where you set up the HotSync for the first time. It works best from the charging cradle, but there is a much less cumbersome cable available on ebay. Just don't lose that charging cradle if you go that route. When the alternate cable occasionally stops working, the cradle would bring it back to life again (eventually). I don't want to discourage you. Just be aware an m500 is NOT exactly Plug-n-Play. But I managed well enough till I got a Paperless Oregon. That also can be finicky at times, but I am NOT going back to that dust collecting Palm any time soon. Good Luck. If you get the Palm and get stuck, drop me a note. I could learn it all over again and help you out.

The complaints are well stated, this isn't a smearfest. What's bothering me is the general attitude toward customers these days is, "You're just being difficult because you don't like change, but you'll see we are right and in time you'll appreciate all of our hard work." That's just feckless, really. This is GroundSpeaks "New Coke" moment. Not quite. Coke had viable competitors, and its market share lead had been slipping for years. At least in defense of Coke, they really did have reason to believe their 100 year old formula was broken. It was not just on an unexplained whim. A true Monopoly has little incentive to meet the demands of customers. Most of the actual needs are met, but prisoners of Monopolies are in no position to make demands as long as the service provider remains sufficiently profitable. Simple economics suggests change one or live with the other. That is not feckless, it is just fact.

Hi lonewolf5929 I find your total lack of online Geocaching history interesting. Not actually a bad thing. Just interesting. In my case you will find a total lack of Waymarking history. And there is a very good reason for that. I always looked at Waymarking as a zero interest activity for me. But considering the direction it continues to follow, how long will it be before I feel exactly the same way about Geocaching. I read the Forums to try to keep informed on many aspects of our GPS based hobbies. I clicked on your category proposal without any expectation of interest at all. And a strange thing happened. That is the FIRST proposal I have ever read that I found really quite interesting. Whenever I am out in the world, no matter why I am there, I will always take the time to investigate relic of the past type structures. And yes that includes barns. And yes we have our share of them in Pennsylvania. Sadly, the previous responders are probably correct when they indicate this proposal has no future. They are familiar experienced names. That does not mean it doesn't hold any interest for anyone. Perhaps you could post some of your photographs to nearby cache find pages. I would look at them. Note: I originally forgot I was in my non-Premium forum reading account when I posted this. I am not trying to hide my opinions behind that account, and have now correctly re-posted.

Read the whole thing and now I know where to look for a letterbox sometime. Thought you were in French Creek until I got to that line. I wrote that nearly two years ago. Long before this educational topic got pinned. The only way to truly appreciate Letterboxing is to walk many many miles in their shoes. And Nolde is an excellent testing ground. The closest experience I had before that was orienteering style (no GPS) Geocaching taught by you. But I found Letterboxing to be an even tougher challenge (no high quality map to rely on). I still have not found the "netless" Letterbox (lots of trees on the trails and ground near the contemplated GZ back then). I have to go back and take a look for this again. It is Spring. In any case, you might accidentally stumble on yet another nearby letterbox that I did successfully track down there. And a third Letterbox I also never found was supposed to be close by. A very busy Letterbox planting location indeed. Proof that Letterboxing does not have a saturation guideline. Good luck trying to read the minds of Node Letterbox planters. That is exactly how it always felt to me. Just like mind reading. Tough but fun. And I never found a micro Letterbox. Even better.

We actually had a lot of debate on the best way to name those souvenirs, and this way made the most sense in order to have all the souvenirs appear near each other. Putting in a "Is this souvenir hidden?" column into the database was relatively easy so it went out first. Now we just have to figure out how best to store things like custom grouping/folders, sorting, etc. Stay tuned! You actually debated this before you considered spamming all those accounts with totally worthless graffiti? And you still went ahead with it? Wow. During all that debate, did at least one discussion participant mention that some members were going to think your August plan was so stupid that they would decide to NOT FIND ANY CACHES AT ALL IN AUGUST? The discussion instead was only about how to name it so they would stay close to each other? I could have offered you a few choice suggestions. Thank You very little for ruining a very pleasant month in the Northeast (sorry, Mid Atlantic) for me. What is your plan to compensate me for those lost opportunities? You already know you can never make everybody happy, but you seem to have to constantly work to make different groups a little less unhappy. Fewer bad ideas up front (better mistakes?) would require less damage control later. We have the ability to hide these now (done). Delete would have been better, but don't waste any more time on this.

Your state that your phone 'prefers' the richer data GPX Version 1.0.1, so you are asked to clarify the Phone and App. Why? It's working OK. You claim your Oregon 450 will not accept the 1.0.1 Version. And THAT is never questioned? Is there ANYONE out there with ANY paperless Garmin who has to use the older 1.0 Version? You don't give any details about your process to get a PQ on to your Oregon. I copy my unzipped 1.01 GPX DIRECTLY to my Oregon 450t (same GPS except for memory and maps). Whatever your problem is, it is not the 1.0.1 GPX Version. I have not bothered to upload the most recent Oregon software update yet, but the Oregon has NOT complained about 1.01 over the three or four Oregon updates before that. Are you using ANY software between your original unzipped GPX file on your computer and your Oregon? What specifically indicated there was a problem?

Other Pennsylvania counties with geocache permit requirements include Allegheny, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Montgomery and York. None of these have fees associated with the permits. Several counties modeled their policies after the PA DCNR policy. Permits and prohibitions are nothing new, at the state, county or local level. Fees are more the exception than the rule. A quick review of the Regional Land Manager Policy wiki will confirm this. My initial interest in your post was the absence of Berks County Parks in your list of Pennsylvania County Parks with a geocache permit requirement (also a no fee permit requirement). You mention a quick review of the Regional Land Manager Policy wiki for confirmation. Where is your personal LINK or a Groundspeak LINK to this policy? I went to the Profile Page of the current Eastern PA Reviewer for this : UNITED STATES LINK. Is this the Land Manager Policy you mentioned? Berks County is listed in there. There is also a broader LINK there for Worldwide Policies. I know there is at least one generic Berks Conservancy Permit Requirement missing (but they have been unable to specifically identify their holdings - how do you monitor what you can't identify). There are also some broken links. And that is just for my immediate area. I bet there are quite a few omissions, missing updates, and broken links in the aggregate. Is this updated strictly by Reviewers? That's a big job.