Wailing Moosehead

Thanks, jtannahi. I should also mention that I'm going to be bringing a horde of travel bugs with me, so I'll be looking for caches that are at least "small" or "regular." WMH

I'm going to be heading to Regina in the next little while, and I'm interested in hearing which are the top two or three caches in the city. My itinerary won't allow for extensive traveling outside the city, so I'm primarily interested in those right in Regina. Thanks for your advice! WMH

Let me jump in here and fray this thread slightly. I've been caching with a Garmin Geko 201 for a couple of years, and was recently given a Magellan Explorist 500. Wanting to learn about this new toy, I've been surfing for user reviews. There seem to be an awfully high number of people out there quite unhappy with this unit. I've also seen a lot of sniping within these forums and cache logs in the vein of Garmin vs. Magellan. What's your opinion, Dear Reader? Please help me separate the wheat from the e-chaff. Is it a substandard piece of equipment, or is it just that people who have bad experiences are more likely to write about them than those who have good experiences? What about features? Does it do everything you want it to do in the world of Geocaching? I've only been fiddling with it for a few hours now, but I can't find the ability to project a waypoint, which is something I've had to do often while caching. Finally, and on a more techincal note, my Explorist came with a Li-ion battery, but no charger. Are these things industry-standard, or do I need to order it direct from Magellan (and pay through the nose, I'm sure)? Thanks to all for your time and opinions. Wailing Moosehead Amherstburg, ON

Well, here it is. It lost a good chunk of its clarity during the upload, so I hope it's of at least some use to those interested. It was a very positive write-up -- kudos to all involved! WMH

I've got the article scanned in as a .jpg, but I can't seem to make it show up here. Any hints? WMH

Label me "Exhibit A." Last month, my brother set out his first cache (GCTW58). He asked Cache-Tech to hold off posting the listing until the weekend I was going to be in town, so that I'd have a chance at FTF. All weekend long, I kept waiting for the listing to be posted. Being on a fixed schedule, though, we eventually set off after the cache before publication. As it was his first hide, my brother had arranged all this so that I could "check out" the cache and give feedback on his hide, the rankings assigned, etc. When we got to the cache, we found that it had been muggled during the week that it was out in the wild before publication. So, in that regard, my advance notice allowed us to salvage and re-hide the cache before FTF hunters in the Golden Horseshoe descended upon it. (Interesting aside: How many cache-trashing muggles do you know that leave their name, mailing address and e-mail address in the logbook? This guy did!) I signed the logbook, and when the listing was published, made an online log. I consider this to be a legitimate find, as I still had to find the actual cache, just like all subsequent cachers will. I did not, and do not, claim it to be a FTF, though. Despite not claiming such either on paper or online, I was not-so-subtlely accused of cheating by the next two finders. They obviously take this FTF thing more seriously than I, and I have since posted a note log explaining the situation and giving credit for the FTF to the first finder after publication (which, paradoxically, makes him the third person or group to actually open the ammo box...). So, yes, I think it's cheating to claim FTF status when you have foreknowledge, but it's nothing to blow out of proportion. Just like fudging your golf score -- you're only making lies out of your own stats. WMH.

Thanks, H. O. I tried submitting again Sunday morning, and everything went off smoothly, so I'm guessing it was just server load on a Saturday evening. WMH.

On a related note, I tried to submit a cache for registration today, only to have some weird server error come up. I tried submitting a few times and didn't get anywhere, so I'm left with two possible options, as I see them: 1. Something's going on with the Geocaching server tonight. 2. My first kick at HTML based cache descriptions made the server puke. Any info on the first scenario, or any pointers on how to properly script HTML descriptions from more experienced cachers, would be appreciated. Thanks. WMH.

1: Oh Bother! (and I'm not just kissing up -- it was great!) 2: Riverside Rocks -- a pleasing multi that doesn't take forever, forgiving terrain, with just enough of a twist to make it interesting. 3: Above the Trees. Sure, I'm still relatively new to this whole Geocaching thing, and maybe it's not as unique as I think, but the hiding place for this one was worth the effort on a frigid day last winter. WMH