wolves shepherd

1. No Swag so the kids loose the wow factor real quick. 2. No travel bugs! 3. I like easy finds in hard to get to places. Micros are often the inverse of that and thus my anti-cache. But hey, to each his own. I don't persecute 'em, I just choose not to hunt 'em.

You could do a virtual or a locationless as a BJ-only cache I suppose....

Current active duty US Army chaplain. Currently serving a basic training battalion at Fort Jackson, SC. TDY's a great ways to find caches in new areas!

I'm not quite old enough to remember free maps but I , too, share an affection for them. I just enjoy looking at maps. For caching, or most outdoor stuff if it is in an unfamiliar area I tend to rely on paper maps. Except for my recent trip to CA. I went totally on GPS coords and the printed cache descriptions. Doable, as long as you don't mind driving in circles to zero in on a cache site. I agree, a compass is not a bad idea at all, either. But it's useless unless you know how to use it. I'm planning on taking some time one of these days to brush up on my compass skills. GPS is great, but remember, at it's heart it is a computer and we all know that they tend to choose the worst times to do the worst things! Being able to grab sections of topo maps and aeriel photographs off of terraserver is a great thing!

Well, I finally gave up and just ordered one from amazon. Radio Shack does not stock 2.5mm plugs--in store or on-line and everywhere I looked online the shipping was more than the parts making it cost MORE to make my own than to buy Garmin's cable. I thought about the earpiece idea...except I'm not delicate enough to do much with the 24 guage or smaller wires they usually use in those earpieces. By the time I figure in frustration and time, the $13 to amazon doesn't seem so bad.

Afraid I don't know the pinouts their. You could probably play with your cradle and a voltmeter to discover what comes from where. Anybody know where I can by a 2.5mm stereo plug????? Radio Shack doesn't have them--not even online I just can't see paying $15 bucks for a cable I could make for at most $6 if I could find that plug!

I've had a 12 since 1996 and used it extensively even before starting caching this summer. Great unit, no complaints. Just got a Foretrex 101. Really, really impressed so far. Love the customizable trip computer, timer and WAAS. Putting it on my wrist just makes a lot of sense to me in the field and running. I even discovered that I can slip it on my rearview mirror for in-car use and still see plenty behind me. Should get my data cable built this weekend. As part of the bargain, I'm planning on passing the G12 off soon. It will be a solemn and moving ceremony. When I need in-vehicle mapping, I hope to have FBCB2. Otherwise I have a paper map.

Huh? You must have a 201 that is rechargable...I assume the contacts are for that? Or does your cradle have data connection as well?

Well, not to try to sound whatever....but I was actively posting to sci.geo.satellite-nav when the first caches were being placed and hunted. I thought it sounded like a cool idea but they were several states away from me. I figured it would only be a local thing or very wide-spread (low density) Time, life, and other interest inserted here...... My wife hears about letterboxing from one of her friends and starts checking that out on line. (This last summer, probably about July) So I take a look and see a link to geocaching and well....here I am thinking, "Wow, that really did take off."

Ways they are different..... A geocache won't think you are a freak if you bring a bunch of friends along.... No matter how great a cache is, you can only log it once... Travel bugs are a bonus in a cache. Caches don't care how many caches you've already had...or that your planning on finding more! You won't scare off a cache by bringing your kids....or spouse! If you have a bad experience with a cache it won't tell all the other caches! The local SWAT team doesn't show up and shoot your date after you take them out in broad daylight. You can date on military installations and National Parks.... You can date without an approval. It's cool to talk about your caching exploits on-line... Even if you're FTF a cache, the owner won't make you marry it!

I assume the cache was properly "permissioned." Were the ashes? My grandfather's remains sat on a shelf in our garage for a while until my dad took them to places of significance and scattered them. Having been involved with several funerals, I know (at leats in Indiana) some state parks get pretty leary about allowing you to do anything with any kind of human remain--cremated or not. It sounds like it was a poor judgement by the (granted grieving, not necessarily overly rational, etc) parents. It was only a matter of time before the ashes were "muggled" as it were. I think it was a good thing that someone responsible enough to do the right thing found them instead of someone else.

Finally found one on a Thai GPS Blog....

Zifnergnoogumblah!

Anybody know what the pinout for the data cable on a Fortrex 101 is? it looks like a sub-mini mono plug. Anybody know? I know Garmin won't tell me 'cause they want to sell me a $$$$ cable.

Intermittent rain, about 50 degrees, it's saturday..... I'm bushwhacking with 3 of my 4 kids for a geocache. A few tears over some thornes but the payoff at the end of getting to TRADE STUFF just really trips their triggers. I like the more "woodsy" caches as opposed to urbans so excitment isn't too much of an issue....especially on days like today!

I stumbled across the Forerunner on Amazon.com today and it sounds cool for running but poor as a GPS. I then found the Foretrex. The wrist mount maked total sense to me. Anyone have any knowledge of Garmin thinking of combining the features of these two into a truly cool GPS?

Check your local office supply place for self-adhesive business card holders. They are clear little pockets that will stick on stuff that should be just the ticiket. They also make some as spine label holders for binders.

Not bad looking.....wrong color.

I probably would, I would say you would increase your probablility if you included some with the TB, unless your goals was to get "local" postcards from wherever your TB went, then it wouldn't work too well. But yes, I'd do it.

I usually have my GPS12 set on metric units so it will get me within 10 meters, which is about as close as it can "get me" to a cache anyway. I've had mine for years and it still meets my needs, so I haven't changed. I too used an old cell phone case that happened to fit for a case. That's my one main gripe--Garmin doesn't make a good carrying case for the thing. Their one-size-fits-all case is okay, but not real handy compared to a cell phone holster. Datum chack--power on--[quit]--system--navigation--datum. (I'm pretty sure, that's from memory.

FWIW, I agree, trade items are for trade, TB's are a seperate deal. they come and go on their own.

Hooah! I take my trust GPS12 with me to the field to help me find units, track marches, find my way back to my vehicle, report wildfires in the training area. (Yeah, you call range control and give them a 10-digit grid on a fire and they are impressed!) Someday I hope I'll get a vehicle with a plugger or blueofrce tracker, but for now, and even then, I'll have my handy Garmin with me wherever the mission takes me.

You can also search for "TB" as it will get some hits as well.

For me, hiding just doens't seem to make sense. I have to move every couple of years with my job plus I don't have a great deal of time to cache. If I hid I'd eat up most of my cachable time maintaining and then have to archive or handoff. There have to be other ways to "give back" any ideas?

I did that a bit with a non-Jeep TB this week that I had with me. I bounced it in one cache that I visitied even though I planned on (and did) leave it in another. I thought it just made it's trip more interesting and made "official" it's meeting the TB I picked up in that cache. (Which I bounced in the cache i dropped the first one off.) Good thing three TB's weren't involved or I might have to draw a diagram! I would think doing it in tons of caches might be pushing it a little bit, but for only a day or two, no harm done. We all get our kicks differently.