BCSasquatch

I have 2 pair in my pack - an all leather gardening pair, and a neoprene/cloth pair. I don't use them often, but they sure come in handy when I do. I agree with above too - never blindly put your hands into crevices and holes. Always probe with a stick first. Even a squirrel can give you a nasty bight.

I can hear what sounds like you walking around, some clinking, rustling, etc, but cannot see the picture. There is also some strange sounding tones over top of everything - around 800-1000 hertz. Gonna follow you on Twitter. This seems like an interesting endeavor. Good luck with it.

References to GPS are a whole 'nother horse than references to geocaching. The two are more closely associated than you realize. I think it's the breeze before the wind. I should have been more specific. I was thinking of hand-helds when I made my post. Car mounted are outside of my personal realm as I don't own one and have no need for one. You didn't see the logo. Geocaching is very popular around the area I live in. At least one ... me!

Maybe it's my n00b eyes, but I see plenty of evidence that Geocaching is already well underway to becoming 'mainstream'. It's like Dungeons and Dragons - only a few will ever play it, but almost everybody will eventually know about it. There are references to GPS acronyms in popular media ads, GPSr usage is popping up in television and movies, and just this afternoon I saw a work van with a logo that had the same 4 squares and color scheme as the Geocaching logo. They were an environmental air flow / heating company. Of course the 4 squares had different treatments and slogans etc, but the colors were the same. That tells me that Geocaching and environmental responsibility may already be starting to become associated. For me, when and if the game ever becomes "too mainstream" where it becomes a pain in the rump to play and maintain, I can see hardcore players simply going underground and starting their own sub-groups who hide and seek in smaller, more clique based groups. Just my .02

I have a Triton 400 and I like it a lot. Pretty accurate, seems tough enough, and does so much more than just Geocaching. The problem is that the initial setup can be intimidating for the less technically minded, but once it's updated and set up, it works great. $100 is a screamin' deal for one of these. A few small negatives though ... it does not have the ability to load files directly from GC.com without having to pass through Vantage Point, and it won't work with GSAK. But that being said, Vanatage Point does allow you to edit cache listings before transferring to the unit itself, and it gives me the ability to view the terrain in 3D, so it all works out. They can be unpredictable when the battery power gets low though

You shouldn't hit any of your wives. At least she knows the order...

I like the idea of the placard for the car. I'm going to be using those for sure. I always tell my wife where I will be and generally in what order I will hit them. I may cover a great deal of ground on an average caching session, so I will tell her I'll be here for a while, then there, then there etc. I also usually leave the cache pages up on my computer screen too for the same reason. If I should not return, they will know where to start looking.

In the city I live in there is a gang and drug problem on the streets and urban parks and with it a pretty high crime rate. I avoid caching in certain parks etc that are known trouble spots, I just ignore them altogether. Because of the temperate climate here we also have a lot of homeless people in certain parks. That always seems to attract law enforcement too, so again, I avoid parks that I know are "occupied" unless I know the cache is away from where those guys are camped out. There is one very close to my house that was eating at me to find, but I drive past it often and see police nearby or sketchy looking people in hoods in the vicinity. To me, it just is not worth putting myself or the local Mounties in a position of having to explain it all and waste theirs and my time. And as noted above, these guys never know when some crack head or drug dealer is going to throw hands or a pull out a knife or a gun, so the humor level is low to non-existent. In the more heavily wooded areas well away from people I have never had an issue or even seen a LEO, so that is where I will stay. It seems homeless people and criminals will only wander so far. I also avoid cache locations within easy view of muggle holes for the same reason. There is always a suspicious watcher and I really don't want to have an encounter with the police if I can avoid it. But, if I do eventually get "nabbed" for caching, I will just be honest about it and not go with any shenanigans.

I usually cache alone, but sometimes the wife comes with me. I like caching with my wife because, well, she's my wife and I like doing things with her. We have a lot of fun and she is as mischievous as I am, maybe more; so we always have a good laugh over some silly thing. I also have a good friend that likes to cache and even though we've only been out once together, it was a good time. Gotta get out with my bud again

I have a plastic container fetish. Geocaching just helps me get closer to them.

All of the above.

Show them this lol ... http://ie6funeral.com/

There are free maps available for the Triton if you dig a little. This link should get you started ... Magic Maps I have tried a few off there and they work really well. You can get maps for just a small area too so you are not taking up room on your SD card for areas you will not likely visit. Might be worth a shot. I also have the Canada topo map for Western Canada from Magellan, and at $50 it was well worth the purchase. The biggest benefit is viewing the terrain on a 3-d plain in Vantage Point to get a really good idea of what is happening terrain-wise in the areas I want to visit. My only gripe with the Magellan-bought topo map is that it's a little outdated so some of the newer roads don't show up, but I fill in the blanks with Google Earth or Google maps.

I haven't seen any logs by non-cachers, but I did trash out a tasteless item in a cache a while back. It basically was an item left behind with an explicit request and a phone number to go with it. No, I didn't call the number

On the first sunny day in February I booked a sick day off work to go caching. I knew in advance that the weather would be sunny, so a few days before, I casually booked the day off. Here's the rub ... I hit a park that has around 10 caches in it and didn't manage to search for even one of them! The park was absolutely full of muggle mommies with strollers and toddlers, Asian tour groups, and seniors with those wee little dogs they like so much. I have never seen anything like it. After the first 4 locations I hit were unsearchable due to foot traffic, I finally gave up and just went for a walk through the upper ravine trails where none of them could get to. I did however find a great bluff on which I could see all the walkers a few hundred feet below me. I sat there for a half hour and ate my lunch. Not a complete waste, but I won't go caching there again unless the weather is terrible. Mommies, tourists, and seniors don't like the rain

That is a cool story. Sorry to hear about the damage to the GPSr, but very pleased that P&G came through for you. That is some excellent product backing there. I find the Duracells outlast everything in my GPSr. I generally use rechargeables, but when I have used the standard Duracells, I was very impressed with the life-span of the batteries. I get maybe 6 hours out of a set of rechargables, but I get 8 or 9 out of the Duracells.

Looks like an interesting site. I have it bookmarked for later reading

Add me to the list of very happy Triton users

I have the same GPSr. Here is a breakdown of how to do it ... Download the GPX and open with Vantage Point. Hook your Triton up to the computer and power it up. When the screen appears, choose "Connect to PC". Once it has connected with Vantage Point, use one of the Sync buttons in Vantage Point to transfer the waypoints / caches to/from your Magellan, or you can choose to sync the unit with Vantage Point so you have the same set of data in both. You will get everything but the size of the container. Works like a charm. Edit: if you have not already done so, be sure to update the firmware in your Triton so it works properly with all the menu functions.

I had issues with the .LOC files in Vantage Point and when I transferred them to my Magellan I would get the dreaded error message. I upgraded to the premium membership and use the GPX files now and no more issues. I run a Triton 400. Alternatively you can write your own .GPX files, but it's a lot of work. In my opinion the Premium membership pays for itself on that point alone. Hope that helps.

Glad I read this topic. It clears some things up for me. I thought they were supposed be for snacks while caching. They're pretty good actually, but the fur makes for a bit of coughing after, but less TP after that, so it's all evened out. I guess I'll stop eating the hamsters and just hide them instead.

Lock & Lock for the win... only because I have not found anything better yet. I have been trying a several different containers for future hides and the only ones I have found so far that inspire confidence are the actual Lock & Locks. The rest seem flimsy for any of the reasons already stated above. In my caching pack, I have other small items organized in a couple of L&L containers. Works great. They stack in nicely side by side and keep my stuff very well organized and dry, and keeps my pack fairly squared so other items pack more easily. The caches I can think of that I have found that were damp and in need of attention were all non-L&L containers. Either L&L knock-offs, or screw-on lids with no O-ring of any kind. I also use these things for a number of purposes besides Geocaching. First aid kit - even if I fall in the river, my first aid supplies are dry and usable. Emergency fire starter kit (holds tinder, kindling, and flame / spark generators) Spare socks, wool gloves, and a touque - again, if I fall in the river, this stuff is dry and usable and may well stave off hypothermia. My carving knives and loose Dremmel bits (not carried usually) Basically anything that I want to stay dry and organized. I won't compromise on quality when I'm relying on a device to do its job to possibly save my bacon. In the very least I don't want to have to replace a cache container repeatedly because I'm too cheap to spend the extra $3 on a proper container. lol ... i can't believe I'm even having a part in a plastic container discussion, but more alarming is that I know where to get the good ones, how much they cost, and why the others are inferior. There was a time when my buddies would have me in a headlock for this, now they tell me when they see them on sale For the record, Walmart up here in Canuckia has the best price around on authentic L&L.

I had been planning on getting a hand held GPSr for quite a while for back country travel and recording waypoints of hiking trails, 4x4 trails, fishing holes, remote sites suitable for camping ( I never pay to camp) etc. On one of the local 4x4 forums that I haunt has a board dedicated to mapping and GPS so I had been reading up on GPS stuff and they have a thread dedicated to Geocaching. After asking a few questions over there and getting the low-down on what it's all about, I checked out Geocaching.com and signed up. It is entirely in keeping with my nature to gather knowledge about things that interest me, and hence, here I am.

I don;t write all that in the log book as it just isn't practical in most cases. Usually the log is damp, or too small for much more than my name and the date I was there. I do save the stories for the online logs.