Yomi

Well, the first and foremost, actually attending an event. That is very high priority on my list. Beyond that, there's no real goals. You can look at my join date, and find count. 138 finds in about 7 years. Part of that was me taking a 3 year hiatus. But yeah, to beat my max yearly find count of 29 or so. I think it was anyway. I do most of my caching in the fall and winter months when it is nice outside. Other goals - Do a 5/5 cache. There's one in particular around here I want to do. But I will only do it with others because it is just way too dangerous to do alone. - Do more multi's and puzzle caches. - Try to get to 200 finds before year end. Other than that, it's all in the air.

I started way back when in 2004 with the Banana yellow Etrex. Graduated up the the eTrex Vista, and Vista HCX. I believe anyway. So I have run the gamut of a few dedicated GPS. I think someone mentioned earlier about how well the GPS in the LG Optimus V is. Well, that is my primary cache finding tool now. It has no active data plan at the moment. I tether it off my Samsung Galaxy S 4G's data connection. The reason I do not use the Galaxy S GPS is because the performance of it is absolutely appalling. Takes 5 to 10 minutes to even get a fix, and has trouble keeping a fix even in a clear view of the sky. I'm apparently not the only one having troubles with this phone's GPS. It's apparently a hardware issue. So I just gave up and pulled my Optimus V out of the drawer and started using it again. No trouble locking on even deep in the woods. And the tethering lets me view overhead maps as I walk. Might be somewhat complicated, but it works.

I have to say it's been nearly 3 years since I last found a Geocache at all. In that time I have had to archive three of my own caches and have maintenance requests on two others. Reason being, I sold off my old GPS in 2007. Good news, I have just purchased a new GPS. It should be here on Monday. Can't wait to get back out on the trail again. There's so many new caches since I have been out which is great.

Well, good news at least. I did all that was said above. It works just fine now. I now easily get within 15-30 feet of any waypoint i have thrown at it. So I am all set for cooler month caching. Hopefully i can bring my total over 100 by the time it starts getting too hot again. Anyway, thanks again.

Okay, after the long summer, things are finally gonna start cooling off in the next couple of weeks hopefully. So i will be out hitting the trails again on the hunt for caches. In the summer though i have been using my Vista to interface my laptop, and on various other excursions as well. Well, the thing is, my Vista had a little accident. It went overboard in a canoe that tipped over. Ended up submerged in about 6 inches of moving water. I quickly grabbed for it though so it was only underwater for a few seconds. It was still on when i got i tout, but it was acting funny. The compass was pointing due east all the time. It still had me positioned correctly no matter where we moved. It just stayed pointing due east all the time. So i shut it off, and let ir dry out for about a week or so. Anyway, i turn it on and recallibrate the compass, and all seems fine. It just seems to have a bit too much play sometimes. i mean it wants to quickly jerk over to the east from a northerly heading when i move it just slightly. I've recalibrated it since then several times. It seems to be doing a bit better though. Today i went out to a known cache site and navigated to it. It sent me in the right direction. Got me within 20 feet of it correctly, but was pointing in the incorrect direction no matter what angle i came at it from. As in, it was pointing in the complete oppositie direction or would spin randomly when i got closer to it than about 20-30 feet. I flipped on my old eTrex yellow...and it pointed me in the right direction all the way up to the site. I guess what i am getting at is...i know they are waterproof. But what could have gone wrong? Or maybe i am just imagining it being worse than it used to be. Who knows.

This is more or less an observation than anything, one that I wanted to share. I have no been geocaching recently. In fact it's been since March 13th since I even went out anywhere in search of one. All my Vista has got a chance to do lately is work in tandem with my laptop and Delorme Street Atlas 2004 on my recent trip through the moiuntains of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. About a week ago, i took it on a canoe trip, just so I could use it out on the water for a change. And also because I had waypoints set up for various places i stopped last year on the river...various sites of interest and whatnot. My yellow eTrex made the trip just fine last year..prolly cause it never got wet anyway. Anyway, this time, i took a spill this time, and my Vista got dunked in the canoe...luckilly it stayed in the canoe. I quickly retrieved it to find it was still on...and worked, at least i thought. I noticed one thing though. Anytime i had a heading of NE to SE, it would be constantly pointing to the west. So i recalibrated the compass. Still no go. I recallibrated it again, and still no go. Just tonight I was getting the caching bug again and decided to reca;librate my compass one more time. ANd to my amazement the compass was working fine when i first turned it on. I decided to recalibrate it anyway, and so far so good it works. So i am just wondering if i really should worry about the compass randomly losing calibration like this anymore. Last thing i need is to get completely turned around on my next hunt because of a compass that just decides to work weirdly.

Oh, i've ran into a few other local cachers on my journeys around here. Don't be surprised if you ever run into me. Although i tend to designate only one day..usually one day a week, as a day to get out and find caches.. Sometimes it is a day every two weeks...or as it has been because of healh reasons. One a month. I hope to be out and about on Thursday. I still have quite a few to take care on the Eastern Shore that i never got around to.

And greetings from NW Florida. What else is there really to say..heh heh.

Not only is this my first post. But the first post is rather late in the topic. Yeah, i am from Pensacola. I go out Geocaching in the surrounding areas and in town about once every month or so. Have been doing it for a few months now and have logged over 40 finds in 3 states. Ironically only a few of those within Pensacola. Ahh well. Although Ivanized area trails make it kinda interesting to search for some caches around here. Read as, it's like an obstacle course on some trails.