Lasagna

Google Earth is notoriously bad for accuracy. However, with that said I've never had it be too far off. Are you sure your using the same units between the two? Usually your GPSr will be set to DDD MM.MMM while Google earth uses either DDD MM SS.SSS or DD.DDDDD formats. It will take DDD MM.MMM format units typed into the locator bar however. Is that how you're doing it? Just how far "off" are things?

Yep ... a little satellite recon before leaving home is usually in order. I use Google Earth most of the time, but there are several alternatives including those which can be access directly from the writeup page by clicking the map and selecting a satellite or aerial view. Remember, part of the fun is often figuring out how to get there ... I can't count the number of times I've approached a cache thru a nasty bushwhack or difficult terrain only to find a nice easy trail once I got there. I usually use the reasoning that the cache owner must have some method which allows them to service their cache -- and thus will circle around GZ looking for likely approaches before I get out and start walking. Admittedly however, parking coordinates are nice when it's not obvious.

Since you mentioned that they signed on the second page ... it's possible that this person was somehow involved with the hide prior to it's publication. I routinely have a fellow cacher "test find" a hide before I publish it (and have done so for others as well) just to make sure the coordinates are accurate, the hide/search occurs in a manner I would have expected, and in the case of puzzles/multi's that the stages and puzzles actually solve correctly. In such cases, I will sign the log book (afterall, it was a "find") but will do so on the second page noting that I'm not claiming "first to find" since it wasn't yet listed. I'll then log the cache online after the first person truly finds it.

And you will most definitely want a memory card ... I'd suggest a 2gb card. The maps utilize the card memory. Most of the US will fit on a 2gb card. There are two versions of City Navigator ... one with an "NT" designation and one without. They function the same, but the "NT" version uses a more efficient compression algorithm and you can get all of the US on a single 2gb card. If that's not important to you, you can probably save a few bucks and get the non-NT designated version. The only difference between the 2008 and 2009 versions are the map surveys on which they are based. Newer version will obviously have newer roads. City Navigator 2008 will work fine provided it is new and the unlock code hasn't already been used.

Yeah ... waiting patiently ... I have this cool new toy with lots of nifty little applications available, but alas none of them Geocaching related yet.

Of course, if you do that, make sure you get the dates on the logs right so that the coin mileage continues to be reflected properly. This is why I make sure to log bug drops as soon as possible after I put them in a container and why I also wait for up to a week before logging a retrieval of a bug (and will then go thru the process of dropping it into the cache where I found it first). The week gives the previous cacher the time needed to properly move the bug into the cache where I found it. The person who moved the bug in the interim, should have waited before they moved it -- but to their defense it would appear that you did take over a week to get around to logging your move of the bug. Either way ... to correct the situation you will need to know the number on the bug.

Optionally, if you don't want to change the units that the site is rendering them in, just use Google ... type what you want to convert into the search bar and it will respond with the answer .... For example, type: 18 miles in kilometers And Google responds: 18 miles = 28.968192 kilometers Works for converting just about any units from one measure to another. Quite handy for those adhoc needs.

As the other poster mentioned ... it may be illegal (being in Cemetary after dark is against the law in most places) or it may run counter to posted hours (such as a park). It also could be a stipulation for placement of the cache (the land owner may have stipulated when it may be found -- for example, if someone places a cache in a residential neighborhood, searching for it at night could easily have you confused as being a burglar or other suspicious individual). We are playing a game and in an effort to keep those who participate safe as well as insure the community at-large that what we do is a wholesome and fun activity, no cache can encourage people to break the law. There are caches that are available any time (owners are encouraged to place the 24/7 icon on them) and there are also caches which are specifically designed to be done after dark.

Yep .... selling the maps with the old unit is the best and easiest. Garmin will not give you a pass on buying a new unit. If you have a faulty unit and they issue an RMA to have you return it for repair/replacement and it comes back with a new unit / serial number (I've never gotten my old unit back when I had them repair something -- which they always did as a warrenty repair) they will provide you with a new unlock code for free (I guess because they know that the old unit was retired). It does sometimes take getting ahold of the right person to understand that the number changed because of a repair/replacement by them. Of course, the new unlock code they provide happens to work with any serial number. There wouldn't be anything wrong with your old unit that they might qualify as needing fixed under warrenty before you sell it would there? Once an unlock code has been issued, there is no way to deactivate it. So they can't be sure that the person who buys your new unit won't be using a copy of the maps. That’s why they won’t transfer locked maps from one unit to another. If you want to unlock those maps to a new unit, the fee is what they charge for an additional unlock. Instead of trying to transfer the maps from your old unit to the new, sell the locked maps with the old unit, then buy a new install for your new unit. Whatever you can get for the locked maps you sell is effectively a discount on your new maps. I just did that with my old 76CS and CNNA 2008. I sent Garmin an email explaining what I wanted to do. One of their support people called me, then the new owner, and it was done.

Correct on the icons ... for waypoints, I have not found a way to do this. However, if you load the cache info instead as a GPX file and view it via the geocaching mode and not the waypoint mode, you see the caches with their appropriate icons ... no need to load them as waypoints. Topo is on the unit only, not on the computer. If you want them online, then I would agree that buying the 300 and adding an external copy of Topo is a better approach. This is the same reason I buy City Navigator and download the maps instead of buying the SD card.

Yes ... you load them "together" in a single load. You can then go into the map setup screen on the GPS itself and turn one or both of the map sets on/off as desired. I do this all the time ... I keep topo turned off and City Nav turned on and then switch if I'm going hiking in the wood, etc.

If you're saving GPX or LOC files to your desktop, you can use one of the programs mentioned or you can also use the MAPSOURCE program which came on the CD with your eTrex. If can download waypoints to your GPSr. There's also a plug-in I believe which will allow you to one by one download the waypoints from GC directly to your GPSr. I don't use it, perhaps someone whop does can chime in and point out the mechanics of that method as well.

I think I would tend to agree about country ... city might be pushing it. Country is pretty easy to discern by simply looking at the user's found caches ... while we all go on vacation and occasionally cache out of our usual area, the majority of anyone's finds I would surmise to be near their "home". I agree about address and home coordinates. But Country!? If it says your coming from USA, France or Germany no one can say it violates with privacy.

No ... you leave them send you all the caches active in that date range. The number will never "grow" (well, leave a little headroom, but not much) because you can't technically publish a cache in the past (there is the rare occasion that a cache will be unarchived). I have mine include both active and inactive (so I see them go disabled or enabled), and exclude caches that I've already found. I load these into GSAK using the "always" load option and it refreshes the caches with each new receipt. I also weekly download the "All my finds" special query to add in any caches that I've already found. I spread the queries out across the week running the older ones once a week and then I do the most recent date range query (which has a "future" end date for the range) daily so that I cache any new publications. You can then write a quick search query which finds any cache listings which haven't been updated in over 2 weeks (GPX file update date) and which were not found by you and delete any which fall into this search (caches that were archived and thus are not showing up any more) -or- if you're someone who likes to keep all cache information even for archived ones you didn't find, you can write a quick macro to mark them as archived. I have a 75 mile radius of my house using 8 queries using this approach and never automatically run more than 2 queries a day which leaves lots of room for adhoc cache runs. Oh yeah ... I keep everything in GSAK.

From Markwell's site ... Markwell – Used in the forums only. To “Markwell” is to respond to a message with a link to another thread where the posted question has already been answered. Named after the geocacher Markwell. --------- Anyhow, I would like the coordinates as well, but as was mentioned, previously threads would seem to indicate that's not going to happen. I use a Blackberry nowadays, so I just send the email to my handheld and pull up the entire page, so it's not a major issue for me. However, I can understand why people who have just a regular cell phone relying on an SMS would want the coordinates. -jk I think it's a great idea that's been asked for before but they said no because they want you to visit the web site. If I had the motivation I'd try to Markwell... but I don't.

Most cellular providers have an email enabled interface to which you can send short messages.

As the previous poster said, just take the most recent version of each PQ only and delete the rest. As for the particular issue of backed up queries, this is why I use a seperate email address to deliver the queries to (one reserved just for GSAK) and then use the email retrieval feature of GSAK to pull the queries from the mailbox directly into the database without having to provide any hands-on interaction.

You need to track down the owner/land manager for the area where you want to place a cache. National Parks (anything under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service) is off limits unless the local ranger for the park has decided to permit it. State Parks, etc. there is usually a state agency which cares for them. For example, here in Pennsylvania, the Department for Conversation of Natural Resrouces (DCNR) is responsible for state parks and they have an official geocaching permitting policy documented on their website. Local parks -- start with the municipality responsible for the park (i.e. the people you go to if you want to rent a pavilion in the park for instance -- which can usually be found on a sign in the pavilion or near the entrance of the park near where the park hours and rules are posted). Some areas, for example, here in PA, State Game Lands kind of have a hands off policy. They don't really say one way or the other and have no agency which really regulates land use. So, as long as you don't interfere with hunting uses of the land (for instance, many here will disable their caches on SGL's during the height of rifle season -- to prevent interference and accidentally getting shot at). National Forests ... I read somewhere that there may be a policy for placement here (not National Parks), but as I've not had the occasion to place a cache in one yet, I haven't researched it.

Under "My Account", right hand side there is a box titled "Premium Features" ... select the link titled "Build Pocket Queries"

My policy as well ... You can certainly choose to sign the log in the cache and then not log them online, but you can't do it the other way around. I do actually check the log book against the online logs when I change them and if you're not signed in, you get a polite note pointing out your oversight and asking for an explanation. Occasionally, in a group scenerio, someone will forget to sign in or will be signed in under a group moniker made up for the day (so as to not take a bunch of slots on the log sheet). If the person gives me a reasonable excuse and can explain exactly where and how the cache was hidden, I'll usually let the log stand unless there is something special which must be accomplished (such as the 20ft pole thing -- seeing a cache is not enough). Otherwise, I'll delete it and ask them to please revisit and sign in. No response always = Deleted Log.

I've used a phone based GPSr (Blackberry Curbe and an HTC) in a pinch to cache, but it's no where near as responsive nor a useable as a regular handheld. Stick with your handheld for caching. With that said ... I do like the various GPS enabled applications that are available for smart phones. For example, I have been using the Trimble Geocache Navigator application which reads the GPS on the phone to figure out where I'm and than allows me to pull up cache writeups instantly for anything nearby.

There are a few caches out there that have been placed by local parks and recreation groups or tourism groups trying to attract people to a specific area and by elementary schools teaching children about GPS, etc., so this could potentially be approved ... probably depends on the nature of the cache itself (i.e. is it "advertising" the university or is it merely being "approved" for placement by them). Best bet, as others have said, is to run it by your reviewer -- perhaps provide them with a proposed writeup so they can approach Groundspeak if necessary to get clarification.

Agree with others here ... it's unlikely you could gain approval. Why not speak with the other cacher and see if they would be willing to archive their cache (they might if it's been out for a while), move the stage (if it's a regular multi-stage -- you can offer to even help with scouting out a new spot), or if it's a multi-cache puzzle, perhaps they might consider merging with your cache. If you truly have a unique hide that only fits in that location, they may be willing to discuss it with you. Best bet ... talk to the other cache owner and see if you can work something out or else find another spot.

Also, rather than downloading them one by one, since you're a premium member, create and run a Pocket Query which will deliver a single GPX file to your Email. Unzip the file you receive and transfer it to your GPX directory on your Garmin. Much faster. Also, I don't know if there is a limit to the number of individual GPX files you can have on the Colorado. You might have it hit that as well.

Are you talking about the GC website or your GPSr? If you're talking about your GPSr, the make and model would be useful to know so we can give exact instructions.