Lasagna

As they're new, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and simply send them an email and ask them to please remove the picture explaining that as the cache owner, part of the difficulty and joy of doing the cache is the uniqueness of the container and the picture unfortunately spoils that. You can try explaining that posting a spoiler log or picture is considered inappropriate -- but I might save that until after you get their initial response. If they respond with an "oops, sorry", then you can explain as a way to help them better understand the nuances of the game. If they seem uncooperative or react poorly, I'd just unceremoniously delete the log with not further interaction -- it is, afterall, the cache owner's perogative to determine who meets the logging requirements -- and then perhaps adding a disclaimer to your writeup that says spoiler logs or pictures will be deleted. I know if I put a lot of work into a unique hide, I'd be a bit miffed if someone gave it away.

That's not correct ... you need to delete the old ones. Someone highlighted how to get to the delete waypoints screen from the Find menu already ... the other way is to go to the odometer screen (the one with distance travelled, stopped time, moving time, etc.) and hit the menu key ... you can select Reset from here and one of the menu items will let you clear ALL waypoints.

I received a GPSr as a Christmas present mostly for hiking and didn't use it much until I happened upon an article on Geocaching ... and thus started the addiction. So, I had my GPSr before I went for my first search. However, I know those that have done this without a GPSr and are in fact quite good at it (it is definitely more difficult, but if you find some easy difficulty hides in an area where there are some good landmarks from which you can work using maps and satellite imagery, you might have a reasonable shot at some success). One suggestion would be to find someone locally who might be willing to let you tag along on a cache excursion. Have you searched for any events in your area in the near future? That would be a good way to meet up with some local cachers and I am more than willing to bet they'd be glad to some you the ropes. You won't need a GPSr to find the event usually -- the location is usually in the writeup in addition to the coordinates. As for a basic started GPS, just about any handheld will do ... pick up a cheap on on eBay (like a Legend or a Yellow) ... but understand that if you get into this, you may quickly outgrow the unit or be hungry for extra features. Good luck.

A terrain of "1" has by definition of the rating system that Clayjar put together usually meant the location is "wheelchair" accessible (paved walkways, etc.) however the hide style itself can make the cache itself inaccessible. I have always reserved a terrain of "1" for wheelchair accessible hides and notched the hide style up a half-notch to "1.5" if it's an easy terrain but involves something which might make it inaccessible to everyone -- such as a curb or height of the hide. I also make use of the attributes page to indicate if a cache is accessible under other circumstances but requires a higher rating (in which case you should explain that in the writeup without necessarily giving the hide away).

First, please thank your husband for his service to our country. It is greatly appreciated. As was already said, by all means take the Legend back (unless it's a Legend HCx in which case you got a good deal). The technology is dated and at $150, you got a bad deal. The Venture HC or Summit HC are good intro units which should be available in that price range. If you can't find a good price locally, many of the reputable online retailers have them for that price. Next, keep in mind when search for a cache that the GPSr is only accurate to around 10-20ft. So, as you get close to a cache, the little arrow will tend to bounce around a bit as the satellite positions are constantly being calculated. It you're standing at ground zero, I wouldn't be surprised if the arrow constantly kept moving in different directions. Best bet is to follow the arrow until your abour 30ft or so from the cache and then sight estimate about where it's pointing and then stop looking at the GPSr and go to that spot and start an systematic pattern search of the area. If that fails, move away from the area and repeat the sighting process recentering your search. The GPSr will only get you close ... your eyes and hands will have to do the rest. Good luck and happy hunting.

Mapsource and City Navigator is all you need if you want to download turn-by-turn maps to your Colorado. (well that and obviously the USB driver for the Colorado)

First, thank you so much for your service to our country! The problem I see with the Nuvi is the form factor and the fact that most (if not all) are not waterproof (bad news the first time it starts to rain while on the trail or you drop the unit in the stream). I have heard of some taking this on the trail to find a geocache, but almost always as a backup device. With the requirements of spoken directions, I think I'd be inclined to recommend you go with two units. One specifically for the car with turn-by-turn (a nuvi perhaps or one of the many other manufacturers who have inexpensive units that have the spoken directions and all of which do automatic route recalculation). The other unit could then be a mid-range handheld (people seem to like their Legend HCx units) on which you could then load topo maps if desired. Side benefit ... you could potentially take the nuvi with you as a backup (or so you had something in hand while your guests used the primary unit just to make sure they were "on track"). If you can get away from the need for voice, I've found my GPSMAP 60Csx to be quite functional. I have the car mount for it, City Navigator for turn by turn and auto-reroute, and Topo maps for on the trail. It just "beeps" and "blips" when turns are coming up and shows them on the screen ... I've found that to work fine for me although I can see the attraction of having the spoken directions in a busy traffic situation. Good luck in your search. -jk

Starbrand's suggestion is a good one too ... when I did a teaching session for a local scout troop, I setup a bunch of temporary caches at the scout camp where they were camping for the weekend, showed them what to do and then set then loose to give it a whirl. I relied on the generosity of local cachers who came thru with a bunch of ammo cans, decons, and other suitable containers for temporary use to support the effort. -jk

First, minor point of ediquette ... please turn off that CAPS LOCK key. Typing everything in CAPS is consider to be the equivalent of yelling at those who are reading ... With that said, I know of several teachers as well as group houseparents locally who go caching with groups of kids and there is rarely a problem. The kids have to be told the rules and agree to abide by them or else you just don't take them. As a good teacher, I would think they would carefully select the caches to which they planned to take the children in advance. Otherwise, you'd never know what you might encounter, what dangers might exist, the terrain or natural obstacles or poisonous plants that might exist, or if indeed the cache is even in place. So, if they do a little pre-selection of caches including going out on their own in advance and finding the cache (to insure it's in place and perhaps even stocked with a few appropriate trinkets that the kids can then "trade" for), insuring that it's in a safe and accessible location, insuring that it's in a location to which they can bring 11 or 12 excited kids without disclosing the cache to the world, etc. it would a great adventure. A nice stroll on a nature trail or simple hike out of prying eyes and not too far off the trail should do the trick. An urban-micro next to a street sign? Probably not so much ... -jk

A co-worker that I frequently go caching with at lunchtime had a very similar issue with his brand new Colorado. It would occasionally reach a spot and "jump" two clicks instead of one. He contacted Garmin about it and they simply RMA'd it and replaced it. They simply said it was a defect. Never heard of Garmin sending out spare parts -- they usually just RMA their stuff and give you a replacement unit.

I've had two installed on my system for quite a while now ... one for my eTrex and one for my 60Csx and it works without any issue. The software seems to sort which code to use for which gps automatically (it's the same install, both unlock codes are installed into the same installation).

Get the USB auto adapter ... that works just fine with the 60Csx in the mounting bracket. Didn't you get a USB plug-in adapter when you got the auto-mount? -jk

Orange vest/hat, gloves, flashlights, small mirror, batteries, trade swag, small notepad, and nylon cord plus most everything you named. I also usually have some bug spray and sunblock in the first aid kit (seal single-use pouch) and if I going out on a hike, of course water (my pack has a camelback in it) and some snack bars. -jk

You didn't happen to accidentally click and drag the waypoint around the screen with the little click-stick did you? I used to make this mistake all the time with my eTrex Vista when I first got it when trying to pan around the screen... I'd end up accidentally moving a waypoint around which of course has a very detremental effect on one's ability to actually find the hide.

Sure, why not? I think I would however encourage placing nice comments, where appropriate, in the log for all to see (since I use such comments myself when looking for caches to do outside my local area -- those with nice comments are good indications of a top notch hide). However, certainly comments which give away some aspect of the hide -- such as a comment about the type of container if it was unique, are better left for a personal note.

Depends ... I went for special ones for my 100th, 500th, and 1000th ... the others, if it worked out it worked out. Usually I was able to find something special, but occasionally I was on a cache run or just plain forgot the milestone was approaching and whatever cache came up ended up with the honor. I must say I do like having caching friends along for the milestones and picking something memorable makes it all the more fun (for example, we seem to have a cache here in central PA that many cachers seem to choose for their 1000th called Thousand Steps -- a challenging cache well worth the honor).

... and if your unit can support the NT version, you definitely want it. It's a more efficient compression algorithm allowing you to load more maps in the same amount of memory.

Oops ... double post.

That's the same thing as happens if you let the timeout occur ... I knew there was a way to force it, but by GPS is in the car and I was too lazy to go fetch it. Thanks coggins.

In addition, if you have GSAK, you can load your "My Finds" query into it and then get the FindStatsGen macro to get some nice charts and stats which can be loaded into your profile. There's also a program from logicweave.com called CacheStats which does a similar job to itsnotaboutthenumbers but without the online requirement.

First, thank you so much for your service to our country. It is greatly appreciated. As for the satellite issue. have you tried resetting the acquisition process to restart from the beginning (on a Garmin, basically, give the unit a clear view of the sky and leave it sit for a few minutes, eventually it will time out not finding anything and give you a list of options -- one of which is to start the search completely over -- not continue acquiring, but restart search -- select that and let it sit for up to 30 minutes). Since you moved such a great distance from the last spot the unit was turn on, it's possible it just needs to re-establish it's base location. My Vista Cx has a similar "dead radio receiver" symptom as well one time and ended up fixing that be removing the batteries for a few minutes and then doing the full acquisition process I described above and it came back to life.

You know, I seem to always get along quite well with the reviewer in my area. I've managed to publish a number of caches and even managed to coordinate a large scale puzzle cache involving numerous local cachers -- and get them all published at the exact same time thanks to the efforts of the reviewer to help bring a fun series to the area. I haven't always agreed with the reviewer, but you know sometimes their hands are tied by rules from GC. It's disappointing when that happens, but thems the breaks. Other times, I have found them to turn down a cache, but offer suggestions on how to make it "approvable" whether that be by moving it slightly or by changing a writeup or type of cache. Sounds to me like your area reviewer did just that -- they suggested a way to make your hide approvable. As others have suggested, you should form a working relationship with your reviewer by asking them questions before you just drop a box in the woods or wherever. They'll be glad to help make your placement a success and avoid a lot of unnecessary rework. At the end of the day, it's just a game. You agreed to play by their rules -- and those rules say the reviewer gets the final say. Sounds to me like the reviewer exercised the 500' rule to which they are entitled and regardless of whether you agree or not, that's the way the cookie crumbles. So, find another spot.

If you have GSAK already, I would recommend getting the mobi.gsk macro for it. It'll generate a very functional Mobipocket file which can be be read wit hthe free mobipocket reader (much nicer than the one that GC used to ship as an option with PQ's).

Correct. You need City Navigator maps loaded and active to do turn by turn.

Seems to me that you must not have done the mystery cache which is nearby ... so it seems to me that it would be difficult for you to know that what your placing will not cause confusion with the other cache. Someone suggested offering to the reviewer a reason why this placement should be allowed by citing a concrete reason why it won't cause conflict .... seems to me you need to go do the mystery cache and find that out. Otherwise, with 3.79 million square miles of space in the United States, I'd say just find another location and move on.