randco

Contact http://shop.spacecoastgeocachers.com/ and ask for Dale. He can probably tell you who can make a special stamp for you.

I will second the use of the Galaxy S3. MY wife uses the smartphone and I use a Garmin 60CSx. We have tested the units side by side and I would say that they are pretty equal. In the US the official geocaching app is 9.99. However, there are some pretty good free apps for Android phones. c:geo and CacheSense are a couple. They have maps, compass, directions and the ability to submit logs.

To reply to the reviewers note go to the geocache in questions listing. Click on Edit Listing then scroll down to near the bottom of the page. You will see a heading of Reviewer Notes. In the box under the Reviewer Notes heading enter your information. After you enter your information be certain to click on the "Yes, I have read" boxes, then click on Submit Changes. When the cache listing gets published the reviewer notes will go away.

First, congratulations on your 6 out of 7. Remember that the coordinates will only be as good as the cache owners gps'r calculated at time of placement. Follow your heading until you get to within about 30 feet then start looking. Also remember that an error of 10 to 30 feet is very likely. Tree cover in the woods and buildings in the urban jungle will also cause problems in locating ground zero.

To me there's nothing worse than someone logging TFTC or Cool on every cache they find.

I agree with LOne R about waiting. When we got hooked I wanted make and hide caches. About a week after finding our first cache we were invited to a geocaching event. We went and had a great time. We had the opportunity to speak with a lot of other cachers. I told them how bad I wanted to place a cache. Most of the people that I talked to told me to wait until I had at least 100 finds. We took their advice and are glad we did. When you are ready here is a simple Calculator that can be used to determine distance between caches.Coordinate Distance Calculator

You can also open your query in GSAK. Once in GSAK you can Search and Filter by Date Range. It is very simple to do. When you are done filtering you can send the waypoints to your GPS'r.

Jeremy about bickering over a cache "find" The one thing that I have to say about that quote is that while Jeremy is the CEO of Groundspeak, but that does not make his opinion any more important or correct than yours or mine. It may be an opinion, but his influence on the game is much greater than you or I. Language of location is emphasized, rather than containers. Unless the cache is a "challenge" type, such as up a tree, on a cliff or a purposely difficult hide, I don't see any problem with not signing the log if the container is sighted. 4wheelin_fool, You may not "see any problem with not signing the log if the container is sighted." But, the very basics of the game/hobby under Geocaching 101 states: "7.Sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location." and "8.Share your geocaching stories and photos online." It doesn't get any clearer than that.

I totally agree with you. When we started caching we placed a few travel bugs in non-PM caches and not long after they came up missing. If I place a TB in a PM cache I want to believe that the TB will be discovered or grabbed by people that respect the intent of the TB.

When we started caching, we used the Garmin 60CSx loaded with City Navigator software. We used it on the road for turn by turn directions then switched it to Off Road to locate the cache. Now we use a Garmin 1450, the Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx, and a Galaxy IIIs Smartphone for caching. I write a query then download the query into GSAK. From GSAK I export the file to the Garmin Mapsource product. I can create a route in Mapsource or I can just "transfer" the files to the 1450 then to the 60CSx. While caching we use the 1450 to get us to the area, then use the 60CSx and Smartphone to look for the cache. If we are doing urban caching the 1450 makes navigating a lot easier.

People go to meet other cachers, share caching stories and to put a face to the names that are seen on cache logs. As the others have said, there are different types of events, each having it's own special elements. A flash mob event will be about a 15 minute event and its over while Mega-events usually span 3-4 days. A few weeks ago we hosted a three day three event weekend. We had placed 44 new caches in the state park and held off the publication of the cache listings until Friday evening. Friday April 19th – GC3QMXF - Smore Fun @ LMSP. This event included a group campfire, toasted stuff, a night cache and music of the 60's, 70's and 80's. Saturday April 20th – GC3H9FX - LMSP Event Cache 2 – This was the "main event". It was a meet and greet of other cachers, we had a poker run, we provided hotdogs and all the fixin's and we raffle. Sunday April 21st – GC3QMZB - LMSP CITO – We provided Dunkin Donuts and Coffee to get things started then we all spent a couple of hours doing some cleanup in the park. We had about 70 cachers attend on Friday and Sunday. We had close to 150 on Saturday. According to the logs, a good time was had by everyone. Actually an event is what you make of it. Here in Florida we are lucky. We have two Mega-events per year. Mega events are events that have more than 500 people attend. We have Cacheapalooza in January and Florida Finders Fest in October.

The above is very interesting if a geocacher has a Smartphone. However, for those of us that don't, averaging seems the best way to get a decent set of coordinates. When I determine a cache location I try to us a 50 foot radius. Then I approach the intended GZ from as many angles as I feasibly can. I usually test the coordinates over several days before I get my final coordinates. As cachers, it is our job to evaluate and publish the best coordinates that we can. After all, we "do" want people to find our hides. If we knowingly deceive other cachers with bogus coordinates, what's the point? A bona fide high difficulty cache should have the best coordinates we can provide. The camo should be the real test of the hide. We all know that conditions and equipment will determine the accuracy of the cache location. Happy caching...

If you have a smartphone with an app like c:geo you can go caching. I have a Garmin 60CSx and my wife uses a Samsung Galaxy sIII smartphone. She gets turn by turn driving directions and her compass and distance are about equal to the Garmin. We use her phone to read the D/T, Description, Hint, and to log the result of the search. It is another alternative to spending some big bucks.

Oh I forgot to mention that you could manipulate the entirety of your My Finds file in a spreadsheet without doing the filtering in GSAK. Simply open the My Finds download in GSAK and do the export.

I wish I were smart enough to develop a spreadsheet that could tell me the D/T of, say, the last 200 caches or the past two months. Short of deleting all the stupid micros I found during my first few years of caching, I'm probably never going to see my D/T averages change. Actually, you can develop the spreadsheet pretty easy by using GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife). In GSAK create a My Finds or Statistics database. In geocaching.com fun the MY Finds query. Open the My Finds file in GSAK in the database you defined. In GSAK click on Search then click on Filter. In the Set Filter pop-up click on the Dates tab. Then locate Date found by me then click on the small triangle to open the drop-down box. Select the criteria you want then the dates. After that go to the bottom of the page and click on Go. This should result in a list of your criteria. Next, click on File, move your cursor of Export then highlight CSV or TXT... In the Export CSV or TXT File box that appears click on the file folder to the right of the File Name input box. Select Desktop (for simplicity) then in the File Name box name the file and click Open. Now click Generate. Open excel or other spreadsheet and click on Open. Then open the file you saved to the Desktop as Text Delimited. Now you should have your spreadsheet. Delete the columns you don't want. The columns do not have titles but they will be set up in the same order as the columns are in GSAK. You can actually set up a View in GSAK for just the columns you want export, but that's another tutorial. One in the spreadsheet, the sky's the limit. Good luck and happy caching

HI and welcome to the hobby. The others have posted a lot of good information. The main thing is to have fun. Don't worry about the number of finds you get. They will all add up after time. One of the things I think is important, logging your finds and didn't finds. Getting a smiley for a "Found it" is such a great feeling. However, it is equally important to log a "Didn't find it" if you searched and could not locate the cache. Only you can determine what criteria you use for an actual search. For example, if I arrive at a cache location and I don't like the looks of the area, I will log a "Write note" log describing what I saw that made me not attempt to look for the cache. Remember, a logged DNF is nothing to be ashamed of. We all get them, but not all log them. Be true to yourself and log your experience. Have fun and enjoy the hobby.

Hey Team, I just checked your stats in your profile. It says Team M.A.N. has 566 Finds on 538 unique Geocaches. Looks to me like you have entered a Found it log more than once a a few of your finds. Happy caching

We also started with no GPS'r. We did our first 40 caches using Google Earth. We always looked for caches on Groundspeak that had some type of landmarks, like telephone poles, signs, sidewalks, etc. We would put the coordinates of a cache in Google Earth then zoom in just until the image became fuzzy. Then we would use the ruler tool to calculate the distance from a known landmark. Sometimes we would find several different landmarks to calculate from. We would hand write the GC#, name of the cache, the coordinates and the Hint on a piece of paper along with any notes we wanted to include. We would put 4 or 5 of these together and head out. We had a hoot of a time finding caches without a GPS'r. Now we must admit that most of the caches we found were not in the "woods". However, we did find some interesting hides. Best of luck to you. Take your time, try a few. If you really enjoy caching, get yopurself a Garmin E-trex for around $170, you will be glad that you did. Happy caching

I will second StarBrand's choice.

The distance to any cache should not be less than 528 feet, or 1/10 of a mile. Here's a Calculator that may help you. A quote from Groundspeak: "Physical elements of different geocaches should generally be at least 0.10 miles apart. This separation is 528 ft or 161 m. A physical stage is defined as any stage that contains a physical element placed by the geocache owner, such as a container or a tag with the next set of coordinates. Non-physical caches or stages including reference points, trailhead/parking coordinates and/or a question to answer waypoints are exempt from this guideline. Additionally, within a single multi-cache or mystery/puzzle cache, there is no minimum required distance between physical elements. The graphic below shows a few examples of what is and is not acceptable in terms of geocache saturation. EarthCaches are exempt from this guideline." Happy caching

In addition to what everyone has mentioned we also take an assorted sizes of ziplock log bags and spare logs. You never know when you might gfind a cache and the log is full or soggy wet. We also have a couple of "pill bottle caches" in the bag in case we find a destroyed cache.

Another easy way to go paperless and have a a tried and true GPS'r is to find a Garmin 60CSx. Assuming you can find one at a great price, then purchase a PDA from UsedHandhelds.com and Cachemate software from smittyware. The PDA cost me $35 and the Cachemate software was $8. Using GSAK I download the caches to the 60CSx and the PDA. I believe the 60CSx is one of the best GPS'rs being used today. Happy caching

Here's a Glossary that may help you. SL = Signed Log I don't think it is in the Glossary Good Luck

Who's going to Cachepalooza 6 in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, near Hobe Sound, Florida on January 19th and 20th? We are going to be there on Jan.18th in site 135 of the River Campground. We hope to see you there. Best Wishes for the New Year, be safe and have fun caching.

It will only get worse from here on out... Happy holidays... and good luck caching.