calkan

I am having the same problem with my Triton 400. I can't use Easy GPS because it doesn't support it. GSAK does not list the Magellan Triton series and it won't download caches either.... Please help!

does it really make any differences in the Geocaching scheme of things? Really, you shouldn't worry too much about whether I choose to log my own caches or you choose to log an archived cache. I can guarantee that I won't lose any sleep over any of this.

Here is a novel idea.....you find something worth more than what your brought as swag? Well trade two or three for one! Hey whats wrong with filling a cache to help the cache owner out? We've come across geocaches which were almost void of swag, with the exception of garbage. We dumped the garbage and put all of our swag we brought with us in the geocache. I know the world is full of cheapskates, and I have heard comments about "I am not a friggen walmart!" But we need to consider the sport of Geocaching as a whole. One bad cache seems to rest on the mind as much as the great caches do. What a turn off to a new Geocacher to find a box of wet, stinky garbage. Do you honestly think they will do much geocaching after finding two or three rotten caches? Lets work together and make this an enjoyable sport. No cheap skates Please!

I found a folded dollar bill (origami?) which was in the shape of a shirt. That was pretty creative and unique. I still have it. I also came across a TB made out of clear poly, which contained a folded dollar into the shape of a heart. They had also included a shiny quarter tucked neatly into the folded dollar heart. I was impressed. So for all you Geocachers who are into origami paper folding...another cool idea. use your talents.

Sandpitch you sparked my curiousity. Send me the page on this cache. Thanks!

Well there is always the option to help a new geocacher via his email. Personally I would gladly help you, but I couldn't figure it out myself. Sorry. Let me study it a while and if I figure out a clue, I will send an email to you. By the way, it is never "Taboo" to ask....but it may be "Taboo" to assume. We learn by asking questions. Welcome to Geocaching!

Personally when I include a FTF prize in my caches, I expect it to be a gift to the geocacher for getting up a little earlier or making the effort to find the cache the quickest. Others may think not, but why trade for your own reward? If it is listed as a FTF prize, then it is. No need to trade.

How about doing a little CITOing with a garbage bag. No one ever pays attention to someone picking up trash. (muggles are just glad they didn't have to pick it up) You can get down and dirty, searching under bushes, anywhere in fact, as long as you are picking up garbage..and the plus to the whole idea is a cleaner place for the next Geocacher to enjoy! Works wonderfullly!

I enjoy finding unique items...many mentioned above. Anything made from metal...geocoins...bottle openers...keychains. Different patches are cool. What I hate???? Plastic garbage...McToys...plastic eyeballs... rubber frogs and snakes...the plastic list goes on.

I find that there seems to be a few Geocachers out there that forget what Geocaching is all about. Hey, we all do it for different reasons. I myself enjoy the outings and hey a FTF is an added pleasure. There aren't any hard fast rules about FTF etiquette. Those who love the hunt of a FTF have found just another exciting facet of Geocaching. I can't believe people get upset about this stuff. But it takes all kinds. Again I appologize to Find-me. My forum writing skills need a lot of polish. :-)

Find-Me....my entry was not in the least aimed at you. I congratulate you on your wonderful job of FTF's!!! My question was generated from a received email where a disgruntled Geocacher felt that some Geocachers are stepping on toes by getting all the FTF's. Didn't mean to shake you up, just to show forum readers that there is at least one Geocacher out there that hates FTF hogs. In my opinion, I agree with everybody above.....Go for all the FTF you can get your hands on!!! Yeah!!!

How would you as a forum reader respond to an email sent to you like this?: Don't take this the wrong way but you've become a FTF hog. There are lots of beginner geocachers out there just dieing for a First-to-find but that ain't gonna happen with you just waiting to beat everyone to them. Don't you have enough FTF's? Why don't you give someone else a chance. It ain't fun checking the new caches anymore because you already beat everyone to them. This is the first time I've been unhappy with caching since I started.

Well enough said on my part...guess I get a whippin' by Keystone. No desrespect meant to any reviewer. I would blame the cache owner primarily for not keeping up his cache. Though circumstances might cause some caches to be abandoned...cache owner moving, death, etc. In most cases, Geocachers remarks are the only indicator to a problem existing with a cache. I don't expect a reviewer to go out and phyically try to find a lost cache. That isn't his responsiblity, nor what I was saying. The reviewer does however have the ability to "archive" the cache when the owner is unresponsive to multiple DNF's and emails. How else will the cache be archived without the consent of the missing owner? Hey, I adopted a cache...enough said about that. Though, you call it involuntary adoption...no I volunteered to adopt. As far as locating the missing or damaged cache by a group of volunteers? Go for it...my time is better spent looking for something that I can find. I will now step off of my soapbox.

Here is how to handle those lost cache, DNF, destroyed or other situatiions. Email the cache owner about the problem. He should be paying attention to his caches. If not, then he is not following Groundspeak rules. Email the owner again, and then if there isn't a response, notify the reviewer. If there is no response, then go to Groundspeak. Oviously you have a cache owner and a reviewer sleeping on the switch. Our reviewer is constantly looking at what is happening in our neck of the woods. He has been vigilant and cooperative with these type of situations. Now I can't speak for other reviewers, but something is definitely amiss if they are not noticing repeated DNF's. As for adopting caches, it has been done and yes, through the proper channels. If a geocacher notices a problem with a cache, the first plan of action is to notify the owner. If the owner does not reply to a couple of emails, then notify your reviewer. He will then try to contact the owner. If there isn't a reply, then the reviewer has the ability to archive the cache in question. As for adoption, if a reviewer feels the circumstances warrant an adoption, then he will make it happen. The system works if all geocachers use it. Lets give it a chance.

Here is what I do when I run into a cache that seems to be abandoned. Start a dialogue with the reviewer in the area. Email him or her and tell them the situation. The reviewer is there for a reason...to monitor such events. If the cache is abandoned, the reviewer will archive the cache. If you want to adopt the cache, then you may work with the reviewer to change ownership. It is a simple task. Apparently your reviewer isn't doing his job. If that is the case, keep going up the ladder and notify Groundspeak of the situation.

Try tightening the case screws which are located on the back, and also under the battery cover. I had a similar problem and a little screw tightening did the trick. Be careful and don't twist the screws too hard. Be gentle so you don't strip out the screw holes. very light and gentle. See if that works.

For all of you Garmin 60(c cx csx) users who have had occasional, repeated, or sudden power loss, try this. Go to your toolbox and get a small phillips screwdriver. Then gently tighten the screws on the back of the gps unit, as well as the screws under the battery cover. Seems the screws tend to become loose and contact is loss with the batteries. I repaired a seemily irrepairable Garmin by this simple fix. Saved myself 160 repair bill. My unit would shutdown when turned face down. It would however run without the battery cover on. This lead me to check the screws which were noticiably loose.

I learned my lesson with No Trespassing signs. My friend, Relish and I went looking for a cache which was on private property. The land owner had given permission to the cache owner for the placement of the cache. When we went looking for this particular cache, we came across a NO TRESPASSING! sign. Reading the log description on the web page on this cache, it seemed like we were welcome to proceed. WRONG! We drove through the gate and continued on to find the cache. While we are signing the log book, I hear a vehicle come roaring up and come to a sudden stop behind our vehicle which was parked only feet from where the cache was. As I tried to be inconspicuous, I could see a tall figure out of the corner of my eye, standing on the edge of the road glaring at me. I looked up and low and behold saw the biggest, meanest looking cowboy that Montana produced. I gave him my biggest smile and said hi!. He glared at me and I nudged my geocaching buddy to hurry and sign the log. I knew we were in trouble. He barked at us..."what the %&^% are you doing?" I politely replied and tried to explain the circumstances along with the alien word "Geocaching". My mind raced as I tried to think of the cache owners name. The name popped into my head as if God was trying to save our lives, and I blurted the cache owners name to him and that we had understood that permission was given for this cache. At this point the big mean looking cowboy wanted to know what was in the box? and I started naming off the contents. "a log book, pencil, rubber duck, plastic car, refrigerator magnet, tennis ball, rubber wrist band, a pin and other items" I knew I had disarmed him with the random silliness of items I was giving him. I was worried about getting my butt kicked all over the place, but at this point I knew the cowboy thought we were completely nuts. He asked us where we were from and I told him. He turned on his heels, got in his pickup and roared away. I guessed that the land owner had second thoughts about Geocachers on his property. I told my partner the cache would be archived soon. It was...the same evening after we returned home. The cache owner sent us an apology, but I am more gun shy than ever. So to make a long story short. If you come on a "No Trespassing sign" and you go beyond the sign...you are trespassing. Be ready for the wrath to follow. Private land owners are a touchy bunch. Treat them with respect.

It will be interesting to see how the lock n lock boxes hold up to the elements. I've notice a few that haven't been out long which are already degrading. But they are an economical solution if they only last.

Famous!? Well in Northern Montana the answer is "RELISH" He began caching in 2005 and has accumulated over 370 caches in the remote reaches of our beautiful state, as well as Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota. He is the owner of 4 GPS units! A shiny red blazer and a "Sweet Relish" to keep him company on his searches. You won't find a better person to go out caching with. He is entertaining and enjoyable. His famous dedicated "Relish" travel bug is now touring Japan as well as his VW bus driving about in the East. Bob is one of a kind, compassionate and loving. 5 cheers for Relish!

I have been using GSAK software to organize my caches. It gives the owner a quick one page look at all the caches you download. GSAK also gives you a method of organizing by different options ie miles, alphabetical,owners, dates, cache size, etc. The beauty of GSAK is the ability to pick description pages at a touch, without the irritation of going back and forth between pages. It will download into your GPS by cache name, rather than GC#. It takes a little practice to become familiar with the software, but I highly recommend GSAK. The plus is you can use it for free (until the nagging window gets you crazy) then for 20 bucks you can have it without the nagging. It is well worth the investment.

My presentation to the Chamber of Commerce is over. I threw out some numbers which most likely were incorrect, but for the most part the chamber was very receptive to the idea of Geocaching. In fact two members are ready to head out and start looking for some caches. My main purpose was to educate and inform a group of city business people and to debunk a few rumors. I was very pleased with the response I was given. I am still at odds with the numbers, but don't worry I won't lose sleep over it. Thanks again for all the replys to my question. Calkan

Looking at the site, there are 114872 registered Geocachers. I assume this is world wide. Montana, I am guessing may have 300 cachers? The point I would like to leave with the chamber is the few number of Geocachers in Montana compared to other states, and the potential of Geocaching growing in our locale. Granted we will never compare to the populous states for membership, but the potential of encouraging Geocachers to our state does interest the chamber of commerce. I am currently seeking permission to place caches in our town. My presentation will hopefully answer questions for those people who know nothing about Geocaching. The more questions I can answer with relative accurately, the better the presentation will become.

yes, I notice the cache reports and log reports in the last 7 days. But all it really tells me is there are 225003 caches somewhere in the world. At any given time frame in a week there are usually about 20000 account holders writing 150000 logs. Then I am to assume that each holder is writing about 7 logs. If I look at the membership names, it equates to about 100,000 registered. 2000 pages of 50 members. Where do these people live....???? 50,000 in the USA? Where could one find some exact numbers? Such as in particular states...washington, pennsylvannia, montana, etc?