Miragee

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Here are the guidelines. You have to get the landowner's permission for an Earthcache to be Approved and Published.

Are you sure all your PQs are set up that way? I have my "Date Placed" PQs set up that way and don't recall ever receiving any "Found" caches or caches I have "Ignored."

If you hold the "click stick" down, it will create a waypoint in your present location. Navigate up to the coordinates and Edit those to the ones of the cache. Double check those manually-entered coordinates to make sure you get them correct. Give that Waypoint a Name and change the icon to the closed Treasure Chest and then the Waypoint will behave like a Geocache, if that is the icon you have set for Geocaches on the GPS unit. If you have installed the USB driver, using EasyGPS to send the waypoints to your GPSr should work after you have set it up correctly,

Welcome to the Forums! The Garmin 60CSx is an excellent choice if you want the buttons in front below the screen. If you want a more compact GPS unit that costs less, look at the Vista HCx. It has almost all the same capabilities as the 60CSx in a smaller package with the buttons on the side, except for the "click stick."

I am surprised they sent you an update DVD for free after that much time . . . To get the newest City Navigator maps, you will have to purchase the Update. They will work on your present GPS just fine. I'm still using my three-year-old maps on my Vista HCx and don't see a need to update the maps . . . yet . . .

And, to get back on topic, I think an Earthcache Forum would be a good idea. I only own one Earthcache, but would enjoy discussions about Earthcaches. A friend who owns several Earthcaches, who doesn't participate in these Forums at all, would probably participate in discussions about Earthcaches.

I know you are fond of Waymarking...I feel the same way about earthcaches. I heartily disagree that the only reason earthcaches are so wildly popular is because they count as geocaches. Earthcaches are simply awesome examples of the powerful forces that shape and sculpture our planet. --yes, I'm including even the lowliest and most mundane earthcaches (which are not the "norm") You have just given the reason they belong back on Waymarking. If they so wildly popular because they are "awesome examples of of the powerful forces that shape and sculpture our planet" and not because they count as geocaches then it should not matter where they are posted. Or would those forces not have existed if the were posted somewhere else? But . . . if they get moved back to Waymarking, people who are Geocachers and not Waymarkers, will never be guided to those "awesome exapmples of the powerful forces that shape and sculpture our planet." I own several Waymarks, some in an extemely popular park large park visited by Geocachers every day. The Waymarks never get visits.

I use two Leki trekking poles now and won't go hiking without them. Fortunately, my Vista HCx keeps a signal even when I have it attached to the belt of my lumbar pack, using the neoprene case and a small carabiner. The people I hike with who have the 60Cx, use the belt clip on either their belt, or on a pack strap. That seems to work well. Once I get to GZ, I'll put one pole down and work my way to the cache with the GPSr in one hand, the pole in the other to be used for poking around before sticking my hand in a potential hiding place.

In your price range, I would look at the Garmin Legend HCx. Then you will have to purchase the City Navigator maps, if you need auto-routing. If you don't need auto-routing, you can get the older Topo maps, which would just fine, on eBay for less money than the newest Topo maps. I have the Vista HCx and once you become familiar with the buttons: Power, Page, Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Menu, it is very user friendly.

If you become a Premium Member, you'll have access to the .gpx files from the cache pages or Pocket Queries. If you use GSAK, you can use the "smart name" codes to get a useful waypoint name, the hint, and even more description in the POIs.

There are inexpensive ones available on eBay. Some of these work better than others . . .

Long post . . . Since data changes with each new set of PQs I get for my GSAK database, I update my POIs. Any cache I found since the last update, was moved to a "Found" database. About once a week, I refresh my GSAK database with several "Date Placed" PQs. After that, I delete any caches that were "Disabled" or "Archived" using the "Last .gpx Update" filter. That way I know I have fresh data to put in my GPSr. After that I Export new .gpx files for the Garmin POI Loader. I have separate icons for caches that are Unfound vs. the Benchmarks and the caches I found previously. In the "Update Folder" for the Garmin POI loader, I have these files: Unfound.gpx Unfound.bmp (Treasure Chest icon) Found.gpx Found.bmp (Treasure Chest icon with Checkmark) FoundArchived.gpx FoundArchived.bmp (Little Tombstone) Benchmarks.gpx Benchmarks.bmp (Blue Dot) If I was only using the POIs to find caches, I would "Save" the POI to a Geocache and give it the Treasure Chest icon so it would behave like a Geocache on the GPSr, changing to the Open Treasure Chest after I mark it as Found. After I come back from a Geocaching adventure, I download my Tracks and Waypoints to Mapsource. Then, I can follow my tracks and log each "Found" cache in order.

Here is an example of a bad front yard cache. The coordinates are off and dogs usually bark when people approach. Here is an example of a good front yard cache. The hiding place is obvious and the home is on a corner.

Here is a rudimentary GSAK tutorial that, although it was created a while ago, should be helpful. I use GSAK for all the filtering, slicing, and dicing of the data, then Send the Waypoints to my GPSr, Export in the correct format for Cachemate, then Export .gpx for Garmin's POI Loader. GSAK is the only program I need to use to manage the PQ data.

That happened to me a few months ago. It was fixed by the time I got an email reply from GC.com.

Somehow you have two "subscriptions" in PayPal. You should be able to go to the PayPal site and cancel one of the subscriptions. Then, write to contact @ Groundspeak.com and someone there will help you out with the double payments.

Check out Garmin's website and their "Comparison Page." There are several different 'H' models with the "High Sensitivity" receivers in all price ranges. One of those would be much better than the old Blue Legend. You might want to make sure the GPS unit you get connects to your computer with USB instead of with the Serial Port.

Welcome to the Forums! Although many people got started with that GPS unit, the technology in it is more than four years old now. Visit the Garmin website and their Comparison Page and check out the new units with 'H' in the model name. That means they have the "High Sensitivity" receiver and will hold a signal much better than that old Blue Legend. You want to get one that connects to your computer with USB so you don't have to worry about Serial Port adapters if your computer doesn't have a Serial Port.

Welcome to the Forums! The Garmin Colorado is an excellent choice, as long as the firmware is updated. Check the many Forum Threads in the GPS and Software Forum where Colorado owners discuss that model. I have a Vista HCx which is also an excellent choice if you don't want to spend as much as the Colorado costs. I don't know what maps are available in your area, but I have both auto-routing and Topo maps on my Vista HCx.

Here is a great tutorial about Pocket Queries. After you preview the PQ to make sure you are getting the results you expect, choose the day for the PQ to run. It should arrive in your email InBox in a few minutes (unless you have Comcast which is throttling GC.com now). I have a Gmail account for GC.com mail I use GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) to handle all the data from my several "Date Placed" PQs, although you can use EasyGPS. On my Palm m515, I use Cachemate for "paperless" caching.

From GSAK you can send the waypoints directly to a Garmin. I believe you have to do an Export for a Magellan, but GSAK can handle the task.

You might get a Gmail account. I had to do that after my previously-reliable ISP started blocking all emails from all Groundspeak domains . . .

The email you receive will have an attached .zip file. You need to save that to your harddrive, at least that is what I do. Then, I load the file into GSAK. You want to Preview the results of the PQ first to make sure you are getting the results you expect, but after that you choose the day for it to run.

If the original owner comes back, and takes care of the maintenance issues, and requests that the cache be un-Archived, that can happen. Just today, several Archived caches here were re-enabled . . . but they have an active owner who decided to replace the containers that were burned in a wildfire last fall.