Mn-treker

Look the guy only wants to know where to get labels. Geocaching.com click on the Shop link look around. There you will find kits labels Travel bugs Geocoins and a whole lot of stuff to get you going. But also go find more. Seeing reality VS a video is better. Welcome and have fun.

The Levee patrol. Sounds like a Homeland security issue there. Utility control devices, water works power distribution and a whole host of systems have been put on alert. Here in the Minneapolis, MN area some caches were put on signs along a public road. Seems like no problem huh? Very big problem resulted, right in front of Minneapolis Water supply. All caches had to be pulled along that road about two miles worth. Suspicious activity would result in arrest.

Some times you get the cheaters who think that the CO won't check on things. I have a Rum River series in Minnesota A Cacher (newbie) logged some on the east side and the west side. The east can be walked to, I did find they signed the paper log. Then on the west side they said they forgot a pen. One big problem though I did find that they signed the logs on the east side of the river. That means that they did have a pen. I sent them an e-mail and got back a nasty response. Pretty good chance that they lied about getting there. You need a boat to get to the west side or walk the river ice. When they did it the river was not frozen. I will wait till January to check, if I find no signed log at those on the west I will delete them. That is the only way to handle it.

Delorme GPS units sort the geocache by name only. If two caches are loaded with the same name then the second one over writes the first. This is the best reason to change the name. Also if a group of geocache start out with the same name info, but have long names (too long) Then an overwrite situation can happen. However if they are loaded by pocket query then that don't happen. Just when using send to GPS causes the over write. So please change the name a bit.

Here is a huge plus for winter caching. NO TICKS!! You just need to keep your eyes open for the dreaded snow snake. Also just follow the Deer trails, they seem to know where the geocache are hidden.

You had me til you said "30 below zero, mile hike". I'm sorry, I have to draw the line somewhere!! I actually have to keep my coat open at that temp. The winter clothes these days are a lot better. I tend to work up a lot of heat while on the move. Only when I sit for some time do I zip up. The vast majority of the winter it is around zero.

Minnesota! The land of Gumpy old men, holes in the ice with somebody staring at it an saying here fishy fishy. Snowmobiles, snowshoeing. Stay indoors you say? Hey it's only 30 below zero, what's a mile hike at that temp? Just a walk in the park and some geocache.

Here is another way to find out. Go take your coords reading then create the cache page. place a reviewer not that says please publish on this day. Give the date like a week out. Now get your gear ready to make the hide. If the reviewer writes back say no way 528 rule violation. Oh well! But reviewer may say OK! and he/she locks the page so you can't make changes. Then waits till that day and bingo! I did this, not to test it but to have a hide published on that day to coincide with something on that day. Worked for me.

No anger intended here I just run into so many people who think they have a right to trespass. Here in Minnesota the ROW rules can be different all over. As my example of city sidewalk. Then when you get to a state highway, oops the rule changes. No side walk and I might be able to snowmobile but not ATV. County road? oops another difference. Township road? oops again Point is that we need to check before a hide. I see a new hide near me. At the end of a pedestrian pathway bridge. The icon is in some ones back yard. The easment is very tight, only as wide as the path is. House on both sides, yard right up to the path. and intersection of the bridge. The hide is some place on or under the bridge. Very bad coords,! very bad choice to place it. posibility of trespass issue here. Home owners own right up to the bridge. This hide is a clear case of I can hide here because I think I own the ROW. What ROW? there is no ROW. The only way to access it is from the other side of the bridge and go under but not along side. I hope it is under or on top and not in the side. It has been found at the bridge and finders say good coords. But I don't believe it, when I looked coords had me 30 feet from the bridge. Others had same thing. When I next try I plan on getting good coords to see. I do not like getting neighbors after me due to CO poor choice of hide. This CO has also had bad coords at other hides 40 plus feet off. When you have Row issues you need to have very good coords.

I have seen a lot of talk about ROW. But very little understanding about it by many. Just because a right of way may exist does not mean that it is trespassable ROW. Some times the ROW is for utilities and road. Who owns the land on a ROW? In many cases the property owner that abuts the ROW owns the land. A governing entity may own the ROW but not the land. The ROW laws may differ all over. In the big city the ROW for a sidewalk is owned by the city. But the homeowner may own the land. The homeowner must allow trespass on the sidewalk. But must also pay for upkeep of the sidewalk, big screw job there! I live in the country and own both sides of the road that live on. I own the land that the road is on. The township owns the ROW for road and utilities only. I must pay proprty tax for the land that the road is on. The public may drive on the road but not the area that you would call the ditch. No ATV , no Snowmobile allowed on this ROW. I have the right of arrest! So before you start saying the public owns the ROW think again. The public does not own the ROW. The governing agencies do and they determine how the ROW is used. No sidewalk, the homeowner may be in charge. Or they may not. do not assume you have trespass rights. Only in public spaces do you have trespass rights. That ROW you are on may be private property as well. You John Q Public do not have the right to do as you please on the ROW. Check before you think of hiding a geocache, it might just be ilegal to place it there. Some places are now baning hides in signs because of that atitude of I John Q Public own it. No you don't!

Ouch poison sumac. I have heard of it, in Minnesota we don't have it just regular Sumac. Poison Ivy yes and lots of it, I have found that Technu Extreme works great as a treatment. It is also recommended as a scrub after you come back from the field if you suspect contact with a poison plant. I get mine at Walmart, if you can't find it look to the web. Have fun.

She specifically mentions Catoosa, which is a wildlife reserve. You don't need to look very far to see that Tennessee is very strict about where geocaching is permitted. The entire area AROUND the reserve is full of geocaches, but there is not a single one inside the reserve. It's highly unlikely that in 14 years, not a single geocacher has thought to place one there and this n00b is the first to consider the idea. Maybe it is an issue of semantics On the map that is identified as a wildlife management area. Here Reserves and Management areas are two different things. As I told her the DNR may not allow it, so DUH she should check. In Minnesota you may see some in the management areas. But they where placed before the rule went into effect. The DNR decided to let them be until they go dead. It should be easy to find out what the state allows as to placement of geocaches. Just check with the DNR If you cant understand who that is. The Department of Natural Resources. Also some cities and counties have rules as to placement. Check with them or you could wind up with a bomb scare and arrest.

Why not place 2 or 3 to start with? Thirty caches is a lot to maintain. The fact that the area around that reserve is well-populated with geocaches, while the reserve itself is not, suggests that there is a reason. A very cursory amount of research turns up a considerable amount of information to indicate that geocaching is not welcome in that particular area. I highly doubt they will be receptive to the idea of someone squirting out dozens of geocaches in an area that is supposed to be there to protect wildlife. We actually have a local Geo club here mostly located in Fair field glade where most of the members live. Placing a few was considered but after talking with the FFG Geo club, most would only hunt there if they were going to find several , as it is 80k acres of forest. I will of course research it much more before starting. This reserve touches our property which make it very close to maintain them:) I just looked at the map of that fair field Glade area. It looks more like an unfinished housing development to me, You need to make sure that there are not private property issues here. Maybe find a State forest and lay out a geotrail on a road in that forest. I do see a wildlife management area near by. But watch out DNR may not allow it there. Have a look at Minnesota State forest geotrails. King Boreas is the King of laying out a bunch of those. Here we may not hide in wildlife management areas, but we can in State forest. Good luck and have fun.

As far as the TB question goes. There is really no way to know if the TBs are really there. You just take a chance and go look. What do you get out of it? Another find Maybe you get lucky and find a TB. Some times a TB is listed in the wrong cache. Sometimes it is stuck in some geocachers bag. Then it suddenly pops up. I have three that are MIA. One of them pops out of the black hole that it falls into at times. One may have been stolen, but I keep hope it is turned loose. That is why some cache and TB owners don't list them out of the geocache. It hurts nothing to leave it. I have went to a cache that listed five in it and had none. AH! so what. The hunt for the cache is what it is all about, TBs are extra.

I use a Delorme PN60, when the send to GPS function is used any special characters will drive that thing nuts. Something about a hexadecimal issue 1A. But if a pocket query is done and loaded by drag and drop the special character issue is resolved. The hex issues 1A is not allowed to happen. Try running a pocket query on geocaching.com and sending it to your e-mail address and drag it to your unit. Maybe Garmin has the same issue with hexadecimal 1A also. I don't know Garmin units but it may be worth a try.

The posted Coords on the page may not be the real coords. You need to figure out the answer to the puzzle to get those. Also some ? geocaches are challenges. These types are at posted coords but you have to do something before logging the find. For puzzle types when you get the correct coords You just need to alter the coords that are on the page. Then send that to your GPS unit or phone.

It is also possible that some that you found are now archived. Only geocaches that are on the map will show up on a PQ. But if you go to your profile page and show all logs for geocaches-found it. Then you will see what reality is, archived will show up there.

Actually these days many do have a Gps chip. Most of the time it is a part of the radio chip that also includes the FM radio reciever and another reciever as well. On top of this they also use comms towers to triangulate and if you are in an urban setting they can use wifi to place themselves. Biggest issue is the crappy antennas phones have which accounts for most of the issues. I will stand by my statement about Smart phones and GPS. I do understand that the Iphone does have this chip. But many in the Android operating system do not. A good way to prove it is to take your phone way out off the grid and see if you have GPS reading. The phones are getting better but there are still many that go the cheap route and use cell towers. Bottom line is to read the data sheet for your phone and see if it is true GPS or not. I know that mine is not true GPS. But I would still rather use a stand alone GPS over a phone GPS. The battery life is much better on a GPS than a phone. and you can change out the batteries.

You need to get accurate coords. Acceptable is +/- 30 feet, but closer is better find a way to average them.

No you do not need a premium account. You can use the send to GPS function that is on each cache page. But you will only get the coords. You will not get any description or past logs that may help you. Also you will not be able to run pocket queries. Premium membership is cheap, with that you can run pocket queries and any send to GPS will have full info that you can read on your GPS device. Beware that if you use Internet Explorer 11 the send to GPS plugin may have problems. I would recommend Google Chrome or firefox browser when using the send to GPS. Welcome and have fun.

Even though a smart phone says it has GPS, that does not mean much. Many smart phones do not have a true GPS chip and reciever. These phones get thier GPS data from cell tower triangulation. I have seen mine show up to 200 feet away from where I am standing. A true GPS enabled smart phone can get GPS signal even when not in cell tower area. I use a Delorme PN60, I have gotten +/- 5 feet. Many who find my hides say they were right on top of it with these coords. But coords do tend to move over time. I have seen some move by 40 feet over the past year after placement. Some have been mine some have been others. Right after the Japan earthquake I recorded a 30 foot move on a cache that I had trouble finding before it happened. Then after the quake I found the cache located at GZ that was before the quacke. After the quake GZ moved 30 feet. Then I read geologist confirmed Earth crust shift by 30 feet. Try like others have said average your coords, but I would recomend a GPS. Battery life would be better and accuracy better. Plus a GPS has an average function, I take 40 to 100 hits to get good numbers. Have fun.

Yes put up a trail cam : )

As this activity grows there will be modifications to the rules. Some cities are now requiring registration of geocache placement. Blaine, Mn also as part of geocache placement ordinance forbids placement on child playgrounds. There are some still on playgrounds due to grandfathering. No new ones are allowed. What is the cause of all this? The Grizzly Bear phenomenon! Adult males will kill the young. Too many parents look at lone adult males like this, a major threat to the kids. The argument of I pay taxes so I can hide a cache here. Rings hollow, there are many state lands posted no trespass.

There have been problems reported with send to GPS. It all started with IE. Install the plugin into Google chrome or firefox for best results. If you use IE then the plugin must be enabled and set compatibility mode to accept geocaching.com. good luck.

A big problem with UV flashlight is you need to be close to the UV marked object. I have a UV led flashlight and from a distance you can't see the object. But with fire tacks a regular flashlight works great from a distance. so if you were walking down a trail at night looking for UV markers there is a good chance that you would miss them. I have one night hide and three UV hides myself. The UV code goes into a container to protect it from the elements.