Quossum

You might quickly get to the point where you will want to be a member, do Pocket Queries, and use Easy GPS or GSAK. To tide you over until then... Under Your Profile at the main site, you will see a section for "Your GPS." Follow the instructions there to tell the site which unit you have. Go to the cache's page, make sure your Garmin is plugged into your computer. You will see a button that says "Send to my GPS." That should do the trick for you. While you're on the cache's page, you might check out any hints or read a few logs so that you'll be better prepared for what you're looking for in the field. Good luck and happy caching! --Q

Probably THE easiest to use is the Geomate Jr., good for beginners, and many experienced cachers like it, too. As for knowing if you've found it...you'll know. There should be a log inside, at the very least, and if it's a larger container, some small trade items. Most geocaches also have some sort of a note inside briefly explaining the game in case the cache is found by muggles (non-geocachers). Good luck; this is a really fun game that you and the kids should really enjoy. --Q

When I took a caching trip to another city recently, part of my goal was to leave off three TBs I had (one of which specifically wanted to visit a beach town) and to pick up as many as I could so that they could get a ride to another city. With that in mind, we specifically tried to visit a few caches which had TBs logged into their inventory. Sadly, not one of the caches that were supposed to have them, did. Well, I take that back. One did...but the one TB we picked up from it was NOT one of the three TBs that were logged into it; it was a completely random bug which still, almost two weeks later, has not been logged into the cache where we found it. I'm giving it a couple more days before I go ahead and just log it into the cache myself and retrieve it; I want to give the person who had it a chance to log it in. On the other hand, its owner hasn't been on for a year and has only found two caches, so he's probably not on the edge of his seat waiting to see what will happen to his TB (whose name is "Travel Bug Dog Tag" ). So, yes, I bet the owners of all those TBs would rather have them in motion, being taken and released by a responsible cacher, than simply left in the caches. --Q

LOL--I could've sworn that rule involved sending it straight to users whose names begin wtih "Q" and whose avatars include North American marsupials, but I must be wrong... --Q

Borrowed term or not, I love it and think it's perfect for our sport. Adds the little touch of magic to our proceedings, and carries the implication of this whole hidden world of caches, lurking under lamp posts, sequestered in signs, resting under trees down paths no "normal" human would walk, going on all around that only a select few of us know about. --Q

Go here: http://www.pathtags.com/index.php If the person who designed the pathtag has set its map to public, you can see all the places where someone has found (or been traded) that particular tag, but as PP have mentioned, the individual tags are not trackable. Lots of information at the Pathtags forums, too. Enjoy! They are neat. --Q

Here in Southeast Texas the terrain is very flat. I think one of the biggest challenges here is the oppressive heat we experience for many months out of the year! I live on the edge of Houston, where there are a great many urban micros, but there are also many forest and beach environments within easy reach. Other challenges: MOSQUITOES, alligators (in some areas), poison ivy, snakes, spiders, very heavy brush / undergrowth in growing periods, some very wet times of year making swamps out of parks. --Q

The woods! Then at least if the cache is "bad" you've stll gotten a nice walk out in nature for it. I enjoy urban caches, too, especially if they're good. If they're bad, well, all you got was a sense of frustration in a parking lot. --Q

While I enjoy P&G's to an extent--heck, I'm still new enough that I enjoy pretty much all types of caches!--I really love a long hike and / or some bushwhacking. I don't even mind a mircro in the woods if it's appropriate to the setting. I don't mind a high difficulty hide, so long as the CO has rated it appropriately so that I'll know how hard I should hunt. After all, it's the getting there that's the adventure, and I don't mind logging a DNF. And yes, cachers, newbies in particular, should read the cache page and previous logs before heading out. However, I do think that, especially if you've put forth the effort to get to a high difficulty GZ, at least the CO could provide a *useful* hint for if you get stuck. --Q

Exactly this happened to me. I'd read about TB's and even visited the forums before picking up a TB myself, but the logging was confusing because of previous users' failure to log the bug properly. I'm grateful to know about "dipping" now, because I was really confused when I would drop off the bug, log it properly into the cache, and then on the bug's page it would say that I had *taken* it from the very cache at which I *left* it. From now on I'll know what to do. --Q

This is so true. My DH and I bushwhacked *much* too early on one of our earliest finds. I hope our excursion didn't cause any damage to the environment, but if it did, well, the environment certainly got us back, in the form of thorns, poison ivy, snake sightings, spiders, fallen logs to climb or go under...it really was an arduous adventure. How arduous? Here's my husband at the end of it: When we found the cache, and it was about ten feet from the trail on the other side of the loop! In our case, it was ignorance and inexperience, but still, we would never have gone in against the direct command of a sign, or removed or tampered with one in any way. And, we learned from this one! --Q

Micro I'd Like to Find. Sample context: I walked through the city, thinking excitedly that behind every light post was probably another MILF. --Q

Wow...awkward. I did nominate one of my own logs, for this cache. It was my very first, and I thought I told a good story that got across the excitement of my first find. Sure, I was hoping that someone else (maybe the CO's, who wrote me after I did the log thanking me for it) would nominate it, but they didn't (maybe they would have, eventually!), and it had dropped off the first page, so I didn't think anyone would see it. I always put effort into my logs. Some are better than others, but I try to make all of them more than a "TFTC" thing. I wasn't looking for strokes or anything; just thought it was a fun log that might be enjoyed. Now I feel a little bad about it. I guess I should've just let it stand on its own merits and be nominated or not. I certainly won't nominate another one of mine! Thanks for the viewpoints! --Q

My sister and her family, who are avid Geocachers, went to Disney for Spring Break, and they specifically mentioned the Kim Possible game as being similar to a sort of Geocache hunt. They really enjoyed it. Sounds a little bit like a Wherigo, if I understand Wherigo correctly. --Q

That's where the Pocket Queries come in, a privilege that comes with your Premium membership. Go to Your Profile, then look on the right-hand side of the page and down, under "Premium Features." Click on "Build Pocket Queries," and you should get to a page that will guide you along. Once your get the Pocket Query, you should be able to download the whole thing at once. I have PQ that runs regularly for "Easy, Nearby Caches," then I run others for places I'm going, etc., tailored to the circumstances. From there, it depends on the capabilities of your GPSr as to how much information goes onto the device. --Q

Try here: http://www.pathtags.com/design.php The pathtags site and forum can be a big help. --Q

I've been writing a lot, almost like a little story of the find. I suppose some people might find them stupid and tedious, but on the other hand a couple of CO's have written to me and told me how much they enjoyed my logs. I also like to include pictures. Who knows, maybe eventually I'll get bored and start in with the TNLN TFTC's. Nah... --Q

I was sure I would *never* care to / be able to find a micro, but I've found two now with no problem. When you first go for a micro, make it one of the low difficulty ones in a non-mugglious area. Look for a small container stuck underneath something or a magnetic one stuck to something metal. Don't start with one of those high-difficulty "looks like something it isn't" caches that some people really love but are bound to be a little frustrating to a beginning searcher. Bring tweezers, because micros can have really tightly rolled-up logs in them. Of course, in time you too may come to love these, but give yourself a chance to get into the "micro-mindset" by looking for easier ones first. --Q

Now, mind you, I am a rank beginner, too, though I had previous caching experience via my sister before I got started doing this myself. I, too, was a little overwhelmed by my GPSr, but now I love it! I have the 60 CSx. I download the caches into the device. Sometimes I print out the cache page for the one I'm going for, sometimes I don't. I usually at least check it using my phone to make sure it's been found recently, see any hints, the size, etc. I usually use "other means" to get into the general area of the cache, before I even get out my GPSr. Either street maps, or putting the coordinates into my car's GPS, or whatever. Once I'm in the general area, then I get out my 60 CSx. It has a button for "Find," which I click, then "Geocaches," and I have it set up to Find the Nearest Cache, which, since I'm in the right area, will be the one I want. I press Enter on that one, and then, yes, that's when I start looking at the compass screen, the one with an arrow pointing towards the cache, and start walking. Walk in the direction the arrow is pointing, and watch the numbers telling you how far away you are from the target, which is the coordinates of the cache. Every once in a while I'll look at the Map screen, which I get to by pressing Page, but mostly, when I'm doing the actual hunting, I'm looking at the compass and the number of feet to the cache. Sometimes you have to detour and get farther away before you get closer, but that's part of the fun! On my device, when I find the cache, I press enter for "Found" and the icon on the map changes from a closed treasure chest to an open one. Then it tells me where the next nearest cache is! Hope this helps! Don't be afraid to experiment and press buttons on your device. I find that the more I do, the more I use the thing, the more I actually understand the instructions manual! --Q

If and when whereisgeorge sees in it caches, they will remove the dollar from their site. The bill tracking site is www.wheresgeorge.com A geocached bill will not be removed from the site; its report will be marked with a "This is a Geocaching bill" label and the bill isn't eligible for "Top 10" reports, that's all. Here's the official FAQ on the WG? site: http://www.wheresgeorge.com/wrapper.php?page=top10bills_dgc Here's a thread where the Georgers are talking about Geocaching: http://forums.wheresgeorge.com/showthread....hlight=geocache Here's an example of a bill report with a Geocaching label: http://www.wheresgeorge.com/report.php?key...c1f3006316dd372 (I'm a Georger! ) --Q

I'm new...be gentle. I have a brand new 60CSx and I love it. Now, of course, I have questions that I never knew existed. Okay, so I get my Pocket Query and load the data into the unit. No problems there. I find a few caches, mark them "Found" in my unit. I've already discovered that if I download the same Pocket Query again, the Found status will go away, and the cache will be replaced into the unit as Not Found. So I create a new Pocket Query, this time excluding (the whopping six) caches I've found. Will those Found caches now remain on the device with the Found status intact, or will those caches' little treasure chest icons, open OR closed, simply not be there at all? When I get ready to download the new PQ onto my device, do I need to first delete the information that's already in there, or will the new data overwrite the old, or just be added to it, or what? Say I changed some criteria for the latest PQ, so caches that would have been included before now are not. Will the now-excluded caches remain on the device, because they were already in there? Thank you for any help! --Quossum