Shoebox

This one will give you a map and long/lat. http://www.maporama.com/share/

Why are there so many racing bugs still near the starting site? A couple of the bugs are taking off and most are getting nowhere. The race will be over before the other bugs leave New York! I've enjoyed watching the race and have helped a couple of the bugs already but I just wish there was a much bigger race with the other bugs going everywhere.

I wanted to be part of the Cannonball Bug Race and when a pair of bugs arrived nearby, I ran over to the cache to get one of them so I could move it to the next state. It was a cache I'd been to a year ago but going there was the only way to get one of the Racers. That night the owner of the other Racing Bug e-mailed me and asked if I could pick his bug up too! So I had to make my third trip the the cache (it gets easier every time). I didn't see anything wrong in visiting old caches for a new purposes as long as you don't log them as additional finds.

Take batteries with you and make sure the GPS works, picks up satellites (you have to get out side or at least up against a window) and all buttons work. I'm on a Magellan 330 listserver and I hear about dead units all the time. You don't want to buy a bad one - no warranty.

If you fly out of larger airports, check the international gates area for a money exchange. At the Pittsburgh Airport there is some sort of an exchange window that will exchange your money coming or going (it was just outside of the international passport area). When my wife flew a lot she would exchange some here before she left and got rid of it when she got back, but you had to have a ticket to get to that side of the general security. Another place to look would be the large downtown banks. They usually have foreign money to exchange at reasonable rates.

I try to leave reasonable things but it can be a challenge on a limited budget. The first 10 or 20 were not a problem but approaching 50 (and I can't imagine several hundred) is getting to be a concern. $3 to $4 a trinket seems OK but at 100 caches I'll be facing $300 to $400, which I may not have. I'm going to continue to trade as long as my daughter takes something but when she quits, I'll be going the TN/LN route.

I used to use regular batteries but between the gps, backups for the gps, my daughters toys, and her gameboy (which eats the most batteries by far) I was spending a fortune. I got 4 NiMH batteries for the gps (2 as backup) and about 10 for my daughters stuff and I haven't had to buy a set of batteries for at least a year. If you are using batteries in large quantities, do the math. Figure how many you will have to use and then figure what NiMH batteries will cost times the number of times you can recharge them. It will make you a believer.

Where you hide a cache is as important as how well you hide it. On a recent find I mentioned in my log that the area was very active and the kids have made forts from downed logs all over the area and trails criss crossed everywhere. I would be surprised if the kids don't find this one and several other cachers made the same comment. So perhaps your site is not quiet enough? Doing more finds and reading other logs will tell you a lot about what works and what doesn't.

Don't forget that the person placing the cache has an element of error as well. They might be 25 feet off in one direction and your gps is reading 25 feet in the other direction. And some cachers aren't too careful when they mark a cache adding even more error. And don't even get me going about the tree cover! When I find myself withing 10 feet of a cache I figure it was a mistake or dumb luck.

I've answered this one several times. I no longer felt like a newbie when I found myself answering more questions than asking them.

e-mail them. I think you will find other cachers very coorperative. I often notice photos attached on caches that show the exact hiding spot and when I suggest they list it as a "spoiler", they always fix it.

You only see the bold options to edit/delete your cache when you are "logged in". Take a look at it when you are not logged in and they all look the same as all the others.

The only things I might add to this list would be a hikng stick and a pair of two way radios for when my daughter and I go geocaching and she drifts a little out of view. Beats yelling in the woods. And I'm dying to know why Criminal is carring a lock pick?

This seems to be a loophole that should be fixed for the next race. If an race owner was inclined to drive to the west cost, he could stop at a cache in every new state on the way, sign the log, place and remove the bug, and be in California in no time. Doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the race.

1. How did you find out/start geocaching? I belong to an astronomy club and someone mentioned a cache very nearby our facility. I looked it up and got interested. 2. Who/what got you started geocaching? My wife bought me a gps for Christmas. 3. How often you do it? At least once a month. It would be more but I save my outing for those times when my daughter is inclined to go with me. 4. How long have you been doing it? A year last January. 5. Spending amounts: a. Price of GPS I the neighborhood of $250 (at the time). b. Placing a cache Haven't yet but we are planning to. c. other equipment and prices (lights, ropes, etc) Another $50 or so on Computer cables, dash mounts, belt clips, binders. I am not counting the money spent on a camera and cell phone that we already had, or the mountain of computer prints I've made for the caches, or the hiking boots and socks, or the gas I've spent.

We don't get out as much as I would like and have a very low rate of cache finds, which used to be frustrating. But I've been watching the more active cachers and noticed that when you find 8 or 10 at a time, you soon clear out all of the nearby caches and have to resort to longer drives to remote caches. They must spend most of their caching time on the road. So take your time and enjoy the local caches (unless you enjoy driving a lot), it’s not a race.

Hey Geo-Johnson's, did you notice that www.lostoutdoors.com has a topo option? At the photo line there is a dropdown to a topo map selection. You can also add extra way points to the map which is very handy for parking and nearby caches. The photos are interesting but I think you will find the topo a lot more helpful.

Went to one near Pittsburgh a month or so ago. It was "No Glaciers Here, Just Water" GCA836. It should require a boat but at the time there was 22" of ice on the lake so we just walked to it. Hardly a 5 in the winter.

Many state and local parks allow geocaching but how long would that last if geocachers started digging holes all over the place looking for burried boxes. We would find ourselves banned everywhere.

I'm sorry I didn't hear about the race early enough to enter but I hope to see some of the racers in Pennsylvania soon so that I can help them along. The slow pace is driving me crazy. However, with the good weather coming this weekend maybe they'll pick up some speed (and head south).

I didn't try it yet myself, but I did read about one in Ohio called "Night Eyes of Niles" GC7155. They set up a series of "amber eyes" in the woods that lead to the cache and could only be done at night with flashlights. According to the logs, those doing the cache had a lot of fun so I'd say it was a success. If you were thinking about doing a night cache then go for it! Variety is what makes this sport so interesting.

I thought about doing that but when I looked at the 50 or so that I have printed, waiting for my next outing, and then saw the more active cachers with 200 and 300 finds (or more), I wondered where I'd keep all the past prints? Decided to keep a log on my Visor instead.

I was thinking it might be too restrictive as it will require the cacher to own a digital camera but then I remember a virtual cache that started near me called the Pennsylvania NGS Benchmark Recovery Cache GC3241 and to verify your find you have to attach a photo of the benchmark. It's been operating quite nicely for the year plus that I have been checking out local caches. So, no it's not too restrictive. Your cache will be just like the benchmark cache and those on islands that require a boat to get there and those underwater that requires other gear. Go for it. I would enjoy seeing the photos so maybe you could post the site here when you set it up.

You might want to take a look at one of the Yahoo Groups that discuss the Magellan GPSs. I belong to the m330 and Magellanmap330 Groups and they are always talking about the technical side of the software and secret codes in the M330 to override commands - all of which go right over my head. But they should be able to answer you technical questions. I believe there are other Groups that cover a number of the different Magellan models but as I don't own the other models, I didn't look for them.

While we are at it, a while ago there was a discussion about how you change a link to a word or phrase (like you guys are doing now). I thought I saved it but apparently I didn't and I have no idea under what subject it was. I tried several other searches with no success. Does anyone remember that discussion?