octavia

Thanks everyone! We got it going and managed to do a local quick one. The boys loved it!

searching for a cable.. but isn't there a way to just manually punch in the coords?

Yikes! I haven't cached in a few years... life distractions and all that and decided that this afternoon it would be fun to reintroduce the kids to geochaching. I dug out the garmin, dusted it off, (yep, been that long) and went to find a local cache and go. The problem is, the last time I cached, I had a program on my pc and loaded waypoints that way, now, I have a new pc and just wanted to manually add a few for the afternoon and deal with downloading the program and re learning how to connect the etrex later. My questions are: how do I manually enter waypoints in my g armen etrex legend? I can't seem to find the place... and.. which program is the most user friendly now a days? I had swiss army knife if memory serves before, but don't remember that is was all the simple. Are there easier less complicated ones now, or is that still a good choice for a girl just wanting to keep it simple and easy to use. thanks all! octavia

thanks! I'm downloading coor. now. Octavia

We are planning a trip to the zoo this weekend with our kiddo's. I assumed I would be able to just search up some caches for us to find, but I have'nt been able to find any that I can define as near there. Does anyone know the coordinates there? Or any good family friendly caches near there? Thanks! Octavia

Thanks! I don't know how I missed your update to the FAQ, Markwell, but I did. *smacks head* I've dwnld gsak and managed to get a waypoint into my legend through it, queries are taking me a while to master and understand, but I think all the software and hardware are doing their jobs, all that is left is for me to do mine. Octavia

I feel like "little Miss Create a Topic" these days, but I can't find any post or FAQ dealing with this, so here goes... again. I've upgraded my membership, dowloaded pocket reader, ran a pocket query and tried to dwld to my garmin legend. I got the info into the reader on my desktop ok, but from there, I can't find a way to dwload to my GPS. *sigh* The only option I am getting is to dwld to my palm. Not an option, the thing is broken. Also, I downloaded gpseasy and was wondering is there a program out there that will do all geocaching related things, rather than having to have more than one? I saw a list of programs that will handle the formats, clayjar? etc, but couldn't find a review page anywhere to find out what options/features they all have to choose the best one for me. basically, I want the easiest softest way to get all the info to my GPS from searches, so we can just GO! GO! GO! Thanks in advance, Octavia

After reading all the posts left by people responding to my questions about items for kids, and the new thread focused on items for adults, I've come to the conclusion that the one thing all good swag has in common is the fact that the person leaving it shows interest and care in what they are doing. Wether that is by spending $$ on it, or investing time making it, or thinking about it. The bottom line, is they invest something of themselves in it. As I mulled it over trying to figure out the difference, it dawned on me that a piece of concrete thown into a cache would upset me, but not if it were wrapped in a note scrolled by a child with the utmost of care. (like I saw in someone's post ) I wanted to open a thread dedicated to awsome finds. A place where you can share a really cool momento, or sig item with the rest of us. For me, the fun of geocaching is in sharing all the cool locations, puzzles, hiding spots, sig items etc. So I would like this to be a thread dedicated to the sharing of those swag items that make you go "Wow!" Maybe if we can celebrate those that really "Wow" our socks off, we can encourage more personal investment from others, and in the process, inspire ourselves! Mods, can we do this? Is it allowed?

Wow. You sure are catching a lot of heat for your question. I though you were looking for perspective on weather or not your log entry was appropriate. I think you got some fine suggestions up higher in the thread for nicer ways to express the same thing. And it being your opinion, it is yours to express. I'm too new to the game to know how I feel about 1/1, micros, and all the other places this thread has gone. Had I been the person who's log you had signed, It probably would have stung, but it may have made me rethink my location choice as well. Happy Caching, Octavia

Well... If you REALLY want to know... I like to find small mementos. I'm reading about special themed things people do, I think that is cool, or homemade things. So far, I've traded out a small obscure transit token and a pewter cross. I'm in the process of buying a bunch of globe marbles and stuff, because I think it would be neat to find something like that. we've put in lotto tickets, I think that would be fun to, and inexpensive. I was thinking of doing stuff like flower seeds for moms, and maybe starbucks gc cards to grownups in general. Wouldn't that be a nice find? A cup of your favorite Joe. We also put in a book thong on one of the ones we visited that seemed to need a boost. Just a string with beads at both ends, could easily be crafted within 3-5 dollars. Just some of my rambling ideas... I'm excited to hear what ideas others have too! I'm still in the formative stage on this one!!

I love them too! I've been trying to come up with a unique fun inexpensive thing that I can leave. I thought about homemade stuff, My aunt makes leather bookmarks with scottish designs on them, I thought that would be neat if I could get the leather cheap enouph. I don't think your a cheapskate at all! If you are, then I REALLY am, I just spent over and hour trying to find what I think I want to be our signature item, an earth marble, wholesale. Don't want to have to pay retail. I think homemade siggy coins and stuff is VERY cool. That is what I think of when I think of stuff to trade out of a cache. Something neat like that. A momento.

My traditionals cost $80-$100 each to stock, with a $35-$50. FTF prize and 6-10 camping, hiking and toy trinkets each worth maybe $5.[ Coordinates please? My experience is that folks will go out of their way to trade nice for nice - many people mention returning to their car to get a better trade item than they had on them. Seriously, I have been muling over creating our fist cache, and I wondered about the appropriateness of putting something in the listing mentioning that it is a "high quality kid swag cache" or something. And asking people to respect that and leave it as nice as they find it for the next family. I know we would probably still have to spice it up from time to time, but maybe that would encourage people to be more cosiderate? What do you all think, Ok, or not OK? LOL.... BUT I wasn't even concidering things like dvds! Ok, scratch that idea. As John mentioned, a box of crayons is CHEAP ! someone else said rocks. Geez, when I was little, I searched for rocks EVERYWHERE my parents took me. My pants wouldn't stay up by the end of the day due to the load in my pockets. ( heck, I STILL trade for cool rocks in caches ) Exactly! My son's both love rocks! One thing I remember another parent saying in a thread - they always bring some items to "salt" the cache with if there aren't enough goodies. That way, their children aren't dissappointed to tears. They just always open the cache first, with the excuse of checking it to be sure there are no spiders. Thanks for the tip! I was trying to figure out how to do this with my younger one without him wondering why he never get to open it. My older one would never fall for it. I just wish he could go on beleiving that all people and good and respectful, I guess part of growing up is learning that that isn't always true. He is a very kind hearted boy, and he gets much pleasure out of thinking about the next kid who will be thrilled with what he leaves, but he is still young enouph to be disappointed when there is nothing but trash for him. I think I will let him read this thread though, It will give him a sense that we are not alone in our values and inspire him to keep on with them, as it has me. I'll never forget the look on my 4 year old nephew's face on two occasions. The first was the look of joy when he peered into the container and found it full of toys. There was nothing expensive there. Most of the stuff was nothing much beyond McToys, but they were all new or gently used. No toy soldiers half chewed by the family dog, or Matchbox cars sans wheels and doors. The other was the look of disappointment on his face when he found a cache filled with garbage. exactly! We had a friend with us yesterday, caching for the first time. These boys were so excited to get to the cache and find it that they hiked away most of the afternoon. It didn't help that it was the third cache we looked for and the only one we found. I don't buy the "one man's garbage is another man's treasure" concept. Its a copout. Used sunglasses missing a lens and both earpieces, a rusty key ring from Mannys Car Wash, a dirty diaper cover, an expired Sanka coupon and filthy work gloves with holes in the fingers are garbage pure and simple (all stuff I've encountered). Despite what many people seem to think, a cache isn't a garbage can - or at least shouldn't be. If its garbage throw it out. sounds like the cache we found. I know this is a long reply, I just wanted to respond to what so many of you said. I would respond to more, but the program won't let me. I really appriciate the support and replies. It is encouraging to know we are not alone and that there are other cachers that restock with "good stuff" and not just garbage. I didn't know if our expectations were to high or what? We left a box of crayons in a cache that had two partly used crayons in it already! I didn't know if we were "upping the bar" on people or what? On a positive note, someone from another area was just through and left nice trading cards in all the caches they visited. My son had found 2 of those! He loves those trading cards! His challenge now is he wants to find all the caches this person visited!! LOL. To funny. I emailed the person to let them know what effect their "treasure" had on one little boy anyway. They got a warm fuzzie, I got a warm fuzzie, my son got a warm fuzzie. ( he left trading cards and is excited about the kid that will find his)

We carry a pretty full bag of stuff too. I guess I didn't know what the guidelines are? One of the advantages of this sport for us is the opportunity to teach my kids about respect, fair play, etc. Even before geocaching our family rule was/is We always leave a place nicer than we find it. That applies to caches as well. For me it is about the hunt, for my kids... the treasure is a major player. They like the hunt too, but it is tied to the expectation of finding a cool treasure for them. I guess I just need to learn what we are and are not allowed to do to others' caches. We've already spiced up several that seemed to have degraded. I'm sorry, I just don't see the value in a pant string as a find. Not something I want to keep as a momento. I only leave things, I would be excited to find. I'm not talking about big $ either, just neat non- ordinary day stuff. The cache that my son was so disappointed in, had an old dirty bottle of travel shampoo, who wants to keep that as a momento? Don't get me wrong, we have found many neat things. It just seems that a cache may have one or two respectable items and then several things that make us go ??? A newspaper rubber band, a penny, a broken mc toy, etc. etc. I guess what we could do is just "trade" that stuff out and leave something that someone would find pleasureable to find. Thanks for all the imput, It helps to know I'm not the only person struggeling with kids and caching. If it were just me, I would probebly do as others have. TNLN, or TN left... something cool for the next 9 year old who happens by.

I searched the forums before I started this thread, wanting to see if anyone else had posted about this lately... I don't mean to complain, I am just wondering what is the general quality of the baubles in the caches? My 9 year old hiked most of the day away with me today, looking for a cache, and when we found it, he cried he was so disappointed. There was only one "cool" item in the whole thing, the rest of the stuff was either broken or worth about 2 cents serioulsy. He gave the cool item to his freind who was with us. I know it isn't for the stuff, but a cool momento is what it is supposed to be about right? One cache we found had a string from someones sweat pants in it? I just thought that the idea was cool rocks, cards, small toys, coins, etc.. Am I missing something, or is this how it goes? I guess what would be good to know is if the majority of them are like this, or if they are different in different areas or something. Some of the caches we found had cool stuff in them, but many had broken stuff too. I've seen others post about what they include, I've read the FAQ also, so am wondering if others have found this a problem, or do we need to lower our expectations. Octavia and Co.

For sure! One of the things that first attracted us to caching was all the learning opportunities on so many levels! Fair play, leave it better than you found it, geography, technology... the list is endless! We created a "cache stash" in my son's old diaper bag back pack. Looks normal enouph and the kids helped me fill it with all kinds of goodies. When we get to the trading part, we talk about what would be "fair" trades for the items they want. Always remembering that the cache should be left to be just as much fun for the next person to find, not a disappointment. The broken car was in a cache that also had a mctoy, my hubby traded that out just to put something cooler in. I guess we could have traded out the broken car too... Next time we'll know better.

We've only done a handfull so far, but I can tell you, we could have had a real melt down with one of them that had a broken toy car in it. Thankfully, Daddy did some quick manevering and managed to avoid the drama. My kids (9 and 3) have been delighted with the "treasure". My 9 year old will adjust to anything, for example when he found a yo-yo, that was his fav toy until the next cache. His all time favorite is trading cards though, he's a nut for those. Much to my husbands dismay, my three year old seems to want the jewlery. Today he aquires a rather smashing glittery heart bracelet. only my 9 year old cares about finding it, he was getting discouraged when we were finding them first, so we backed off to give him a chance. btw, what is the etiquette when you find a cache with garbage or broken stuff in it? should you toss those things, or leave it be? We didn't change anything in the one we found, but we were wondering if we should have? Octavia

sorry, guess I should have worded my post differently. I was posting to say that I am totally addicted to geocaching after only 2 days! And... Hey, did my avvy work or what? Octavia *runs off to figure out how to put a siggy in her posts*

Well... I'm off to a running start. found several already. Completely hooked. Just uploaded a pic to use as an avvy, wanted to see if it worked. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? LOL Octavia

Thanks!

We have searched for a specific cache twice now, and there seems to be an error. I noticed that it isn't on the site anymore either and would like to just take the way point off my GPS, but can't figure out how. The users manuals that come with these things are way lacking! Anyone know how to? Thanks, Octavia

I know I'm dreadging up an old topic here, but I didn't see the use in starting a new one for my question. I got my garmin legend today, did much of the stuff listed, downloaded gpseasy or whatever that first program is, and plugged the cord that came with into the gps, and the puter and.... nada. am I missing something?? btw, the waypoints have downloaded into my computer just fine, just not over to the gps. Thanks, Octavia

Thanks for the help. I read through the list and only have a one questions left. Where can I find out what benchmarks are? Never mind, i found it. NOt sure how I missed the FAQ right there?? Thanks again Lil Devil someones initials! Now THAT's an embarrasing thing to not get.

I looked on the FAQ and the glossary of terms. I was able to find the answers for most of them, but not for these last ones. TFTC TFTH YPR, LPR I know I'll probably laugh when someone tells me... Thanks! Octavia

Thanks everyone for your help. I think I know WAY to much about GPS for a person who has yet to hold one. We think we want to go with a legend. It will give my hubby some more "features" and let us get out there and go!!! Yesterday Walmart had it for 131 but today they want 138? Irritating. I'm gonna check amazon and shop around a little... hopefully, I'll be posting soon with our first find!!

Hi all. We are VERY new to geocaching, as a matter of fact, we have never done it! (yet!) I have read all the faq and recommendations on purchasing a starter unit, we have around 100 dollars to spend, and here is my problem. My husband. The more research we do, the more my husband wants a gps with some more features. It only makes sense he says. I know he is right, but we still only have around 100 bucks. So, I thought I'd see if anyone was upgrading and had a used one for sale? We would like to geocache as a family and I'm going nuts to get one so we can go!! I've been lurking on the boards here for a couple of weeks and its killing me!!! LOL desperate to cache in Oregon, Octavia