HoustonControl

Thanks John! That worked like a charm! I had gotten as far as pulling up the datasheets for the county in question, but didn't know what to do with the results to turn them into a GPX file. I've found benchmarks and other survey markers in one's and two's over the years while geocaching around town. I was playing around with GoogleEarth recently and was trying to see if I could zero in better coordinates for Scaled markers by using the documented description. Armed with some better numbers (and a GPSr that loads the description as well as the coordinates), I set out yesterday and found 11 of 13 that I attempted, being first to log on GC.com for 10 of them. Two had been marked as Not Found by the USPSQD in recent years, so I thought that was pretty cool. Anyhoo, thanks for the feedback and help everyone.

Hmmmmm, didn't understand much of that. I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to all things benchmarking. I'd created a GPX file for my county several years ago, but haven't tried to update it until now -- an I've forgotten how to do it. I didn't know you could get datasheets via GSAK. Guess I need DSWORLD (whatever that is). No, sorry, I was in 6th grade in 69-70. ;-)

Hi all, I tried doing a new county download from NGS to create a GPX file as described in the pinned topic Me First!, but something has changed or I'm doing something wrong. The NGS webpage linked to only has the option for statewide archive downloads, not by county. Attempting a statewide download (for Texas, anyway) results in an error message. Am I going to the wrong area of the NGS site? Is there a workaround? Thanks for any help with this!

Started happening to me last night on work computer (Windows 7 and IE 8). Continues today at home on Windows Vista and Firefox 8.0. Yeah, seems to be related to having the GC.com map open.

Well, nevermind -- I just found it. Hogwildstuff. The "HG" at the beginning of the tracking number was a tip-off. Duh.

Hey everyone -- looking for some help. I have a Flying Artifact geocoin that I received as an FTF prize and I've been trying to find an activation code for it. I've tried every coin activation site I know of, but to no avail. I have no idea who made it and a Google search and Yahoo search has turned up next to nothing. Anyone have any insight on who to contact? It looks like this one: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=3124151

Hopefully the cache/event owners will recognize the logs as bogus and delete the "finds". Other than that, what can you do?

Maybe to a really, really good golfer. I've been golfing for 30+ years and have witnessed several holes-in-one but have yet to make one. On the other hand, I've found several caches and letterboxes by accident. One was an archived cache just a few yards from a new cache. I got FTF on the new one and the CO let me log the archived one. I got FTF on a letterbox while looking for a geocache, found another letterbox while trying to place a cache ("Man, that looks like a good spot -- oops, already taken!"). I got FTF on one cache because I happened upon the CO while he was hiding it. He had been placing caches in a series along a new trail, but had been placing them a day at a time. I got FTF on his latest, then wandered down the trail a bit and spotted him placing his daily cache. GOTCHA!!!

Oooooo, we're going to Barcelona as well in a few weeks. I'm interested to see what anyone might recommend.

My (limited) experience is, if there are no issues with the submittal, it's usually pretty fast. My last one got approved faster that a regular cache usually does!

OK, it was me... I have an earthcache (GC2176V) that asks for an answer to one question that requires "outside research" (isn't readily available at the EC site). I mention that the answer can be easily found online. My reasoning is that I want finders to learn a little something geological and the feature in question is on private property with no informational plaque or signage nearby. Oh, and I also ask for a picture (now supposedly optional) of the cacher at the location. In reality, I get some emails with the correct answer to the question, many with incorrect answers, and some with no answer at all..... and a few even fail to post a picture. But I've yet to delete a log, so I guess you'd say it's all optional.

Probably a storage lot for imported cars. The airport appears to be mostly unused with only one active runway, so I guess they're making use of the rest of the available acreage. They cover the cars with protective white plastic during transport to prevent damage to the paint, that's why they all look white. You can see the same thing at the Port of Houston in Texas: http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=29.73...vl=18&sty=h

As you can probably tell by my 75 posts in 5+ years, I usually avoid these forums too. But in my limited experience, I've found folks in the Earthcache forums to mostly be civil toward one another, which is refreshing. I don't think anyone is trying to be hard on the OP, just maybe realistic.

I created this somewhat tree-oriented Earthcache in an area known for a "lost" stand of bigtooth maple trees. As you can see, though, I focused more on the geology of the area that allowed the trees to survive there. If there's something geologically unique to the area that pertains to the tree, you might try that angle.

I too sent a package down under. It was mailed 6 weeks ago so unless it was going by rowboat, it should've gotten there by now!

I made Platinum level last month (finally got that 3rd EC submitted and approved). I applied for and received the Platinum pin, then for some reason, I received another one a couple of days ago. Guess you could say I'm Double-Platinum! LOL. Santa brought me a full set of the EC coins last Christmas. I also have one of the white pins for being FTF on This Challenge Cache.

Glad you like them. How did you get such good pictures? Lot's of practice (I take pics of every coin I activate for the coin page). That and a little Photoshop to clean up the background.

Mission 1 Participating: 25 MAR 2010 Name Received: 6 APR 2010 Mission Sent: 9 APR 2010 Mission Received: 19 APR 2010 I got my coins yesterday from Illinois. Nice!

Did you make a note of the tracking number on the coin? Even if the coin wasn't listed as being in the cache you got it from, you can retrieve it from it's current location or holder. Then just post a note for the cache you dropped it in and click on the coin from your inventory to drop it there. Perhaps the previous cacher just hasn't gotten around to logging it into the cache you got it out of. Give them a couple of days...

Me too! Will we be able to get them by May 1?

Mission 1 Participating: 25 MAR 2010 Name Received: 6 APR 2010 Mission Sent: 9 APR 2010 Mission Received: -

Mission 1 Participating: Mar. 25/10 Name Received: April 6th Mission Sent: - Mission Received: -

I had a similar issue with a cartridge running on a Nuvi (550). I built this cart over a year ago and it worked fine on a PPC, Colorado (after some tweaking) and Oregon. Then I bought the Nuvi and tried the cart on it for grins. The cartridge would shut down as soon as I entered the first zone. I narrowed it down to a command to display a certain screen. When I removed that script (let the player navigate to the screen on their own), it worked fine. Strange days indeed....

res2100 will email you the name and address of one of the other mission participants and send your details to a different person. You're responsible for sending your recipient 2 geocoins and the person with your name is responsible for sending you 2 coins. OK, cool!

I got an FTF on an earthcache that way. I visited a spot with the intention of listing it as an earthcache -- took pictures, read the informational plaque, made measurements, etc. When I got home and began the process of listing it, I saw that someone had beaten me to it by a couple of days. Luckily, I had all the needed info. My earthcache plans were quashed, but the FTF kinda made up for it!