Chief301

Same problem. Leaving for vacation on Wednesday, hope they get it sorted out shortly.

What's the problem? I signed the log, didn't I?

In my area it's not unusual for a cache to go a week or more before FTF. 3 or 4 days is common. This is out in the rural areas mostly, I'm sure the ones in Baton Rouge and New Orleans get found much quicker.

Wait a minute....think about what you're saying here. The owner of the bug wants to see it travel. It IS traveling. It's visiting many caches and traveling many miles, albeit in the hands of one cacher. Most travel bug owners, I think, would be happy to see that their bug is alive and well and being moved around by someone who is conscientious enough to log its travels. It's not laying forgotten in the bottom of soneone's caching bag or kept for a toy by some 5 year old. It's traveling, which is what it's supposed to do. Eventually the holder will drop it in another cache and someone else will grab it. This game is about the numbers as much or as little as you want it to be.

Finally coming over to the smart phone dark side, Bam? ?

There is no software to get. You can send cache info to your GPS from the Geocaching.com site. As K13 indicated, you can download hundreds at a time via Pocket Query, including the full description, recent logs, and hints, if you are a Premium member. If not PM, you can still send the cache name sad coordinates to the GPS, but you'll have to do it one at a time.

Caches are not reviewed for safety concerns, as each cacher needs to make their own judgement about whether they are physically able to search for a cache and are comfortable with the risk. A cache will unlikely get archived because it is too close to the road. However, if the cache needs maintenance and isn't being taken care of, you can post a "needs archived" note on the cache which will get the attention of a reviewer. Posting a needs maintenance will not alert anybody other than the cache owner. I think a combination of the above (safety concerns + inattentive/inactive owner) should be sufficient to warrant the reviewer's attention. But even aside from the maintenance issue, I think safety concerns alone should be enough for archival in some cases. Are there not situations where a cache submittal is denied for safety reasons? Yes, some caches are dangerous but if it's a known, obvious danger, like up the side of a cliff where you know you'll need special skills and equipment), those types probably wouldn't get denied because the risk is clear and is part of the challenge. But if there are safety hazards that are not so obvious and not an inherent part of the experience, like a cache placed on live electrical equipment or a vicious dog on the property, for example, those would likely be denied on safety grounds. So if such caches can be denied for safety reasons, could they not also be archived for the same reasons? Say if the original hider misrepresented the conditions of the cache location, or something about the location has changed that add a new hazard, those would be valid reasons to archive a cache due to safety concerns, would they not?

Log a "Need Archived" and explain your concerns exactly as you have here. This will alert your local reviewer who will take it from there.

Caching in a jeep with the top down also helps.

Go for whatever kind of cache makes you happy. There probably aren't as many of the long hike style caches as the park & grab variety (actually, there's no "probably" about it), so your options may be more limited, and you may actually have to do a fair bit of driving to get to the parks and woodsy areas that feature those sorts of caches. You'll probably have to do more planning before heading out but if that's your thing then go for it. Myself, I'm not in the best shape so really long hikes don't appeal to me much, plus my area has a significant dearth of public lands and accessible wild areas compared to other states, so cool hikes and woodsy adventures aren't really available (even though Louisiana is known as the "Sportsman's Paradise", apparently that paradise only applies if you're into hunting and fishing, but I digress....). I'm more into the "road trip" aspect of the game....I don't mind driving from cache to cache and in fact to me that's part of the appeal....I like exploring new places and finding cool landmarks and interesting locations off the beaten path.

30 feet or so is not an unreasonable margin of error. A handheld GPS is not going to put you pinpoint on top of the cache.....10-20 feet is about the very best you should expect. Plus you don't know how accurate the hider's coordinates were in the first place, so you have no way of knowing that YOUR device is 30 feet off....maybe HIS coordinates are actually 30 feet off.

So what's your question?

Not a common occurrence, but it's happened to me several times. I even keep a Bookmark list of caches where I bumped into other caches. Always a treat.

You have to load the Geocaches on the GPS first. You don't have data connectivity with a GPS so you can't just look up local caches like that. There are no Geocaches showing up on the device because you haven't put them there yet.

If you take a trackable you must put something back just if you put in a trackable you can take something. Ummm....no

Wow. The level of misunderstanding regarding swag etiquette is amazing. Re: Seahawks jersey...yes, that's cool swag, but it shouldn't be viewed as someone being "generous"....did you take the jersey? And did you trade something of relatively equal value for it? Cache trade items are just that, TRADE ITEMS....they are to be traded for....they are not free gifts. Letterbox stamps are also NOT TRADE ITEMS! Letterboxing is a different game than Geocaching. Letterboxers use the stamp in the letterbox to stamp their personal log book and use their personal stamp to mark the letterbox's log book. If the stamp is missing the letterbox doesn't work. Taking a letterbox's stamp ruins their game as much as muggling a cache ruins ours. Just don't do it. Finally, if you find alcohol or any other prohibited item in a cache (drugs, weapons, food, etc) don't leave it in there. These are also not valid trade items. They don't belong in a cache and should be removed and disposed of (or I guess consumed if you feel brave....I wouldn't advise it though). The cache owner and future finders will thank you for it. Rant off.

I think you just answered your own question.

Of course you can. Dropping or picking up a travel bug is a common reason to revisit a cache you've found previously. Other reasons would be returning with a group of cachees to a cache you've previously visited solo, or maybe you're bringing a friend or a new just starting out cached to a really cool cache to show them how cool it is. Or just for no reason at all. However, you shouldn't log another "Found" log, since this will mess up your find count and besides, how can you "find" it if you already know where it is? Etiquette-wise, what you should do in these situations is log a "Note", and mention that you're there dropping off a travel bug or whatever.

This is a new in package model,so never used. I have an older smart phone but no data plan,and wouldn't be feasible to get one now. Though I have been looking at plans. So for what I understand,this gps is just a gps,so I put coordinates in and then it leads me to it.Which is fine,I would plan which ones I would want to find. What made you decide to upgrade from this model? Was it lacking some feature? Is there a feature that this one doesn't have that would be really great to have? Thanks so much for your reply. Paperless caching capability was one of the primary reasons I upgraded to the Oregon. That and I like the touch screen better than the little joystick thingy on the Legend, but that's just personal preference. Also, the Oregon has the 3-axis electronic compass, which means it knows which way it's facing even if you're standing still....units without the E-compass require you to be moving to accurately work out your direction of travel. If you stop moving and turn around they get confused until you start moving again. Not a huge thing but it does make the unit a little easier to use. If you go to Garmin's website, you can look at the features of each unit. I think pretty much all the handheld units in their current lineup do paperless caching. The Legend is an older model (I don't know if they're still making them), but it didn't do paperless caching. No, that is one negative of using a dedicated GPS unit....they have no data connection. Some of the higher end units I think are coming with WiFi capability, but that's only handy for downloading caches and waypoints to the unit when you're in a WiFi area.....wouldn't do you any good out in the boonies. So you have to load all the cache info to the device before you go out...you won't be able to just look up caches "on the fly", as it were. But the flip side of that "negative" is that you don't need data connectivity to use it....ideal for remote areas with no cell service. This isn't as time consuming as it sounds if you have a Premium membership to Geocaching.com. One of the best (if not THE best) benefit of Premium membership is Pocket Queries. You can download hundreds of caches to your device at once. When I'm planning an outing, it takes me all of about 10 minutes to run a Pocket Query of the area, plug in my GPS and download up to 1,000 caches at a time....and if I run more than one PQ, I can get several thousand caches on the device...very handy if you know that you want to cache in a general area but don't necessarily know exactly what caches you're going to go after when you get there. If the device supports paperless caching, you'll get the full description, hints, recent logs, pretty much all the necessary cache information. Without Premium membership you'll have to load the caches you want to hunt one by one. Then, if your device is NOT paperless, you'll only get the cache name, GC code number, and coordinates. No hints, descriptions, etc. As niraD pointed out, you could still use the phone for Geocaching. Get one of the apps available for your platform (Android, I'm assuming). Assuming that you can still access WiFi with the phone, you could download all the necessary cache information to the phone and save it in the app, while you're in a WiFi area. Once you've saved the caches you want to hunt, and the map tiles for the area in question, you can still use the phone for caching without a data plan. I'm pretty sure the Samsung Galaxy has an actual GPS chip installed, which means you can still get GPS signal from the satellites and therefore still use the GPS function of the phone, even without data. Some of the very early smart phones used cell tower triangulation and not true GPS to determine location (requiring a data connection to those towers), but all the smart phones in the last 5 years or so have a GPS chip on board and therefore don't require communication with the cell towers to navigate. I know it's all very confusing. There's a bit of a learning curve regarding the techy side of this game, if you're unfamiliar with using a GPS, and how the GPS function of your phone works. Not to mention the learning curve of how to actually find a cache But once you get the hang of it, the adventure is really rewarding. Try one of the free Geocaching apps to start out, learn how to save the caches to the app before going out, and play around with that setup for awhile. You may find that it fits your needs and budget for now. Later on, once you've gained some experience, you'll have a better feel for what features you'd want in a GPS and whether Premium membership would be advantageous to you. Good luck!

I used to use a Legend HCX, but I upgraded pretty quickly to on Oregon 650. Are you buying it used? I didn't think they made the Legend anymore. The main drawback of the Legend, at least for Geocaching, is that it does not support paperless caching....that is, you can download waypoints to it which will give you the name of the cache and the coordinates and that's it. A paperless unit has all the cache info on it....descriptions, hints, recent logs, etc. Do you have a smart phone by any chance? There are several Geocaching apps out there for various platforms. They range in price from free to 10-15 bucks. That would be a much more economical way to get started.

I'd consider using Velcro. An adhesive patch of Velcro on the back side of the sign, with the corresponding Velcro on your container. Easy to do, wouldn't damage the stone monument, and if it had to be removed the residue of the adhesive would clean off pretty easily compared to an epoxy.

You are understanding correctly for the most part. Most every handheld GPS comes with is known as a "base map" already installed on the device. The base map only includes the most basic of features..major highways, bodies of water, but that's about it. No minor roads, no trails, no topography. So it wouldn't be very helpful for the situations you have described. If you're going to be using the device as you describe, i.e., locating trails, etc., you're going to want something a little better, which means a device that accepts maps, which again brings us to the Etrex 20. With Garmins (and some other brands I'm sure.... I'm mostly familiar with Garmin) you do have the option to purchase a unit with topographic maps already installed. Those models with a "T" in the model name have topo maps preinstalled for your part of the world. They cost a little more but less work for you. If you choose a model without the topo maps installed, you can also buy the maps from Garmin. I think they come on a SD card so you just have to pop it in the device (which is why you'd want a model with a memory card slot, like the Etrex 20). Again, a little extra expense but less work. Finally, you can save some money by downloading free topo maps from the Internet and installing them yourself. Sites like GPSfiledepot.com in North America and TalkyToaster in the UK have hundreds of local, regional, and specialized maps (like trail maps) available for free. They require a little more work and tech savvy on your part but they're free. Yet another type of map is the routable map, which can give you turn by turn driving directions to the cache location. This is very handy if you do a lot of car caching. All these maps, when installed, are basically overlaid on the existing base map on your device. They run together....in other words, if you're using a routable map for driving directions, once you park the car you just switch over to off-road mode and you're navigating on the topo map. It's a little overwhelming at first, but once you master it it becomes easy.

You're welcome. I just wanted to make sure you understood that. It's not unheard off for newbies here on the Forum to come in complaining about feeling ripped off because they turned on their brand new, "all the bells and whistles, great for Geocaching" $600 GPS and it doesn't show any caches. So I try not to assume that folks know anything at all about how a GPS works

Well, the Etrex10 is a perfectly serviceable unit for Geocaching, and economical if the bells and whistles and such aren't something you feel you need. However, one thing you said gave me pause.... I totally understand your sentiment, but one thing you must realize is that you won't be able to look up caches on the fly....so no, "Nice park, let's see if there are any caches here". You will have to do some planning up front, either by loading waypoints in the GPS beforehand or at the very least printing out the cache listing page or otherwise bringing the coordinates and cache info with you. A GPS has no cellular service so you can't look up caches live in the field like you can with a smart phone. Not that it should stop you from buying one. From the early days of Geocaching, before the days of smart phones and "paperless" GPS units, that's how it was done...you printed out the necessary cache info and entered the coordinates by hand in the field. It worked for many people for years and some folks still do it this way. Just be sure you understand this limitation before you spend your money.

This could be part of the problem. Are you actually turning the Oregon completely off? When you turn a GPS unit on, it takes time for it to locate the satellites again and for it to determine its location. You'll want to leave it on while hunting or you lose the accuracy it has built up over the time you've been out and about. This