GreedyRogue

The bane of my existence is GCZ19X. I have tried every trick I can think of and even scoured the web for cracking tips and still no go. I even mailed the hider for hints and was told 2 things. A) All I need is a pencil and paper to solve it. the cipher is not found online. Never been found in almost 5 years. This thing literally keeps me up at night. This particular hider is very sneaky and has some very nice hides in the area. I have tried every cracking program and website I can find, using every cipher available. I have never even made a dent.

Good catch on the satellite accuracy. It just surprises me that one gpsr compared to another was so different. 15-20 is usual I heard but my GPS V was always under 5 feet off. Must have just been lucky caches I guess. I do have the updated firmware, 1.6 is current I believe. Guess the accuracy issue is just common with all gpsr then? Upgrading to a $300-$400 unit won't change that huh?

I just started using my Explorist GC and I have noticed that the last 6 caches I have found are 15-20 feet off of gz. I upgraded from a Gamin GPS V and I was always within a few feet of the cache. With the GC it's off by more than I'm used to. is there anyway to calibrate the unit so accuracy is better? Or is there an accuracy meter like some have that tell you accuracy is like 18 feet, etc?

Well I have 2 ides to go with here. One is a multi cache with coords listed that allow skipping ahead by solving the puzzle. The second idea is probably a puzzle cache, each stage you must solve a puzzle to proceed to the next stage. Depending on how I do it, it could be either category. I am trying to break out of the standard traditional cache here in my area. In general, we have a lot of micros here, the few dedicated regular cache stashers, and a few puzzle guys. One puzzle cacher here has one that has been unsolved for 4 years. It has actually never been found. I know I am still new to caching but I would like to place some caches that will become local favorites. I have alot of ideas brewing. My ultimate idea would be a rube goldberg machine that would be fun for the kids.

I want to set up a combination multistage / puzzle cache. Basically there will be 5-7 "stages" the final stage will have the big cache container and the log. Each stage will have the coords to the next stage. So stage 1 leads to stage 2, 2 to stage 3 etc. The puzzle part is each stage will have a riddle/puzzle that allows you to skip to a farther stage. So stage 1 has the coords to stage 2 right on the sheet. It also has a puzzle of some sort that leads to stage 3-4, allowing you to skip stage 2-3 altogether. Maybe even a hard enough puzzle that stage 1 leads to the last, stage 2 leads to the next to last etc. Gives good incentive to solve the puzzle rather than just follow the coords. I think it would work even better if each stage was far apart. Why travel, say 3 miles to the next stage rather than solve the puzzle and skip ahead. The other thought was just to have each stage have a puzzle that leads to the next and so on, making it a very challenging multi. But what would this kind of series fall under? The usual multi just leads to the next, the usual (that I have seen at least) puzzle has only 1 puzzle then you find the cache. How would I publish this, or is it even allowed?

Great replies everyone. I thought about it and I think this spot may be better off alone. If I did put a cover over it like I was thinking, I could definitly see an animal taking up residence. Or a cacher trying to walk over it and falling through the cache. I don't think it would be probable, but I'll just find a better spot. Good to know I can use existing holes though. Might use that idea for a better location.

I am looking to place my first cache here shortly and need some clarification on the "Digging" guidelines. Straight from the guidelines page it states; "Geocaches are never buried. If a shovel, trowel or other pointy object is used to dig or break ground, whether in order to hide or to find the cache, then it is not permitted." Now I take that to mean literally, I am not allowed to dig anything in order to place a cache. That is fine with me btw. My question is, can I use an existing hole to place a cache? I found a spot that has a naturally placed dirt hole in between 2 largish rocks and a small shrub bush. The hole is about 2 foot deep and 3 feet wide at the largest side, and was either natural or possibly dug by someone else. What I was thinking is placing the cache in the hole and making a "cover" out of small branches and glued on leaf cover. Would love a reviewers opinion here, and if needed I might be able to get a picture of it.

As I posted above, I already tried setting to to nimh, and still same issue. I also tried setting it to alkaline, nicad, and lithium and same issue.

I just bought a Garmin gps V for a decent price. My question is regarding battery life. I used a set of alkaline batteries and the battery life was great. I put in a pair of fully charged nimh's, and the unit said low battery and shut off after 10-15 minutes. I tested the batteries at home and they all register over 1.19v. I made sure that the battery type was set to nimh, even tried the other three options and the unit still powers off in under 2 minutes. I have read others having success with the rechargeables back when they first came out. Any idea why it loves the alkalines but hates nimh? I can't afford to get a better unit right now so I need to get this one up and running. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Well sad day for me, I need to cancel my membership as I will no longer be caching for awhile. Someone apparantly needed my gpsr more than I did, it was stolen from my car last night. I sold my xbox to buy the first one and can't afford another one at the moment until I get re-employed. I looked through the account page but I must just be missing it. If anyone can give me directions it would be appreciated. As an after thought, if my gpsr were to suddenly appear at 480 carriage lane in Twin Falls, there would be no questions asked. too bad I can't afford a reward.

Terrible title I know but couldn't think of anything better. What, if any, are the morals of including tb's and coins I don't own, into caches I place? I plan on placing a cache soon, and have 1 tb and 1 coin that I was thinking I could place in the cache to get them moved on. There aren't alot of caches in my area big enough for trackables, at least that I have access to. What do you think, should I place the trackables there or just find an established cache to place them?

Just got the email as well. Looked up fuzzbukets profile and it looks like someone created an account yesterday just to send this email. Wonder what this is all about, and if it violates the a tos at all for this "mass e-mailing" for lack of a better name

Thanks for the replies everyone, I'm taking a road trip this weekend, and if I can, I'm going to visit an Army surplus store on the way. I like Isonzo Karst's comment about the ftf log. Maybe I'll see about putting a special page at the beginning of the logbook like on the cover for the ftf person, so everyone gets to see that first, lol.

So I found my first location for a cache. Contacted a local reviewer to make sure no hidden or multi caches in the area. Scouted it out today and found a likely hiding spot and marked the coords. Walked away and rechecked coords, got the same lat. and long. (Is that how you average coords?) So now it's onto finding the container and placing the cache. I have a hard time justifying 10 dollars for an ammo box, (I'm unemployed) yet I don't think a Lock and Lock would do well without a lot of painting or camo tape. I DO NOT want to do a nano, micro, or small. My area is already full of those I want a bigger cache and my spot can support it. I would love to do a 5 gallon bucket but worried about the seal. I need help choosing a suitable container that can be camo-ed fairly cheaply. I also need/want to stock it with some swag and need some ideas. The cache will be placed just off a trail that goes behind a waterfall, so obviously needs high water-tight-ness (Is that a word?) and needs to fit in with the area consisting of mostly green weeds and such that grow in a well watered area, with a few rocks around. I'm willing to put in the work to camo it as long as it is gonna work fairly well. Not a lot of muggles around generally, but there is a path that goes right to the cache spot. Lastly how do I rate how hard a cache is in the description. It's a simple walk, maybe 10 minutes if you head straight to it and skip the waterfall view, but there is a portion where the rocks are covered in goo from the waterfall and are very slippery. I would not recommend small children but kids can make it to the cache fairly easily if they are careful. I know it's a lot to ask, but my budget for this is about $15. Any more that that and I'll have to push back my next cache placement. So: 1. Container idea that can be camo-ed cheaply, must be watertight because of the nearby waterfall. 2. Swag ideas, things you would want to see in a cache. Maybe a disney cd for the kids, lol. 3. Guidelines for choosing difficulty and terrain ratings. 4. I would like to place a FTF item in the cache, what do you guy/girls think about a Paracord survival bracelet. You can google it if you don't know what it is. I have the materials and they are easy to make.

I own a venture hc and a few things I'll share from my experience. Having the premium membership, I have loaded the nearest 1300 caches to where I live. The venture hc can only hold 500 way points tho. I use the filter in Gsak and only load the ones I need. The Venture is not paperless, however you can load the information from geocaching.com into pda's, smartphones, even ipods. I loaded my ipod nano with the 1000 closest caches and I have the lat/long., size, difficulty, Hints, along with the last 5 logs among other data. I have had no issues with not having a compass, but you I have noticed that the Venture always knows where north is and if you set it up right, it will display which general direction it is to the cache. I can scroll through my cache list and it tells me what way it is to that particular cache. So if I'm heading north and want to find the next cache I scroll through them till I see one heading north. be aware you can only see the closest 50 caches from your current location. If I'm planning on driving to the next town over for a cache, I either need to make a route or wait until I get to the general area to load the cache. Take everything with a slight grain of salt. I just started using my venture so I may have missed something in the settings. As a beginner unit I think it will carry you over but eventually when you catch the hunting bug you'll want the bigger/better one, Trust Me.

Can I suggest http://www.geocacher-u.com/ if you haven't found that site yet?

sorry for the double post.

I too have the venture hc and just streted geocaching as well. I didn't want to buy a pda after spending so much on my gps, but I did have an ipod nano. If you search around, you can find ways of saving the notes to almost any ipod. I've seen ways to do it on the nano, touch, iphone, even other smart phones.

I have to admit, every question I've asked here has been answered fully and in such description, I'm truly shocked. You guys are great, you really are.

Interesting read, but what about a multi store parking lot? I have a few mini malls in my area, but which store do I have to ask permission from if I decide to try to place a canister. I'm thinking of a strip mall location or like a city mall. Can I get away with asking one or do I have to get permission from all of them, or possible see if I can find who owns the actual lot the mall sits on.

O.k. so here is what I learned, and hopefully this can be passed on to the next person. To find possible locations for new caches you need the following items; 1. Gsak 2. Google Earth 3. 2 macros for Gsak, GoogleEarth.gsk and GoogleEarthCircles.gsk 4. current pocket query from gc.com Follow these steps for a very nice google map with a .1 mile radius around all known caches 1. Setup all software, and import pocket query into Gsak 2. Start both Gsak and Google Earth 3. Press Ctrl+M to bring up macro options, run the GoogleEarth.gsk macro, which will populate Google Earth with all caches in the Gsak database. 4. go back to Gsak, press Ctrl+M again and run GoogleEarthCircles.gsk and choose your preferred options, then go back into Google Earth 5. After the GoogleEarthCircles.gsk macro finishes running, you will have a very nice map, complete with saturation data to begin looking for a new cache location. Thanks go to geepa for the final crucial piece of information needed to put this together.

Geepa, you found exactly what I want. From the test I just ran, not only does it draw the circles, it pulls the gps data from gsak and places the circles where the actual cache is. Looks like no more moving caches in google maps. @niraD, I looked up the local parks and rec and sent an email. There was no information on their website about geocaches currently so I'll have to wait for them to contact me back before I place my cache. @ kwhart, Thank you for the info, would have never thought to use the court house to get the info.

I'm still learning gsak, but I have been unable to even have it show me a map of all the caches loaded into the database. i can only see maps one at a time.

So I was able to verify that the location I chose has no nearby caches. My cache location follows all the rules in the guidelines, now I need just one more piece of information, How do I locate the property owner to get permission? My chosen area is in a city park with 4 other caches, the nearest being about .3 miles. I have no idea who to contact for information tho, any ideas. Same question different area, I found a likely spot with no close caches but how do I locate the owner of the land?

Randco's answer was a lot closer to what I needed. Especially using the Latitude Longitude Search, and putting in the .11 mile search. The only other question is, using the pushpin feature, can you enable a .11 mile bubble around the pushpin? I'm not good at estimating the distance using goog maps. What I want is a google map with all the pushpins added for where the known geocaches are, and have, I don't know, a grayed out area around them indicating the .11 marker. I'll do some research with google maps in the mean time. Hopefully someone knows how to do what I'm asking.