Blue_Stone

I'm with what everyone else said. I take my time, lifting or looking under one object at a time, and take the extra effort to place it back like it was. I try to move as little as possible when removng the cache from its spot. And once found, I always take the container, and try to move 20-30ft away to an open area, or find a log/rock to sit on, AWAY from the hiding place as I look through it and log it. This helps to not tramp down the spot right at the hiding place with two-dozen idle footprints, or leaving one set of deep footprints from standing in one place too long. If it was covered with leaves, I usually move 10-30Ft away, grabbing handfuls of leaves from random spots to cover it back up with. I usually put more down than there originally was, not to make it harder, but it doesnt take long for wind and weather to thin out a leaf covering. I figure if its gonna bee a couple of weeks to a month before the next finder, the healthy covering of leaves I left will have thinned out. If its a NEW cache, though, I will try to hide it EXACTLY as it was.

You might take a look at the Mapadvisor/Quakemap combo for the mapping. It works with USGS topos as well as aerial photos. One thing I dont like though, is it requires MS .NET to be installed on your PC. I have it installed on my PDA, but have taken the time to download maps and actually try the program. If you are comfortable with doing the ebay thing, with some patience and luck, its possible to score a like new Palm with BT. The E2s are pretty low now, since I believe they are discontinued. Then you have the T-series. I lucked out and got a practically brand new Lifedrive for $91. I've been looking at BT receivers on ebay, and they can be had for $50-100... I use GSAK and cachemate, as they work, work well, and the support is awesome. There is a learning curve with them (especially GSAK), but I'm comfortable with them now, and havent seen anything else (for Palms) that does as much.

I dont know about where you live, but up here, the woodpeckers LOVE red pine. Up here it would just take a short hike out to the woods to find a dead pine with a bunch of holes almost the size of the one you got there already done for you. Plus the dead wood looks more natural when you lay it on the ground, than a fresh-cut piece. But, you still get an 'A" for effort.

I recently downloaded Mapadvisor. I've had Quakemap for quite awhile. Supposedly you can use USGS topos as well as the orthophotographs with it on your Palm. I still have yet to get around to actually using it on my Palm, though.

Wow, thanx for the quick responses, especially for being so late in the AM. I forgot to add to the original post that i thought about pics of the trail, with GPS and coords in view. (Use this a lot in benchmarking). Where would i check to see if its a rails-to-trails trail? And no, AR, I wasnt really expecting or planning on conflict. Just thought I would mention it wasnt an issue in case folks thought my topic was in RESPONSE to a reviewer conflict. I posted so i could get ideas and advice to see what others have done, so i could do all the work BEFORE making the reviewer ask me all the details, hence making for a hopefully quicker, less-conflicty approval. The "yet" was meant to be light hearted, and only because I'm positive this issue WILL come up on my listing. And thanx Keystone. I was hoping you would see this and reply. I almost thought about contacting you directly for advice. This is an odd case, I guess. There are NO signs whatsoever anywhere. None stating no tresspassing, none stating what railroad it belonged to, none stating current ownership...nothing. They are in a very remote area (though you cant tell by the maps), and I know tons of local snowmobilers and ATVers use them. I'm guessing hikers and bikers and horseback riders arent using them because the bed is still gravel. Well, this is an abandoned line that forks off a currently active railroad a couple miles away from where I want to place the cache, so I guess I'll start by calling the railroad.... (Actually, now that i think about it, THATS probably one reason why its not a rails to trails trail...doh!) Well, thanx for the responses and examples...Keep em coming!

Thanx Suspect and Semper Questio for the scripts. I just installed them all. Here's a few extensions I use: Clipmarks Download Statusbar FireFTP Foxytunes Save Images Stealther I also use the ForecastFox, but only for the browser icons. I cant stand the Accuweather website. If I need details on the weather, I'll use weather.com

So you wanna place a cache along an open, abandoned railroad bed....But every online map you can find still has it on the legend as a regular, active railroad. Its obviously NOT active, since the rails and ties are all LONG gone. Any ideas on how to let the reviewers know its NOT active? And, no, I havent had a conflict with a reviewer about this... (yet)... But I'm planning a hide along one, and I'm pretty sure this will come up.

Well, I can say, those regs seem a little more lenient than the NY DEC WMA regs. 1st of which, caching is NOT allowed on NY WMA's AT ALL. NO powered boats whatsoever. Those are the main differences... Oh, yeah, our WMAs have no set hours. And we can build fires...LOL

OK...I recently upgraded to a Palm Lifedrive, and I cannot get Cachemate to work with it. I've downloaded both Mapadvisor and Quakemap, but I'm looking for advice on getting it setup and running... Also would like to know if there are any issues or cons to the duo.. Thanx!

OK, after doing some research on the Palm NVFS, I am even more convinced its just an issue with cachemate not being able to work with this new file system. I guess NVFS has issues with running apps that use large database files. Obviously, that would include Cacahemate. Is anyone using Cachemate successfully on a Treo 650? I understand the new Treo also uses NVFS.

LOL...Well, it looks like my success was short lived. I got Cachemate to install off the SD card, put in my registration number, and loaded up the .pdb. Every thing worked great. Then I wanted to see if it would work with both the app and .pdb on the HD again. Installed them both, and Cachemate wouldnt recognize the .pdb. So I delete them, and load them back on the SD card. Now, its not working. its doing the same thing...cachemate opens, but wont recognize the .pdb file. Well, I guess its definately time to give Mapadvisor a try.

I think you two hit it with the new file system. Hmmm...When I check the available memory, there's usually only 41%-66% free. So SOMETHING is using 20-40MB of RAM... I have noticed that apps do tend to open slightly slower than they do on the E. As to issues with it being only $91....I dont think so. I think I just scored an AWESOME deal. I was worried about it while waiting for it to get here, but once I got it, in the original box, with ALL the original documentation still in the wrapper, (even the original bubblewrap envelope for the lifedrive itself), and not a scratch or dent or sign of wear AT ALL on it. It seems to be working perfectly, so yeah, I think I just scored a great deal, for once. I have had issues with it, but all are pretty much user related. There is definately a learning curve with this thing. I think it would have been easier if I had NOT had a Palm previously, and just had this as my first. I'm having issues hotsyncing, due to having all the older Palm desktop software already installed from the E, as well as having two profiles, one for the E, and one for the LD. Well, based on hairball mentioning everything runs on HD instead of RAM, I removed cachemate from the LD completely, and synced the app .prc to the SD card, along with the .pdb. Well...what do you know!! It works now! And just as quick as on my E. Soooo......I would have to say its an issue with Cachemate not being setup to deal with the NVFS. i guess now will be a good time for me to try out Mapadvisor. I'm guessing by my research on this problem, that there dont seem to be too many people using Lifedrives with Cachemate. Maybe if more people start to have this issue, smittyware may release a patch, or fix it in an upgrade. Thanx for all the replies

1) Yes. Created several .pdbs from several GSAK databases, and used the same .pdbs to try on both PDAs. All of them always worked on the E, once in awhile, one would load (or start) to load in Cachemate, then freeze. Most of the time, when I opened Cachemate, there would be no prompt that cachemate had detected a new .pdb. Even Options->Rescan Memory Card wouldnt work. 2) No. No other issues with the basic apps that came with it. I have installed several games, TCMCP, and several other apps I had on the E, all working with no issues. 3) Yes. Did this twice, with several soft resets.

OK, I have been using Cachemate on my Tungsten E for a few months with no issues. I keep Cachemate itself in the Palms internal memory, and keep my .pdb of over 4000 caches on a 1GB SD card. Well, I upgraded to a Lifedrive I got on ebay (for $91.. )... I had some issues with hotsyncing it, but I think I got those all worked out. I finally got Cachemate to load into the internal memory also. My issue is when I get the .pdb into it, Cachemate will freeze for long periods of time, or even crash when importing the records, or sorting them by name/waypoint. I have tried a test database of only 200 caches with the same issues..No matter whether i save the .pdb to SD card, Lifedrive HD, or Lifedrive internal memory. I have tried importing the .pdb by hotsyncing, using a card reader to put it directly onto the card, and also tried the Drive Manager to get it into the Lifedrive HD...All with the same results. I dont understand why my older E, with a slower processor and less memory has no issues, when this Lifedrive has a much faster processor, twice the memory and 4 times the storage space. This thing also irks me that therer seems no way to access files/applications in the internal memory.. Anyone have any insights?

The above bookmarks lists are neither public nor shared, and cannot be viewed by anyone other than the creator!!! You'll need to choose "edit" for each bookmark list, and check the boxes to make them shared, public, or both. Email me through my profile if you need any help Sorry about that. Thanx Brian.

When you save the region to the SD card, the filename deafults to "DETAIL.IMG"....So if you send more than one region, it will just overwrite them, till the last one saved is the only one you have. I havent used my Magellan or Mapsend in quite awhile, but somewhere in the creation/save part of the process, you need to uniquely name each region, then it will work for you. Supposedly you can only have up to 4 regions loaded...But I think that might be what can be loaded in RAM at one time, not what can be on the card. I'm pretty sure I had more than 4 regions saved on the card in my friends MeriGreen, spread from NY down to Florida, so he could cache on the way. By the way, you are doing everything correctly in the Meridian menu to change the map... HTH

No, 4.02 is only the newest "official" version. There is also a 4.03, 4.05 and 4.06 I have them all, including the earlier V3.12 Email me if you want any of them.

Here's a list of KillerB (a local caching legend) caches in western NY, and one for Letchworth SP. Must-do's if you're ever in the area. KillerB's Caches Letchworth Caches 25 Other Recomended WNY caches

I'd be interested in this also... I currently have a Tungsten E that I am thinking of switching out for an E2 for the BT....

If you only use 3 or less of the custom data fields at the bottom, the arrow/dist box will fall to the bottom row, and not take up as much map...