yokes

I was asked to recommend a GPS unit that could be plugged into a Palm Zire 71. I have no idea if this is possible.... is it? If so, what model might you recommend?

I think your last idea in the last (about back country run access and hidden runs) is incredibly dangerous and could easily lead to fatalities. But other than that, sounds good.

I tore the ligaments in my ankle "as bad as you could without also fracturing a bone" (according to my doctor) while out caching. Thankfully I was with friends, so I was able to get home.

Given that there is a cache outside of the world's most northernly settlement (Alert, Canada), this isn't too "remote" by any measure!

I see this as much to do about nothing. Log one you haven't earned? Meh. Who cares. To me it is like owning a fake Rolex.. sure, you'll fool the idiots.. but what have you achieved?

For the price, I'd recommend an eTrex Legend.

Do I have to bake it in each new location I go to? Good to know about car vs. still. In this case, I happened to be sitting in the park until it for its feeble lock.

Something tells me they won't be a micro.

I just upgraded from a basic Magellan Sportrak (yellow) to a Garmin eTrex Legend (from gpscentral.ca) because I wanted to map support. Do to a recent geocaching injury (sprained ankle) I haven't be able to try it out in the "wild", just at home and at work. Question 1: This thing is wicked slow at locking on to satellites at home in my backyard. It usually times out the first time and then takes another minute or two to lock on. After about 2 minutes of 3 dish lock on it gets down to full accuracy. Comparatively, my old Magellan would lock on and be ready to go in less than a minute (I also did a few head-to-head lock on challenges and the cheaper yellow beat it everytime by a landslide). Is this unit known to be slow to lock on and I'll just have to accept that? Question 2: When I take it to work (about 20km away from home) in mid-town Toronto it rarely will lock onto dishes. I don't work in the financial core's urban jungle... but rather in College Park with a significant sky view expanse (more so than many rural settings I had my old yellow in). I made sure to use New Location and pointed the arror within about 5m of where I was sitting. It took about 5 minutes or so to lock feebly on to enough dishes to get a sad 40m accuracy... feebly because it said "need clear view of sky" twice after it locked on and didn't drop below 39m as I was walking around the park. Suffice to say, this performance is crap... Did I get a bad unit or are these notorious for having lock on troubles when started up away from its last location? Thanks!

dadgum. I guess I should have posted before I bought it. :-) Thanks! (and you're right.. I have a legend)

Just got my first Mapsource dataset and am pretty impressed. Unfortunately, since I don't have too much memory on my device, I'd like to know if there was a way to strip out some of the information (like POI's) from what is transferred over to the device. I don't particularly care where the nearest McDonald's is, but I do cache in large areas in a single trip.

I have a Magellan Sportrak (basic) and just got a Garmin eTrex Legend. I haven't been out to test them side by side, but my initial impression is that the Magellen locks on to satellites significantly faster than the Garmin. We'll see how they do in the field...

I made mention of that very type of hide in this article I wrote: Dave's Opinions on Geocache Hiding -Dave R. Excellent article. Definitely good food for thought as I prepare my first traditional hide. But good lord.. the colours on the page are blinding me! :-)

I agree. Your cache, your experience. It just comes down to if you want to list it on this site you will list the cache the way that's been requested or you will list it elsewhere. There are tradeoffs to keep in mind for either solution. The cache experience as you intended for fewer finders. Or more finders but not the experience you intended. I guess I'm just confused at how hiding the coordinates within a (in my opinion) really difficult 76 character code listed in the cache listing is somehow innappropriate whereas my making a token microcache that would contain the actual coordinates within it and planting it at some other random spot is appropriate. In other words, if the virtual cache is innappropriate enough to outweigh added challenge of the code, it should logically be innappropriate enough to outweigh it being made into a multi-cache. The logic fails me. I'm all ears (eyes)if someone could explain it to me. But you're right, though, in that I don't want a lot of cachers to find it... which is why the location is well hidden behind the code (which is the point of puzzle caches).

It really is a fun little spot. The swing is very well aligned so that there is no risk of hitting the walls, eventhough the space is very narrow.

Yes, or vice versa. This location gives the clue to the micro. That seems like a bit of a cheat and I'd like the focus of the find be the swing itself and not some micro hidden just for the sake of hiding it somewhere else. Besides, what is the fuctional difference between a multi/puzzle cache (as has been recommended) that has to be figured out on the road and a puzzle/cypher cache (as I submitted) that has to be figured out before you go out? (For those interested, here is a small portion (10 of 76) of the cypher that has to be decoded before the coordinates can be obtained): 59630 54799 62592 10631 49158 60267 10631 55053 55053 49158

Thanks for the info. I'll give it another look. I didn't know there was a release date previously given. I don't mean to seem like I'm rushing them or anything.

So.. if I pick some other random place in the city to hide a micro cache that points the way to this final virtual cache, that would theoretically be more "acceptable" than simply making the single-point virtual cache a (difficult) cypher?

Turning down a virtual cache because it's a virtual cache is not part of the guidelines. They need to go down the checklist. 1) A traditional can not be placed there. 2) You cant turn it into a virtual leg (ironic no?) of a multi with a container at the end) 3) What's so freaking wow about it? They essentially either need to know the area or trust your judgment on the first two. That leaves the third. Did they tell you why it's not WOW? True if you read the guidelines there really is nothing remaining that could possible be wow though I don't think have have listed "Interactive Art" as something that's generic yet. Unfortunately, due to its location in the alley, there are no little nooks near the site where I could have hidden a micro cache that wouldn't look like trash and get swept up. The "find", the secret hidden backalley swingset pictured below, wasn't unique enough to not be considered "generic": And I should apologize for my tone in my first post today. There is more than a little bit of sour grapes in there now that I re-read it. I'm genuinely interested in how I can make my submission better to get it approved because this is a really fun location (and I think the decription solution earns the 5 star difficulty rating I assigned to it).

Not unless I painted them on the walls.

In a recent rejection of a submitted virtual cache, the moderator mentioned that a new section of the site is being setup just for virtuals and locationless caches. Has any information been posted on this yet? I couldn't find any when I looked. Thanks.

Well, it seems that despite the cache being a very unique find, despite it being a cypher cache, despite there being no physical location to hide a traditional cache (moderator's comment notwithstanding), the cache was turned down because it was a virtual. Oh well. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

Met Big Red Dog on our 4th geocache. A pleasant surprise.

Here here! The only reason to use a weighted score is to propogate a "nyah nyah I'm better than you!" pissing contest. .. Just get out and cache. Besides, what's to stop a submitter from making a "1" difficulty cache a "5" just to drive up the ratings? It isn't like the verifiers can go out and check every cache before approving them. The current system works just fine.

I'm clocking in at 29 and my wife at 35.