TeamMoehrke

My Legend's clickstik goes incommunicado once in a while, too. I just give it a smart rap or two on the side with my other hand (Not on another surface, just hand-to-hand) and that restores its functionality. It doesn't take much, less of a jar than if you dropped it a foot or so. Works for me, anyway

That link works for me... I just clicked on it. I use Mac Simple GPS rather frequently and find it to be a good way to get waypoints uploaded to my Legend. Not maps, of couses, but it does waypoints without having to mess with Virtual PC and MapSource. I'd say try again.

Well, I've had better luck than that... I use Virtual PC/Win98SE to run the PC-centric software without any troubles. The trick was in getting the right USB/Serial adapter to connect the GPS to the computer. I started with a Keyspan model and it was dicey - sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. I switched to an I/O Gear adapter, and all is well. I upload/download without problem, add and subtract maps, etc. There is a Mac solution for transferring waypoints and some modest cache managment tasks: MacSimpleGPS (www.macsimplegps.com). It works well for dealing with waypoints, but, naturally, cannot do maps. It'll read the .loc and .gpx file Geocaching.Com creates and can transfer data to the GPS. You might want to check it out.

Yup. It looks like that must be the notification to the cache owner, since the find is actually getting posted - the one I just did shows up on my cache page Question for the new millenium: "What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it's all about?"

Works OK for me... I just tested it. Question for the new millenium: "What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it's all about?"

UPDATE: I noticed I could move around on my Mac at work, so I logged off and back on at home, and now everything is copacetic... Question for the new millenium: "What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it's all about?"

I'm locked out of any subscriber-only cache pages, even though other pages acknowledge that I'm logged in, and my profiles shows me as a Charter member... Question for the new millenium: "What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it's all about?"

Monterey vacation Hello - we're planning to be in Monterey for a little Spring vacation - from April 13-15. Could anyone suggest some must-do caches? We'll have to mix caching in with the Aquarium and beach time, and eating; in other words, it won't be the focus of our stay, but a pleasant diversion. So any caches that are not too time-intensive (the 10-year-old won't want to be away from the water long) or are in particularily picturesque settings (have Nikon, will travel) would be great. Thanks! And see you in 10 days! Question for the new millenium: "What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it's all about?"

Well, I decided to go without the Legend for a while, and have sent it off for repair. I'll be trying to track down a few easy caches just with maps until I get my unit back. It is a warranty repair, so I'm only out the cost of postage. I'll let you know how long it takes to get back up and running. Question for the new millenium: "What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it's all about?"

My Legend is just over a year old now. In the month or so before the warranty expired I started experiencing the failure of the glue holding the rubber cover in place when it got warm, as from carrying it in my jeans pocket. I wrote to Garmin at the time, but their only suggestion was to send it in. I was reluctant to do that, as I really enjoy playing this silly game, er, serious pastime. I've experimented with a couple of different glues, but they don't seem to hold up. I know a cryano glue has been suggested, but I've not been able to locate any. The rubber adhesives I've tried work for a few days, then they just let go. And I've not been able to locate any silicone-based adhesives, either, as Garmin suggested. Now I've the rubber where the flap covering the data port is torn apart. So I'm holding it together with a rubber band. Not the best solution, but it works. I've written to Garmin yet again to ask about a replacement cover and glue, but have yet to hear back. So, my questions are: 1) Do you think I can expect to be able to buy a replacement cover, or will my only recourse be to send this unit off and take a little breather from geocaching? 2) Does it make sense to incur a $99 expense to repair it if they tell me that it's now out of warranty, or should I just buy another GPSr? 3) Could I expect to have the same problem should I just buy another Legend and use this one a backup? 4) What if I sprung for a Vista instead? I could use the extra memory, but don't they share the same rubber case design and potential shortcomings? Have many people experienced this problem with their Vistas? 5) Aside from the RAM, do the other features of the Vista, the compass and the altimeter, really make enough of a difference in geocaching to make an upgrade wise? Or do they eat up so much battery life as to be a pest? I await your collective wisdom. In the meantime, I can continue to cache, with my rubber band-enhanced Legend. I'll just think of it as a racing stripe... Question for the new millenium: "What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it's all about?"

quote: Will I be able to download geocache sites to this unit with a Macintosh computer? What will it take to do this? Will I need an additional program like GPSy or MacGPS and what would I use those programs for? Will I be able to fit an entire state's worth of maps -- rural roads -- from one of the map CDs onto either of these units. Which of these units do you guys and gals prefer and why? I've been using a Legend with my Mac - and Virtual PC - for about a year now. It works, but getting it to work all the time can be a problem. Uploading/downloading waypoints is trivial. You need a USB to Serial connector and some waypoint management software. I've used EasyGPS (the Virtual PC version) GeoBuddy and Garmin's Mapsource. All will move waypoints with my Keyspan adapter. Maps are another story. After lots of problems with the Keyspan I got an IOGear adapter and maps are no longer a problem. But I like the Keyspan for the simpler things since the IOGear driver interface is fussier. So it can be done. I already had Virtual PC, so that was no hurdle, but if you don't, that'll be a extra layer of complexity. I bought Garmin's Roads and Recreation for mapping, and like it. But the only way to get the maps to the receiver is through VPC. I can get most of northern California into the 8megs of RAM on the Legend. If I had it to do over again - and I had an extra $100 - I go for the Vista with 24 megs of RAM, although it would take about forever and a day to load that many maps. The 4 megs or so I regularly keep loaded takes about 45 minutes to upload through the complicated system of emulators and adapters... So, go for it. You can get help here with the inevitable 'issues' you have, as there are a bunch of other Mac users in this community. Question for the new millenium: "What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it's all about?"

Those are referred to as locationless caches, or sometimes reverse caches. There is a way to get a list: Go to a cache page, click on the Find Nearby Caches link; on that results page will be a small link just above the list that says "Also search for [locationless caches]" Click on that and you'll get a complete list (251 as of this writing). There seems to be real mixed feelings about this kind of cache. Some like 'em and some loath 'em. Some seem to feel it's not true to the original spirit of the game - finding something hidden when given its coordinates. Other enjoy just playing with their GPS receivers and enjoy the intellectual challenges of locationless caches as much as the physical (and intellectual) challenges of the other kind of pursuit. I like them both; I've done a couple dozen in my nearly 100 finds. But then I like hunting benchmarks, too, and not everyone does. I usually do those just by the description, no GPS. Variety is what makes life interesting, n'est ce pa? Question for the new millenium: "What If the Hokey Pokey is really what it's all about?"

quote:Originally posted by Hibby:I realize I am probably going over an old discussion point, but could anyone point me in the direction of a "good quality" car mount (preferably window suction cup) that will fit my Etrex Legend. Check out RAM mounts. They have a cradle that allows access to the power/PC connection and all the buttons on the side. There are a variety of connectors, including a 4-inch suction cup that works like a charm on windshields. They are not inexpensive, but are built well and are very durable. I got mine at GPSCity.com, I think.

Here's a mystery... Look at PID JS1916 (which I've logged) and PID JS4388. While the coordinates are slightly different, the descriptions are almost identical. Following either description will lead you to the same place. Allowing for differences in language and topology resulting from a 7-year time difference, a different surveyor and the addition and subtraction of fences, these must be the same benchmark. Further allowing for a 40-year plus time difference between the last description and today, they appear to describe the same place. JS4388 was last described and shows no history beyond 1953, while JS1916 was first described in 1960 and has history up to 1987. The concrete monument I found is clearly incised 1906, a date that shows up in neither text. A combination of the descriptions matches the pier, one mentions it as Pier 6 in the recovery text, the other in the designation text. JS4366 mentions the disk being stamped 6, yet the disk I photographed has no such markings; JS1916 mentions no stamping at all. Could they be anything other than the same benchmark? The descriptions match quite closely. Could there be two concrete markers stamped No. 6? I didn't see one, but then i wasn't looking for one. Could JS1916 be a redescription of JS4388? I don't know. Should I log both? I await your collective wisdom.

Of course, there's the difference between Farragut's "dadgum the torpedoes!" torpedo and the kind this cache is about. The torpedoes in Mobile Bay in 1864 were stationary - we would call them mines, now - while the cache is about self-propelled underwater craft. Technically, all modern torpedoes are missiles, since they are projected to destroy a distant object (a dictionary definition of missile, courtesy of m-w.com) but not all missiles are torpedoes, since they don't go underwater. BTW, the orignal use of the word 'torpedo' was for a fish, a kind of ray with an electric organ - (family Torpedinidae) And I'm one of those who knows about missiles and torpedoes, but beer - it's just beer...

I have a locationless cache for markers or memorials about the Pony Express (GC78D0). I got one log for a building alledgely used by Wells Fargo. It was about 350 miles south of the well-documented route of the Pony Express. I wrote to the loggers and explained the difference, and they deleted their log. I want to believe that some people don't read the cache pages very carefully, as I have similar problems with the descriptions of virtual caches, where the request to e-mail first, for verification purposes, is ignored. I'm probably guilty of it to some degree, not reading the cache page before blundering off to look under bushes, the wrong bushes...

So there I was, filling in a few of the blank spots on my list of benchmarks in nearby communities, looking along the Interstate, knowing that I could not possibly stop to photograph any I found without endangering life and limb. As I recalled mention of a few along a now abandoned frontage road (the nearby city demolished it to make way for a golf course, of all things) I pulled into the little cul de sac, all that remains of the road. There I spotted a wing wall of a culvert under the roadway. The USGS is big on wing walls and culverts, especially along the freeway, so I sez to myself, "Better check that out..." And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but one of those fabled 'chisled squares,' and a spray-painted 'BM' with an elevation noted. "What ho, I best photograph this and find it in the database later!," I sez to myself. So I procede to get several swell pix of the mark and the wing wall and surroundings. "Cool, now to find it and log it..." But alas, the nearest I can come to matching the location are a couple of disks that are in all liklihood long gone, bulldozed out of the ground to make way for that golf course. I know where the road used to go, I ran out of gas once along that stretch about 25 years ago, and its not there anymore. Shoot, it was going to be so cool to log one of those. Oh well.

So there I was, filling in a few of the blank spots on my list of benchmarks in nearby communities, looking along the Interstate, knowing that I could not possibly stop to photograph any I found without endangering life and limb. As I recalled mention of a few along a now abandoned frontage road (the nearby city demolished it to make way for a golf course, of all things) I pulled into the little cul de sac, all that remains of the road. There I spotted a wing wall of a culvert under the roadway. The USGS is big on wing walls and culverts, especially along the freeway, so I sez to myself, "Better check that out..." And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but one of those fabled 'chisled squares,' and a spray-painted 'BM' with an elevation noted. "What ho, I best photograph this and find it in the database later!," I sez to myself. So I procede to get several swell pix of the mark and the wing wall and surroundings. "Cool, now to find it and log it..." But alas, the nearest I can come to matching the location are a couple of disks that are in all liklihood long gone, bulldozed out of the ground to make way for that golf course. I know where the road used to go, I ran out of gas once along that stretch about 25 years ago, and its not there anymore. Shoot, it was going to be so cool to log one of those. Oh well.

Here's an unusal occurance. I work at a local newspaper, and today our staff covered the destruction of a water tower at a nearby university. The tower was painted with a lead-based paint, and it was determined that it was cheaper and easier to pull it down and build a new one than to try to sand-blast the paint off and capture it before it got loose in the environment. As soon as I saw the photos I thought, "Shoot, that was a benchmark, I was going up that way tomorrow to photograph and log that one... now it's gone!" But I snagged the photos to put on the benchmark page, to document the death of a benchmark. You can find them at http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=js4580 Now, my question is... should I log this as a find, or just a note? It was on my list, I've seen it before, just hadn't driven the 15 miles to photograph it myself. It was there, now it's not. Does it matter?

Here's an unusal occurance. I work at a local newspaper, and today our staff covered the destruction of a water tower at a nearby university. The tower was painted with a lead-based paint, and it was determined that it was cheaper and easier to pull it down and build a new one than to try to sand-blast the paint off and capture it before it got loose in the environment. As soon as I saw the photos I thought, "Shoot, that was a benchmark, I was going up that way tomorrow to photograph and log that one... now it's gone!" But I snagged the photos to put on the benchmark page, to document the death of a benchmark. You can find them at http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=js4580 Now, my question is... should I log this as a find, or just a note? It was on my list, I've seen it before, just hadn't driven the 15 miles to photograph it myself. It was there, now it's not. Does it matter?

I logged a similar mark - http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=JT0228 - in between the traffic lanes of Interstate 80. 150,000 vehicles pass by it every day, so there's no way to get any closer without the proper cones and flashing lights and safety gear.

I can think of at least a dozen between Sacramento and the Bay Area that are under a mile from I-80, including one in Berkeley that must be within 40 feet of the traffic lanes. How far west are you headed, clear to the Bay Area or are you stopping further east? If you are going to be west of Sacramento I can build a list for you of ones I know that would be fairly quick stops, places to get out and stretch your legs.

Just an idea - I enjoy browsing through the galley of benchmark photos, but now that it has grown quite large it might be nice to have a way to sort it or view a subset of the photos, maybe by state, or radius from a zipcode. What's there now is fun, and the serendipity factor is nice, but more entrance points are always nice, too.

Just an idea - I enjoy browsing through the galley of benchmark photos, but now that it has grown quite large it might be nice to have a way to sort it or view a subset of the photos, maybe by state, or radius from a zipcode. What's there now is fun, and the serendipity factor is nice, but more entrance points are always nice, too.

This will be great! I started down this road when I logged the NGS Benchmark Recovery cache back in February. Will there be a log list similar to one our regular cache finds show up on? And will there be a way to mark the ones we've found on the search results list? The PID's are unique enough to keeps things separate, but not easy to remember to know which we've already bagged.