OwlJones

I'm ok with micro's. As a free market capitalist I find it totally understandable and hilariously odd (at the same time) that one website has almost a monopoly on geocaching information/locations/systems. Micros though? Fine by me. whatever floats your boat.

"The OP should calmly contact the CO about the situation, never cache with that group again, and then move on. All other parties outside of the OP, CO, reviewer, and golf course, should stop meddling and mind their own business." Yeah, well if the OP wanted that they shouldn't have posted it up on a forum. Whose business were you minding with that post, bflentje? Seems like you had some input there yourself on what should be done. Or not done.

Well, the 60CSx came today and my Windows 7 laptop didn't like it at all! Or rather, it didn't like the drivers on the disc that Garmin had with it. With the 60CSx being an older unit, I suppose I should have just left the disc in the box and went straight to Garmin's website. Well, anyway, Windows 7 kept trying to install the older drivers ( error was something like: The device drivers have been stopped from installing because of known issues with Windows) The great news is that I called Garmin, got to talk with two people who spoke english as a first language, and the second guy in software fixed it with a remote app where he just took over my laptop and went to town on it! Also, while we were talking, he went to the Garmin site and DL'd BaseCamp and a few other cool things for me. I can pretty much find my way around a PC, but this driver issue had me stumped. I thought I'd deleted all the old drivers before I called them, but he found a check-box that I failed to check when trying to remove them - so if you have a problem with it and you're in the device driver removal window, make sure you check the box before hitting OK or save or whatever it is. Anyway, 10 min. on the phone with him and all was working great. Now, I've got my hand-me-down(free) Street Pilot 330 to get us there in the car and my 60CSx to take us to the goods! PS - being new to this GPS thing, I was disappointed in the "base map" in the 60CSx unit. Only major highways - no side streets...however, after talkin' to the great CSR at Garmin, and installing the topo software that came with the bundle, I now have streets. And they have names, too. HAHA. Anyway, just call them if Windows 7 gives you trouble and get someone in software and they should be able to fix it right up. I've just played around with it at home today, but I can already see I'm going to love it for caching, hiking, canoeing, etc. Can't believe how light weight it is either. ( OH, and it came with a 1GB mem. card too, even though the package said 64mb. ) Thanks to everyone here who has posted up threads about this unit in the past. I think I read them all and it was nice to see that my trust in the 60CSx users here was well founded! owl

I just can not imagine a world where people go around with the normal assumption that everything that does not fit into there everyday world must be construed as nefarious! Please forgive the vocabulary, I have been reading a lot of Arthur Canon Doyle lately. Still it is sad. I do agree that in this case the placement is indeed just asking for trouble. Evil Micro's! It's the USA. It's the end of August, only days away from the Sept. the 11th. Walmart is probably the #1 symbol of capitalism in retail business form. It's somewhat understandable. However, the last time I checked islamic terrorists weren't into blowing up trees or a few cars. Still,......perhaps if you didn't go through it, you can't understand it, but many Americans are now on "alert" 24/7 because of the events of 9.11.2001. Rest assured that many private citizens are now willing to fight back at the drop of a hat. That vigilance sometimes results in something like this...a little overreaction from someone who probably didn't analyze the situation enough( film canister? in a tree? in a parking lot?) before making the call to 9-1-1. However, we have learned to err on the side of caution.

Guilty. But, it looks like whoever that is is a bit "type A" about it. Mine are all just thrown in there, nice and ..umm...not neat.

Is it sillier to do it, or silly to worry about whether or not some do it? It is, after all...a game/sport/hobby. It's not like the person doing it is making more money that someone who's playing by the (sometimes vague and sometimes heavy-handed)"rules." Right?

Great post,USMCGecko. Common sense can go a long way to resolving a sticky situation. And if I'm assuming correctly, thank you for your service to your Country.

t4e, I believe I am going to have to use that. I suppose most things are up to the opinion of the person leaving them as to their value - however a piece of unwrapped gum is obviously no one's idea of a good swag item. But it is going to make for a funny signature line. Well, it would have. All I'm getting is a blank screen. Hmmm....

To a bear YOU are one big Snickers bar. What's on your breath is irrelevant. Well let me tell you, any bear that sees me as one big Snickers bar is going to be the happiest bear alive, because let me tell you I am one big Snickers bar at about 250 pounds. Of course, I look like a Snickers bar that ate a giant Gobstopper - but I doubt the bear would care.

Hoosier is right - you just never know how people will take your "joke." I took a chance with them because most people around here are very friendly and the wife and I are always armed, so we're less worried about someone getting really upset and trying to kill us than alot of folks would be. That said, our sidearms are for personal defense only and we don't go looking for trouble. LOL

RIGHT! Or completely covered up and under 30 feet of mounded Kudzu! Luckily, it doesn't tolerate cool weather, so you're safe in Alberta! Here in Georgia it starts growing every spring( after a short winter die-back period) and can cover old houses, telephone poles, trees, slow moving people( haha) and other things in just one summer. Sometimes road crews have to spray along the sides of busy highways to keep it from running out into the street and causing a sort of " Kudzu mush" in the summer. It would be an awful place to hide a cache, and snakes like the stuff too - so I doubt anyone has ever tried it, unless it was on accident. I can't imagine trying to go back to check on your cache and find it covered up in a giant wave of vines and leaves. LOL

Being vigilant is fine, but it won't save you should someone wish to do you harm. In many cases neither does a call to 911, especially if you're hunting off the beaten path. "Big tough guys" are good too, but they aren't bullet proof and a crazed meth-head isn't afraid of anyone. I'm not trying to scare anyone or anything like that, but people should know that it CAN happen to you - anytime, anywhere. The best way to make sure you are safe in any environment is to legally carry a handgun ( if your state allows) and get some training on it's proper use and safety. You should be mentally prepared to defend your life, and know and abide by the laws in your state regarding the carry of a weapon. If you can't or won't carry a firearm, then pepper spray is the next best thing. I recommend one with multiple bursts. All thins considered, getting a little on you and having an asthma attack would probably not be the worst thing that could happen should some low-life want to do you harm. In my family, we prefer Glock's. A Glock 27SF .40 caliber handgun. My wife carries the G26SF 9mm. The 27 (with extension) carries 12 rounds and the 9mm carries 9 rounds. If you need more than that, you've got a problem a handgun won't solve. lol These days, trouble can happen anywhere - and bad guys don't make appointments.

I may be showing my lack of brain cells here, but why is it called " Lost and Found" - wouldn't " Best Log Evar" or something else (maybe not as stupid) be more appropriate to what I THINK I'm understanding as the concept? thanks

Gainesville here. As to the person questioning our "Southern Hospitality" - ( and yes, I realize it was about 2 years ago, but we do have some pride here in Dixie): You wanted someone to welcome " your son" to GA, who isn't even on this thread ( that I can see) and you gave this slow, spotty posting message board population all of what? 4 days to answer you? Common sense would tell you that it would probably be longer than just a few days for the folks here to see your post and reply. We're normally full of "Southern Hospitality" but things move a bit slower down here, and we're not much for being told what to do by anyone - the least of which would be a yankee from California! ( all foreigners are "yankees" here. LOL ) So, give us a break will ya? ...grumble, grumble...dern left coasters...grumble, grumble.....

Well, I suppose everyone in the SE is sleeping about now... that MIK would be... "Micro in Kudzu!" Put it there in spring, and by early summer it will be gone for good. LOL

If your water source is natural - river, lake, spring, whatever - you should always, ALWAYS boil the water before using/drinking. I don't care if it's the most pristine looking spring-fed creek you've ever seen....get a few animals in or around it doing their thing in the woods ( no, not THAT thing. ) and you'll be wishing you'd taken the 5-10 minutes to boil your water. Do not ask me how I know this. Just trust me.

You've only been at it for two days and on the third day it's your 19th Wedding Anniversary.......and after dinner you hit three caches on the way to your favorite desert place? Does that count? Are we geocachers already? 'Cause....that's how it went down tonight. LOL One Found It!, two DNF's and a nice dinner with cheesecake afterwards! Happy Anniversary to us!

Last night we saw a new one. It was two miles from our house. We jumped in the car and floored it! LOL When we got there, there was a father/son standing there holding the goods! Well, dern. So I told my wife, just go around the building and come back by and stop in front of them. She did and they were putting the log back into the micro as we pulled up. I rolled down the window and said in a semi-stern voice " What are you guys doing here? " The father immediately started to work his way over to us, cache in hand to explain what they were doing when I eased our GPS up into the window and smiled! They laughed and we laughed and we were happy on the way home because even though we didn't get there in time for our first ever FTF, we'd made two new geocaching buddies on our first three days of caching! I think geocaching is going to be alot like flyfishing and backpacking. The nicest people, mostly. ( I hope I'm right! )

I'm enjoying reading all the sensible replies! It really all depends not only on the person, but the area of the country(or world) that you're hunting in. If you guys think it's a little awkward to try and explain to LE about caching, you should try legally open carrying a firearm while rummaging through the bushes near a building in a state where 1/3 of the LEO's don't know it's legal to carry that way. Talk about trying to explain! Holy Cow. * Disclaimer: I normally conceal( in Georgia, licensed weapons holders can carry just about however they like these days) but I'm sure at some point I'll have my open carry holster on, and decide that i just have to hit that close-by cache before I forget about it. In this situation, just like the other folks said - honesty is always the best policy. Also, having a GPS in hand in order to show the nice Officer where the "treasure" is couldn't hurt either.

Micro in PINE tree! The second one....surely someone from the South can figure that one out!? ( If not, I'll come back and tell ya soon! )

I just picked up a CSx Bundle deal tonight from Cabela's for $219 with free shipping. Case, topo map, memory card, belt clip, etc. I have a friend that's a hunter and he swears by it for performance, durability and reliability. Tonight, while on a cache hunt, our Gamin SP 330 totally gave up the ghost. I was glad to find a deal like this when I needed it most! Linky: http://tinyurl.com/2deyqo6

So, for down here in the South, I guess it would be MIPT. Or, if you really wanted to lose a cache and never see it again.....MIK!

Anything that has had food in it (PB jars, pretzel jars etc) WILL attract the attention of animals...all the way from mice to bears with raccoons and other varmints in between. The area recently had a cache muggled by a bear before it could even be published, the new container has never had food in it....should last for a long time instead of days. And just because you think that it's safe because you're placing the cache in an urban area...think again, raccoons and skunks live everywhere!! Just remember that their sniffers are hundreds of times more sensitive than ours' are!! Film containers, btw, make great containers for putting a CITO label on and fitting a recycled shopping bag in for a piece of CITO swag. As an outdoorsman, backpacker and camper I have to believe that this happens because people are not properly and thoroughly cleaning the container out before using it. Just washing it in the sink with normal detergent isn't going to cut it, but using more powerful stuff should rid it of all but a trace smell - depending on the properties of the container. That said, you guys are probably right - it really would be easier just to never use anything that's had food in it. I think I'll go that route. Thankfully, a bear has never decided to ransack my camp because he could smell the Snickers on my breath! BUT, there's always a first time for everything I guess! LOL

It's hard to get the smell out of them. They attract critters. Ahhh, yes. Hadn't thought of that. I'll try some strong cleaners and see what I can do.....in the in-town environments that most of ours will probably end up I doubt the smell of an old spice bottle( if I can clean it well enough) would compete with the obviously "superior" ( to a possum, that is) dumpsters and trash cans that are inevitably nearby. But yes, I'd never use one in the woods. We have possums, raccoons, and even bears here. I'd hate to think a black bear swallowed my micro - because, I mean....how are we going to ever find it again? LOL

Well, thank goodness for the general concensus on long-winded logs! I'm like the OP, in that I can't help but use ten times the amount of verbage required! ( And not just in logs, but message board posts as well - as you shall surely soon see. ) Tonight I logged one where we were being eyeballed by a mugglin' couple and before I let them call the police( the cache was behind some stores in a shopping center) I explained to them what we were doing and what we were looking for - even showing them the GPS and where it was supposed to be. I thought this would be better than explaining it to law enforcement! They were really interested and had apparently been living in a cave for some time - and had never heard of geocaching. In the end we didnt' find the cache. Earlier logs showed that it was maybe not there, but I don't normally read them before hunting because sometimes people give it away too easily - not meaning to of course. Anyway, as I was writing my long log about the experience I had the same thoughts as the OP. Is this too long? Am I being too wordy? Does anyone care that across the street some birds were mounting an all out invasion on a cell-tower? Good to see it's at least not something that ticks people off. LOL ( So, what was that - like 30 words, right? heh. )