StarBrand

If I may, I suggest heading down 385 from Rapid City and you can hit a number of caches in the Western Nebraska Panhandle - lots of relitively easyish ones that are filled with history. Just a thought... Your current route circles all of my good ones......

I have a legend and the 60C (big brother to the 60) - I find myself drawn back to the legend quite often because of the size, one handed operation and simplicity. But then the color screen, battery life and superior antenna of the 60C draws me back to realty. But I stil use both.........

This has probably come up before but I couldn't find it.... I would like to see a new log type for an "owner visit" or "owner maintenace visit" or maybe just plain "Cache Check". Something only the listing owner could add to indicate a visit - notes aren't always best... Just an idea....

Have tried this test many times and although I have seen readings as much as 25 feet off - I TYPICALLY (most of the time) see readings within 15 feet. Give the GPSr a few minutes to average at each test and it is typically within 6 feet. An error margin I can live with. Also.....the most {much more than half} of caches I have found have been within 15 or so feet of posted coors even given all the possible errors. I do not find myself weaving and stumbling my way - at least not until I see I am within 30 feet or so of coors. BTW - I am the type that has absolutely no interest in looking for a micro with grass glued to the lid and pushed into the ground to look like 99.9999% of the surrounding area. I KNOW for sure that my GPSr isn't accurate enough for that task. But to each his own......

I don't know where some of you guys go caching but backing off 300 feet around many caches near here will yield zero view of any object near the cache. Also by the time I step around trees, rocks, streams, thorns, the occasional rattler and spend 5 minutes chasing down my 2 year old - my compass and bearings will be useless. However, the GPSr still cheerfully points me in the general direction of an area that I will have to seach within 40 foot of to compensate for the general tilt of the universe.......sigh. AKA - look for the out-of-place pile of {fill in objects here}

One evening, I came across a guy on the trail about 1/4 mile from a cache I had visited, he had a GPS, a bag of misc items and little yellow rite-in-the-rain notebook. Naturally I was thinkg here is a cacher so I asked him how the "hunt" was going. Turned out he was a forest service employee gathering evidence againist some poachers - he didn't appreciate my comments until I explained geocaching!!!!

Interesting that you list rope but not food. Why is that? It has been pointed out that we can live for weeks without food, but in my experience people begin to exhibit poor judgment after 10 or 12 hours without anything to eat. Our society is used to eating on a regular basis, psychologically we have problems when we skip a few meals. I do usually take food and some extras with me - I just don't consider food an "essential" - I hope to be long since out of there before food becomes an issue!!!. Most of my "essentials" are geared toward shelter and getting me home quickly.

Worst: gum wrappers, rocks, twigs, rusty metal, matches, unidentifiable wet paper, broken/used Mctoys Best: Older Palm Pilot (used) with cables, $40 gift certificate Average price of swap items: depends on a lot of factors but typical is $1 to $4 but it is easy to get brand new solar calculators and newer toys and even some tools for about $1 at the local dollar store.

I was always taught what was called the "Rule of Three" - it doesn't always hold true but it does give priorties when packing. A) In most conditions, you can survive 3 weeks without food In most climates, you can survive 3 days without water. C) Unless it is summer, you can only survive 3 hours without proper clothing and/or shelter. So keeping that in mind, I carry: 1) GPS and at least 2 sets of spare batteries 2) a map of the area 3) 2 of the emergency "space" blankets 4) waterproof matches and a lighter 5) Large pocket knife 6) Cell phone and/or HT ham radio 7) First Aid Kit 8) emergency poncho 9) 20 to 40 Oz of water 10) potable water tablets 11) Whistle 12) ALWAYS let someone know where you are going and when you will be back! Not much different from the original but my take on it

My 2 cents worth, I found Buxleys VERY useful. I was (am) willing to the best of my ability help financially to find a way to share the data for Buxleys. PQ's and MS S&T works fine and is relitvely easy to do but some of us are willing to pay so that someone else does it. Buxleys was useful for finding a good cache area to go to find a route rather than set a route and use PQ's. Thanks Ed. Hope it gets resolved soon...... Having said that, I want to protect the speed and availability of Groundspeak as well.

I'll just copy/paste from my earlier thread some conclusions: # 1) Seems that the only real is that MOST lamppost caches in Wal-Mart parking lots are considered pretty lame. #2) A well maintained cache (no junk, good log, dry etc) is rarely considered lame unless it is in a junk pile #3) A unique hide or Well thought out idea is rarely lame, #4) Caches with a view are rarely lame as long as #2 and #3 are true #5) A good description with potential "gotchas!!" well described (weather, trail, terrian, parking etc) is necessary on the web page. #6) Attitude and experience of the visitor are variables beyond our control #7) Placing multiple caches that are deemed "identical" is lame only after finding many of the others.

To me sandwich sized (approx 1 or 2 cups liquid measure) is small anything less is micro. Going the other way anything over 1.5qt or so is regular. Just my 2 cents. If you can't cram a TB tag and tiny object in it with a multipage logbook then it is micro.

Out here in Western Nebraska it doesn't rain too much out on prairie and I have had very good luck hiding a few caches with homemade "pillow" cover bags made from camo cloth. I treat the fabric front and back 2 times with Scotch Gaurd and then 2 times with silcone spray drying well between each. Have my wife sew up simple bags that look like pillow covers and then stick my ammo cans in them. It acts as dual camo in that A) the camo pattern blends in well with prairie terrian and B.) Most muggles are VERY hesitant to look in any sort of bag left lying around. I get good feedback on these and 2 have been stolen by geocachers that left the cache behind!! I also have had good luck with the fleckstone paint and clearcote finish on some left near sandy areas.

I'm spending more and more time traveling, walking, researching and talking to my wife and young son while searching for Geocaches....How could that be a bad thing?? I LOVE this sport, God and Jeeps (not in that order)

I have 2 DNF's on a cache that many new cachers have found easily - it just vexes me!! As a cache owner I like the DNFs as much as founds - good stories and good feedback. No embarassment needed - just tell your story. Include pictures if you like. Some of my favorite entries have actually been DNFs and why they came out that way. Also alerts me to potential problems at the hide or with my descriptions.

Garmin Legend gives you mapping, 1000 waypoints, computer interface and WAAS - tough little unit and a bargain at around $140

Since WAAS is run via a satellite, it should be up and working so long as you are in North America. A complimentery system for Airports called LAAS might not be running yet at your local airport. LAAS=local Area Augmentation Sysytem

Location: Western Nebraska Unit(s): Garmin Legend, Garmin Rino 120, Garmin 60C Eats Batteries: maybe 10% - 15% less battery life then when it is off Aqusition time: 3 - 4 minutes but keep in mind that it takes about 10 minutes or so to download all of the corrections Accuracy: Hard to measure but EPE reports better and it at least "seems" better for lack of a highly accurate test I use it when I can especially for hides.

Our 2 year old son once found about 40 golf balls while My wife and I spent 45 minutes going through a patch of trees and bushes no more than 100 foot in diameter looking for the cache box. When we found the cache, it had at least 20 more!! Was about 200 feet away from a golf course. My son was thrilled! Everytime I turned around he was saying "daddy nother one". Made me sick of golf balls.

Ok - I wanted to know what was GENERALLY considered lame by most cachers and I could be wrong but here is what this thread has defined: # 1) Seems that the only real agreement here is that MOST lamppost caches in Wal-Mart parking lots are considered pretty lame. #2) A well maintained cache (no junk, good log, dry etc) is rarely considered lame unless it is in a junk pile #3) A unique hide or Well thought out idea is rarely lame, #4) Caches with a view are rarely lame as long as #2 and #3 are true #5) A good description with potential "gotchas!!" well described (weather, trail, terrian, parking etc) is necessary on the web page. #6) Attitude and experience of the visitor are variables beyond our control #7) Placing multiple caches that are deemed "identical" is lame only after finding many of the others. #8) ALL micros are frowned upon by some in parts of TN I appreciate the private feedback that I recieved as well. I am fairly new to the formus but I do have 46 hides and 160+ finds over 3 years and I know a good cache when I see it but I was trying to come up with some general pointers so that we ALL can avoid hiding "lame" caches.

The one that is the topic of this thread from Original Post.

Although we have big plans and 40 members, every event our group puts together ends up with no more than 6 or 7 people and a low of 4. But we have fun, thats what you get when there are only 40 caches or so within 50 miles of home!!! WNAG

Out of my 46 hides - 6 have gone missing in the 3 years since I started (today is the anniversary!!!!) 5 were obviously mugglled and 1 was bulldozed away. I also have 2 that experience a regular "shift" in position. One befuddles me as to why and the other gets reports of being 20 feet off and some people can't resist the urge to move it. (I have checked and rechecked the coors with 3 different GPSrs and never find itto be more than 10 foot off but oh well......)

Searching for a good spot sometimes takes much more effort than finding a dozen. I now know each and every public road within 20 miles of my house and those that are actually just long driveways to somebodys house/farm!!!

I have a Garmin Legend and a 60c, when hiding I try to get WAAS and multiple readings for the best possible coors. However, I can only get the WAAS (little d on the bars) about 50% of the time. When searching for a cache, it has on a few occasions got me a bit closer to the cache location but as previously noted, I usually find it before getting a good WAAS lock.