Klondike Kid

No doubt having some sort of "signature" painting style on your larger caches can distinguish you from the rest of the pack. The shadow leaf design you use reminds me of some of the duck boats I've seen painted much like that. I've been working on one for several months, a little at a time. This one will be in the woods obviously and is intended to foil the casual glances of potential muggle type folks. I used a contractor's adhesive to hold the birch bark and put several layers of a spray aerosol polyurethane to weatherproof the bark. I'm considering doing a few more using a spray on glue and "dusting" the container with other natural materials like dry grass, ground up tree bark or maybe even course sand. I'd expect wear and tear on the cache to eventually require some fix up repairs but the satisfaction of what cachers say in their log comments is reward enough to go to this much effort. Keep up the good work. It inspires others to try a little harder on their next ones too!

Thanks to you both for the info and web page link covering this topic. That's just what I needed to know to make up my mine to start shopping for a geocaching specific PDA. Nothing fancy, just enough to do the job. I came across Maccaching.app, a stand alone program in 0.6 beta that allows the downloaded GPX files from a cache page to be loaded into my Legend and also DL all my GPSr waypoints/caches to a database on the HD for safe keeping as a backup. Its quite rough around the edges yet with a number of major quirks but it is better than entering coords, GC#s and titles by hand on the joystick. I haven't tried any of the other apps for moving GPX files from HD to GPSr yet but I guess I should see what is available. Any suggestions? Cheers!~

My bro has a WinPC and a Palm Tungsten E2 and rubs it in about his ability to use the Pocket Query feature and how great it is out in the field when tracking down an extra difficult find that requires searching cache logs and such for any clue for the find. I'm on a Mac and although PDAs are compatible with Macs for the general "organizer" uses, I would like to know if Pocket Queries can be loaded into a Mac-based PDA? I know for Win machines you must use GPXspinner to convert the PQ format and then use Plucker to get that info into the PDA. What is available in software that allows Mac users to convert PQs into a PDA format and then get that DL'd into the PDA? Or are we left out? Thanks.

Oh in response to Miragee RE: 4x4...well I don't own a 4 wheel drive rig (yet) but I did buy a new Polaris 6x6 ATV and trailer this spring. Hadn't planned to use it in Alaska much for caching since there are few places to go. But after caching for a month this summer in the desert of CA I realized that I could put on a few hundred miles a week down that way traveling the back dirt roads where power trails are filled with dozens of caches to find. So I guess I could add ".....oh, and a 6x6 ATV."

As noted ownership of the cache is the person who actually was logged in and filled out the cache form page and submitted it. Depending on how solid your friendship is with the owner, he/she may provide you with their password which would allow you to log in as them and have full access to editing the contents of the page. Obviously this would also allow you to access any other parts of that friend's account including modifying other caches they may own, etc. This isn't really recommended but I'll be honest in saying I share my password with a sibling as we work on cache descriptions, wording, hints, puzzle information and other miscellany while being 2000 miles apart. This also allows each of us to view what the other is "working on" for future caches that have pages created but have not been activated yet for the reviewer to approve. We work as a team for caches that will be published at both ends. The friend can always change their password if desired to end the "relationship."

Just this summer, due to a limited number of caches in my area, I decided to play the game at all levels and start putting out some additional caches in my area. Rather than simple "park and grab" caches that seem to be more than represented, I've decided to be creative in my hides and/or appropriate puzzles or multi challenges to reach the reward for other players. This has lead to somewhat of an affliction! My paraphenalia for making caches, camouflaging caches, hiding caches, or supplying caches with swag is turning into a costly prospect. Here is a list of things purchased specifically to work on caches: - various size drill bits - carving tools and knives - rolls of clear packaging tape to waterproof labels - extra color printer cartridges - various sizes of mailing labels for geo notices on/in caches - numerous cans of various colors of spray paints - various brushes and bottles of model/craft paints - various sizes of super strong rare earth magnets - special magnets with holes for nailing or screwing to hidden surfaces - rope, twine, string, cord of all sizes - multiple kinds of spray foam in cans - various types of quikset glues, contractor adhesives, hot melt glue gun and sticks - pencils and sharpener - jumbo magnetic key cases - ammo cans - spiral log books - pipe fittings - tin snips & heavy duty scissors - and more stuff I can't remember stored in the garage. Not to mention I can't walk by any isle in any type of store without grabbing some office supplies, or kids' toys, or handyman tools as swag for future cache launches. This "affliction" is running into several hundred bucks already and I've only got one cache launched so far. I find I spend a LOT of time gathering natural materials like pieces of bark, dried mosses and other things to use for camo on future caches. WHERE DOES THIS END?

As a long time user of Macs (since they were invented in 1984), things have come a long way. Apple sold 1.56 million Macs last quarter (3 months) of which 50% of those buyers were folks who had not owned a Mac before. Apple's computer sales growth rate last quarter was an astonishing 36% compared to 4% for the rest of the Windows makers group. And now with the Macs newest Intel chip which came out before Dell and HP started using them, every new Mac can run Windows, Vista, and Mac OS all under one box. Folks are realizing they can have a Hummer and a Mercedes in a single car garage for the same price. There are over 3500 software programs, either free, shareware, or retail, out there for Mac machines. Hardly an indication that Apple is being ignored by developers. And now with complete cross file compatibility, there are very few file formats that are created on Windows platforms that can't be loaded into a similar program on the Mac and used interchangeably. Apple's Mac market share in the U.S. now exceeds 5% and pushing towards 6. Overseas in Asia and Europe Macs are carrying an even bigger market share....where Geocaching is HUGE in those countries. Things have changed. And for the millions of older Mac owners out there, they too deserve the same plug-in that the other half are using. Plug-ins are not rocket science and take very little effort to write the code for, especially once code has been written for another platform. Often its just a case of porting over the code and tweaking a few lines here and there.

What a coincidence, I posted a Trouble Ticket on the same subject to the staff yesterday and was directed to place the topic on the forums. Actually the browser plug-in used by the WinPC crowd, as you identified it, the Garmin Communicator, was developed by GARMIN and is provided to the public through a typical plug-in download process. If you review that initial Garmin page it says "Mac Support coming soon" but as I think back into last year, that note has been on there a year now. Apparently Garmin may not be actively working on this for Mac users since these plug-ins are usually very small applets that perform computer handshaking in various ways with other apps or servers, like Windows Media Player, Flash, etc. Mac users should contact Garmin and continue to request that they complete the Communicator plug-in for Macs project and make it available even in an alpha or beta condition. I'm sure you, I, and the rest of the Mac community (which is growing in numbers every day now) are very tired of manually entering every new cache ID, its waypoints, and note information. (Its wearing out my Legend joystick!) To the Geocaching Staff: Your organization will be the strongest influence for asking Garmin to complete the Mac Support project and get the plug-in out there for us. So PLEASE, can you contact Garmin in an official manner and check on the status of this long overdue release to allow Macs to download caches to their Garmin GPSs? Thanks very much in advance. [Edit addendum: P.S. I really hope that Garmin did not place that "Mac support coming soon" comment on their website just to get Mac users who are joining Geocaching.com and buying a new GPSr to choose Garmin over Magellan, Lowrance, and others with the idea that they will be supported. THAT would be pretty cold. It was definitely one of my decision-making concerns as I upgraded twice now to higher priced units by Garmin. Garmin....where are you? We are patiently waiting....]