Reef Monster

I'm planning a trip to Bangkok for some caching and there is a player named JamieZel who has around 280 caches across the area. Thing is, he hasn't logged into the site for about 14 months and there are numerous posts about the logs being full. Maybe he has become too old to get out in the streets to maintain his caches? I don't leave for a few months. I was thinking of trying to contact him to see if I could help with changing out some logs during my stay. If I can't raise him, do you think it's be OK to rehab his little caches? I can't inherit them because I live 6,000+ miles away and only get there every 2 years. So, the questions: If I can't find him, do you think it's OK to change out the logs to keep them going? Many geocachers go to Bangkok. But many can only post a photo because the log is chock full, a mushy mess from water or just plain missing from the container. If so, should I hold onto the old logs in case he surfaces in the future and mail them to him if he wants them? When I was working through the Silom area a few years ago, I found some and the magnet had fallen out, so took it back to the hotel room for a spot of Gorilla Glue, then returning them the next day. That's my troubling thoughts for this morning. I look forward to your opinions on the subject.

I've used the corrected coordinates feature countless times for entering the final solutions to puzzle caches, but this morning it is missing. I needed to enter the corrected coordinates for a cache for today's hike and was frustrated by it being AWOL. This was a monkey wrench for this morning's preparations. When it was there, it was a pencil icon directly to the right of the coordinates. I hope it makes a speedy recovery and returns. So I had to go through the GSAK way and generate a new gpx file for today's hike to get ready for the puzzle. The hikers who have capable GPS's transmit the coordinates among ourselves wirelessly instead of manually entering the numbers. A really keen feature for getting everybody ready, especially if they missed a piece and didn't have it on file in the unit.

Thanks, everyone, for spurring a lively discussion about the mysterious phrase. I was hoping the GC's meaning and purpose of this would surface so a large audience would see what the phrase is about. jolly mentions the steam train about 80 miles southeast of Boise. I was there in April and it's a gigantic project. The train is built of 1000 caches; all I could finish my time there was no more than 50. The trip got called short because of sub-freezing weather and dust storms. Just a quick one line E-W and N-S I estimated the train covered 43 square miles. The only thing to keep me company out there were a few cow skeletons. I might need to contact the CO directly to get to the bottom of this odd terminology. There is a distinction between geo art and a power trail. Geo art takes a lot of work and planning and lots of hiking for miles in inhospitable desert, versus stopping at the next reflector post for a film can on the edge of highway. Here is my BaseCamp shot of Kokopelli about which I've been plotting a strategy. Kokopelli is many miles from the nearest paved road. Nearest town is Littlefield, AZ. Go well stocked with provisions. Kokopelli is a Hopi Indian fertility god. Google the name and you'll find many images on the web to compare him to. I thought it a nice touch to use a Multi for his eye, and puzzles in his hair as he plays his flute under the stars.

I was exploring the Kokopelli Geo Art Project in southern Utah today and the Description used a phrase that I'd never heard of. I Googled all over the place. I trolled through several glossaries. I searched the forum first, as best I could. I had no luck determining what this phrase means. This phrase is in the rules of all 154 geocaches, but cannot figure out what it means, to quote Rule #2: "You must sign you[r] own name on the log, or at least be present when the log is being signed. No power line rules allowed." If anybody can explain, I'd be ever so grateful...

Wow! WOW! WOW! I searched for HOURS and came up empty-handed and bada-bing bada-boom, here you send me this link! It was like 3.2.2 had been expunged from the web. It is a veritable treasure trove of GPS stuff. I held my breath while I snagged a copy and made sure the installer launched. It's good! Everything is once again right with the world. Invaluable! I thank you so very much for hooking me up with with this link! Never again will I empty old installers out of my Downloads folder until I'm absolutely sure the "upgrade" doesn't turn into a "downgrade." Allory, ya da bomb! Mahalo nui loa!

I had been using BaseCamp without mishap up until I upgraded to BaseCamp 3.3.1 and the nightmare began. The previous version was just fine and the geocaching.com GPX Pocket Queries imported as geocaches. When I got to 3.3.1, Geocaches no longer came in as expected. They came in as waypoints. I could find no way to get the new BaseCamp to recognize this gpx file correctly. After wrestling with it, yanking out databases, plist files, cache logs, stripping 3.3.1 completely off my Mac and reinstalling, bringing it up from tabula rasa, caches still came as waypoints. I finally found the pieces I needed in the Time Machine backup to roll back to 3.2.2. I couldn't find the installer of the older version anywhere on the web and The Google Machine let me down with no advice on how to conquer this seemingly unconquerable roadblock. The ONLY way I could get the caches to show up as such was to go into the Montana from the Desktop and drop the PQ file into the \garmin\gpx\ directory, open BaseCamp and receive the list from the Montana. I even reinstalled the GPS's software. I'm sticking with 3.2.2 for as long as I can after this meat grinder upgrade/downgrade that chewed me up and spat me out. So what was the underlying problem? Is it because the 3.3.1 version operates on gpx1.1 and the newest file format on geocaching.com is gpx1.0.1. I tried both the 1.0 &1.0.1 and it was the same awful results.

Yes, it covers the chirp with a couple wrappings. It doesn't seem to attenuate signal much as I noted above getting it at at a good distance away. This is some good stuff here about the Chirp. I didn't know you could cover them up that much and still have a good signal. There are only two Chirp Caches here on Oahu and I just received my order of Chirps and hope to get mine out there very soon. (Had to order me some camo tape from Amazon so that's a hold up there.) I was examining one of the Chirps here with one of the senior geocachers here and he had placed the chirp in a small ziploc and camo'd it with "Duck Tape" and left just a small area clear of the tape for the Chirp to peak out of the clear plastic window. I couldn't see it until he pointed it out. Chirps are still so rare here, they aren't found for 3-4 months at a stretch and I hope to change that and get some more out in the community. I hope they catch on more; I think they're really neat.

http://www.everytrai...?trip_id=754218 WOW! This is a fantastic resource! I looked left, right up and down! To be able to see other people's experiences on these wild and wooly trails is just so FINE! My next try up in Nu'uanu area, I did find the part that had the 18 switchbacks, going up the mountain in low gear and I did find the geocache at the top before dropping down into the next valley towards Tantalus. I checked the State website and they had in red bold text, "Hunters with dogs in the area Wednesday & Sunday for Pig Eradication." The round trip to get the single cache was about 3 hours for me. There are some trails so dangerous here, you can't get to them until you fax in a waiver of all responsibility to the State to get permission. "You're on your won, kid!" One was just too scary. You had to walk a ridge that was about 2 feet wide with cliffs on both sides, wind blowing, with the elevation at cloud level, so is often socked in with fog to boot. I'd like to go, but can't go alone and all my buddies are too scared.. Mahalo nui loa to all that came up with the same resource so quickly to share!

Your advice is decidedly unhelpful. I asked for a resource where post their recorded tracks and you say don't use a GPS. I sure don't understand this advice: don't use a GPS in the geocaching game where the integral tool is a GPS in a dangerous area where a GPS can show you are walking towards, literally, a 1,000 foot cliff. You can't just "follow the trail" because trails here are cut by feral pigs. Get on the wrong trail cut by a pig instead of a geocacher and you can get an arrow in the back from the hunters in charge of trying to keep the pig population in check, or get torn apart by their dogs. You don't just "follow the trail", when you cross a stream and the GPS and the paper maps available show one trail, but the trail splits into 3 like a splayed out chicken's foot. It's like The Wizard of OZ with Dorothy standing at the crossroads with the scarecrow pointing in every direction. People die here all the time, not going out as prepared as they can possibly be. We send a lot of tourists home in body bags because volcanic terrain is very treacherous indeed. The death count is part of the 5 o'clock news... dispatching yet another rescue helicopter... another tourist went off the Olomana Ridge 400 feet to their death. I'll continue to use my GPS that will show me I'm approaching a pile of contour lines packed so tight there a solid mass. One fellow they couldn't find enough of to fill a gallon ziploc. Savant9, on the other hand, was quick and helpful and I'll explore his constructive suggestion and to him I convey my thanks.

I've been looking for track files to load to the GPSr for trails on O'ahu, but have never been able to find any GPX track files source here. I've Google'd around numerous times, but always came up empty-handed. Do people post their trail tracks anywhere to share? I was wanting to get a track of the Nu‘uanu-Judd / Jackass Ginger Trail. (Yes, it really is named that.) In BaseCamp it shows that trail, so I tried it and my track never intersected the GPS map trail; I just got farther and farther off the path. I looked it up in "The Hikers Guide to O'ahu" and their map bears no resemblance to the one on my Topo map. The book mentions 18 switchbacks going up to get on the ridge and that's not my map on the GPS. Maybe there's 3... Well, you get the idea. I tried this hike last week, immediately got off track and ended up in a bamboo forest, so just gave up retraced my steps and went home. It's supposed to be an easy trail, but I ended up in Egypt somewhere.

A great source for the Big Island geocachers. I rarely get off O'ahu. The plane fares are just so crazy high.

The Swap Meet! Great Tip! I'll try to make it out there. I hope also the prices are as great as the tip!

So far, I have found only one source for ammo cans anywhere near me and their supply is erratic. You just never know if they'll have any, or what size. Military HQ off Sand Island Access Road. There's a shop within a shop there. When entering the door, you go back to the far right corner and there a fellow there, Doug Boyer. I was in there last week and he had only the super big ones, but said toward the end of August he'd have some 50mm cans coming in, a better size unless you like them as big as a carryon suitcase. The address is: 5 Sand Island Access Rd. Bldg 914 Honolulu As you head out Sand Island, you turn left onto "Road 2" on the old Kapalama Military Reservation (road not on Google Maps, but can be seen in satellite view) just before you head over the bridge to Matson. It a strange dilapidated long warehouse down after you pass down Road 2 between chain link fences and make a first soft right. I'm going to call ahead later in the month and I'll let you know what I find out if you're into Ammo Can Caches.

I'm new to geocaching and went ahead a ordered some bugs. My very first real TB placed about month ago (standard dog tag style). It went ZERO miles and is now gone from its 1st cache. People finding the cache have already reported its TBs missing. Never made a single hop. Still-born. TB name "Kouka Kolohe."

I picked up a Travel Bug last week from a cache here on O'ahu. The situation: If I drop it into another cache, it's not going very far since you can't go more than 30 miles in any direction without hitting water, living on an island and all. In about 3 weeks, I'm going to southeast Asia where I plan to go geocaching. Is it OK to hold on to a dogtag style TB, so that instead of it making a 3-mile jump, it'll make a 6,600-mile jump to Thailand? I emailed the owner about my proposal, but he didn't get back to me. The post just says to keep it moving... What do you think about holding on for a really big jump?

This is something mysterious and inscrutable for me right now. I'll be sure to take note of this "gotcha" and study up about it so I'll know how to set the GPSr. I leave for Thailand in a month. amazon says it just shipped, so I can learn what I can and get some maps loaded and take it for a spin around the block before leaving home. Thanks everybody! Everyone sure seems enthusiastic about geocaching. It's my first week and I have't had this much fun in a long time. I feel like a kid again, like playing during summer vacation from school.

I found the unit on amazon.com for $200 with Free Super Saver Shipping. The problem out here in Hawai'i is shopping online. They say free shipping and then they say, "Oh! Hawaii! That's an exception. That'll be $35." On small items, sometimes the shipping costs more than the item. They're very crafty and one must be very careful.

Wowie, Kazowie! What a bunch of GREAT stuff! I didn't know where to start and you veterans pointed immediately me in the right direction I needed to go to get educated. With all the superb and useful feedback from you guys I was able to come to a decision. The links to the free maps are just the best. Certainly these will do over the $100 a pop for maps off Garmin retail. At the top of my price range I was looking at the GPSMAP 60CSx; that looks to be the one I'll go with. So many great reviews. I briefly looked at the 62, but was immediately scared off by the price. Mahalo nui loa 'oukou! (Great Big Thanks to all of you) dougbromac

I'm a noobie to geocaching and have just completed my first week of hunting. I'm using my iPhone with the geocaching app and it's great. I have just started looking into a GPS receiver a la Garmin, Magellan, et al. My question / situation: I'm traveling to Thailand in a month and would like to go geocaching over there. From what I gather, when you buy a GPS, it is localized to your region; if I buy one here, it's for North America and does not have the maps for southeast Asia in the unit. What should I look for in a unit that will enable international operation? Maker and model recommendations? Something about downloading maps and installing them into the unit. I looked briefly at the Garmin site I believe, and you can buy an area map, but was surprised that it was $100. Ouch! Any input anybody has on the subject of an American geocaching with a GPS in far off lands would be greatly appreciated. Cordially, dougbromac