Rckhnd

Looks new to me. Not all of us frequent the forums that often. I just looked at one, but the google pic was taken before the cache was placed. The cache I looked for is right in the open but it looks like part of the object is is attached to.

Several years ago there was a show on the Discovery Channel that showed some competition with long distance cross country runners that used GPSs to locate hidden caches with co-ordinates to the next waypoint and so on to the finish line. During this show something was mentioned about people who would hide things for others to find. They called it Geo Caching. That reminded me of the old advertisements with Canadian Club Whiskey where they would go out and bury a case of whiskey and challenge people to find it. So, last year a friend and I were out hunting in a new area. He had a GPS and was able to roam far and wide. Me, I could only go in as far as I could remember getting back to camp. Even though I have had extensive training with pinpoint location using maps and aerial photography, a map and compass only works so well in certain thick forested areas with limited visibility. I got back and started researching GPSs and ran across the 'Geocache' word again. Looked up the website and promptly forgot about the hunting aspect and wanted to be able to explore denser areas. Now I can hunt and cache at the same time!

Understandable. We get desensitized (sp?) to it here. I once lived on a ranch in an area where there were feral stray dogs that would attack people and cattle for the joy of it. I got used to driving the ranch with a shotgun in my lap and the barrel hanging out the window. Decided to make a run to the post office / store for a soda pop and was getting funny looks from people on the highway. Pulled in the parking lot and realized I still had the shotgun barrel sticking out the window. The locals all understood, the tourists were probably hearing 'deliverance' playing in the background.

I just upgraded from a flipphone to an iPhone 3. It looks like I can use pocket queries on it if I download the app. Because my Garmin eTrex Legend H does not support PQs, I have been using my Kindle which has worked out fairly well. I think the app is about $10.00. I'm new to the whole iPhone thing and it looks like it could be a pretty cool addition to spur of the moment caching. I'm looking for input, pros and cons.... Thx

Why shouldn't it be? Probably use up too much bandwidth having 1500 of your closest friends viewing your profile.

Yes, we Americans love our guns. And our freedom. Fortunately, I live in a country where we have both. We have our freedom BECAUSE we have our guns. - now I'm OT...

Having seen the prices of some trackables and geocoins, I won't put any in a roadside cache-n-trash. I would rather someone hold on to it for a bit and see it put in a better location than to put it in a highly visited cache that gets filled with garbage. Yeah, I'm a cache snob, but at least you can be assured if I get one of your travelers, it won't be carelessly tossed into the first cache that it fits in. If people put a little effort into locating a cache, they tend to have a little more respect for the sport and the travelers. The roadside ones (except the clever hides) tend to accumulate gum wrappers and lose coins.

What makes this cache dangerous is that it is purported to be safe. As a result, I almost lost my boy down the cliff to the waterfall and he still can't swim yet. He was so excited about getting a cache, he blew on ahead and couldn't hear me yelling at him to stop! Others have found it though, so maybe it's me, but the coords' in the canyon were all over the place. I was pretty angry and still pumped on adrenaline about it when I logged my DNF! GC13YF8

Downloading caches was easy. NOW though.... I have to restart the browser in 32 bit mode. what's up with that?? This has been happening since the last upgrade. First, I have to wait until Delorme has tried to download and failed before I can switch to Garmin, and NOW when I do that, I have to restart in 32 bit mode, watch Delorme try and fail again, then click Garmin and finally get my download... Getting to be a hassle. Thanks, Rant over...

Wow. That's a lot. As a newbie myself, the only beef I have about the site is that once logged in, I have to log in again to be in the forums. Seems to me that once I'm logged in, the forum link should automatically sign me in.

I don't give up if I can't find it. When I'm done trying, I'll 'watch' it until somebody else finds it (Then I'll go try again) or until it gets archived. The only one I won't go back for is one that was supposedly safe, but was not due to being on a steep slope by a waterfall with bad coordinates. Others have found it, but my kid almost went over the edge. - but that's a soap box for another thread...

Some people are in it for the numbers and might take a powerline road getting the same film container on the same spot of every tower for miles. I've seen claims of over 600 in a day, whatever. They enjoy it so that's good. I go out for a day and come home with maybe 5 finds as my best day. I had as much fun as the powerline cachers. To each, our own.

How many people out there have memberships to various organizations, Costcos, clubs, etc.? The majority of organizations charge a fee or dues just to help maintain the club/group. I pay $50 a year to a gun club to use the shooting range, another $150 a year to an archery club to use the range... Licenses and tags are required to go fishing or hunting. Bowling leagues aren't free either. The bottom line is that all things considered, this is just a way to help support the organization that provides us with entertainment. There will always be people who complain about being charged for anything because they have an entitlement issue. If nobody paid, how long would this site last? Advertising dollars only go so far when you have to pay for overhead such as payroll, rent, insurance, servers, power supplies for those servers on and on.... Some people in Groundspeak have to get paid or they would eventually need to leave in order to work... $30 a year is not much compared to what people spend in other organizations... Costco! I can't imagine paying a store to let me shop there.......

But THAT is geocaching! When I can get in my truck and drive 30 miles to a place I've never been before, and locate a 35 mm film container... Kinda neat! If you don't like it, well, I don't like knitting so I don't knit... Seems like you just don't care for this sport. That's okay, I love it and it provides me with a lot of quality time in nature with my boy. The lame clues can make us laugh when we finally find a cache and realize what the clue meant.

I am a capitalist pig running dog and I see nothing wrong with people making a profit. To me, the $30 a year is rather a paltry sum seeing as how much I'm enjoying the hunt. It's more like my way of saying 'Thanks for going through all the hassle to set up a way cool activity!' I see the point about rating caches, but I would hate to upset someone who also has set up some really good caches. I've found both good and bad from the same hider, and if someone got flamed enough over a bad hide, might they get discouraged and quit? Then we would also lose the good caches. I'm not into the political correctness thing, but I think the favorites rating will help designate the good, bad & ugly.

Zero chance here. I don't EVER walk around with a chambered round. I can jack in a round quick enough if I have to.

Wow, Lookit what you started!

I have been charged by black bear several times. They were bluff charges in a display to mark territory. One was raiding a campground picnic area and there were families there. She also had the green X on an orange tag in her ear which meant it was her last chance. She learned people were a source of food. I was a Park Ranger at the time and the first one there. I made a lot of noise and charged her back to show my dominance, she left. The reason I did something so stupid was because a Patrol Ranger was on his way to put her down if she was still there. The scary time was when I came across one with cubs. I growled loudly while slowly walking backwards, she accepted my 'defeat' and left with the cubs. Now, I open carry my XD 45 cal. on a belt holster only when I'm in the boonies. Not because of bear, but because of cougar. Since Oregon has passed a ban on hunting cougar with dogs, the population has exploded. Deer herds are being decimated and elk calf mortality rates are much higher. Cougars are now showing up around schools and have even been reported in the edges of Portland and Salem. My neighbors horses were attacked by two cougars, the screaming horses woke me up. With a Tracker friend, they found and shot one of the cougars, it was hiding in a child's school bus-stop rain shelter. The only time I pack when caching is if I feel I'm going remote with my boy. He likes to run and jump a lot. Unfortunately, so does cougar food.

I went through the same thing with my Legend H. This model is not compatible with Pocket queries. All you will get in the 'notes' column is the first 20 or so characters of the cache title. Also, besides the other website mentioned, if you go to google and enter 'free topo maps for garmin' you should find a source that will let you download as few or as many maps as you want. Now I have roads, cities, etc. Don't add too many though as it will eat up a lot of memory. Save all the maps to computer, then swap them out as you broaden your travels. Mine holds about a third of the state of Oregon before slowing down appreciably. I got lost coming back from the 'original stash cache' and was able to widen the maps to find where the friggin' highway was.

Newbies like us have it pretty good actually. As someone in another thread once pointed out, it's easy to be picky while our 'found it' numbers are low. One cacher in my area has over 13,000 finds which doesn't leave a lot of room for ignoring too many caches. Right now, I'm pretty much going for the rural caches as they seem to be more fun (for me) and higher quality. Those along the highways that don't involve much hiking tend to be more used / abused due to sheer volume of cachers. Once our numbers get higher, we will be forced to venture into the parking lot and intersection caches (one of which I removed some graphic drawings - come on! ...the KIDS are here too people) just to have finds. As for now though, I'm a fairly big guy who looks real suspicious when I'm snooping around the bushes by stores and businesses. Nobody has called the cops on me yet though, I think...

AGREED!! I went to the Dollar Store and loaded up on cool stuff. I even got calculators for a buck! I'm all in for improving swag. It's great to see my boy's face light up on a good swag cache, followed by a "Wow Dad, check it OUT!" - how about a swag improvement challenge of some sort? It would be hard to manage I suppose...

I get that at times as well. The beta maps won't show my hide at all!

Clear out your cookies, run a defrag (if you have windows), then restart. Also you can check the size of the image and maybe reduce it if it is too big.

I found a really nice 250 finds coin that was not logged as being dropped in the cache from which I recovered it. I held on to it for a few days without logging it in order to give someone the chance to log it having been dropped off. Eventually, after looking over it's travel map, I PM'd the owner to see if they had just lost it. I ended up dipping it in the cache to repair the history, then moved it on.

Not sure, and I haven't searched for "Geocaching" on Ebay in ages until just now. I do know this 100 "easy to hide" micro container seller needs to be banned though. Look here for example. http://cgi.ebay.com/...=item2c5a7a6faa Yeah, in looking at the link above, there's a gal selling TB decals that it looks like she's cutting herself (you provide the number you want on the decal, and then she cuts one for you). Attractive price, except I think those are trademarked aren't they? Not sure she should be reprinting those unless she's with Groundspeak... http://cgi.ebay.com/...863384144276584 Well, it turns out she's an authorized dealer and I just recently got one of her large Logo decals for my truck. She even tossed in a little swag for me.