japtkd

People have a thing for doing a Bob run. I'm sure someone will mention it shortly. Basically a series of ~99 very easy park-n-grab caches used primarily to get over 100 caches in a day.

Just a quick note that ECO is having its December meeting at Las Brasas in Mount Vernon this Saturday at 4:00 CST. The event page is GCZD2Q. Hope to see everyone there!

Just a quick note that ECO is having its December meeting at Las Brasas in Mount Vernon this Saturday at 4:00 CST. The event page is GCZD2Q. Hope to see everyone there!

Congrats Doobies. I do understand you got this the day after Trailmix, right?

I don't have a file handy, but in the past, I've use an Excel worksheet to generate the log sheets. What I did was put "you've found another evil japtk nano" in the first cell and rotate the text vertically. Then, I changed the cell width around until I found an appropriate width. Use the outline feature to have your printer put a border around the columns and you're set. If you really need the file, email me and I'll see what I can come up with. p.s. don't be surprised if your local cachers start hating you if you flood the area with nanos

Beffums and I have found a great hiding place for IL. We just need to get approval now. Does anyone know of a place you can get 7.5 minutes USGS maps easily of SE IL??

It looks like IL is a go. Beffums and I have had a little back and forth with the IL DNR, largely to get in touch with the right people, but they said as long as the cache conforms to the general IL DNR guidelines, it should be approved. Now to just find the park and the perfect spot in the park.

I personally use a T|X running Cachemate/cachenav coupled with a Globalsat BT-338 GPSr. It is an excellent combination with just a couple of notable limitations. 1. Both units use a battery pack rather that AA/AAA batts. Not a problem if you do most of your caching from a car, but if you're going deep into the woods not so good. 2. Cachemate takes a horribly long time to do a proximity search if you have a lot of caches in it. I have over 9K in mine and really need to start erasing the waypoint and limiting myself to my home area and where I might be going outside of it. 3. No mapping software in my current config. Anyone know of a good mapping software for the T|X? Hope this helped.

I don't think there would be a problem with an "informational" type cache. However, the cache placement rules state: "What shouldn't be in a cache? Use your common sense in most cases. Explosives, ammo, knives, drugs, and alcohol shouldn't be placed in a cache. Respect the local laws. All ages of people hide and seek caches, so use some thought before placing an item into a cache. Food items are ALWAYS a BAD IDEA. Animals have better noses than humans, and in some cases caches have been chewed through and destroyed because of food items in a cache. Please do not put food in a cache. " So no brew in the caches. It probably wouldn't keep to well anyway, right?

Beffums is getting close to getting the administrative red-tape cut through for IL. Hopefully we can get the cache placed next weekend (Oct 7&8). We'll have to see...

I haven't done too much research yet. Which GPSr's have the SirfIII chipset? I've seen the GPSMAP60 for ~$250 and I'd like to get the Topo map software. My wife and I like to camp, hike and backpack (and I mountain bike ... well... no mountains in MI). We recently got VERY lost on a 3 day hike and since we over packed (~35-40 lbs each) we only made it one day... so we'd like to use it for trail navigation as well. I'm fairly certain that all the Garmin "X" series GPSrs have the SirfIII chipset. Those might be best for you if you intend to use the unit for hiking as I believe all of these units use AA batteries. I personally use a blue tooth SirfIII GPSr with a PDA. It works well for me, but both units use rechargable battery packs which require access to either AC power or a car adapater to recharge. Not sure on the pricing of the Garmin units, but it's easy enough to shop around on the net.

Thanks for the explanation! I'm much more excited about my 2nd cache attempt this weekend! We're borrowing a Garmin Forerunner 301 (sports focus) until we decide which GPS and how much we want to spend. (Right now I'm thinking about the GPSMAP 60, but I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the geocaching mode is and if its worth the extra money vs the eTrex or something cheeper). It sounds like both of those are good choices. I'd recommend starting off with the Etrex Legend if you're uncertain your going to stick with caching and also would not use a GPSr for anything else. Probably more cachers use or at least started with the legend. If you are thinking of something in the $350 range, I'd suggest looking for one with the new SirfIII chipset. It's much more sensitive than the older SirfII set.

I've never known of anyone to use anything besides latitude and longitude for coords. I've been caching for over a year now with 400+ finds in about a half dozen states. FYI from the geocaching glossary: WGS84 The most current geodetic datum used for GPS is the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84). The significance of WGS84 comes about because GPS receivers rely on WGS84. Geocaching uses the WGS84 datum by default. We also use the format HDDD MM.MM, which is a standard for GPS receivers (like the eTrex). HDD means Hemisphere and degrees. MM.MM are minutes in decimal format. If you have any questions, you can either visit the forums or contact us directly . It is critical that the format is correct, otherwise cachers will be unable to find your cache! In other words, coords are given in degrees, minutes and decimal minutes but are corrected according to the WGS84 datum. Basically, this just corrects for the fact the the Earth isn't a sphere but is thicker at the Equator than at the poles. Short answer, most cachers use only degrees minutes and decimal minutes to express coordinates for a cache. If your GPSr can accept coords in that format, and I bet it can, you should be fine. BTW, what is the GPSr that you're going to be using?

As near as I remember, the WGS84 datum is the standard used by default for all common GPSrs. It basically defines the relationship between degrees of longitude and latitude depending on where on Earth you are (A degree of lattitude or longitude defines a significantly longer distance at the equator that it would at the arctic circle. Look at a globe and you'll see what I mean). My advice would be to just try for a 1/1 cache or two and plug in the coords given on the cache's page. My guess is your GPSr will take you right to the cache (or at least as close to the cache as anyone's GPSr gets them). Don't worry if you don't get right to the cache when the GPSr zeros out as there is inherent errors in all GPSr measurements. I like to think of it as the GPSr gets you to within ~50 feet of the cache and you have to do the rest. Welcome to the sickness. I MEAN HOBBY! YEAH THAT'S IT!!

That would depend on where you're planning on visiting. Beffums and I live in the greater Evansville and could probably be available to show you around a bit.

quick bump up. let me know what you find out.

Good luck on getting an Eagle service project together. The service project is definitely what keeps most Life scouts from making it all the way to Eagle. My advice would be to find a project, geocaching related or not, that was have a lasting effect on the community. For my project, I constructed an access ramp for the church I grew up in. Everytime I go home I get to see what I did over a decade ago. Trail construction, cemetary or park restoration, perhaps a picnic shelter for a local park, I think any of these projects would be approved on the first proposition to a committee. Just be sure to have a well defined proposal before you go to your committee.

How about using industrial strength velcro on the dash instead. It works great for my radar detector.

My front porch! A cute little keyholder with a log.

You've got good timing on your post. The group is having its next meeting in Owensboro this Saturday at 11 am if you're free. The waypoint is GCXC5G.

I'd highly recomment the St. Louis Arch Virtual Cache by bjbest and Big Jimmy (GC7ED). This one takes a bit of time to do, but does have you going through the museum under the arch. Also well worth the trip up to the top of the arch while you're there.

There is going to be a group heading sound this Sunday, August 20th, to make yet another attempt on the infamous nano-multicache "A Small Town Nightmare (GCT7P9)", amongst others. If anyone is interested, let Beffums, Solarwib, BigT, or japtkd know. The more the merrier (and I REALLY want this one off my DNF list!).

Actually officer, I do know how fast I was going. 85, 84, 87, or 86 MPH. Take your pick!

At the risk of looking like I'm talking to myself, it looks like Team Viagra and Kirksters have taken me up on my challenge and then some. Has anyone else seen all the Beavis and Butthead caches they're putting out. And they're doing it in clumps too of 6-12 at a time seems like. I just hope and Beavis and Butthead don't cause too much trouble in Evansville.

Would that happen to be the Jones-Keeney Natural Bridge Earthcache (GCQ0ZA)? It looks remarkably similar if it isn't. I'd highly recommend that earthcache to anyone. The hike is about a half mile but not very rugged and the views are awesome. After mapping out London KY I can see you were nowhere close to this cache, did there happen to be a cache at this location?