autigerman

Cammenga lensatic compass is hard to beat. You can get either the military or civilian version. You pick pick these up for about half of retail on sites like eBay.

Like some of the others, I have carried a pocket knife daily for over 30 years. Yes, this includes a little penknife I carried in high school. Currently, I carry a Benchmade Ritter Mini-grip with a yellow handle in my pocket on the trail. The blade is made of S30V so it gets sharp and stays sharp. This is used for general cutting. I also carry a Benchmade 7 hook on my pack for emergency needs since it can be used to cut away material like jeans or leather without the risk of cutting flesh. If I think I might need a fix blade on the trail I have a Benchmade 155SBK (not necessarily your typical trail knife). This is big enough to handle any cutting chore and can also be used as a small machete or to split kindling. Can you tell I like Benchmade knives?

I cache solo a lot also. I will load the caches I want to find into my Oregon. If I need to drive then I'll load the coordinates into the Nuvi to get me close to the cache and then start walking. Sounds like some of these guys have a more efficient manner of using the Nuvi. I'll have to use their advice to try to make my process better.

+1 on the Alpine Explorer. Although, mine is about 3 years old. I'm not sure that I would buy the new model. The waist belt on the new one isn't as good as on the older model. I also like the 3 liter hydration bladder in it. With the bladder full of ice water the large pouch next to it gets a cooling effect and helps to keep sandwiches fresh.

I'm trying to complete the county challenge for my state. What is the easiest way to determine which county the caches I have found is in? I've seen references to GSAK and a county macro. I don't know whether or not this is what I'm looking for. I'm willing to get GSAK if that will help me in my quest. Thanks in advance for any/all assistance and advice.

I means avoiding drawing attention to yourself from muggles while searching for a cache. Or caching at a time when you can completely avoid muggles.

+1 +2 Also, the suggestion to unroll as little as possible works for me.

+1 I have this book and learned a lot about geocaching in general and some neat tips and tricks as well.

The smilies not appearing on the map has become a weekly, week-end thing <sigh>. I noticed today about lunch that they had been removed. If not before, they should be back on Monday.

In my case it is pretty self-explanatory.

Handmade AND practical, I love it! That's the thought. In this state there are a lot of people that won't appreciate the colors, but those that pull for my Tigers should love it!

I'm relatively new and have only had one encounter. It was with a campus security officer. He asked if we had lost something and we said we were geocaching. He said it sounded like fun and talked to us about how good the fishing was in the nearby creek. He then drove off and left us to finish caching.

I'm braiding survival bracelets in colors to match my avatar and leaving them as sig items.

I do the vest and clipboard with urban caches if I am by myself. I carry geocaching pamphlets on the clipboard in case anyone approaches me. I was recently on a college campus with friends when we were approached by campus security. We explained we were geocaching and he just said "Sounds like fun." and then drove off. I think wearing a vest with "I'm a Geocacher" on it will just invite more caches being muggled.

Get the low-discharge rechargables and carry spares. I've been told the NiMH should be kept charged, about once a month, even if you haven't used them. I got my batteries (Maha Imedion) and charger (Maha also) from Thomas Distributing. The batteries in my pack are for the GPSr and flashlights. I also have these batteries in my camera bag for the flash.

Read everything you can find. Search the Internet for help and information. Look up youtube videos. Read (borrow from the library?) the "Idiots Guide to Geocaching". All of these will give you help in what to look for when you go out. On the caches read the logs where people have found the caches. Don't be afraid to look at the hint to help you get started. I've used the warmer/colder hints with a 9 y.o. that I cache with and it helps, but he really likes finding the caches on his own!

I don't usually trade because the caches I have found really don't have anything I would want. I have enough junk/stuff in my life that I don't need anymore. I'm working on a sig. item that I'll leave in caches without trading anything. This costs about $2.00US for materials plus a few minutes of my time. I'm also thinking about trying to gather up some 4X4 toy car models to leave in some caches for the kids. On the other hand, I do cache with a 9 y.o. boy who likes swapping swag. Saturday, he swapped for a car from one cache we found and then swapped that car for a cooler one in a cache we found later in the afternoon.

Welcome from another newbie. I started last Christmas Eve. I didn't get out last weekend because of bad weather and I'm really itching from not getting my "fix". I will be getting out this weekend though. Saturday can't get here soon enough!

Cammenga has a link here for information on "LAND NAVIGATION with MAP and LENSATIC COMPASS". If you google how to use a lensatic compass you will come up with more links than you know what to do with. You can even find the military manuals on how to use the compass.

I'm new here so this may not work. How about creating a joint/shared account for cache hides so that both of you can keep up with it?

Cammenga makes the compasses for the U.S. Army. Mil-spec is the tritium one. The civilian version is phosphorescent. Either of these is readily available. I picked up a tritium one from eBay a couple of years ago at about half the MSRP. One word of warning, if you go with tritium be sure to check the expiration date before buying it. Now I just need to find the time/resources to learn to properly use the thing!

Welcome to the game. Enjoy your time with your son. They grow up way too fast.

Still not working.

Welcome to the game. I'm fairly new myself. Read everything you can to find out about caching. When looking for a new cache to find don't be afraid to read the logs or hint for help in what you are searching for and where it might be found.

Congrats on the first find and welcome to the game....