Cyndaria

The area where I go to school (about an hour away from where I live) is littered with bad caches. In fact earlier this month on a numbers run with 4 other cachers we used every single extra log we had with us. What I find is that if its in the city / urban areas the caches seem to be less well taken care of. Especially if the rating is a one star (aka LPC or similar). If I want good quality caches I go trekking through the woods for my ammo cans, and skip my LPCs.

Our local military surplus sells ammo cans around $10 however my best caches are free! I get some cylinders that contained concrete molds from an engineer friend and the size is about the size of a small ammo can. They are great and water tight. I also get a container only a little smaller than a pill bottle from the hospital. They use these bottles to hold blood test strips that can't get wet. No medicine goes in them, and they come water proof. While I realize most people don't have the resources to get everything free (myself included) sometimes all it takes is telling a friend what you are looking for.

So glad to hear they are holding up for you so well over time! I have been testing them by leaving one in my backyard in an area that constantly gets hit by a sprinkler and they are doing fantastic. Thanks to everyone who has given me ideas so far, it looks like I will be hiding lots of geocaches this week with those ideas!

In an ideal world as soon as we find a cache we log it but sometimes that just doesn't happen. A great deal of us don't have a smart phone (in fact I have the cheapest most basic phone I can get). I try to come home and make my logs right away but sometimes I grab them on the way out of town, or I get home and its time to cook dinner. During the school year sometimes I don't get back to my computer for a couple of days since I am an Outdoor Recreation major. To me the first to physically find the cache is the winner and they are the ones who get to sign the log first. It doesn't matter when they log it online.

Hmm that's funny I just watched a special on Alaska where a jogger, and a MTN biker going down this popular trail were almost killed by bears, I think you are underestimating the situation. SS It depends on the area in the US too. Different bears different things you should do this is a rule of thumb and it works well in my area. I live in an area where some mornings you walk out the door and than back slowly back in it because hey there is a bear! Sometimes they are worse than deer about crossing the road and getting hit by cars. You think a deer can total a car, see what a bear can do haha.

Around here I have the problem of both animal and humans. Humans I am not to worried about. I have been taking martial arts and self defense classes since I was 6 and am trained in several different fighting and self defense techniques. If I can't disarm a guy with a gun at this point well I've wasted a lot of money. As far as animals go we have a large deer and bear problem around here. Here is the thing about bears they are more scared of you than you are of them. When walking I always try to stick close to trails and I make sure to walk loudly and talk (even if it is to myself). If you come upon a bear and it doesn't know you were coming you are going to scare it into attacking you. When encountering a bear the best thing to do is to stare it down as you talk to it and slowly back away. There are sets of good guidelines out there on how to deal with bears specifically and so far I have been lucky and only had to cross a bears path in my car.

Forgot to add that I use this manual The problem with all these links is that it is all dependent upon your firmware. For the most part if you update your firmware these sites will help, if you don't you may not be getting where you think you are supposed to go.

First things first, take a deep breath! I have PN-40 as well and bought it because I also backpack and kayak. I was so overwhelmed the first time I turned it on and tried to geocache! One thing that will make a big difference is to make sure that you have the most updated software / firmware. If you are using the DeLorme Topo 9 software you can do the following: Turn on GPS Plug the USB Cable into Computer and GPS In Topo 9 hit the sync button (2 green arrows making a circle) It should go ahead and check your firmware as soon as you hit the "sync" button. Updating to the most current firmware makes the GPS more user friendly compared to the orginal firmware (that mine came with). Next step, the compass. If you want to use the electronic compass you can go into menu, device setup, compass and altimeter, now select calibrate and it will walk you through the settings. I personally am not the biggest fan of any electronic compass but that is because I find they don't respond as quickly as a good old fashion compass. Now, to figure out how far you are from a cache, this is a little tricky because you will need to change some settings. The best thing you can do is when selecting a geocache choose "route" and use "hike". After that it depends on what screen you want to see the distance to the cache. For example I see it on the map so I can see the cache and the distance I am away from. Whatever page you decide to put it on you will have to select menu, info fields, and change info fields and select which field you want to change and what you want to change it to. Alright so I think I answered everything and if you have any trouble please feel free to email me. I am no expert but I know what its like to play with a new toy that you have no idea how to use! The Delorme PN-40 is a great device in my opinion. There is a lot you can do with it, and a lot of ways to customize it, but figuring out how to access everything you want takes a bit of a learning curve.

Never heard of it. My source ( my mom who brings them home and sends them my way ) says they use them for a couple of different medicines which is why she can get them to me atleast once a week. I like the idea of putting faces on them to give people a good smile! Around here everyone seems to use camo tape!

Me neither. Looks like a film can on growth hormones. Looks useful. Thanks for the photo. I agree. I had never seen them before either. I asked my mom ( a nurse at the hospital) if she ever had any empty bottles that the hospital would allow her to bring home to me, I even asked about containers for blood test strips (like those used for people with diabetes because they are often come in waterproof containers) and this is what she found and got permission to bring home to me. The are great and stand up well to the weather Between this thread and some ideas from friends I am getting some creative ways to hide these things, its just a matter of getting them done and continuing to come up with new ideas.

Do you have a photo or a link to one? Just curious about what they look like. I have few hides, but I seem to have acquired a side hobby of collecting cache containers....

If Ammo Cans and materials were free you would see plenty of very nice well hidden ammo cans around my house! The reason I am looking for a good idea for pill bottles is because I can get them free from the hospital. They don't go through these types of pill bottles but once every couple of weeks but when they do they come my way!

Let me be clear about the "pill bottles" they are neither the over the counter Tylenol / Advil types nor the prescription type. They are similar in look to a 35mm but taller and they are waterproof. In fact I am in love with them because they last pretty long periods. These bottles are fantastic because I don't have wet logs and they aren't childproof. I did hide one in the limb of a downed tree that I saved from the mulch yard but I don't have anymore trees to save, and I hate doing the same thing. I have a few other ideas but I have a lot of bottles currently and while I am holding some back for maintenance for worn out of missing caches I still have plenty left over and more on the way. Coldgears: I need to move where you are. There are way to many pill bottles and magnetic key cases here and very very few ammo cans :( but I am in the process of fixing the ammo can situation in the near future.

I have seen plenty of threads about creative geocache containers and hides but I am specifically looking for a creative location or idea for using pill bottles. The area I live in they are always under a skirt, or between two trees, all boring things and so I am looking for good ideas to do something different and unusual. Thanks in advance for any help / advice!

I've met plenty of cachers and most of them are great people. There are always jerks I have not yet run into any though. Also, just because you geocache doesn't mean you have to be competitive. I geocache with my 8 year old sister. We do it for fun and nothing else. We love the game for the find, its all about the search. Its not about the first to finds, or the numbers, we just love to do it for fun.

If you are worried about being prosecuted than its probably a good indication that you shouldn't go imo.

Another option is to look for a local outdoor / wilderness store such as REI, or a local one we have here is Great Outdoor Provisions Co., these types of places typically give all kinds of classes. If you live near a university check and see if the student rec department has an outdoor adventure section, often they allow the public to go on the same trip / classes for a slightly higher price.

I have never run into that (though I'm fairly new so that's probably why!) Thanks for the explanation and the tips

The place is less than 5 minutes from my home, and I have easy daily access. Question: Why put micro if I don't want you to know the size? not saying this is the case just curious.

I have a PN-40 and I love it but I used to have problems before I realized I needed a firmware update, make sure you have the latest version (it sounds like you do) because it does make a big difference. If you have any questions about the PN-40 feel free to shoot me an email and I can hopefully help you.

As it happens I used to live nearby an REI but no longer do, but I am in luck as I am traveling this weekend, I may just have to find someone to drive me by the REI! Thanks for the suggestions we have one local outdoor store (within a 2 hour drive) and they don't carry geocaching supplies.

I have seen some awesome nano / pico caches but I wanted to know where do you buy them? Obviously you can use the Groundspeak store but do any of you buy them from local hardware stores? What do you use?

What luck the cover for my GPS battery broke and I can tie the hair tie back together and make it into a rubber band! Now to rubber band the cover back on. In its place I will leave a used straw.

This thread makes me wonder, what size bags do you guys use? Daypack, backpack, school bookbag? I personally try to carry as little as possible, in other words I use a small daypack and it gets full more often therefore I clean it more often.

Thanks for the clarification!