trouthunter

This is really similar to the idea I posted above, only better thought out, more lucid, and more practical. Story of my life.

I started when my son was 3 and he enjoyed it, but didn't have too much patience. We found a whopping grand total of 5 caches and life unfortunately intervened with some things that brought our short caching career to a screeching halt (as well as just about anything else that we enjoyed doing). I didn't even turn my GPSr on for a year and a half. That's all behind us now. Now he's 5 and we just took another shot at it. He LOVED it, and so did I. Plus, in the last couple years, there are about 10 million new caches :hyperbole: I see a long career of searching for treasure with him in our future!

Hi, I know I'm a total newb, so take this idea for what it's worth - probably not much. How about a team TB event where you break into two teams, with members spread about geographically. Someone places a TB in a cache in the middle of the two "goals" which are caches on either end of the teams geographic area. One teams goal is to move the travel bug to one end and the others is to move it the other direction. Cachers cannot meet up personally, they have to move the TB and post it. Then it's a race between the two teams to see who can get to it first and move it in their team's direction. The first team to get the TB into their goal cache wins. A team could be penalized for holding the TB too long. Maybe make a rule that they have two days from when they pick it up to when they place it. Just an idea - it's more of a game than a new kind of cache, but it sounds fun to me.

If you want to go really cheap, you can get the velcro strips with the adhesive backs. Cut it to fit, then stick one piece on your dash and one on the back of your GPSr and you are good to go. It doesn't take a large piece to hold up the weight of the receiver and the adhesive seems to work pretty well. Costs about 25 cents. "You cannot shake hands with a closed fist" - Indira Ghandi "The best time to sucker punch someone is when they are trying to shake your hand" - Me

I'm still pretty new at it all, only having found 4 caches so far, but I'm totally hooked. I'd like to see some more caches down where I'm at in Thurston County, so I'm starting to stake out locations. I'd also be interested in getting together for group events if something gets put together. I've missed a couple due to my wierd schedule, but my time should be freeing up after this summer. Trouthunter "You cannot shake hands with a closed fist" - Indira Ghandi "The best time to sucker punch someone is when they are trying to shake your hand" - Me

I'm still pretty new at it all, only having found 4 caches so far, but I'm totally hooked. I'd like to see some more caches down where I'm at in Thurston County, so I'm starting to stake out locations. I'd also be interested in getting together for group events if something gets put together. I've missed a couple due to my wierd schedule, but my time should be freeing up after this summer. Trouthunter "You cannot shake hands with a closed fist" - Indira Ghandi "The best time to sucker punch someone is when they are trying to shake your hand" - Me

I got a reply from Garmin, and they thought I might have exceeded the waypoint limit. Not the problem, but check out what I figured out. When I went to count the waypoints (by the way, there were only 16 of them), I noticed that the second waypoint was an empty space. The last line is always just an empty dotted line, and if you click on it you get the find screen so you can add more waypoints to the route, but in this case, there was the first waypoint, followed by a dotted line (blank waypoint), followed by the remaining 15 waypoints, and then the final blank line. I clicked on the blank waypoint and got the edit waypoint info (remove, edit, insert, etc). I clicked remove, and the line disappeared, then navigate, and the compass page came up with the arrow pointing directly to my first waypoint. I think the blank second line was wigging out the system somehow. So, it appears that all is working now. I'd appreciate hearing some confirmation that this was the problem, however. On a cache, a route not working is no big deal. On a long hiking trip, it might be a little more serious, although I could probably overcome it by just going from waypoint to waypoint one at a time. I really want to thank you all for your help. This forum is an incredible source of knowledge! Trouthunter "You cannot shake hands with a closed fist" - Indira Ghandi "The best time to sucker punch someone is when they are trying to shake your hand" - Me

Ok, I did have the latest firmware from Garmin, but the maual doesn't seem to cover master resets. Any idea how I do this? Most of my other electronc gizmos have a little button you can push with a bent paper clip or some similar high-tech tool, but there doesn't seem to be one on the Vista. Thanks Again for the help!

I think I've got the latest upgrades from Garmin but I haven't tried a master reset since I upgraded, so I'll give that a go. I sent an email to Garmin as well. Also, I don't think my track logs are clogging the system, but I'll erase them anyway and see what that does. Thanks, Trouthunter

I used the route feature for the first time today on my Etrex Vista. Previously, I've pretty much known where I was going and only used the Goto to find the cache, or used the unit as more of a trip computer than anything else. I created the route in Mapsource Topo and downloaded it to the Vista, no problem, but then when I hit the navigate button on the Vista as I got close to the beginning of my route, the whole unit just shut itself off. I tried it several times, and changed to new batteries, so that is not the problem. It seems that when I try to use a route, the unit just shuts down. Any ideas? What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Trouthunter

I'm looking to replace my Mapsource Topo that I got with my Vista. I just don't like the lack of a search function, and I find the software really difficult to use and frustrating. I want to be able to use the map for the usual; hiking, fishing, caching, camping, etc, but also for finding and marking urban sites (upcoming trip to San Diego - try finding Seaworld on MapSource) Does anyone have any experience with Maptech's topo maps? They use the USGS overlays and I downloaded one of their sample maps. It looked pretty good. Any other suggested software? I'm pretty new to GPS and to geocaching, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.