trippy1976

We've been using it to plan the GeoBash event, it's been great for that. We can get on Skype and conference together for free (mostly, we had one guy on a land line, but its not much to conf. them in) and since then we've been skyping a lot. I got the voicemail to try it and think it's a hoot.

Well, I was trying to "ease into it" so any large issues still in the database can be more easily corrected but I'm just looking to get a listing of cachers who skype. I tried doing search via skype and well, it didn't turn up much. Note though, that you need to have a Skype account already. This DOES NOT sign you up for skype. Just list you. Like someone said, it's like a phone book and is my way of trying to bring two things I like together. It's totally free. No scam, no spam, just a site to let cachers who skype find each other more easily. Just be gentle If you try it and have feedback/feature requests Skype me and leave me a voicemail

My thoughts too. Pop for $5 and get a decent cache container. You can get an ammo can at the local army and navy for about $6 usually. You can get lock'n'lock at Target nowadays for under $5. All WAAAY better than "free" altoids cans, 35mm canisters and the like. I don't think you'll be doing anyone (including yourself) a favor by skimping on the container and risking a cruddy cache.

Class of '93 here.

You know, we were talking about this the other day. MiGO has tentative plans to start up a program with a local Asian youth group to see if we can spark a more diverse interest in caching. It does seem to be pretty caucasian-centric at the moment...

It was probably still not a great idea. I took cookies to camp once and put them in zip loc bags, inside cool whip jars inside another tupperware bin. Went to dig into the cookies a couple days after getting to camp and wha? The enterprising squirrels had eaten through it all AND eaten all the cookies. And it was a lot of cookies. Anyway... animals can smell stuff through almost anything. Leaving food is probably a bad idea in general. If it's your cache I suppose it's your cache, but if you leave food in someone else's cache it greatly increases the odds that something nasty is about to happen to the cache. It'd be (to me) like finding a cache and not hiding it again. Coupons are harmless. Water is mostly harmless except in the Winter when it'll possibly bust (just like bubbles... seems like a good idea in the winter, I found three bottles exploded in caches this winter). With all the bazillion other things in the world you could put in a cache, any kind of food is a poor choice IMHO. Why risk getting someone else's cache eaten by critters?

Illinois - lots of caching and free food I love it already.

Is there an easy way to launch the "log cache" page where it copies your note to the clipboard from the listing view? I figured out how when you open up a note itself, but I'm taking notes in Sonar, exporting to GSAk, and then just would like to hit F9 or something to load the log page.

Does it have an expansion slot? I didn't see mention of it where I saw it. $350 would be excellent if it had an expansion slot. Would like it to do bluetooth too. I would probably put Mapopolis on it for routing.

Was just looking to get a new PDA, primarily for business purposes not caching. Saw this with built in GPS and am intrigued. Anyone have experience with this? What's your opinion?

Currently no. However depending on why you want to do this there may be a work around. For example, if the only reason you are wanting this feature is so you can recognize the GPX file and know what database it should be loaded into, then you can do this via the macro language without having a meaningful name. So perhaps if you could elaborate as to why you would want this feature we can work out if there is a viable work around or if it should be added to "the list" Pretty much so I know what's in each file, a meaningful name. If I have 15 GPX files in a directory, I'm really not able to distinguish 213343.zip from 233143.zip very well and if I could, Lord help me if I can remember which is which

I've seen DR on a sportrak pro and was completely underwhelmed as a Garmin 60CS owner, but am pretty impressed with the features of the eXplorist 500, especially the SD slot. If it did autorouting as well and as easy as the 60CS, I think Magellan would have a contender here. I know I'd love to have a 1 gig SD card popped in there with most or all of the US loaded on it.

Does directroute work any better with the 500 than it does with, say, the sportrak pro?

Does directroute work any better with the 500 than it does with, say, the sportrak pro?

Does the explorist 500 do auto-routing?

Not sure where to make feature requests, but in the email download feature - is there any way for GSAK to re-name the zip files to the subject line name? So once they are downloaded they are "Kalamazoo MI" instead of "21213423.gpx"? That would rock. Love this email feature.

The email thing is the best thing EVER. This program's frickin' sweet. SEND CLYDE YER MONEY.

I was just logging on to suggest this. I have contact info for someone direct (via email) at Garmin if someone from SC would like it.

As a Mod: Let's keep it family friendly folks. We can be adults without being "adult" on a family friendly forum. As a Topic Participant: Geocaching is supposed to be a family friendly activity all the way around. An adult-only cache that discourages families from bringing children along for whatever reason is kind of contrary to what I think is one of Geocaching's central values.

I hope not. Something the Ohio guys do regularly and we do in Michigan infrequently is to run a "lonely cache club" contest. They list the X loneliest caches in the area and people get points for finding them. Bjorn74 can tell you more details, but it's a good way to get people out. On the subject of archiving a good cache because of bad caches - I think it is backwards logic. But what I've seen is that you place a cache, it gets visited a lot, then visits dwindle because everyone's found it and only the new guys are going to look. Enter lame micro nearby. Everyone rushes out to visit it too, eventually its visits will dwindle. Add winter into that and yeah - I think a lot more families who aren't so hard core are getting into caching. They like the park'n'grabs but probably don't relish the thought of bundling the kids and dragging them a mile down an un-maintenanced trail to a better cache. There's a lot of factors at play in the caching world. Size/quality of the cache is one, but there are many others. In any case - it'd be nice if someone got in touch with the guy and encouraged him to reconsider. People always appreciate a good cache. They do the others because they're slam dunks, but they'll never enjoy them as much.

Excellent point. This happens a lot. People will look through things and choose the safest route, especially if they are not completely "up" on the topic. One thing we've done in Michigan to begin combating this is to develop a booklet that really delves into the subject of guidelines. Showing what's already done by default and providing examples of policies *we* would like more parks to embrace. This has been very successful. One little park might not be a big deal, but if you get your state DNR and couty parks following a bad policy as an example - you're going to have a lot more work changing their minds than you would influencing them up front. But I'm also not convinced that parks considering virtuals as the only allowed cache type in their park really care how hard or easy it is to "place" a virtual. And I also don't think they understand that dependant on what the virtual is, they may not be avoiding the thing that makes them adverse to regular caches - foot traffic in places they don't want foot traffic. The best protection for a park is a solid policy that requires interaction with the unit manager. No fees, but input on where the cache will be located. Virtual or otherwise. A point I keep harping on when talking to park systems is the fact that caching has been around since May 2000. This year will be the 5th year anniversary. Then I ask them, "When and how did you learn about caching?" A vast majority of the people I've spoken with have only learned about caching in the last year and usually from the media or a cacher coming to ask permission. Generally positive ways. The real point of the discussion is to illustrate that if we were not as vigilant with our guidelines as a community - they would have heard about it a looong time ago and in a negative way. The fact that it's going to be 5 years old and most are just now becoming aware of it speaks volumes for how well the "standard guidlines" are working. I don't think there's a good solution to virtuals beyond completely scrapping the concept and rebuilding it as something seperate entirely. In the mean time, the guidelines in place currently seem to be working fantastically to guard against impropre placement and to gurantee some level of quality. I just wish there was a measure like "Wow" in place for traditionals. I'm not sure what I'd rather find - a grafittied park bench or a lamp post micro.

I agree, was strong. Play nice folks.

Are *any* caches (virts included) allowed on NPS lands?

50 sites reserved and climbing

IMHO the 60CS is hands down the best unit going right now. I've had mine for about a year and have loved every minute of it. Tons of map memory, great color, and I love the POI & address lookup on it. You'll buy it for geocaching, but use it for everything else too. I don't leave home without it. We take it on vacations and such even when caching's not on the docket. You won't regret buying one.