Bardenl

Thank you. The article refers to trails maps, but at first I couldn't find them. The article says switch to Trails to see your offline maps! I tested with a local list to follow the steps and turned off all connectivity to my cell phone. It worked, trail maps which I had never seen before came up automatically. They are really cool. Looks like the accuracy is 33 feet.

I will not have cell connectivity for my iPhone in the Galapagos next week. I have printed a map with caches and put them in a List.

I have a different perspective. My favorite caches are traditional ammo boxes in the woods and regular size caches in general. I find more of these than any other size and try to keep them at more than 30% of my total finds. Because I like to encourage children who are caching, I carry hot wheels cars in my geobag and add them to caches I find if there is room. I also carry spare logs of various sizes, extra pens, etc. to make the finds better for those who follow. I write moderately long logs to express my appreciation for the cache owner's work. Twice I have refreshed a neglected cache. The first, Lizard Lane GC2R7WG, was a few miles from my home, a rare regular size trad in this urban setting that had been in a tennis ball container. Its physical decline was well documented in the logs followed by DNFs. The CO had not been active in geocaching for a number of years. I prepared a regular size cache in a 2 lb nut jar with swag, log, pens, cars, and a TB and hid it in the original spot. It has been found by 51 cachers since I first refreshed it, many of them just getting started. I particularly treasure the photos of two groups of young children who loved the cache. I keep a watch on the cache and refreshed it again when it was muggled. The second, Denton, Former Maryland MML Geotrail GC41191, was one I wanted to find on a trip I was making to this area. The previous owner posted that the cache container was removed temporarily on 3/31/14. A new owner logged accepting responsibility for the cache on 4/01/2014, but there were only DNFs after that. A recent log made it clear that the searcher should have found the cache but it was missing. I visited on 5/29 and left this in the log: "This could have been a DNF, but like the cacher before me, I was confident I had found the hiding place but the box was missing. I placed a temporary cache including a pen, a log book, a hot wheels car, and a TB so that others will be able to find the cache until the original box is returned or replaced. I am sending a photo of the hiding place to the cache owner to confirm that the location is correct." Five cachers logged my temporary cache replacement, mostly travelers who had come to the heart of this little town to find the cache. Finally, on 6/26 she had someone else replace the cache for her. She emailed me that she didn't appreciate having her caches replaced because they were usually hidden wrong, and I sent my photos showing the correct spot. She also deleted the DNF logs. I didn't reply, but I don't appreciate a CO who has so little regard for cachers. If a cache of mine should go missing, I'd appreciate someone who gave it a temporary replacement until I could get back to it. Throwdown is a derogatory term and doesn't apply to every cache replacement.

Here in Maryland (lots of rain, some snow, heat, rarely goes below 10 degrees F). I've had good luck with nut jars. They are clear plastic containers sold holding 32 ounces of cashews, trail mix or similar. My first has been out for just over 3 years. It is hidden in a raised bed next to a historical church under a boxwood bush. It's never been muggled or attacked by insects or animals. I ran it through the dishwasher before putting it out, just for cleanliness. I like the ones where the sides are smooth and vertical. I print out a paper green geocaching label from the ad on geocaching.com at 110% or so and tape it to the outside and then cover it with clear packaging tape, making sure the label edges are not exposed. To my surprise, I haven't even needed to replace the label. On a later one, I taped the label to the inside with just tabs of scotch tape, and that's held up too. Everything shows nicely through the clear plastic. The cache is handicap accessible and designed for children, plenty of room for lots of swag and several TBs. I did invest in a small write in rain logbook for my first one, but that was my only real cost. I think it's great for relatively new cachers to try putting out one of their own. As I remember, I had under 50 finds when I did mine. I thought our area of the county could use more hides, and I like finding regular size caches. I only know one other cacher in our area who tries to keep "regular" caches predominant in his stats. I have mine at roughly 1/3 of all finds. I do love finding old ammo cans. GC39 near where I grew up was a great find.

I am a beginning cacher and this has been a rough few weeks. First, the Geomate Jr. device I first used and still enjoy will no longer be made by its manufacturer and cannot be updated for caches created after 12/30/2011. I use my Mac laptop to find caches, read the logs and then print out the first page and hybrid satellite map. Today I went to do this before heading out for an errand in another neighborhood, thinking I would find a cache. I seriously thought the site was broken and came back this evening to discover what went wrong. I was just starting to feel confident in my growing geosense capabilities and now I'm not sure how well i'll be able to do at all. We're going on vacation in NC and FL for a couple of weeks, I hope I can find some caches. Even non techies enjoy going for walks with the prospect of finding something. I know I've gotten outside more on not so pretty days because of it. I wonder how the handheld gps manufacturers are doing. Is the community of geocachers growing fast enough to sell a steadily increasing number of devices?

I am a beginner and I really enjoy my Geomate Jr. I got mine from Amazon for under $70 including the update cable. Others report paying even less at Target. Take a look at the reviews, but remember that the folks who get these are generally not technically inclined and will sometimes say things that are not accurate (like saying it doesn't show altitude when it does). To see the full features, you can go to the website and download the full users manual. I suspect many who buy it just look at the getting started mini pamphlet in the package. It uses the most up to date and accurate location software and gets you closer than older models. It is paperless and comes loaded with 250,000 traditional caches. You do need the ($15) update cable, and that will let you select Eastern, Central, or Western US for more caches in your area. You can also choose Canada. It does not include 5 level difficulty caches and multistage, so advanced users look down on it.

If you don't mind spending a lot less, you might consider a Geomate Jr. by Apisphere. I paid under $70 US for the gps and the update cable from Amazon. It's only for geocaching and I'm having a lot of fun. Check out the specs, and read the online manual if you want to fully understand the features. I've noticed a lot of errors in the forums (like saying it doesn't show altitude when it does).