ras258

I have been doing a few earthcaches recently and I am really liking them. When I first started I submitted my answers for one and got a wonderful reply from the owner telling me the mistake I made on one of the questions and then telling me the right answer and why. I've had several caches where I've sent in the answers and not heard anything back so I just assume the answers were right or close enough. I recently did an earthcache where I didn't have a clue how to figure out the answer to the first question. I sent a note to the owner telling them this and gave my answers to the other questions. I asked if they could tell me how to figure out the answer to the first question - don't give me the answer, just tell me how to do it please. I never heard back from the owner about that earthcache. I like going to these great places to discover and learn something new and interesting but now I am really looking carefully at the questions for these caches because I don't want the discoveries to be overshadowed by the frustration of trying to answer some of those questions, especially when there are a lot of questions. I'll still go to some of these places and enjoy them but I won't try for the earthcache if the questions are just too much and require a degree in geology, math or quantum physics.

Update - I wanted to come back and let you know what I finally decided on. I bought the Garmin nuvi 550, it was delivered yesterday. I think this is a good fit for me at this time. Bit by bit I'm finding (and playing with) the different features and hopefully will be completely comfortable with it very soon. Thanks again to everyone for all of your help and suggestions.

Okay, now I'm going to throw another contender into the mix. What about the nuvi 550? I was out looking at more GPSrs today and someone suggested the nuvi550 for what I wanted - street names - ability to get/use lat/long coordinates - mainly used for urban Waymarking/caching We have a nuvi for the car and I've been using it for geocaching/Waymarking - I like it and find it easy to use. I was thinking the 550 might be a good fit for me. I was reading older posts about problems when the nuvi550 first came out but maybe the glitches have been fixed by now? What's the difference good/bad between the 500 and 550. Thanks again for all of your help, bit by bit I'm learning about the world of GPSs.

Thanks Red90 - I don't care about the topo maps because I really doubt I'll be trekking along trails or in a forest where they would definitely come in handy. I'm one of the urban caching/Waymarking fans. As for the paperless feature, I'm sure it would be nice but I don't mind paper - maybe I will think differently after I've experienced paperless. - refurbished - can't honestly say why I'm not a fan. You do make a good point and as long as it did come from a reputable company and have some sort of warranty it should be fine - right? I think it's more of a comfort level thing where I buy new, from a company I know and can return to if there is any problem.

CacheFreakTim - Where are you finding the Dakota 10 for under $150? The best price I can find is $244 at Walmart in the States. I did see a refurbished for $154 online/from the States but I'm not keen on refurbished. Most of the prices I'm seeing for the Dakota 10 are closer to $299. Any other suggestions for a basic unit for urban Waymarking/caching? Don't want topo maps because I won't be using them, don't care if it is paperless or not. Right now I don't think I need many features, even if they would be nice. Anyone?

Thanks CacheFreakTim - this is exactly the type of answer/advice I'm looking for. I have been looking through the forum and the Dakota 10 has come up several times. I do know I definitely do want a handheld GPS so now it's just a matter of deciding which one would be best for what I want to use it for. Off to continue re/searching.....

I know you must all get tired of seeing the "what GPSr should I buy" question so I do apologize and hope you will try to help me anyway. I have been geocaching for about a month and have been using the car GPS - Garmin nuvi. I know this is not ideal but it has been fine while I have been learning my way. The Garmin died on the weekend so we went out today to look for a replacement and were lucky to find Garmin nuvi 1350 on sale for $119 CDN. We bought that so that's the car taken care of. I'm heading to the States next week and was going to check out handheld units while I was there, but today at the store I saw they had etrex Legends for $109 (regular $379 - right!) because they have been discontinued. Unfortunately I forgot to write down if it was a specific model/number of Legend - it was blue and I didn't notice any letters after Legend. My question is - do you think this is a good deal? I have been doing more Waymarking than geocaching in the past couple of weeks and think I'll continue more with the Waymarking with occasional geocaching. I definitely prefer urban caching/Waymarking - no plans to hike into the woods, over streams, up mountains, etc. I don't care it the unit is paperless or not. Basically I want a decent unit that will give me good accuracy in urban settings - for searching caches and waymarks and eventually creating my own waymarks. Paper/paperless is not an issue. I need/want Canadian/North American maps included. Any suggestions, opinions and comments will be welcome. It's hard when you are so new to something you don't even know the right quesions to ask. Thanks for your help.

@ Gitchee-Gummee - Thanks for clearing that up about the DNF on the google maps. That was what I was wondering about. I wouldn't delete a DNF or change it to a Found. I think the log history should contain everything and the new finds or notes should be added.

Thanks everyone for your replies - very helpful. I wanted to check before I did log the DNFs. I also like reading that some people DNF a cache as it often does provide useful info and also makes my lack of success THIS time easier to take. And as Gitchee-Gummee said they often make for some entertaining reading. I have been keeping a log of everything I have looked for so far, including the cache names, co-ords, dates, times I've looked, reasons for stopping etc. I like having a record of which caches I have actually looked for - found or not. I will go back and enter all my DNFs with the appropriate dates and information. If/when you return to a DNF cache and do find it and log I'm guessing the becomes a on your map. I'm guessing the two log entries DNF and Found it remain part of the log history, as they should?

After years of hearing about geocaching on bookcrossing and more years of hearing about it on postcrossing I finally signed up last weekend. Have 7 finds so far and am really enjoying it. I can understand how this can become addictive. My question is about registering "Didn't Find It"s. When do you register a cache as not found. We went in search of one this weekend but it was obvious that it was going to be nearly impossible because of the snow and location so we left after reaching the general area. I noticed when I rechecked it on the computer it said it was unsuitable for winter searching. We have also searched for other caches for 10-15 minutes but haven't found the them. Would you register these as Didn't Find or was that not enough time? We're trying to start off slowly with the "easier" caches. Thanks for any help.