Team PL

Parsa, your First Contact cache is on my radar screen! I hope to look for it soon.

San Diego County backcountry areas are under fire restrictions too. Good luck in your search.

I'm just your average San Diego geocacher but would be glad to meet you and point you to some of my favorite San Diego caches. OT: Is SDSU's Geography Dept hosting local trips for ESRI participants or otherwise involved in the conference? I got to play with ARC while I was there. They have a nice GIS lab. PL

My five year old has more fun hunting caches than my 11 year old. Be prepared to always swap for something from a cache you find; my youngest can't leave a cache without a treasure.

SL of Team PL makes homemade jewelry. She works with inexpensive silver and copper wire but nice glass beads and sometimes semiprecious stones. We've placed / plan to place some of her earrings, bracelets, and necklaces caches we've hidden, and hope people appreciate the effort.

I've been using my Meridian with Easy GPS and MapSend Topo without trouble until today. Now, when I try to download waypoints from the GPS to the programs both programs can't get past the first two waypoints before aborting. I've double-checked that NMEA is off and the baud rate is the same for both the programs and the GPS at 4800. I also tried cleaning the communications / power contacts and reseating the memory card (not that I expected the later to matter). I put in fresh batteries too. I've noticed another odd behavior from the gps. When I manually delete a waypoint or route it appears to disappear from the onboard database, yet when the unit is turned on again the waypoints and routes are back. I did drop the unit about 2 feet onto asphalt this morning, but it appeared to be ok. It seems to be working in all other respects. What should I try? I think my next step is to clear memory and reinitialize the GPS. Of course I'm loath to do that as that would mean reloading all my painstakingly collected waypoints. [This message was edited by Team PL on May 06, 2002 at 03:14 PM.]

With that for an example I think it would be wise for anyone else who finds themselves in such a predicament to hire a lawyer. Harsh.

Inspired by the suggestions I've hidden our first cache in an area Vagabond suggested. Please be on the lookout for Lopez Canyon Coffee Can. I've heard a lot about the creativity of the Otis Pug caches - sounds like a trip up north is warranted. Shoeless Joe is highly recommended! So is My Side of the Mountain. Two great San Diego caches. I have to try out Inbetween - I'll come prepared to deal with any poison oak I might encounter.

As I explained in the General Topics forum, although I've found plenty of caches I've yet to hide any caches. I'd like to give something back to this great hobby, yet it seems to me that most of the good hiding spots in urban San Diego are already occupied. One of the best features of this game is it takes you to special places you wouldn't have otherwise discovered. I won't hide a cache in a run of the mill area. I'd rather wait until I can come up with something more creative or original. Are there any places you feel are cache deficient? Any type of cache that you'd like to see more of? The two most unique San Diego caches I know of are Shoeless Joe and My Side of the Mountain. Son of Shoeless and My Other Side of the Mountain would be too derivitive. But I'm looking for equivalent quality. PL [This message was edited by Team PL on May 01, 2002 at 02:06 PM.]

I've been at this game long enough to post over 50 finds, yet I still haven't placed a cache. I'm lucky to live in San Diego County where there are over 670 caches within 100 miles of my home coordinates. It seems to me that most of the good spots and many not so good hiding spots are already taken. I don't want to place a standard cache in a less than desirable location just to have a cache out there. I have a rural spot in mind and will place one there soon. But I'd still like to place a cache closer to home. I think I need to come up with something a bit more creative than the garden variety cache. Those can coexist with easier one and two star caches, and would better serve the more experienced cachers in my neighborhood. What do you think? What is the cache carrying capacity of an area? Do you know of any novel or especially interesting caches that might inspire me? PL

I visited the cache in question a mere week before its discovery and removal by the County. The cache was located in the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve. The preserve protects a fine example of dwindling oak woodlands / canyon bottom riparian strip habitat. Perhaps it would be wise to refrain from placing caches in any property labelled a reserve or preserve, yet let us not be so hasty to condemn the cache hider. The location of the cache in the park reflected great care and consideration of potential environmental impacts in my opinion. The cache was not located in the oak woodland or along the riparian strip but in chaparal / sage scrub just a few steps from the main travel route (a fire / maintenance road). Since the cache was located in a fairly conspicuous location there were few to no social trails; a faint trail did lead from the edge of the fire road directly to the cache site. There were no "shortcut" trails. I think the cache hider displayed a profound respect for the location. Unfortunately, out of ignorance or a lack of care not all caches I've discovered have been as thoughtfully placed. I'm very concerned with the Chat Noir cache located in Torrey Pines State Reserve. The purpose of this park is to protect some of the last stands of Torrey Pines. Although the cache hiders state in their description that no protected areas need to be crossed to access the cache the cache is in fact located off trail in a sensitive area. No, there are no live Torrey Pines in the vicinity of the cache, but there were before a combination of parasites and drought wiped out this part of the grove. Revegetation efforts are / will be underway to restore the former condition of the grove. Worse, cache seekers must walk up a sandy slope to get to the cache. As only the second finder all I had to do to find the cache was follow the footprints. I still haven't resolved the moral quandry of this cache. It should be removed before the State Park Service finds it. A second cache hidden in the reserve is thoughtfully located in a non-sensitive area. I support Ranger Roger's call for careful consideration of cache impacts. Too many poorly placed caches will only hurt this fun and rewarding hobby.

Oops, now I know better. I've edited my log and message board entry to conceal the TB #.

Hello, this is my first experience with a travel bug. It is a small lion beanie. I found it in the Tired Legs Cache (GC3A24) in Poway, CA. I searched for the number on its ID tag (XXXXXX). Another bug with a very different number comes up. How can you find a TB if it's number isn't in the system? Is it possible this is an AWOL TB that has been recently re-released but its info is archived? Thanks for your help! Edit: I've x'ed out the TB ID number. [This message was edited by PL on April 16, 2002 at 02:35 PM.]

On a related note I'd be interested in learning the memory limitations of the waypoint comment field. Although my Meridian can store 500 WPs I've noticed that after 250 or so that have comments the remaining WPs can't accommodate a comment. When downloading say 300 WPs to the gps from EasyGPS it seems the WPs at the end of the alphabet have their comment field deleted or missing. As a result I have to manually edit the WP name to make it descriptive. Do the other versions of the Meridian have this limitation?

I don't think my Magellan Meridian in green and brown is ugly! Just woodsy and functional. I haven't used the Garmins so can't compare the units. I can say I love the ability to easily upload detail maps to my gps, enjoy using it to look up addresses, and don't feel I'd get nearly as much functionality from a non-mapping gps. This unit is supremely flexible. My cost: gps $200 (with cable); MapSend Topo $69; 64 MB SD memory card $59. Money well spent.