Poidawg

I have read of many people using a PDA to download maps and waypoints and to auto route trips in order to find caches along the way...Check out the software forums.

I try and attend at least a couple of Orienteering meets every year. I always walk, always try and take the dog. The meets are challenging and fun. I was wondering if anyone here is involved in Orienteering. I think it has helped me hone my map reading abilities and allowed me to be more comfortable in the terrain I am in while out in the woods. There is a meet in Novato (Marin County) This next Sunday, January 29th. Check out the Bay Area Orienteering Club at www.baoc.org for more information if you are interested in attending. It is being held at Indian Valley College (dogs welcome) which is a beautiful campus nestled into the oak woodlands. Hope to see you there.

Now that is what I call the scenic route!!!

I can see all those white berries in the background of your photo - a good way to ID Poison Oak as well!!

I am new too. I think you will love it here. I clicked on "Hide and Seek A Cache" on the left side of the page. I put in my postal code for the area closest to my place, or if I am going to be in another area (you can look up postal code right there on the same page with ease). I checked the list of caches. If you look at the page there is a place towards the left side with boxes, this is difficulty and terrain. The lower the number the easier. Find a cache you think you might want to try (the easiest are sometimes deceptively hard). Put the longitude and latitude information into your GPS OR print out the page. I printed for the first couple of caches. It helped alot. After you click on the Title of the cache, and the are looking at the cache page, you can really learn alot about the cache. Upper right, is the cache code, which you can use to find it again later. BE SURE YOU ARE LOGGED IN. Under the cache code is an area which tells you what type of cache it is (micro, small) and international symbols - allowing for times the cache is allowed to be visited (some are in parks with time restrictions) and info on parking, dogs, etc. Check out by the title you can tell if the cache is traditional or unknown or a multi cache. Under the title and the owner of the cache is the longitude and latitude. Make certain your gps unit has the WAAS turned on and has the proper DATUM input. Then there is the UTM number, for map users. Then there is a symbol showing how far the cache is from your home coordinates. This is shown in the previous page as well, the one with the titles and cache descriptions on it. DOwn below the PLEASE NOTE area is the Difficulty and the Terrain ratings. This shows you how hard the owner has rated finding the cache. then there is usually an area of general descriptions involving the cache, or hints, and then logs. You might want to do a search to see if there is a Florida geocachers club in your area. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area there is another web site, and the people there have been so helpful to me in my quest to learn more, as they are closer and more accessible to me. Although the people here are great as well. Dont be afraid to ask questions, many of the cachers here seem to thrive on them. Alot of times the first time will turn up nothing, DONT GET DISCOURAGED. Once I found my third cache I knew I was hooked for life!!! It may take a bit of time to get the hang of it, but it is worth it. I learned alot by just reading the old forum postings, like one on placing caches and how creative and devious some of these cache owners are in placing their caches...Good luck, welcome to geocaching, I hope 2006 is a great year for you!!

Can you go back with a thermos full of warm water to melt the water and get the cache out?

I have a travel bug that wishes to go to Hawaii. I live in a county near San Francsico International Airport. Since Im not going to Hawaii myself anytime soon, I will put the bug in a cache in San Francisco and hope someone who is going to Hawaii will pick it up.

We usually get a hard frost in April...No matter the weather or how nice the day, bring that sweater or sweatshirt or jacket with you while you go to that particular cache. The winds go right thru the gate and hit Alcatraz, making it a very cold place to visit. Have a great time..

Ohhh I love the bugs!! Even tho I recently travelled all the way to the Sacramento Valley to try and put the first TB I ever found near some ducks (its goal) and could not find a suitable place, I thought of another place, which turned out to be better than my first idea. I just wish I had a digital camera to show the TB owners where their bug landed. (If you have a digital camera and are around the cache "Tamalpias Watchs it all' and want to take a photo of the TB there - Nici the duck - to send to Nici's owners, that would be great!)...I now have two TBs, both of which are just trying to travel. This week I will be in San Francisco and have looked up a number of caches near the docs office I have an appointment at so I can get the TB's closer to SFO for their next leg. As I understand it geocaching is based mostly on honesty. As a cacher, you are suppose to hunt and find the cache, not just pretend you did, and then make up a phoney log. You are suppose to either trade items, or sign the log in the cache or do whatever it is you are suppose to do, then return the cache to "EXACTLY THE WAY IT WAS PLACED''. The existence of the TB, to me adds another dimension of the game. To try and get the bug to where it wants to go. Like multi-caches. I for one like the added treat, not only of seeing the TB and where it came from and where it wants to go, but to try and help it get there in a reasonable amount of time. For me that is not always easy since I have such a low positive cash flow. I think I would always grab a TB, even just to move it to another nearby cache. It is sad that there are people out there who will take caches, or TB's or have malicious intent in their heart. There are weeds in every garden, the way I see it, I can look at the weeds, or I can look at the flowers... I would hate to see geocaching reduced to micros without ever having TB's. That would be a sad day indeed. Just my two cents.

That pic looks like the furry speed bump I am familar with!!! Mine is a husky Bull Mastiff mix, and he is totally into puddle jumping, creek crossing, gopher digging, cliff diving and of course making sure the path is okay to travel on by running ahead, and then coming back to make certain I am still with him.

The basin is a huge area. Are you going to be in the South lake Tahoe area, or Northshore? Westshore, or eastlake???

You put down in your query that you had two sats showing up. You need 6 for better accuracy. If Im not getting a good read from where I am, I back away to the closest clearing as far away from anything as I can get. I double check my bearings and then head towards where I know the cache should be. I also found that using different pages on my unit helped alot recently. I did not just stick with one. Welcome to caching, make sure your WAAS is on and the datum information is correct.

There is a local scout troop here in Marin County which has caches at every place the boy scouts have done something to help the community. Whether it be where the local scouts have cleaned a community garden of weeds or painted those "Drains to Bay" icons on the drains on the street, one in the county north of us pointed out where the scouts had painted this huge wall which was becomong an eye sore. The caches are informative and fun, and some of them are really hard to find. They are some of my favorite caches. She offers a scout patch to the cachers who log the rule to live by or whatever it is, Like Obedience, Cleanliness, Honor...These are listed somewhere on each cache, and once you get all ten of them you send her the words which correlate with each cahe to get your patch. Don't forget the contents of the cache will change with every person who visits it and exchanges something.

I use digital and film cameras. Film will be around a long time, there are photographers who are dedicated to film cameras. You CAN get the film canisters from almost any photo shop, or find a local camera club. A friend of mine who is into bugs loves the opaque film canisters and is always on the look out for them, so they are popular with people with varied interests

The lack of response in this forum is surprising. The Bay Area Geocachers are much more responsive. I got a reply back from the mosquito abatement people. The like this idea and have to run it by the supervisor. They use a polymer which is put into the tree hole and obsorbs all the water, making the water disappear and leaving the mosquito no place to lay her eggs. The polymer dries up in the summer and is good for 4 years!! The mosquitoes which will be targeted are the ones responsible for Heartworm in dogs. As soon as I get the nod for this, I would like to know who would be interested in this and I need ideas on the best way to get the polymer to cachers. Meeting somewhere, caches just for the polymer...I would like your ideas. This could really make an impact on the mosquito population.

Recently while hunting down a cache I noticed a bunch of tree holes filled with water and mosquito larva. The worst larva of all a tiger mosquito - their bite is wicked, you feel them biting and they are like stalkers, they dont just buzz around and hope for a good shot. they stalk you... I thought, HEY, why can't geocachers carry some sort of mosquito larva kill stuff, that we can just plunk into a tree hole to kill those pesky skeeters while caching?? I would be willing do to it, and so today I e-mailed my counties Mosquito Abatement to ask what they thought. Cachers are sometimes in remote areas, walking not riding by real fast like mountain bikers, and we are usually looking right in areas which might have a skeeter larva population that we can zap before they have a chance to zap us. I was wondering how many people would be interested in carrying some sort of moquito dunk while caching? If the mosquito abatement people are all for it, Im more than willing to help lower the skeeter population a bit. I know the dunks they have are geared towards keeping the larva from maturing, but I need to make certain they are ok in a tree environment, and that it is okay with the county...

I see I have entered the world of the well to do as far as vehicles go. I drive a 1974 baby puke yellow Dodge Dart with 450 thousand miles on it....

Oh yeah, Im in the SF Bay area, northern part

I am seeking someone to assist me, because I am blissfully ignorant of how to deal with the used PDA I have. Well, it was blissful for the first 3 seconds, now Im just frustrated. I got a used Palm VIIx and the guy who had it before me erased the start up disc completely etc...All I want to do is go paperless in order to save my knees and back, which are pretty far gone as it is. I can make head nor tails from the owners manual. If you are willing to help a newbie and are EXCESSIVELY REASONABLE about the cost of your services, I would glady like to get an e mail from you... The unit has EVERYTHING, including the box and worthless CD. nfrlprdpr@yahoo.com

It is such a good feeling when I get back from someplace, where my dog has been able to run and I find him stuck to the carpet...from being too tired to respond to anything... Kids too!!!! I used to be a kid control officer in Tahoe, and when the kids were restless or started fighting too much, it was time to hit the trails!! Within a couple of minutes, everyones attitude changed for the better!!!!

The last two days I spent geocaching. I did not go really far, but the caches I attended were away from the general public areas and I have been able to let my dog off the leash to run free. My dog is 8 years old and we go out everyday for a good half an hour to an hour walkies, so he is in pretty good shape (in spite of breaking a toe and having to have his toenail and first digit removed about two months ago) So Im here at the computer, logging my finds, and checking out other caches for future finds, and I hear this really, REALLY, REALLY LOUD "THUD" come from the other room... Well, I'm dog sitting 2 Chihuahuas and a cat, the only thing able to make such a THUD is my dog, who is 85 pounds, and was sleeping on the futon when I passed by a few minutes ago. I quickly got up to investigate and to my amazement found my dog had rolled off the futon in his sleep!!! Poor guy was so tired from running around and rolling in dead things and jumping in the creeks, and sniffing out gopher holes and helping me find the caches...he was probably dreaming about our next find, when he rolled off!!! I picked him up and dusted him off and put him back on the futon where he went right back to sleep... I guess I will have to keep my caching to every other day.

I have a Garmin e trex legend I bought used for a hundred dollars. It has not failed me yet and is spot on. I bring extra batteries, and reload when needed. I was recently at an REI forum on Geocaching, a rep from National Geographic was there, still using a Garmin Vista. In fact he had two at the forum

Sorry, it was a feature article in the paper today....just trying to relay information. I will know better next time.

NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release For Information: (208) 884-7231 September 27, 2005 Contact: Rick Ohnsman Agency Information Officer "Geo-cache treasure" turns into trouble S uspected bomb under SH-55 bridge closes road for six hours What probably started as an innocent game kicked law enforcement, transportation, and public safety officials into high gear Tuesday morning just after 9:00 a.m. when a suspicious object was found under what is referred to by many as the 'Rainbow Bridge.' The historic bridge which spans the North Fork of the Payette River thirteen miles south of Cascade was closed for six hours while a Boise Police Department Bomb squad was summoned and officials worried over a suspiciously rigged plastic bucket suspended under the bridge and secured with ropes and wires. Copper wires extended from the bucket and at the top of the bridge, a bouquet of flowers were placed. It was only later in the afternoon at about 2:15 p.m. when the person who had placed the object came to the scene to reveal the object was a 'geo-cache ', an object hidden to be found by others using GPS (global positioning satellite) devices in a kind of electronic treasure hunt. (Info on geo caching here -- http://www.geocaching.com/faq/ ) The object was initially spotted by Rick Smith, an Idaho Transportation Department bridge inspector who was conducting a routine inspection of the bridge. Upon spotting the device, he immediately alerted the Valley County Sheriff's Office who then contacted the Idaho State Police and Idaho Transportation Department to close the highway five miles in each direction from the bridge. Although some traffic was rerouted with a pilot car over the Smith's Ferry Road, larger trucks were made to wait and traffic backed up for miles along SH-55. Motorists were also instructed to use SH-95 as an alternate route. Traffic was resumed just before 4:00 p.m. Valley County officials have not arrested the 33-year-old Meridian man who placed the object, but are considering possible charges as the investigation continues. Boise Police Department Bomb Squad officials report this is not the first time a geo-cache object has raised the eyebrows of police. Though they have not previously mobilized a full response to such an object, they have taken calls and been alerted on several previous occasions when similar objects were found. "Geo-cachers have rules that speak to the kinds of objects that should not be hidden and locations where they should not be placed such as on public structures, in historic areas, and in spots where they might be interpreted to be terrorist threats," said Boise Police Information Officer, Lynn Hightower. "This location, under a historic bridge on a main highway, over a railroad track along a scenic river broke probably every rule. It's a good example of why people who engage in this game must be familiar with the rules and use common sense."

Michaels Crafts sells smaller ziplock type bags in bulk, even smaller ones can be found in bead stores.