Poidawg

I love all these stories. I just talked to my friend, truns out that her grandson just got his tonsils out, and they are working out the details so when he heads out, he can go informed. Just by happenstance, his new scouting group is going out to geocache this month, I can not wait to see how much the mom gets involved.

Make certain your DATUM information is correct and your WAAS is on, those are two very important things to have just right

I was just at an REI forum on GPS receivers and National Geographic. The person giving information said that there is a little microwave antenna in the unit. And since water is dense, anything having to do with water, including ourselves, trees, rocks, and anything with density will effect the units ability to read the satellite. He suggested carrying the unit in your hand flat to the ground so the antenna gets the best reception, not on a lanyard, not in your pocket or with your hand covering the face or top of the unit. And as the other repliers said, once you get to the immediate area, stop looking at the GPSr, and use your eyes. My first cache was right next to a solid rock wall 50 feet high and a dense cover of trees. Making for lots of frustration. Someone told me to make certain I had at least 6 good signals from the satellites, any less makes finding the cache harder. Good luck, keep asking those great questions we have always asked. ANd if there is an REI near you or a Community College, there may be a class someone is offering.

I have corrupted my friend!! Im not sorry. It did not take long. Within hours of mentioning she could get a good price on a used Garmin etrex legend she was hooked. She now has the unit, a charger for the car, and is going off to corrupt her daughter and grandson. How many people have you turned on to geocaching, and do you know if they have turned someone else on to geocaching? Did those people stick with geocaching, not have enough time, or upgrade within months of getting their first unit?

oooohhh thank you

I am new to geocaching and computing so be patient with me. First, thank you for the advice, secondly ignore this post, it turns out I need a MetroGuide not Mapsource....Im learning

Thank you, just the info Im looking for. I love it when you all set us newbies on the right path. Yes I have a Garmin etrex legend

I have a used gpsr. I would like to get the Mapsource cd for my area, and for my state, I dont know much about the software and what is available. Can you all educate me on what I need to buy. I do travel around and would like to find waypoints en route, but have no idea what I need. Thanks in advance. I live in the North Bay if that is important. I travel mostly within California, but sometimes to Reno. If you direct me to a source for purchase - please keep in mind, Im on a limited income.

No offense taken...

West Coast. America. California. Northern California.

I need a Mapsource CD, anyone have one for sale....reasonable.

It seems every other cache I find, has at least one spider guarding the egg casing attached to the cache, making a home or in some other way menacing my attempts to pull the cache out to get into it. Im considering getting gloves after the last two caches. One had a mating pair of wolf spiders guarding an egg casing which had little babies crawling all over it. The male wolf spider was ready to go again with his front legs all swollen and discolored. I had a time getting them to move away for a bit until I finished my log and trades. Today I met a nice sized black widow, and have run into some false widows before, Im not interested in getting bit, and todays black widow was pretty close to my fingers. Do you cachers were gloves, or just hope you wont get bit? And what about the scorpions? I turned over a log and found a scorpion a bit dazed and confused, but not agressive at all. We parted ways, both living and without bothering each other further, but....eeep

Hey Greg, Sometimes the truth gets reworded and retold. Until I read the above post about the story printed on Readers Digest I had not heard of or had seen the story, except from my mom back in the 80's. I dont know where my mother would have heard the story, but when she told me, she did say it was a friend of hers.... It is possible that my mother "heard it as a story" and not from a friend, but remember Butch Cassidy was also suppose to have died in the gun battle in South America and they have yet to find his remains, and his sister swore he returned after the "story" of his death in that famous/infamous gun battle...who is to know for sure.

I checked his photos in his album on the profile page, he seems to know a couple other cachers, he mentions Dumbledore, and Motorman, you may want to contact them to see if they have any idea. Just a thought

Closer to the start of this thread there is a link to another thread on peeing and a story of a woman who while skiing had to pee. I know the story - it was a friend of my moms. The woman in question was in line at the bottom of a ski run. the lines were long that day and she HAD TO GO. She and the guy she was skiing with were nearing the front of the line to get on the lift, when she said she really had to go. Not wanting to get out of line, her friend lied to her, saying there were bathrooms at the top of the lift. She believed him and got onto the lift going to the top of the run, where she discovered there was no bathroom. At bursting point now, she saw a tree line nearby and went over - skis still on. She found a nice area completely surrounded by trees. She pulled down her pants and squatted. She started to pee, when her skis, pointing downhill, began to carry her backwards because of her shifting her weight. She was helpless to do anything. The momentum of her skis carried her backwards into the ski run, where she crossed in front of another skiers skis, she continued backwards across the entire run, crashed into a tree and broke her ankle. The next day she was in the lodge, nursing her wounds at the lodge while her lying dog friend skied. She noticed a guy at the lodge with a broken leg and thought misery loves company and she went to ask him what happened. He replied "you will never believe me" She urged him to tell her, and he related that while just starting his run the day before a woman crouched on her skis with her pants down had crossed over his skis and he was so shocked to see such a sight he crashed into the tree line and broke his leg. She was horrified. She replied she was so sorry. He was taken aback a bit because she kept saying how sorry she was, how terrible he had suffered a broken leg. Then she came clean and told him it was her, she related the entire story to him, when she got back home, she related the story to her buddies, one of them was my mom. The womans ski trip took place in the 1980's in the Lake Tahoe area.

Bleach will eat away at the bone a bit, so if you use bleach, use a very diluted solution, putting the bone under a bucket, on a piece of burlap and lettig the beetles and other critters clean it up takes quite awhile, but it works. Boiling leaves a HORRENDOUS smell and I suggest if you wish to boil the ones you find, do it outside on the propane grill. Boiling is the fastest way to get them cleaned up.

Police Dispatcher Parking Enforcement Officer Graduate first extended Basic Academy 1982-83 Northern California. Retired from Law Enforcement

San Anselmo Creek overflowed, sending water over 3 feet of rushing water down San Anselmo Avenue, the Russian River is forecast to overflow, and Im wondering the status of all the other caches in the bay area which were subject to intense rain, wind and flooding...Do you all check the condition of your caches after such an intense storm or do you wait for someone who is caching to e mail you about the missing status or the soaked status of your cache...Just curious

Is this unit still available?

I have not read the previous posts, so forgive me if I repeat something. I have a physical disabililty, although I am not chair bound and I can handle alot, there are somedays I can barely get to the car. I ALWAYS check the Topozone and Satellite links to learn as much as I can about the terrain, before attempting a cache. In the winter of course the terrain can vary wildly due to flooding, snowfall, standing water, mud and muck. Some of the people who hide caches in the area I live actually use the disabled access (person in a wheelchair) icon on their pages to indicate that the cache is wheelchair accessible. I find this very helpful on days Im not doing too well. Good Luck to you and your kids, Happy Holidays and Hope the New Year is prosperous and Happy.

NEVER TOUCH THE ITEM. If you do, advise the officer who responds to your call that you touched it. NEVER remove the item, try and get someone to go for a law enofrcement officer while you stand by the suspicious item. You will be questioned, and your name will be taken, this is all part of the process. Try and be patient, it may take some time.

I like to add batteries, in case someone is close to having a battery go. I dont put them in all caches, just some. Many of the caches around here are micros.

I am new to geocaching, and just spent the last 1/2 hour looking at this thread. Now I am very excited about the idea of placing my first cache and really taking my time in making it a really good one. I am also kind of worried now about the way some of you people think, noting the lengths some of you have gone to in order to keep your caches hidden...YIKES EVEN!!! Thanks so much for sharing. I will be breathing into a paper bag for the next half hour...

I e mailed Rubbermaid, asking them about starting up a line of Rubbermaid in camo, specifically for geocaching. This is the reply I got... Thank you for your interest in Rubbermaid and for taking the time to contact us regarding our Rubbermaid Containers. We appreciate and value the comments you provide. We will be glad to pass your suggestions to our Research and Development Department for consideration. We depend upon loyal consumers, like you, for feedback on new and existing products. Your satisfaction is important to us. Thank you for using Rubbermaid and for giving us the opportunity to address your concern. Please take a moment and visit our new and improved web site at Rubbermaid.com. We now offer on-line purchases for select items. Further enhancements to the web site as well as additional product offers are coming soon. Sincerely Allana Consumer Service Representative Rubbermaid Home Products ***If I might be so bold as to suggest Rubbermaid get some more requests for a camo line of Rubbermaid containers from geocachers, it might help them design something alot more quickly if they knew we were serious about the request.

I am new to caching (have not hit 10 finds yet, and am still thinking about where to place caches I want to in the future) ANYWAY. I would love to go paperless and am seriously looking into PDAs. I have a GARMIN etrex Legend GPSr and find it easy to use. I would like a PDA which is also easy to use. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks.