bykenut
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Posts posted by bykenut
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Here's a picture of my geocaching dog Mollie. I've only had her for about 5 months and she's already found 4 caches.
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I recently adopted a 1-year old Chocolate Lab Mix, Mollie, and she seems like the ideal caching dog. In the 5 months that I've had her, Mollie has already found 4 caches. When she finds the cache, she pushes the hiding material out of the way and paws or noses at the cache container.
My previous dog, Zoe, a Vizsla Mix (?), would causally walk up to caches, point to them with her nose and look at me like "Ok, there's the cache. Let's go now.". Zoe didn't seem as good as finding caches as Mollie is, but could be that she wasn't as obvious about it so I didn't notice.
Does your caching pooch find caches? If so, how does s/he indicate s/he has found it?
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I'm a roadie, riding about 3,000 miles a year and have found over 700 caches (over 5 years) via my road bikes. When caching via my road bikes, I look for caches with a terrain <2, though I have climbed some short cliffs with my (expensive) cleated shoes using cleat covers. I even hauled my bike up a sand dune once, though I did change my shoes to walk through the sand.
I love combining biking with caching. The caches are a nice incentive to do a ride and a destination to ride to. Many times it's difficult to figure out where to park a car near a cache, but with a bike, you can ride right up to it. When I go on organized bicycle tours, I seek out caches to find along the way too.
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The InvisibleSHIELD is very clear. I can read my screen just fine and barely notice that I have a screen protector on.Before I blow even more cash on these invisibleshield things can someone out there tell me that they can still read their screen properly? -
I've been using the InvisibleSHIELD screen protector for my Garmin 60CS for the past few months. Previously I was using the screen protectors from Strong Engineering. I find that the InvisibleSHIELD is much clearer and stronger than those from Strong Engineering. With the Strong Engineering protectors, after a few months of use, I can see scratches on the protector and end up changing it every now and then. With the InvisibleSHIELD, I have yet to see a scratch on the protector plus the protector seems clearer.
Applying the InvisibleSHIELD wasn't anymore difficult than applying the protector from Strong Engineering. I did do mine twice, as I didn't like how I had it positioned the first time, plus I got a piece of dog hair trapped under it, and it was quite easy to redo.
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I've had my 60CS fly off my bicycle handlebars several times and even wrote Garmin about it, which they said they'll pass onto their engineering department.
What I finally did, which doesn't obscure the screen, is to take a wire tie, like the ones used for vegetables and string it through the lanyard strap hole on the 60CS and then to the space on the 60CS holder where the holder clips onto the mount on the bicycle handlebar. Tighten up the wire and twist it around itself to hold it in place. Tuck the ends under the 60CS and then click on the 60CS to the bike.
Since it seems like the upper loop of the holder breaks from the torque it experiences with insertion and road vibrations, a friend of mine reinforced the mount of his by wrapping a clothes hanger wire around the circumference of the mount and epoxing the wire to the mount. The holder is very ridged this way.
Bykenut
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I'm a roadie too and used to bike 5000 miles a year. I now do about 3000 miles a year. I've found about 600 caches using my bicycle as transportation and many times in the middle of organized bike rides and tours.
I started with a basic Garmin eTrex, then upgraded to a Garmin 60CS. I found that the 60CS is too big and heavy (about 8 oz) on a road bike. Being spoiled with the maps of the 60CS but not wanting to spend a whole lot of money, I then bought a Garmin eTrex Legend, mainly just for using on my bike. It's "small" and "light" (about 5 oz), doesn't seem like I'm bashing it's brains around on bumpy roads like I do with the 60CS. Also I've had problems with the 60CS flying off the Garmin mount (the RAM mount is much too bulky for a road bike), whereas I've never had a problem with the Garmin eTrex mount.
Thus, for road biking, I would highly recommend any of the Garmin eTrex units and using the Garmin eTrex mount on your handlebar.
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Chuguy's Stumped? cache would make a great one for your 100th. I did it for my 1000th.
And as Bullit mentioned, ANX or any of Workerofwood's Assume Nothing caches would be good too.
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1 dog, who goes caching with me whenever possible.
Good luck with your project!
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The I think it depends on where you cache and your mode of transportation.
If you pick very cache dense areas, you can pick up lots of caches quickly. Combining a car travel with bicycle travel might help speed things up in some cache dense areas, as you waste less time parking and making u-turns.
A small group of us did Redwood Shores and part of Foster City on bicycles a couple of months ago. In about 8 hours, we visited 25 caches. It probably could even been more, but we only had planned on visiting about 20 caches and then had time to kill, so threw in a few more caches around the area and doing some backtracking along the route. We also didn't rush between caches, taking a leisure lunch and doing a little sightseeing along the way.
Bykenut
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Garage sales are a great place for swag, especially late in the day. Once I was able to get about 50 small toys, all in good shape, for $2 (the woman selling them gave me a grocery bag and told me I could have however much toys I could get in the bag for $1. I only filled it up about a third (I was on my bike) and gave her $2. Many garage sales in my area sell swag for 10 to 25 cents a piece. I've found that garage sales in "nice" neighborhoods offer the best swag at the best prices.
For notepads, I keep a lookout for the 7-day coupons at Walgreen's. Once I was able to get the 3x5 pads for 10 cents each. Normally their coupons are for 3 for a $1, which is still a great buy.
Smart and Final carries some nice sized clear plastic containers for about a buck. I've used several of them for cache containers and they've been working out fine.
I get a most of my pens for free. Whenever I go to a fair where they hand out free pens, I grab one. You can also buy a dozen stick type pens for about a buck at Staples.
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The USB connector broke off my 60CS after its first 2 months of use. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this doesn't happen again.
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My 60CS has flown off my bicycle twice, once going over some cobblestones at about 12mph and the second time on some bumpy country roads at about 18mph. Both times the 60CS case got a little scratched up, but the unit worked fine.
I've also dropped my 60CS on the trail and pavement a few times and it just keeps on ticking.
The 60CS case is made very ruggedly and made to take abuse. I have had to send my 60CS back to the shop twice, but not because I dropped it.
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I just got one from Amazon last week for $132.92, which includes free shipping.
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The mounting bracket for my Garmin 60CS cracked through at the upper loop that goes around the button that attaches to the unit. I only had the mount and GPSr for about 2 months when it cracked. I wrote Garmin and they sent me a replacement bracket. That replacement bracket cracked after only a couple of uses. I wrote Garmin again and they will be sending me another replacement bracket.
When I asked Garmin if this is a known problem, they claimed this was the first time they heard about it. Has anyone else have their mounting bracket crack?
Mine is for the bicycle mount, but I noticed it's the same bracket for the marine and automobile mounts as well. I'm not sure if the bracket is cracking due to road vibrations when I'm riding my bicycle or if it cracks when I'm putting or removing the GPSr on the mount. The only reason I noticed that it was cracked was because my GPSr went flying off the mount a couple of times (fortunately the 60CS is ruggedly built).
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Some of my friends plan to bicycle and cache in this area this weekend. I'll pass this request on to them.
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I will be flying in and out of Syracuse, NY this summer for the Bon Ton Roulet bicycle tour. I probably won't have my bicycle while I'm in Syracuse and was wondering it would be worth it to rent a car for a day, just for the purpose of caching. Are there any "must do" caches within a 10 mile radius of Syracuse?
Also, I hope to do some caching during the bicycle tour, which will be around the finger lakes region. Are there any highly recommended caches in that area that don't require any hiking?
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I've been spraying permethrin on my clothing before heading out to the trails. The stuff bonds to your clothing (you need to apply it at least the day before using so it can dry) and is suppose to repel ticks and mosquitoes. It comes in a pump spray bottle and can be found at REI. Also, one company now makes clothing with permethrin already bonded into the material.
I've used my permethrin sprayed clothing on a couple of hikes and haven't gotten any ticks on me, but I also had my tick magnet dog with me, who did pick up some ticks.
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I just looked at the East Bay Regional Park District (which includes Ardenwood) website and noticed that they have monthly meetings for the Park Advisory Committee.
In the minutes for their 11/22/04 meeting, this comment was made by one of the members regarding geocaching:
"Williams asked about Geocaching. Chief Kenny said it is scheduled for Board Operations review in 2005. He advised that the District does not have a policy on Geocaching and it is not allowed at the District. "
The list of the meetings, along with some meeting minutes, can be found at
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I'm one of the cachers featured in the article. I just called my local Tower Records / Books and they said they'll probably have the winter issue in during the first part of December. Can't wait to see it!
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FYI - The 2004 Winter issue of The Bark magazine has an article about geocaching with dogs and features Zoe and me along with two other folks who cache with their dogs. If you're a subscriber, you probably just received the winter issue. If not, they should be at Tower Records, Barnes and Noble, and Borders at the beginning of December (at least that's what the person at Tower Records told me). http://www.thebark.com/exploreBark/explore...xplore29_1.html
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I've recently been using maporama http://www.maporama.com/share/ It doesn't seem to have a limit to the number of uses.
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Henry Coe State Park http://www.coepark.org/ near Morgan Hill might be a good two day backpacking / caching trip. A couple of my friends backpacked in to Kelly Lake from the Hunting Hollow entrance and camped there for a few nights. While they were there, they attempted to hunt for Kelly Rocks, Tammy's Boulders, and Pacheco Falls, all which they DNF, so don't know if those caches are still there, but there's lots of other caches in the park (like 20 or so).
Most of the caches at Henry Coe are pretty well inside the park, making them long one day trips, but seem like would make a good overnight trip.
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My zipcode is only about 8 miles away from Marky's (which is not far in San Jose, CA terms), but I'm about half as dense as him.
95119 @ 4 miles = 57
1.14 caches per square mile
Geocaching Dog
in General geocaching topics
Posted
My dog Mollie has actually found a few caches before I spotted them. She'll walk up to the cache and start pawing at it. If there is something covering it, she'll push it aside to get to the cache. So far she's only found caches in nature type areas. I think she smells the human scent around the cache area.