Big Bird and son

There is a virtual cache on my cache page that I have no desire in visiting. Is there any way to delete this cache so it won't be at the top of my list of nearest cache sites?

Get a Magellan 315. Easy to use and works great. Runs about $120. I got mine at Fleet Farm. You might want to check what version the software is on it and make sure it is the 3.15.

I was in the same boat as you. Just follow the directions and all will go well. I was shocked that it was that easy.

I'm in and I don't even live in the Cities.

here is an email that I received from the Forestville Asst. Manager: sent the following to our operations manager in St Paul. This might help, or it might not. Steve, Last week I retreived a geocache in Forestville. I notified the owner via geocaching.com that it had been removed and that he could come and pick it up. To log on to this website, I had to give an Email address and I gave my personal address. I've received much mail questioning this new policy and I'm beginning to wonder if we were a bit hasty in issuing this new policy. Perhaps some restrictions on the practice would work better, such as park manager would have to ok area where cache is placed, or cache has to be within 50 ft of park trail, or once cache has been logged (found) 10 times it has to be reset. Just some ideas, but I really think the people in the geocaching community are environmentally aware and perhaps shouldn't be given such a harsh cutoff. Would it be ok if I gave them your Email address? Maybe if you could read some of their comments, you'ld think differently too. Arol I liked his own words, "a bit hasty". I do think we need to start up a MN Geocaching group. Lizs comment about caches running rampant.....there has been one or two new caches in MN in the past week or so. I don't see that as a problem at least not in MN. The bottom line is that we need to police ourselves. Pick good spots that won't be impacted too much. If you cache recieves a lot of traffic in a short time you should move it. ------------------------------- - http

T3am- Could you make a post like this in the "Geocaching in MN" post? Sounds like you know what you are talking about!

Here is the reply I got from Forestville: I beleive the main reason the decision was made was because of resource protection. Practically all MN state parks have areas of fragile, if not protected environments that could be damaged even by foot traffic. If these caches are placed in these areas irreversible damage could be done to a single species or to an entire ecosystem. The rule that I believe applies to the actual Geocache is: Subp. 2. Abandonment. No vehicle, trailer, boat, fish house, or other equipment or personal property may be stored or abandoned in a state park. In state parks, overnight parking and storage of equipment is permitted only in connection with the use of campsites or fish houses, except by prior approval of the park manager. The temporary storage of personal property by a person who remains in the immediate vicinity is permitted. Feel free to contact Steve Anderson or Ron Hains, MN DNR, division of parks at our central office in St Paul for any other information. Arol McCaslin Assistant Park Manager The rule under Sub.2 is what I thought they were going to use to ban geocaching and I posted a reply in the other topic about illegal caches in MN. According to the DNR web site email address follow this format: Firstname.Lastname@dnr.state.mn.us I do think that if we can ban together as a large group or union something can be worked out and should be worked out. I guess in the mean time don't go out and get a Natural Resources license plate and don't check that little box to donate money to the parks on your taxes (kind of a joke)!

I too sent an email to the Forestville Asst. Manager this morning asking the logic behind banning caches. I also sent an email off to the DNR asking on what state owned land it would be permitted. As of now I haven't heard back from either one. I wanted to place a cache in the Bronk State Forest in Winona County. The place is a mess and I figured with cachers coming in it could be cleaned up. There were beer cans, garbage, used condoms, and shot up state owned signs all over the place. Then I learned about the ban in State Parks and decided against it. I did read some of the rules for State Forest land and found that you can hike off of trails which would make sense since it is open to hunting. I wanted to ask the Forestville Asst. Manager what damage has been done since Sept. 8th (cache date)considering the fact that only 3 people logged finds to the cache and he was one!! 8 months of sitting out there. I also wanted to ask him if there was such a concern about damage to plants and such why was it that he had to use a GPS to find it? You would think if caches were so bad there would be a trail that you could drive a car down lined with beer cans and such. I didn't ask those questions. I bit my tongue. Kind of rare for me!

I went to the MN State Park Rules web site and this is the portion that I think applies to caches in State Parks: Subp. 2. Abandonment. No vehicle, trailer, boat, fish house, or other equipment or personal property may be stored or abandoned in a state park. In state parks, overnight parking and storage of equipment is permitted only in connection with the use of campsites or fish houses, except by prior approval of the park manager. The temporary storage of personal property by a person who remains in the immediate vicinity is permitted. As you can see you will need prior approval of the park manager. And, I would bet, will be... NO!

The top is rather narrow but I thought it could be trimmed back some and it would still keep some of the waterproofing going on.

Does anybody know how a powder Kool Aid container would work as a cache container? I was wondering if the plastic would hold up in the outdoors.

Has anybody tried a plastic (white top) Kool Aid container for a cache container? I've been reading about pvc pipes as cache containers, and I would avoid using them since they may resemble a pipe bomb.

There are about 10 pc cables for the Magellan on Ebay right now. I bought one off of there a month ago. What difference the new software has made. Rather than .10 of a mile it goes to feet now.

They were good to me too. I gave them a sad story of how my brand new 315 came with the 2.08 version and how I thought it was wrong they were allowing such an old version to be sold and they sent me a free power/data cord. I didn't even have to pay for postage. I will buy from them again!!!!

Punch in zip code 55987 and you will see a few cache sites in LaCrosse, WI, Winona, MN, and Wabasha, MN. Hwy 61 goes into the Twin Cities and there are a ton there.

Punch in zip code 55987 and you will see a few cache sites in LaCrosse, WI, Winona, MN, and Wabasha, MN. Hwy 61 goes into the Twin Cities and there are a ton there.

Thanks for the help. My "brand new" Magellan 315 has the old 2.03 version in it. Since they are well into the 3.15 version I think I got took at the store. I had to order a pc cable and hope to be going full bore here shortly.

As a bomb dog handler for my department, it wouldn't be that difficult to teach your dog to sniff out tupperware. But, since the caches are placed in many different types of containers there is the problem. The dog would need to be trained to alert to many different containers with different odors. The more odors = the more training. Put out a piece of tupperware and have the dog come by it and place his nose on it and then reward him with a high pitched "gooooooooood boy" and then give the reward such as the treat or the toy. And, keep doing this over and over until he sits when he sniffs the tupperware. When he is about 99% accurate then make the "hides" more difficult. You will need to train in the environment that the hides are in at the end of the training. This process will take a lot of time and energy. The best way would be for the dog to alert on human odor. But there is another problem. Since human odor goes down the longer it is exposed the older caches would have less of a scent for the dog to alert to. Patrol K9s can also do evidence recovery. The dog is trained to find human scent. You would also need a dog with a great play drive that would like to be rewarded with a toy or food. Finding this type of dog is another problem. Very few make that cut. A rat has the best sniffer of all animals. The second best is a pig. I once heard of a burglar that had trained his dog to alert to paper $$$$$. I also know of a dog that can alert to mercury. I thought of training a dog to alert to ginseng so I could make a little extra cash while out in the woods. This would be easy (I believe). The one thing you could do is to have the dog go out and be nosey and he might come across the cache just out of luck because of the different odor in the woods. So to answer the question: Yes, you can train your dog to alert to caches. I think it would be a lot of work. I would rather find it myself.

I use to live right next to it in Verona. We did a little hiking in the area but not for any real distance.

Looking for a Magellan 315 Power/PC cable. Do you have one you don't need?

I found how to change it! You guys are great. Thanks! Any other tips I should have in finding a cache? The first one was easy and wouldn't have needed a GPS and there was a travel bug in it. I couldn't find the second one because of the noted problem. Any help would be great!

I'm new to all of this and if I use incorrect terms please take it easy on me! I bought a Magellan 315 and was playing around with it and found that the accuracy is only to the .00 . I have seen in cache locations that the numbers after the decimal point go out to .000 . Should I take back my GPS unit and get one that goes out to .000 or do I round up? This problem, I suppose, could make it more difficult to locate the cache if it is well hid. Help me out here!