Bean & Sprout

I agree this would be good for people who are listed as your friends. It would make it easier to see where they have cached, and thus where they haven't, so you can work out easily and quickly if there is somewhere you could suggest to go caching together.

Not sure if this is the right place to post but this is where the link from the geocaching page for suggestions took me... There doesn't seem to be any easy for a cache owner to bring up a list of their caches which have a needs maintenance flag or are temporarily disabled. Could COers have an easier way of checking rather than trawling through the entire caches owned list. If you only own a handful then it's easier to spot, but when you have 100+ like I do the only ways seems to be to create a new cache (where it then gives you a list of those that require attention first) or by choosing to view your public profile, then look at your caches owned (as others see them) and then you can see the red wrench and which are disabled. It's a bit of a faf either way and I feel there should be a one click way offered to cache owners to help us keep on top of maintenance. Thanks

Wow, those recommendations look awesome. Have now added them to the 'must do list' We'd rather go a little further for a really great cache or location then spend the same time finding half a dozen nanos just for numbers. So these are perfect! Starting to wondering if I should tell my travel insurance company we'll be caching... in case they view it as a dangerous activity! Joking aside, no I've not been put off at all, just want to ensure we're prepared. Not least because my son tends to tear up the trail ahead of me and duck into the undergrowth to retrieve the cache while I'm still some way off. While that doesn't matter too much in England I think we'll have to stick together more in Florida, especially if on a trail. Thanks for all the advice and recommendations too.

I would have loved to attend, and did look at visiting during geowoodstock, but unfortunately it didn't tie in with any of the school holidays here. I am taking my son out of school for three school days plus the easter break for this holiday which isn't too bad. 14 school days out of a school term would be too much

Thanks, that's very helpful. We'll mostly be around Orlando/Disney but have trips planned out to Kennedy Space centre and Tampa and will cache a little on route to wherever we are going. So good to know some general advice for all areas. We're not going to cache lots so, from what you've said, we may just restrict ourselves to one or two urban cache and dashes. Or possibly stick to virtuals! I have contacted a cache owner today who's cache is 15 mins walk down a trail and the photos show picture of alligators, spiders and snakes. Not heard back as yet though. The local cacher I emailed last week hasn't got back to me yet either, hence I thought I'd try asking here too.

We'll be visiting Florida at Easter from England. While we know we are going to come across bugs and creepy crawlies we've never had to worry about anything particularly dangerous before. Can anyone advise what is the general way to behave re alligator encounters? Should we make lots of noise to scare them off? back away slowly? or run like heck? Do they generally avoid humans if they hear us coming or are we fair game? Re snakes and bugs - should we avoid everything and assume it's venomous or are most things generally harmless? Is there anything specific to be avoided which we are likely to come accross? Are thick gloves a must when attempting to retrieve caches? We won't be bringing our hiking boots. Is it generally ok to walk around in sandals or trainers (sneakers I think you call them) on trails? We're not planning to go too far off track. I've heard that some caches are hidden under metal skirts around lamp posts and such which need to be lifted. Is it likely that there will be some kind of wildlife in there with them? Is there anything we need to be aware of re parking restrictions and the like? I've seen some caches and the start of trails which are just off a main road and there is an area you can pull in off the road with a zebra crossing over it for the side walk. Is it ok to pull into these and stop or park? If so must the zebra crossing be left clear? Any other advice or tips greatly appreciated

Picked up one of these a couple of days ago but have been unable to connect to their website. I dropped it in another cache today. Pity I can't log its movements. I had a TB from another (different) site once before, huge pita to log and could only pick up and drop off. But at least i could log it, unlike this one. I sure won't be picking up another 'alternative' TB if i come across them again...!

Ha, ordered it from Landsharkz instead. They at least do send overseas and I've bought from them before so know it'll be ok. Seems crazy that international buyers can't buy direct from Groundspeak though!

Delivery info says overseas postage will be extra (fair enough), but it doesn't let you order from overseas!!! I've ordered GCs from other USA sites, Canada, Australia and numerous European countries, so why can't I buy from the official geocaching store???

I'd be pissed if I showed up to what I thought was a traditional cache, search for and not find the container or log, then find out that it was an improperly listed virtual. How hard is it to list it properly? There are plenty of options. List it as a Challenge. List it as a Waymark. List it as an Event. Continue to use the archived listing even for visits after the listing was archived because Groundspeak doesn't seem to mind. I agree there are some truly miserable people out there. If you had gone looking for it you wouldn't have found it anyhow, as it's been removed for the Olympics! The cache was only changed for the Olympics as all cache containers in the area have been removed because of the event. The CO would no doubt have changed it back once the container was allowed to be re-instated.

We found a diabetes blue ring one and have been caching less than a year. Have also seen another one go in and out of one of our caches a few months ago. We have sent quite a few trackables out but now realise they are going to get stolen. I do try and keep an eye on TBs in our caches and have sent emails to those who have logged cache finds but not mentioned the TBs in the cache to try and track them down. So far only one TB we have moved on seems to have gone AWOL without being logged as picked up, although several we have sent out have gone missing... In future I intend to send out a laminated picture of our trackables. This means if they do go 'missing' we can re-start them.

Same here. I sharpen the pencil then use an exacto blade or a hacksaw to cut it down to size. You can easily get a cut down pencil into a film or pill pot. But it's becoming rare to see pencils in any cache anymore. I've put cut down pencils in all my 35mm cache containers and even one in a tube container only to find the pencil has been removed/taken when I've gone back to check the cache or perform maintenance. I can only assume the cachers concerned collect pencil stubs, or had forgotten their pen(cil) so took mine for the next cache... Wouldn't mind if they left a penny or two in return or mentioned that they had taken it!

Absolutely pathetic move by the reviewer in my opinion. What harm is this cache doing by still allowing to be logged during the Olympics? Caching is meant to be fun and while the CO made it clear not to search for the cache container the people logging it virtually were already going to the Olympics and are not being encouraged to visit the area simply for the cache. There are some truley miserable people out there!

What is GSAK? WOuld be more helpful to give some info or a link or something! And why should weneed to use an outside product at all? As I said lots of cachers add stuff to their profiles like this... If there is demand for it then surely it would be better to add it as part of premium membership. Give the users what they want...

I've seen several profiles where cachers have various different info on their stats page that doesn't come as standard. I have managed to find a website that allows you to generate various info, including which UK counties you've cached in, but it involved making a pocket query, uploading stuff, generating the stats, copying it into your profile etc etc. I have managed to do it but you have to redo this every time you find new caches and it seems a waste of time and effort that I could better spend caching! I admit to not being too techie minded so it's a big hassle to me and most of the time it doesn't seem to work for me anyhow! How would I go about suggesting to Groundspeak they offer this kind of thing as an option you can add to your profile as a premium member? There seems to be a lot of cachers who add this type of thing in one form or another to their profile so why not offer it as part of the premium options? There seems to be many other things people add to their profiles using outside websites to generate them - achievement badges, jasmer challange, US states cached in, UK counties cached in etc. Surely Groundspeak could offer these to the premium members as part of the package and give you some tick boxes for the extra things you'd like to show (or not) on your profile...?

I read on a random cache page recently that someone was completing a challenge to find a cache starting with every letter of the alphabet. How would I go about searching for this challenge (assuming it is even an official challenge)?

Thanks both for your replies. Having found it difficult to work out which cable is suitable, and prices ranging up to £30+ !! I've decided to return the GPS and get one that comes with a cable already. At least that way I'll know it's compatible. Thanks for your replies

I just bought this for my son for xmas. It was super cheap on Amazon. My link I assumed I would be able to use the cable for my Etrex vista HCx on it but it isn't compatible. So I now need to order a cable as well. Can anyone advise which is the one I need. Amazon list 2 as frequently bought with this gps, but I don't want to get something that isn't right and it isn't clear whicg is the correct one... Thanks