beartooth72

I was logging some caches on my iPhone, and I generally make a lot of typing errors because the buttons are so small. I entered a GC code, didn't bother to look at the cache info, wrote a log and submitted it, only to find that I had entered the wrong number. So now I have a really nice looking souvenir for Germany on my profile, but I've never cached there, much less been there. I was hoping that erasing my log would solve the problem, but it didn't. Has this happened to anyone else, and did you fix it? If it turns out that I can't get the souvenir badge erased from my profile, my internal sense of having an unearned, and therefore illicit badge might drive me to take a trip to Germany just to correct the problem. Hopefully it doesn't come to that though.

Thanks to Hynr and GreatScott for the ideas. All of the US maps fit easily on my card, so I'm stocked up there. Hynr: I never thought of not saving the file to my unit itself, but your idea worked perfectly for me! Now I know what all the additional memory is for! I do find it weird that there is a 5,000 cache limit, but I've discovered that with more data in my unit and card, it takes a really long time to load up now. It is just something I'm willing to deal with so I can be prepared for where ever the day takes me. I appreciate all the ideas!

I wasn't trying to incite anyone, I'm just curious how to get people to try to act a little safer when caching. I've put in my logs the concerns of PO's when I've encountered them. I was just trying to get some ideas on making PTs a safer, more pleasurable, and less concerning caching adventure for both the cachers and the POs. I will agree, one or two cars a day isn't much, but as someone else said, the people in these areas know each other, and one or two suspicious cars is concerning. Actually, all of the POs I've talked with have been very friendly, and potentially helpful. They thought maybe I was broken down and they wanted to help. Except for the guy who had a cache placed at the end of his drive way, none of them told me they wanted the caches removed when I mentioned that if the caches were causing problems, they could be removed. Curiousity was the primary reason for starting a conversation with me. The over riding theme was the need for safety, and not infringing on their private property or disturbing their livestock. It would almost be smart to put a sign at the start of a PT road that requests some common courtesy and watch out for safety.

amen! amen +1 amen +2

I wouldn't describe any of my interactions with Property Owner's as "confrontations", more like cursiousity. And I make notes on the caches on my first Powertrail, but they seem to have been ignored. If you've done a Powertrail, you know that no one (okay, maybe a few people) reads the logs, or even the description. All of my discussions with the Property Owner's were positive, and they left with a smile, or as someone else stated, that we are a bit nuts. All of the PO's were concerned about our safety and the safety of the maniacs hauling a** on the roads. One guy even let us know that during hunting season, the areas around his property are basically "bunch of guys get drunk, and shoot anything that moves". He suggested that when the sun starts to go down, after 4pm, don't even try to stop and wander in and out of bushes. I'll post Needs Maintenance logs for some of the more questionable ones, especially the one at the end of the guys driveway. And I believe that people's property does extend at least up to the road in most circumstances. Fences and such are private property. I've been a backpacker/hiker my whole life, and try to bring the same "Zero Impact" attitude to caching. I just wish others had the same consideration, and that they'd remember that when caching anywhere, safety is of the utmost importance. Getting a "smiley" is great, but staying alive and not getting someone else killed or injured is better. Thanks for all the ideas.

Thanks to all for the ideas. In particular, irish_ninja, thank you for the trackable note to put on my caches. I'm going to start doing that. I'll have to put out more caches, but I'll add that note to my existing ones.

I live in Colorado, in the Denver area. In the last year, a couple of powertrails have sprung up in the rural areas between Denver and Colorado Springs. I know that these powertrails are popular by the amount of traffic they have gotten. I have spent time getting the caches on these powertrails on three separate occasions. Each time, I have run into at least one of individuals who own property along the roads all these caches are on. All of the property owner's have noticed the increased traffic on the roads, and were extremely curious about these people who were stopping in the middle of the road every 1/8th of a mile or so, getting out of their cars, walking up to the fence lines, and then driving another 1/8th of a mile, repeat, etc. I explained about Geocaching to the land owner's, and assured them that none of the caches were placed on their land. On one powertrail, the caches were placed near turnouts, which made getting off the road possible. The other powertrail cache placer is assuming that the cachers will have enough common sense to pull off the road as much as possible, but that is not what is happening according to the property owner's. One gentleman wasn't happy that a cache was placed near the end of his driveway, and I wasn't happy that some of the caches are placed opposite people's homes, or near mailboxes. People live in these rural areas because they value their privacy, and aren't very happy with the increased traffic or the people that don't know how to pull over and create as little obstruction as possible. With all that said, how do we get the word out to fellow Geocachers that people live near where these powertrails are, and that sometimes people drive these rural roads at speeds WAY ABOVE the speed limit? Pull over as far as possible! The other part of my question is how to convince the COs that they need to put more thought into the cache placement? I'd hate for someone to get shot because they were mistaken for prowlers. Thanks for letting me vent, and any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for the "How to"s on moving images to the memory card. Makes a lot more sense for me to have all that external memory now. I do have to wonder about the 5,000 cache limit, especially since they are such small files. I like to have as many caches loaded as possible, because I never know where I'm going to find myself, and I believe its best to be prepared. But, 5,000 caches is quite a few caches. I'll just have to pare down what I think I need, and leave the rest until I know I need them. Thanks again everyone!

I'm sure that things are loading onto the card. Whenever I save anything to my GPSr, I have to specify the unit itself or the card. I guess I need to buy maps and not load things from a subscription service. I've been trying to only load maps as I need them for caching, but as I said, the subscription services will only let me load to my GPSr itself. I'm sure that if I had the topo discs I could fit all the topos I need into my external card. It is just frustrating to me that I have all this free memory, but I couldn't load any more caches. I had to go through and delete a bunch so I could add some new local ones. Luckily I have the ZIP files for some of my Pocket Queries, so I'm not losing anything except my time. I thought, when I bought the eTrex30, that the external card would be of great benefit. I'm guess I'm just disappointed. Otherwise, this is a great unit.

I have a Garmin eTrex30, which comes with 2GB of internal memory, and a spot to add a microcard. So I added a 16GB card, hoping that I'd be able to load more caches, maps, etc. It doesn't appear to work that way. Using any Garmin subscription service (Bird's Eye, or topos) they will only let me load them into the internal memory. This makes some sense since I could technically load up the card and then use it in another unit that isn't registered. But I always load caches into the microcard, and I recently reached the limit! I think it was around 5,000 caches. I still have over 14GB of memory left on the card! What is the point of having all this memory capability if I can't load it up with more caches or maps?

I have an eTrex30 as well, and I never had problems when switching batteries out. I have had problems using Open Source maps, which corrupted my unit to the point that it wouldn't even turn on. I ended up trading it back in at REI because of the corrupt file. You are actually really lucky that your unit kept working.

I'm relatively new to caching, but I enjoy moving bugs and coins from place to place. My muggle friend and I recently took a road trip from Denver down to the 4 Corners and Farmington, New Mexico just to drop a bug near home. We've got another trip planned to Texas soon. What I want to know is why it is so hard for people to log bugs and coins when they pick them up. I've visited at least 10 caches this week that were supposed to have a trackable in it, and there was nothing . How can we raise awareness of the importance of logging them, or how can we make it easier and more intuitive so that people don't miss logging things when they find them? I know I'd be frustrated if I had something out there that disappeared for a year only to show up on another continent with no explanation or story of how its journey is going. Any ideas folks?