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redwoodkestrel

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Everything posted by redwoodkestrel

  1. When I look at your found geocaches, I see that you found a bunch yesterday (7/14/13) and a few 3 days ago (7/12/13), but none on Saturday (7/13/13), which was the "Get Outdoors" day. That's probably why!
  2. What was the name of the cache? Or the GC code? You should be able to see both in your GPS unit - that would be the quickest way to figure out if it has been archived or if it's still active.
  3. As in, adding the two numbers together is greater than 4, or as in raising the average to more than D4/T4? If it's the first one, we'd need to do some work to get there from 1.75/1.73. If it's the second, I'm not sure there are enough 4.5/4.5 or higher caches out there to get us there, so that'd go on the ignore list pretty quick. Adding them together, the total has to be 4 or greater. There's no way I'd ever get both separately above 4! When I started the challenge, I was at 1.91/1.8, and have gotten up to 2.06/1.9 now. I've enjoyed the challenge!
  4. I agree We often spend a whole day doing series on hiking trails, bike trails and logging roads, etc. These caches rarely have a T larger then 3 or a difficulty larger than 2. If we had to skip these great caching trips and caching days and adventures, we might as well stop caching. Our D/T is currently 1.71/1.78 As for our D/T matrix we have 2 still missing and we are not looking to complete it as there are no caches around that will help. The challenge I'm working on is that my combined average D/T needs to be 4 or higher. So D 2.1/T 1.9 would work, or D 2/T 2 would work... any combination that gets the total to 4. And yes, it means that I no longer go after urban P&Gs, but instead focus mainly on those nice hiking trails, bike trails, dirt roads, and puzzles. And I'm now challenging myself to go after caches with higher D or T that I might have skipped before. Overall I feel like the quality of caches I find is higher and generally the whole experience is more enjoyable. It just took a bit of convincing/reminding myself that I don't have to find every cache out there. Or once I finish the challenge, those caches will still be waiting for me. And if there's a lower D/T cache I want to find or event I want to go to, I don't sweat it - I find it. Or go to it.
  5. Hmmm... I'm only seeing 2 caches in Huguenot Park, neither with that name or placement date. Here's the link to one of them: GC35B5 The other one is a premium member only cache, so you won't be able to see the info for it, but it's named "When the Bough Breaks" and was placed on 3/22/12. Neither of them were signed by a cacher named "Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly" or on 4/19/13, which was my other thought as to what that name and date were from. I also looked nearby to see if there is a puzzle cache or a multi-cache that might have its final coordinates in the park, but didn't see anything promising. Was there a logbook you found? Had it been signed? I'm wondering if it might've been a cache that was never published, or published and archived - neither of which I would be able to see. Hmmm... mysterious!
  6. Can you remember the name/date? Can you give us a general location where you found it? Then we can search the nearby listings to see if we can find the cache and the cache owner.
  7. Pull the batteries out and put them back in - should at least get it un-frozen!
  8. Ah yes, I'm slowly working on the quadrangle challenge too. Haven't been actively seeking out new quadrangles, but I do check every once in awhile to see if I have happened to pass through one and found a cache, or if I'm traveling in the Bay Area and have time to stop, I try to check if I'm passing through one I don't have yet. And there are a few local challenges you could find now that you've filled in your calendar: GC3QHCA GC2Q2B7 GC44TTT GC3R407 GC35W61
  9. I'm working on one challenge to get my combined average D/T to above 4. It's a slow process, but I'm getting there!
  10. I have a Garmin (eTrex 20) and own both a PC and Mac. I don't have issues using my GPS unit with either of them, but I also don't use any sot of communication software - just plug the unit into the computer and open it up like a usb drive! However, Garmin makes Basecamp for both PC and Mac, so that shouldn't be an issue if you'd like to use it.
  11. Basecamp is Garmin's software for communicating with and managing the caches/waypoints in your GPS unit. Here's a link to more info about it: Basecamp
  12. No, you can't switch between pocket queries. But every time you click "Geocache" on the menu, it will show you the closest to you at that moment, and list all other caches from there in increasing distance. So as you travel, it will naturally move from one PQ to the other as you get closer to your destination. If you create a PQ for the route you'll take between home and vacation, then those caches will also show up at the top of the list as you drive.
  13. The easiest way might just to be to zoom out pretty far on your map and see if there are geocache icons in the other state. Assuming you haven't loaded caches for that other state previously, if there are now geocache icons in that state, then the PQ was loaded.
  14. So, when you unzipped the attachment, you should have gotten two GPX files (or possibly only one, if there were no waypoints associated with the caches you had in your PQ). Don't try to open the GPX files - there really isn't any reason to unless you want to load them into a database like GSAK or look at them on Google Earth. To get them on your GPS unit, connect it to your computer and then open it like you would a usb drive - so you can see the files inside. You can just drag and drop the GPX files into the corresponding folders on your GPS unit. For example, in a Garmin there's a folder for GPX files - both of your GPX files can go in this folder. On a Magellan, there's a folder for "Geocaches" and a folder for "Waypoints," and the two files would go into the corresponding folders. So, in this case, it looks like you saved the files to your "Temporary Internet Files" folder. So open that folder up to find the GPX files, and then just drag them and drop them into your GPS unit's folders.
  15. You need to select a day for it to run. If you don't select a day you can preview it but it won't generate a download. So, assuming you want it ASAP, select Wednesday under "Days to Generate" (the first box in the PQ set-up). Once you submit it, it should run and generate a download within 15 minutes.
  16. When you checkmark the geocaches on the list and download the waypoints - that's all you're getting - just the LOC file which doesn't give you any more information about the cache other than the name and the coordinates. Since you're a premium member, what you'd likely want to do is run a pocket query. Here's some info from the Help Center about how to do it: Creating Your First Pocket Query. When you run a pocket query, you can get all the information (description, coordinates, hint, past 5 logs, etc.) for up to 1000 geocaches at once. When you download a pocket query, you'll get a zipped file. Unzip it, and you'll end up with two GPX files - one of the caches, and one of the associated waypoints. Drag and drop the cache file into the "Geocaches" folder on the Magellan, and drag and drop the waypoints file into the "Waypoints" folder.
  17. When you corrected the coordinates on the cache page, did you add the "N" and "W" to the latitude and longitude? If you don't, it automatically defaults to "N" and "E," which could account for being thousands of miles off! When you correct the coordinates, the icon also updates on the map window in that cache page - the icon should move to the corrected coordinates. When you open up one of those puzzle cache pages with the new coordinates, does the icon show up in right spot? If it's out in the middle of an ocean (or in the wrong country), that's also a red flag that it might be reading your "west" longitude as an "east" longitude.
  18. I don't know if a regular iPod would be able to read a GPX file. If it's an iPod Touch and you have a geocaching app, then yes, you could store the cache info. But since you have a handheld GPS unit, and you're a premium member now, running a pocket query for the area you're going camping in and loading that onto your GPS unit would be ideal... IF you have a paperless unit and IF it can, in fact, be connected to your computer. What kind of GPS unit do you have? Maybe we can help you get the cache information loaded onto it.
  19. I've owned and cached with Magellans (GC and 510) and a Garmin eTrex 20. I really like the Garmin: great battery life, free maps online, better accuracy (at least so far as I can tell) than the Magellans, and very user-friendly. They're slightly more expensive than the Magellan eXplorist GC, but still under $200, and well-worth it, in my opinion.
  20. Excellent! And in the first one I LOVE the picture you grabbed from my gallery of my boyfriend wearing the mask we found in a cache (GC9C - Rabbit Eye View, one of the oldest around!). He's not a geocacher but humors my obsession and comes along with me occasionally... and very reluctantly lets me take pictures of him sometimes.
  21. As someone who has owned and cached with both, I definitely prefer the Garmin eTrex 20. Great battery life, lots of free maps available, and I find it has better accuracy than Magellans. It's also really simple to use and understand - I've never had to pick up the user manual. Just my $0.02!
  22. It's fine to log it. I often email the CO and log it as "found" right after, noting in my log that the email has been sent. Presumably, if you somehow sent the wrong info, the CO will either contact you and let you know, delete your log, or not do anything, depending on how much the CO cares/if he/she is still active.
  23. I'll answer the questions I've bolded - realize that ONE pocket query = ONE GPX file. Since you can get up to 1000 caches in one PQ, if your unit can hold 200 GPX files, that's a lot of caches! What I do is using the geocaching.com map, I center it on my home area and run a pocket query from that. That gives me 1000 caches centered around my house in one GPX file, so if I'm just out and about in my city I know I always have geocaches loaded on my GPS unit. I do the same thing for other areas I travel to frequently. You can set the PQ to run on the same day each week, so you can get newly published caches that way, as well as the new logs for the other caches - so you can keep your GPS unit up to date by once a week, delete the old GPX files out of your GPS unit, downloading these new PQs, and dragging and dropping them into the corresponding folders in your GPS unit. It's really quite easy and fast once you get the hang of it - takes all of about 5 minutes. This way you'll always have local caches loaded in your unit. And because that shouldn't be too much of a drain on your memory, there should still be plenty of room to run specialized pocket queries if you're going on a trip to a new area.
  24. Also, if you're sure they have a hint, how are you trying to navigate to it on the GPS unit? On my Garmin GPS unit, if I click on the cache icon on the map, but do not select "GO," I can see the description and the logs, but no hint. I have to select "GO" first, and then I can go to "View geocache" and in that menu click "Hint."
  25. Are you positive the caches you're downloading have a hint? On the GPS unit it will say "No hint available" if the cache owner did not provide a hint.
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