AlanRRT

i'm more inclined towards replying with: WTF? I'm waiting on the details. I heard that many of these were off road and all these people hitting the trail to set records (personal or otherwise) were driving right up to the caches and their vehicles were making a royal mess of the areas around the caches. I did about a third of the TotG, got FTF on about 150 of them. I did drive right up to the caches. Almost all of them are off the power line road, and the few that aren't only required a short walk, so I doubt that what you heard is accurate.

OK, let me make my own biases clear to start with: I've never PAF'd, but on the occasions where I've ran into other cachers, I've used the information they have supplied me. I have been the recipent of a PAF call, and have not witheld information. In 1952, Tenzig Norgay participated in a Swiss expedition to climb Mt. Everest which was nearly successful. The next year, Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary succeeded in climbing Mt. Everest for the first time. They not only used information supplied by the Swiss team, but used Norgay's experience with them, and even some equipment they had abandoned. Was the first successful climb of Everest cheapened by using information and even equipment of those that had gone before? One of the appealing things about Geocaching is it's free form. The rules are few and basic, so it's up to the individual cacher to decide his own style for finding the cache. If the cacher is comfortable with using PAF, the hider should accept that, even if he doesn't like it. The only alternative is to make a long list of rules that I know I don't want, and will only serve to drive most cachers out of the game. Maybe some would like more rules, and have Geocaching more structured. If so, who will set the rules? Will variations in regional styles be taken into consideration? Who will enforce the rules? If it's a governing body, how will it be paid for? Are we willing to accept the inevitable delays in getting caches posted that will go along with having a governing body? Personally, I know my answers to these questions. If I wanted something rigid, I'd have taken up figure skating. And I don't have the legs for that.

"There are only three true sports - mountain climbing, bullfighting and motor racing - all the rest being games." Ernest Hemmingway

While looking for a cache in Baker, California, I came back to my car to find a CHP officer checking it out. Seems that many car thieves dump cars there (middle of the Mojave Desert), and she questioned me. She was nice enough about it, and on the plus side, she was cute.

I got a Lowrance GO2 for Christmas 2005. While it had great features, especially considering the price, I had returned the second one by February. They just freeze up and quit working, which could lead to a dangerous situation. Stick with Garmin or Magellan.

I use a Palm Z22. If you want it mainly for Geocaching, it will suit your purposes. I think you'll be happy with it. Be sure to get a case for it, some vendors don't include it. I've been using the Z22 for a few months. My only complaint is that it doesn't have 64 bit drivers, so can't be used with 64 bit Vista. It works fine with my XP laptop though.

I don't know if this is really a geocaching accident, since it was a bike accident on the way home from a geocache. There was a railroad track at an angle to the road that ate my front tire, down I went. It was OK though, my face stopped the fall. Broke my glasses too, couldn't drive for the next month until I got new ones. Later that night, I had my wife take me to the emergency room, since my wrists were so painful that I couldn't undo my pants to go to the bathroom. The diagnosis was two sprained wrists. Then in May, I got a case of poison oak. I hadn't had poison oak in at least 25 years, but it was mild enought that a Triamcinolone cream fixed it up. Last month, I came down with the worst poison oak I've ever had, required Prednisone pills and antibiotics. The predinsone works great, but has too many side effects. So that makes three trips for medical attention related to geocaching, which, for me, makes it even more dangerous than mountain climbing (only two trips for medical attention.)

I got a Lowrance GPS for Christmas, and before February was over, I'd returned two of them, finally settling for a Garmin. The first one froze up at the sign on screen, and wouldn't go any further. The second one gave me an error message that said that the memory was full, and wouldn't work. I deleted ALL waypoints and routes, that didn't fix it. The Lowrance does have excellent features for the price, and is quite good when it works, but is extremely unreliable.

The Lowrance does indeed have features found in units costing twice as much or more. However, I got a Lowrance Go2 for Christmas, and before February was over, I'd exchanged my second one 'cause they quit working. Stick with the good name brands, so far my Garmin is serving me well.