unabowler

I like Garmin's BaseCamp pretty well for mapping out routes and such. GSAK is great for customizing and refining pocket query results.

I have a small Maxpedition pack with pens, a pencil, a notepad, multitool, extra batteries, some small containers and logs, travel bugs and swag, and two water bottles.

You can import a single gpx file or a pocket query into Base Camp, you just can't use it to connect to Geocaching.com directly.

The 450 is the Oregon that doesn't have a camera, that's the only difference between the 450 and the 550.

I've only been at this for a year so I haven't seen the days of the longer logs and even the notebook-sized logbooks I've seen just have names. I try to write a longer log online, because I'm not sure the CO is ever going to see the logbook and because I can use my online log to recall which caches I really liked.

I have an Explorist GC that I used for my first year of geocaching and I really liked it. The 310 would give you the added ability to upload maps, and on the hiking side you can do more tracks. I didn't go for the upgrade but it's not that much of a price difference. If I were buying a Magellan now I'd go for the larger touch screen and camera you get with the 510 or higher.

I have an Oregon 550 which I like a lot and should have bought when I first started, you can get one right now on Amazon for $250. I don't have the "T" and I agree with MarkKer that you don't the pre-installed topo maps for geocaching. I have a friend who has a ETrek and they will do the job, though.

As time has gone more and more stuff has found its way into my pack. I carry my GPSr, extra batteries, about 5 pens and a pencil, a notepad for scratchwork that's needed for some multi-caches, a multitool, a couple of cache containers, some blank logs, a few trade items, travel bugs when I have them, and water bottles. I also have a walking stick for hilly terrain. I've considered carrying a flashlight and a telescoping mirror but they aren't indispensible. I've carried an extra shirt during in-between weather.

My goal is to find many good hikes and bike rides with geocaches on them.

That wasn't too specific a yardstick but I've pursued the hobby in the way I thought I would after 4 finds. I like "medium-length" hikes for caches as I said then. I like puzzles and multis but I haven't always gone after just them and it didn't take long for my kids to lost interest. Maybe I could have and should have found more by now but I've enjoyed the hobby.

I love the idea. Everything that fails to attract me to power trails is negated when it's a bike or hike trail.

I went caching on my bike once, it was for a now-defunct geocaching challenge to hike or bike the Hike-Bike Path at Bernheim Forest in Kentucky. It was a lot of fun. I've been thinking the fall and winter is a great time to go in the forests but when it starts getting green I'm thinking of using the bike a lot more. All of the urban caches which I don't bother with in my car will be a lot of fun on a bike.

I always think geocaches are a finite resource. If you continue just to keep a streak alive there will be fewer caches to find when you really feel like going out. It's true that someone will hide some more by then but the quality of the hides can be erratic and can't be counted on. When you do feel like going out, you better feel like driving.

With hides like this, and his response to you, how "well-respected" can the CO be? I've got quite a few finds from that CO and he is very well known and respected in our area. I'm not taking sides on this and all I'll say is it's unfortunate the way this worked out.

So you and quite a few people have logged finds on your cache... Yes.

I'm not sure if I should admit it or not but I've thrown one down and logged it. There was a cemetery multi which had quite a few DNFs in a row on it. It's final GZ was in a tree, 8 feet up according to the hint. The last found log indicated that it was found lower (2 feet instead of 8), replace there, and I presume it went missing after that. It was an isolated tree in that cemetery, and the hiding spot 8 feet up was obvious, so I was sure it wasn't there. There were several consecutive DNFs over more than 6 months, so one day I got a matchsafe and hid it there. In my log I told the CO to let me know if he object. He hasn't, and quite a few people have logged it since. That was a few months ago, and I haven't made a habit of throwing down, but I don't regret it.

If you look at some of the letterboxing sites, they have instructions for making your own hand-carved rubber stamp. It doesn't look very hard, if you are an artsy-craftsy type. I made a couple of rubber stamps with my kids. I might place a letterbox hybrid, or not, but it was fun regardless. We got some pink rubber rectangles and a set of linoleum cutters. We printed out clipart which wouldn't be too hard to cut out with those cutters and transferred to the rubber then cut them. Nothing fancy but not too hard and they came out nicely.

Around here the same person jumps on the FTFs so if you were placing a first-to-find prize you could save time and just take it to the guy's house.

I've found one of them and I didn't mind it because it was obvious that it was fake. I generally don't like the idea because I don't like the feeling I get when I'm creeping around utility boxes. I see little to gain from attempting this kind of cache.

I get my share of DNFs and I've been first-to-not-find on quite a few caches including ones which had many finds. As time has gone on and I'm coming up on a year of geocaching my success rate has improved. I'd say the one thing that has helped the most is to keep moving around even when my GPSr says I'm 3 feet or so from the cache. I don't really put it away and but keep just one eye on it to make sure it still thinks I'm close as I move.

The most I ever got by myself in a day was 15, but with a group I got 18 once.

It looks like a good one, let us know how it works out. It has topo maps and a pretty good set of features for the price.

Looks like the PN-40 is an older unit and I couldn't find it on DeLorme's website even though you can still get it on Amazon. Right off the bat I noticed the PN-60 had more memory (3.5 GB instead of 500 MB) but otherwise they appeared to have a lot of the same features.

Yes, they do. I did the demo Wherigo on my Oregon last weekend and it looked like a neat feature, so sometime this weekend I'm going to do a Wherigo cache. I haven't used Chirp but it's on there.

A three-axis compass keeps the GPS unit oriented even when you're not holding it straight and level. Some models (eg my Magellan Explorist GC) do not have it, the Garmin Etrex 20 does not have it but the Etrex 30 does.