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Solar Max

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Everything posted by Solar Max

  1. WetCoastExplorers, and MrGigabyte. Cool piece.
  2. For my money, Goldguru's Mount Empress is the best hike/view of the bunch without question. Prevost Summit lacks the hike, Maple Mountain has a view facing South only, and Toys in The Attic has a great hike, but is not where it's advertised to be. All in all, Empress is the the best choice, IMHO.
  3. A few years ago I parked at a convenience store in Southern California, and went in for various sundries. This particular store, while old, was immaculately clean, and had a large plate glass window overlooking the parking lot. I brought my purchases to the cash register, where the cashier, a gentleman in his late 60's or early 70's, looked out at the licence plate on my car, and said "Where's British Columbia? Oregon?" I answered that it was a Canadian Province, situated between Washington State and Alaska on the Pacific coast. He looked disgusted, and said, "Y'all don't have ta be a smart aleck. Ever' body knows thar ain't nuthin' 'tween Warshington and 'Laska." And like that, we were instantly homeless.
  4. Yes, eroyd, some people are indeed "miffed" if they don't find the cache they are searching for. I have been skunked many times in the past, and will be again, no doubt. However, no one owes me fuel money, time, or anything else. I accept the risk of a no find, because I choose to play the game. ( Sorry you had a no find at Parson's Bridge btw) As you are aware, the latest traveling cache here on Vancouver Island WAS Premium/Charter members only, so as to discourage non-serious finders, as well as those who would trash it for fun. The cache page was updated as soon as was humanly possible, and it had even attracted four new Premium members, who joined just so that they could chase that ONE cache. It was immensely popular, so it was inevitable that SOMEBODY would complain, and try to kill it. Vancouver has a traveling cache; Abbotsford has a traveling cache. Even Prince George has, or had, one. As usual, the Island gets screwed. This was gc.com politics at work, and that sucks. Geocaching should be about the game.
  5. First Configuration: Palm Tungsten T3-Cachemate 3.4 with Mapopolis Pugin-Mapopolis-Magellan Meridian Platinum. Second: Palm Zire 21, Cachemate 3.4 with Mapopolis Plugin-Mapopolis-Garmin GPS76. I don't use the Tungsten in the deep woods much, as I tend to lose things. The Zire is much more replacable.
  6. I think the telltale sign that I am hooked on DirectRoute came last weekend, when my SD card (With DirectRoute AND MapSend maps) went south. I was back to paper maps, and that was a real jolt. I had no idea how dependent I had become on DirectRoute. It's that good. Having said that, here are some annoyances to expect: 1) When approaching a turn, or say a left then another quick right, the turn alarm stays on for a long time. I usually hit the ENTER key to stop the beeping. 2) The software sometimes creates a zig-zag, when it could avoid one. By that I mean, if the route requires a left turn, the software may turn left one block early, then plot a right, then another left just to get on the street it should have turned on in the first place. I get around this by looking at the route on the map screen in advance, and try to see where it might want to zig-zag, then I just turn at the appropriate place. 3) Re-routing is sometimes moot, as it will want you to backtrack to its original planned route. Follow the route to avoid this one, or stop navigating, and press a new GoTo to the same waypoint. These are not big complaints, in my opinion. They are easy to live with. Last weekend was terrible without the software, so I am just happy that DirectRoute is back on another SD card in my MeriPlat.
  7. I, too, get about 10 hours out of 2100 mAh NiMH's. I know that is less than advertised, but I think it's reasonable.
  8. What exactly is it that you'd like to do with the laptop? Run moving map applications? Upload/download tracklogs or waypoints? Load maps into a receiver? Win 95 is not the newest OS, but is still supported by a fair bit of hardware and software. It's not the age of the car that matters, but whether or not it gets you to your destination.
  9. Vancouver Island West Coast: Goldstream park near Victoria: View from Mt Prevost: From Menzies lookout: You see the greatest things playing this game, don't you?
  10. Chevrolet, (General Motors, anyway) Coca-Cola, Palm Tungstens, and Magellan. I also like the Ford Taurus (drives nicely) Diet Pepsi, Dagg's PPC (Very cool), and I own two different Garmins. And I refuse to get into the debate about Thales being French. They aren't. Get over it. We didn't go to war with you either, but supported you (and still do) in the Gulf. If Thales is the enemy, then so am I and my countrymen.
  11. You can also edit the "warning screen" with your own information as well: Customizing the Startup on an eTrex
  12. Isn't it strange that so many people I know have German and Japanese cars, and yet tell me to buy North American? I have a GM car, which they try to convince me to get rid of for some inferior foreign product, and an eTrex Legend, and one of the best GPSr's around, a (French?) Magellan Meridian Platinum. Maybe we should practice what we preach. Proud to be Canadian, and born to keep the peace.
  13. I'm on both sides of the fence. Primary GPSr is a Magellan Meridian Platinum. Secondary is an eTrex Legend. In the family are a Venture, a Rino 120, and a backup Legend. They all are better at some things, and worse at others. The MeriPlat is the pick of the litter so far, with SD card capability, DirectRoute, Quad antenna, and 3 axis compass. The Legend has the small size going for it, and interfaces well with my laptop running Moving Map Applications. We round out the "must have equipment" with 2 Palm Zire PDA's ( Not afraid to lose the cheaper ones in the woods) running Cachemate 3.31, and a Palm Tungsten T3 for logging in the vehicle, with my Siemens M55 phone. It all works together well.
  14. I was hoping for tonight, but will know much more tomorrow. Sorry, folks. We had no idea that the BCGA Forums would be THIS popular. I will post in here when I know more.
  15. After all the new excitement here in the Forums, I need a beer. Hmm..I don't drink, so have one for me would you Dagg? I'll buy.
  16. My thoughts exactly, Dagg. And, is this the proper place for this debate? If we are to reopen all the old wounds, would not a new thread be more appropriate? Having said that, I plead guilty of doing the same thing, and here is my 3 cents worth (inflation): I have been wrong before, and just as narrow minded. I like to think that I can learn from those mistakes, and as such, took a look at the bigger picture. I am guilty of most of the things that you are unhappy with; I have chased first finds, but I did that before there was $20 in the box. I enjoy the math involved in a large contest, but was unaware that I had the ability to do all these calculations, until about a year ago. On the other hand, I have gone to find boxes in the woods more than 300 km from home, just because they were there; there was no other incentive involved. Does that qualify as competitive, or just wanting to see a new place? You must judge. The BCGA is all about cachers getting together for the common good, not to reopen a dialogue concluded, or at least suspended, a year ago. It is there to promote camaraderie between geocachers, and to provide a conduit between our community and the politicians, parks people, and any other group upon whom we might have an impact, or who might impact us. Yellowcode3 offers you wise advice, as he usually does. Live and let live, and let's respect each other.There is lots of room outdoors for all of us. So GC, You were part of our team during the last big contest, after all. Is that still the case?
  17. You CAN go back to 4.06, but 5.xx has treated most of us much better. As for geocaching with DirectRoute, if you wish to navigate the "old" way to a cache, simply press "GoTo" then select "Point to Point" rather than "Street Route". About SD cards: as you have no doubt noticed, you can only upload one map at a time to a larger (128 or 256 MB) SD card through your Meridian, but you can rename a file using a card reader, and put on as many map image files as will fit. To switch between them, just select the map you want in the Menu, then power the unit down and back up again. It works great. To answer, I don't think that 5.xx or DirectRoute caused you (or will cause you)any grief.
  18. Exploration has always beeen the noblest of pursuits, but most of the time, humans spread out to make room for more humans, as the migrations to North America, Australia, New Zealand, and many other places show. With Spirit and Opportunity, the human race has a chance to explore the next step in our evolution. We learn about our planet by studying others. Many have explored the Apollo 11 "hoax", which was supposedly perpetrated from a sound stage in Burbank, and a night desert scene in Arizona. I have seen the Saturn V launch vehicle (Apollo 17) lift into the night sky, and believe me, there is no doubt that it's going somewhere. I think that some day in the future, our calendar will be renumbered, with July 20, 1969 becoming Jan 1, Year 0, the day the human race reached another world. There can be no better way to spend money than on the Space Program. After all, not one cent is spent on Mars, but a lot was spent near JPL in Pasadena. That has to help some people out, right? Now to rate the first cache, it will have to be a 5, 5, technical aids necessary. We will have to load new Topo software in our Garmins and Magellans though. Those volcanoes and canyons ( Mariner Valley woohoo!) being a little larger than we're used to. Then again, the gravity is only 38% of what we're used to, so maybe it evens out.
  19. I'm afraid the word "freeway" is a relative term, Travis. British Columbia is the only place on the planet where a perfectly good freeway goes for miles and miles, then enters the city, where it is most needed, then just....stops. (Cassiar) The engineers have also discovered that if you make a road LOOK like a freeway, you can throw a traffic light on it, then sit back and watch the havoc. Any time we travel in the Big Smoke, we depend on Marine Drive, Broadway, River Road and several other main streets. They do the job nicely. Saturday traffic will be a factor, but not a huge one. Victoria traffic is worse on weekends, (the traffic lights are not synchronized) so that will be what you should expect. At least Vancouverites are on schedule with the rest of the civilized world, and not on Island time, like we are here. If the light turns green here, and you're the second car in line, you might as well hunker down until buddy in front of you decides to go through on the yellow.
  20. The same situation existed at Victoria, but people seemed to get to these remarkably quickly, at least faster than I had. I think we should bear that in mind. After all, Moun10Bike got 73, was it? Add to that almost 13 hours of light.
  21. I am guilty of that, sort of. I didn't find the cache, but DID find the rock. I did NOT log the cache, however, because I didn't find it. I presumed that there was some sort of no-find thing regarding the rock, as there were other stickers on it. I was mistaken, and should not have put the sticker on the rock.
  22. I certainly hope so! Please join as soon as possible, L&R! Of course we expect to see Pepper soon, too. Welcome. We would ask that you pass on your WSGA experience, regarding those very matters.
  23. I hope it was 37 caches that arn't a part of the cache machine! Pepper 37 DEGREES Pepper, not caches. This morning, it's about 35, and no snow. It will be a good day. Breaky at the Prime Connection, then America the Brave. ( Does that mean that we're Canada the?....never mind.)
  24. It has been 37 today, and very pleasant here in Olympia. Nope, still no snow. It's too warm for that.
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