Hasty Javelinas

Back when I first started caching, I don't remembeer there being any link to Google maps (I'm not even sure Google Maps was invented yet) I used to manually enter all my waypoints into the mapping software for my GPS and print out the Cache pages for the other information I might need. Now some years later I return to the sport and find these "new" maps and am blown away. Searching for Geocaches to find via a map that shows you where they are? Whodathunkit!? Now, I know that if these maps were powered by google maps as I'm hearing they used to be, they would be much more powerful, but Google decided that the people who were heavily hitting the google maps servers needed to pay for the service. Groundspeak opted for the less expensive option. I can't blame either company for their decisions. But we do have some sort of work around for Firefox, and there are other ways to compile your mapping. Yeah, change sucks - but it is what it is.

Thanks for sharing that information. I'm buying a new GPSr soon, pretty sure it's going to be the Etrex20 -this is good to know!

GPS Status won't give you a more accurate fix. It just displays what it receives from the GPS, just like any other app (including c:geo) does. GPS Status actually will help your GPS calibration. Open it, tap the menu button and look at the options. Also, it will improve your fix by doing the old calibration trick of spinning in a few slow circles. http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-faq/13552-how-calibrate-your-gps-google-maps-more-accurate-location.html I've verified this with my old droid which was showing me that I was almost a mile a way from where I was actually standing. GPS Status download and the steps at the link above got me to single and low double digit accuracy.

As mentioned above, once you get inside the error radius the GPSr itself tends to get a little jumpy. Normally what I do is once I am within error, if I have not already spotted the cache, I will just stop right where the GPS pointer tips over and starts telling me to go in a different direction, and search in small circles from there, not really utilizing the GPS at all.

As mentioned above: WATER! Your body can absorb up to 1 quart of water an hour. No need to go over that amount, but in the Arizona heat (even in the high country!) you better try to hit that mark. Remember that you can actually get "water poisoning" which is too much water with to little sodium. Remember to snack to replace some of the sodium you lose while sweating. When it comes to likely injuries: rattlesnakes and scorpions are much less likely to be an issue - the real enemy is the sun. Did anyone mention to drink water? Do it!

Here is one of the bracelets. That's about 12 feet of cord.

That hunter-mountain lion photo is certainly scary, and possible, but fortunately for the hunter, it was faked. http://www.snopes.com/photos/hunting/stalking.asp

I make bracelets too but those take a bit longer to tie, so will be saving them for special occasions. I'm also thinking my better half will want to make little things to put in caches too, so I've created a card to go along with both her, and my sig items (we share this username) I do like the idea of useful items like the keychain so will probably make those, too once I learn how & get the supplies needed. The card we place is also a business card, just folded in half for the miniature things. We try to carry a variety of things though too including things for children. I'm sure you'll both have lots of fun in making the items as well as visiting various cache I know we will have fun. We used to Geocache a LOT in the past, and fell out of it for a while when my GPSr died and didnt get a new one for a bit. Could not remember our old username or email address for the site so we just opted to start fresh.

it's about 4 feet long.

I make bracelets too but those take a bit longer to tie, so will be saving them for special occasions. I'm also thinking my better half will want to make little things to put in caches too, so I've created a card to go along with both her, and my sig items (we share this username)

Yeah - I think it's mostly a local thing, or it started that way. An Americanism for the American Spanish word for wild boar. Jabalina or some such. I'd been watching them out in the desert here for years before I ever heard the word "peccary".

All of the situations I've been in where my firearm could have had to be used in a defensive manner, have not ended that way. All of this situations save one was in the desert with wild animals. One time was while geocaching. 1. I had been out target shooting with some friends and had left my .45 on my hip for the trip back into town. I decided to stop off at a convenient store to get a drink. I happened to walk in while someone had a snub nosed revolver pointed at the clerks face, demanding money. I was young, pretty oblivious at the time, and just stopped. Not even remembering I was armed. The guy turned, looked at me, stopped pointing the gun at anyone for a few seconds, then set it down and ran out of the store. The best I can figure is he saw my .45 and wanted none of it. It turns out his revolver was unloaded. It was right then and there that I decided carrying a gun for self defense was a good idea, and that being aware of my surroundings at all times is critical - I could have seen what was going on inside through the window and called the cops much earlier. 2. Camping in the Rincon Mountains, east of Tucson: stepped on a rattlesnake. Growing up, in my family, rattlesnakes were generally on a kill-on-sight status. It was spring, I'm guessing it had just come out of hibernation. It didn't rattle as I approached unaware of it. I stepped right on it. I felt something move under my foot, lifted and it took off into a rock outcropping. It was the fastest I'd ever seen one move. I think I scared it just as much as it scared me. 3. Deer hunting in the Tortilitas, NW of Tucson. Stalked by a mountain lion. The dang thing was actually STALKING us. We'd walk, it'd follow about 75 yards back. We'd stop, he would stop. At one point we worked down into this little wash with a 12 foot tall steep bank on one side. He moved up above us to the top of the bank looking down on us. Eventually he just moved on. 4. Geocaching: finding a cache along the Rillito River(dry wash) that runs through Tucson. Coyotes like to run in this at night. This was back when I first started caching, before I took a LONG break (wish I could remember my old username!) I was grabbing the last cache of the day, going down the trail the runs alongside the wash towards the cache, the sun had just left the horizon. A pack of 6 or more coyotes were shadowing me down in the wash, not unlike how the mountain lion was in the last story. One actually moved up and approached me, sniffing at me from about 3 feet away. I shouted at it and they all ran off.

I am trying to figure out how to make something that looks like a Javelina out of wood or clay or something, but the only creative thing I can do is tie knots in paracord! lol

I sure do! Thanks for the words folks. I'm currently working up a little graphical tag to put with them.

Here is one of the things I am thinking of making and using as a sig item: paracord "rattle snake tail" keychains. What do you guys think?

I carry for self defense all the time. Geocaching, or otherwise -except for where I am legally not allowed or where work policy prohibits. .380, .45,.357mag, just depends on how much weight I am willing to strap on that day. Around here, I am actually most afraid of home invasion, though it's rather unlikely and I don't have the time or enough space for extra stress to be paranoid about it. Chances are slim, but I stick to that old manta: better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

One of the best things you can do for the GPS on an Android phone is download an app called "GPS Status". It's not necessarily Geocaching specific but rather just a general GPS utility. Where it really excels is calibrating your phone to get the best accuracy. Fire up the up, wait for sat lock and hold the phone flat, screen towards the sky then spin in a couple slow circles. Then hold the phone vertical, screen facing your, and another couple slow circles. I get 6-9ft accuracy pretty consistently on my Droid RAZR.