soonerdg

I've been involved in outdoor activities for many years, mostly through my work with the Boy Scouts. The vast majority of real trouble that you can get into results from lack of water. Carrying water treatment pills (iodine) in you pack is a great idea. They're inexpensive and don't take up any room at all. We always carry them when backpacking. One thing I want to stress when one is confronted with a situation like that of the OP. DRINK THE RIVER WATER! Yes, you might get sick. But, that will be long after you've been able to get yourself out of the woods (or desert in this case) and somewhere safe. Once you're out of the woods (literally and figuratively) you can visit a health care professional and advise that you drank untreated water. You're not likely to die from drinking river water, especially if you're that close to your car. However, dehydration and heat stroke could very easily kill you. Now, if you're more than a day's hike back to safety drinking unsafe water may be a bigger risk. But, with the lack of any way to purify the water (although if you're that far in the back country with no way to purify water you've really messed up) and no available "safe" water source drink whatever you have available. Better to hydrate with water that might make you sick than to die of dehydration and exposure. I could write volumes on being prepared for the worst contengencies but I'll stop here. As I tell my scouts, carry twice as much water as you think you need. Happy Caching!

If someone places a cache I don't think going back to sign the log after they've adopted it to someone else would really be a find. I mean, they placed it. They know where it's at! How does one claim to "find" something when they already know where it's hidden. The reverse of that stated in the OP seems ok as they would have found the cache before they adopted it. When they hunted the cache the didn't already know the location.

If you make something "idiot proof" someone will just make a better idiot.

My son has asked for a GPSr for his birthday. I want to get one that will accept downloads of waypoints but don't want to spend to much in case he loses or breaks it. Does anyone know if you can download waypoints with the Garmin Etrex Legend?

What you want to do is offer cache 2 as a BONUS cache. I've seen this done before. You list it as a seperate cache but, instead of putting the coordinates on the cache sheet you put them inside cache # 1. On the sheet you list it as a bonus cache for finding cache #1. That way those cachers who find both can log two finds.

My son (11) absolutely love caching. I took him with me for the first time a few weeks ago. He has a birthday coming up and has revised his birthday gift request. He now wants his own GPSr. My daughter (9) also very much likes to go. They both like finding "treasure" in the woods.

I know the Magellan 600 has and electronic compass that will work even when your standing still. I use a Magellan 300 that has the same feature and I really like it. The Garmin may have the same feature as well, I'm not sure. I too am thinking about upgrading and the only worry I have about the Magellan is what if I forget to charge it? With the Garmin I could just pop in fresh batteries and go, even in the field. If the Magellan dies in the field you'd be in a pickle.

Based on the smilies it doesn't sound like you are serious but I'll answer anyway, JIC. Your GPS only knows one thing. Where you are. You can plug in where you would like to go. However for it to point the way it has to know which way you are facing. The only way it can do that is to compair the point it just calculated for where you are to the last point it had calculated. It assumes you are moving that direction and points the way. When you stand still your location is fixed but the normal position error will move you around your fixed point so the pointer goes wacko. (Probably worse on garmins than Magellans due to the magellans averging). A compas changes that. By knowing the declination from a table it can sence which way you are pointing and so it can keep the pointer pointed the right way. Turn of the compass and you turn off the GPSs ability to know which direction you are facing when you are standing still. There are probably variations on the actual math the GPS uses but that's the gist of it. A handfull of GPSrs have an electronic compass that works when standing still. Most however do not have a true compass, just a screen that looks like a compass but only works when your moving at least 3 mph. The best bet is to buy a magnetic compass to use in conjunction with the GPSr when you get close (within 100ft) to the cache. My GPSr has an electronic compass that works when standing still but even it jumps around when I'm really close to the cache. I still use a standard compass to help zero in on the location. It's also handy to have if your GPSr should ever fail and you have to find the car.

The 200 doesn't have the ability to download coordinates so you have to enter them manually. There's a button that says "mark", just press that button and then edit the coordinates to those of the cache. I usually name the cache with the "GCXXXX" number from the web site. Once you have the coordinates entered press the goto button, select "my points of interes" and then select the cache that you want to hunt. The unit will lead you to the location. These instructions are for the explorist 300 that I use so may be slightly different on the 200. They should be pretty close though.

Yes, I beleive this is a premium member feature.

Try using a compass along with your GPSr. You can set your compass to the bearing that your GPSr gives you and that's the direction of the cache. Take 3-4 readings from different spots and you can usually zero in on the postion very easily. Experience will also give you ideas on where the cache is likely to be placed.

I wish I were close enough to take a crack at this one too for the same reasons as above. Sounds like a fun cache.

I wish I lived or traveled close enough to your area to hunt this cache. It sounds very creative and I think I would enjoy the hunt. But then, for me, it's all about the hunt. It's nice to get a FTF once in a while (I have one to my credit), my enjoyment comes from the hunt. Hunting down a key holder on a lamp post at wal-mart doesn't have much appeal for me. There are hundreds of caches in my area the could probalby be found without ever turning on my GPSr. I know there are people who find enjoyment in those and I'm not knocking them for it. My two cents is take pride in the fact that your cache isn't an easy grab that someone is going after to boost their numbers. This is a cache to be enjoyed by those who are truly in it for the experience of the hunt. From the posts I read those who have hunted it enjoyed the hunt. I would much rather enjoy a DNF on a cache such as yours than log another cookie cutter cache for the sake of my find count.

You can by a cheap wooden hiking staff at any boy scout shop. or you can order one from scoutstuff.org. I believe they cost about $3.50.