madonenm

Hello, Just a quick question to all the experienced cachers out there: How do you guys create wish lists of caches you want to find? I know that some/most of you will say that any unfound cache goes on your wish list ;-) The problem that I have is that I work on 4 - 5 different computers thoughout the day that I browse this site from. I currently have caches bookmarked on all 5 that sound interesting for my wife and I to go after. I am looking for a way to be able to create a wish list that I can view form anywhere (like the wish list on sites like amazon.com) and was wondering if anyone else has a suggestion on how to do this. I guess that I can add a watch on the cache and use the watch list but that is probably abusing the feature. Happy caching!

Well I probably don't have to experence to comment but... There are (at least) two very different view points here that you need to look at. 1. The local view: Are you going to offend any of the people around the local area buy placing the cache. What do local cacher's think of the placement (are you stepping on anybody's toes?) Two caches less than a mile apart can be in quite differnt and equaly interesting areas deserving seprate caches. If they are near eachother and along the same route maybe you can talk with the owner of the existing cache and add yours, turning the frist into a new joint multi-cache. 2. The visiter's view: As a visiting Geocacher I think the more caches in an area the better. It gives a choice and a chance to visit all kinds of differnt spots. If I can log two or more caches I might be more inclined to make a trip to the area. I think that as long as you don't upset the owner's of the other caches in the area place it (following the general cache placing guidlines of course). The more caches to search the better (i.e. I think visiter's point of view should be the main focus).

quote:Originally posted by Bluejaytoo: Hey, I finally logged my first find over the weekend! It was pretty easy, but enough of a challenge to give my partner and I a feeling of accomplishment. And the cool thing is, we were able to combine geocaching with mountain biking. Now I gotta figure out why my eTrex goes nuts when it's mounted on my handlebars... I am new to this too, but... I Have an etrex Vista and was having the same problem. It took a little while to figure out until I finaly noticed that the Vista is setup to use the internal compas when you are below a certian speed (I think 10 miles an hour). Since I was on a steel framed bike it was going nuts. As soon as I turned off the compas (or got going faster than the min speed it worked just fine. In short, you handlebars may be the wrong polarity ;-)

quote:Originally posted by Prime Suspect: As for the topo software, I had to do the same thing with their old version of MetroGuide. If I remember right, I copied all the data from both CDs into a single folder on my hard drive. I think there was one duplicate file name, but the files were identical, so it didn't matter. I then ran the installation from the folder. After installation, it looked to that folder for its data, instead of the CD drive. I was still restricted to viewing only the eastern or western regions, but could switch between them without having to swap CDs. The new version of MetroGuide doesn't have these restrictions. http://gdbclub.org/GeoCache/PS_sig.gif Thanks, your suggestion worked as expected and I now don't need to have the CDs in the drive. I figured I could hack the registry but only like doing that as a last resort. I think that I will probably go ahead and log my cache find tonight if I still haven't heard from the owner. Happy caching :-)

Hello again, Just a quick couple of questions: I found a virtual cache last Thursday and eamiled the owner with the answer to his questions and have not heard back from him yet. What are the rules for posting the find? I know that as the cache owner they can remove a logged find if they feel that I did not earn it, but should I log the find or wait for the owner to give me the ok first? Second question: I bought the Garmin Map Source Topo this weekend and would like to load the full data set (all 3 CDs) onto my hard drive so that I don't need to have the CDs with me when I travel. Is there a way I can do this? I emailed Garmin on Saturday and have not gotten a responce so thought I would post this question here as well as. Thanks

Well it is offical, I now have a new hobby ;-) I decided to go and hunt down a cache over lunch today and could not have picked a better one if I had tried. Went out to "Arroyo de Tajo" by dazderaz (GC4E64). It was a virtual cache so I have to wait until I get the Ok from the onwer to post the find (or at least I think that is how it works) but I am hooked. I can't say what I found but I can't wait to go back out there and spend some more time. Anyway, back to work so I can aford to cache another day.

quote:Originally posted by peter: If you have another MapSource product, like Roads & Rec. or MetroGuide, then you can select a combination of maps from the different products and download them all to your Vista. I.e. you might have MetroGuide maps of the roads near where you live and Topo maps of a National Forest area loaded together in the Vista. If you have more than one map covering the same area, only the map with the highest priority will be displayed (e.g. MG has priority over Topo, which has priority over WorldMap). But you can always use the menus to turn off maps of higher priority and allow the other maps to be displayed. Thanks, that was what I wanted to know. I think I found the option on the maps page that would let me control the what maps are active. I guess the remaing question is how much map data can actually be stored on the vista at one time? I am hoping that I will be able to load the topo data for the entire state of NM but I guess I will find out soon :-) Thanks again. This is by far one of the best fourms I have found. Many thanks to the fast responces and friendly people. Now I just have to go looking for that first cache. My only fear is that once I get started... ;-) Well, that, and once I suprise my wife with it that she will get even more addicted than me and then nothing will ever get done around the house.

As mentioned before I have an ETrex Vista and am considering getting the MapSource Topo maps for it. I have looked on their site where they have what appears to be a sample (or full version as far as I can tell) of the maps. My question is: Is what you see on their web site what you get, and does the full detail get downloaded to the GPS? Another question is if I have the topo and the city maps, can they be combined when downloading the maps to the GPS unit?

quote:Originally posted by Scout65: Madonenm, Welcome. I am by no means an *old timer* to this activity, I’ve only been at it for a couple of months, and only have 9 finds (I think), but I guess I’m qualified to welcome you. You sound like the outdoors kind of person so I have a feeling this will pass up some of your other hobbies. Going with your wife will be fun, but if you have kids in your family wait till you see their reaction when they find a “hidden treasure full of goodies”. Good luck and have fun. Scout65 a.k.a Rick Well I don't have any kids (yet) and I promise to make sure the beagles don't tear up the caches ;-) Once I get this stuff figured out I was thinking about setting up some temp caches at our larger two and three day rocket launches to give the kids somthing else to do. I figured I could hide a couple differnt rockets kits and motor packs around the field and let them find them. At this weekend's launch I was letting them try and write their name or draw a picture with the tracking feature. The only problem was I had a crowd of about a dozen kids and only one GPS. As far as tracking the mowing of the lawn...I don't think I will ever be able to do that in good old dry NM (at least not at my house) but I guess I can use the altimiter to measure the height and grotwh rate of the weeds :-)

Just figured that I would say hi. I read an article last week in the online version of Wired magazine that pointed to geocaching.com and made the mistake of looking. Last Firday I bought an ETrex Vista (I went in for a Venture) and started playing with it, just what I need, another hobby. I have not gone looking for my first cache yet but have been playing with the GPS first to get an idea on how it works. The only problem is that I keep finding uses for the thing ;-) So far I have used it to track down my rockets (One of my other hobbies), Measure how far away from the pads my rocket landed, as a very fancy mapping bicycle computer, as a mapping device to map out a trail I was thinking about for next years Socorro Fat Tire Festival and I still have yet to go out and try to find my first cache. It also has driven around with me a bit (altough I need to stop playing with it while driving :-( I have the waypoints to two caches near me entered in ("Lorenzo's Loot" by The Earwoods (GC310) and "Arroyo de Tajo" by dazderaz (GC4E64)) which I hope to try and talk my wife into trying with me soon. I figure that it will be a good hobby that we can use to spend some more time together. Unlike me, she could use another one to help unwind a bit from work and school. Anyway I have been reading over the postings for the last couple days and thought I would say hi. There is a loot of good information hiding in here and I am trying to absorb it all. I already know that I am hooked so you will probably be seeing some questions from me in the future (as well as some new Socorro caches after I get my feet wet a bit). Happy caching