critterkeeper

When I started geocaching, I looked at the map and saw a lot of caches pretty close to my home. I'd drive to forest preserves sometimes, but I promised myself and my dog that any cache which was within walking distance of home, I/we would walk to it instead of drive. I live in an area with a fair number of suburban micros, so this made for a few nice two or three mile walks. Then I signed up for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in 2008, and started doing gradually longer training walks. "Walking distance" expanded as I needed new goals far enough away to get me to walk the recommended distances. Ten miles, fifteen, suddenly being out walking all day was a weekend hobby, and I'd plan routes that included caches along the way. I did the Breast Cancer 3-Day, and then another Avon Walk, and found lovely paths to take which led to caches. It certainly slowed down my adding to my total, but I think it was a fun way to cache! I missed a couple of years, but I'm back to the Avon Walk again (assuming I can reach the minimum in time), and now I'm finding that "walking distance" had shrunk on me and must be expanded again. I'd also slacked off on the caching, but now I'm starting to look for interesting routes with series on them. Has anyone else either seen themselves choosing further and further distances as they got used to walking to caches, or deliberately choosing longer and longer caching routes? Or do you find that you get lazy and gravitate to Park-and-Grabs as you get older?

I will be driving from Atlanta, GA up to the Midwest Geobash in western Ohio, taking I-75 pretty much the entire way. It's an 11 hour drive, according to Google Maps, and there's plenty of caching at the event itself, so I don't feel any tremendous need to go seek out caches along the route, but I would hate to discover once I got there that I'd gone straight past something along the lines of a Project A.P.E. cache. Are there any epic-level can't-miss geocaches along I-75, between Atlanta, GA and Wauseon, OH? Something that wouldn't add more than an hour to the trip?

Try clearing your browser's cache, maybe you have an old version of the page stored. When I click the link in my post above, it goes to the 2.95Beta link with no problem. Here's what the page says: Hope that helps!

That link leads to 2.94 beta ... I don't find any reference to a 2.95 beta. I've still got the page up in my browser, it lists 2.95Beta for me. Here's the direct link to the update from that page. Try that, let me know if you get it.

They just released a 2.95Beta which they claim fixes the issues with 2.94Beta.

Funny, I feel the same way about making the effort to spell things correctly, including using the correct version of to/too/two in the correct place. (Not to mention your/you're and there/their/they're.) I'd like to think that people appreciate the little bit of extra effort it takes to avoid lazy posting. Don't you? (-;

I like ROOT too. Maybe a ROOD for Ran Out Of Daylight, too. WNSA sounds useful, although I'm too stubborn to do a WNSA much myself, just because to me it's a puzzle and sooner or later, I want to find out what the darn answer is! How about NAGDBC, for Not Another Bridge Cache (inspired by a cache near me whose name I remember but I couldn't find the listing for now that it's archived)? And I suppose then we'd need NAGDLSM for lamp skirt micros, which I personally think are fun but which there have been some rants against on various forums.... ICBIFTBAP....I can't believe I forgot to bring a pen! WAF....Washed Away Forever, sadly needed after some big storms. ISBU....In Sight But Unreachable, for when it's high up in a tree whose branches would not support larger cachers climbing to it, or underneath something that a skinny little cache-placer could squeeze into but a healthy farm girl can't, or if it *was* attached to something but fell from its hiding place into somewhere it can't be recovered from. In cases like the first two, it is of course up to the cache owner to decide whether to allow someone to claim a find or not, depending on whether they *meant* access to be part of the challenge.

Elias says in his Announcements thread that all services are up and running now, but I'm still having no luck getting a PQ to run for my parents' hometown. I'm leaving to visit them any minute now, and I won't be able to update my Colorado while I'm there, so I've been waiting all day for the PQ to run. I can't wait much longer. Is anyone else having the same problem? If it's not working, they apparently don't realize it and need to know. If it's just me, does anyone have any suggestions for how I can get results? I know things might be busy, but it normally only takes a few minutes, occasionally an hour, I just didn't expect it to take over six hours even with heavy traffic!

Then I agree with the original poster that this is *not* clear on the page, and should be explained somewhere. It wouldn't take much to add a couple of lines to the page stating that you must pick a day in order to run the query, and that you have the option of setting up the query and testing it without losing one of your limited number of runs, then going back and picking a day when you're satisfied with it.

How's their reputation? Good customer service? Good return policy? -CritterKeeper I'm walking 39.3 miles -- a marathon and a half! -- to help fight breast cancer Won't you please donate? http://tinyurl.com/3deww9/

Second cousin twice removed by marriage so yes but only slightly. So are the batteries made by Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH? -CritterKeeper I'm walking 40 miles in two days to fight breast cancer Please donate! http://tinyurl.com/3deww9/

When I started caching, I used Google Maps. When I'd stuck with it for a month or two, I decided to get a cheap GPSr, a used Geko 101, with the plan that if I was still into caching in a year I'd spring for a *real* GPSr, which would have maps and which I could download multiple caches into instead of entering them all by hand and losing them all when replacing batteries. Well, I had a year-long hiatus, but I'm now signed up for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and doing long walks for training, and what's my first (and second and third) thought? "Ooh, I'll bet I could plan out a lot of training walks that would pick up geocaches!" Guess I'm still interested! (I also discovered I had a couple travel bugs which I had completely forgotten about...their owners are welcome to smack me, and I promise to set them on their way ASAP!) So, I'm looking for a GPSr to buy, and find myself just as uncertain what to buy as ever. I'm not sure how much of a unit I need, and which bells and whistles are superfluous. I'm hoping if I describe my general caching use, y'all can help save me from any expensive mistakes, either in buying more than I need or in buying less than I need and having to spend more later. I live in the Chicago suburbs, near enough to forest preserve to want to do some caching there. This isn't really deep woods, but the tree cover is more than enough to block the Geko's signal a fair amount of time, and there aren't enough landmarks visible on GMaps to find caches that way. Maybe other cachers in the area can help me figure out what does or doesn't work there? I don't do any boating, so floating, tide tables, etc don't matter. Most of my caches have been in suburban areas, and since the Walk will be mostly on sidewalks and bike trails I expect most of my training will be too, so for now good maps of lesser roads will be a big help. (Do any of the maps include bike trails?) I'm also wondering if a GPSr can keep track of where I go and be used to determine how far I've walked, what pace I've achieved, etc. as we have to be able to maintain at least 2.75mph in order to finish the Walk before dark. I'm torn between the Legend or Vista HCx at the low end, or the GPSMap 60CSx or Colorado 400t at the high end. I gather that the cost of maps closes most of the gap between the latter two options. The frugal, sensible side of me says that I should get the Legend or Vista, that it's plenty good enough for my needs. The geek in me says "Ooh, shiny!" and clamors for the newer models, but I'm really not sure if they have anything that I *need*. Anyone want to reassure me that I won't really need the bells and whistles? Or is being able to read the entire log, hints, etc on a cache right there worth the extra bucks? And the only difference between the Legend and the Vista on the Garmin comparison chart is the compass and altimeter in the Vista, yet the Vista is listed as considerably more -- why? What did I miss? I already have a 1GB microSD card, so I'll have plenty of space for maps and files. I'm not clear on what programs I'd need. I don't use a PDA, so no paperless caching. How good are the MapSource cards Garmin sells, and how big a card are they on? If it's smaller can I move the maps onto my card and have more room to play with? What about the other maps available? How much should I expect to pay (closing the gap with the 400t), which ones can fit on that 1GB card, are there any free options? Sorry I have so many questions. I've tried looking at the previous posts and FAQ's, so at least I'm not starting from scratch, but as you can see, I haven't found all the answers yet. Thank you for your help! -Janet CritterKeeper two-year newbie back from hiatus! Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, Chicago 2008 -- please donate!

Ack. Tried to PM the seller, had to register, I did so, and it *still* won't let me PM or post. No idea what the hang-up is, and I've tried a few things. If anyone registered there could pass along my email to them, I'd appreciate it. It's my nick here plus 01, on google's mail service. [ETA: nm, apparently there was a lag between being able to log on and being able to do anything else, it's working fine now.] A friend mentioned that her ex has GPSrs that he might be willing to sell, too; I'll have to see what he's got and whether she's right about the selling part. ;-) If not at least I can get his first-hand input on what he likes and doesn't like about them. So far I'm only caching close to home, since I have to be able to check the maps and find landmarks near them, plus Pippin likes to come along and he's got a ton of energy but after four hours he was starting to drag a little. He's only six pounds so I'll have to carry him over heavy brush, but he does like the little woodsy areas we've tried so far; on the other hand there are coyotes around here and bigger dogs than him have been attacked. I'll probably leave him home for deep-woods hiking but take him to the Forest Preserves and such. If we ever run BoB I'll be sure to take his purse-carrier along for a nap! However, in the future, we're hoping to get the schedule at work straightened out to the point of resuming the rotating four-day weekend we used to have, in which case I'll be able to go on caching trips and to RGs more often. In that case, I still have my tent, sleeping bag, etc and will probably enjoy hitting the less urban caches a lot more often. If my first GPSr isn't good enough for that sort of use, I can always upgrade, but if I can get my hands on a good cheap used one in the first place, that'll be a bonus! How much consulting of maps do you usually do before heading to a cache? Do you take a peek at local roads and trails? Look at the exact spot and figure out the best way there? Or do you hit the park entrance or visitor's center or such and then just head out based on the direction of the cache and get there eventually?

As a new cacher just starting to explore the forums, may I suggest you add a topic 0) What is Benchmark hunting? It's not exactly clear what you're talking about here. Remember, you too asked that question at some point!

Still no answer on this question?

I've been able to find a number of caches in more urban settings by using Google Maps, and I told myself that I would wait a month before buying a GPS, just to make sure I didn't lose interest. Well, that month is just about up, and I'm interested in a cheap starter GPS. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles, at least not yet, I just want to be able to solve a multi without having to go home or back to work in between parts to enter new coordinates, or go more than a few feet into woods without losing sight of my landmarks from the satellite view. Haven't been able to find a Beginner's Guide to GPS Receivers so far, so I'm not sure I know what's available and what I should expect it to cost, which makes me especially reluctant to fork over for a brand new unit. Anyone willing to sell me a simple, cheap unit used? Preferably with a user's manual.... Thanks in advance; I think I've learned more about local geography in the past month than I did in the previous two years, and I'm looking forward to expanding my capabilities!

I'd love to join you in a BoB run, it sounds like a blast. I'm working until perhaps 1pm on April 8th, so whether I could join you on that date would depend on when you wanted to start. The following Saturday I'm off, so April 15th would work better for me too. If it's the 8th, and you'd be in the middle of things before I'm off, then maybe someone would be willing to give me a cell number to call you and find out where you are? When I say I'd love to join you, I actually mean 'we' in that my papillon Pippin loves to hunt caches too. Any objections to him coming along? He's small enough to carry when needed and even has a carrier that can pass as a large purse. I've found people are much less worried by someone wandering around with a cute little puppy than they are by someone lurking in the bushes otherwise. ;-)

Thanks, Kerstin! As I said, with no GPS, it'll be more challenging, but there is at least a hint on the Hessel Park one that I might be able to get. And I'm definitely at least going to get the PP Garden one's clues, since I'll be right there...just hope I can slip into the computer lab to use the numbers, so I won't have to go home and back to find out where they lead. I really wish the satellite pictures of Chambana were as good as those of Chicagoland. I told myself if I was still into this in a month I'd buy a GPS, but it's only a week and it's already hard to stick to that! :-)

I only recently was introduced to geocaching, and so far I've been using Google maps and such to track down caches in my area. I'm going to be down in Champaign-Urbana the weekend of April 1st for the Vet Med Open House, and have been trying to figure out what caches I could hit down there. I lived in Chambana for a quarter-century, so I know my way around pretty well. Caches in the area of the vet school, Hessel Park, South Side elementary, Uni High, Marketplace Mall, and the Quad would all be a blast from the past! I would love any suggestions y'all have, and if someone is actually down there with a GPS and wants to try a short-notice/impromptu get-together that'd be cool too!