SidAndBob

I agree completely. TBs and GCs are not swaps. As the owner of a few travelling geocoins, I like to see them do just that - travel. I feel a bit sad if I see that a cacher or two has left my coin sitting. Then my coin is stuck! I pick up almost every travelling item I find. I do this to try to help them on their way. Even if I cannot help it on its mission, I think that just keeping it moving helps it. At least it picks up a bit of mileage. The only time that I don't pick one up is when I know that my doing so will go against its mission. Just my 2 pence worth. I think for once this one is pretty clear cut. Some newbies think trackables are trading items, which can mess up the contents of a cache. It's fine to leave something when you take one, but you are certainly under no obligation to do so, but to take a trade item when you leave one causes a problem. I've seen this several times recently. I can understand it's frustrating to turn up at a cache and find several trackables have all gone (personally I would alway leave a trackable in their place) but I would take them for the reasons stated above. I've had days when I've followed someone who's just cleared out every cache just before I got there leaving nothing. I always try and share my trackables around rather than drop a bunch in one cache. I usually pick up around 6 trackables each week, but I like to drop them in caches that have no trackables in them or caches I like. After all, why should the same few caches constantly be stocked with trackables?

I maintain a trigpoint database within GSAK. Even though Topo etc has trigs as POI it's easier to have them as waypoints with icons.

Put in on a lanyard. Get a case for it or at least a screen protector. Get at least 2 sets of high powered rechargable batteries and a good charger. There's little you need to know about using it that you won't find out quickly in the field or by reading existing threads, so get out caching!

I use MapSource and Memory Map. Whilst both are excellent in specific areas, neither are good at analysing track log data. I want to find average speed, total ascent etc. I am aware that the CSx does this, but I need to perform analysis on historical logs. Does anyone know of any tools which will do this?

I assume the 77 miles is for the series of caches rather than for one cache (whilst bagging others along the way). It's not quite the same, but I wish you the best of luck. I guess the 24-36 hrs is not consecutive? I have to ask as there are some real nutters out there.

In my view it's very simple "One listing = one found it". If it's changed enough to log again then a new listing should have been created.

Our area in the Wye Valley is very dog friendly. The Brecon Beacons nearby is brill for dogs (provided they are trained to leave sheep alone). We've only once had a stile problem with Sid (as he's a big dog and getting on a bit), but we once had to turn back on Where Eagles Dare as he couldn't get up the last few of the 365 rocky steps. There is another route to this cache however, so we did return to complete it.

Here's Bob demonstrating how to negotiate a particularly high stile after 9hrs of running on a caching trip yesterday.

I've just done Rock rock who's there? on the edge of the Brecon Beacons today. A total of 22 miles covered for one cache (though I did manage to pick up two others along the way). I'm sure there must be some longer one's in the UK. Caches where you don't walk don't count though. Before today Alien Encounter I was my longest (about 10 miles I think) and is my favourite ever cache.

I have to agree with Team Sieni. Walking is my primary interest. If I'm keying in coords every 2 minutes it drives me nuts, though some people don't seem to mind it. I think most of us have done a cache where we walk 10yds and then it's data entry time again. What's that all about?

That's one new cache for every 10 square miles. Now that's impressive.

But what about when you compare the sizes of the countries? Not to mention the number of lamposts they have.

I'll definitely be on the lookout for a cheap LED head torch for Will. The Petzl has to be my second best present ever - only beaten by my first GPSr. As well as night walking, caves and tunnels, they're great for camping and power cuts too. A good one lasts well over 70 hrs.

I very recently visited a cache which had a really nice monocular in it. It was used, but was still worth quite a lot. As I rarely carry swaps, and certainly not for value items, I left it for another day. It's a mountain cache, so won't get visited that often. I got together a couple of good items ready for a visit, only to get a notification that the cache had been visited. The log read "took monocular, left geocoin". A lot of newbies don't seem to understand that coins aren't tradable, but they must have realized that this was not a fair exchange.

I totally agree. I've never understood what trades have got to do with caching anyway.

Love the idea of waterproof and shockproof, especially as I fell in a river whilst caching recently. As I contemplated the slippery crossing I realised the only items I had which weren't waterproof were PDA and camera. Two features of my Canon A series camera that I couldn't be without are: i) It takes AA batteries, so they can act as backup for GPS, Petzl etc ii) It has a twist and turn screen, so I can hold the camera above my head, down low without lying in mud etc. Although it's 3 years old the pics are great and I'll definitely replace it with something similar when the time comes.

I bought my CSx and Topo from eBay, so I'd look there for City Navigator. Just make sure it's the sealed product. The seller (outdoorandgps) may no longer be trading as this was nearly a year ago.

As GPSr's are becoming cheaper and cheaper I can see this become much more of a problem. In a few years all mobile phones will contain a GPSr. It's called progress apparently. Combine this and the fact that some people are just plain stupid and before too long we will have premium membership only.

As far as I'm aware, the GPSMAP 60C(S)x and the 76C(S)x are the only SiRF III Garmin handhelds.

I bought an 8 in 1 pack for £9 the other week from this guy on eBay. That includes postage from the US. It includes a car charger and a battery recharger pack, as well as universal mains charger etc. You'll have to see if there's one for your particular model. Mine sits in my bag with 4 charged batteries, so takes no more room than the spare battery pack used to. Mine took about 10 days to arrive.

I've had one or two hairy moments (not necessarily whilst caching) liftling Sid over stiles. I try never to do it now as he could get badly injured at his time in life. Lifting is never pleasant when they're covered in mud (which he always is as a water loving breed) and for many it's just not possible. Living in sheep country (so there are stiles everywhere) I would not have a large dog again as we've had to turn back/detour so many times. On the lead front (I rarely carry one as we don't do urban), my GPS is on a lanyard and I use this as a lead to keep the farmers happy when there are lambs about, though Bob doesn't need to be on the lead as he is very well behaved.

We've had this problem too. Sid is getting on a bit and not built for jumping stiles (he doesn't come caching much these days), but Bob can jump buildings in a single leap so although the problem doesn't affect all dogs I very much agree that this is a good idea. I remember doing Pauline's Peak where the stiles where incredibly high too. There seems to be a plethora of icons for things that seem totally pointless, but this would really make sense.

Are you implying Americans aren't interesting.

I would create a csv export from memory map with just one or two marks. Open this with notepad and take a look at the format. You now need to convert your csv file into this format.

I nearly went to a cache a couple of weeks ago which was supposedly a multi. Fortunately I read the listing before I set off as there was a puzzle to be solved. I would have been pretty miffed if I'd arrived on a wasted journey. The classification has now been corrected. There's a lot of confusion between puzzle/unknown and multis. I agree with the first 2 posts, but it's not always that clear cut. Runic Unique is a good example of a 'multi' where there is nothing to find at the coords.