chris-mouse

Telling people to walk down the railway ight of way is, as has been said, a very big no-no. If the cemetary is on public land, there should be a way for the public to get to it. Possibly an unopened road allowance or some other easement. It's also possible that the cemetary is on private property, in which case access is up to the landowner. It might be possible to get an answer one way or another by visitting the local county or township offices. They should be able to tell you who the land owner is at a minimum, and, if it's public land, how to go about getting to it legally.

Oshawa would be a bit far for me to help with running the event, but I'd be more than happy to attend.

You mean like This One

Cannon PowerShot A20. Great little camera, it's gone just about everywhere with me for the last few years.

April 30th is perfect for me. Last week I found out that work has a conflict with the 2nd :-( Well, that depends on who you ask. 'Central Ontario' starts somewhere north of Toronto, and extends up to a point somewhere south of Timmins. The western edge is generally agreed to be east of Lake Huron, and the eastern edge is probably somewhere not too far from Ottawa. Trying to narrow it down much more than that is probably difficult at best.

I've been using a Cannon PowerShot A20 camera for a couple of years now, and I'm very happy with it. At 2.1 Mp, it's not anywhere near as good as the newer cameras in the line. The pictures it does take are fine for quick snapshots or web usage, just don't try to print them out in any format much larger than about 4x6. Minuses for this camera: Low light sucks. The exposure time is so long that any motion at all will blur the picture. Nighttime shots beyond the range of the flash just aren't possible. There are a number of city skyline shots I'd love to get, but simply can't. It's slow. There's a very noticable, and annoying delay between when I press the shutter button and when it takes the picture. Even if I get the camera to do the auto-focus work ahead of time, there's still a delay. Pluses for the camera: It uses standard AA batteries, and works well with rechargables. A set of NiMh batteries was the first accessory I added to the basic camera. The second accessory I purchased was 128M additional memory. Running out of 'film' has become a thing of the past, no matter how many tries it takes to get the shot perfect. With the addition of an adaptor ring, the camera will accept any of the standard camera lenses made by Cannon. (or others) The adaptor ring simply gives the clearance needed over the built in lens assembly. There's a waterproof case available for it. It's designed for scuba use, so I have no fear of taking it right into the water for those unique viewpoints. I've even used it to take a 'mermaid' picture of my daughter swimming underwater in the swimming pool. It's small enough to live on my belt whenever I go out anywhere, so taking it with me isn't a problem. That way, I have it with me for those 'Kodak Moments' Chris-Mouse

You can add me to the list as well. Anything else I can do to help?

I find that old hard drives are a really good source for magnets. One of them inside an altoids tin will easily hold it in place for a microcache. For somewhat larger caches, a pair of the magnets will easily hold something like a 7.62 ammo can. Ask at your local computer shop if they've got any dead hard drives that you can have, you just might be able to get them for free.

I'd be interested in showing up. I'm always glad for an excuse to get out and meet other cachers. One question, is the pub family friendly, or would we have to leave the daughter at home?

One thing that comes to mind immediately is to check the reference map datum. It should be set to WGS84. If that's set incorrectly, it will result in errors of a few hundred yards.

Markings already present on the fire hydrant should be just fine. Adding your own markings probably isn't a good idea, for reasons similar to the marker on signposts. As you say, markers are probably not a good idea. Hiding a marker on the sign itself is going to be difficult at best. A flat sheet of bare aluminium just doesn't leave much to use for concealment. It may be possible to put a microcache container of some sort into the space between the sign and the post it's mounted on though. If the top of the post is within easy reach, it may also be possible to hide something inside a hollow post, or inside a fake post cap. I usually don't. If the overall length of the cache is something that might become tiresome for small children, I usually include some indication of the total length in the cache description. This one depends on a lot of things. It's never wrong to ask, and it's probably a good idea if you're copying the cache exactly, and it's going to be located in the same general area. On the other hand, if you take an idea from another cache, and use it as the inspiration for designing a similar cache halfway around the world, there's not really any need to ask. It's not difficult at all. The page edit form is the same one as you use when submitting the cache. As long as you're not trying to change the location by a large amount, or change the cache type, there's no need to go through the approval process a second time.

I used to avoid night caching up until a 24 hour cache marathon last summer. Now I love it. My main light is a Petzl Zipka, 3 LED headlight. For backup, and for poking into those dark corners, I carry a pair of stock AA maglights. Most of the time if we're anywhere near the city, I find it's best to simply turn all the lights off. I don't need it for walking along a paved trail at night, especially if it's cloudy or there's snow on the ground. I really should get one of those cheap LED keychain lights to carry with me. It would be useful to let me see the GPS without needing to drain the GPS batteries by using the backlight.

I think it depends on how the cache is rated. If the cache is rated difficulty 1, I'd expect to be able to walk up to it, stick my hand into the obvious spot, and come up with a cache. If the cache is rated difficulty 5, I'd expect it to be very well camouflaged. Keep in mind, that not all cachers are the same, and the variation in caches should reflect that. There will always be those who for whom an easy find is appropriate. There will also be those looking for a more challenging hunt. I have no problem with either one, as long as the cache rating reflects the true difficulty of finding the cache.

If you're not sure about really getting into geocaching, then that Magellan 2000XL is just fine. I used one like that for my first 50 or so cache finds. If you're going to be doing a lot of geocaching, then you'll very quickly run into the limits of what it can do. One of the major drawbacks is that you cannot download waypoints into it from the computer, so you're stuck entering them manually. That becomes real pain when you're trying for a couple of dozen caches in a day :-) It also doesn't have any sort of mapping capability. Without being able to see the cache location on a map, I frequently find that following the GPS arrow along the shortest rout often left me sitting on the wrong side of the creek and I'd have to backtrack to the nearest bridge.

I've already got most of the items on this list, but for those who don't: Rechargable NiMH batteries and charger. saves a fortune in AA batteries if you're out caching a lot. LED headlight, or at least flashlight. I've got the Petzl Zipka. It lights up just enough to find my way along the trail in the dark, and the batteries last just about forever. Geocaching membership. While it's not required, or even essential, it's nice to support this web site since it does so much to make Geocaching easier and more fun. GMRS or at least FRS radios If you ever go caching with a group, you'll soon realize how useful the direct communications are. PDA with geocaching software. I've just started playing with mine, and having the entire cache page, including logs, available while out at the cache site is extremely useful. Being able to have ALL the cache pages in an area, and in a compact form at that, is incredible.

I regularly do caching by bicycle around the Toronto, Canada area. Not so much in the downtown as in the surrounding suburbs and smaller cities. My personal, unassisted, best day of caching was 13 caches. That required 15 hours, and about 90 miles of cycling. My personal best in any 24 hour period was a cache marathon we did this summer. I had a blast on both trips. Which one was better? I really couldn't say. There's a lot to be said for what amounts to a moving event cache. There's also a lot to be said for the satisfaction of doing it all by yourself. Would I do it again? sure. I'm already planning on hitting the 5 closest caches to home, all by bicycle. I expect to roll up another 30 miles of cycling doing that. The 24 hour Marathon? sure, if I can find a bunch of cachers crazy enough to be willing to come along, and we can find an area that we haven't already done most of the caches.

Another thought for stash notes, or just about any other printed items you may want to leave in a cache. Inkjet printer ink is water based. If the printed page gets wet, the ink runs. Laser printer 'ink' is really a plastic powder that gets melted into the page. Laserprinted pages do not run, even when immersed in water. All of my caches have a laserprinted copy of the GC stash note, along with a line at the bottom giving my e-mail address. For a couple of the microcaches, I've reduced the size of the standard page to a wallet sized page (double sided) that I've laminated, and then trimmed to just fit inside the container. I've also tried laserprinting on a weatherproof mailing label and sticking it to the outside of the cache (Seems to do OK) and most recently, using packing tape to laminate the page to the inside of the cache lid, so that it can be read from the outside through the clear plastic. (works very well) The white labels tend to make the cache containers highly visible, so I've had to make sure that the hiding place is such that the container isn't normally visible at all. That's not a bad thing though, since all of my caches are in busy urban areas.

I left a compass in a cache over the weekend. I don't know how much good it would do you though. The cache is http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCK43XGCK43X I suspect the cost of driving over to the cache would be considerably higher than the cost of just buying a new compass. On the other hand, it would be a lot more fun too.

Glad you enjoyed your trip here. Too bad we couldn't put together an event cache. Maybe next time you're here we can do something.

I'm pretty sure I've solved it as well. I'm not likely to ever visit the cache, but solving puzzles is fun. I've e-mailed my comments to the cache owner too. It will be interesting to see what happens. Oh, and I've also added the cache to my watch list.

As TT has said, The Old City Hall Message is a good virtual geocache that's about as downtown as you can get. The only problem with the City Hall one is that the answers are largely obscured by scaffolding around the building, or at least, they were when I was by there a few weeks ago. There are a number of other easy virtuals in the area as well as a number of urban micros. If you have time, there are several caches on the Toronto Islands that are worth a visit. Toronto Island CityScape and GhostCache come to mind. There are also some good geocaches scattered along the various ravines off the Don River Valley I don't know much about the caches in the area of the Zoo though. I live on the other side of the city from there, so I haven't gotten around to caching in the area.

Another variation that's in use in this area is a "multi-multi" cache. Each stage in the cache is a stand alone cache that can be logged for credit. The stages also have a clue of some sort which can then be used to work out the location of a bonus cache. the individual stages could themselves be multi caches, or any other type of cache. The stages could even be placed by different cachers GHMCMC and Parking on the Credit are probably the best examples of this.

I've found a very simple way of removing the hard drive magnet from the backing plate. Heat. I just clamp the backing plate down so that it doesn't move, then heat it with a hot air gun. A few minutes of heating breaks down the adhesive, and the magnet just lifts off. Be warned though, both the magnet and the backing plate will be too hot to handle with bare hands. Unless you really do have to remove the backing plate for some reason, I'd suggest not removing it at all. Having it there completes half of the "magnetic circuit" that the lines of force follow, making the magnet much stronger than it would otherwise be. They also often provide screw holes that can be used to bolt the magnet into place on the top of an ammo can etc.

Well, whatever's going on, it's not just you. I can't get to the sites either. I'm not sure where the servers are located, but there were some nasty thunderstorms in the area yesterday, so maybe that has something to do with it.

The first line is the battery size. AA in North America. It's given in a couple of different battery specification systems used around the world The second line gives the battery chemistry (Nickel Metal Hydride) the battery voltage (1.2 volts) and the capacity (2050mAh) Nickel Metal hydride batteries are a replacement chemistry for NiCd batteries. They store more energy in the same size package, so they last longer. NiMH batteries also avoid some of the problems with NiCd batteries, like the toxic metal content. The one potential problem is that they need a slightly different charger to get the best use out of them. Many chargers have a selector switch so they can handle either battery type. 1.2 Volts is the same voltage as the older NiCd batteries, slightly lower than the 1.5V from non-rechargable alkaline batteries, but close enough for most uses. 2050mAh is the battery capacity. That battery can provide 205mA of current for 10 hours, or 102.5mA for 20 hours, or any other combination of time and current with a product of 2050. I use 1800mAh batteries in my SporTrak Pro GPS, and get about twelve hours continuous use out of a set of batteries. Your batteries have a higher capacity, so I'd get even more time before the batteries needed recharging. The only thing you might have to watch is that neither NiCd and NiMH batteries like cold weather. If you're caching in the wintertime, keep a spare set of batteries in an inside pocket, and either keep the GPS in an inside pocket as much as possible, or else be prepared to swap batteries every hour or two to allow them to warm back up. My usual technique is to have two sets of charged batteries with me, one set in the GPS, and a second set carried in the GPS case. I usually have to swap batteries at some point in the late afternoon, but I routinely manage to keep the GPS running from dawn until after sunset, even during the long summer days.