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The 2 Dogs

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Posts posted by The 2 Dogs

  1. On 2/27/2019 at 10:46 AM, niraD said:

    There's a new blog post: 10 mistakes to avoid while geocaching. The short version is:

    1. Forgetting to bring a pen
    2. Not reading the cache description
    3. Not checking the latest activity
    4. Not using your geo-senses
    5. Forgetting to make a List
    6. Not CITO-ing
    7. Not being safe
    8. Not staying aware of your surroundings
    9. Not wearing the right shoes
    10. Letting mistakes ruin your geocaching outing 

     

    So, what's missing from this list? I'll suggest: 4b. Relying too much on your geo-senses.

     

    Some of my longest searches have been for caches that were near one or more "obvious locations", but the cache wasn't hidden in one of those "obvious locations". After spending far too much time examining those "obvious locations" in minute detail, I finally took a step back and spotted the cache, which was hidden nearby in a different manner from what I was expecting.

    All rules broken by me lol

     

  2. On 6/19/2019 at 6:49 AM, Jayeffel said:

    There are several new coachers in our area. They have placed caches at some very unsafe places-- along side a busy road with no place to pull off,  etc. Now another cacher with one find to his/her name logged on a fairly new cache " Too hard" and "Needs archived"  due to not finding the cache.Since the cacher's email has not been verified no contact can be made to help them. It is interesting to see how different people handle caches. 

     

    When I was very actively placing caches many, many years ago now.... OMG  I always considered safety as part of responsible placement.

    You can't stop or foresee every situation though. 

    I'd just place a notation or recommendation in cache found logs  that's all you can do.

     

    Cheers

  3. Hey everyone! I was wondering if any of you had ever cached while on a cruise? I'm going on a cruise in December. We are going to Costa Maya, Belize City, and Cozumel. Have any of you cached in these port cities? I'd love to hear everyone's cruise caching stories!

     

    Kim

    (stirfrie2005)

    We thought about this quite a while ago. Leaving a cache on one of the many little known islands we visited, but somehow it just didn't seem appropriate.
  4. For as long as geocaching has existed, (and I've been there all that time) the lack of a fair trades and quality of cache contents has been a bugbear. I have always set large caches with quality contents, and I usually trade up in value not down, but these days you mostly find rubbish. Sad really.

  5. I'm kind of worried about the people who use car nav units to geocache. They lack the screens and capabilities that are needed for safe bush navigation. Features such as compass and actual co-ord readouts, back tracking and altitude are essential. I can see some people getting themselves into serious trouble without these features. Leave your Tom Tom in your car where it belongs and invest in a proper hand held GPS. The are so cheap to buy these days.

     

    Thank you for your concern for our safety. Here are a few Screen Shots from my Garmin nuvi 1350 Car GPSr unit.

     

    This one shows my Bearing and Elevation.

    compass.jpg

     

    This one shows Latitude and Longitude. I like using Decimal Degrees but I could also could have shown it in Decimal Minutes or Degrees Minutes Seconds. Since I'm inside I have turned off the GPS part of the unit. If it was on it would show the Accuracy in feet. This would be right where it says "GPS is Off".

    co-ords.jpg

     

    If I wish to back track all I need to do is Follow the blue line. The "Trip Log" shows where I've been. It works on road as well as off road.

    B-dance-foot.jpg

     

    Here is another screen Shot of Direction, Elevation, and Time.

    Ele.jpg

     

    The little arrow above the "N" (bottom left) points to North at all times. Those four dots are caches I put in as POIs (Points Of Interest). Right now I have over 65,000 POIs loaded in my car unit. Don't worry, not all are caches, I have other interests. But for those caches I have the full description with hints loaded into my unit. Can you say Paperless caching.

    caches.jpg

     

    A good car unit can do almost anything your hand held can do, and in many ways it is much better. The there are only three areas that my car unit is not as good as most hand helds and they are, 1. Shorter battery life, 2. Not as rugged, and 3. It is not water proof.

     

    My solution to these problems:

    1. As I'm driving from cache to cache I plug it in and charge it up. If I'm hiking, I turn it off when I'm not using it. That way it lasted for over 5 hours on one charge.

     

    2. Don't drop it. My old unit (255w) was dropped 4 times and it still worked fine. Maybe I was lucky (4 times) or maybe they are stronger that most people think.

     

    3. When it starts to rain here in Seattle, WA., I just slip it into a (4"x6") plastic bag.

     

    If there are any other concerns about my safety or well being, or if you wish to learn more about my Garmin 1350 feel free to ask. But as I said before "There are many different grades of car unites and car unites are not for everyone."

     

    Thanks for the tour of your GPS, of course this now goes somewhat to the reversal of my concerns, but not all they way. I kind of wonder why all this info available on your model is warranted for the usual market application it was designed. Most people who purchase a car navigator would never have use for the co-ords feature let alone other information. If you have these features, well and good, but a purpose built, off road and more rugged navigation aid would probably still be better suited for geocaching and bush trekking than a hybrid car navigator.

  6. I have never used the averaging function on my GPS. I simply mark the location, walk away and then try to find my own cache back. If it brings me back to the correct location a few times then that's all you need to do. I have had only good results from this method and I've place nearly 150 caches.

  7. Curious that you needed to make a sock puppet to post this question.

     

    No, it is not OK for a basic member to hunt a PMO cache by themselves, in the manner you have described. There is a reason it is PMO. You need to either team up with a PM or contribute a few bucks back to Groundspeak and become a PM.

     

    Many of us who put out a PMO cache have no problem with letting a PM bring along basic members and they can all log the cache. For instance, you might have a family that buys just 1 PM account, but each family member may have their own BM account so they can write their own logs. This is generally not a problem and there is an easy method to allow the BM to access the write log function for a PM cache, even though they can't actually see the cache page.

     

    Also, some of us will initially publish a cache as PMO and wait for the FTF or some arbitrary length of time before we remove the PMO status and allow everyone to have full access. This is a way to reward those who give back to the geocaching community by supporting GS (who makes this all possible through the sales of memberships, trackables, and merchandise).

     

    To me this question/answer highlights the absurdity of PM caches. I was a premium and money contributing member of GC.com for a while, but never placed or hunted a restricted cache at all during this time. I believe the practice is divisive and high nosed and should never have been considered as a reward for donations to the site.

     

    Of course anyone could just happen to stumble across a PM cache just the same as they could happen to stumble across and ordinary cache. Get my drift.

     

    BTW Are you seriously saying that if a geocacher should 'genuinely' stumble across a PM cache in the wild, they are not allowed to write anything in the log book???.

  8. I placed one on a sort of fresh water island. The point of land where I placed it is guarded on 2 sides by wide rivers and the third involves such a long hike to get to, most finders woiuldn't consider it. They have either carried a canoe to the river bank or used a lilo or swum across to it. One group even stripped naked and swam across in the middle of the night. Snags, frog slime, and reeds and all.

  9. Soon after I began my caching career, and on my birthday I fell over a cliff while searching for a cache. The fall was about 35 ft, and I came to rest on a narrow ledge situated at least another 60 feet above the bottom. The worst part of that was trying to climb back up off the ledge while cut, bleeding and bruised. It was no fun but it's amazing what you do when you are faced with a such situation. I then had a fair hike to get back to my car for help. I think I was in shock the whole time, but I eventually made it. I'm still here and still caching.

  10. I don't tell them anything. If I see someone coming toward me, I put my GPS up to my ear and they think it's a cell. It's amazing what behaviour you can get away with if people think you are on a cellphone. Try it next time your searching in a city park or a crowded eating place. Works a charm.

  11. I'm kind of worried about the people who use car nav units to geocache. They lack the screens and capabilities that are needed for safe bush navigation. Features such as compass and actual co-ord readouts, back tracking and altitude are essential. I can see some people getting themselves into serious trouble without these features. Leave your Tom Tom in your car where it belongs and invest in a proper hand held GPS. The are so cheap to buy these days.

  12. In the Australian bush just about everything wants to kill you. I've been bailed up by deadly snakes. Chased by an angry Goanna. Menaced by giant bullants, and bitten by redback spiders. But the worst was a tiny tick. The Sydney Paralysis Tick is very dangerous and very painful once they take hold. I hate them.

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