Mosaic55

I've made a several using hot glue. The ones I made with soda pop bottle caps weren't waterproof for some reason. I had better luck with .5 liter drinking water bottles and caps, the caps that work for me have a ridge inside the cap. I also made some with magnets in the cap. I really don't intend to place many micros, but these are fun to make, so maybe I'll just put them out in caches as trade items.

Well, that makes me feel a little better! BTW, I had to look up the word "bork" I have to admit it's an appropriate term for this! I'm glad you started this topic, because I didn't understand the purpose of +Quote before. Now I see that it lets you quote multiple posts in one reply. I'm sure that sooner of later I'll find a use for this feature.

This is what I am looking for.. those of us who generally speaking follow the rules but every once in a while get lead astray by something as simple as a FTF. Like parking illegally, despite signs threatening towing, to go find a benchmark?

Under a pile of sticks under a pile of rocks in a hole in a hollow tree hanging from a branch, especially in an evergreen laying on the ground in plain sight but disguised as something else

I think you answered your own question right there. I think if you place a cache there, no matter what you call it, you'll end up drawing people to the site and some number of them WILL decide to eat there. Either because they don't pay attention to the description or they read it, but think you're engaging in some sort of reverse psychology.

Perhaps you could contact some local cachers and see if any of them would "beta test" your caches and verify coordinates before you get them published?

Assuming you're logged in to the site - Top right corner of the cache page, you should see the GC----- number, below that, the word NAVIGATION, and in the box below that - a "Log your Visit" link

I use a Palm Treo phone with Cachemate and the CacheNav plug-in for navigation. You can use a Treo as a PDA and just ignore the phone functions. The Treo is thicker and heavier than a Tungsten, but it's also usually less expensive and it has bluetooth support so you can use a bluetooth GPS receiver with it ( I use a GlobalSat BT-359). (I also have a Palm Centro, which runs cachemate just fine, but I prefer the larger screen on the Treo for caching).

I've caught myself wishing I still owned my old Geo tracker http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geo...cker_2-Door.jpg just because of the name.

The "no-gps stash hunt" game already exists. It's called letterboxing. I found about 10 caches with just google maps before I got a GPS. I like using a GPS better. It's more about the journey than the challenge for me.

Are you outside with good satellite reception when this happens?

And if you do dump them in one big file, you can still keep them organised by categories. I load each PQ into its' own category. Like the "Micro" PQ gets loaded into the Micro category, the results of my Multi/Mystery PQ gets it's own category, etc. You then have the choice of viewing individual categories or "all" Cachemate rocks!

Simply carrying a camera around and occasionally pointing it at different things seems to satisfy most people as to why I'm hanging around an area longer than normal. They may think I'm weird at some of the things I photograph, but at least that's a flavor of weird they loose interest in real fast.

I went back and let the GPS software average for 12 minutes. This set of coordinates is better, I was able to return and zero in on the spot again with the new coordinates.

Some of the older logs talk about a lid being broken, then more recently they talk about the plastic bag, so I bet it started as a magnetic key box and at some point someone substituted a baggie.

Kurchian, What type of PDA do you have?

You mean 58 cents a week or .58 dollars. Or about 8.2 cents a day. Sorry for being a nitpicker Or they can do the $10 for 3 months one to try it out...

I don't see any "average" function on my Explorist 210. Have I missed it? Anyway, I usually use my Palm Treo and bluetooth GPS when finding. I tried the average function in the Cetus software on the Palm but I didn't let it sit very long. How long do you let your GPS average?

The caches around here that I found recently all seem to have super accurate coordinates. (easy to zero in on with GPS and they check out very close in Google maps.) So I feel under some pressure to do a good job on setting coordinates for my first hide. I set out my container last week and tried to get coordinates, but when I returned a couple days later to check I was 20 feet off at least. I was probably too impatient when I took the coordinates the first time due to cold and wind. I'm going back to try again and want to do it right this time. (It's a bit warmer) I read something on some web site about letting the GPS "settle" but that didn't make sense to me, if I look at the GPS track, it doesn't settle, it wanders. How do you take accurate coordinates for your hides?

I highly recommend Cachemate if you have a Palm device.

That is true. My friends don't get it, although one will sometimes indulge me for the sake of a nice walk. I like that it motivates me to get outside more. I like visiting and spending time at places I'd otherwise ignore. I like the puzzle solving aspect. "Where is it?" I like playing with technology. I enjoy looking at (electronic) maps, planning where I'm going to go.

Yes, I would agree, no need to clutter up the logs, especially in consideration of those who are downloading just the last 5 logs. Maybe edit your last DNF if all you've got to say is "muggled out again"

What's different about the Nuvi 500 and 550? Do they have a compass or "radar" screen?

Some car GPS's won't show the coordinates at all, or only show 2 decimal places so they aren't very good for geocaching at all. (except for driving to the starting point) Even on the ones that do show coordinates, I thought it was much harder to match up numbers than it is to use a directional compass screen on a handheld. (I tried twice with that method before giving up and eventually getting a handheld)

Congratulations, it sounds like you're off to a great start!