gcfishguy

I would always pass on a front yard cache. Like everyone said, just too many things can happen...wrong house, etc etc. Now, this cache was an exception, and was very enjoyable. No worries about permission, very easy to tell if you're in the right place, and so on. A nice tribute. Very interesting and touching. GCQH5F - One in memory of Leo Leblanc Have a quick look through the pictures in the logs also. <><

For a Palm, Cachemate seems to be the favorite. I've been using it right along, and it does the job nicely. I can put all of the caches in my province on mine, with the last 5 logs, and it only takes about 8MB. That's a little over 3900 caches. You'll have no problems with 15MB. When asked, I always suggest an older palm for caching. They're cheap, and dropping one in a brook or onto a rock won't hurt as much as if it happened to an expensive PDA. 8MB-15MB is all kinds of memory for caches and cachemate. I also have a 2MB palm that I use...I can only load caches in a 75KM circle out from my home, because of the 2MB issue, but that's still lots for heading out for some quick caching. Also, most of the older palms take AAA batteries, rather than having a built in battery that has to be charged. As they get older, the built in batteries start losing their charge faster, so if you happen to forget to charge it before you head out for a day, you can get caught with a dead PDA and no way to charge it. If it takes AAA batteries, carry 2 as spares and you'll never get stuck. (Not a huge factor, but something worth considering) <><

Like StarBrand said, absolutely no difference for following the arrow to a cache. I normally set mine to magnetic, just because of other things I use it for. Also, if reception is a problem, use a compass with the declination also set to 0, and you can use the compass from the nearest point you can get a good signal. Just see what your bearing is at the last place you get a good signal, and use that bearing with your compass to get to the cache.

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Sometimes, the hint could help you confirm that you're actually looking for a cache that's no longer there. I spent a couple hours looking for one where GZ was in the middle of a flat field, an equal distance between a tree-lined swamp and an outfield fence for a ball diamond. I checked the fence, but there simply wasn't any place to hide a tobacco container. Next I worked the trees and rocks at the edge of the swamp...nope. Then I scoured the field...2' long dead grass lying flat in the spring. Found 6 softballs and 2 baseballs, but no cache. After digging out some previous logs, everyone was eluding to the fact that they should have been looking up, or that they were looking too low. It turns out that the tobacco can had been bunjee'd to a pole on the back of a sign fastened to the outfield fence. There's no place to hide a 'baccy can on the back of the sign; it would have been right there in plain sight, so the hint that said simply "Nope" was likely fine, if the cache had actually been there. Having a hint that meant at least something would have allowed me to see that the cache had been muggled, so I could mark it as such and move on. Rather than wasting all that time, and not being able to do anymore caching before I had to head home. Please save the flames, because no, searching for a cache is not 'a waste of time'...that's not what I mean. And yes, I understand that the hunt is a very important part of caching...but when GZ is about 20m from the actual location, with excellent reception, no matter which direction you come at it, and you've looked everywhere it 'should' be, twice or three times.....it would have been nice to have a hint that said...something. I emailed the cache owner a picture of each sign-supporting post, each empty. The cache was archived the next day. I'm not dissing the cacher for having a hint of "Nope", either...because I'm sure that when he bunjee'd the tobacco can to the post, in plain sight, a hint like that would have made sense. Of course you don't need a hint...it's right there, after all... Anyway, I still thank him and everyone else that hides, because if they didn't, I'd have nothing to go look for. Hopefully somebody understands what I'm trying to say.... <><

If you omit micros, you can have all the caches in NB come down in 7 pocket queries. (That's how many I'm currently running.) With micros included, it would take about 10. I use PQs, GSAK and the Garmin Mapsource products. I'm in Moncton...drop me an email if you want, maybe I could help you out. gcfishguy (AT) gmail (dot) com <><

Another thing to think about, is companies that offer free little promo stuff with their logo on them. I'd imagine that they would give you a bunch of stuff, just for the free advertising it gives them. I work for a phone company, and explained geocaching to my manager and asked for some free swag. A few days later, I had a box of pencils, promo flashlights, little keychain beeners with a compass and a LED lights on them, keychains, and small frisbees (about 5" in diameter)...all with the company logo on them. Also, my manager is very involved with the Pioneers, so I also got a big bunch of pins from them. So, I'm providing free advertising for my employer, and the Pioneers, and providing some swag that makes the kids eyes light up, and *bonus* it didn't cost me a cent. I used to trade, but lately I just sign the log, and if the cache looks a bit depleted, I grab 3-4 items out of the swag-bag and drop 'em in. Load the caches, and it makes things more fun for everybody. <><

I emailed the cache owner, and asked if he can straighten out the bug logs, or if he can supply me the tracking number and I should be able to get stuff logged correctly. Thanks all! <><

I made the mistake of grabbing a TB last last summer, and forgetting about it. Life got busy, winter hit, the backpack got hung up, and I forgot all about it. I know...and i'm sorry... Anyway, I was able to get out this afternoon, and I found a nice, dry, muggle-proof cache to drop him in. Here's the problem.....the TB's location is listed as 'unknown'. It's not in my inventory any more, and like a friggin' idiot, I was so concerned about getting it into a good cache, I forgot to take note of the tracking number......so every time I attempt to 'grab it' to put it in my inventory, it tells me the number is invalid. (Sorry. The Travel Bug code does not match.) The TB is ShutterBug - TB1CW8W I picked it up from GC14MB3. But, I wasn't able to log that I picked it up at the time, because the owner had just released it that day, and hadn't logged the drop yet. (From there on, life got in the way, so I never went back and logged that I had grabbed it. I placed it in GC10G87 this afternoon, and I want to get this straightened out before someone else grabs it and things get more messed up than they already are. Anyone have an easy anwer for this???? Thanks! <><

Sorry I can't continue troubleshooting....this was the final nail in Vista's coffin for me. Yes, some people love it, but I didn't. Bought a new Dell a couple months ago, and it's been back and forth from XP Pro to Vista Ultimate about 10 times. (Actually more than that) I like to play...what can I say?....it was a long Canadian winter.... I settled on XP Pro, because of this and several other issues. Anyway, after a format and install of XP Pro, I restored GSAK with the latest backup file (same one I was using with Vista) and all's well and good, just like it was before. Now I can update all my DB's of the Atlantic Provinces off my PQs, and make POI files, and be off to the races. I cannot say if it was Vista, but it sure looks like it. Anyway, I'll stick with XP Pro until the next latest and greatest comes out.... Windows 7 ? GSAK has yet to let me down. (Well, except the whole thing where I bought it, then it upgraded shortly after, and I'd have to pay again to be able to use the newest version....) Aside from THAT, (and lots of my own stupidity) it's never let me down. :-) <><

Essentially, I generate a POI file for each of my GSAK databases. I rename it to whatever applies, and then I can have oodles of caches on my Legend CX. This used to work nice and slick...generate a gpx, and the POI loader would convert it quite nicely. Now, when I generate a GPX file with GSAK, the same exact way I did last fall, it's failing when attempting to create a POI file. The error is "The file C:\Users\....whateverfilename.gpx is invalid. Do you want to continue?" Yes, or No results in the POI loader saying that "No valid data was found in the specified folder, therefore no data was written." Now, I have upgraded to Vista Ultimate, from XP Pro. When I stopped caching for the winter, everything had been working normally. I installed Vista and then GSAK, and restored it from a backup I made before I installed Vista. I've tried saving my GPX file in different locations, and telling it to save my POI file in different locations...no dice. A Google search didn't turn up much either. I also tried older versions of the POI loader, no better. Anyone run into this? Maybe GSAK restore in Vista from XP Pro settings might be causing a corrupt GPX output....? Some help would be nice, if anyone's run into this before. I have GSAK and the POI loader on my XP Pro computer at work, so I'll export my GSAK DBs and take them to work on a stick, and see if I can generate POIs with the same DBs there. Windows Vista Ultimate GSAK Registered, Version 6.6.5 POI Loader version 2.5.2 (but tried two older versions as well) Thanks! <><

As far as high-priced gizmos, and their high cost: Chances are if you ask around work, or watch for a couple days on your local Internet classified site, you'll soon find an old palm pilot that someone's selling for next to nothing. I have an old Palm Visor that I picked up used for $20. It has a staggering 8MB of memory But...that 8MB of memory is more than enough to hold over 3000 caches, complete with full descriptions, hints, and the last 3 logs that were posted. Do I really need to have 3000 caches at my fingertips? No...but if we strike out for a drive somewhere, I just have to bring the GPSr and the Palm, and I can go caching, no matter which direction we go. (Within about a 3-hour drive) :-) I used to print off descriptions, etc, and found that I could run through $20 worth of ink and paper real fast. Now i have everything on the palm, and I may print one thing. If i know what area I'm going to, I'll import my waypoints into mapsource and print off a one-page map, so I can see the caches in relationship to the roads. For those that still print off everything, if that's what works for you, go for it...I just wanted to make sure that you didn't think you needed a state of the art Palm or Pocket PC to go paperless. Another nice thing about the old palms, was that they used batteries you can replace if they go dead. An integral battery is nice, until it goes dead in the middle of a day of caching, and there's no way to charge it. <><

Another thing to consider is the batteries. Personally I'd stick with an older palm; one that takes AAA or AA batteries. That way, if you're out caching and the batteries go dead, you can change them. Not the case with a PDA that has a built-in rechargable battery pack. When those go dead, they're dead until you can get to a charger. This usually isn't an issue with short caching trips, but I sometimes incorporate caching into a weekend or week-long camping/fishing trip....so I could be a full week before i'm close enough to a plug to charge something with a built-in battery. (Yes, I bought an invertor for the car, but we won't go there) Also, dropping a $20 pda into a brook hurts a lot less than dropping a $100 pda in a brook. AND...if you use a PDA for work and caching, think about what work stuff you stand to lose if you drop it, drown it, sit on it........ I use an old Palm Handspring Visor, and it's serving me very well. It has a whopping 8MB of memory, but that's lots... I have close to 4000 caches (with the last 3 logs) on it, and it's about 3/4 full. If you want a palm for work, and day to day stuff, my advise would be to buy one for that purpose, THEN go spend $20-$30 on an old beater for caching. <><

Any GPSr will allow you to follow the arrow to a cache. The last one you posted (the blue legend) is black and white, has a smaller screen, and a very limited amount of memory. Also, that memory is not expandable. I know from experience that you might as well spend a few extra dollars now, rather than buy one for price, and then find yourself upgrading right away. I went from the old yellow eTrex to a Venture, and now have a Legend CX. Spend a few extra dollars and get something in the CX line (Venture CX, Legend CX, Vista CX) or step up a little bit more to one of those models in the HXC line... The huge amount of extras for only a few dollars makes all the difference. Now, if you go with one of those lower models, think about buying a used one...then when you want to upgrade (likely a few months later) you can sell it again, and get most of your money back. A friend of mine bought the blue Legend, and was very dissapointed with the amount of maps that he could fit on it. (I told him so...hehe) If you just want something that will show you an arrow to follow to the cache, an older model will do that just fine. But, the bigger screen, colour, MUCH longer battery life, larger memory, turn by turn routing, etc etc etc will more than offset the small difference in price to get a higher model. Another thing, the yellow eTrex, the green Venture and the blue Legend all use a stupid connector and a serial connection. The cable is expensive, and your computer may not even have a serial port. The newer models have a USB connection, with a common cable. Babble, babble.... <><

Thanks Miragee! With the info you supplied, and the info you gave in another post about naming waypoints (with the %tags) in GSAK, I'm cooking with gas. Through your post, I saw that the tags and names not only applied to sending the waypoints to the GPS from GSAK, but also works when exporting a GPX to be used with Garmin's POI loader.... Now I have a ton of caches on my GPS, with the cache name, container and cache type, and diff/terr showing, along with a nice long description in the POI. that will save me a LOT of time... (seeing a cache closeby, and not having to dig out the palm and looking it up in cachemate to see what kind of cache it is)...all that info's on my GPSr now. Awesome, thanks for answering my question, and also for the other posts that you made that also helped me out! <><

As far as I know, no handheld GPSr's come with detailed maps.....I suppose the reason for this is because the maps that work for you may be useless to me. What you plan on using your GPS for determines what maps you want. Also, different countries, different maps... I use TopoCanada, and Metroguide Canada. Both pieces of software had to purchased seperately. If you're going to be using the GPS on a 4-wheeler, I'd say go with the Topo maps for your area....if you're doing mainly urban caches, get City Navigator or Metroguide. If the GPSr manufacturers included detailed maps, the price of the unit would go through the roof...just because of the fact that they would have to have so many different variations of each models. Also, if they wanted to try and cover everyone's map needs with one unit, it would have to have about 10GB of memory on board, just to hold all the different maps (topo, metroguide, City Navigator...etc) I'm yapping about Garmin here, because I've owned three of them, and they're what i'm familiar with. No problems with any of them, just kept upgrading. I would definately not recommend the ones with the battery 'packs', just because you can't simply change the batteries when they die. if you go camping or something for a few days and have no way to charge the battery, you're dead in the water. I'm sure some of them have an accessory you can buy that lets you use conventional batteries in a pinch, but why bother... I had a yellow eTrex, and then a Venture, and both served me very well for caching. Neither of those have mapping, but I really didn't need it. I had the opportunity to have a GPS upgrade partially paid by someone i was using the GPS to do work for, so I upgraded to the Legend CX, and love it. There are ways to make your own maps, but there's a fair amount to it. If you search around on these forums, you'll find a link to the tutorials. <><

I guess my specific question, is: Is there an easy way to set up one PQ, and use that to update my list of caches once or twice a week? It took 6 PQs to get a list of all the caches in nb (New Brunswick), so do I need to keep running those 6 PQs to do my updates, or is there a way to set up a PQ for new/archived/unarchived caches....? Sorry...the answer is likely in your reply, but I'm not familiar enough with PQs to see it.... Essentially, I'm looking for the best way (as few PQs as possible) to keep my GSAK DB of "All active unfound NB caches" up to date....

Carry a decent pocket compass and learn how to read it and use it. Especially if you have a not-so-hot sense of direction. You don't need to be able to navigate with the compass, or use it with a map. When you get out of the car look for landmarks (normally a road) and use the compass to figure out how to get back out of the woods before you go in. " I'm parked on the side of a road that runs Nort and South. I'm going into the woods to the East...that means that if I get turned around in there, I just have to walk WEST and I'll come back out to the road I'm parked on." Make a habit of doing that each and every time you leave the car...it might make a big difference someday. Pulling out a compass when you're already lost isn't any help... It can't tell you where you are, only where North is. If you already took your bearings before you went into the bush, it will tell you the way out. If you didn't do that, it can't help....it won't tell you the way out if you don't know how you got in. As long as you know the that needle points North, and where East, South and West are in relation to that, you could avoid a night lost in the woods..or possibly worse things. Never rely on your GPS to get you back....it normally will, but it may die, dead batteries, dropped in a brook.... If you ever spent an unplanned night in the woods, 10 bucks for a compass is pretty darn cheap. This wasn't a presonal attack, just some info from a different vantage point, for you and others who never carry a compass. I always plan for the worst, and hope for the best. Happy caching!! <><

I'm sure the answer to this is out there, but I haven't been able to find it. Scenario: I use a Legend CX, with the caches set up as POIs. Also, Cachemate on an old palm, and GSAK on the computer. I use POIs because when I head out, it might be caching or fishing, or both...so I never know which area I might end up in, and want to have all the caches available to me and not be bound to the 500 limit for waypoints. I just got my premium membership, and have been playing around with pocket queries. First I set up 6 for my province, sorted by "placed during", so I could get a comprehensive list of all the caches in my province (minus the ones I've found). Okay, done deal...the GPS has all 2659 of them, as well as cachemate. NOW..How do I plan my maintenance..? Meaning, can I delete those 6 queries and create one query that will notify me of new caches, acrhived caches and re-enabled caches..? If I can, how...? Do I create one query for all caches that have been placed between a date a bit in the past, and a date in the future? That would cover the new ones... Then create another 2 PQs , one "THAT (And) Is Not Active" and another for "Is Active"..? Just looking for suggestions, I guess.... Mainly, I want to have a list of all caches in my province (done already), and then figure out the easiest way to keep that list updated with PQs. I would like to just grap the latest PQ (or batch of PQs), sync GSAK, cachemate and the POIs and go. And the last thing I want is to be a ways from home and miss a new cache because my list isn't up to date, OR spend an hour looking for a cache that was just archived. Yeah, did THAT too.. :-( I don't mind reading if someone has a link to this specific info. I went through http://www.markwell.us/pq.htm to get started, and it was very helpful...but I'm not able to find info on the best way to maintain your cache list via PQs. Thanks in advance!! gcfishuy <><

As for zooming in, yes. As an example: The other day I was on a small country road. I pulled over to the right shoulder and parked. I then walked across the road, and waypointed a spring. It's right on the edge of the road, you can fill your water bottle while standing on the dirt shoulder. Zooming way in on my map screen, I could see my track move to the right (where i pulled over) then see the track across the road, and see the waypoint just on the left side of the road. Then I could see that I drove on the shoulder for about 15' before pulling out onto the pavement. So, they're very precise for something like that. Now, be aware that your track will look pretty strange now and again if you get in an area with iffy reception...it will 'assume' where you were and your track may zigzag a bit here and there.... I found this site while researching my planned upgrade to the Legend CX...EXCELLENT screenshots. The model that the screen shots were taken with was a Garmin GPSMap 60C, which I believe is discontinued. But, the screens are essentially identical to what you'll see on the similar models...They'll give you a good idea of what you'll be looking at after you buy one. http://gpsinformation.us/gps60c/gps60screens.html The screenshots were taken with a GPSr that had extra maps loaded on it...not just the basemap. (The basemap is pretty much useless) When you get your new GPSr, you will have only (I believe) "Waypoints" and "Geocaches" on your 'Find" screen. When you load a map product like metroguide or city navigator, you will have lots of other 'Find" options, like Addresses, Fuel services, airports, restaurants, etc etc... For hiking, I would recommend one of the Topo products, because the contour lines are invaluable. I have a TopoCanada and Metroguide on mine, and I actually use Metroguide a lot more....it has much better detail for streets, and even small ATV trails are usually on it. When I have TopoCanada displayed, there are a lot of things that aren't displayed (small streets, trails, etc) Keep in mind that each program is designed to do different things.... I had assumed that if I loaded Metroguide AND Topo maps on the GPSr, it would display one map, with BOTH features displayed on it: topo details, as well as the services and such that come with Metroguide. Not the case....you can either display one map set, or the other, but not both at the same time. While driving, I use MetroGuide, and when I hit the woods, I switch it to TopoCanada. If you want to see the differences in what you'll see from one product to the other, you can go to Garmin's website and look at the product....there's a viewer that lets you actually use the product in a small window. Use that to see the differences in details in the different products. <>< gcfishguy

I just picked up a Legend CX for $199 (Canadian). Absolutely happy with it. Before that I had a Venture, and a yellow eTrex before that. I thought about the barometer and electronic compass, then decided that the baromater was of no use to me. As for the compass, a good quality magnetic compass works much better. And, I always have a good compass with me anyway.

Actually, I have the prompt enabled...follow road takes me to the map page with a route on the road, and off road takes me to the map page with a straight line route. And I don't want to sound like I'm cutting down everyone's suggestions.... Thanks very much for your input, unfortulately, it's just not working.. :-( If I add up all the keystrokes in my google searches and in this post, i could have pushed that menu button a lot of times, ehh? hehe It's not the end of the world, but would be nice to be able to change it.. <><

Thanks, but i just tried it....still takes me to the Map screen first.

When I go a 'goto' on a waypoint, it bring me directly to the map screen. I'd much sooner have it bring me right to the compass screen by default (like my old Venture, and my yellow eTrex). I know, it's only one push of the menu button..hehe Anyone find a menu that allows you to set that option...?

Yes, it makes for some pile of reading, doesn't it? I guess I've now answered my own question...unless you've shelled out tons of clams for a sub-meter unit, the difference isn't enough to care about...the error factor of the GPSr is more than the difference between WGS84 and NAD83. Plus, I also saw a few articles that say that consumer GPS manufacturers actually treat the 2 datums exactly the same.... I also found what I THOUGHT I remembered....turns out that it's NAD27 and WGS84 that can really throw you for a loop (as much as 200m) ...not NAD83. So, I'll go hang my head in shame for thinking that I remembered something, rather than going and doing some reading. hehe