Saddle Mountain Man

OK, so i'm a casual user. I may get into it heavier this summer but my car's having alternator probs so i need to take it easy and get it fixed in the next month... My '98 chevy Lumina has survived 150,000 miles on only 1 altenator, 1 water pump, 2 batteries, an a/c recharge, an oggle of oil changes and a new radio (wanted a disc player). srry, offtopic, can't help it...

I believe my best day is tied with your current 1,005 finds, but I'm behind in my online logging and haven't logged that day, so I'm not completely sure. When I look at the other three people that were with me that day I see 1005, 1002, and 843 That was certainly a day none of us will ever forget, even if we can't agree on the count If only there was some video that could document behavior like this?!? Hmmm....Being a you-tube jockey i feel a new upload coming on.... ;-) May just be an informative vid on caching, but who knows...

oops, sorry..... Forgot about sharp stuff... Pen/pencil is on OUTSIDE of bag. Recommend pencils as they last better then the stupid pen But the bag is just a precaution. Just in case a harried cacher or accidental finder doesn't put the lid on correctly, there's a good chance the logbook will survive.

Here's a good guardrail hide that doesn't interfere with anything: A 35mm film canister slid in the open space between the metal rail and the post. does not interfere with operation or maintenance or anything. However it could fall out pretty easy...

How about hiding some yourself? You've contributed zero dollars and zero caches to the hobby and you are complaining that other people aren't catering to you enough? Hay, man, there's 8 inches of snow on the ground, and where it's not snow its mucky-mud! It's not good hiding weather. Besides, i've got at least 3 or 4 good hide ideas... Oh, and I did find one (a PMO) under a local bridge when I was looking for my hat that blew off, but the GC number wasn't readable....

A tip: Put your logbook and writing utensil inside a zip-loc baggie. Prevents mishaps with wet log paper. But you'd be suprized how well some of those mayo jars will hold up. I used one to cap an exhaust pipe on a tractor (not for a cache) And it's lasted well through 8 years now. howEVER i would only use them for caches that are close-to-home and really easy to maintain as I doubt the security of those flimsy caps. Planning some hides using a 1L glass pickle jar. These things seem unbreakable! Even the lids are easy to put on and don't come off.

... last post be The Weather Warrior is TOTALLY OFF TOPIC I did some monitoring of my router logs and blocked all the IP's leading to Google Analytics and adleads. Stopped most tracking but i have to double-check every month as Google tryes to get in with a new Ip... Anyway, back to topic. IDC about GC making money. Someone's got to make a living, and servers aren't free, right? Sure not having descriptions in your GPS when you download the location is annoying when you forget your description paper, but what really bugs me is ppl who put a cache in and lock it out to premium members only. what is that saying, that they only want 'good' cachers to find it and not the street rabble?? In my area there's at least 5 caches, if not more, created by 'Adventure Tours' that are locked out. This just gets on my nerve. Geocaching should be open to everyone!

From briansnat My Garmin Dakota can store caches in the SD card. has nice cache-filter settings too. Talking WiFi and Bluetooth or just short range transfer? Dakota's already got short range transfer to other wirelessly-enabled Garmins. As for me, what GC needs to do for thier website is create an app for iphone/ipad. That would be cool for roadtrips (since wifi spots can be few-and-far between in Eastern oregon).

Well, reasonable travel time to me is 30 mins one way. Also depends whether I can pick it up while on my way to a seperate destination, which i can haul 1hr one way (i'm used to it). All my finds so far have been while driving to-and-from my job in KF (see home location). HowEVER all finding in my area will pretty much be killed for the next week or more as it just snowed 6in today. Rats, I was planning my first hide too... Maybe i'll devote a weekend or two in April to go cache a big pile in the town, just for kicks. Lots of quick finds in KF that I can grab (and not look too stupid searching for )

.......... That takes the fun out of it!

Sorry bout the duplicate thread. I kind of understand what you are all talking about. Realizing that in, say Portland, OR there's about a cache every block and most of them are 1.5 to 3 star difficulty, it is possible. it's just that in my area there's only about 25 to 30 caches within a reasonable travel time. Not to mention i have a real life I'll probably never get past the casual cacher phase. I just don't have enough time in my life for it. I lay my case to rest. Sorry to waste your time...

Now i've noticed some people have some 'super' stats listed on their profile. For example: One geocacher, 'Me & Bucky', has over 19,500 finds! This is, like impossible! I calculated and he would need to grab at least 5 caches a day to reach his current amount. This is nuts!

What I would really like is a port on my Garmin Dakota 20 so I can plug into my car's power and charge/run while on-the-drive. My batteries will last for 8 to 10 hrs or so but if i'm activley navigating (say on a road where it lights up to tell me where to turn) it drains in 5 hrs or less. Then I have to pull over on my recent trip to southern CA to change the battries. A solar panel would be AWESOME! Otherwize i like my inter-changeable batteries for hiking. A quick stop, swap out and swap in, boom i'm on my way again. Just note that I use rechargeable AA batteries in the GPS. They seem to last longer than Alkalines.

To Glitchy: Yes those are not the real coordinates. just an example. To Suscrofa: Off topic? To Star Brand: Yes, it is all set to WGS84. Double-checked the format, it is all in decimals. To Lil Devil: I'm not that stupid! I checked it all and it's all in decimals. However... I used Google Earth on a different computer and the coordinates match! Maybe i'll re-install the program on my main computer.

My Garmin Dakota 20 has a MOB feature where it automatically marks a point ( entering the woods) and sets to navigate back to it. Another good feature is Sight 'n Go on my Garmin. Find something in a compass direction, project how far away it is and automatically sets a waypoint and navigates to it. I hang it from my neck with a 14 inch lanyard and a protective case. Works great for the true outdoors ;-) Of course, it doesn't work if there's no signal, but trees rarely affect my Garmin accuracy more that 15 or 20 feet. Phones just don't cut it for bushwhacking.

Went to go check out an unfamiliar area yesterday using coordinates from Google. Know almost nothing about the area (it's 50 miles away), so i plugged in a google earth coordinate set and went on my merry way. 3 hours and 50$ worth of gas later i'm lost. The GPS or Google put me nearly 25 miles from my projected position. It honestly left me saying, after i gave up and went home to check the coordinates, "What the Heck?!?!?". Google had .21 degrees added to both lat and long. What is this problem??? the only way i can navigate using coordinates is to find the location on Google Earth, plug in the coord's and head off. If i'm going hiking, this is hopeless! Please help if you can! NOTE: I set all my stuff to use the decimal coordinate format. i.e N 50.12345, W 102.67891 etc. Could this be a problem?

I'm planning to protect this cache by putting it under something, like a rock overhang or in a tree. It should be out of the elements. I"m certain this mountain is not hiked very often, and who knows how many hikers will even be geocachers. Last time i went up i found a magazine scrap wedged snuggly protected under a rock with the date 1997 visible. New plan: I may use a glass pickle jar with a plastic-coated metal screw lid. I can't seem to wear these cans out. Slightly larger at 33oz (1L) but quite a bit heavier. May need to replan supplies. I'm not too sure about the seal. Taking from the caches I've already picked up you should ALWAYS put the logbook in a ziploc baggie, other stuff too if it's water sensitive. Sound like i'm on the right track this time?

OK, so i'm planning a hiking trip up a mountain in June, and i'm planning to place a cache. My guess is that it'll sit there for years and noone will log a find... But back on topic: I need to clarify the sizing of caches. Guessing from my finds: Micro=35mmfilmcanister, Small=1pint jar, Regular=16 to 32 oz mayo jar, Large= 64oz jar and above. Does this sound right? I'm planning a cache that's a 32 oz heavy-duty plastic jar, since i can't get anything more into my backpack. Planning on annual trips for maintenance, as i usually hike this particular mountain. I'm on the right track, right?

The map works good. Not sure about routing and address finding (it shows my address waaaaaaay of by about 8 miles) but seems to work otherwise. For example: To route to a common stop, it says to take a local rarely-maintained forestry road on a back-loop around a loop where i GUARENTEE you will get stuck without a 4-wd pickup truck, when you can take the main road and be there in 15 minutes. Tried both On Road for Time & Distance and still comes up with this. You don't really need to reply to this, just be wary when using osmmaps.com.

Ahhhhhhh..... Understanding dawns! I need to put maps in the folder on the card called 'Garmin', not any of the sub-folders? Got a huge file, still waiting on the 5 hr download....

the file from this website is too big to fit on the GPS, but I have a 8gb micro SD card in it. If I send this file to it, will the GPS access it? I haven't been able to find the card on the GPS menu. Also is this file (the link) compatible with the Dakota 20? Thanks to all for ultra-fast reply.

Just got a new Garmin Dakota 20 for christmas. Am ready to get into geocaching once the snow melts BUT need to solve one problem first. When I am trying to navigate using roads (navigation settings set for On Road for time or distance) it says "route calculation error: Maps do not have routable roads in this area." Even when i am on a road and set it to navigate to a road. Also will not auto snap to roads. I installed the included US topo map 100K because it had the extra roads in my area that the basemap didn't have. Do I need a different, more accurate street map for it? Or is it just not designed for road navigation? Any help is appreciated.