crawil

Just got it!! Woo Hoo!

Nope. Nothing for me either. Someone feed the hamsters!!

My thoughts exactly.

Has anyone tried one of these yet? There is no ink - they leave a bit of metal behind. No smudging, no running and only about $30. My biggest concern would be soft, soggy logs.

I agree with briansnat. I do turn on the averaging feature on my Garmin but within 2 or 3 readings it settles down to the same set of coordinates. When I get home, I enter them into both Google Maps and Google Earth to see if they are where I expect them to be. I've never had complaints about coordinates being off, except when I key them in wrong on a new cache!

We took a family hike some time ago and decided to reset the track log before we started. Being new to the unit, I erased everything! No waypoints for our upcoming hike! Luckily, I had a PalmPilot (I think) with the off-line info on it so I was able to, one-by-one, manually input the coords for each cache we wanted to hit on the hike. It took 15-30 minutes and the wife and kids weren't too happy with me. It happens.

There is a multi-cache hidden near my house whose final location is several hundred miles away. It has been found by 3 cachers since 2004. Be prepared for very few logs.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no award, pin or badge that Cubs can earn directly related to geocaching. They can take hikes, learn about nature, go on family outings, etc. while caching, though!

Or get an iPhone or Android-type device and do it all on the road with no local database at all.

A few quick ideas: "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" "The Endless Hunt" "The End" The GC code of the cache

Please keep in mind that some mobile browsers don't render the cache page the same way as a regular computer does. My (now old) Blackberry didn't show the large white area but just the background. Those cache pages with the "pretty" or "cool" backgrounds just become literally unreadable.

Something to remember - many cachers are using mobile phones to view the cache page on the web. As scaled-down browsers, some have problems viewing graphics. If this is a going to be a traditional cache, please think again about using a special font just for the cool factor. If this is a puzzle cache and part of the puzzle depends on the font, then go ahead!

Open Excel. Enter the numbers 1 - 5 in increments of 0.5 down the left and across the top. Print. You can also make a table in Word or Powerpoint or OpenOffice (free) or Google Docs (free).

Received my geocaching survey today - quickly filled it out and got it back to them. Funny, I never got my 2010 Census form even though we've owned the same house for something like 7 years.

harryflashman - I also live in the LA area, but down in OC. I keep an off-line database of the closest 1,400 caches or so and they describe a circle with a radius of about 12 miles. To go out 50 miles from my house, which would not make it to the far end of the LA metro area, now you are talking about 14,500 caches. Your GPSr only holds 500 waypoints and you won't make it very far before you outrun your loaded caches! Your best bets are either to carry a laptop, find free wi-fi, create a PQ and download it to your GPSr - or - get a smartphone that just looks up the caches no matter where you are.

The guidelines actually do specify logging on and signing up. Are there guidelines on the geocaching site about how old you have to be to create an account? On the letterboxing site I'm a member of, it's 13 years or older. Also, is maintenance specifically mentioned in the Scout guidelines? If so, are children expected to be able to maintain a cache they likely can't maintain without the help of an adult (driving, accompanying them to the cache location, purchasing supplies container, swag, logbook). First, I can't find anything on the website about a minimum age requirement. Second, requirement #2: so the Scout must at least have had a discussion regarding maintenance. Third, they don't HAVE to hide a cache to get the badge. Requirement #8: Hope this helps.

The short answer is "No." The long answer is to download Pocket Queries of the areas in which you are interested into GSAK and then filter for that hider's caches.

I, too have been anxiously awaiting the final version of the requirements. I've already filled out the paperwork to be a counselor and all 5 of my current Wood Badge ticket items revolve around geocaching. One of them is to set up a Cache to Eagle series in my council. I guess I'd better hurry on that one. I'm a bit flumoxed on the UTM requirement, too. I'm going to have to brush up on what it is and how to plot it on a map. Never had to deal with that in the 4 years and 1,500 or so caches we've been at this. I think the pamphlet will be an interesting read and will help us counselors-to-be understand the direction the creators of the badge were trying to go.

If you have to use a "pointy object" to hide the cache, then it is not allowed. If the hole is already there, then you are free to fill or cover it as you wish.

- Double Post -

Most of our caching is suburban with occasional forays into the wilderness. We've found that a field bag is the perfect compromise of a fanny pack and a backpack.

-- Double Post --

Please remove it! Some simpler browsers, like my BlackBerry Curve, does not place the white box behind the text, making it just about impossible to read!

Try clearing your browser's cache and check the page again . . .