christophe

Hardly ever used! I have everything that came with it, including the original packaging, papers, etc. Also, I am including a data transfer cable for downloading/uploading waypoints, etc. In addition, I am also including an 18-pack of brand new AA batteries. Pretty good deal huh? Anyways, if you are interested, email me at christophe1676@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Not too long ago my buddy and I were checking out some caves I had located. We decided to park right along the freeway, since they were located really close by. Anyways, a couple hours later, we came walking back towards my car. As we were rounding the corner of some trees, I noticed a police car with its' lights on, parked near my car. I held my friend back because I wasn't sure if we should go out there. This was because my inspection was expired and I thought maybe if I didn't go out there, they couldn't give me a ticket or something? Anyways, that didn't make too much sense, so we just decided to go see what was up. As we got closer to the car, we noticed an ambulance and a fire truck, all surrounding my car. Oh God I thought, what happened? Oh well, let's just see. Getting closer, I saw that my rear windshield was all shattered. Man! I thought, someone broke into my car.The cop was asking me as I walked up if I was the owner of the car. I said yes, and asked what had happened, after noticing a bloody shirt on the ground next to my car. As the firemen were sweeping the glass off the street (and dumping it back into my car??!!), they proceeded to tell the story: Apparently a couple of bicyclists were riding down the road and one of them was not looking up when he approached my car. He smacked right into the back of my Honda and his face slammed headfirst into the rear window. Blood was trickling down the side of my car. It was such a weird thing they kept saying. They had never seen anything like it. The cop did notice that my inspection as expired, but didn't give me a ticket for it. Eventually the firemen got as much glass out of the car as they could and then the cop got some information from me, then we took off. The funny thing is, I decided to get my first GPSr with the money I got for the windshield!

When looking for a cache, I usually just follow the direction of the needle and count down the feet until I am really close, then I start looking around 20 ft or so. I'm wondering just how accurate it would be to match the coordiantes on the GPSr with the caches coordinates. Sometimes I watch the latitude and longitude while walking through tree cover and it seems like it doesn't move, so maybe it's not that accurate. But, if I could get closer by matching the coords, I would rather do that. If you have experience with this, let me know!

I always carry my Camelbak while on long hunts, especially here in Austin where it's always so hot. Being hydrated is really important!

So far, I only have 50 finds under my belt, and only one thing has happened to me: While searching on a pretty steep hill, I slipped and landed right on my butt and slid about 10 feet with my GPSr right behind me. It didn't hurt, and was actually quite fun. What's the worst thing that has happened to you while on a hunt? Have you ever gotten seriously hurt? I'm sure it's only a matter of time before an accident happens while on a hunt, but I know some things can be prevented. I'm sure we could all learn from other people's mistakes/misfortunes. [This message was edited by christophe on September 29, 2002 at 06:57 PM.]

I've only had one tick bite as long as I can remember. I woke up one morning and happened to look on my arm and see this little tick biting me. I got him off then remembered I must have picked him up last night when I was out hiking. I freaked out and thought I was gonna get Lyme Disease and whatnot so I did a lot of research on the net and realized the chances were pretty low. But that's the first time in all my years of hiking/exploring woods that I have noticed a tick on me. Just remember to always check yourself when you get home and take a shower. That should do the job. I wouldn't put that DEET stuff on me.

As I was approaching withing 100 feet of a cache, I heard some people talking. One of them said "coordinates" and then I knew. It was pretty cool. I was thinking, "Wow! Other people really do this too!" At first I didn't know what I should do. I kinda hung back for awhile pretending I was looking for something. I didn't want to interrupt them. Then I just decided to walk up there and see what happens. As I was approaching them, they all kinda looked at me, so I said, "Did ya'll find the cache?" and then we started talking. I kinda saw in my peripheral vision where the cache was, but at the same time I didn't want to know so I could find it myself. Well, they rehid the cache so I could "find" it as they walked off to hunt another cache in the same park. It was pretty cool meeting other geocachers out on a hunt, and I hope to meet some more. One thing I always think about is what if someone approaches me when I'm checking out a cache? Just seems like no matter who it is, it would be weird to know that someone is seeing you searching through some box in the middle of the woods.

I just got done placing my first cache. Six legs. All the legs are within the same woods and less that .25 mile apart, so it's really not that bad. The legs are in film canisters and the final cache is a green ammo box with some pretty good stuff in it, so I think it's worth it. It should only take at the most 2 hours to find, so it's not that long. Hopefully people actually look for it!

i trade with every cache i find too. the first cache i found i didn't have anything to trade so i still need to go back there. keeping something from every cache is a good way of remembering how things were that day. what things were going on in your life, etc. it's like memorabilia for me. i have a couple memory boxes already (not from caches).

I think there is an event cache in AUstin pretty soon. Anybody have any info?

i just got a yellow etrex not too long ago and it is starting to blank out every so often.

yes! you can download coordinates and such. you can also upload waypoints, etc.