JimC61

I have the same unit. Initially I had the same issue. Since Magellan didn't supply a USB cord I used a cheap one I got somehwere for a few bucks. I eventually went to Radio Shack and purchased a better cord and the issue went away. Not sure if that will fix your issue, worked for me though.

I went for a quick cache yesterday as I was in an area I don't get to very often. Since I was there I checked and there were a few hides very close to me so I went for the first one. Found it. Signed the log and left. As I was driving away, I was pulled over by local PD. Apparently they were watching the area where the cache was hidden, due to a rise in drug use activity in the area. What I also didn't know was where the cache was hidden is a spot where drugs have been dropped for someone to pick up in the past. Lucky me. Well I explained what I was doing and the cop had never heard of geocaching and I must not have been very convincing because he asked to search my car. I said of course I had nothing to hide. As a second cop showed up I got out was frisked and they searched the car. A 3rd cop showed up and he had heard of geocaching. So I had one on my side - finally. After their search did not find any drugs they let me go on my way. They were very professional with me and I completely understand why they stopped me. I shook their hands as I left and they wished me luck searching. I decided not to push my luck and just left the area when I was finished with the business that brought me to the area in the first place. One of the cops told me that dealers are now using things like PayPal to work deals out. They get the money electronically then email the buyer where to pick up their drugs. Modern technology. So my lesson learned... Forget the LPH's... The hide was a magnetic key holder on the inside of the lamp post skirt. I wrote a note to the CO that he should archive the cache. If the drug problem is as bad as the police said it is we should avoid the area. The area the hide is in is the parking lot of a hotel in a mix of industry and retail, in a fairly well to do suburb of Cleveland Oh. In case anyone is interested here is the cache: http://coord.info/GC17N42 I am sure a lot if not all geocachers have had encounters with the police. Care to share some stories?

I agree with the people posting that this is not a good idea for all the reasons they have stated. Another thing to think about is that the "crappy" caches in your opinion may be the ones that help people get started caching in the first place. When my daughters and I started we were advised to look for easy finds initially. By looking for easy ones, we were able to find them (most of the time) which helped keep the kids interested initially. It would have really been terrible to search for a bunch and not find any. We did DNF a bunch early on even 1/1's. Once we got a bit better we went back and searched angain to make the find. We often chuckled about it asked ourselves "how did we miss this the first time" As we got better we tried harder hides. We got some, we DNF'ed some. It is all about the search and spending time with my girls. Even now we will be driving somewhere and I will say there is a cache around here and if we have time we will try and track it down. They even enjoy getting some LPH's especailly when they are in a busy area and they have to use stealth to grab it.

1. It gets me out of the house. 2. I have found some really cool places near me that I never knew existed. 3. I have met some very friendly people. And most importantly, I got to spend some quality time with my 3 daughters. We spent the summer tracking down caches around our house. We got to hike in the woods. We had to sneak up on some hides to avoid the muggles. We laughed a lot. And then we laughed some more. I am so glad we found this hobby.

I started geocaching at the end of May with my 3 daughters (14,12 & 11). We have many great times already and are looking forward to more. They are the ones who ask to go more often than I ask if anyone wants to go. Our caching has dimished since school started but we try and get out at least once over the weekend. When we go out it gives us time to talk about a bunch of different things too. This hobby has given us the opportunity to spend some real quality time together, and like you utahteacher I am so glad to be spending the time with my girls.

I have been Geocaching since the end of May and have 171 finds and 2 hides. My brother introduced me and my 3 daughters (his Geo-nieces)to this game. I could absolutely see how one could get burned out by playing this. I guess it depends on why you do it and how much enjoyment you get. I agree getting a whole string of lamppost hides or micros in the bushes can get boring. However I have a lot of them because I Geocache with my kids. My kids like getting some of the easier ones, and when ever we go out I try real hard to throw an easy park and grab so we can say we at least we got one tonight. Since we have been doing this they also have been wanting to go after harder hides. We have also found some cachers with very unique and/or difficult hides and like to find more from them. I check out the map, read descriptions and the logs to see which look interesting. I look for these as we all have come to like the challenge. We have been going out just about everyday that I don't work. One reason we have been going out so much is I know with school starting and days getting shorter our Geocaching will be greatly reduced. Also living in Northeast Ohio Old Man Winter can be quite cruel. We have talked about putting out some "epic" hides (their word) and will use the winter as time to plan, build and pick spots to put them. So even though we will not be Geocaching we will still be involved. I am not sure if you go alone or with others but I would rather be Geocaching with my girls instead of doing it alone. I think of all my finds I only have 4 by myself. The rest were found with at least 1 of my daughters.We are hoping to attend an Event Cache in October to meet some of our fellow cachers. My brother likes getting caches while hiking, and leaves others alone. Others I am sure do the opposite. You need to find what you like doing and focus on those. It may mean only Geocaching occasionally, but if you have a good time it will be worth it and you won't be frustrated doing caches that bore you. Next summer my girls and I want to hike more. We spent a day hiking and Geocaching with my brother and had a lot of fun. We want to do more of that. We also are going to hike even if we aren't Geocaching. I had a great summer with my girls. We had fun, we laughed a lot, and we found a bunch of caches. We were taken to a lot of different places. We went on Night Caches. We went to museums. We cached near rivers,creeks and Lake Erie. We discovered a lot of old cemeteries with lots of history. I am not sure we would have done all of that unless we were looking for caches. We have learned its not only finding the cache, it is the journey to the cache that is also fun. When we are driving to a cache we talk strategy on what to look for. Is the cache a micro? Is it magnetic? Do the logs say it is a unique container? We know what to look for (most of the time) when we hit GZ. We have found some caches within seconds of arriving. We also have spent quite a lot time looking and sometimes coming up empty. When my kids get older I am not sure how much they will want to Geocache. Life gets in the way sometimes. I think I will always enjoy doing it though. I may slow down or maybe only search for certain types, but who knows. Right now I am enjoying it and wish the kids didn't start school tomorrow. As I said before our Geocaching time is going to be lessened, but also we were busy getting everything ready for their first day we didn't have time to get any tonight. Oh well, we have a long weekend coming up.... Cache on!

I have only been Geocaching about 3 months. I usually go out with my 3 daughters. Since we have been geocaching we have been led to some very nice little city parks in the surrounding area we never knew existed. They are still young enough to hit the playgrounds at some of the parks too so they enjoy when the parks have them. We live in Northeast Ohio and there are some very old cemeteries around that have caches hidden in them. We usually spend a few minutes respectfully looking around them and I try to explain to the girls the historical value of them. Some of the caches, including some night caches, have been hidden in our local park systems as well. This gives us the opportunity to take advantage of the hiking trails, rivers, ponds and in some areas, the playgrounds. We have been to some of the parks previously but looking for the hidden caches we have discovered so much more of the parks. I am hoping to come across an area or structure that will really blow me away. A place I probably wouldn't have visited unless Geocaching brought me there. Over the winter as our Geocaching time will be lessened due to school and the potential nasty weather that can be around here. I am going to look over the map, review logs and talk with fellow geocachers to try and line up some trips for next year where we might find more Hidden Treasures and maybe that place when we get there will cause us to stop in our tracks and say "Wow - this is a very cool place". One of the coolest things about this hobby is finding the places you never knew exisited... The Hidden Treasures.

I got my 100th find tonight. I have been Geocaching since Memorial Day Weekend. I am fortunate there are quite a lot of caches hidden near where I live. And more importantly there are quite a few cachers who live close by and hide a lot of caches. Some are easy, some tricky. I appreciate all that are hidden. I am working on getting a few hidden myself. So I want to thank them all. I have enjoyed every time I have gone Geocaching. Well most of the time, its not real fun coming up empty LOL. Although when I do not make a find it makes me want to get that one even more. So again thanks to all who have hidden caches I have found. There are quite a few very active hiders in my area. I discover someone (or group) all the time that has a cool hide and then I search for more of them. And also thanks to the people who have hidden the ones I haven't found yet, I am looking forward to the adventure of searching and finding them. Thanks to the fellow cachers I have bumped into for giving me tips and advice. Also for sharing their stories. Everyone I have met has been so friendly and helpful. Thanks to my brother mac367 for introducing me and my daughters to Geocaching. He gave us a few tips before we really started that we used right away and helped us out. We learn something just about each time we go out. We are getting better at looking at an area and zeroing into GZ. We each have "found" a cache from a distance as we are walking up to it. We have also overlooked the obvious cache for some time only to make the find and wonder what took us that long. Lastly and most importantly I want to thank my 3 daughters. We usually all go out together and have been having a blast. I did get a few caches by myself near my office. Actually after just a few I realized one of the best things about Geocaching was doing it with my daughters. I no longer go by myself. I know down the road I may be doing it by myself, but right now I want to go with them. We have had so much fun and watching them make the find is great. Don't tell them, but I have spotted quite a few first, but let them make the find as much as possible. I am sure a lot of parents out there have done the same. Usually after dinner one of the girls ask if we can go Geocaching. As much as possible we do. Once fall and winter hit, its going to be a little trickier getting out. It would have been much harder to get to 100 without them. It also would not have been very fun either. I am looking forward to them getting 100 (2 have their own accounts and are less then 10 away). I am looking forward to all of us getting to our next 100 and beyond. So again thanks to all who have made Geocaching so enjoyable. It is a great way to spend time and adventures with my girls. It gets us out of the house. It is making memories that will last a lifetime. I can't thank you enough. As I said before there are some people around here who have excellent hides. I am looking forward to someday running into you and thanking you in person. Cache on everyone... Have fun and new adventures... Create memories... Enjoy life...

One of the first nights out geocahcing with my kids we came up to one with a woman looking in some bushes. There was no reason for her to be there except to geocache. I wasn't sure what to do so we left. We should have stopped but we were new and didn't really know what to do. Since then we have bumped into people 3 times. Each time we chatted and passed and received a few tips. One time we did search with someone and we were successful. Everyone we met was very nice and eager to talk with fellow geocachers.

I have been doing this for just over a month after my brother mac367 introduced me and my girls to it after fishing with him. He explained what Geocaching was and said there was something hidden in the woods and did we want to try and find it. We said yes and went, unfortunately the cache was missing. However on our way home my 14 year old kept talking about how cool it would be to geocache. So we went online figured out how to join and went out for our first find (which was successful). I have 3 daughters 14,12 & 11. And we have been out looking for caches almost everyday since. There are a lot near us so it is easy to grab 1 or 2. I have told some people about this and i get a mixed reaction like most of us have. Some think it is a pointless waste of time others find it mildly interesting. The only people who really get are fellow geocachers. Both my brothers and their sons have geocached and as we have all been together a couple times recently we discuss cool finds and searches. My younger sister and her boys have begun now too thanks to my brother. All in all...are we nuts? No. Are we a bit obsessed? Maybe. But I have to tell you, I have been having a blast spending time with my girls. We laugh a lot. Each of them wants to get the find. 2 have their own accounts now. We are planning our first hides. My youngest is so excited about hiding one, I had to buy camo duct tape today. They each have ideas about where to hide one. If this is being nuts, then I am all for it.

Thanks ngrrfan, dpovan & whh0 for your responses. My daughter did log the ones we found together. I will be taking her to the ones I got on my own and since she is getting better at using the compass she is looking forward to getting them too. As I stated since we are relatively new to Geocaching we didn't want to do anything that would upset anyone. Good luck to you all in your searches and thanks again for your responses.

My family and I started geocaching about 1 month ago, and have been having lots of fun. Since we have started we have logged our finds by using my user name. My daughter just created her own account and we have a question. Since she was with me and actually was the one found some of our caches, should she go back and sign the log using her name? Or can she just claim she "found it" without signing the log. Currently she was with me for a bout 30 of our 33 finds. We want to be sure we follow the correct protocol.