Chilli Pipers
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Posts posted by Chilli Pipers
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Being a disaster I have a few to share! 2 of my more memorable caching incidents (posting copies of the logs I left) are...
1 - One day I think I will bring out a book about my epic exploits whilst caching!
Popped out for some fresh air and thought I would wander along to M&S and maybe check if I can move on any TBs whilst there. Busy looking at my phone as I near GZ when a branch that is overhanging the grassy area relieves me of my glasses! I now can barely see my hand in front of my face and being short sighted it starts to dawn on me that I am in a whole world of trouble now...
I start carefully feeling around the grass and leaves near me (luckily missing the dog/fox poo), but cannot initially find anything. I put my newspaper on the floor and kneel on it (I am dressed in a suit). I go from side to side and backwards and forwards...but nothing.
In desperation I carefuly and very sloooowly shuffle my way to the car park. There is a man in a van on his laptop. I ask him to help me - he eyes me with suspicion (I dont blame him). He eventually comes out of his van and starts to help me look. 20 minutes have now elapsed but no joy and the light is failing.
I thank him and decide to go back to work to get my car keys (0.5 miles away) which I manage to do without walking into anything or getting run over! then a 0.8 mile walk to where I have parked the car. Luckily I keep contact lenses in my car for playing footy so was able to put some in using my muddy fingers and at least I can now see!
I then drove to the services, parked up and then using a torch scoured the area in the vain hope of finding my glasses. Somehow they had got catapulted forwards and were actually really close to the cache and still in one piece! It was such a relief to have my eyes back again
Took the GC and TB in the cache. When I got back to work my colleagues all thought it was hilarious. My Wife however looked at me disapprovingly and reminded me how I have said many a time (after getting into pickles) that I would not cache on way/during/after work ;( I will never learn. God I love caching!!!
and...
2 - When will I EVER learn? Was in Woking today for work. Initially intended to go to McDonalds for breakfast but then decided as I was early there was time for a quick cache on the way. Managed to go down the wrong road to get to this cache. No problem, I will just turn round in this little mud parking area that leads to the common I thought. Thats when my troubles began...
Managed to get the car stuck. What looked like a small puddle was actually a huge hole! As the car wheelspun trying to go forwards after I had reversed in, the wheels dug themselves deeper and deeper till only half the front wheels could be viewed! Car got beached, there I am stood in my suit, using sticks from the woods to try and dig the car out. Got my rear car mats out and stuck them under the wheels to try and give traction but no joy. Ended up calling the RAC (who told me I might have to pay for specialist lifting equipment if they cant tow me out).
Thank you to the lady dog walker who took pity on me and kindly drove off and came back with a cup of tea and mars bar for me what a lovely gesture.
RAC man turned up and luckily was an easy tow out for him. Got to work late and so muddy had to take my shoes off and wash them in the sink! Car looked like I had been rallying it was covered in mud!
So thanks for the cache!
Next time I attempt it I will be on my bike to be on the safe side lol -
Well I did a PQ at 10am today and it turned up 7 hours later
Thank goodness for my Samsung S3 being able to download whilst we were out and about. Not very impressed -
We took our bikes out from Center Parcs at Longleat and did some nearby caches including "Heavens Gate" which had stunning views.
Free intro to Geocaching can be done from many National Trust properties (they even loan you a garmin gps for free)
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Happy to help here as well - Camberley, Surrey. UK
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I am not so sure that the National Trust thing is such a good idea.
In theory I like the idea of it as a way of introducing newbies to this great hobby of ours. However 2 visits to National Trust properties over the last week have made me start to think otherwise.
The loop of 14 we did today at Polesden Lacy near Dorking - lots of the containers were out in the open and no attempt even made to cover them, plus there were 7 trackables listed as being in the caches (all of which have gone missing). The trouble is newbies come along without anything to swap or knowledge of the game and they then take stuff out of the caches not knowing that in the case of TB's they need to move on elsewhere and for anything else then they need to do swaps fairly.
We borrowed a gps at the Vine in Basingstoke after we saw a Garmin notice there - the gps unit had half the co-ordinates wrong where newbies had altered stuff on the gps unit (and had even deleted one cache. Not a great intro to caching for anyone - we used my phone in the end.
So really mixed feelings from me. Although I had 4 trackables I needed to drop off for other people, there was no way I was going to drop them here today.
What does everyone else think?
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To transfer onto your Etrex 20 I connect mine using a usb cable to my pc. It is then recognised as an external drive. If I choose to then explore it when the options come up I can check out the different folders.
If you are a GC.com member then you can create pocket queries to create a file with up to 1000 caches you want to do. The output file from this can be transferred to your gps. Just literally copy the 2 files that are created and then paste them into Computer> Garmin eTrex 20 > (drive letter here) > Garmin>GPX
Then when you unplug the gps from the usb and turn it on it will take a few minutes to sort the caches and then they should be ready for you to find.
the other key thing is to look at talkytoasters maps. They are simply awesome. Instructions on his site on how to use them. they totally transform your gps. I was gutted with the maps on my 30 until I put talkytoasters maps on
Hope that helps get you started, plenty of other threads on here to help
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lol it cant be in England far too cold I would think!
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Star Wars series of caches here>>> http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC24YGD
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I always make an effort with my logs and find it interesting reading other peoples tales as well. I would rather find less caches and do decent logs then be a cache whore and just do loads of them and put "tftc", "in the area whilst working" etc that I often see. But each to their own really
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We found our first cache on 4th April 2010. Had read something on the internet about geocaching and had a jailbroken ipod touch and a bluetooth gps so we went out for a walk locally and have been hooked ever since.
Strange thing is, when I went to sign up for an account on gc.com I found my username had been taken. Thought that was quite odd, tried logging in under that username and using the password I often use and.... I was in! Turns out I had registered on the site on 17th July 2006. Thinking back I vaguely recall wandering around some local woods with my car gps and never finding anything and giving up. Then a 4 year break before returning. Am gutted at all those wasted year in between! If only I had managed to find that original cache...
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Well I was over an hour late for work a couple of months ago. Was on my way and thought would do a short detour to pick up a cache. Reversed into a little turning in the woods not realising that the "puddle" at the entrance was actually a big ditch. Car got stuck, just wheelspinning, had to get RAC out to tow me out. I was in a suit and got covered in mud, my shoes I had to take off and wash under the tap when I got to work they were so filthy and my car looked like I had been rallying in it from all the mud flicking up when it was wheel spinning trying to get out of the ditch.
Oh and to top it all, what was I doing that day? Interviewing potential new members of staff - what a great impression I must have made on them!!!
Have also managed to walk in dog poo doing a sneaky cache on way to work and had to go back and change shoes and also got my trousers soaking wet one time walking through some long grass and again had to go home to change first. About half hour late for each of those.
I tell myself "never again" but caching is in my blood
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I regretted buying my Etrex 30 at first and thought I had made a massive mistake. Birdseye maps and base map were pants and slow to use.
I was referred via this site to talkytoasters fantastic maps and havent looked back since. They are awesome and I love my gps now. Stick with it
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Yeh that got me worried today, I updated to the beta firmware, stuck some caches on and off we went. When I turned it on and it took an age to find any satellites I thought the beta had messed my Etrex 30 up. Eventually locked on and seemed fine when turned it off and on again.
Didnt have to do anything with regards to the compass though.
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am still in love with mine
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I hope this experience does not put you off Geocaching but I get the feeling that you are pretty thick skinned. Happy caching.
Not a chance! I really enjoy it. It's got a bit more difficult now I actually have to find the sucka's?
That made me just laugh out loud. That is where the pure frustration with this hobby comes in, trying to find the bloody things. I have ripped jeans, torn a hole in one of my work shirts, cut my face, got stung, stood in numerous dog poos and much more. Now I come to think of it, I prefer your version of doing things, much less danger of ruining clothes or injury, perhaps you could be setting a new trend?!
Welcome to this great hobby and well done for taking the comments so well. Enjoy
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My 30 definitely has the "sticky" problem sometimes. Slightly annoyin but not a major hindrance to be honest
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Everyone must be out caching
The UK forums seem pretty quiet most of the time to be honest. Guess its cos we are all shy and retiring!
Just deciding where I am going to drag my family to over the weekend
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I have the 30 which as the same screen as the 20 just a few extras like compass etc.
Its my first ever GPS. I used to use my androi phone with cgeo and would forever worry about battery life (which was shockingly poor) and everytime before I went out I would hand draw a map (using the open street map version on geocaching.com) with all the paths and cache locations etc.
Very time consuming.
Since getting the 30, never bother drawing maps or planning. The talky toaster maps are awesome, have never got lost and have done 25 or so caches in a day without any difficulty. Also battery life is no longer a worry. Has lasted for weeks and when they suddenly ran out this weekend gone, took seconds to chuck some spare ones in and off I went.
A totally liberating experience. Personally would not bother with the 10, the maps really will not help you at all and I am sure you would end up regretting it.
any more questions feel free to ask
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Have a look here and see what you think:
http://garmin.blogs.com/softwareupdates/2011/09/improved-geocaching.html
Doesn't mention the Etrex 10/20/30 range but 2.40 does the same thing.
The full list of what's changed is here:
Ok sussamb, the screen shots persuaded me to take a punt. Always nervous when downloading firmware updates for anything but need not have worried.
All went on simply, still have my tones an am loving the new look to the caches screen with the summary of them and extra detail
Thanks!
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Really? you got me intrigued now!
Tempted .....very tempted...
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Not upating mine from the original firmware until I am sure that the new updates are worth it...so far they dont seem to be
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Yeh thanks a lot I had forgotten about the 30 day trial. Have just extended my membership by another 30 days
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no issues here with my etrex 30. Not updated firmware, have chucked 1000 caches on it a number of times and it works faultlessly and has never frozen on me so seems odd the problems people are having. Hope you get it sorted, am loving my new gadget
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Nick, as I posted in another thread I am used to using a 3.5" Androi phone for caching so yeh when I opened the etrex 30 I was not happy initially
Having done 2 days caching with it thought found the screen nice and clear, interface easy to work around and it is very readable even in strong sunlight. The fonts are crisp and easy to read, maybe at the weekend I can upload some video of it.
I love mine
Next time I attempt it I will be on my bike to be on the safe side lol
Thank goodness for my Samsung S3 being able to download whilst we were out and about. Not very impressed
Rattlesnake at our cache location
in General geocaching topics
Posted
Makes me glad to live (and cache) in the UK. No dangerous animals here at all, worst I have ever reached out and grabbed was a toad (and that wasnt poisonous)