NevaP

I've been told that Alaska cachers (who definitely keep at it all winter, just check logs on the caches up there) often attach a rope or a heavy cord to a cache when hiding it and run the rope up into a tree or something so winter seekers can follow it down to the cache. There usually are a number of caches around that are accessible even after heavy snow although you may have to go after more urban micros than you would normally seek. Shoveling six inches or so in eastern Nebraska today. Latest ever date for first measurable snowfall of the winter.

Maybe I will just let the numbers fall where they may and make a real effort to log 7 caches on 07/07/07. I did make a stab at finding 6 on 06/06/06 but ran out of time and only got 5. That wasn't a lucky number day anyway.

Oh why did you bring this up anyway. Now I am obsessing about it. I would have to step up my pace considerably to get 2008 on 1/1/2008. But I would need to slow it down some to get 2009 on 1/1/2009. What to do, What to do?

I think this describes the current situation very well. Waymarkers are much more interested in founding new waymarks than they are in visiting ones that are already listed. I've been doing some Waymarking, posting new waymarks in a bunch of categories that interest me, but I don't go out of my way to visit waymarks in any of these categories. I'll log a visit if I have discovered a potential waymark and then find that it's already listed. Most of my visits are to my own waymarks since we are encouraged to log a visit to our own (something I've mostly quit doing unless I had something to say about my visit that didn't really fit the description). It is about the numbers for a lot of people and until there is a highly visible count of visits to waymarks not your own, things will probably stay like they are until we have waymarked every fountain, historical marker, abstract statue etc. (I'm doing my part)

683 from my home in Lincoln, Nebraska. Only 223 of them found. I'm a bit embrassed to note that only a bit over a third of my total finds are in my home state.

It worked for me about half an hour ago

Looking at this thread again, I noticed much the same trend of longterm cachers. So why is my archived rate so low (18%). I would have to go in and see where the preponderance of archived caches were, but most of my finds are in Oklahoma. Maybe we keep caches around a lot longer here. I realize that last year I had a large number of finds, but the archive rate is fairly consistent throughout caches found in any caching year. Mine is low too (as posted earlier, 1058 finds 188 archived 17.7% 27 disabled 2.5% not counting events/locaionless) and although I'm based in Nebraska I've cached all over, 28 states and counting. I tend to avoid the really urban caches and go for ones out in the woods or at least in a far corner of a park if that means anything. There are so many variables involved here that it's really hard to infer anything.

Here's some longer term stats. This dates back to October 2002. Event, CITO event ,and locationless are omitted. 1058 finds 188 archived 17.7% 27 disabled 2.5% It's interesting to look at the archived ones by years placed. placed 2000-2001-- found 48 -- archived 5 -- 10.4% placed 2002-- found 208-- archived 50-- 24.0% placed 2003-- found 263-- archived 81-- 30.7% placed 2004-- found 288-- archived 35-- 12.2% placed 2005-- found 216-- archived 15-- 6.6% placed 2006 -- found 35-- archived 2 -- 5.7% Those old ones are doing well. I think some of them have been adopted and are being maintained just because they are old caches. MY own caches: I've placed 26, 4 of them 15.4% are archived.

Recent log for a cache I'm going to look for today. Maria's log But I don't think she has her own account yet.

Update: 13 days after I sent Magellan my first e-mail request for a repair authorization number and 6 days after I sent my second I received two e-mails with different case numbers but identical wording. Both told me to call an 800 number to get a repair authorization. Don't use e-mail to contact this bunch. The unit which miraculously repairrd itself is still working so I am filing the replies away , keeping my fingers crossed and shopping for a Garmin.

I certainly would not want to ask that question of most of the denizens of the city park where our Psycho Urban Cache #10 - Derelict Grunge Acropolis is hidden! Personally I have no intention of ever looking for any of the Psycho Urban Cache series although I've enjoyed reading the cache descriptions and logs My kind of high difficulty cache is one that invoves miles of hiking/scrambling/stream wading etc out in a national forest somewhere.

In the wrong park, this plan could go very bad. HAHA - Yes, I definitely agree with that statement! Ah yes. Since I'm female and of a certain age that plan would be less likely to get me in trouble but my line when I spot another suspected cacher is "is that a GPS you're holding? ". If they give me a blank stare I just move on. Usually, when I ask, it is a GPS and I've had some very nice meetings with fellow cachers that way. Several times we've joined forces to find the cache.

Don't get your hopes up. My Sport trak suddenly shut itself off and wouldn't turn on again. the next day it turned on but after a few minutes turned itself off again . It is on the shelf now and My Vista Cx is my sidekick now. Right, I don't trust it. I've been turning it on a couple times a day to see if it still works (so far it does). I may take it out caching today and see what happens. As I said I'm looking for a backup for the backup. Can one ever own too many GPS units?

I won't dignify this extrodinarily rude comment by quoting all of it. I'm amazed to see anyone post something like this in the getting started forum. This is a place to offer advice and encouragement, not a place for nasty mean remarks. IGNORE-IGNORE-IGNORE Your cache sounds just fine. I trust you have the answer to your initial question. Obviously the distance was from the center of your zip code. Once you get your real home coords entered distances from home will be correct.

I would like to add a testimonial to the sturdiness of the official Groundspeak cap although its protective qualities are a bit lacking.. Recently I ducked under a branch across a trail and a sharp snag I failed to notice struck the top of my capped head. I yelped, sat down, cried, and when I pulled my hand away from the top of my head I discovered I was bleeding strongly. We stanced the blood with my husband's handkerchief, which I stuffed under the cap, and continued on to find the cache. Later, back at the campground, having examined the two inch gash in my scalp and decided it didn't need stitches I took a look at the cap and was surprised to see that it wasn't ripped at all. The snag had done its damage through the fabric. I managed to wash out a lot of the blood stain but you can still see it.

Well it appears I will no longer need the services of Magellan repairs at this point in time. Stunod came out from Illinois for a brief visit to Nebraska and I pulled out the eXplorist to show him how it would only turn on to a blank blue screen and wouldn't turn off after that. I stuck in some batteries (something I have done a dozen times since I dropped it, using several different sets of batteries, most of them new, getting only the blank screen) and .................. the blasted thing lit up, up came eXplorist XL, up came the searching for satellites screen, up came the coords of my house, the date and the time of day and it worked perfectly. Stunod had touched it briefly before I put the batteries in. He claims full credit for the repairs. I'm not sure if he is accepting only Magellans at his repair service or if his magic works on other brands. Better contact him before shipping off your damaged units. I think I will pick up a used Garmin Legend or something as a backup for the my old Magellan 315 which is the backup for the XL. I drop things a lot.

I probably will have to try the phone. I hate phone menus, I hate waiting on hold, I'm hard of hearing and I often can't translate Bombay accents so I always give e-mail a try first. If I haven't heard from them by Monday I will set aside the day for phone work.

I was happily getting acquainted with my new Magellan eXplorist XL (it was performing very well under tree cover) when I tripped and the unit hit a rock. All I could get on it was a blank blue screen. So, as instructed to do on the website I e-mailed Magellan repairs for a repair number and instructions. THIS WAS EIGHT DAYS AGO! Having received nothing except the automatic your request has been received response I sent another e-mail two days ago. Today I received TWO requests (two different case numbers) to complete their customer satisfication survey. I gave them my opinion of their service and sent a third request for repair service. I'll keep you all informed of my progress in this matter.

And you likely never will. They have a higher theft rate than travel bugs. You will find one now and then. I've picked up three (and I've seen a couple others that I didn't pick up) and since they all had requests to keep them traveling I've treated them like travel bugs. One stalled about four months after I passed it on, one is still traveling, and one is still in my hands since I only found it last week and haven't been out caching again. But they do seem to go MIA quicker than regular travel bugs. At least as often as white and/or yellow jeeps. If you want to collect them, buy them. Otherwise move them on into another cache.

Hey! That did it for communicating with the computer. New hardware detected popped up and I had GSAK send a file of waypoints to the SD card in the eXplorist. And my computer can find it (in removable device) and show the files in a folder on the card labeled geocaches. Now all I have to do is engrave that sequence and the one I need to get to the SD card files with the explorist (which I have managed to find a couple times by stumbling around) into my 72 year old brain. Obviously I need to study the file structure overview diagram on page 25 of the manual. I may get the map stuff figured out by summer. Thanks for all the help. I think I will go find a cache to celebrate.

Neva, do me a favor and try plugging the XL into a different USB port. More specifically, if you're using one of the front mounted ports, try a port in the back of the computer instead. Let me know what happens. I had already tried it in one of the front ports and in a USB hub on the desk which is what I use for the card readers because my front ports are at the bottom of a tower inside a compartment and hard to reach. So now I pulled out the desk, got the flash light, stood on my head more or less and tried it in both back ports. No difference. Neva, pushing the desk back and untangling the spaghetti cords.

Thanks but not much luck yet. I started today by removing and reinstalling everything for the eXplorist. Then I did all you suggested. It's not there in the Device Manager Hardware list. However, My Computer now lists its presence as Removable Disk D (or H or J, depending on what order I have plugged in it and my SD and xD card readers) But clicking on it gets "please insert a disc" even though the SD disc is in there. GSAK will send a.gs file to the Magellan folder in programs but not to Removable Disk D - can't find the card there. Magellan conversion manager still says no eXplorist is present. So I am still loading waypoint files via the card reader. I haven't tried to do anything with maps yet. NevaP, off to get her aging brain another cup of coffee

The XL uses AA batteries and it didn't come with an AC power convertor. I did these things in this order (a number of times), turning on the unit for step #3. And I have tried reinstalling everything and rebooting. Computer still can't find it. However, I got just now got a batch of waypoints in it by exporting a GSAK file for eXplorist and then moving the file onto an SD card with a card reader. So at least I can go out and see if I can find caches with it.

My new eXplorist XL arrived today. I installed the software that came with it, put in the batteries and an SD card and connected it, with its USB cable, to my computer (a pentium with Windows XL) . My computer can't find it. It doesn't show up on the "My Computer" screen. The Magellan Conversion Manager says "No Magellan Explorist found". GSAK can't send anything to it. So far I have one waypoint in it. I punched in one by hand for a multicache I'm working on. I guess I can go out and see how the go-to works. I sent an e-mail to Magellan support. Any advice will be appreciated. ( I'm a muddled senior citizen with limited tech abilities.)

I too do bookmark lists of favorite caches. Some are in great places, some are challenging, tricky ,clever hides, some are ordinary caches logged as milestones or logged in special circumstances. Lots of things make a cache a favorite. So far the all time favorite is The Journal Finding it required about 9 hours in the field, 9 miles of hiking, multiple puzzling and it's in a beautiful location. What more could you want.