Dj Storm

I would try to download the waypoints from the GPSr into GSAK (you can use it for free, www.gsak.com), then upload them back into the rest of GPSrs. You will need a data cable (I think the Garmin Legend H uses a mini-USB cable).

I saw "September 26" and thought this is a new thread, then saw Vinny's reply, ... and thought: "Congratulations, you posted something that made Vinny come out from his hiding and post!" Then I realized the topic is from 2 years ago.

Make sure the cache will remain a traditional. By including a question, you might step outside the boundaries set for traditional caches. By using the benchmark to calculate the coordinates of the cache, you change the type of the hide. If you delete a log because of no signature, you're in the right. If you delete it because of no (correct) answer, you'll be in the wrong. By changing the hide to a multi or puzzle while keeping it listed as a traditional, you will be in the wrong, too. What would I do: leave the cache as it is now, and add some warnings about poison ivy on the cache page. If you wish, leave a stick near the benchmark and instruct the cachers to use it to retrieve and replace the cache.

I use a Garmin Etrex. When I hike through the mountains, I (usually) print out a page with the area I will travel in. If I consider it necessary, I will draw the WGS84 grid on the map. When I walk through a town, I don't bother with maps, and just follow the arrow in the direction of the cache. If I'm stuck, I turn around and try another road. Driving and navigating at the same time is a job for two people. You can prepare by watching the Geocaching.com Google Map, choose the caches you want to visit, and plan a route from your home to the parking(s) near the cache(s).

Compass as special equipment - I'd vote "no"; but the cache can have a terrain/difficulty rating of 5 even without needing special equipment. Consider these requirements: adequate boots, solid legs, lots of experience hiking rocky trails including 45 degrees slopes with loose rocks and rock faces with 60-70 degrees inclination. Special equipment? - No. Category 5 terrain? - Might be.

I like solving puzzles, even for caches far away, that I won't go search for. However, I prefer to have an indication of progress. If the puzzle is presented along with the rules to solve it, no matter how hard it is to solve, I will spend the necesary time. If the puzzle is shown, and I have to come up with the rules to obtain the coordinates, I will spend some time on it. If I have to locate the puzzle, hidden in a steganographic way somewhere, then I get bored quickly.

The more info on the cache page, the better. This summer I did a multi that was a 13-14km (8-9 miles) roundtrip, through the countryside; the cache page mentioned that. I planned to do only this multi in the afternoon. There were 2 other multis about 5km from the town I was visiting. Turns out the multi I was doing walked me near the other 2 caches, for which I had no listing with me. If the listing would have mentioned that the walk brings you close to the other 2 caches, I would have searched for those, too. If you put 2 or more puzzles on the same trail, please mention the neighbor caches on each cache page. Someone who solved the puzzle and looks at google maps, will see only the traditionals along the trail, not the other puzzles (unless the puzzle posted coordinates are on the same trail). And yes,I will search for such a cache. I like to hike, and I like to solve good puzzles (the kind where you know the rules and use brain power to find the solution, not the ones where the difficulty is finding the puzzle). Unfortunately I'm halfway across the globe.

Coins and travel bugs are meant to travel. By dropping them in your cache (in any cache, actually) you are helping them. As long as you put them back in circulation fast, and your cache is found often, that's nothing wrong with it. Some coins and TB's have special goals, look and decide if you can help them better by placing them in another cache. If you cannot help them, place them in whichever cache you feel, maybe the next cacher can help them towards their goal. If you're STF, you can wait a few hours/days for the FTF to log their visit, especially if the cache is a remote one (they might be in vacation and without 24/7 internet connection). If it's an urban hide with many finders the day it was published, wait less (a couple of hours or so), then log it. The FTF-er might wait and trick cachers to think the FTF is up for grabs.

The farthest cache from GZ that I found was about 80 feet off. It was a micro placed in an urban park, and I managed to find it only using the spoiler photo. The hider had another cache (without spoilers) that I failed to find. In a remote location, with poor satellite coverage, I found a cache about 60-120 feet off from GZ (I say 60-120 feet because GZ was jumpy, and the precision indicated was around 100 feet). No problem with a few more feet off when the location is remote with few seekers and the location can support the search without being damaged. In an urban settings, you will be noticed if you search too long, in a larger area. How can anyone find a cache that's 1/4 mile off?

Have you complained about the grizzlies roaming the area? Did the grizzlies complain about the cachers walking through their territory? Anyone can post their concerns abut the cache. If they don't want caches around, the grizzlies can ask the cache to be archived. There is no rule stating that geocachers must be Homo Sapiens. I know of a cache placed 5 years ago by a nice Grizzly. He maintains his cache (last maintenance 1 month ago), and appreciate logs by cachers of any species. Last find was by Yogi's family.

There were several caches protected by padlocks, with the code in the cache description. My question would be: as long as the cache is at the posted coordinates, would you list it as a traditional or a puzzle? More than half of the cachers prefer to list it as a puzzle, I'm inclined towards traditional. If you list it as a traditional, you'll get complains from cachers searching without reading the description. If you list it as a puzzle, it will get fewer visits, and some cachers will search for the puzzle. (Example I saw a few weeks ago: a puzzle cache (large container, 3 feet by 1.5 feet), where the difficulty is opening the container. It's listed as difficulty 5. It doesn't say the cache is at the posted coordinates, I was searching for the puzzle in the description).

Nope. Not even close. Crossing The Mason Dixon Line covers 2400 miles, as the crow flies. For cache GC19AQP - Crossing the Mason Dixon Line, the seeker can fly from Waypoint 1 to Waypoint 2 and back (the cache page recommends having a counterpart and mailing/phoning in the coordinates). The cache GC1FPN1 - Munich to Venice is a 28 leg multi, involving a 520 km (320 miles) hike through the Alpes, and takes a month to complete. 3 finders to this day (3 more than I expected).

I checked one logbook against the online logs. I found: - 2 cachers logged online without a log in the logbook - 1 cacher logged online twice (1 found it + 1 found it for bug drop) - 3 cachers logged their visit in the physical log book, with no log online - several teams logged once in the logbook, and individually online - some other teams logged individually in the logbook, and once online - some other caches logged their visit in the logbook, with a note online (sometimes the note was posted by a friend, because the finder was not interested in having a GC account; other times there were family members using the same account, first member finds it and logs a found it, second member finds it and logs a note) Total: 70 physical logs, 70 online found it logs. Another time I went for a cache, thinking I'll be FTF. I found one log in the logbook, no log online. I thought I was second to find, until I found the cache listed on another site. There were 2 online logs for that cache on the alternate site, one by the guy with the physical log, and one from the real FTF guy, who did not sign the logbook, but described his adventure in a 1000+ word online log. Each cacher plays by his own rules; I'm not bothered by those who don't log online, and I'm not bothered by those who log neither (unless they steal coins and swag).

Maybe this one? GC1FPN1

The "final location" is 1200 feet away from the posted coordinates. There are 2 caches less than 820 feet away from this one. I think the "final location" blocks some geocaching estate. (I think the terrain is less than 4 to 5 stars, and also consider that the area is approaching saturation / power trail).

I live 5000+ miles away, and I'm willing to try solving the puzzles.

I won't be offended by the symbol, but many finders will. Even if you use the "Eagle-Gx" symbol, some cachers will be offended. I know some people who will do their best to be offended by anything, only to complain that they have been offended. This summer I visited the WWII museum in Paris. One of the exhibits was a flag from that guy's car; and a wheel cap from the same car, with that symbol. And uniforms, and medals, and engraved pens, and other memorabilia, and I wasn't offended by them. I condemn the ideology, but I was happy that these exhibits survived and can be seen in a museum. You can use an original cigar box from 65 years ago, and I'll think it's way cool. You could fill the box with items from that period, and it won't offend me the least. Those are just man-made objects. I won't burn in hell for touching it, and I won't burn in an extermination camp for not embracing the ideology behind the symbol. I visited execution/mass murder places and torture chambers, and wasn't offended; those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. I visited churches, mosques and temples, and wasn't offended. I made donations in those places, not because I embrace all those ideologies, but to help with the maintenance, so future generations will be able to enjoy those places, too. In the same museum I visited this summer, there was a photo with that guy near the Eiffel Tower. A young couple was by the exhibit when I arrived, and the lady said that the guy who took the photo should be shot! I'm very tolerant, but the words (and thought) of that lady offended me. Regarding the cache, I will like to find such a container after a well designed adventure. Had I be the placer of that cache, I would place it in a difficulty 4 terrain, off the beaten path. Those who are able to solve the puzzle and tackle the terrain are less likely to be offended by a symbol.

I hate the idea of having readily available micros to place on short notice; sorry if you're one who does this. Probably the majority of micros in the woods were placed by cachers who were there for the first time and thought "Wow, there's no cache at and near this location, luckily we have this film can and logsheet with us, let's place it". I would like to see all hiders, when they find a nice location, to search for a good hiding place, then go home and assemble a container for that hiding spot, then place it during the next visit. If a cacher can't be bothered to go twice to a location to place a cache, how much maintenance do you think he'll do? I hate badly placed caches. Micros in the woods are only one of those. Caches hidden in stone walls/ruins are another (Why did you hid the cache in the walls "behind a stone" when there are several good hiding places by those trees?). Also, I hate caches in plain view (Why did you hid the cache on this side of the wall, in plain view of the visitors, when there are similar spots on the other side of the wall?), and caches where the searcher has to do unusual things to hunt/retrieve/replace the cache (Why did you hid your container 8 feet up in the hollow of a tree in a crowded urban park? How stealthy can you be when climbing that tree?)

Latitude (the north/south direction), each thousandth of a minute equals 1.85 meters, or about 6 feet 1 inch. A minute is equal with a nautical mile (1852 meters or 6080 feet). Longitude (the east/west direction), it depends on your latitude. At the equator is 1.85m (6 feet 1 inch), at 30° (northern Florida, southern Texas) is 1.60m (5 feet 3 in), at 40° is 1.42m (4 feet 8 in), at 49° is 1.21m (4 feet). At 33°26' is approximately 5 feet. For any location, use this: 0.001' latitude = 6.08 feet (6 feet 1 inch); 0.001' longitude = 6.08 * cos(latitude). Note: these values are approximations, real values vary by ±0.5%, but since you are using this for small values, you can do with rougher approximations.

When I spent 149 euros on a Garmin Etrex in 2006, the serial cable was (if I remember properly) 32 euros. That was about 10 times the amount I was willing to spend on a serial cable. So I built myself a cable from a dead serial mouse and an ISA slot. It's not fancy, but it works. I rarely use the cable, there aren't many caches around my home, so I push in the coordinates by hand. For the cable you need, you should look/ask at the shops carrying GPSr's, they should have them. Garmin sells them for $38, and if your computer doesn't have a serial port, you also need a USB to serial converter cable ($60 from Garmin). If you shop around you can find new compatible serial cables for less than half that price, and the usb-to-serial cable for less than 1/4 price.

When I'm in a situation like the one described by the OP, I re-read the cache page (usually at home, as I carry only a summary with me), and the logs. If there's a mention of operating hours, or something else obstructing the search, than my bad for not reading carefully. If there's nothing, then I post a NM log. I won't be offended if anyone does the same for my caches in similar situations - I appreciate such a notification. The "needs maintenance" log means exactly that, the cache needs maintenance. The (responsible) cacher will (probably) do preventive maintenance about once every year. If something happens with the cache or the location, a NM log will (hopefully) trigger an unscheduled visit for maintenance of the container or the cache page.

After reading the cache description, I would list the cache as a multi, with two waypoints: trailhead and final (eventually another waypoint for the sign). I would list the coordinates of the trailhead as the cache's coordinates. Regarding the traditional/mystery debate: What if the (traditional) box is protected by a padlock, and finders must brute-force the combination (i.e. no combination listed on the cache page)? I think that's still a traditional, with a difficulty of 4+. If the cache invites the searchers to pick the lock, that's still a traditional with a difficulty rating of 5. If the hint decrypts to "the key is in the fake rock", that doesn't change the cache type. What if the cache has a "child-proof" lid? Almost everybody knows how to open that, but somebody might not know, and fail to open it (even with instructions written on the lid!). Would you accept a find from someone who signed the container? I wouldn't delete the finds, simply because I think the cache has the wrong type. In case it was like the traditionals listed in my examples above, I would offer searchers the chance to change the log to a note/dnf, and delete the logs if they don't comply.

I split the finds in two categories: home runs and vacation finds. A "home run" is when I start and end the geocaching day (or night) at my house. A vacation find is when I start and/or end the day somewhere else, be it a hotel room, siblings' house, tent, etc. Almost 80% of my finds are vacation finds, and more than half of the rest are borderline vacation finds (I left from and arrived to my residence, but arrived at 10 AM the next day, took a nap in the train back home). People might consider me a tourist everytime I geocache, because I carry my camera.

I found this report of an incident that happened 75 years ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/opinion/...gust5.html?_r=1 (the second story, from 1934). Very few details, but what struck me is the level of "under-reaction" it caused. Then I noticed that over the years, because of reports of over-reactions, the level of normal-reaction I expect now is higher than what I expected 10 or 20 years ago.

Making competitive goals public might tempt other cachers to thwart those goals.