Team_FussyPants

Not sure why this would be a bad idea for the reason you give. I think the cache page could mention that it is a dog park, and those that have dog based fears and anxieties could just skip it. Not all caches need to be found by all cachers. Excellent point, didn't think that one all the way through. As long as its stated in the description there's no problem.

To the OP, why would you even feel the need to bring it up? I understand that at some point you probably made the observation that the majority of people you have cached with are "white", but what prompted you to bring up the discussion knowing that most likely it would ruffle some feathers? I really can't think of many other hobbies that are as unbiased towards gender/race/creed as geocaching. I mean in reality you could sign up for a GC account with a random user name, go out and find caches for years, place hundreds of caches, and never once meet another geocacher. So where in all that would someone be able to be discriminated against? I find it very interesting that when you observed that there is a small amount of minorities in this hobby that you automatically decided it was because they had been "restricted or detered" from the hobby. Maybe that's a result of the middle class white male guilt thats being pushed so hard at colleges these days, especially in the wings of the liberal arts departments. Did you ever think that maybe the essence of geocaching is just not something that appeals to the cultural upbringing of most minorities. Maybe we should go to a bullfighting message board and ask why there are so few whites among their ranks? My suggestion, stop trying to read into things and find evil where it doesn't exist. This is a very "people" friendly hobby and there's no need to ask questions that dont need to be asked just in order to get a rise out of people.

Sorry for your loss, my wife and I are both big animal lovers and know how hard it is to lose a family member like that. Our own two dogs are getting up there in years, and our oldest might not be going on any more caching hikes with me. Took her the other day and she's had a pretty hard time getting around, she's recovering, but pretty slowly. I dread the day she wont be with us any more. Here is travel bug that we helped move along a few months ago, it was in remembrance of a fellow geo-dog: Emma Bear's Travel Bug Maybe that would be a great way to share your memories with others.

Okay my curiosity is killing me, what in the world is a "pickle park" To the OP, sounds like your area not only has a sub par parks department, but also quite a few inconsiderate dog owners. We have several dog parks in our area, and for the most part they are very clean and "landmine" free. The parks department keeps the garbage clean and empty and plenty of poop bags available, and for the most part the dog owners pick up after themselves. But to be honest, I've never done a cache in a dog park, though I have done one close to one. I would think placing one inside a park is a bad idea just on the fact that there are many people that have dog based fears and anxiety.

I've had fairly good luck with construction adhesive. You can buy it in a large tube at your local hardware store, and you'll also need a caulking gun to use it as well. The secret to gluing plastic, as with gluing anything, is the prep work. Wash the plastic really good to get oils off from the mold release, then use a rough sandpaprer to scratch up the surface. This creates more surface area a d ridges for the glue to bond to, so the rougher/deeper the better. And give the construction adhesive a good 24 hours to dry. I've glued 2l soda bottles together with it and tested them to 100psi. If you're really serious you can go to your local auto body supply house and pick up some 3M panel bond glue. It's used to fuse together plastic and composite structural and body pieces that are on most new cars. The stuff dries in 5 minutes a d will survive a nuclear blast, but be prepared to drop 50-60 bucks for the glue and special gun/tips required. Mcmaster-Carr sells it as well

You know I used to feel the same way, but then (while unemployed) I started caching during the week with a group of local cachers. The first time out I was a little bothered about caches I didn't find, but then we started having a good time. A really good time. I'd find a couple, someone else would find some, someone some others, then I got the frame of mind that it wasn't just a single person finding each cache but our group as a whole making the find. And often times there would be caches that others in the group had already found, and they'd stand back and let the others find it, or be a lifeline on the toughies. Pretty soon I forgot all about needing to find each cache personally, and just enjoyed my time together with our group. So just like every cache should be, it wasn't so much about the find, but the journey getting there. I've made some amazing friends and had some great times, the caches are almost just a side note. My advice is to team up with some good people and enjoy your time.

Great thread, not sure how I didn't see it before. I served 4 years in the USN aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier. I worked as a Machinery Repairman, or basically a machinist, and did two 6 month cruises including time in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.

Not sure where you live, but I'm pretty sure you're not searching right. There are many people like you, including myself, where offroading is a huge part of their geocaching experience. In my area there are tons of off road cache, and our local geocaching group has an annual rally that has an off road division. Try viewing local caches using the google maps feature and just pan to known off road spots in your area, I'm sure you'll find plenty to keep you busy.

What's the reasoning behind saying it's ok to log as log as you revisit at another time? I don't really get that approach though other people in this thread have said the same thing. In most cases nothing is going to change between your first and second visit. Does making the effort to visit a second time somehow negate the fact that you already know where the cache is hidden? To me it comes down to the FTF. Claiming FTF is a prize, and its a prize in the race to get to the cache and find it before anyone else. In the scenario I posted earlier I dont log the cache as FTF because I think its unfair to claim it on a cache when you find it before its been published. To me its like saying you won a marathon even though you got a 13 mile headstart from everyone. I think revisiting it is the same concept, basically logging it after its been published, so as not to steal the FTF from others.

I don't buy that whole Bata Tester thing. In this case, you were the First To Find the cache. The GC.com listing service and published time is irrelevent. The concern we had with that was giving people the idea that one of us was giving the other special treatment as far as the FTF goes. In other words going out and hiding a cache while your buddy hides around the corner, then give him the coords and he claims the FTF. Not really fair to other cachers. Besides neither of us are really ftf hounds, so its more enjoyable for us to read the logs of the other cachers scrambling to get there first.

I've done this a couple times in the past, but the procedure was a little different. I sat a ways away while a friend hides the cache, usually over a ridge or behind a group of trees, then comes back and gives me the coords he got. I then go after the cache and find it, mainly to verify the coordinates he got. I signed the log but noted "Beta test not FTF" on it as well. These were all done in high terrain level, remote caches where its a good idea to have the coordinates double checked to make sure you dont have to come back there to adjust, or people dont hike all the way out there to only dnf due to bad coords. Maybe the thing thats different is I didn't see the actual hiding of the cache?

Can I ask why you're selling it?

I have most all of the geocaching app, and by far my favorite is Geosphere. The one and only thing I use the GC app for is to find nearby caches on the go. Other than that the GC app is very clunky, slow, and map integration is horrible on a good day. Not to mention it sucks down the battery like crazy. I really wanted the latest version of the GC app to work since it would consolidate all my needs into one app, but it doesn't pull it off. Geosphere has an awesome user interface, and its very easy and quick to download a PQ to the phone. The ability to filter all the caches on the phone is great. I basically just put all the caches in my area on the phone, then filter them for what I want to look for. That way the only reason I need to use the GC app is to look up caches that may have published since my last download. The map integration is the best part of the app in my opinion. I can center on my location and it will follow me around as I drive/walk and constantly refresh the caches on the map as I go. Tap on one of the cache pins and it pulls up all the info on the cache, exit out and it goes right back to following you on the map at the same zoom level. Also if you have the Navigon software, with two taps Geosphere will send the cache location over to Navigon and give you turn by turn voice guided navigation. Awesome for caching in the city or confusing neighborhoods. You can also run a PQ on the phone, and then download it straight to the phone. Which I often down in new areas so I can avoid dealing with the GC app. There are very frequent updates for the app, and the developers are very open to suggestions and quick at bug fixes. Plus its actually cheaper than the GC app.

If you have a GPS that has a USB interface cable, go to radioshack or walmart and pick up a 12v lighter usb port. I have a double port adapter and I can power both my Garmin and my Iphone off it with the factory cables.

Haha, excellent point. I have blue eyes and both my parents have brown, so that was a lesson learned early. Thanks for all the great responses. We're getting pretty close now and we're both pretty excited. I picked up a really nice Kelty kid carrier off craigslist the other day, very lightly used and about $130 less than what I would have paid for it new. So inbetween that and the other equipment we have, we're pretty well equipped to get the baby outdoors. Its awesome to see so many people in the community that are so involved with their kids. I've been caching for almost 5 years now, but mainly doing it out on my own. I haven't really gotten involved in the community until the past year or so, and I have to say its one of the greatest groups of people and I'm really excited to get my family involved.

Thanks for all the great replies! Its very encouraging to see so many people that have gotten their children involved so young. I have to admit that I was getting a little down about many of my activities being put on hold or ending once the baby came. It seems that once I tell people we have a baby on the way they always support her, then joke with me how all my hobbies will go away. I know they are only joking and giving me a hard time, but after you hear that so many times it starts to get to you. I'm looking at the baby not as a roadblock to the things I enjoy doing, but as the opportunity to share my interest with my own kid. So its awesome to see people taking their newborns out and making some finds, and to see the kids grow up and love geocaching! We did receive a great stroller (BOB revolution) as a shower gift, and it looks more than capable of doing park caches and even decent trail caches. We have a bjorn baby carrier, and I've been looking at Kelty baby packs as well. Looks like they pop up on craigslist very cheap once kids outgrow them. And to Hoosier Guy: We are definitely set in the camera department now, our arsenal includes a Nikon Digital SLR, Canon point and shoot, and just picked up a kodak playsport waterproof HD video camera. Plus we both have iphones for video and pictures, should be a media overload I'm sure!

My wife and I are expecting our first child very soon (Sept 8th due date), and I'm very excited about the prospect of my geocaching adventures becoming family outings. I just had a few questions from cachers that had been through the same thing. Like how soon after your child's birth did you start bringing them along to cache with you? I'm in Northern Nevada where we can get some pretty cold winters, so I figured that it would be at least spring before the little one starts to come along. So that would be at least at the 6 month mark. We've received some great equipment to get outside with our baby, but I thought I would ask if there was anything that you had found to be essential, or at least very handy to have along while caching with your baby?

I think this is an awesome idea! I love historical cache, especially when they're placed in an area that you normally never would have known about without geocaching. Take a look at a series here in my area "Who turned out the lights?" They are placed at the site of old beacons for the transcontinental airmail service placed back in the late 20's. Some are just concrete arrows left on the ground, and some still have the 50ft tower with the beacon still attached, all in very cool spots.

Thanks for the response everyone. While I wouldn't call myself a computer engineer, I usually have to problem getting things done such as these. But that being said I think I'm going to hold off until at least there seems to be a more stable beta. I have a rally coming up this weekend, and my only backup is my iphone. I'll keep an eye on this thread though, or others discussing the beta versions, and see how it goes.

Ok, I'm a brand new Oregon owner and would love to upgrade to this version to get the multicache support, but the problems people are having are freaking me out a bit. I've had this thing for about 3 days now and would hate to brick it before I even get a chance to use it. I'm on version 3.70 (from the factory) right now, should I wait until this becomes an official update?

The cache is here local, and is indeed just a black hide a key with some duct tape that at one point served as camo. Once again its a case of the media sensationalizing something to make media.

NOV8TR, Very nicely done! I also have a the same Ram mount for my legend on my CR-250. Seems the arm movement provides enough damping that I haven't had any issues. Your vehicle mount is right up the alley of what I would like to do with my truck. I think I'll pull the console cover off this weekend and see if I can find a solid mounting point.

I think this is the route I'm going to end up taking. I have a RAM mount on my dirtbike for my old etrex and its unbelievably stout, which is good because I suck at riding dirtbikes I think I'll just buy the oregon cradle and a bolt on base and go from there.

Finally received my new Oregon on sunday, and I've been looking at mounts to solidly mount this thing in my cachemobile (Toyota Tacoma), and so far I'm not satified with the options that are out there. RAM mounts has probably the closest thing to what I want, but its still a windshield mount, which I think I want to get away from. I often travel into CA where window mounts are illegal, not to mention they tend to bounce around alot. I was wondering if anyone had come up with a solution, either home-made or commercial, to mount a gps and/or phone solidly to the dash of a vehicle? Ideally I'd like something that I could use to mount my Oregon and Iphone in the vehicle that doesn't involve a suction cup, and wont send the units flying into the back seat the first time I hit a bump. I have the means to fabricate pretty much anything I want, just figured I'd ask here first so I dont end up reinventing the wheel. Thanks in advance!

My record for a single day was 46, and it wasn't on a power trail. It actually was in a small town here outside of Reno that had quite a few caches in it. This was only from about 9am until 3pm, and our day included everything from Nano's to ammo cans with some offroading to get to them. There was 5 of us and everyone signed the logs, and we even sat down and enjoyed lunch together! So with a little planning and caching in the right area, triple digit numbers should be fairly easy and quite enjoyable I think.