MedicOne

Went into the Cabela's in Post Falls Idaho today and bought two of the 450t's for $329; one for me, one a gift. They WEREN'T leftover 400's. When they're gone, they're gone. Sale ends Saturday.

The only reason I carry an ACR PLB is to alert rescue IN A TOTALLY RELIABLE AND REDUNDANT FASHION should I become lost or injured to the point that I cannot walk out of the back country. An ACR PLB transmits at 5 watts of power vs. the 400 milliwatts (if I'm doing the math right that's about .4 watt) of power used by Spot messengers. The PLB is triple redundant in that it transmits to the LEOSAR (Low Earth Orbit Search and Rescue) sattelites on the 406 mh frequency band. These satellites use doppler shift technology to determine my location within 20 meters or so with or without the GPS signal from my PLB. Spot wont even transmit unless it knows it GPS location and it only transmits to one satellite the Globalstar. The second leg of reduncancy in a PLB lies in the fact that it transmits to the GEOSAR (Geosynchronous Orbit Search and Rescue) satellite. These satellites can only determine my location if they receive a gps signal from the PLB however, the location problem has already been taken care of by the LEOSAR satelllite. The GEOSAR is there to make the transmissions to the rescue centers from the 22 milel high vantage point. The third leg of the triple reduncancy lies in the 121.5mhz homing beacon transmitted by the PLB to allow SAR aircraft/rescue teams to home in on my location. I've tested the PLB hundreds of times and generally my cell phone is advising me of an incoming message before the unit has completed its self test - that's fast! Try that with a Spot. In my opinion the Spot is a neat little gimick that allows you to Twitter, Facebook, log caches, send messages, etc none of which I do when I'm in the woods. The PLB sends a message saying whatever I choose for it to say as a part of the self test feature which checks the links with the LEOSAR and GEOSAR satellites. I can send any precanned message I want to five cellphones, emails, etc as part of this self test. I'm advised to test the unit before I leave on a trip. When in the field I only test the unit sending an "I'm OK" message and I only send it when I'm NOT going to be at a predetermined location at a predetermined time. Otherwise absence of messages from me means I'm on time, and where I said I would be. If the stuff hits the fan, (I'm in need of a real rescue) and I have to send a real message I DO IN FACT receive confirmation that my message has been sent AND RECEIVED by LEOSAR and/or GEOSAR and that they received a GPS signal. Kinda takes all the doubt out of the equation. I used ACR beacons when I was flying missions in South East Asia - they worked well then albeit with different technology. I've used them in my sailboat for 25 years with never a hint of a problem. Bottom line - If my warm, pink derrierre is in a crack I would rather have a device that has been proven over many years used by commercial aircraft, commercial ships, and the military of many countries using satellites dedicated to one purpose, Search and Rescue than a Johnny Come Lately messenging device that rents space on a communication sattelite and allows me to Tweet, Twitter, post to Facebook, and log geocaches. A PLB really is your last best chance!

Totem Lake said "There is an annual service. Current pricing for everything except Spot Assist will run you about $230 per year. That includes insurance for 2 rescues up to $25K each and insurance for product replacement (Spot only). It also includes 500 custom type and send messages and track progress. The basic service of 99.99 will allow SOS, Help, Check-in/OK, custom canned messaged to family and friends and posting to the social networks and logging your finds on GC." Holy Cow $230 per year! I had a Spot and found it to be quite unreliable. I'd send messages and 6 out of ten times I had no way of knowing if they got out. Most of them didn't and that's just not good enough. I gave a lot of consideration to the whole idea and decided to buy an ACR Sarlink Vue. The 406 Link Plus plan is $59 a year and for that you get to send 420 messages using the test feature and 60 messages with GPS location. This year I logged a bunch of miles, a lot of verticle feet, and 33 nights in the back country. In that time I sent out 10 messages - 2 with GPS location and every single one of them got out. If I get mauled by a wild mountain goat or fall off a rock I need to know that my message got out, no ifs, ands, or buts and Spot didn't do that for me - ACR does.

I owned one of the original Spot Messengers and was hugely disappointed. I had a difficult time making the thing send messages and never really knew for sure if my message got out. It also required absolute clear sky to transmit. I was hoping for improvement in the new version but then it got recalled. So I began investigating the ACR electronics Personal Locator Beacons and I'm not the proud owner of a Sarlink. Others have mentioned that pushing the button is going to get you help and that is true to some extent. You have the capability of filing a "hiking plan" before you go out and the rescue units will call the registered owner of the device before instituting a search. The feature I really like though is the new 406link.com feature. You can subscribe to a basic plan or a plus plan and both are cheaper than the spot plan. With the plus plan you can send an "I'm OK message to five emails/cellphone texts assuring your family members that you're, in fact, OK. With the plus plan you can also send 12 "I'm ok and I'm here (location) messages over the lifetime of the battery (which is five years). That doesn't seem to be a lot of those messages and the reason is they drain battery power which you'll need in the event of a real emergency. From talking with ACR the Sarlink View model has different software and you get a buttload more of the location messages on the same battery but the approval process is very expensive so the Sarlink will probably remain as is for awhile. I'm not going to argue the point of going out alone - I do it all the time and that's why I use one of these devices. I've been in the rescue business for more years than I care to say and I would have to really feel as though my life were threatened to activate a PLB. But that's me - some people activate because their water tastes funny! As to the cost of a rescue - I've never been associated with a SAR unit that charged for its services although many people espouse that as something that just should be a fact of life. Perhaps someday it will be but not now. BTW, the ACR SARlink has a triple function - it broadcasts your location on 406 mhz frequency that blasts through trees, canyons, clouds, etc. It can use the sats to get your location or it can use an onboard GPS for an instant location as soon as it begins to transmit. It also broadcasts on the aircraft "guard" frequency 121.5 and acts as a homing beacon for rescue aircraft, and it has a strobe light to make you easier to see. It's supposed to run for 35 hours once activated. Don't leave home without it - I won't

I did a search and found nothing on this topic so here goes. I was a mountaineer, backpacker, and scramble hiker long before geocaching was invented. Up until last year I never carried a Personal Locator Beacon. Last year I was given a Spot Messenger and gave it a try; for the most part it worked quite well and they have come out with an improved model, the Spot 2, which has now been recalled because of problems with the batteries I believe. Soooo, I'm thinking of going with one of the ACR electronics Sarlink PLB's. I just learned that you can send an "I'm OK" message or an "I'm here (coordinates and map) and I'm Ok." The PLB doesn't require a subscription only that you register your beacon. To get the service of the messages you must subscribe on www.406link.com (a subsidiary of ACR I believe. Using the self test feature in conjunction with the subscription you can message up to five people with your I'm OK message. You can also file a "flight plan" with 406 link to give searches a heads up as to your route of travel. Any backpackers/peak baggers/geocachers out there using one of these devices? If so any problems, caveats, upsides, downside, or other information you'd like to share before I spend the $400 to acquire one.

I gotta second this post. A year or so ago I was in Seattle (where they ran the test market on Via) and picked some up for a taste test. It was more than passable as evidenced by the scores of people who couldn't tell the difference between Via and fresh brewed when Sbux when nationwide. I've tried just about every gizmo mentioned in this forum but it comes down to weight and convenience and Starbuck's Via wins on both counts.

The Asolo FSN9 is a fantastic boot. I wear them for all my hiking winter, summer, spring, and fall. The only place I don't wear them is on glaciers as they are not really a crrampon type boot but it doesn't sound like that is a concern of yours. They are light, no break in required, and the last and last and last. I even use mine for Fire Department Tech Rescue when the chiefs aren't watching as they are much better than the trash the FD provides.

There's one up on Mt Spokane called Cache Dashing Through the Snow by Yellow Alligator. It's still active and it was a ton of fun when I found it a number of years ago.

I've been lurking on this forum thread since I first learned of this accident and have, several times, typed up my thoughts on this matter and each and every time deleted what I'd thought of posting. Yellow Alligator in her own inimitable fashion pretty much summed up my feelings on caching and the Dishman Hills. At one point in my "career" I would stop at nothing to find each and every cache in Spokane and that included the Dishman Hills. Did I take risks? You bet! Would I do it again? You bet! As Yellow Alligator noted in her post we've all fallen down, picked ourself up and continued. We've all incurred scrapes and bruises playing this game (some butt slides hurt worse than others don't they YA ). I remember this cache quite well as I logged an FTF while gaining some fire district knowledge on shift. Like all the others in the Hills I didn't find it particularly daunting. My heart goes out to the friends and family of the fallen cacher and also to the cache owner who is one of the finest persons I know.

I've placed one Scuba Cache in Lake Pend Oreille Idaho (recently archived due to construction in the area of the cache) - that qualifies as PNW doesn't it? I've found three; one off the Big Island of Hawaii, one in Lake Coeur de Alene, and one in Lake Chelan. For those of you that don't Scuba ponder for a moment the difficulty of placing and maintaining a log book underwater as per the requirements of gc.com. There aren't a whole lot of options. What doesn't get wet and soggy will either corrode to nothingness in salt water or become overgrown with slime in fresh water. That having been said I'm going to put one in the Edmunds Underwater Park the next time I dive it. I don't see what difference one little manmade object will make in a whole sea full of them in that park. Every feature in that park save the fish that live there was placed there by man at some point in time. It is a great place to dive especially for new divers. There is a bit of misinformation in the above posts also. There are tons of places to dive in the Puget Sound area with little or no current to effect your diving profile - one of the most popular is the Seacrest Cove #2 near the Alki Fish and Crab House in West Seattle. The site offers a great view of downtown Seattle and there is virtually no current. Second, scuba diving is NOT, repeat NOT a dangerous sport and not difficult either. I've taught people from age 10 up to age 70+ to dive. I've taught people to dive with physical limitations, and many others from every walk of life. And finally, the water temp in the sound is pretty constant no matter the depth as a result of the constant flushing by the twice daily tidal exchange. Its usually arround 55 degrees or so in the summer and not a whole lot colder in the winter unless there is a big meltoff of snow dumping ice cold water into the sound. Yeh, it's colder than the 78 degree water of Hawaii but its not unbearable even in a wet suit. Jacque Cousteau's favorite place to dive in the entire world was the Red Sea; his second favorite The Emerald Sea (Puget Sound). So get wet; place some scuba caches.

I just put an Oregon Washington 24k in my 60Csx and couldn't be happier. Can't wait for Idaho/Montana to come out. I don't normally use a handheld for driving navigation but I did with this chip this weekend and it was fantastic - for $84 bucks I have a unit that is far more capable than the $1500 option in my wife's Toyota Prius. While I don't get the 3d stuff the added contour lines are a huge bonus as most of my hiking is off trail.

Spirit of Nature (Manito Park) "Spirit" was place in January of 2003; it's been found 508 time to date. I've moved it around within the bounds of geocaching rules to keep it fresh. Its been muggled several times but because it was my first I just keep it going. A whole new "generation" of cachers are finding it now and the comments remain good. So yes, I think I did really well in my first attempt; I attribute that to the fact that I had a hundred finds under my belt when I hid it. I knew by then what was a bad cache and what was good. This one has stood the test of time.

I've found many a cache where just the opposit occurs - cache is found but there's never a log posted on the site. Do as the terracachers do; establish a confirmation code system - but that might be too difficult in micro and mini caches so prevalent in the game today. A CC removes all doubt as to whether someone found a cache or not.

Please excuse my ignorance here - while not new to geocaching I AM new to GSAK. Where do you place these character strings in the program? I'm really interested in knowing from looking at my 60csx whether the cache is a micro or not as I prefer at this point in my caching experience to NOT do micros as I feel they are the bane of geocaching but that's another whole topic.

This is a fascinating topic for me. I went to the summit of Mt Adams last summer and logged that cache. I was on the tip of Ranier early in 2005 and unfortunately that cache didn't exist at the time. I would like to see a similar study done for the Gem State of Idaho as it has a lot of high peaks with caches on top. I'm guessing Idaho will have more caches that are higher - the average certainly should be higher. Also surprised to see how high Abercrombie and Hooknose placed on this list. And finally, this gives me an idea for a great earthcache!

Two of each would do nicely for me

Its caches precisely like this one that have slowly turned me off to caching. Micros have their place - it's not in the woods, period! As criminal stated somewhere above I can choose NOT to hunt this type cache and I apparently have as my find rate has dropped off to almost nothing over the last six months.

The ones on the right are Leki Super Makalu poles. They are, in my opinion, the best trekking poles on the market bar none. They have an adjustable spring that allows them to flex with each plant. They are guaranteed for life against shaft breakage. You break one, pick up the phone and call Leki. They will send out a new section to replace the broken piece with a question asked! These are the Garmin of Trekking poles.

Found this posted to my Illinois Peak - St Joe Lake cache. Apparently this container was left at the cache site which is not too close to the summit cairne. Anyone out there know Terrell G. Plakke? Was he a geocacher? Was the hider a geocacher? I'm feel honored that someone would choose one of my caches as a location for their final resting spot! I'm curious - is this a first for geocaching or have others found similar "trade items" in caches?

I placed a V2 in Lost Horse Mountain. I received dozens of emails on how to go about getting to this cache which is in the backcountry wilderness of the Cabinet Mountains in Montana. There really is no EASY way to get there. GeoRoo was most serious and I sent him topo maps, waypoints, instructions, etc to ensure his success. He was, in fact, the finder and his log reads like an account of an ascent up K2! A fascinating story that took two log entries to post. I'd like to get my hands on another one so that I can place the one I'm currently holding (a V1) in a very similar location. I really enjoy the adventure of getting it to the location and then the excitement of the find for the next lucky holder.

I've been priveleged to hold four of them! Three were the original version. One was sold on ebay recently for I know not what amount. It was subsequently returned to M10B by the buyer which made for an absolutely fabulous log. M10B then gave it back to the guy who bought it with his blessings. The second I lost on a hike up on Thunderbolt Mountain a fact which I lament to this day as I had planned to release it there. Last summer I recently placed a Vs 2 in a cache in Montana called Lost Horse. It was in the middle of no where and I received no less than fifty emails on how to access that cache. GeoRoo was the lucky finder on that one and I believe he released it back into another cache in Western WA. His log and the adventure to get that coin makes for some phenomenal reading. The final one I'll hold until I find my NEXT one at which point I'll turn this one loose. I think that's what the owner had in mind when he coined these and thankfully I've been able to honor that request. It's always interesting to watch the "feeding frenzy" when I set one of these free.

Not sure - the coin was in the "windshield" of that racer when I "parked" it up on Illinois Peak.

That's not entirely true. Moun10bike himself bid one of these coins up to $1000 in a futile attempt to bring it back into the fold (If memory serves it eventually sold for $1250). You're probably correct in your statement on the U S Economy. Greed has driven it into the toilet; witness the debacle at Enron just as an off-the-cuff example. Randy Cunningham, one of only five Vietnam war aces will spend the rest of his life in a 10 x 10 jail sell (sic) as a result of his greed and willingness to "drive the U. S economy." I FOUND this particular coin and did not put it up on Ebay; in fact, I put it out there for others to enjoy in accordance with the designer's orignal intent. I recently put out a V2 of the MB coin. Check out the post on the Lost Horse geocache to read what that entailed and the finder's adventure in seeking out that coin. The finder Georoo immediately put THAT coin back into circulation also - my kudos to him. I hold another in reserve and THAT coin will be placed for others to enjoy as soon as I find my next one. Currently in Washington/Idaho there is a series of geocaches (My first Moun10bike geocoin) wherein a MB coin travels from cache to cache allowing everyone involved to initate a new cache in the series and hold one of these coins if only for a short period of time. One last note; if one can afford the expense of geocaching (unless you WALK to all your finds the price of petrol - there goes that greedy U. S economy again - alone is a significant expense) then one probably doesn't need to sell one of these to pay his/her bills.

I was more than a little upset to see yet another Moun10Bike series one coin, this one #103 on the ebay auction block. I was the last cacher to hold this coin prior to the owner who is currently selling. I sure hate seeing these being sold at auction and this one in particular. Wish now I had kept it safe on my mantle. Didn't know then what I know now or I most certainly would not have placed it on top of Illinois Peak!

I once participated in a "Cache Machine" in which everyone present gleefully signed some sixty plus logs. On each and every one of those only one person actually "found" the cache. For everyone else present it was a virtual find at best. Yet each person there (myself included) signed, stamped, or pasted a sticker in the logs without benefit of a find. How or does that differ from not signing a log? In my mind it doesn't. For that reason I only did that one cache machine but they seem to be very popular and a way of building huge cache find numbers. Same could be said of "team" finds. Again only one member of said "team" actually finds the cache but all log the find. I've logged some finds without benefit of signing the log (gasp!!) - mostly micros when there was no pen provided and, on occasion noted logged finds where I didn't see a signature (or at least remember seeing one). What I have never done is take one of the logs out of one of my cache hides and compare it to the list of finds on gc.com - never have, never will. It is after all only a game lets not forget that.