jcblough

I got a new rei day pack a couple of pair of wool socks and some new thermal underwear

I gotta Z22 as well. Good for cachemate and you'd be surprised how handy it is elsewhere. You can get them at palm.com for $99 w/ a free case and shipping.

Move the joy stick to highlight the coords then press it. Here's the full manual - better than what it came with. http://www.magellangps.com/assets/manuals/...rist_200_en.pdf

I use cachemate myself.

Very true, I'd say I'd assume the purpose of the religious theme would be at the very least to promote or raise awareness. I guess to me religion is very personal so I wouldn't do it period. The only reason I'd do a theme cache is to make the hide/hunt cooler

Hey look at it this way, where else can $30 make you an "elitist" that's bargain snobbery right there Seriously, I give this site the $ for supporting the hobby. The searches and facilities this place offer do not come cheap. There is/was alot of development and maintainence into providing this site. I want to do my part to keep it running.

I log on line, but I keep it short and sweet. Log if I found it so others know it is still out there, log if I didn't so people know that too. If I find something wrong with the coords, container, etc - I send an email to the owner. . .

My gut reaction to religious themed caches or TB's is why? It's a game gang. Who is going to be swayed or moved by any of it? I was born and raised Methodist, 16 years in a catholic school and this stuff drives me crazy. Religion is out there for everyone to find. You want to put a cache at a church, cool. No harm no foul to me. But why go the extra step and make it themed? If I want to feel closer to the higher-power-of-my-calling or whatever, I'll do it by being out doors and spending some time to reflect. I don't need an ammo box of trinkets to get me in the mood for it. To me, if you want a religious themed cache that works and/or may impacts someone. Put it in a good spot - a pretty church or a quiet reflective area. Put someone in the position to think, don't cram it down their throats. That goes for any religion - period. No one wants to be force fed. And I don't think it is offensive necessarily just maybe not the most proper approach. I would say that a religious themed cache is our game's version of getting stuck at a religion discussion at a dinner party. It probably just isn't the right thing to do.

Another vote for compass. GPS in my right pocket, compass in my left.

I have a Magellan 210 and I can give you some info on it. . . I picked it up at a local wal-mart for $112.00. It does not run on AAA's but AA's. I've been caching every weekend and some afternoons for a month+ and am just now on battery set #2. It gets good readings in the woods, you just have to be patient to let it settle. The one thing I don't like about it is you have to key in the coordinates by hand with a little joystick. They joystick is very stiff out of the box, but does loosen up after some use. Once it loosens up and you get accustomed to it, it isn't a problem. The faq here, or the getting started area suggests that any gpsr that can't hook up to a computer to download coordinates isn't suitable for caching, which I disagree with. I guess if you want to have the coordinates to all 500 of the nearest caches with you at all times - it is nice, but I haven't found this to be a necessity at all. Just double check with keying and get on with it. The downloading would be nice, but if you are on a budget - I don't know if it is $40-$50 more nice. I've also read that one of the differences between the garmin and magellan products is that garmin reads and settles more quickly and magellan will read better in cover - can't independantly verify this but I thought it was worth reporting. I'll put this here and most everyone will disagree, but I believe it. If you are just doing caching and woods/camping/hiking navigation, just skip on the mapping features and get a good compass and save some $. The hand held mapping GPSr's I've seen look cluttered to me. For 90% of my caching, I use my gps to get a bearing and distance. I then get my heading with a compass and just check the gps as I go. I would NOT under any circumstance buy a GPS with a battery that cannot be swapped out in the field. Seems to me to be a bad idea.

The cache is significantly more involved than the one currently at the park. The only reason I'm thinking of using the same park is it hosts a 10 mile boyscout trail and a 5 mile trail that are open until midnight. I was going to put this on on the leg that currently has no cache. I was thinking that having 2 in the same area - prob 3 miles apart or so - would give people a place to go to do a full night of caching in the dark without having to drive around. From what searching I've done, there is only one night only cache in Little Rock.

Does the TV show Lost have a sound track

Nice cache by the way, that's about along the lines of what I was thinking. . .

I asked him more as a curtosey than anything. The park he used is the only local park I know of with trails open until midnight. I didn't want to put a redundant cache out there if I it was a rub with the local cachers.

What is the name of the I-40 series, I could help with that?

ARKANSAS CACHE SPOILER POTENTIAL BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!! I got inspired by Burns Park Night Cache and I want to add another in the area. I've gotten permission from the placer of the original cache to do another and here's what I've come up with. I need your feedback and what kind of difficulty rating you'd give it. I plan on posting coordinates here that lead to a tree, like the original cache from that tree, you look for illuminated tacks. At the base of the tree, there will be a micro container with another set of coordinates and instructions on how to find the final cache (something involving using a compass, no gps). The location of these coordinates would also be marked with tacks to help people stay oriented. At the end would be a traditional cache. . . Too much? Too Little? Anything missing or suggested changes, difficulty ratings?

I was looking at the palm z22. I've tried them for organizing once and fell dreadfully short of being organized Then it got stolen out of my cube. So that's a point of concern now. My current "caching pda" is a 60 page notepad ala a log book I keep in my truck's ashtray

I was just curious how effective this was. Looking at it, if you get a cheap palm for $99 then the needed softward - gps swiss army knife plust the palm app, you are in for like $140, but still have no maps. How practical of a set up is this? Does it greatly improve anything to justify the purchase?

I don't hesitate to go caching during hunting season, wear orange and be sensible. Being in the woods to hunt on public land with a gun gives you no more right to the public land than others. That is one of the drawbacks to hunting on public property. When I hunted alot in highschool, we always were on private property to avoid this. They can get offended all they want, they have no more claim to be there than anyone else. I've run into one hunter while caching, he just asked me if I had seen anything, and having my gps, I was able to point him right in the direction I had seen the most sign. I was a free guide.

Travel bugs A decent day pack

I got the premium membership as a way to support the site, since my gps lacks the ability to pc interface, I just run the queries then jot them in my little notebook. I'm not quite old enough to remember the days of counting bytes - I'm 32, but I'm old enough to remember my first 80 mb hard drive. On the map and compass, I just assumed that most people who cache are also hikers. Of all the caches I've found so far, one provided me a good "uhh ohh" moment on getting turned around. I got it squared away w/ the compass and trail map. I guess it is whatever you are comfortable with. In my days of soley map and compassing it. I'd mark where I started on the map, then come up with an "escape plan" if need be. I.E. the river is to the east and it meets the road. So if things went to heck in a handbasket, I could get home. Guess it also depends on what types of caches are available in your area. Little Rock seems to have them EVERYWHERE. I bet I could hunt a year w/o leaving asphalt if I chose.

I like it b/c gets me out of the house find cool spots to come back and visit again like the hunt stress relief fun for my oldest boy love being outdoors cool way to get back to "orinteering" I had so much fun w/ years ago in scouts.

I was unable to locate a 210 w/o ordering on the web. I had to do the "kid" thing and get one NOW. I am in the middle of a divorce and needed a way to get out of the house ASAP I am happy w/ the 200. I carry a log book in my pocket w/ coordinates and hints on it so I have a "hard copy" of the coordinates to prevent miskeying errors. I keep them both in my truck and I key in coordinates a bit at a time. I'm a bit uptight on clutter and storage being a computer programmer so if I have any waypoints that I'm not going to return to, I have to delete them - it is like in my blood So my high point on waypoints has been like 18. I think I have 4 on her right now. I definiately agree that a gps can be a good map supplement, I was passing on what the articles I read had said repeatedly. I also see a gps as a good supplement to a map and compass(probably backwards from what most cachers think) I use my gps to get a bearing then drop it in my pocket until I'm close to the target. I'm sure it is definitely the case, but I'd hate to think of people who can't use a map and compass w/ some proficency stomping off in the woods w/ just a gps. That's a bit unsettling. My advice to anyone would be to use your gps as an aid to polish up the more traditional orienteering skills. If you don't have those, you are a bad AA battery from a night in the woods.

I think for the most part, if you have 14 parallel channels and WAAS, you are good. 500 Waypoints seems to be the low mark for storage, but when you sit and think about it, that's an insanely large number. The only gripe I have w/ the explorist is the joystick is a pain. The menus and functions are easy enough to use once you spend some time with it. I haven't "needed" it, but the backtrack feature is nice. I played with it some this weekend. It works well. I do think understand a map and compass and reading and taking bearings should be a prerequisite for geo caching, but that's the old boy scout in me.

One thing I do, Is when I get close, say under 100 meters, I take a bearing w/ my compass then walk it in on the compass rather than the gps. I did my first weekend of hunting - found 13, couldn't find 2. I think on my worst spot, I was 12-15' off the mark and was in a pine thicket. When your readings "jump" like that, go over to your satellite screen, you'll find that you've lost some lock-ons and you'll need to wait to get them back. If you cannot get them back, go somewhere you get a good read, take a bearing and use the compass.