Cadwalader

I am setting up a series of GeoCaches at a Boy Scout Reservation in Maryland (Broad Creek). Since a number of troops and packs in the area do not have members with GPS'r I would like to have 5-10 units that could be checked out by troops who want to search. I am donating my Magellan 315 and a freind has added has added a Magellan 320. They aren't super accurate, but for the purpose they will suffuce. If anyone has any old units that still work, and they would like to donate, please email me at cdwldr@aol.com.

Bear in mind that GPS signals from the satellites are about the equivelant of a 75 watt light bulb 12,000 miles away. That our little hand held units have sufficiently sophisticated electronics to differentiate that weak a signal at all amazes me. When you go under, near or behind any sort of object - tree trunk, bridge, leaves, etc., the signal is even weaker and less reliable. It is often desirable when caching to simply stop and hold the unit above your head for a minute or so to let it "settle down" and acquire the signal better and re calculate your position. The longer I let my Magellan Merdian sit still the more accurate it becomes. Good Luck Cadwalader & the Golden Horde

You may want to remember that this sport/game is 99.99% volunteer driven. Calling your fellow cachers "Nazis" when they don't respond fast enough, or in the manner that you expect, is not my idea of an ethical player. When you are willing to spend hours of your time reviewing caches and applying the rules as fairly as possible, let us know. Until then lighten up a bit. Cadwalader

Are there a lot of cachers who would like to see more handicapped accessible and/or car caches (you can drive pretty close to the cache)? I don't see many such caches around, but could probably hide a few that required more mental skill than physical prowess to find.

Perhaps I was not clear about my concern. I can always ignore those caches which seem to be beyond the Golden Horde's interest, but all too often caches are mis-rated and less experienced or less adventurous cachers are disappointed by frustratng searches. My original post was general since there are a number of caches placed that are difficult to "get to" or "find". My boys and I enjoy difficult caches if there is some obvious effort made to provide fun and a challenge - not just to stuff a cache in a log in the middle of a swamp or as far back in a poison ivy patch as possible. The "Little Nasty" cache in Maryland was what got me thinking about newer cachers. It is located right in the middle of a family park, but is disguised so that it is virtually impossible to find. This is beyond the 5 star rating. I can plant caches so that they can't be found, but where's the fun in that? I enjoy the outdoor activity, the challenge, and especially the wit and humor of the hiders. Cadwalader & the Golden Horde cdwldr@aol.com

Part of the problem with the current rating system is that the definitions do not cover some extreme cases. Many caches are rated 4 or 5 and can still be found with a reasonable amount of effort. If everyone else enjoys looking for caches that are essentially impossible to find, then perhaps we need a different dfinition of the sport/game.

I'm a bit concerned over some of the caches being hidden around my area - Maryland. A couple have been so hard to find that they took experienced, hard core cachers multiple visits to find. There might need to be a new rating system that says "This cache for super cache freaks only." I enjoy Geocaching because it is a fun game/sport that I can enjoy with my family. We do not enjoy hunting around for multiple hours in poison ivy and mosquitos for a cache that we can't find even then. The game/sport will not attract new members if they try one of these chaes early on and loose interest. Perhaps Jeremy can come up with an "Extreme Cache" rating or such that will warn people like me not to bother even looking, since it is hidden for a select few hard core searchers. Cadwalader & the Golden Horde

I would like to get a bit more information. I called Cedar Point and their police today and was told that: 1-They have no prohibition against GPS units, and that 2-None of the police knew of anyone taking a GPS away from anyone recently. Now, either the cop you ran into was an abbaration, or they are lying to me. I would like to run an article on the problem, but need some more specifics so that I can inquire of the Cedar Point officialdom intelligently. Please email me through GeoCashing.com or directly at CDWLDR@AOL.COM. Cadwalader & the Golden Horde

First, Jeremy seems to spend a lot of his time making sure that the rest of us have fun - instead of whimpering about your perceived misfortune, try communicating with him rationally. If it is true that you don't pass that way very often, then I would doubt the wisdom of sropping off a cache without fairly constant supervision. Secondly, while the purpose of this game is for us to have fun looking for your caches, it is not so much an ego gratification game for the cache placers. I do enjoy hearing positive comments from those who find my caches, but I'm just as happy when they merely sign the log and keep on going. There must be some other reason for your cache being archived - I have a set of four caches in reasonably close proximity to each other, but they provide a "4-pack" of finds of varying difficulty for one long drive into the park. Make sure of the diversity fo your caches and I'm sure that you will have no further problems. In the meantime consider who's maintaining the site and therefore most of the game for you.

Instead of a calling card we have printed two different sizes of address / mailing labels with "Cadwalader & the Golden Horde were here" and two lines for the date and what we traded. These go into the cache's logbook and are both our signature, and easy to place.

I agree - one cache, one find. When I take my Boy Scout Troop out GeoCaching we often go to sites that I have found with my sons. We never log a second trip, just one for the troop.

One 2wd VW Vanagon, 1 4wd (Syncro) VW Vanagon, 1 4wd (Syncro) VW Transporter, 1 16" 4wd (Syncro) ex US Army Double Cab Transporter, 1 Jetta. US Army 16" Double Cab is favorite for GeoCaching - it will go anywhere.

I am relatively new to GeoCaching, and my boys (the Golden Horde) and I already feel that we want to hide some caches is areas where there are few. Our extended family owns a farm which backs up to a State Park, and we allow through hikers to cross our property between two parts of the park. We intend to place at least one cache on our property near that through trail. In order to put geocachers at ease, as well as cover any liability problems we have decided to add statement to our description, when we place it, that says: "Geocachers carrying this description with them have permission to enter our private property while searching for the cache. Please treat our property with care. Have fun!" Perhaps when anyone else places a cache on private property they could include a similar statement so that geocachers can search without feeling guilty.

Perhaps this will be redundant but - the direction you want to go is your bearing - the direction you are actually going is your heading. Your GPS might direct you to walk through a tree (bearing), you take discretion over valor and go around the tree (heading). Remember that GPS units can not tell you which way you are looking, they can only tell you which way you are moving by calculating your position changes. That's why you bring a compass - to tell you which way is north when you are standing still.

The GPS satellites are putting out power roughly equal to a 75 watt light bulb 12,000 miles away. Add to this small amount of power the small inaccuracies involved in the precision timing reuqired. This gives most hand held units a realistic accuracy of 20 to 50 feet - IF THE SATELLITE SIGNAL IS GOOD. Since the signal strength is so weak many things can attenuate the signal - trees, rain, etc. All of this means that you simply will not get pin point accuracy at the same coordinates time after time - GPS will get you close and then you have to do some hunting.