HartClimbs

I can't read the forums at work anymore. I'm sitting my office laughing out loud. They'll think I've lost it..... (maybe they'd be right!)

I've had the pleasure of finding some of your caches - glad to be in your area! Hope to be a centenial member myself someday!

Cache hunting was a bust today (would have needed radar to locate anything under the snow) but I did get a chance to hide a new cache. Headed out with snowshoes (handy for traversing partially frozen swamps), found my GPSr (lost yesterday while scouting the site) and hid the cache. With more snow expected tonight - I figured any trace of my tracks from hiding the cache will be gone by tomorrow! Plus, playing in the snow is great! Spent most of the day sledding. For anyone heading toward "Once Mighty" with kids, bring sleds and snowboards - the location's a very popular sledding locale.

I have a Rino 120 and the only complaint I have is it lacks an autorecovery feature. I dropped it in the snow and had to search for it the next day (it didn't come and find me automatically). For idiots like me - it'd be a handy feature. Seriously, headed out this morning, found it buried under 6 inches of snow (partially coated in ice). Took it home, removed the batteries, let it dry out and it was as good as new. I'm very happy with my Garmin GPSr.

Found. Thanks again for all the suggestions. I had the radio on the Rino off (to conserve power), but heading back in the light of day (with a metal detector for good measure) proved to be the trick. Look for a new cache in the Morristown area being posted shortly. (maybe I'll call it "where's my #!#!!! GPS?".) - Hart

Thanks for the suggestions (I especially like the event cache idea - I'm always up for a party). I managed to quickly get my hands on a metal detector and will head back early tomorrow. When I was off placing the cache today (when I lost the GPS), I was surprised at how much hiking activity the small park gets, but I retraced my convoluted path (twice) before the light gave out and didn't see any trace (I expected to find a hole where the GPS landed but no dice). Good tip on the lanyard as well. I was using the beltclip on the Rino and (heads up Rino users), apparently the post that screws into the unit can unscrew pretty easily. Live and learn but I'll be finding this thing (hopefully) at first light tomorrow. I finished up the search by headlamp but it should be easier in daylight. I guess there's nothing left to do now but go out, shoot some pool, and drink.... - Hopefully still a GPS owner

Any suggestions on how to find a GPS receiver dropped in the snow? I know approximately the area but I've retraced my steps several times and no luck. I was thinking of finding someone with a metal detector (I'd think the batteries would cause it to register) but figured it was worth posting a question here to see if anyone has any suggestions. The area's pretty swampy - so simply waiting until the snow melts (and the ice melts as well) will probably mean the end of the unit. Ok....stop laughing...any ideas?

I have kids about the same age and they've been active outdoors since before they were able to walk. Whether it's canoeing, rock climbing, hiking, or camping - keep it fun with the focus on the trip, not the destination. Snacks and water is a good suggestion as well. The kids love the hiking and have had fun swapping their toys but I'd agree with what had been posted before - don't take the 4 yr. old any further than you'd want to carry them back! (it seems like a much longer trip carrying a tired 4 yr old back to the car). We've stuck to 2 1/2 stars or lower and they've invited many of their friends along to our weekend "hikes". Again - it's just another great excuse to get the kids outside! Good luck! - HartClimbs

Running out at lunch to find caches, heading out pre-sunrise on weekends to hunt caches and still get back home for the kids activities, and a dozen ammo cans in various stages of painting in the basement. I've only been doing this for a month or so and have logged 57 finds.... Doc....could I be obsessed? (at least it's a relatively healthy obsession!)

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quote:Originally posted by treemoss2: quote: Unless your in the Marine Corps or Special Forces I think this one is out . . . http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=35424 Wow, this cache has 37 people watching it. That is more than I have ever seen to be watching a cache. Could it be that this cache was actually placed by General Franks? The 37 folks watching it include Rumsfeld and folks at the State dept? You never know.... they *do* have access to the best GPS equipment available!!!

A backpacking trip was mentioned some time ago - even if I don't know the secret handshake for the NY/NJ club, can I still go? Just let me know what # of caches found/hidden you need to reach to be considered part of the club? Maybe it should follow Mark Twain's suggestion for a "modest" club? ("The object of this club shall be to eat and talk"). It's a pretty funny recounting and can be found at: http://www.boondocksnet.com/twaintexts/biography/paine_bio130.html

Mine's not as bad as described, but I have noted that a couple times (when it dropped from a few feet high), it did shut off. I'd assumed it was just that the battery terminals were pretty springy and if it hit just right, the intertia would cause the circuit to break - and it would poweroff. You may want to try expanding the spring the battery sits on (carefully!), to see if holding the batteries under greater tension helps. Mine's taking a beating already - and I've only noticed the poweroff on a couple especially grievious drops.

The U.S. version of the Rino comes with the GMRS disabled by default (it's a few menu selections if you want to enable it). Since I already had some older FRS radios I used (and don't have a GMRS license) - I don't have GMRS enabled on the Rino at all. My understanding is that the Canadian version ships with GMRS permanently disabled. Regardless - the "send location" feature (and tracking of contacts, etc...) only works in FRS mode (and can only be updated once in a 10 second period as per FCC regs!). So it's really a GPS/FRS combination with the GMRS there if you want for the future. Other folks have done a better job than me at describing the pros/cons....check out: http://www.gpsinformation.net/rino/rinorev.htm http://opentopic.Groundspeak.com/0/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1750973553&f=5740990093&m=8250920245 [This message was edited by HartClimbs on January 27, 2003 at 10:59 AM.]

Personally, I've been *very* happy with it. The only suggestion for a change I'd make to Garmin is to allow a setting to automatically turn off the radio by default (now - after powering it on - I just turn off the radio to improve battery life). Great product - it's my first GPS but it seems to have everything I could possibly want. It's been very sturdy (taking a beating even in the 6 weeks I've had it) but would definitely be most useful with other Rino's to communicate with. As to limits - I don't know how many "contacts" you can concurrently communicate with, but it supports up to 500 Waypoints - so I'd expect you'd be able to manage a good number of concurrent contacts without a problem. I've only read good things about them - and would score myself as a "delighted" owner. Hope the feedback's helpful (and no, I don't work for Garmin!). - Hart

Being new at this - I'm surprised at the varied perspectives (and I hadn't even given it much thought until I recently posted a few DNF's.). I had a few caches I didn't get near and had logged them as DNF (I didn't mind the frowny faces on my cache page! ) Anyway, I got some feedback that some folks use programs that "rate" caches based on DNF's - and my incompetence or newbieness shouldn't reflect on the cache. Sooooooo, for those caches where I had logged DNF's, when I found the cache - I updated the old DNF's to be notes (I didn't want to delete the logs since I thought they were funny) but felt a little gun-shy about leaving them DNF's. Honestly, I was fine with the DNF entries but based on the feedback from more experienced folks, I'd changed the notfnds to notes after I'd found the cache (of course, I still have notfnds I haven't managed to locate - so I still have those frowny guys in my log!). The way I figure it - there's tens of thousands of caches I haven't found......yet! - Hart (still learning every day!)

Let me qualify my answer by first stating that I'm a complete newbie myself (so hold my white cane and guidedog while I help you cross the street). That being said - I'm also an enthusiastic nerdo who got tired of printing out those cache pages and keeping them in the car. So, I took an old Palm Vx and tried to get the pages there easily. First, having been a long time avantgo user, I went that route. Unfortunately - either I didn't set it up right (or Avantgo custom channels are for @#!!), but all I kept getting was an "An error was detected from your IP address - please contact admin@Groundspeak.com"). So, done with Avantgo. Poking through the forums, I found reference to Plucker. So far, this has been the best solution for me, but the trick has been to setup the inclusion/exclusion lists so you gather the least amount of pages - with the maximum amount of info. First, I setup a simple HTML page (within plucker) that looks for the 25 closest caches to my house (the HIDESEEK link from geocaching). Then, I basically duplicated that link - incrementing the start number (by 25) until I had a page where I could reach the nearest 200 or so cache pages). Then - I determined that the only pages I wanted was the cache info page along with the "what caches are close" page, so I setup the exclusion/inclusion list to exclude EVERYTHING but exactly what I wanted. My setup is as follows (you can just copy this into the plucker config I believe). If you want to copy the "decrypted hint" page for example, just delete the line which excludes urls with "decrypt=y". Anyway, here it is: 2:-:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.*log=n.* 2:-:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest_cache.asp?ul=.* 2:-:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest_cache.asp?u=.* 2:-:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/.*decrypt=y.* 0:-:http://* 1:+:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.* 1:+:http://www.geocaching.com/my/.* 1:+:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/redir.*R=6$ 1:+:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.* 2:-:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.*log=y.* It's probably overly complex (I just downloaded/installed plucker a couple days ago and probably missed some very simple tricks), but it's a specific setup that works for me. I hope this helps but I'm very interested in what other answers you get (since I'm thinking this *can't* be the easiest way!). Regardless, last night - I downloaded info on the nearest 200 caches into my Vx - with nothing more than a hotsync. This plucker seems like a very useful program..... Good luck, - HartClimbs

...gathered a whole new set of flashlights, little penguins, and pencils/pens to trade. I guess I'll have to hide some caches to get this stuff out of the house!

.... I've climbed up in New Paltz many times (although sad to say not too recently!). [This message was edited by HartClimbs on January 22, 2003 at 08:00 PM.]

Sissy-in-CR, Good point - I hadn't thought about the "not found" being misleading to others. I updated those logs I referred to as "notes" instead so it's clear the cache was still there - I just couldn't reach it (and why). I'll reserve "not founds" for caches where I get to he coordinates but don't come across the actual cache. Thanks for the tip! - Hart (still a newbie but learning....)

Any Rino owners in northern NJ on this board? I'd had one on order for a while and received mine back in early December (when they first shipped), but I only bought one and haven't yet come across another owner so I could test out the "contact" and "send locations" functions. Having the GPS combined with FRS and GMRS in one package is very handy (so I only need to bring one set of spare batteries), but I haven't convinced any of my climbing partners to spring for one so I can use some of the cooler features. This is my first GPS receiver but I've been very happy with the performance and features. Anyone else in the area have one of these things?

I'd be very interested. Just need a little lead time to ensure all the kiddie-commitments are covered. Winter or Spring (even Summer or Fall for that matter) is fine by me and I'd love an excuse to unpack some of this gear that's been parked in the basement for too long! - Hart [This message was edited by HartClimbs on January 22, 2003 at 06:50 PM.]

I think it depends who you think the numbers matter to? I like sharing the experience with others - so I log the cache finds (and misses) online. I agree with others - I think it's also a courtesy to the cache owner. I'm very new at this, but I've logged as "notfound" a couple caches I didn't even get within a 1/4 mile of. I'm not sure that counts (or does it count if you drive to the parking site and decide it's too cold to hike?) but I thought the stories were funny - so shared them. If there's a competition - it's really only with yourself. I like the challenge of finding the caches - but wouldn't sweat how the caches are scored. I voted "find cache - sign logbook" but if I found a cache and there was no pen or logbook - well, I'll just be an outlaw and claim it as a find anyway! I do have a digital camera (although I don't bring it hiking much) and if it reached a point where I had to "prove" my finds, it would become more like a job (what's next - performance appraisals?). Of course, I'm new at this, so if there are trophies or cash to be won - please ignore my post and let me know (so I can delete my "not found" logs and improve my ACFA (average cache found average). Maybe there's a market for geocacher cards (like baseball cards) where folks can put their stats on the back! p.s. The *real* fun to this is having an excuse to 1) spend more time outdoors, 2) buy more techie toys, 3) spend more time outdoors, 4) find cool spots you'd never knew existed, and 5) spend more time outdoors. [This message was edited by hartclimbs on January 22, 2003 at 10:02 AM.]

I'm in - if anyone mounts a team effort, I'd love to participate (I just read the cache page and it certainly piqued my interest!). Just email me if you're mounting a weekend assault and I'm in (I can even provide a few radios). Plus, I've got a (relatively) clean record so I'll volunteer to be the guy who sits in the back of the police car if we get caught on the parkway! - Hart

What do you guys think about the idea of taking the cache a bit away from the hiding spot to open it and go through it (if possible). Since I frequently take my kids along - moving 100 ft away allows them to trounce around while exploring the cache contents while not making it totally obvious to the next searcher (by following the herd of wild children tracks). Also helps discourage any passers by who may see you while logging your visit from easily finding it. (especially in very public locations). Obviously - return the cache to the original location when rehiding it.... Figured I'd ask what folks thought..... - HartClimbs