rdaines

Here's a recent hike/caching trip: Temp was 103F, equipment included a Camelbak 3L hydration pack with an additional 3L of water (bottles) in the pack, assorted low sugar snacks and powdered mineral replacement suppiments (add to water bottle). Plus all the usualy, sunscreen, FRS radios, tissues, knives, compass, GPSr... and packing my Rugar GP-100 in .357 Mag, no snake loads (shot shells).

Caarry pepper spray for dogs, a gun for protection against humans.

Care to share the cache location in question? I'm curious.

Use a traditional compass or the North Star, one will give you Magnetic North and the other true North. Depending on your location you may have to adjust for the variation if using Magnetic North. Weather Station Data

Repeating a behavior that does not result in a positive affect tends to be modified to a reduce frequency... meaning that if I keep releasing TBs (at a cost to me of $10 on average) and they keep getting stolen or poached then eventually I'll stop placing TBs. I used to believe that releasing as many as possible was he way to go, however, it seems that the more I place the faster they disappear. The final insults was a TB that traveled 0 miles and was stolen from one of my caches. A real slap in the face.

Here's mine...

I hve mixed feelings, on one hand a hotel should be a good place to leave a TB having a good chance of being picked up and moved. Some caches don't get visited for months... On the other hand, a hotel may dry up TBs going to nearby caches.

Not sure that they are poachers but there sure seems to be a lot of taking and then not reporting. I have lost quite a few coins and TBs this year. One disappeared from the first cache I put it in. Given the cost of the TB or coin and them the hitch-hiker I'm losing things at about $10 a pop.

While I appreciate a tough cache now and then I don't actively seek them out. You younger folks may like them and I'll happily leave them to you. Sure it feels great to grab a tough one, there is nothing wrong with having limits and ignore list.

I've got the Treo 700W with Verizon's broadband and it works fine. I can log finds onthe road or just use GPXSonar to look at the cache info page (stored on the internal card).

I'm not a big micro fan, especially the micro in the woods thing and urban micros. That said, I can't just ignore all micros because to do, occassionally, run into a great one.

Wouldn't this fall under the saying, "Take nothing but pictures and Leave nothing but footprints." One animal muggled geocache and finding McToys all over a trail would sure turn me off in a Wilderness area. Do we really need caches Everywhere?? No ones rights are being taken away but not allow caches in certain nature sensitive areas, you can still go there if there is a cache or not.

Benzene!!!! Ether!!!!! Dermal absorption!!!! Don't mess with the stuff, you're not a chemist and hace no idea how the "new" formulation will affect you or any one you put it on. Bad idea.

When I was real new to this sport I grabbed as many of the TBs as i could, they were cooool. Now I discover more but if a really exceptional TB or Geocoin showed up in one of my caches I just might grab it. And move it on. Heck, you could even out it back in the cache when you were done fondling it.

Obese Canadians in speedos at Old Orchard Beach, thanks for bring up that old, bad memory....

I use GPXSonar (free) on my Dell Axim and Treo 700.

Download them to what? Your PC, a PDA, Smartphone? The original download ws to print them out. If something more hi-tech is needed then yes, a program that reads loc or gpx files is needed. I use GSAK as has been already mentioned. To go paperless on the road a PDA or similar device with another program is needed, I use GPXSonar.

The 60 cx comes with a 64 MB microSD card and the other doesn't... I couldn't see much else doing the "Compare" on the garmin web site, so I don't really know.

Here is a "real life" situation, there is a local cache that has been around for well over a year but the container has developed a leak problem and the contents are chronically wet. The owner is able to do occasional maintenance but not quickly. One time I emailed the owner and, with permission, replaced the log and dried out the cache. Several months later it is wet again so it appears that the container is bad. I'm not about to run out (it's close by) and replace the container because of a few reports of "wet" unless I get a request from the owner. Face it caches age and degrade and owners may lose interest or move away. It's all part of the natural process of freeing up the spot for some one else. Caches have a life expectancy. I'll all for emergency help, like plastic bags, pencils, log books, duct tape but not container replacement. The container IS the interface between the hider and the seeker and is part of the experience, both good and bad. Is it a left over plastic container with the label scribbled out or a camo job that makes your jaw drop when you finally find it? Throw downs are also a problem, even in my short experience I've run across two already. Not cool.

If a muggle finds something that they were not looking for then the cache was not properly returned to it's hide. It the careless Geocachers who, in part, allow muggles to find caches. When I check on one of my near highway caches, it amazes me how sloppy cachers are about rehiding.

Sounds like the cache owner is out of the hobby and the cache is abandoned. No maintenace, few log ons, and no notes tells the story. Seems to me you just prolonged the life of something that should be considered trash. If the spot is of high value then let someone else have it.

I have to (respectfully) disagree. I (and many other cachers) find it rude to foist political or religious opinions on strangers, given the contentious nature of these subjects. That's the best reason in the world for banning religious and political tracts from caches. Using the term foist you are saying that some how there is trickery being employed to obscure the true nature of the subject of the reading material. When I see a small pamphlet that has God With Us written on it I imagine it is obvious to even the most daft of us here that God might just have something to do with religion. If one is adverse to the subject then one should ignore the item there is no trickery here. Sure, pamphlets (and such) left behind can be ignored and don't bother me. Messages written on the cache, type of container, or maybe even the shape of the container that communicate a message which is against the rules is another matter and should be deleted from the database.

All great suggestions, I'm making a 1500 mile trek in two weeks: I used Google two plan the routes (500 mile chunks) Used PQs to run the route queries Downloaded the waypoints int GSAK for reveiw Uploaded those of interest ito MapSource for further review Downloaded candidate caches to the GPSr. You can skip the MapSource step by going dirctly from GSAK to the GPSr.

I disagree with replacing cache containers (without permission), repairs are OK if possible. If a cache has degraded to the point of being trash then it should be treated as such. Excepting a tree or boulder landing on a cache, the container will degrade slowly over time. Finding one in such a state of disrepair tells me something about the owner's maintenance habits. It's the owners responsibilityand if it's a good spot let someone else have it who will do the proper work to keep the cache is good shape.

You could ask the reviewer to adopt it. I like to see really old caches kept going. There is a lot of history and memories with some of them. There was a recent thread on adopting caches, archived and abandond ones. I think the answer was to start a new one. If the cache owner is still around, then adoption is easier I would think.