Team Giblert

Had there not been a suggested minimum, it's doubtful you would have been able to grab as many as you did. So despite campaigning against them, you in fact take advantage of the 'hotel' status. As for the 'prison' status, I haven't run the numbers <yet>, but I would guess that the following stats are probably true (compared to the median values for that TB); TBs stay for a shorter period of time in this cache, TBs jump a longer distance when leaving this cache, TBs jump a longer distance into this cache than the median Maybe not true for all TB Hotels, but given the location of this (walking distance from one of the 50 busiest airports in the world) it gets very good volume. Signed; The Cache Owner

Interesting. So if I leave a troll doll in a cache, it's not mine, but if I attach a piece of aluminum to it, I retain ownership? I thought the piece of Aluminum was to track where it went, not an 'ownership' tag.

Recently we were chalenged by a situation that happened at our bug house, a person came by and grabbed a large number of travel bugs, without leaving any. This was in breach of one of the rules we posted for the bug house to maintain a minimum number of bugs in the bughouse. As the keeper of the bug house, we beleive that they exist so that cachers (especially from out of town) visits, that they have a guaranteed place to SWAP travel bugs. -- Are rules like this a good thing or a bad thing? -- What makes a good bug house? -- Is taking without leaving OK? And, is it any different than going to someone's regular cache and posting a "Took Everything - Left Nothing, will move items on to another cache"? -- Is it OK to disrespect the wishes of a cache owner re: trade rules? -- What is reasonable for a bug house with 318 log entries in 26 months (10-15/month)? Oddly enough in the past, I've even voiced my opinion against a travel bug house with a (high) limit, as it had very low visits (20 bugs, 1-2 visitor/month), yet here I am voicing that people should respect limits if they're reasonable. OPINIONS?

Your GPSr doesn't beam ?? Time to get a Garmin RINO. You can send waypoints to each other, and you show up on each other's maps. In fact, the perfect GPS would be an updated RINO with... - Features off the 60CS (Colour, auto-routing) - more transmit power on the radio When Garmin make that I'm buying more! but already the Rino series are great GPS units for working together.

We got stopped at the US border and after a brief explanation of geocaching we had to produce our GPSs... So it happens both ways

I'm hoping someone in Hull (or even Ottawa) can help us get one of our BEAR CAN travel bug back on track. It's currently stuck in "Burger Toys" - GCG7FV. The cache is just outside Hull (although GC.com shows it in Ontario). Thanks!

Rumour has it that it's easier to drive around and find open networks rather than take the time to look them up in advance. Assuming you're in a major city that is. I know people who've travelled to Las Vegas, Seattle, etc. and simply driven around residential neighbourhoods until they hit on an open network. Each time it took less than 30 seconds. Not that I would do this of course. But I did hear that it might be legal in the US - or atleast a grey area (by not password protecting your network you are by default giving permission for people to use it).

Have you installed CacheMate yet? It works great for this. Marie

Not that I'm aware of either. However, you can get them from Capital Iron in Victoria if you're ever over on the island.

Ammo boxes are not as common here in southern BC as in the US. Lock-n-lock seem to be more popular. I'm guessing that because Canada has less military presence, it also has less army surplus to sell. We bought an ammo box recently and it was pretty expensive.

I think graveyards are interesting, especially the older ones. I've enjoyed the graveyard caches I've done in the past. But yes, rules must be obeyed. I just found out that my local graveyard is only open to the public during the day.

San Juan Island has 7 Orcas Island has 6 Lopez Island has 5 Shaw Island has 2 These are the islands accessible by ferry. There's another 10 or so, spread over smaller islands. And Victoria BC has about 250

British Columbia

Well, I think there are two options here; 1) The Meridian Platinum. It's a bit big, but has every feature you'd want, including a very handy 3-axis compass (you can hold it at any angle whereas Garmin's you have to hold flat) 2) (What I have) A Garmin RINO. In my mind, much nicer than the equivilant eTrex (the 110/120/130 are roughly eTrex Yellow/Legend/Vista). I own a 120, and it has all the nice mapping/easy to use stuff of the Legend, but with a much better antenna. You can get a new RINO 120 for about US$200, and you end up with an FRS radio as well (which is excellent when you're out w/ a group).

Hmm, interesting question. We drive a 2001 Ford Escape 4WD, 4cyl, 5speed (not even available from Ford anymore). Big downside for us was your engine transmission choices; 5sp/2.0 4cyl or auto/3.0 V6. We would have preferred a 5sp/V6, but it's not available (last I looked they didn't even support 4WD with the 4cyl any more). As for Ford vs Mazda (they're basically the same car), there was a big difference in price, the Ford being considerably cheaper (for the same config.) here in Canada. It's been pretty good, although it had a sticky shifter early on (but then everything is sticky compared to my Acura's). The 4cyl is a bit enemic up steep hills, but has never failed to get us there. As for the 4WD, it's impressive. We have a cabin 20km off the road, and in deep snow last christmas, not a problem. It's actually an impressive climber in 2WD, mostly due to the fact that in 2WD it uses the FRONT wheels, which is VERY VERY unusual. I'm not big on the looks of the Saturn, BUT! and this is HUGE.. The (6 cyl) 2004 Saturns have a HONDA engine and drivetrain. Certainly that's enough to warrant a good looksie given you wouldn't be stuck with one of GM's small engines. Also in the US built, Japanese powered ones is the Pontiac Vibe, which is powered by a Toyota engine (same as the Celica). What would be buy next time? Don't know, but I sure like the build quality of Honda, and the Honda Pilot (their larger SUV) would be a good consideration. As for the ugliest SUV, didn't Pontiac have the lifetime achievement award with the Aztec that was out a couple of years ago ??

I use an ATEN USB adaptor. It was dirt cheap ($20 Cdn about US$15) The model is UC-232A (it's the same as the IO Gear, but cheaper).

For cachers in Vancouver, I found a good supply today. Gorilla Surplus on E.Broadway (@Woodland Dr) has a good selection of decent ones ranging from $10 to $40 (the $40 ones are HUGE).

Actually the way George Bush is running the economy down there, I'd expect the Canadian Dollar will probably pass the US$ in worth. It's already up about 25% since GWB took over.

How good is the reception on the new 60C/60CS ? I've got a basic eTrex, and I'm looking for something that will pull in the satellites better under tree cover.

Not uncommon at all. For a short flight (25min) in a airplane, I've had 3 altimeter calibrations from ATC. The way altimeters work is that they read the pressure of the air, and having been told what the equivilant pressure should be at sea level, work out how high you are (air pressure drops about 1" of Mercury per 1000 ft). If the ambient air pressure is changing due to weather changes, your altimeter is changing.

On the grounds it says "GATEWAY TIMEOUT", it sounds like you're using a web proxy, and that's what's failing. What do you have set under TOOLS / INTERNET OPTIONS / CONNECTIONS / LAN SETTINGS. If you have a proxy set, try disabling it (unclick all the options)

I applaud your forming of the Ontario society. I am especially impressed by the the call for volunteers, rather than just setting it up w/o opinions being sought first.

Q: How many discussion board readers does it take to change a light bulb? A: 1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed. 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently. 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs. 1 to demand that the post be moved to the "Lighting" section. 2 to argue that it be moved to the "Electrical" section. 7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs. 5 to flame the spell checkers. 3 to correct spelling/grammar flames. 6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb"... another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid. 2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp". 15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct. 19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum. 11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum. 36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty. 7 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs. 4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URLs. 3 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this group, which makes light bulbs relevant to this group. 13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too!". 5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy. 4 to say "Didn't we go through this already a short time ago?" 13 to say "Do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs". and then... 1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

We can't wait for some of the future cache machines, especially the upcoming Vancouver cache machine in the spring. Although we've done most of the potential cache machine stops, it would be great fun to hang out w/ the gang again If you're looking for another good place to hold a machine, how about Nanaimo BC? (49 09.000 -123 59.000) gives about 80 caches in 20km (12 mi) radius, and Nanaimo is a relatively inexpensive place to stay (as compared w/ Vancouver & Victoria)

Cobra have a long way to go before their units are the least bit useful for geocaching. 1) They need to publish the data interface so common programs can actually upload/download waypoints to it. It's compatible with nothing out there except their own software, which I believe costs extra $$ (along with the cable which also costs $$) 2) It needs to not decide 'Arrived at destination'. When your cobra gets about 15-20m from the waypoint it says "Arrived at destination" and stops navigating. For these two reasons, a friend of ours just sold hers and is now using an eTrex Legend (which she just loves). Maybe it Cobra fix a few of their issues, it'll be popular, but until then....