[Good vs Bad caches]

My wife and I have not been caching very long. We don't even have the high numbers most seem to have. That being the case any cache that's maintained we've enjoyed thus far. Micro's, while small and a pita to some we find them challenging to find adding to the fun. Regulars, we like because of being able to drop off a little something and the prospect of a bug to move along. Jumbo, well, those we find outright funny. We like walking in the woods, hiking in the parking lot and walking downtown. Some of them we often wonder how in the h e double toothpicks did someone get permission to place it where it is.

 

One such cache we recently did fit that category. Not only did it take two trips but it also showed me to trust my gut instinct. It wasn't hidden in a place we encountered yet but it was hidden where you couldn't just walk up to it. Muggle factor? Heck, on a Sunday would be your best bet given it was right in front of God and everyone. We took it as a challenge to take. We did so successfully as well.

 

Now, we're looking to place several of our own caches of various interesting nature. We've talked long and hard and came to a decision that a particular type would fit our personality more than "really hard to find" "historical" "smallest" or even "common". We're working up some that will, we hope, be humorous. I have several types and ideas now all that is left is the permissions. One particular place will probably take as much skill to get as it'll take to get the permission. Not that it's a questionable location, just one of my favorites that has taught me about the very aspect of geocaching. A library. Nope, it's not a book cache either.

 

My idea of a good cache? Anything that's maintained and difficult yet not to be confused with illegal activity.

[New in town...]

My wife and I started geocaching last December. Somewhere along the way we seem to have got another local we have yet to meet addicted as well. We're looking to start our own cache and we had a few questions in relation to it and another not.

 

1) We've seen the sample letter to leave in the cache on gs.com. Are there any other variations that we can look at as well? Multiple language perhaps?

 

2) We've also seen many logbooks as well. Some of them, particularly for smaller caches, look to have been printed. Is there a file somewhere to be found to download and use? Several of our logs may have to be smaller than a tablet and fit in a spice container.

 

Finally, We've been using a Magellan GPS 315 I bought about 5 years ago or so and recently purchased the download cable. Using that thing has proven invaluable and great as far as saving time in regards to entering the information. We also use a Magellan exPlorist 200 however it doesn't have that wonderful feature. We are looking to upgrade to a Magellan 500 LE that does have that and many other features that seem great including downloading maps and such on the SD card. Does anyone here have any advice, suggestions, good or bad experiences with that particular model? We'd like to know from the boots on the ground before pulling the trigger on it. We opted for it since it had a color screen, ran on regular batteries, had an SD slot, and a download cable while other similar priced models in the Magellan line do not.

 

TIA