ClayJar
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Posts posted by ClayJar
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The container was nowhere to be found, but the trip was excellent.
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Any more takers? (I had a friend convinced, but then he opened MapSend Topo and took another look, and suddenly he became unconvinced...
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Any more takers? (I had a friend convinced, but then he opened MapSend Topo and took another look, and suddenly he became unconvinced...
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I had originally posted this as a reply to another thread, but it didn't seem to fit, so I'm transplanting it... hope you don't mind too much.
Well, I'm still plodding along toward 100... someday I'll make it, and when I do, I'll think to myself, "What on *earth* have I been doing to take *this* long to get to 100 finds."
And you know what?
My answer to myself will go something like this:
I've climbed around the side of a mountain and seen the hills from an angle I never would have before.I've come face to almost face with my first real, live rattlesnake.I've seen a forest in Georgia that reminded me of the forests I saw years ago back in Washington.I've hiked over a mountain and run back down a paved road in the heaviest sudden rainstorm I've seen outside Louisiana.I've finally hiked at least one mountain on the Appalachain Trail.I've discovered that I *hate* ticks almost, but not quite, as much as I love hiking.I've seen Planet of the Apes recreated in real life at the site of an old former mill town, now reclaimed by the forest.I've been to the beach to search for a needle in a haystack, and I've been back to actually find it.I've discovered the nemesis that is the southern log-legged trail spider (which I'm sure has a more scientific name than that, but it can't be any more descriptive).I've seen roads to nowhere that were once WWII army bases.I've discovered that there are some places I just don't want to be.I've learned that just because you can put a cache on a neat island in the Mississippi River doesn't mean it'll *ever* go down enough to check if it's still there.I've learned that yellow jackets really, *really* hurt, especially when you're two and a half hours from home.I've discovered that Louisiana's highest neighbors are very, very antisocial. (Of course, I didn't meet them personally.)I've gotten to see the view from the top of a real lighthouse, and I know what Lake Pontchartrain does to a canoe when it's stormy. I've had bacon with friends I've gotten to know well and yet had never met.I've paddled through a forest and walked over a lake... in one cache.I've walked down a path through a veritable forest of prickly pears.I've gone out alone into the quite lively waters of the Tensaw Delta.I've been surprised at seeing little teeny prickly pears on an island in Florida, within feet of the water.I've actually met Jeremy (hey, for me, at least, it was cool).You know, when I step back and I look at the "me" who bought a MAP 330 a year ago tomorrow and I compare that "me" to who I am now, I have to say that even while I've been thoroughly enjoying myself, I've been discovering more of who I am than I have in long time. Now I know what I enjoy doing, and I know that I am capable of a whole lot more than I ever really thought I could do. (And of course, I know that if it comes down to a movie with J. (mi ami) or a cache, the movie wins every time... unless she's also available another evening and it's a really good cache.
)So, basically, if it makes them happy, it's nice that people are getting lots of finds. For myself, though, I'm going to keep up my leisurely pace, and in the process, I'm going to keep my eyes open for more adventures, more challenges, more enlightenment, and more of what makes caching what it is to me.
(But I *will* cross 100 sooner or later... of that you can be sure... mostly.
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I had originally posted this as a reply to another thread, but it didn't seem to fit, so I'm transplanting it... hope you don't mind too much.
Well, I'm still plodding along toward 100... someday I'll make it, and when I do, I'll think to myself, "What on *earth* have I been doing to take *this* long to get to 100 finds."
And you know what?
My answer to myself will go something like this:
I've climbed around the side of a mountain and seen the hills from an angle I never would have before.I've come face to almost face with my first real, live rattlesnake.I've seen a forest in Georgia that reminded me of the forests I saw years ago back in Washington.I've hiked over a mountain and run back down a paved road in the heaviest sudden rainstorm I've seen outside Louisiana.I've finally hiked at least one mountain on the Appalachain Trail.I've discovered that I *hate* ticks almost, but not quite, as much as I love hiking.I've seen Planet of the Apes recreated in real life at the site of an old former mill town, now reclaimed by the forest.I've been to the beach to search for a needle in a haystack, and I've been back to actually find it.I've discovered the nemesis that is the southern log-legged trail spider (which I'm sure has a more scientific name than that, but it can't be any more descriptive).I've seen roads to nowhere that were once WWII army bases.I've discovered that there are some places I just don't want to be.I've learned that just because you can put a cache on a neat island in the Mississippi River doesn't mean it'll *ever* go down enough to check if it's still there.I've learned that yellow jackets really, *really* hurt, especially when you're two and a half hours from home.I've discovered that Louisiana's highest neighbors are very, very antisocial. (Of course, I didn't meet them personally.)I've gotten to see the view from the top of a real lighthouse, and I know what Lake Pontchartrain does to a canoe when it's stormy. I've had bacon with friends I've gotten to know well and yet had never met.I've paddled through a forest and walked over a lake... in one cache.I've walked down a path through a veritable forest of prickly pears.I've gone out alone into the quite lively waters of the Tensaw Delta.I've been surprised at seeing little teeny prickly pears on an island in Florida, within feet of the water.I've actually met Jeremy (hey, for me, at least, it was cool).You know, when I step back and I look at the "me" who bought a MAP 330 a year ago tomorrow and I compare that "me" to who I am now, I have to say that even while I've been thoroughly enjoying myself, I've been discovering more of who I am than I have in long time. Now I know what I enjoy doing, and I know that I am capable of a whole lot more than I ever really thought I could do. (And of course, I know that if it comes down to a movie with J. (mi ami) or a cache, the movie wins every time... unless she's also available another evening and it's a really good cache.
)So, basically, if it makes them happy, it's nice that people are getting lots of finds. For myself, though, I'm going to keep up my leisurely pace, and in the process, I'm going to keep my eyes open for more adventures, more challenges, more enlightenment, and more of what makes caching what it is to me.
(But I *will* cross 100 sooner or later... of that you can be sure... mostly.
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Originally posted by DARC:I haven't found a portable way to save GPS data in anyway other then a limited propritary format.
IIRC, the TopoGrafix people and others are, were, and have been working together to create standard and open formats. I think Jeremy's talking to them, too. (They're the EasyGPS, et al, people.)
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Just remember that GMRS costs money for the license, too, eh?
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[This message was edited by ClayJar on May 26, 2002 at 06:57 PM.]
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Originally posted by Criminal:oops, I didn't click into the correct forum. Anybody know how to move this topic or delete it?
Well, the admins can move it to the General forum when they see it... but since it's still here, I may as well reply, eh?
I've done a nice bit of foul-weather caching. It adds a whole new dimension to it. I'd just recommend either an IPX7-certified receiver or a small waterproof bag (better than a ziploc, since those tear too easily on branches and such). Most Garmins, all the Magellan Meridians and the Magellan SportTraks (I think, but I can't find a spec sheet on them) are IPX7.
Oh, and the only other thing to remember is that you need a good poncho to use as a tent when you're opening the cache to log and trade... but it does get humid under there, so be quick.
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quote:
Originally posted by Criminal:oops, I didn't click into the correct forum. Anybody know how to move this topic or delete it?
Well, the admins can move it to the General forum when they see it... but since it's still here, I may as well reply, eh?
I've done a nice bit of foul-weather caching. It adds a whole new dimension to it. I'd just recommend either an IPX7-certified receiver or a small waterproof bag (better than a ziploc, since those tear too easily on branches and such). Most Garmins, all the Magellan Meridians and the Magellan SportTraks (I think, but I can't find a spec sheet on them) are IPX7.
Oh, and the only other thing to remember is that you need a good poncho to use as a tent when you're opening the cache to log and trade... but it does get humid under there, so be quick.
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Actually, since I am using geocaching.com, I have agreed to their terms of service. Included in that is that I grant them the right to do whatever they want with the data I submit. One of the things they have done is to grant the right to use the cache data to geocache (i.e. a person can look at a cache page, print it, and whatever).
Now, I have not been approached by any other site regarding my caches. This means that the only way I should see what I wrote on another site is if the guys at geocaching.com have granted that right. Any site that does not have permission from either geocaching.com or myself is infringing my implicit copyright (implicit because I have not actually filed anything with the appropriate copyright offices).
Now, as for something like Buxley's maps... I consider that fair use. Neither the descriptions nor even the coordinates are available from the pin maps. The only things of mine that is there are the names. If he started mirroring the pages without permission, I'd have a real problem with that, but he's not. Also, since I use his maps almost every week, if there was a question about whether it's fair use, I'll gladly type up my cache names and coords and send them along.
Anyway, I'm just wondering one thing: are there currently any sites that are mining data from the geocaching.com database? If this is not just a hypothetical discussion, I'd really like to have a look at what's actually going on in practice.
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Most of the Garmins seem to be able to save up to 10 reduced-detail tracks in-unit.
On the other hand, most Magellans cannot save additional tracks in-unit at all.
On the third hand, the Meridian series GPS receivers from Magellan (GPS [green], Gold, Platinum, Marine [blue and white], and Europe [yellow]) use industry-standard SD cards for removable storage, and since firmware version 3.12 came out, you can now save any number of full-detail tracks to the SD card. (You can also save any number of waypoint/route sets.)
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The forecast (no longer part of the extended forecast) for Monday calls for:
.VARIABLE WINDS 10 KNOTS OR LESS...BECOMING SOUTH DURING THEAFTERNOON. BAY WATERS SMOOTH TO A LIGHT CHOP.ISOLATED SHOWERS
From the sound of that, we should be fine to start from the east side around Point Clear (the winds were forecast to be northeasterly earlier in the week, but now they seem to be resolving to benefit launching from the point).
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As long as we're having fun, if you bump both the brightness and contrast way up and look at the shadow below the GPS receiver, you can see the grass and the curb in the shadowed area. Also, there is what appears to me to be a nearly end-on look at a tire with a bright hubcap, which would indicate that the object making the shadow is a vehicle parallel parked on the street.
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There's a similar type of program for the Magellan MAP 330 and Meridian series receivers. My receivers now have plenty of contact information where the lawyer screens used to be.
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There's a similar type of program for the Magellan MAP 330 and Meridian series receivers. My receivers now have plenty of contact information where the lawyer screens used to be.
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The Meridians don't have the snap-to-street or turn-by-turn directions that the Garmin GPS V has. That's the downside. The upside is that I've never seen a GPS V that lets you have 128MB+ of detail maps loaded and still lets you save an arbitrary number of waypoints/routes/tracks, too.
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The Meridians don't have the snap-to-street or turn-by-turn directions that the Garmin GPS V has. That's the downside. The upside is that I've never seen a GPS V that lets you have 128MB+ of detail maps loaded and still lets you save an arbitrary number of waypoints/routes/tracks, too.
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Sure, you can't orienteer with the level of detail in the MapSend Topo detail maps, but if you're orienteering, you'd better have a real map anyway. Topo more than fills my needs (it's got the streets and it's got the elevation).
Now as for S&D, I don't use the POI database, so it'd be completely pointless for me. The POI data that Topo has is good enough (although it's more like, "Oh, that used to be there." than "Okay, so there's a [whatever] 2.6 miles northeast."). I wouldn't want to trade the topo detail for more POI.
Now, as for how much you can load... You neglected to mention which receiver you have (MAP 330, MAP 330 hacked small basemap, SportTrak*, or Meridian with xxMB SD card), so I can't give you a good answer. I'd give you a few ranges for an example, *BUT* you seem to have forgotten to put a location in your profile.
(We'll forgive you, but please do put at least *something* in. Answers on these forums tend to be *highly* regional, as everything from caching seasons to park rules to detail map density depend quite strongly on region... I can fit huge areas in a small SD card, but it I lived near Washington, DC, the same are would have vastly more streets and take up much more memory.)
Oh, and the MapSend products are all 1 CD a piece (MapSend Streets, Topo, Streets & Destinations, etc). For obvious reasons, no downloads available.
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TopoZone uses NAD 27, but Geocaching.com uses WGS 84. Unless it's been changed, the required conversion is not done, which means the mark will be off. If you want the mark to be precisely where it belongs, you'll have to use the "convert to NAD27 or UTM" link under the coords and the cache page and then manually enter them in TopoZone. (If it happens that Geocaching.com now does the datum conversion, let me know so I'll know, eh?)
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.MONDAY...NORTH WINDS AROUND 10 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.
The forecast seems to be getting better and better... should be a good day to go for it.
I think that vicinity may be what we're looking for, but on the other hand, if the other side is better, the winds are now forecast to be from the north, so hmm...
[This message was edited by ClayJar on May 24, 2002 at 03:21 PM.]
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.MONDAY...NORTH WINDS AROUND 10 KNOTS. BAY WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.
The forecast seems to be getting better and better... should be a good day to go for it.
I think that vicinity may be what we're looking for, but on the other hand, if the other side is better, the winds are now forecast to be from the north, so hmm...
[This message was edited by ClayJar on May 24, 2002 at 03:21 PM.]
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I'm familiar with the fact that GGA has its own discussions elsewhere. I just couldn't resist a little note.
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I'm familiar with the fact that GGA has its own discussions elsewhere. I just couldn't resist a little note.
Middle Bay Challenge: First Attempt
in South and Southeast
Posted
The container was nowhere to be found, but the trip was excellent.