geoStrider

Nice work! I'm working up a design for a future order. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

My wife got me a Legend for this past Christmas knowing my affinity for gadgets being an engineering geek. I did the usual stuff with it at first before I learned of geocaching. Established our property corners, calc'd the area, did a few tracks and routes, collected waypoints of favorite places, etc. I was surfing the web hoping to learn more about antenna types and feeling guilty that the unit was starting to reside in my desk drawer more and more. Ran across several references to geocaching and now I'm hooked. I figure I've been searching for property corners, section corners, and various benchmarks for work related reasons over the years, now might as well pick up a few McToys. It's turned into a great family thing for my boys and me Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Darn zipper on my fly is stuck again. Wait, maybe this machete will help. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

A similar situation happened to me and my 12 year old son today. We were at stage 2 of a multi cache in downtown Tucson and were sitting in the shade near an office building next to the stage 1 stop interpretting the clues for the next stage. A federal officer approached us from the building and explained that we were at a federal building, he had noticed us on his monitor, and said it appeared we were taking pictures of the building (which we weren't). I explained what my son had in his hand was a GPSr , not a camera. I gave the high level overview of geocaching and he seemed satisfied. Actually, he was very cordial about it, explaining that the complex was on a high level of alert. I thanked him for being vigilant in these times. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

quote: "Well, we found gloves and a flashlight. How unusual. Carrying gloves in Nebraska in February. Must have been a slow night for Officer Friendly. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

I would think that since the TB did not actually reside in any of the caches you visited (other than the one you found it in), you should not log it in and out. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

I like the chopsticks explanation better. Out here, they could be cactus spines. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Lew, I for one would like to thank you for taking the lead on the volume discount effort. That is the kind of thinking that benefits us all. If this goes anywhere, count me in. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Mopar nailed it. Newbie is a state of mind (and body?). Hey Mopar, love the "Boot to the Head" signature. It brought back some great Demento memories. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

All is fine. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Thanks for the great info Search1128. I'll give it a try. When the maps are downloaded to your notebook in advance for use on the road as you describe, is there a way to specify the boundaries of the aerial map you want or is there some default area downloaded? Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Here's one. I was coming back from a meeting out of town and decided to find a cache in the middle of nowhere. The search took me well off road in my passenger car. You know how it gets, you just can't turn back. It started to rain as I was driving through an abandoned farm. The clay soil became so thick in my rear wheel wells that the tires could no longer turn. I had to climb a hill to find a broken piece of board to use to dig the clay out. All of this in a white shirt, dockers, and business shoes. The quest for the elusive cache is a powerful force! Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Looks like a good idea from a fellow Arizonan. Here's another idea for consideration. I found a third party GPS cover on eBay for about $12 for my Legend. It is the neoprene variety that fully encloses the unit. It has clear vinyl windows for the side buttons, click stick, and screen. One other nice feature is the velcro loop on the back (I think this is actually either a belt loop or handle bar mount). I found that I can unpeel the velcro and use it to stick the unit to my dash mat where it gets good reception and is easily visible. I like this cover better than the Garmin cover because the entire GPSr is covered and protected from scratches and dirt. I did need to use a hole punch to make a clean hole for the click stick since the vinyl window was not pliant enough to use the stick otherwise. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

One geocacher in our area uses 2 and 3 inch diameter pvc pipe for geocache containers. They are generally 8 or so inches long and have been fitted with one screw on end caps and one closed cap. This individual goes so far as to paint them tan to blend in to our desert environment. They seem to hold up well over time, are water tight, and do not rust. Nice idea. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

One other factor to consider in the coordinate comparison is to be sure the datum of the benchmark is the same you have the GPSr set to. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Bartacus nailed it. The only other concern you might want to look out for is when the bearing is not an integer degree. Suppose you need a bearing of 151.5 degrees. The "error" introduced due the the 0.5 degree could be appreciable in the field depending on the distance over which it is projected. One solution would be to set your Legend to "mils" to better reflect the fractional bearing since there are 6400 mils in 360 degrees. You do this by selecting mils in the Display input area on the Heading submenu of the Setup menu. This is generally not often needed, but has helped me out on occassion. It saves on having to calculate a second bearing/offset for correction. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Interesting problem. Make sure that you are not inadvertantly turning on the backlight when not needed. This is a significant draw on the batteries and can result in early drain. Maybe this is the root of the shutdown problem. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Even California allows the sale of automatic knives if they have a blade that is under two inches. Yep, California. Same for eBay. Certainly, a simple non-automatic folding knife should be allowed in a cache. Maybe, to be resonable, place a length limit on the blade, but preferably just allow pocket knives. Pocket knives are a favorite find for many geocachers, certainly a treasured find for my two boys. Caution geocachers - snide remark follows: I got a nasty paper cut off of a log book page. Should sharp edged paper be permitted in a cache? Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Wow. $20 bills and electronics. Sounds like I should be geocaching out east. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Any good stories out there on valuable items having been found in caches? Any record on the most valuable cache find? No Markwells please, just looking for new stories. I found a $10 gift card to Starbucks in a cache just yesterday. Given the proliferation of Starbucks shops, at first I thought someone had opened a franchise in the ammo can. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Thanks to everyone for the opinions and for taking time to post. Looks like we geocachers are a representative cross section of the general population of the USA, Canada, (and other countries?). Jeremy is correct, this has strayed far from the initial intended topic and devolved into a right to own a gun debate (see the lengthy cut and paste survey/study ramblings from the CA teacher). Again thanks for the posts. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

test of URL referencerandom test topic reference Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

How do you make an apple float? Two scoops of vanilla icecream and one levitating apple. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

Now, where in the heck did Sparky, my invisible horse, go? Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...

I was wondering whether many geocachers carry firearms while out and about. Given my proximity to the Mexican border and all that entails (illegals, drug trafficers) and some of the extremely remote cache locations common to the wide open west, I generally carry a Sig Sauer 9mm for which I have a concealed carry permit and am sure to check firearm requirements for the areas I will be geocaching in. I have run across other geocachers with rifles at one cache and thought this might make for an interesting discussion. Veni, Vidi, Cachi ...