Dru's Pet

*cheerful wave* buh-bye! It's c-------s like you who are driving away newbies and giving this forum a bad reputation. Yes I'm a newbie, been caching and visiting these forums for just a week. If the way some of you act here on the forums is any indication of what you are like 'in the flesh' I have no desire to be associated with you or in meeting you. (Unless I'm carrying a 45 caliber baseball bat) There are no doubt a few genuinely nice people here but they seem to be a very small minority. This is another case of a bunch of people who think because they were here longer, have more post, more 'finds', etc they own the place. They sure don't make newbies welcome, in fact they go out of there way to be rude and demeaning. I'm seriously considering giving up the 'sport' completely.

To go geocaching... my costs... Gas.... $whatever. Trade items (bought at Family Dollar) $10 GPSr .. already had one I was using for something else, but it did cost $90, so....$90 Paper and ink to print cache pages.... almost nothing. That's it. Total cost ... if I had to buy the GPSr..... $100. + gas

Hi. I'm a noob so perhaps this won't be too helpful but here goes. The coords given on the cache page (top left corner, under the title) are given in Degrees, Minutes, and decimal minutes. eg, N44, 02.245 ----- W088, 41.068 meaning North 44 degrees, two 'point' two four five minutes --- West eighty eight degres, fourty one 'point' zero six eight minutes. This is often see as ... DD,MM.MMM(M) {the (M) is 'optional'} OK, not what you are asking. You should be able to change the setting on the GPS. Without knowing what model you have I can't give an exact "how to". With mine (eTrex) I go to SETUP....UNITS...POSITION FRMT (format) and then select the format you require. Personally I'd stick to the same format as given on the cache details - hDD,MM.MMM' Now that I have you totally confuddled... I hope that helps. Edited to fix typo.

I have an intense dislike of poeple who think they are above everyone else because they have xxxx posts / finds, whatever ... and don't remember they were a newbie once. A topic might be 'old' to some but there are a lot of people here for the first time. If you don't want to re-read the thread ..... don't.

Hi. I'm new and I use a Garmin eTrex (yellow). It's basic but does the job. I also have a Magellan Roadmate 300 (Like a Tom Tom). This does not allow Lat / Long coord BUT it does help getting you close if driving to a cache. What I do is.. 1) Enter the cache coords (lat/long) into the eTrex GPS. 2) Print the cache page, and write the waypoint number (from the GPS) on top of the page. 3) On a map find the nearest intersection to the cache 4) Enter this into the Roadmate 300 and give it a name matching the cache title. Then I go use the Roadmate to get me close and the eTrex for final pinpointing. eTrex (yellow) was under $100 new but I think may now be unavailable new. Look on ebay. Or if you think this sport is something you will be doing lots of I'd get a better GPSr and save a lot of messing around having to use 2 units.

Hi fellow noobs. Congrats on the find. I started caching last saturday and already have 18 finds, one of them a 'first to find'. Also have 3 DNF's but I'll go back and I will find them. Yep, good sport. Now that I know this is something I want to do more of I will upgrade my equipment.

There is already a thread for this topic .. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=147723 All I can say is .... geeze you guys carry a lot. I just take my GPSr, print outs, 2 or 3 trade items, pen, and transceiver. edited for typo

K.I.T, find the cache. Go ahead and do it. The branch is in a public place and the owner has no say in what people do with / to said branch.

OK, I've only been a cacher for less than a week and I only have 17 finds (4 DNF's not logged, I WILL find them) but I already have a dislike of micros in places big enough for .... something bigger. 11 of 17 caches I've done have been 'micros in trees'. Seems silly when these are in the middle of acres of land with way more potential. Tomorrow I'm scouting a location to hide my first cache. Let's see, what can I do? I know, a micro in a tree EDITED to add: It just so happens the 4 DNF's are 3 'regular' and 1 'small'. Go figure. So, you don't have to go micro to make a cache hard to find.

Forty two? I was 42 once. Can't remember it though. Hey, 42 is the answer to the BIG question. "Life, the universe, and ... everything". Go Zaphod.

I just got home from a day ... few hours... of caching. I'm a noob so a little slow at it. Anyway, Since Geocaching is new to me and not something I planned on become involved in (It kinda just happened) I'm not equipped yet. So, what I had with me today... Cheap and nasty GPSr that I removed from my HAM radio set-up (Yellow eTrex) Yeasu hand held radio (HAM). Never without it. Pen, pencil, reading glasses in shirt pocket Print out of cache details in same pocket 2 or 3 trade items in pants pocket keys and wallet in other pants pocket. That's it. I plan on getting a pack of some kind and stock it with all kinds of "stuff"

I'm in. Not sure how it's going to affect the curve. Actually, there was no >140 so I had to fudge it a little.

Newbie here so I still don't know all the tricks. My 'method' Turn on computer Go to www.geoching.com log in, enter my ZIP Find a few caches near where I'm heading. Print the cach pages Manually load the positions into the GPSr, yellow eTrex (basic). I use 'Waypoint 001, 002, 003,.. etc. On the top of each cache page I write the waypoint number for that cache Then... on the maps I look for the nearest road intersection for each position. last step is to program (manually) these road intersections into my Magellan Roadmate 300 (This does not allow you to enter Lat/Long coordinates... blast). Grab a snack and head off. I've only been Geocaching for 3 days so like I said ... newbie. Now that I know this is something I wish to do more of I will be getting a better GPSr and a cheap PDA.

Hi. I'm new here also but thought I'd add a comment. The way I understand it is ... the Forum is on a different server so you need to log in when you arrive. Being logged in at the 'main' geocaching.com site does not automatically log you into the forums. At least not for me. Now then ... Hi. Started this new sport 2 days ago. Found a few, couldn't find a couple. It doesn't help that there is still snow and 12" of ice in some places. Anyway, so far so good. Need to update GPSr and get a PPC.