Search the Community

I'm going to guess that the link is not secure (http://) and thus Chrome blocks the download attempt. Obviously the solution is for the engineers at HQ to update the e-mail template to use a secure link, because Geocaching.com can definitely talk https://. For now the easiest way to get your results is going to be to download through the Pocket Queries page. Namely: Open https://www.geocaching.com/pocket/default.aspx. Click "Pocket Queries Ready for Download" Download the appropriate query. Alternatively, you can: Right-click "Download now" in the e-mail. Click on "Copy Link URL" Open a new tab, and paste the URL. Before you hit enter, make sure that the URL that you pasted begins "https://" (note the "s").

I can't get my sportrak pro and my computer to talk. i know it has to be something simple but it evades me. My etrex venture works with the computer just fine.

Hi all, A couple of geocaching video creators from New Zealand recently shared an interesting talk about the events leading up to Selective Availability being disabled. I thought it was really interesting and wanted to share it here. From the video description: "This Cache Walk is a talk by Jason Kim from the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing, Washington, D.C. He talks about turning off the Selected Availability (SA) feature in 2000 which increased the GPS accuracy to the public allowing the game of geocaching to begin." I hope you enjoy this.

I have seen several references in non-caching related sites that indicate that my Garmin eTrex should be able to communicate with my Sony Clie Palm device. Does anyone know if this is in fact the case, and if it is, how, and what cables would be required? Thanks

Why would they need to hide geocaches to battleship the finals? They could just use the saturation checker without actually submitting any caches for review. This is not the first time this topic has come up. Here is one of Keystone's replies to one of the earlier threads: So, suppose I tell you that your proposed location is 110m northwest of the final coordinates for "Cacher Conundrum," a five-star puzzle cache that only four people have ever solved and logged in the past three years. Armed with that intelligence, you track down the container and sign the log at the same time when you move your cache to a spot that's 162m away. What do I get for being helpful? A flaming email from the CO of "Cacher Conundrum," who also posts to three Facebook groups, and files a complaint with Geocaching HQ that I gave away secret information and ruined the puzzle cache. Having had that happen to us enough times, reviewers nowadays are constrained to be less forthcoming with details. Depending on your reviewer, you may get a hint, like "you are less than 161m from "Cacher Conundrum," GCABCDE, or you may get a hint that you should strongly consider moving to the southeast, or you may not get any guidance at all. So, that's how come. In a world where people hack lab caches and share the final coordinates of puzzle caches in Facebook groups, the inevitable outcome of such a feature would be to spoil every puzzle cache, multicache and Wherigo cache, plus a fair percentage of letterbox hybrid caches. There are people who like placing and finding these cache types. Geocaching.com has chosen not to alienate them by ruining the ability to keep the actual locations a secret. "But all I need is a distance and direction," you might say. So, the cheater simply enters enough coordinates into the planner tool to permit them to hone in on the actual location through triangulation. Think that can't happen? Talk to the travel bug stalkers who watch for drops of trackables in unpublished caches so they can figure out the locations and log a pre-publication "FTF." Talk to the group of cachers who hid traditionals in every conceivable spot within two miles of a 5-star puzzle, knowing they'd eventually "battleship" their way to a hit, and then they could do a scorched earth hunt within that area. I foiled them by publishing their cache even though it was 200 feet away from the puzzle final. Reviewers are smart humans*, you see, and that is better than an automated system. *Many reviewers are dogs.

OK I have slid down mud hills, fallen into water, had huge honkin spiders run across my arm and up my leg but nothing as gross as today. It was a beautiful day, the first real Spring like day we have had so I thought I would got caching since the wife was out of town with most of the kids. Also I wanted to break the 200 mark which I did. I decided to start off with the three Charlie Trail Duster caches and one Slinger cache out west I hadn't found. The first one I did was the Wilkesboro cache. I parked my car and since I had previously done CTD's Manning Cache I knew right where this was hiding when I saw where my GPS was pointing. I walked over and sure enough there was the "sign" under the tree cover. I started to reach down for the cache and as I did I noticed about six feet away there were three blue paper towels like a garage mechanic might use. It didn't take me long to figure out that someone couldn't wait and decided to use this tree cover as their own personal port-a-potty. I started to look for the pile and found it right away. Yep, it was only 3 feet from the buried cache and right under my left tennis shoe flattened out and squished all over. I'm sorry CTD but I didn't have a shovel or anything to remove it. I did well just to get the stuff off my shoe. After climbing back into my car I had to laugh as I realized that someone had given new meaning to "logging a cache". If you try this one soon, watch out. KTF !!! GBWY !!!

If you sent in the correct answers, the CO made a mistake. You don't say how he reacted when you asked him about it, so I can't say whether you should talk to him more or just ask for an appeal which I assume would be quickly granted. I've run into cases where the question required specific information from the sign -- e.g., available information says the elevation is 600' but the sign says 601' 3" -- but even in a case like that, the CO should allow the "close enough" answer when the sign is missing.

Yes, the leaderboard has been available since the very beginning, on the website and your points on the app. The mystery items are random. It doesn't matter if you log the same cache as someone else they are randomly given. Please see my post on March 30th that includes a response from HQ. Signal items are completely random! You can see more recent posts too that talk about the same thing. App: if you are not viewing the experimental profile then try swiping left at the top where it shows the promotions.

Now you have something to talk about during your event

i'm on my 2nd garmin V with no end in site to my frustrations. After an initial download from CitySelect at a respectable 110 rate loading the full 19 megs in 45 minutes...the next download provides the error message...that "no gps is attached. Shut the gps on an off...shut the computer on and off, replace the cable...try another PC... but no luck. In the vehicle.. the unit works fine...my first Garmin V worked fine...however my first unit was sent back 3x before they replaced..the replacement has had the core module replaced once...but now it too has been "bewitched". Can anyone out there think of any ideas.. Garmin and i are at wits end...... Thanks, Bill

Look for clues on the page. For example, if there's a mention of "the key". Some ciphers use a key word. But the puzzle may be unique, where the challenge is to figure out "where to start". Look at the Difficulty rating. If it's 3.5 or higher, prepare to attack this one with your game face on. You may first try easier puzzle caches, especially puzzles by the same Cache Owner. Some ciphers are more common for Geocache puzzles. Look for nearby "Puzzle Cache" Events or even "Geocaching 101" or meet & greet Events. If you can talk to the CO or others at an Event about where you're stuck, they may help. Good luck!

It seems to, which is likely historic. (But that's great .) There's been more caches published since my visit, so you should be able to outdo my finds. Including ALs about 23 more since I was there. So for a small place, a lot of caches. Tempted to return to find the new ones. There's a challenge cache there to log, if you find all the caches on the island. I logged it, as at the time, I found all the caches. There's a couple of ALs too, which is interesting on an island without proper mobile coverage. I didn't have those to do then. I think you find the answers and go somewhere that has wifi to log them. Endeavour3 is a local cacher, and very helpful. He tends to put on meet and greets when he knows cachers are visiting. He had a CITO for my visit, and we walked along Kingston foreshore picking up rubbish, and me logging any caches I passed. There was an Earth cache (his) and after we visited it and he gave me a talk on it, he said now you can log. There's a wide variety of caches there. Even a small power-trail. The island is 34.6 km². We have bigger farms than that in Australia.

Hm. Reviewers being reviewers. Not all reviewers are the same. Not the CHS. How many times have we been through this whole "CHS" thing? Why are "experienced cachers" "required" to respond to the email? That's new. We know that caches that have been pinged by the algorithm are flagged for reviewers (or rather, if they're below the score threshold, to be specific, as far as I know, on top of numerous other factors available to reviewers' judgmental scans). That's it. The reviewer is the one that acts after that. That's it. That's all. If your reviewers are strict on caches with low score - talk to them.

I'm tired of getting little seeds and stickers stuck to my shoelaces. Has anyone found any shoelaces that are resistant to picking up these stickers? I'd like to replace my laces for the times I forget to bring my gaiters.

Twice now someone's mentioned "OMG, you came down *that* in sneakers? So I'm convinced that I need to get some shoes... Not boots, shoes... I'm looking at REI now and see some spiffy cheapo shoes... Cool Shoes Do they really make a difference? Contents Under Pressure...

What kind of tires do you use on your cachemobile?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1870855878 It would be a good way to get an ammo can...dont think I would go this route though.

One of my least enjoyable days was the day I decided to find 100 caches in a day on a power trail. 80ish of the finds on the trail plus a few others in the area and I did it solo. Talk about miserable, I was so exhausted getting in and out of the car. Yes I parked next to the cache but after 100 times it adds up. Even putting on the seat belt was a an effort. No plans of ever doing that again.

I have only owned my Venture for about a week, and I have been trying to download updates from Garmin and also use EasyGPS. Neither application can recognize my GPS! I get the error with EasyGPS: Msg: GetPacketOrTimeoutNoAck - timeout!-#22 Msg: GPSBeginTransaction - bad send packet-#22 Msg: No data was received from the GPS! (Error #22) I have the interface set to Garmin, new batteries, and the power on. I'm using the serial cable that came with it. I have windows 2000 professional. Any help or advice would be great!! lisa4pride

Hi, A fact is that some useful features were working and have just disapeared. I may have missed it, but I did not read any answer about the filter of the Personal Notes... For example with this link I was able to search all mysteries having "not modified" coordinates and that does not have a PN : https://www.geocaching.com/play/results?sw=1&ct=8&hf=1&ho=1&cc=0&nfb=smashcfr This has just been deactivated... Why, as it worked ? And why this does not have been repaired, as this should be very easy if you use GIT... As I already said, it's great to try to produce new things, this can be very positive... But not when each time useful functionnalities disapear (I wrote here about PN, but I'd be able to talk about many more...). So please, any news about those PN ? This should be very easy to put it back...

1) I had read about geocaching way back when it started. I have always loved maps and compass, and I knew about GPS. Years later, my wife worked food service as a kitchen manager. One day, she brought home a catalog from a local food service company, and told me I have 100,000+ points that I could spend on anything I wanted. They had a Garmin eTrex, the original eTrex for 98,000 points, so I ordered it. Loaded the coords for a local cache, and went and found it. Then, it sat for over a year, before I found another cache. 2) I did it for a number of reasons. First and foremost in my mind, it was a cool use of the technology. A bit of adventure, getting out and about. Something I could do with the kids, then the grandkids. 3) I haven't gone geocaching in a couple of years. Basically, all the remaining local caches are (IMO) lame. I don't have as much time to do this, and I do other GPS based activities. I will get back into it when I retire. (I'm right on the brink of starting to count down the months, instead of the years. Got 33 months left.) Other have mentioned that Geocaching is a hobby, not a game. To me, it is a bit of both. Games need to have rules, so I make up my own rules. Challenges actually. I did a Jasmer challenge. I want to find a cache in each degree (0-359) using my home as a base. I want to find cache in each 5 mile band away from my house out to 350 miles. I will do GeoTours. These are the games/challenges I set for myself. You talk about the Gamification of the Outdoors. I'm assuming that this is about games played in real world locations, and how technology is allowing a more diverse set of location based games. Pre-GPS, this would include things like Orienteering and Letterboxing. With GPS, we got Geocaching. With Smartphones, our options expanded to include 'games' such as Pokemon GO, Ingress, Pikmin Bloom, and others. If you change the title to Gamification of Location, you could include some console based games, games that required multiple people to be in the same location (indoors or outdoors) in order to do certain things. (Anyone remember the cables required to link handheld consoles together, before wireless.)

Thank you for the reply. I have asked that question to the head office and got no reply yet. I wanted to install the app on my phone but didn't know if there was a cost to do so. All the feed back talk is about how it cost so much to use your phone with the app. I'm not real Tec'y ,so I need help with it all. Thank You Again

A couple of weeks ago, I had started a webpage on yahoo called MonterreyGPS to get the sport off the ground in Northern Mexico. I did not know about the website "geocaches.com" at all, but I had heard about the game itself on the news. I was very interested in participating. I actually created a cache point near where I live and published the coordinates on this page- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/monterreygps/ . I adivised interested participants to get a topo of the area, a compass and a GPS. While I was surfing the net, I came upon a GPS online store and entered one of the forums. I finally learned about the game and how big it is all over the world. I really was exited but what really blew my mind is that of all the caches in Mexico there was only one in Northern Mexico, and this cache was only 3.4 mile from my house. I just jumped on my mountain bike and found the cache within 30 minutes. It really was a great find. The thing that really made me happy is that the cache was placed by a highschool kid who lives in Houston, Tx and comes to visit his grandmother in the summer here in Mexico. The cache had been placed a couple of weeks ago, and I would bet that he didn't expect for someone in this little town to ever find the cache. I got an e-mail from him and he was very exited to know that someone had actually found his cache (GC6041). I will now create my own caches in this area and hope to get more people in Northern Mexico involved.

A couple of weeks ago, I had started a webpage on yahoo called MonterreyGPS to get the sport off the ground in Northern Mexico. I did not know about the website "geocaches.com" at all, but I had heard about the game itself on the news. I was very interested in participating. I actually created a cache point near where I live and published the coordinates on this page- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/monterreygps/ . I adivised interested participants to get a topo of the area, a compass and a GPS. While I was surfing the net, I came upon a GPS online store and entered one of the forums. I finally learned about the game and how big it is all over the world. I really was exited but what really blew my mind is that of all the caches in Mexico there was only one in Northern Mexico, and this cache was only 3.4 mile from my house. I just jumped on my mountain bike and found the cache within 30 minutes. It really was a great find. The thing that really made me happy is that the cache was placed by a highschool kid who lives in Houston, Tx and comes to visit his grandmother in the summer here in Mexico. The cache had been placed a couple of weeks ago, and I would bet that he didn't expect for someone in this little town to ever find the cache. I got an e-mail from him and he was very exited to know that someone had actually found his cache (GC6041). I will now create my own caches in this area and hope to get more people in Northern Mexico involved.

It would be nice if someone from geocaching HQ would read this post and say something. Even, "no thank you, we're happy with the way this is" though I'd prefer "thanks for the feedback, that's an interesting idea and we'll talk about it". I think it's a great idea as a software engineer, and helpful to integrate labs into the mainline game. Anyone from HQ listening? Hello?