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Hello all, Success! I have come up with 2 methods to load individual caches onto older Garmin GPS's Note: I have edited Method 2 since my original post after JimJinks pointed me to a utility that will convert a batch file to an executable .exe file. I left a posting on the original Release Notes thread a while ago where I explained how this change affected my parents and their ability to selectively load caches in their older GPSMap 60 series GPS s. The post is here: Over the last few months I have been loading their GPS s with GSAK for them but I have been meaning to get back to this issue to see if there was a solution that would allow them to regain the ability to load a cache, one at a time. This weekend I knuckled down and came up with two methods depending on your version of Windows. Method 1 with EasyGPS you can do it in 5 clicks per cache Method 2 and GPSBabel (using a slight variation of above technique) you can load a cache in 2 clicks! I use Windows 10 at home and worked out the first system but could only get it down to 5 mouse clicks. I went to my parents who use Windows 7 but could not get the first method to work on their machine. I tried variations of the batch file technique from @JimJinks and got it to work and it is more streamlined than any version I have seen so far. Method 1, Windows 7, 8, or 10 and EasyGPS program Do once to set it up: Install the Free version of EasyGPS. Download it here https://www.easygps.com/download.asp Run the downloaded installer program to install the application. Follow the prompts and use the default location for installation. Run the EasyGPS program and under the "Edit" window choose "Preferences" and Add your GPS Make and model so it knows how to talk to it. This will also associate GPX files with the EasyGPS program To load caches with the GPS connected and turned on : On the cache page click on “Download GPX” near the top of the page below the coordinates, or from the pop up window on the map page when you click on a cache. Make sure “Open with” is selected and EasyGPS is next to it. Click on “OK” When the EasyGPS program opens: Click “Send” button near the top of window Click "OK" on Send to GPS popup window Click the “X” in the top Right corner of the EasyGPS window to close it. Go to the next cache and repeat Method 2, Windows 7, 8, or 10 and GPSBabel program. Do once to set it up. It seems like a lot but it is a detailed step by step and only needs to be done once: Install free GPSbabel program. Download it from here: https://www.gpsbabel.org/download.html Run the downloaded installer program to install the application. Follow the prompts and use the default location for installation. Create a batch file in a folder on your computer. Here is the step by step: Note a click on something uses the normal Left button on the mouse and Right click uses the other button on the right side, that you usually don't use. I have put a copy of this batch file on my Google drive and the link below will allow you to download it. You can preview it to see what it contains. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_unRSYD9cDiOSxSQbBCqM5Pux63mzNBY/view?usp=sharing The above section with the line through it will only work on Windows 7. A better solution now is this next section which will work with all versions of Windows. I created a tiny program called SendToGarmin.exe which replicates the actions of the batch file JimJinks created. You can actually put it anywhere on your hard drive. My instructions below specify a new folder step by step. Feel free to put it somewhere else if you are comfortable with Windows. Here is a link to it. https://drive.google.com/file/d/19xkd_wXWTD7F59XFF9C7lVwucF4ZF8-h/view?usp=sharing Right click on the line above and select "Open in new tab" on the popup window. Go to that tab and choose "Download" to save it to your computer. When prompted click on "Save File" In the new window where it prompts you where to put it, scroll up or down on the left pane of the window to find your the "C Drive" and select it by clicking on it. Click on the "New folder" button near the top of the window. Type LoadGPS to name it and press the Enter key to name it. Double click in this new LoadGPS folder to open it. Click the "Save" button to save it there. This is what is in the batch file / executable: If you or someone you know wants to, you can create your own batch file by copying these commands into a text file and renaming it to a bat file. It is essentially the same as the command in the top post except I removed the quotes around %1 in the first line and added a second line to delete the downloaded GPX file after it gets sent to your GPS. "c:\Program Files (x86)\GPSBabel\gpsbabel.exe" -i gpx -f %1 -o garmin -F usb: del %1 Setup continued... Click on the windows icon on the bottom Left corner of your monitor and type "internet" on the keyboard. It will pull up a list of programs and commands that start with Internet. Click on "Internet Options" under the heading Control Panel Click on the "Programs" Tab Click on the "Set Programs" button Click on the line "Associate a File Type or Protocol with a Program" Scroll down the list until your see ".gpx" on the left and click on that line to select it Click on the button on the top right called "Change Program" Click on the "Browse..." button to bring up a selection window In the box near the bottom next to File name type in C:/LoadGPS/Sendtogarmin.bat Or alternatively you can navigate to this file using the folder and file lists windows Click on the "Open" button to set the batch file as the program associated with gpx files Close the windows to get back to the desktop. You are done the one time setup! To load caches with the GPS connected and turned on : On the cache page click on “Download GPX” near the top of the page below the coordinates, or from the pop up window on the map page when you click on a cache A small window will appear at the bottom of the screen prompting you to open the gpx file. Click "Open" The file is converted and sent to the GPS by GPSBabel. That's it. 2 clicks! Method 1 is an easier setup but more steps to load each cache. Method 2 it is more complicated to set up but it is as easy to load as it was before. The only thing keeping Windows 10 from being able to use the second method is that you can not associate a file type to a batch file, as far as I can tell. Only .com and .exe files. If someone can find a way it would allow you to use the second method. We have to use a batch file to allow us to pass command line arguments to GPSBabel. I tried to use a shortcut to the program and add the arguments to it's properties but that did not work. Fixed now that I created an exe file. The first method would work better if repeated downloads of .gpx files would load into an already open instance of EasyGPS. You could download a bunch and send them all to the GPS at once. Unfortunately each time you download a .gpx it opens a new copy of EasyGPS with that single cache in it. You have to send the cache to the GPS and close each window. If anyone finds a better method or a tweak for one of these please let me know or comment in this thread. If you need more details for some of these steps, I or others on the forums will be glad to help. Thanks @JimJinksfor the batch file. My Mother is very happy that she has the ability to load caches again like she used to. Lee Go Play Outside

Hello all, Success! I have come up with 2 methods to load individual caches onto older Garmin GPS's Note I have edited Method 2 since my original post after JimJinks pointed me to a utility that will convert a batch file to an executable .exe file. I left a posting on the original Release Notes thread a while ago where I explained how this change affected my parents and their ability to selectively load caches in their older GPSMap 60 series GPS s. The post is here: Over the last few months I have been loading their GPS s with GSAK for them but I have been meaning to get back to this issue to see if there was a solution that would allow them to regain the ability to load a cache, one at a time. This weekend I knuckled down and came up with two methods depending on your version of Windows. Method 1 with EasyGPS you can do it in 5 clicks per cache Method 2 and GPSBabel (using a slight variation of above technique) you can load a cache in 2 clicks! I use Windows 10 at home and worked out the first system but could only get it down to 5 mouse clicks. I went to my parents who use Windows 7 but could not get the first method to work on their machine. I tried variations of the batch file technique from @JimJinks as posted by @kunarion above and got it to work and it is more streamlined than any version I have seen so far. Method 1, Windows 7, 8 or, 10 and EasyGPS program Do once to set it up: Install the Free version of EasyGPS. Download it here https://www.easygps.com/download.asp Run the downloaded installer program to install the application. Follow the prompts and use the default location for installation. Run the EasyGPS program and under the "Edit" window choose "Preferences" and Add your GPS Make and model so it knows how to talk to it. This will also associate GPX files with the EasyGPS program To load caches with the GPS connected and turned on : On the cache page click on “Download GPX” near the top of the page below the coordinates, or from the pop up window on the map page when you click on a cache. Make sure “Open with” is selected and EasyGPS is next to it. Click on “OK” When the EasyGPS program opens: Click “Send” button near the top of window Click "OK" on Send to GPS popup window Click the “X” in the top Right corner of the EasyGPS window to close it. Go to the next cache and repeat Method 2, Windows 7, 8, or 10 and GPSBabel program. Do once to set it up. It seems like a lot but it is a detailed step by step and only needs to be done once: Install free GPSbabel program. Download it from here: https://www.gpsbabel.org/download.html Run the downloaded installer program to install the application. Follow the prompts and use the default location for installation. Create a batch file in a folder on your computer. Here is the step by step: Note a click on something uses the normal Left button on the mouse and Right click uses the other button on the right side, that you usually don't use. I have put a copy of this batch file on my Google drive and the link below will allow you to download it. You can preview it to see what it contains. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_unRSYD9cDiOSxSQbBCqM5Pux63mzNBY/view?usp=sharing The above section with the line through it will only work on Windows 7. A better solution now is this next section which will work with all versions of Windows. I created a tiny program called SendToGarmin.exe which replicates the actions of the batch file JimJinks created. You can actually put it anywhere on your hard drive. My instructions below specify a new folder step by step. Feel free to put it somewhere else if you are comfortable with Windows. Here is a link to it. https://drive.google.com/file/d/19xkd_wXWTD7F59XFF9C7lVwucF4ZF8-h/view?usp=sharing Right click on the line above and select "Open in new tab" on the popup window. Go to that tab and choose "Download" to save it to your computer. When prompted click on "Save File" In the new window where it prompts you where to put it, scroll up or down on the left pane of the window to find your the "C Drive" and select it by clicking on it. Click on the "New folder" button near the top of the window. Type LoadGPS to name it and press the Enter key to name it. Double click in this new LoadGPS folder to open it. Click the "Save" button to save it there. This is what is in the batch file: If you or someone you know wants to, you can create your own batch file by copying these commands into a text file and renaming it to a bat file. It is essentially the same as the command in the top post except I removed the quotes around %1 in the first line and added a second line to delete the downloaded GPX file after it gets sent to your GPS. "c:\Program Files (x86)\GPSBabel\gpsbabel.exe" -i gpx -f %1 -o garmin -F usb: del %1 Click on the windows icon on the bottom Left corner of your monitor and type "internet" on the keyboard. It will pull up a list of programs and commands that start with Internet. Click on "Internet Options" under the heading Control Panel Click on the "Programs" Tab Click on the "Set Programs" button Click on the line "Associate a File Type or Protocol with a Program" Scroll down the list until your see ".gpx" on the left and click on that line to select it Click on the button on the top right called "Change Program" Click on the "Browse..." button to bring up a selection window In the box near the bottom next to File name type in C:/LoadGPS/Sendtogarmin.bat Or alternatively you can navigate to this file using the folder and file lists windows Click on the "Open" button to set the batch file as the program associated with gpx files Close the windows to get back to the desktop. You are done the one time setup! To load caches with the GPS connected and turned on : On the cache page click on “Download GPX” near the top of the page below the coordinates, or from the pop up window on the map page when you click on a cache A small window will appear at the bottom of the screen prompting you to open the gpx file. Click "Open" The file is converted and sent to the GPS by GPSBabel. That's it. 2 clicks! Method 1 is an easier setup but more steps to load each cache. Method 2 it is more complicated to set up but it is as easy to load as it was before. The only thing keeping Windows 10 from being able to use the second method is that you can not associate a file type to a batch file, as far as I can tell. Only .com and .exe files. If someone can find a way it would allow you to use the second method. We have to use a batch file to allow us to pass command line arguments to GPSBabel. I tried to use a shortcut to the program and add the arguments to it's properties but that did not work. Fixed now that I created an exe file. The first method would work better if repeated downloads of .gpx files would load into an already open instance of EasyGPS. You could download a bunch and send them all to the GPS at once. Unfortunately each time you download a .gpx it opens a new copy of EasyGPS with that single cache in it. You have to send the cache to the GPS and close each window. If anyone finds a better method or a tweak for one of these please let me know or comment in this thread. If you need more details for some of these steps I or others on the forums will be glad to help. Thanks @JimJinksfor the batch file and @kunarion for starting this thread, contributing to the other ones and working toward a solution. My Mother is very happy that she has the ability to load caches again like she used to. Lee Go Play Outside

When I first started caching, I did not make myself really familiar with the rules before starting out. I thought the talk of buried treasures would be fun and exciting, boy was I wrong. Get to my very first GZ, could not find anything, so back to the truck, grab my shovel and I start digging (not knowing any better) Ended up digging up human remains... Called police..bla..bla..bla... Long story short, I did DNF the cache and I'm no longer allowed back at that cemetery. LOL

Time Limit: Yes I believe there should be a time limit between a cache that has been archived and when someone is allowed to remove it providing that it is indeed geotrash and not crosslisted anywhere's else. Sorry if you disagree but that is indeed the way I feel and I think that should be part of the agreement of placing a cache. There seems to be a bit of a mix up in communication here. Archived for a year, Not found for a year and then archived is not what I am talking about. Before removal is made there must be an honest attempt to contact the owner on any cache site. Is that a little better? Not trying to sound arrogant, just asking. I'm wondering why you find this information to be so important that you want to inconvenience him and risk making him grumpy. If you find a great place for a cache, do some of your own research. Determine whether explicit permission is needed at that location. Scout out the location. Do you see a bunch of muggles that are eyeing you suspiciously? Are you in plain view of any structures who's residents might cause problems? Are there good hide locations? I gave a list of reasons why an archive can be so important and gave my own example of my archived Swizzle Creek cache. I do my own research, look over maps for hours, talk to DEC officals, State officals that have authority over the lake I'll be placing caches on, visit museums and talk to the museum currators, talk to local historians and historical societies, search cemeteries for important figures, use the internet to scan town, city and village history pages, talk to locals, other cachers and do my own foot work hiking to spots that are seemingly in the middle of no where's. Add helpful links to my pages when I feel its neccesary. I've sought after and gain permission several times, gained a special permit for 3 of my caches and I don't run up to the first tree hole I see and throw a cache in it. Most of my caches are specilty caches made for a certain situation. I even painted a picture of the old covered bride on my old covered bridge cache. Archives are just one of the many tools that I use to find locations and to get information from. All of the questions that you are hoping to have answered by reviewing dead cache pages could be answered by YOU and, as some have already pointed out, would not necessarily be answered by an archived cache page. I would not inconvenience a reviewer by asking for information that I can get on my own and that he might not even have access to. That would be rude, in my opinion. I don't believe its true in every case that I can answer all of these questions myself by doing the research without using every tool available. I will contact geocaching directly to answer any more of my archive questions. I hope that's a little more organized and easier to understand now. Any there any more questions that I forgot to answer for you? These are all just my opinion so please keep that in mind. Some people can fix a car with a hammer. I prefer to have my whole tool box set and ready to go. Swizzle

In the example above, you can avoid the upside-down labels by choosing to stay with north-up display. (It's not landscape that triggers that.) Not perfect, but I live with it. On a tablet, you'll see much more map, and the clutter around the screen edges becomes much less noticeable. Oh, and the navigation will talk to you, and even work on trails.

I don't mean to be rude, but when I place caches, I don't ever think about the comfort of ftf cachers. It's not a game that I play, and it's not official, so I submit caches on my own time, not other's. I don't mean to be rude either, but only one-third of my reasoning was related to the FTF crowd! Here's why staggered publication benefits the CO and cachers in general, not *just* FTF seekers. When a group of new caches is published, it's an exciting time for COs and for the local cachers. If the whole group gets published at one time, all of the initial excitement is gone in two days (in cities and suburbs, less so in rural areas where caches are not found for weeks or months - like right now, within 30 miles of me, there is exactly -1- unfound cache, and it is disabled for bad coords). I am a CO. If I were putting out four new caches, there is no way I would publish (submit) them all at once. (Obviously, FTF is a non-issue if I am the CO.) Why would I not do it? Because at least in this area there is much more seeking-and-finding-excitement the first few days, maybe up to two weeks. Then things quiet down and level off. Why would I want to be buried in emails for a week, versus enjoying a steady stream of emails for a month?? And the community is equally excited by new caches. Why bunch them? Better to hunt new caches all month than just one weekend. I realize that an unfound cache is an unfound cache. But people - not just the FTF crowd - love to see what's new out there and talk about what they and their friends are finding right now. At least in the caching environment here, it's a no-brainer that staggered submission/publication is the way to go! In my area FTF activity is IMO at exactly the right level. It exists, but it is not cutthroat. It adds fun and excitement in the community. People talk about it. It's good for the game. Yes, I play it too. Even if I didn't, I consider that some people that I know are doing it and enjoying it, and I'd slightly modify my submission/publication schedule to give them their enjoyment. Slight modification of submission/publication schedules is veeeery little extra effort for a CO, and greatly adds to the enjoyment of many. (Placing caches is the difficult, time-consuming work - do that on your own schedule, I suggest, but submit according to a good schedule for the community.) So yes, IMO a CO *should* consider the FTF crowd, and even if not, they should still stagger the submission/publication of nearby caches. Not just areas within our State, but in other States we've cached in, it seems the norm that after the FTF, caches tend to sit for a while. They're then hit by the locals within a few weeks, and sit again for some time before folks "just passing through" grab it once in a while. Staggering caches seems (to me) to only be an attempt to mix things up (or mess with) the FTF crowd.

I don't mean to be rude, but when I place caches, I don't ever think about the comfort of ftf cachers. It's not a game that I play, and it's not official, so I submit caches on my own time, not other's. I don't mean to be rude either, but only one-third of my reasoning was related to the FTF crowd! Here's why staggered publication benefits the CO and cachers in general, not *just* FTF seekers. When a group of new caches is published, it's an exciting time for COs and for the local cachers. If the whole group gets published at one time, all of the initial excitement is gone in two days (in cities and suburbs, less so in rural areas where caches are not found for weeks or months - like right now, within 30 miles of me, there is exactly -1- unfound cache, and it is disabled for bad coords). I am a CO. If I were putting out four new caches, there is no way I would publish (submit) them all at once. (Obviously, FTF is a non-issue if I am the CO.) Why would I not do it? Because at least in this area there is much more seeking-and-finding-excitement the first few days, maybe up to two weeks. Then things quiet down and level off. Why would I want to be buried in emails for a week, versus enjoying a steady stream of emails for a month?? And the community is equally excited by new caches. Why bunch them? Better to hunt new caches all month than just one weekend. I realize that an unfound cache is an unfound cache. But people - not just the FTF crowd - love to see what's new out there and talk about what they and their friends are finding right now. At least in the caching environment here, it's a no-brainer that staggered submission/publication is the way to go! In my area FTF activity is IMO at exactly the right level. It exists, but it is not cutthroat. It adds fun and excitement in the community. People talk about it. It's good for the game. Yes, I play it too. Even if I didn't, I consider that some people that I know are doing it and enjoying it, and I'd slightly modify my submission/publication schedule to give them their enjoyment. Slight modification of submission/publication schedules is veeeery little extra effort for a CO, and greatly adds to the enjoyment of many. (Placing caches is the difficult, time-consuming work - do that on your own schedule, I suggest, but submit according to a good schedule for the community.) So yes, IMO a CO *should* consider the FTF crowd, and even if not, they should still stagger the submission/publication of nearby caches.

Yes. Nice that the person joined just to tell you they "found" it . Did you actually talk to them, or are you simply relying on their log ? Curious, as "I found this by mistake but I’ll re hide with goodies inside I work for Durham county council and found whilst working today I’ll log it so it can be found again " sounds (to me) that maybe they may not really understand the hobby. - "Logging it" not what enables it to be found again, and instead needs to be returned to that same spot.

We'll discuss it with the CO of the ISS cache after you talk an astronaut into bringing the ISS cache back for you to sign, then go back up to the ISS to return it. If I were the CO, I'd be amused by you chutzpah...and your connections. But, to be more practical, I agree that there's a line: at some point, you aren't at GZ, so you can't be said to be using a tool to get the cache by sending someone else to bring it to you. The case we're talking about is where I'm in the same place whether I use a 20' grabber or send my son up the tree to get the cache for me. To me, there's no interesting difference.

My biggest peeve is throwdowns (why do the people after me get to log a find just because they replaced a container that may or may not have been missing?), but since this has been mentioned many times, I will talk about this guy in St. Louis who either takes the logs, or the containers themselves. He even notes it in his logs. "Easy find. Took log." People who come after note that the log is gone, and sometimes there's only DNFs after he logs an "Easy find." Granted, he's sort of new, so maybe he doesn't understand that you're not supposed to actually take the cache or log, but wow, it's annoying.

How much time do you have? When I've attended or taught one-hour classes, they've split the time in half. The first half hour or so is the "chalk talk", explaining what geocaching is, how GPS works, what geocache containers look like (with examples to pass around), what to do with trackables (with examples to pass around), the difference between trackables and trade items, the basic information in a cache description (size, difficulty, terrain, type), etc. Then, for the rest of the time, we go to an area where a bunch of geocache containers were hidden before class (ideally, at least one container per person), and the students take turns pointing out containers. (Some are easy, others are harder.) For longer classes, you can start with the same half-hour "chalk talk", then go find some nearby caches. One of the longer classes that I've helped with uses an old-school power trail, where students can find 8-10 varied caches and be back at the trailhead for lunch. There's actually a "hidden in plain sight" cache at the trailhead, that is used as the first example, with everyone raising their hand when they spot it. Then the class breaks into small groups of 3-4 students, with an experienced geocacher assigned to each. Each group gets a preloaded loaner GPSr, and they set off down the trail to find caches with their experienced guide. I haven't had good luck trying to get newbies to enter coordinates. I'd rather hand them a preloaded GPSr, or take them to a location where I've hidden containers, without having them find the location with a GPSr.

I see at the top there is a link that says "talk Geocaching in:" listed by links to various states... but when I click on Indiana, it takes me to a new page that doesn't have a discussion forum. Is this expected? Or are there cache forums for state/region? Trying to reach out to the people in our area.

We have regional forums (you're in Midwest...), and they're very slow as it is. By state you'd hear crickets just leaving recordings of their chirping. - Last post before yours was September. Some regions see more... Definitely not faceboook, where most seem to talk today. If me, I'd click on your state in the regional forums, and look for an event nearby to attend (and ask there about local cache groups). I click on my state for events near me, and new caches that are outta my area for notifications.

Well, I'm happy to say that the new mapping experience finally works for me. Whatever the problem was, it was fixed with a Chrome update. I'm just going to add my 2¢, much of which has probably been discussed as long as this thread has become. 1. Let me start by saying Thank You (again) for making a more interactive map and search experience. I know back in the days of Opencaching, this was more of the format they had and it was quite efficient. This new map is getting there, but still needs some work. For those of us with older computers, the new map is quite resource heavy. I suspect with newer hardware, it'll run a bit smoother. But still something to consider. 2. Let's talk about aesthetics. There's a lot of unnecessary and wasted space in that side bar. Can we eliminate some of that padding, and maybe only display the cache name along with its small type symbol to display more caches in the list on a single page, letting the rest of the details become visible when clicking on a cache or its name. We don't all have large screens to work with. So let's minimize the amount of wasted space. 3. Auto-refreshing. I think this was initially part of the new map? At any rate, it's kind of a pain to have to click the refresh button on the map after zooming or moving the map. Maybe some users like it. Can we add automatic refreshing and make it an option that can be turned on or off by the user? 4. Raise the 500 cache limit. At least to the 1000 caches limit to make the search compatible with pocket queries and lists. 5. Pocket Queries and Lists. Next to the filters button, perhaps we need another button to let us select lists and PQs to view/preview on the map. Also, the old map had the option to use the map view as a start for a PQ. I think with the new map and the filters, we have the opportunity to make that feature even better. But first it needs to be brought to the new map. 6. Selectability. It's nice that we can bulk add the results to a list. But sometimes we just want to select specific caches and bulk add them to a list, as we did in the old search results page. Please bring this option back. 7. Old search results page. As great as the new map is, the old table format for search results had its benefits too. I think both formats complement each other, and both should be available for users to have at their disposal. 8. Direct download of search results. This is one of the features that made Opencaching great (of course, the rest of the site/service was terrible and unable to compete with geocaching.com). The results on the map/list could be downloaded in bulk as a single GPX file on the fly. I feel this should be one of the goals to accomplish here. Adding to a list is great, but directly exporting the search results to a file on the GPS would streamline the process.

A few questions here- how can we help you without giving you instructions? Are you placing a cache of finding one? You talk about placing a cache, and downloading a "geocash placer" (whatever that is) but talk about putting GPX files on your phone. A few contradicting things here.

Hi all, FYI, Emoji talk tread is also here, which I probably will post from now on, but not here. Forum link "Emojis in Cache Names" Thanks!

I've been happy with my old Etrex H, had to go shopping for drivers and cables when I moved up to Windows 8.1 but all good. Just had to move to Windows 10 and latest (7.whatever) version of EasyGPS, same issues, won't talk to my vintage GPS for upload/download. Anybody know if there are drivers and cables out there that will bring it back to life, as it is still working fine for my needs? Spare me the lectures, by the way, about "join the 21st century." I'm asking a simple question, as I'd like to stay with my current stuff until it dies, not for $$$ reasons, just because it gives me the enjoyment and challenge I want from our hobby. Does anybody know for a certainty that the Etrex H/EasyGPS 7.???/Windows 10 configuration can be made to work? If not I'm fine with spending a few bucks to upgrade, but I enjoy doing things the legacy way as long as I can.

Well Waymarkers, Christmas is nigh, so it's time that we told you a little Christmas Waymarking story that may or may not have happened to us many years ago, back in the days when we were first on the road, hunting for new places to Waymark, new sights, new categories, a time when everything was shiny and new to us. So gather round the fire (here it's on channel 165) and we'll tell you the story of how we may or may not have met Kris Kringle himself: 'Twas the night before Christmas and here in the town All had been Waymarked so we bedded down, We'd Waymarked so long that our fingers were numb Now each had our own dreams of Waymarks to come. Now where should we head when the day dawned anew And we could put footprints in next morning's dew? Our options were many, but which would be best As we could head anywhere, north, south, east, west. While weighing our options I drifted to sleep With hopes that the day produced Waymarks to reap, Historic old churches would dance in my head As slowly I sank deep into the old bed. We knew the motels here would not be the best But darkness and hunger slowed us on our quest, And forced us in here to this seedy motel So here for the night is the place we would dwell. As sleep overtook me and lessened my pain Outside in the darkness it started to rain, Oblivious to it, remaining in dreams I slept the whole night, or so that's what it seems. When morning awoke me, outside in the dawn Through the mist covered window and shade that I'd drawn, I saw a strange figure outside on the walk And he beckoned to me as if wanting to talk. With a portly fat belly and all dressed in red He was soggy and sodden from toe to his head, He must have been out in the rain through the night So I hastened to find just what might be his plight. I invited him in through the creaking front door Then he started to speak as he dripped on the floor, "My name is Kris Kringle, I've come here to you To tell you a story I know to be true." He said "There's an old town way up in them hills Waymarkers who visit will find many thrills, It's wholly untouched by the Waymarking crew So Waymarks in that town will always be new." He gave us directions to this Xanadu "For Christmas this present is what I give you." Is what he then said as he turned to depart Then sloshed to the street where he'd parked his old cart. With reindeer for power, the cart was a truck That was straight from a dream that had just run amok, All covered in garlands and whistles and bells The kind of a truck a used car salesman sells. He whistled, then yelled and then screamed at the team But to no avail so he needed a scheme, He promised them goodies, the ploy seemed to work For newly alert they took off with a jerk. And when they'd gained speed they then started to fly Ascending up high in the cloud covered sky, Then up through the clouds they were soon out of sight I must now admit that it gave me a fright. We've searched for that town to which Santa alludes But to this day it for us still eludes, It's not to be found in the spot he described With maps or with sightings it never has gibed. Had Santa been here, or was it just a dream? For often things aren't always just as they seem, But still to this day do our hopes remain bright MANY WAYMARKS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!

Well, you did start off the OP with fact that you were trying to publish challenges...so naturally the inclination is for folks to talk about that aspect since they likely would not be publishable. As for caches found while cycling, we could get all nitpicky here and talk about actually finding a cache while on a bike vs. using a bike to get from one GZ to another. The former might be considered a T5 if accessing the cache requires use of a bicycle...though I'm hard-pressed to think of a scenario where one would actually need to be on a bicycle to grab a cache. As for the latter, just two weeks ago I rode the Atlanta to Stone Mountain trail on my bike and picked up about 14 caches while on the way there and back. At one point I chained my bike up and walked maybe a third of a mile up the mountain to grab a very old cache. Would this count as a 'biking cache'? If not, what would the radius be from where one parks their bike to GZ? On two others - both multicaches - I parked and walked several blocks to pick up each stage. Do those count? Just seems like there's a lot of gray area, so while I clearly wouldn't qualify for any of those caches, it would be difficult to answer for certain even if all I ever did was ride my bike for geocaching.

Definitely. Many holidays are related to religions, and we all know how divisive religion can become. There'd also need to be some decisions made regarding which holidays or themes are "good enough" to be included in this feature. Some of the big ones like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, sure, I think we can agree those get in pretty easily. What about International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Probably not. In between, there are countless other "special" days of varying degree, and a line would need to be drawn through them somewhere. Cue the arguments about why this holiday made the cut and that one didn't... I don't think the idea is necessarily a bad one, but I'm not sure it could be made to work very easily.

One honest cacher out of a group of six. “F” Premium Member Caches Found 94426 Found it 05/29/2015 Out with our team “ABCDEF” (from “5 states”) on our “State” run. Thanks for the caches and the fun! “E” Premium Member Caches Found 16525 Found it 05/29/2015 Found this while caching with Team “ABCDEF” -- thanks for adding to our fun & TFTC ! “D” Premium Member Caches Found 87925 Found it 05/29/2015 w/”A”, “B”, “C”, “E”, “F” as “ABCDEF” I was invited over for my first experience with “State”. I got the east of the “Mountains” tour, meaning fairly flat land so I could see several rain storms miles and miles distant. Can't see something like that where I'm from. I guess, though, that's close to what I remember from “Other state”. This time, though, my distance sense was a little messed up because the area out here is just so vast--and the caches were farther apart than I realized (still wonder why). Despite the storms moving around us, the weather was wonderful and so was the company. I switched between cars as much as I could so I could get to talk to everyone. I even did one of my fun things, standing on the car's running board as we zoomed down dirt roads to the next cache. Fun times. Thank you for contributing to the caches I found during this trip! “C” Member Caches Found 44649 Found it 05/29/2015 Wrapping up a two week caching trip. This was one of many we found. Enjoyed the craxy weather, rain, thunder and lightening and the long hours of caching. Road trips are always worth it! As always, thanks to the CO's for the for the hides, the fun, and another smiley on the map ! See you on the trail and keep on caching ! Everything logged as “ABCDEF” “B” Premium Member Caches Found 78517 Found it 05/29/2015 Thanks for all the CO's who made this caching journey a nexessity. “A” Premium Member Caches Found 54666 Didn't find it 05/29/2015 Out with a great group of friends to cache the plains - thanks to everyone for placing caches and making this a great trip. We signed our logs as “ABCDEF” We hunted for this one but didn't have the correct TOTT to make the find.

My first step would be to check that the location meets the saturation guidelines, that there isn't another cache within 528ft/161m of the location I want. For this check, I'd look at the traditional caches on the map, plus any puzzle caches or multi-caches in the area that I have coordinates for. Next, I'd work on securing permission. A lot of parks and open spaces around here have geocaching policies. As long as the cache meets the requirements of their geocaching policies, you have permission, and don't need to talk to a ranger or submit a form or anything. In those parks, I'd verify that my idea meets their geocaching policy. Otherwise, I'd talk to the land manager to get permission. Then, if my idea involved location-specific camouflage that couldn't be relocated easily, I'd double-check with a local reviewer that the location really is available, that there isn't some puzzle cache that I haven't solved that's blocking the location. Then I'd build the cache, place the cache, and submit the listing. Sadie, the funny thing is that everyone does stuff differently. Everyone will have a different answer. Just to add to niraD, I like to develop my listing on geocaching.com early on in the process, and leave a reviewer note saying that you are working on a cache for this spot. That way, if someone else attempts to put a cache there before your's is published, the reviewer will likely give precidents to your cache. You will likely get a email asking if you are indeed placing a cache there soon, giving you "first dibs" as it were.

My first step would be to check that the location meets the saturation guidelines, that there isn't another cache within 528ft/161m of the location I want. For this check, I'd look at the traditional caches on the map, plus any puzzle caches or multi-caches in the area that I have coordinates for. Next, I'd work on securing permission. A lot of parks and open spaces around here have geocaching policies. As long as the cache meets the requirements of their geocaching policies, you have permission, and don't need to talk to a ranger or submit a form or anything. In those parks, I'd verify that my idea meets their geocaching policy. Otherwise, I'd talk to the land manager to get permission. Then, if my idea involved location-specific camouflage that couldn't be relocated easily, I'd double-check with a local reviewer that the location really is available, that there isn't some puzzle cache that I haven't solved that's blocking the location. Then I'd build the cache, place the cache, and submit the listing.

Ignoring the Earth, just thinking in 3D space. Distances from three points provides 2 intersections. Now, being on the surface of the Earth, ... here I realize the confusion. Being a smartphone user, the phone can deduce which of the 2 locations is more likely based on other data, like service provider, cell towers, recent location, etc. Where a smartphone can 'talk' to another non-satellite source, a handheld GPSr may require the 4th satellite to make that distinction if it has no recent data from which to deduce. However, once either device has its single location, to whatever accuracy (in 3D space), altitude and/or elevation can be determined. One way is by cross-referencing the elevation at the lat/lon calculated and citing the difference to the device's location in 3d space. Or having the algorithms for the curvature of the earth calculate the height over sea level for the calculated lat/lon. Point being, with a single location determined from the intersections, the 'location' (+/- accuracy) is already in 3D space, thus elevation can be calculated relative to sea level (whether you're on the ground or flying in an airplane). 4 or more satellites (depending on device) strengthen the accuracy of the gps location. The more spheres intersect in the general vicinity (within meters or less), the closer the average will be to the actual location. (barring signal loss and bounce and other uncertainty factors) ETA: As for time error, that's a matter of accuracy, really. It's a +/- give or take from the calculated location (one of 2 intersection points in 3-space having 3 spheres). The 4th (sphere) isn't required to determine a single intersection of the two unless no other reference data indicates which of the two points is most likely. But the 4th (sphere) will absolutely confirm and reduce intersection points from 2 to 1 if any device receives the 4th satellite signal (and helps to improve calculation accuracy) Dislaimer: IANAM(athematician) - but I understand geometry ;P

My heart sank when I received the following e-mail from motnahp (the OP) today... "I think it is a bad idea to pass "Keep it moving" around so that other cachers can find it without actually looking. I hope you will hid it properly soon so that it can continue its journey. There has been some talk on the forum about this subject and the cache is in danger of being classed as a "Pocket Cache" and archived. This is a great cache which is no longer allowed. The proper thing to do, I think, would be to mention this in a note and possibly ask all those people who have logged it as found to delete their logs. It makes me very sad to see the cache being treated in this way." Where do I start? I know it is a great cache. I know the rules for this special cache. I now know "there is some talk on the forum" only because you started it?!? And I strongly believe the CO's "proper thing to do" is more important than the yours! I found "Keep it Moving" last month and asked nmartin the CO if he would allow me to bring it to my first ever event. His reply was... "Yes, have fun with it, just when you are done, send me the coord's of where you leave it." In keeping with the CO's wishes that is exactly what I plan to do. Take it to the event, have fun with it and when we are done with it pass it on for somebody else to release back in to the wild. I spent hours reading about the "Keep it Moving" adventure but the idea of posting a note that asks every cacher in the world that has "found" it at an event to delete their logs never occurred to me?!? Instead I decided to do something constructive with my time, I did my homework and discovered there are now less than 40 of these relics still in existence with the majority staying in the USA. I managed to track down another historic travelling cache currently in England called Hitchhiker 42 (GC1A74) and have arranged for their paths to meet for the first time ever my event! Surely bringing these fascinating caches together for one day will add another exciting chapter to their amazing journeys? Both CO's seemed happy with the idea. I personally think Events are a big part of "the spirit of Geocaching" as many cachers never get a chance to put faces to names or just talk passionately about the joys of caching with their peers! This particular event is the first in Glasgow for over 2 years and for many will be their first event. It should be great fun so if you're still feeling "very sad" why not come along? (GC3A830) "Happy" hunting! AMAZO