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My ladyfriend and I went caching today at a spot just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. After we had located the cache and hiked back to the parking lot, I unlocked the car and laid my brand new GPSr (A Lowrance Expedition C) on top of my old Taurus wagon because I needed to put my backpack in the back seat. As soon as I had done that, we hopped in the car and headed home. After eating dinner, I went in the den and reached over to pick up my GPS carrying case and thought to myself, "this thing feels awfully light." Then I felt a sick feeling beginning to well up inside because I didn't remember getting my GPSr back off the roof of my car. Thinking that I may have just laid it in the back seat, I raced outside and there sitting on the top of my Taurus wagon was the Lowrance, just where I left it. I picked it up and stared at it in disbelief. I had just driven about 30-35 miles on an extremely curvy road at speeds of up to 50 mph and the thing hadn't moved. The only thing I can figure out was that the Expedition has some tiny rubber feet on the back of it that must have kept it from sliding around. Man, what a lucky break!!!

Just a place to talk about cache problems and other random cache stuff please feel free to post anything cache related!! Such as Problems you have had in the past with your caches and the odd stuff you have found in them and make it so this is a non judgmental place to talk no bashing other players about what they think speak your mind!!! and have fun!!

Yesterday evening about 7 pm we found a cache near a local business. We had to walk about 10 feet through knee high grass to find the cache. No problem, signed log, traded TB's and were on our way. Had a good evening and went to bed about 11. At midnight I was woken up by something crawling near my leg. I tried to shake it off and go back to sleep. I felt it again, and jumped out of bed and turned on the light, expecting to find a spider. When I threw back the (luckily yellow) sheets, my husband saw a tick walking around. IN MY BED!!! So, I let it crawl on a piece a paper and fed it to the Venus Flytrap in the kitchen and then TRIED to go back to sleep. I laid there for an hour and a half waiting... I knew if there was one, there may be others. And where in the heck was that thing hiding for the last five hours? No bites on anyone, but ugghh! I finally fell asleep and dreamed about ticks all night. Today the sheets get a wash in hot water. Here is my question. Are the ticks worse this year? Or is it that we are new to geocaching? We've walked through the woods with the girl scouts, boy scouts and just the family before, and never had a problem. Now we walk 10 feet through grass by a business and gets ticks in the bed. This is our fourth tick encounter this spring, even using DEET sometimes. Are there superticks in Sacramento? Do I have to put off geocaching until it's cold? Help! Signed, Sleepless in Sacramento

Are they travel bugs or collectibles or both? How can a coin from finland start here (calif). Can anyone purchase foriegn geo coins. They are interesting and i picked one up BUt I do not quite get it...Thanks a newbie who is getting rolling

I'm watching as thread after thread is closed and wondering, what can we talk about that is not going to get deleted, edited or closed? And if you can get past all of that, chances are you're going to get scolded for not saying what you want to say in the most innoculous manner possible -- heaven help you if you get the slightest bit passionate about what's on your mind -- you'll be slapped with a warning (the online equivalent of standing in the corner). What can we talk about? If we're told that the answer is caching (which I suspect it will be), then let us talk about and discuss the things that are related to it. So come on -- deleting, editing, closing, and scolding is not doing anything but getting everyone frustrated and afraid to speak about caching, much less anything else. This is a social activity -- do you really think that stiffling everyone is doing anything positive to further this activity? I think it all comes down to the social aspect of caching -- and this has been brought up several times in the past -- what are these forums really about if not a social venue to discuss whatever the topic of the day is amongst those who share a similar attraction to this activity? This should be especially true in the non-specific 'General' Forum. *****

I cant seem to get my explorist 500 to talk to my laptop using the mapsend software. There is no software update or patch for this model. im stumped and frustrated.

Returning to geocaching after a 12-year hiatus. Have cleaned out the corrosion (leaky batteries after long neglect) on my old Garmin etrex VISTA Cx, installed new batteries and it still works. Renewed my premium membership (surprised that my data was still there) but the website looks so different than I remembered. If memory serves, the big advantage to the premium membership, was the ability to load geocaches directly from the computer to the GPS rather than having to manual load them but I can't seem to even get my old garmin to talk much less load. Perhaps technology has grown faster than my 67-year-old brain has faded. I will search but are there any tutorials here? Anybody on here from Clemson area?

Returning to geocaching after a 12-year hiatus. Have cleaned out the corrosion (leaky batteries after long neglect) on my old Garmin etrex VISTA Cx, installed new batteries and it still works. Renewed my premium membership (surprised that my data was still there) but the website looks so different than I remembered. If memory serves, the big advantage to the premium membership, was the ability to load geocaches directly from the computer to the GPS rather than having to manual load them but I can't seem to even get my old garmin to talk much less load. Perhaps technology has grown faster than my 67-year-old brain has faded. I will search but are there any tutorials here? Anybody on here from Clemson area?

Time to get it out there and start talking about the subject , of adopting ( old ) historic , pioneering caches Time for change , things move on , the constitution was written a long time ago , thing are seen differently , Talk about it , we pay to play , so lets have a say in how we play

Cachly can download a gpx file. That app we can't talk about will do that also.

Ok, I'm obviously a newbie and having difficulty with my software. I've looked through old posts and can't find the answers that I'm looking for. I've also looked at Smittys(something or other) and various other step by step web sites but none of them seem to explain exactly what to do - like "ok....my screen doesn't have that "magic button" you're talking about". So....as complex as it is - can anyone either help me fully or in part with the following questions? If you'd rather, anyone willing to talk to me like I'm 4 can email and we can do it that way. I just appreciate help. By the way - my GSAK and Cachmate are paid for. So here goes: POCKET QUERIES: I see where people have them generated a couple times a week. When I generate mine I say 'send me 50 that I haven't found'. But it keeps sending the same 50, because obviously I haven't changed the information. So, I deleted all my queries and will just mark the ones I've found in the meantime. Why would I keep downloading the same 50 and having to import them every couple days and rework them? Am I missing the point of Pocket Queries? I'm certainly not finding 50 every couple days but I like a good variety in case I travel 10-15 miles down the road. GSAK: Love the program but have a problem converting the files to get them into my PDA. I have to open Cachemate, go through about 15 steps, go back into GSAK and then export them. Does everyone have to go through that every single time? Also, do you list your Pocket Queries by date as different data bases? I have several files, all differnt names, with the same info in them. Does that make sense? Aren't I just wasting computer space? CACHEMATE: I love this program! Great for my PDA. But....does it really do my any good to mark that I've found a cache, put in the time, date and comments, turn around and do the same thing on GSAK and turn around and do the same thing on Geocaching.com? I understand having to do it in one program and then again on the web, but it makes no sense to be doing it three times - I'd rather be spending all that time outside. Isn't there someway my Cachemate can sync with GSAK, other than just importing the queries into my PDA? Well, there you have it. My ignorance exposed (along with a few spelling errors, I'm sure). Again, any insight, help, or laughing would be appreciated.

ISO 8601 not only relates to computers that talk to each other, but generally to date format spelling rules.

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 recieved the serial cable for my new etrex today, but am having some problems with getting the PC and GPSr to talk to each other. If the etrex is in NMEA Out mode, I can connect to the COM port using hyperterminal and see data coming in. I can also use NMEA to track my position in GPSU. The problem occurs when I want to transfer waypoints etc., as in 'GARMIN' mode I recieve errors from each program I try saying 'Timed out' or 'No data recieved'. Any advice on what to try would be appreciated, and I'm running windows XP.

Hey guy im a neww joiner so i lam unsure on what to talk about thanx guys for the help APAANDSUNLOOKINGFORFUN

According to this trip report, the road to the Boulder River Trail is washed out. Adds a mile to the hike, and parking is limited.

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.

How ironic that I would be on here Monday and Tuesday reading about folks strange adventures while caching. Only to have one happen to us last night. For more details go here and check out my log: Bopp Playground Let's just say this made for an interesting caching adventure.

It's because the Wherigo Foundation site is an alternate listing service. It was supposed to demonstrate to Groundspeak what we were intending to do with Wherigo so we could run Wherigo for Groundspeak, free of charge for everyone involved. The other Wherigo player apps and builders are on Groundspeak's ban list because of the same reason: they're an alternate to something else--their PocketPC app and their builder, respectively. Though I worked to get community work officially recognized, those at the top of Groundspeak never communicated any of their verbal support to those enforcing Groundspeak's guidelines. Throughout Wherigo's lifetime, regardless of individual intentions at the company, Groundspeak's apparent attitude has always felt one of apathy and passive hostility towards anyone attempting to make their product more accessible to the community. I coined the term "the Wherigo Foundation is Fight Club". They've always told their reviewers not to allow any mention of the Wherigo Foundation or other non-Groundspeak Wherigo applications in cache listings. It's just that the reviewers aren't consistent with each other that caches in some areas were published and others not. Part of the partnership agreement I was reviewing did state that, if the Wherigo Foundation site were to be discontinued, all cartridge files would be provided to Groundspeak for dispersal to community members. I was planning to do that, anyway, so that was fine. There was one other clause I haven't before talked openly about. Suffice it to say, the way I interpreted it, if I ever walked away from Wherigo and did not transition its running to others, the entire game would come to an end. I did not like that Wherigo would then seem to rely on one person's continued health, existence, and interest. The partnership agreement never panned out because Groundspeak took too long in replying, which further showed their apathy (I'd say nine months, several times, classifies as too long, regardless of how patient you are--while waiting for one such reply, I had a house built and moved into it). An odd quirk to all this is this Wherigo forum. Why can we openly talk about these applications? The answer is a combination of me and Groundspeak's apathy. Back when matejcik and charlenni first presented their applications, the forum rule was that moderators needed to clear through Groundspeak talk of new applications. So, as the moderator, I hid the threads and sought approval. Groundspeak did not reply for a month, so I unhid the thread. When that second application was announced, I hid the thread again and asked Groundspeak. I again didn't hear a reply and unhid the thread. Later, I did get a reply, saying it was fine and that there wasn't anyone at Groundspeak who could speak for authorizing these, so that's why it took so long. I asked, then, for something no other moderator has: the authority to make these decisions on my own. It was granted. Ever since then, so long as something wasn't commercial, I allowed it. Now, mind you, Groundspeak's employees have definitely changed since then, so no one there remembers that this responsibility was delegated, so would likely take it away. Another odd footnote is Wherigo\\kit. I am able to use Groundspeak's API for authentication, which does require approval and a review. More recently, when I had to submit an updated overview of this application, I was asked by someone at Groundspeak if I wanted Kit to appear in the list of official Groundspeak partners. I guffawed, pointing out that Groundspeak's reviewers do not allow caches to be published if they mention Kit, the Wherigo Foundation, or any other application, so listing Kit as an official Groundspeak partner would thoroughly confuse the situation, so Groundspeak should really consider its stance on the matter. This was about two years ago. Finally, something that irritates me. Groundspeak allows cachers to mention GSAK and Project GC in their cache listings. Both are commercial applications--GSAK was up until recently and Project GC pushes a subscription model. Groundspeak also allows mention of other commercial applications in cache listings. But, yet, when it comes to everything the community has done to help Groundspeak with Wherigo--and everything we have has always been free, with the individual developer shouldering 100% of the continued cost--Groundspeak has this as their official position. And, believe me, there are ongoing costs. I average about $200/month for hosting, storage, SSL/TLS license, and domain registrations between Kit, the Wherigo Foundation site, DevOps/TFS, and the staging areas I use when publishing. I could decrease the cost by doing a shared hosting plan, I suppose. I suppose I could have still continued to create things. But there comes a time when one needs a solid support group to provide feedback and motivation. I don't have that. And you'd figure people in my own area would be really supportive of my endeavors, be it Wherigo or having found almost 95K caches. They're not. There's a distinct anti-Wherigo feeling in my area. There have been some that would like it if I quit geocaching altogether. So, no support there. One can continue only so long against the flow and apathy before exhausting oneself. So, later, my job became the beneficiary of some of my free time. I worked uncompensated overtime 300 hours last year and 400 hours this year (and no time off). You'd think they'd be grateful, but instead I get managers telling me they're not asking me to work extra hours and they're apathetic about all the things I'm doing to fix their aging application single-handedly. No encouragement, no support, no appreciation from there. Sigh. So, anyway, that's my view on the matter. There are always other sides to it, though I've tried to be neutral.

Hi, I was just wondering what a few things meant when someone logged that they visited my cache. It was "FTF" and "TNLN" i was just wondering if they were abreviations like ASAP or something that i didnt know the meaning of. Thanks.

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

Noble Knobs that is! Just a shameless plug for my new cache placement.

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!