Mark My Car? :blink:

[+Royalott]

Is there anyone on this forum that has ever lost their vehicle while geocaching? I mean forgotten to mark the coordinates and had a heck of a time finding it? I have a couple times and every time I swear that I will never forget again and have to admit, I am consistent! I don't think I have EVER remembered to mark it. Am I unique in this or are there others that have lost their cars?

 

There were two times it took me a couple HOURS to find it but I swear, I will remember to mark it the next time I go out.

 

Any horror story's out there??

[+Too Tall John]

There's a cache in the area here that was placed in honor of just such an event:

 

Be Sure To Mark Your Car.

 

Also placed to commemorate the same occasion:

 

Aren't the Police and Dispatcher's Wonderful

 

I generally am able to wander out to the car even if I forget to mark it by following my track on the GPSr. It works great for me.

[+egami]

Never needed it yet, but I always have the route being marked as I cache.

[+Rattlebars]

Remote start. It turns on the lights. Unlock, beeps the horn twice. Some (most) keyless entry cars have a "panic" button that flashes the lights and beeps the horn.

 

I can't tell you how many times my remote starter has saved my butt after dark..... too many. I do, however, often mark the spot. There's always following your track back (if your GPSr has that feature).

[+egami]

I thought range on remote start was fairly small?

[Mag Magician]

I thought range on remote start was fairly small?

Mine is 800 feet, but that doesn't help deep in the woods. Oops, I forgot! I do take the 4X4 deep in the woods.

[+Team Crime Scene]

Is there anyone on this forum that has ever lost their vehicle while geocaching? I mean forgotten to mark the coordinates and had a heck of a time finding it? I have a couple times and every time I swear that I will never forget again and have to admit, I am consistent! I don't think I have EVER remembered to mark it. Am I unique in this or are there others that have lost their cars?

 

There were two times it took me a couple HOURS to find it but I swear, I will remember to mark it the next time I go out.

 

Any horror story's out there??

 

Looks like your alone out there. I do however enjoy seeing all four wheels still intact upon returning to the truck after a long hike.

[+GeoScooter1]

I have done it once and learned my lesson about marking my car. I also learned that same day to mark the trail if I am going to be wandering off it for any great length. I was caching in a large urban park one day with my dog this summer, and we had probably covered 5 miles on all of the intersecting trails. One of the caches was way off the trail and my GPS had me wandering around a bit, too. After finding the cache, I had no clue where the trail was! I finally did find it but had no clue where I was parked by now. I didn't have the tracking option set, so I just went back to the 1st cache I found. This got me close, but there were still lots of intersecting trails and I couldn't remember if I came in from the left, the right, or whatever. I just picked a trail and came out about a mile from the car. I sure was glad I found it, though.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

Is there anyone on this forum that has ever lost their vehicle while geocaching? I mean forgotten to mark the coordinates and had a heck of a time finding it? I have a couple times and every time I swear that I will never forget again and have to admit, I am consistent! I don't think I have EVER remembered to mark it. Am I unique in this or are there others that have lost their cars?

 

There were two times it took me a couple HOURS to find it but I swear, I will remember to mark it the next time I go out.

 

Any horror story's out there??

 

Looks like your alone out there. I do however enjoy seeing all four wheels still intact upon returning to the truck after a long hike.

Looks like your alone out there. I do however enjoy seeing all EIGHTEEN wheels still intact upon returning to the truck after a long hike.

[+briansnat]

I usually mark my car, but have forgotten. In those cases I just followed the breadcrumbs out.

[+palmetto]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I expect to be able to see my track, and if necessary, create a point along it near the car. You can generally tell where the driving portion of the journey ends and the walking portion starts. I also tend to clear my track and mileage odometer at the start of any walk, in case I decide to save the track... easier editing later.

 

I'm wondering if you've set your GPS up with the track hidden? and perhaps don't know it's available? I once helped a couple find that feature on their Merigold. He'd turned it off, and was wandering some trails in a large preserve. He was able to find the menu and turn it back on for himself, once I assured him that the track was there.

[bogleman]

Over the summer I was out of town. I went out for a little adventure around the town. Spent about 30 minutes just trying to find a place to park. When I found a spot I hit the mark button; but before I left I saw that I was not parked in a legal spot, so I left and continued on my little adventure. I found another spot and thought I updated the parking waypoint before I set out on foot.

 

About 3 hours later (and it was getting dark outside) I quickly found that the waypoint I had saved was WRONG. OBTW I was way out of range of the panic button, had a white rental - a really common car, oh there's the car NOT. Well after about an hour of wandering around I finally found it.

 

The track back was useless since the tracks crossed over themselves so many times the screen looked like a plate of spagehtti and the signal was terrible I had a hard time getting a solid lock.

 

Around home I've never been lost, misplaced a few times but never lost

[+Royalott]

Over the summer I was out of town. I went out for a little adventure around the town. Spent about 30 minutes just trying to find a place to park. When I found a spot I hit the mark button; but before I left I saw that I was not parked in a legal spot, so I left and continued on my little adventure. I found another spot and thought I updated the parking waypoint before I set out on foot.

 

About 3 hours later (and it was getting dark outside) I quickly found that the waypoint I had saved was WRONG. OBTW I was way out of range of the panic button, had a white rental - a really common car, oh there's the car NOT. Well after about an hour of wandering around I finally found it.

 

The track back was useless since the tracks crossed over themselves so many times the screen looked like a plate of spagehtti and the signal was terrible I had a hard time getting a solid lock.

 

Around home I've never been lost, misplaced a few times but never lost

 

I think it was Jim Bridger that said he was never lost but was a mite confused for a year or so

[+ThirstyMick]

There was that time I marked my car before i had a fix. I nearly had a panic attack counting down..600..200...100 feet and I'm nowhere near the car!!! PolskiKrol saw it through the trees, we were only about 500 feet away. But after that time in florida before we had the GPS ::shudder:: ......

[+tangerineman]

Yep, I forget just about every time to mark where I've parked. Fortunately I usually remember after walking for only 1/2 kilometre or so. Everyone has to stop while I zoom in on the map screen, and figure out where the driving stopped and the walking started, and place a marker. It adds another game after caching...how close did I get it this time? I'm usually quite impressed with how accurate it can get.

[+StarBrand]

Once that I can remember.

 

It was just about .25 from the car in dense woods up to the top of a small hill. I got so engrossed in the hunt and search that by the time I found it and replaced it, I was confused as to which downhill was the right way to go. I had lost reception for about half of the way up and for about 5 minutes couldn't get a lock on the sats and had no compass. Very disorienting. Finally switched to map view and got a lock long enough to see the breadcrumb trail and head off generally the right way. Scary for just a minute. I religiously mark the car these days.

[+hukilaulau]

 

I think it was Jim Bridger that said he was never lost but was a mite confused for a year or so

I've read that Davey Crockett said he'd never been lost, but that he had been "bewildernessed' a time or two.

I've lost my truck, bicycle, backpack many times... usually when the cache I'm looking for is "only" 100 feet from where I parked so I don't waypoint it. Then, there's another cache "only" .12 miles from the first one. Then... you get the point. several local hiders will do a series of several caches in a big park or woods, and the first one will be a micro right near the parking. That way, if you don't waypoint your vehicle, you can just "goto" that first cache when you're done.

[+Jeep_Dog]

Yeah, I have lost my Jeep on several occasions. Below is part of a log entry where I lost my Jeep only 100' away!

 

The partial log, the full log at this link:

 

Well, Jeep and I got pretty close, but I still had to walk just a wee bit, since I didn't feel like buffing out cedar scratches from my clear coat this weekend. GPSr zeroed out, no cache. Uh-oh, perhaps I didn't remember the code as well as I thought I had? There I stood, scratching my head, wishing I had transcribed the code on something (like my paws), to re-crack it. As I pondered my stupidity, I spied the cache. Ah-ha! Horray for my memory.

 

Quiet spot, fun cache! TNLNSL.

 

LOL. This is the second time in Copperas Cove area where I managed to loose my Jeep 100 ft from a cache. Now I understand why my wife wonders just how I manage to get by in life. The trees and the proximity of the vehicle created an interesting effect in that the mapping function and reverse route wasn't exactly helpful.

 

Not to fear, I did remember to bring my keys along. I always wondered what I could do with the "panic" function on my Jeep's alarm system. Now I know.... when I loose my Jeep in the woods, PANIC works well (although I wasn't quite panicked, per se). BEEP BEEP BEEP went trusty Jeep, beckoning to me to come back... alas, there it sat, lights blaring, horn honking. As if the bright silver paint job wasn't a dead give-away. Disgraceful as that refinding of the Jeep went, it was successful, and I felt very clever indeed.

[+mizdeeds]

I've forgotten a few times, but nothing that was a problem until a couple months ago when a friend and I were doing the CSI: series here in Michigan. The cache in question is actually quite near you, Royalott; CSI: Rest In Peace (GC1334W). We spent a day driving the back roads of Michigan starting just north of the bridge and the last 2 we did were in the dark. In the woods. My key fob has a panic button, and I had just thought the week before that it was time for a new battery because it didn't work from very far away any more. HA!

 

Here's my log:

 

This was the 6th of the CSI series Windrose and I did today. We had hoped to get more than that done today, but darkness and the late hour made this the last one of the day. I learned a lesson I will never forget at this cache: MARK THE CAR. Today, at every other cache, my good buddy Windrose marked the car so we never had a problem getting back to it. So here we are, in an unfamiliar forest, in the dark, close to a fresh shallow grave and maybe the perpetrator of the crime nearby and WE CAN’T FIND THE CAR!

 

I guess I should start at the beginning: we found the 1st stage quickly, but had a bit of trouble finding the 2nd. I should mention that we used “the Bigfoot method” of finding a place to park, which of course is to drive as close as possible to GZ. So what if the road was a bit narrow? Those leaves won’t scratch the cachemobile, will they? We decided that maybe the car was parked ON the 2nd stage, but that was just wishful thinking. We used our last lifeline and phoned a friend who quickly put us on the right track so we soon had the coords to the final. This is where the fun began. We headed into the woods and, once again, after we get out of sight of the car I ask Windrose: “did you mark the car?” (because of course, *I* didn't!). Windrose says no. UH OH. Hey, no problem, we can use the backtrack. HOW do I turn on the tracking on this thing? It took us a while to find the elusive evidence container, the GPS had us off about 30’, but eventually we found it. I TN, L-my pathtag, and for the last time, signed the log with the incorrect date, the 13th (I sure wish it had been Saturday, then we could have finished the series on Sunday!). Now, which way back to the car? Which way is north? Windrose had her compass with her, and she’s assured me many times that she knows how to use it, but in the frame of mind I was in by then, I wasn’t believing it. To put it mildly, I panicked. I wasn’t quite to full, blown-out panic mode, but it was close enough for Windrose to look at me and tell me to SHUT UP and CALM DOWN (at least she didn’t have to slap me!)! I swear I was hearing things moving around out there just beyond the reach of our flashlights, and wasn’t sure I wanted to see whatever (or WHOever) was making the noises. After what seemed like hours (and in reality was probably 10 minutes), we turned and saw the car! I was never so relieved in my life! And I reiterate, I will never EVER forget to mark the car again!

 

Oh boy, I can hardly wait for Monday, when we will head out after work to do more CSI investigating. I will mark the car, I WILL mark the car, I WILL MARK THE CAR!!!!!!!!!

 

 

The car was only about 50 feet away behind some dense brush, and I was never so happy to see it! I will never forget again!

 

[+Rattlebars]

I thought range on remote start was fairly small?

 

Mine has about a half mile range. However, one can increase the range of your "remote" by placing the hand held under your chin and whicle pressing it lightly against your chin, hit the button. Increases the range about 25% as has been my experience.

[+egami]

I thought range on remote start was fairly small?

 

Mine has about a half mile range. However, one can increase the range of your "remote" by placing the hand held under your chin and whicle pressing it lightly against your chin, hit the button. Increases the range about 25% as has been my experience.

 

That's slick...I figured they'd more along the lines of a regular keyless entry remote.

[Neos2]

Over the summer I was out of town. I went out for a little adventure around the town. Spent about 30 minutes just trying to find a place to park. When I found a spot I hit the mark button...[....]

 

..... had a white rental - a really common car,

We were going out of town, and I had gone to pick up the rental. Then I stopped at the store to grab some last minute items.

 

When I came out of the store, it hit me....I had no idea what kind of car I had rented, and only the vaguest idea of the color and about where I had parked it. It was a very non-descript beige color. The key was not very helpful. It said something like "champagne 2005"--no tag number, no make & model, etc.

 

I found the car a lot faster than I deserved.

[+StumpWater]

Seems like I ALWAYS forget. Remarkable, really.

 

Have always found my way back, though ......... so far.

 

StumpWater

[+tomfuller & Quill]

Please don't risk your life to your GPS. Carry a compass and remember the azimuth and distance to the cache.

If the GPS fails for any reason on the way back, the compass and a light will save you.

I survived a 13 hour ordeal in November 2006 getting a 5/5 cache. My SUUNTO and a 6V lantern saved me when the GPS could only find 2 sats. I USUALLY remember to mark my vehicle if I'm going to be out of sight.

Paperless caching has its place, but give me a paper map with the parking spot and cache marked on it.

[+Pirates of Tuskegee]

I only do it if I am going after a woods cache that is more than .2 miles deep in the woods. My sence of direction is retty good, so the short hikes I have no problem. Longer hikes, I just mark the car as "JIC" (Just in Case).