That’s my GPSr!

[+Tavisman]

I thought I would have a go at starting one of those ‘have you encounter…’ forum threads. Here goes…

 

While trying to find a cache around a pond my fellow caching colleague saw a black box floating past him. He suddenly lunged forward and scooped it up. I’ve never seen him move so fast! It was his GPSr floating in its protective zip-up case. It survived.

 

Then on the same trip he (the same guy) left his GPSr on top of the car and drove away. I saw it fall off and bounce on the road. It still worked afterwards!

 

I’ve also read in various logs about cacher’s leaving their GPSr on a stile or at GZ of a cache. Then another cacher’s has then picked it up for them and returned it.

 

So what stories do you have about close encounters with your GPSr?

[+moparots]

I thought I would have a go at starting one of those ‘have you encounter…’ forum threads. Here goes…

 

While trying to find a cache around a pond my fellow caching colleague saw a black box floating past him. He suddenly lunged forward and scooped it up. I’ve never seen him move so fast! It was his GPSr floating in its protective zip-up case. It survived.

 

Then on the same trip he (the same guy) left his GPSr on top of the car and drove away. I saw it fall off and bounce on the road. It still worked afterwards!

 

I’ve also read in various logs about cacher’s leaving their GPSr on a stile or at GZ of a cache. Then another cacher’s has then picked it up for them and returned it.

 

So what stories do you have about close encounters with your GPSr?

 

Drove down the road to the next cache with my brand new Garmin vista on my truck tool box. I just got out and then just used it for the next find, I was lucky it didnt fall off. I think I'll just put a lil velcro on the box and keep the GPS there all the time. : )

[+mcrow]

My 17 month old daughter tossed my GPSr out of my office window on the second floor onto the sidewalk down below. Other than a scuff mark (not on the screen) it works the same as it did before it left the window.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Six of us in my Suburban, and unbeknownst to us our weaving in and out of parking lots for a series of micros on one late-night run in TN had caught the attention of the police, who set up hidden in a parking lot ahead of us to wait until we crossed into their city limits.

 

I pulled out into the street after a find and Ladebear68 cried "My GPS is on the hood!" so I stopped in the middle of the street and slowly eased into the next parking lot... the one that four cop cars were waiting in! It seemed like our whole world lit up when I pulled in there!

 

Now convinced that we were a carload of drunks due to my erratic driving it took a while to convince them that none of us drank, we were just playing a game!

[sdarken]

A cacher near here left his GPSr on the roof of his car. It slid off and when he turned his car around to retrieve it he was able to watch another cacher drive right over it.

 

The broken GPSr became a cache. You have to open the battery compartment to get to the log.

 

I had my 60csx pop out of my bicycle mount and I rode over it one day. The plastic plexiglass (that covers the actual screen) popped off but I was able to push it back on. (It's only held on with double-sided tape). It still worked fine.

[+mfamilee]

We've left our GPSr behind at a cache a few times and had to walk back to get it. Thankfully, we've never had anything happen to it... yet! *fingers crossed*

 

We did accidently shut our camera in the back of door of the Jeep though and broke the lcd screen. I wanted to cry!

[+Colonial Cats]

I haven't lost my GPSr, but I did lose our swag bag once. We live in Virginia but were visiting relatives in Massachusetts. While caching near a waterfall, we found ourselves talking to a muggle. We explained geocaching to her since she was expressing an interest. In the excitement, I left our swag bag at the base of a tree. 3 hours later I realized what I had done. We went back to the falls and the bag was missing! Oh no, all of our stuff was gone! The next morning I remembered that our home phone number was printed on the bag. I called and checked our answering machine. Imagine our delight to discover that the muggle we had talked to had returned to the falls and found our bag. She took it for safe keeping since the falls were also a favorite spot for teenagers. We were soon reunited with our swag bag and she received our signature geocoin.

[GOF and Bacall]

Getting ready for vacation when my old blue Legend took a crap. I ordered a 60Cx, they had just started selling them. With quick shipping and all I had paid way too much for it, but had to have it before we left. The whole vacation had been planned around caching.

 

Second day I was making circles around ground zero. It was in a wooded area with lots of ground cover. Saplings, ferns, leaf litter, just a bunch of thick stuff. I had clipped the new gps in its belt clip and was considering where I'd hide the cache if it was me. Worked, there it was. Signed the log and headed to the trail fifty feet away.

 

I reached for my belt wondering where and how far to the next cache. All my hand found was the empty belt clip. It took my wife and I darn near an hour in those gloomy woods to find that 60Cx. When we finally found it we went right to the local hardware store and purchased a roll of yellow duct tape. To this day there are bright yellow stripes on my GPS receiver. So much easier to find.

 

I often wonder how many of those camo GPSrs are laying out there in the woods.

[+bafl01]

i was doing a cache in a very large series called "my favorite drinking hole". I usually have a side pocket on my dickies and probably absent mindedly tried to stick my gps in there. We drove the 10 or more miles home 20 plus minutes and realize we didnt have it. We called and no one had turned it in. I had resigned to the fact that i had lost it and was going to cry like a small baby. But, my wife insist that we drive all the way back. almost an hour later, We went inside checked the bathroom and the counter and bugged the attendant at the QT again. walked out with a second wind on my upsettedness-ness and there it was lying in the yellow hallagon spot light of the lamp post nestled in the gravel like a traditional arizona cache. BEST PARK AND GRAB EVER(the gps not the cache at the qt)

[+briansnat]

The week after I bought my 60CSX I went on a winter backpacking trip. I had the unit riding on my hip clipped to a pant pocket. A few hundred feet into the trip I stepped on a patch of ice and all 230 lbs of me plus my 40 lb pack came down on the GPS. I expected to see a shattered unit, but it was fine. A minute later I repeated the "experiment". fallling down again on the unit. The unit survived again, but the next day I had a bruise on my hip roughly the shape of the 60CSX.

[Clan Riffster]

I'm beginning to think my 60CSx is bullet proof.

I've sunk it to the bottom of various salt water estuaries on numerous occasions.

I drove over it with my pick up truck.

I had it in a mount on my motorcycle when I crashed, flipping the bike 1.5 full revolutions.

I've left it on the roof of my truck, having it hit the blacktop at about 10 MPH.

I've left it on the roof of my friend's Hyundai, having it bounce down the blacktop at about 45 MPH.

A bit banged up, but still works like a charm.

 

On the topic of cameras: I bought an Olympus 770SW because it was water/shock/freeze/etc proof.

I was taking pictures of my Jeep's engine compartment, so I'd know where stuff went when it was time to put it back.

I closed the hood, and it didn't shut level. Oh, well. It's an old Jeep. I tried applying elbow grease, slamming the hood a couple times.

That's when I realized my camera was in the way.

Doh!

Still works like a charm!

[+gof1]

I'm beginning to think my 60CSx is bullet proof.

I've sunk it to the bottom of various salt water estuaries on numerous occasions.

I drove over it with my pick up truck.

I had it in a mount on my motorcycle when I crashed, flipping the bike 1.5 full revolutions.

I've left it on the roof of my truck, having it hit the blacktop at about 10 MPH.

I've left it on the roof of my friend's Hyundai, having it bounce down the blacktop at about 45 MPH.

A bit banged up, but still works like a charm.

 

On the topic of cameras: I bought an Olympus 770SW because it was water/shock/freeze/etc proof.

I was taking pictures of my Jeep's engine compartment, so I'd know where stuff went when it was time to put it back.

I closed the hood, and it didn't shut level. Oh, well. It's an old Jeep. I tried applying elbow grease, slamming the hood a couple times.

That's when I realized my camera was in the way.

Doh!

Still works like a charm!

 

Dropped my 60Cx lots of times. If you're interested the battery door is about eight bucks.

 

What mount are you using on the bike?

Edited May 8, 2009 by gof1

[+Jeep4two]

I'm beginning to think my 60CSx is bullet proof.

I've sunk it to the bottom of various salt water estuaries on numerous occasions.

I drove over it with my pick up truck.

I had it in a mount on my motorcycle when I crashed, flipping the bike 1.5 full revolutions.

I've left it on the roof of my truck, having it hit the blacktop at about 10 MPH.

I've left it on the roof of my friend's Hyundai, having it bounce down the blacktop at about 45 MPH.

A bit banged up, but still works like a charm.

 

On the topic of cameras: I bought an Olympus 770SW because it was water/shock/freeze/etc proof.

I was taking pictures of my Jeep's engine compartment, so I'd know where stuff went when it was time to put it back.

I closed the hood, and it didn't shut level. Oh, well. It's an old Jeep. I tried applying elbow grease, slamming the hood a couple times.

That's when I realized my camera was in the way.

Doh!

Still works like a charm!

 

For some reason I just see you sitting on the hood while a camera shaped dent pops up in your hood. . . too much Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes when I was a kid I guess. . . tooooo funny.

 

My GPS? Lucky so far. . . no mishaps. I've had my absent minded moments however. (Slightly off topic but funny). When I was a kid I was out water skiing with a church group. While waiting on a someone to get ready in the water I asked the boat owner what the little bobber looking thing was for on the key ring. "So if the keys fall in the water they won't sink" he said. Being inquisitive (and quick) I dropped them in the water just as he said "but there are too many keys on the key ring for it to float". They sank rather quickly - and we used the trolling motor to work our way back to the dock. There were spare keys at camp. . . but that didn't save me from hours of ribbing. . . .

[+Chrysalides]

I don't have of my own to share, as I haven't been caching that long. I figure my chances will go up if I buy a more expensive GPSr...

 

I do recall, when I was just starting, reading in here that someone left their 60CSX on the top of their truck and drove off. They have their e-mail address and phone number on the startup screen, and the person who found it contacted them to return it.

[+The Leprechauns]

May 2003: Left the Garmin GPS-V on top of my SUV while four-wheeling along a state forest road from one cache to the next. It was still there when I noticed it wasn't on the dashboard.

 

May 2005: Dropped that same GPS into a swift, icy stream in western Maryland. Ruined its external antenna.

 

2005-2006: Cached with a backup Magellan that I WISH had gotten run over or dropped in a lake.

 

April 2006: Bought a Garmin 60CSX that I love so much, I will never allow it to be lost or damaged.

[+Lil Devil]

A couple of years ago I found a GPS sitting on top of a stump while looking for a cache. I ended up finding the cache in a hole under the stump. When I got back to my truck I put fresh batteries in the lost GPS, turned it on and found a waypoint for "home" which was just a few miles away. I worked my way towards that "home" stopping to find a couple more caches along the way. When I got there I explained what I found to the woman who answered the door and she laughed and said it's her husband's GPS and he was away at the store at that exact moment to buy a replacement GPS. She called him on his cell phone and managed to stop the purchase in the nick of time. The guy had handed over his credit card just as he answered the phone, and he was barely able to stop the clerk from running it.

 

I met him a month or two later at an event and we've become friends and go caching together now and then.

 

Moral: If you can set your startup screen to have your name and contact info, do it. Otherwise, always keep a waypoint in your GPS for "home".

[Clan Riffster]

Dropped my 60Cx lots of times. If you're interested the battery door is about eight bucks.

 

What mount are you using on the bike?

Oddly enough, all those mishaps didn't break my battery cover. I was in my sister's truck a while back and dropped my 60 on the carpetted floorboard. Broke the battery cover just as neat as you please. I looked on Garmin's accessories webpage, and they didn't offer a replacement, at that time. I asked if they could give me a price on one, and instead they sent me one for free. Gotta love their customer service!

 

My mount is from Ram. Attaches to the handlebar.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I don't have of my own to share, as I haven't been caching that long. I figure my chances will go up if I buy a more expensive GPSr...

There is a direct relationship here... the more you pay for a GPS the more likely you will lose or destroy it!

 

I do recall, when I was just starting, reading in here that someone left their 60CSX on the top of their truck and drove off. They have their e-mail address and phone number on the startup screen, and the person who found it contacted them to return it.

Moonsilver and I were caching one night in Huntsville AL. We got to a cache site and he reached for his GPS... no GPS. We backtracked to the last couple of caches, no GPS. A couple of days later he gets a call... "Found your GPS".

 

Yep, putting your contact info on the startup screen do pay.

[+gof1]

Dropped my 60Cx lots of times. If you're interested the battery door is about eight bucks.

 

What mount are you using on the bike?

Oddly enough, all those mishaps didn't break my battery cover. I was in my sister's truck a while back and dropped my 60 on the carpetted floorboard. Broke the battery cover just as neat as you please. I looked on Garmin's accessories webpage, and they didn't offer a replacement, at that time. I asked if they could give me a price on one, and instead they sent me one for free. Gotta love their customer service!

 

My mount is from Ram. Attaches to the handlebar.

 

Yeah, the cover was free. They charged me for shipping. Either way it was good service.

 

These are on ebay. Cleaner look than the u-bolt ram mount.

[+J-Way]

I left a GPS receiver on a mountain in North Carolina. If you find it, please let me know.

[+Singletree Expedition]

The short story:

We left our GPS at a cache and a band kid stuffed it in his pants.

 

The long story:

So we target a local cache that brings us to a creek between a small playground and a baseball field. There are a few empty school buses parked in the grass near the cache, but no one around.

 

The creek vanishes into a large culvert and we find the cache by wading and ducking... disappearing for a moment while we sign the log. So far it's nice and quiet with only the gentle rustling of the shallow creek to congratulate us for the find.

 

BUT THEN we hear "BEEP BEEP BEEP"; the kind of BEEP that you hear when a bus is backing up. And it's backing up right over the culvert; right over our heads! Within seconds we are in the midst of dozens of band kids as we now play it cool by looking for crawdads in the creek with our small son.

 

After a few seconds we casually move to the playground and let our son play for a moment before getting into the car. It is at this point that we realize we no longer have our GPS. Ah, in all the excitement we must have left it down by the creek which is now swarming with band kids.

 

Let's look for crawdad's again. We do not immediately see the GPS, but we do hear some whispering and couldn't help but notice a scattering of some guilty looking "band"its. Hmmm, could it be? Hear we go, stepping into the swarm... outnumbered 30 to 3 and say "Did you find something?". A trembling student steps forward with a mumbling nod. And this is when it happened. He reaches deep into his pants and pulls out a Magellan. Yes, that would be it. The power is on and it's still locked on the cache... and for the last 5 minutes it's been... in his PANTS.

[sarahbelle]

My first Legend got stolen out of my car. It had all my contact information on the first screen, even offered a reward, but I guess if you're stealing something, you're probably not all that interested in getting it back to where it belongs. It survived some drops, but nothing all that serious, and I had it less than a year.

 

I got a Legend Cx to replace it, and it's been dropped on pretty much every surface imaginable. My cat has chewed on it, it's fallen in water, and it's been left in the sun and sat on. Fortunately for me, it's still in good shape. I make sure it's hung around my neck as soon as I locate a cache because I'd definitely be the type to either leave it in the cache or set it down and walk off. So far, so good.

[+GeoLobo]

While geocaching in the Adirondack Mountains (Upstate New York), DirtFan lost his GPS while trying to Snowmobile up the moutain after the cache.

 

Owl's Head Mt. #3: Summit Cache

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...=y&decrypt=

 

Here is the Log

 

February 24, 2008 by dirtfan (726 found)

I know that this is a long shot, but I'm going to give it a shot. While here in Long Lake for an event a group of us decided to try and snowmobile up the mountain to grab this cache. Crazy? Maybe. Well we didn't make it, but I did manage to lose a new Garmin 60Csx on the way up. The last time I looked at it we were .63 miles from the cache on our way up the trail. When we finally decided we couldn't make it to the cache we were .47 miles from the cache (according to another GPS.) That's when I decided to check mine and it was gone. We searched for a while in between but came up empty in the deep snow. If anyone finds it could you please email me, as you know, this is an expensive unit and I'd like to get it back even if it is broken.

Thanks for reading, Dirtfan.

 

He later posted this log:

 

February 28, 2008 by dirtfan (726 found)

GPS found, thanks.

 

I know for a fact, that two Forest Rangers saw his log in the trail head log book and used a metal detector on the trail - on their way up during their patrol - and found the GPSer for DirtFan. He was excited that they found it and he had his brand new GPSer back.

[+Sol seaker]

I was geocaching in the snow with my geo-buddy one day. As I was messing with my gloves and walking, I dropped my hiking cane and kept on walkign without realizing it. He was behind me and soon appeared next to me carrying it. He gave me a bad time for "losing" it after all, it is a 50.00 cane. He was really quite mean about it though.

 

AFter the next cache I was still at the cache getting my gloves on and pack together as he walked off.

I got up to go and saw his new Garmin Oregon 400T in the snow. I picked it up without saying anything and followed him up the trail. Soon I saw him patting down all of his pockets.

 

"You looking for this?" I asked. I did not point out that it was a 600.00 unit.

[Clan Riffster]

Almost forgot about another misadventure my 60 suffered:

I was visiting my sister in Tampa, doing a cache kinda near the Skyway Bridge. It was hidden in a sea wall constructed of large boulders. This wall was about 30' high, and about a 45 degree slope. After I found the cache, I neglected to tuck my 60 away safely, and as I was descending, I stumbled. I only rolled about 3 or 4 body lengths, but this tumble was over rocks about 2' or 3' across. In my flailing attempts to avoid excessive broken bones, my 60 went sailing, landing in the rocks. Once I figured out I wasn't dead, I limped about the rocks as best I could for a couple hours, coming up empty handed. When I called my sister to whine about my fate, she sent her boyfriend to assist. He found it in about 5 minutes.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Almost forgot about another misadventure my 60 suffered:

I was visiting my sister in Tampa, doing a cache kinda near the Skyway Bridge. It was hidden in a sea wall constructed of large boulders. This wall was about 30' high, and about a 45 degree slope. After I found the cache, I neglected to tuck my 60 away safely, and as I was descending, I stumbled. I only rolled about 3 or 4 body lengths, but this tumble was over rocks about 2' or 3' across....

I did the same but it was my new (2 day old) $400 Palm Tungsten T5 that I was using for paperless caching. It was in my pocket when I tumbled down a mountain peak onto rocks. RIP Palm.

[+Jeep4two]

I'm hoping my habit of typing in field notes on my Oregon 400t prevents me from leaving mine hanging from it's carabiner in a tree some day...

[+Coyote's Girl]

Today, while going after a cache in a nearby park, and not finding the cache. I gave up after dealing with those awful stinging throny green plants. Anyway, I went to put my GPSr back in my geobag, and I sneezed pretty hard. It fell on the blacktop bike path and broke in half. It still works just fine, although I suspect it will be slightly less waterproof from now on.

[+amianda]

Not a story about a GPS but oh well.

 

So my husband and I were working on like our 4th or so cache one day and it was a DNF. Frustrated, we took our time getting back to the car. Our roommate was poking around in some debris on the side of the road and he stood up, holding out a check for over 100 dollars. It was a corporate check, printed out with the payee's full name and home address. On the back, it was already endorsed and had the payee's account number written out. When we got back to the car, we plugged the address into the car's gps unit and found it was only a few blocks away. You should have seen the look on the man's face as we handed him the check.

 

Apparently it had been in a mostly empty box in the back of his truck, which he'd lost while driving and didn't know where. He was amazed we found it.

 

Fun times

[GOF and Bacall]

Not a story about a GPS but oh well.

 

So my husband and I were working on like our 4th or so cache one day and it was a DNF. Frustrated, we took our time getting back to the car. Our roommate was poking around in some debris on the side of the road and he stood up, holding out a check for over 100 dollars. It was a corporate check, printed out with the payee's full name and home address. On the back, it was already endorsed and had the payee's account number written out. When we got back to the car, we plugged the address into the car's gps unit and found it was only a few blocks away. You should have seen the look on the man's face as we handed him the check.

 

Apparently it had been in a mostly empty box in the back of his truck, which he'd lost while driving and didn't know where. He was amazed we found it.

 

Fun times

 

You guys get today's gold star award. Good Job!

[+tfc0869]

I only have a sad story...in about 2001, was sailing with some friends, and was shooting through a pass where the current is strong, and wanted to know our true speed-over-ground...whipped out my eTrex Summit. A friend accidentally knocked it overboard. I couldn't even see where it went...byebye, GPSr. I hope the Dungeness crabs were able to put it to good use on difficulty=5 caches, but they probably hadn't heard of the sport yet.

 

(My inlaws bought me a replacement a year or two later. Hooray for in-laws)