Anyone going Geocaching this weekend? **NEW CACHERS...POP IN!**

[SplshMtn99]

http://www.lostoutdoors.com/newmap.html

Use this. Just plug in lat & lon & click on create map.
Leave off the N & W.
Enter them like: 42 10.123
071 10.123

When you get your results as an aerial photo, you can change it to topography map on the same page.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Thanks, SplshMtn!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy,
No, we didn't try for the FTF. As it turned out, it was found by a group of about 6 local cachers while we were doing our thing up near Liar Liar. They had some problems so it must be a tough one.

As for the map, you can plug coords into Topozone and it will give you a map. They are not always the most updated maps, however. I plugged the coords you want and got this map (hopefully, the link will work for you):
Topo Map
To use Topozone, do the following:
Click on the Topozone link on the geocaching page;
Click on View Maps; Scroll down the page to the section with Degrees Decimal Minutes; In Lat Degs, enter the 36 and in Lat mins, enter 54.242; in Long Degs, enter 76 and in Long Mins, enter 06.434. When the map appears, you can change the size and zoom in and out by using the tools on the left. Just remember to click on Update Map after you make any changes. I like to use Large for map size and 1:24,000 scale because that's what we used in SAR. This cache appears to be in a marshy area near Pleasure House Point. I hope this helps.
Mike

 

[Pin Wizard]

Thanks! I appreciate that. I haven't used Topozone much in the past since it doesn't give me streets. I can get the general idea of where something is, but following roads turns out to be a different story. But I do have street directions for this. Yea! I'll sure let you know what it's like when I eventually find it! Hopefully, next weekend.

 

[Pin Wizard]

No luck with it yesterday. This is an area with No Trespassing signs and surveyor's tape all over...bright pink! I'll have to try crossing the eyes. Thanks for the help!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy,
I just checked the strips again and got the same coords. You should email the cache owner with the coords and ask him if they are correct. Also, double check what you entered into your GPSr. Once you "focus" on them, they are pretty obvious.
We went for an FTF on Saturday but had a prior commitment and ran out of time before we could find it (a micro). Of course, we took the wrong way in which cost us a good amount of time. We did meet a father/DD team on the way in, which is always nice. They found it about 10 minutes after we left and it was about 60 feet off from the coords.
Good caching!
Mike

 

[Pin Wizard]

It was 60 feet off! I probably wouldn't have found that one. That's quite a bit. Congrats on finding it!!

I took your advice and just e-mailed the owner of geospud. We'll see if he says anything about it.

I've yet to get an FTF. LOL! There's a new one near home which I missed out on since I was in Virginia Beach that day. Oh well. Others will come along.

Found one this weekend that others had quite a bit of trouble with. Some called others on the phone for a hint, others went back a second time. Amazingly, my numbers were right on at that one! Found it after just a couple minutes. Too funny though...there's reference in the description to things and people in the bible. I knew the answers, and I was lucky enough to run into an episcopalian priest at this cache! LOL! He confirmed that my answers were right. His GPS was focusing on a different area that was close and didn't find it. We found it just after he gave up his hunt and left due to the sun starting to disappear. Rats! He was gone by the time we found it. It was pretty neat.

Happy caching!!!

 

[Pin Wizard]

The owner confirmed that those number ARE correct! CONGRATS!!! I wonder if my GPS is from another planet. I sent him another e-mail and gave him details of the area. Also that I was at a nearby area earlier which did not have signs or tape. He said that the area he placed it in has neither, but he will check to see if these things are new. Hmmmmmmmmmm. I let him know I'd be going back and rechecking the area without signs and tape. Probably my GPS sending me to the wrong place! We'll see!!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy,
Actually, we did not find it. We had to leave due to a prior commitment at church. Another team found it about 10 minutes after we left. We haven't gone back yet to try to locate it but a couple of cachers who found it posted better coords.
I was pretty sure the coords from the green strips were correct especially since my DW verified them. Try looking at them for a bit and make your eyes go in and out of focus a little. You probably have to stare at one spot while doing that. It might take 30 or 40 seconds but eventually the numbers will begin to look like they're coming up off the screen and out of the strips.
That's a good story about the Bible related cache you found. We would probably do well at that type, too. Too bad the minister had to leave. We have taken our minister's kids caching and they really enjoy it. We also did one at our church's summer picnic (there is a cache in the park) and all the kids tagged along. We had stocked it a little earlier with lollipops for them! Each of the kids got a chance to use the GPSr and follow the arrow until we found it. They got a real kick out of it.
Well, time to get ready for work. Have a good day and Good Caching!
Mike aw: aw: aw: aw:

 

[Pin Wizard]

Sounds like you had fun with all the kids! I'm sure they had a great time.

I know I've seen logs for caches around here with better coords than the owner has. I always wonder how there can be so much of a difference. I know all GPSrs are different, but when they're 60 feet off, that's huge! I had posted something on our Yahoo board about that. I asked if people get their numbers right where their cache is, do they step back 20 feet and take it, etc. LOL! A few said they get their numbers within a "reasonable" area. LOL! I guess I should stop standing on top of those I hide and giving correct numbers.

I see the owner of geospud1000 has now changed the coords to those where we should park. Looks like we get to walk 700 or so feet to it...if I'm figuring that correctly. If I was going through a place I shouldn't, I'm sure others have gone that way also. It's what Map Point gives directions for. Have to dislike Map Point sometimes. Especially when I want the ROUTE to where I need to drive and hike, not to the exact location and then have several obstacles between me and it.

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy,
Yeah, 60 feet does seem like alot. Some people say you should let your GPSr average for 10 minutes before taking coords for a new cache placement. That's probably a good idea. Others say they make their coords off by 20 or 30 feet to make it more of a challenge. I think micros are usually tough enough! The new parking coords should help with the green strip cache!
We are going to try paperless caching soon. I won a bid on Ebay yesterday for a Palm IIIxe. If this works like the people on the forums claim, it should save us quite a bit of PC paper and quite a few ink cartridges. One guy claims he has the text data for 1000 caches stored in his! We'll see, I guess.
It looks like we'll be taking a couple boys from church caching tomorrow morning. They went with us once before and really enjoyed it. Now, I have to decide where to go because we won't have a whole lot of time.
Have a great weekend and good caching!
Mike aw: aw: aw: aw:

 

[Pin Wizard]

I think I like the people here who say put the GPS down and let it settle 5 minutes as opposed to 10 minutes. The caches in the woods or any tree covered area are the worst. There was one in a park last weekend. It was our second time there looking for it. Numbers jumped all over the place. Found it more based on what the owner told me after the first time we were there. What a good hiding place! I learn a lot at some of these.

Then there was one in another park that had trails. I got the numbers in two completely different areas! The first time I gave up and went looking for another cache in the park. Then came back to this one and was put in a different area. Sheesh! LOL! Amazing we find anything sometimes. So I e-mailed that owner after posting a DNF. He told me to take a completely different trail! And this other trail won't take me anywhere near where I was before. The name of this cache is Tree of Peace. I told him for me it was the Tree of Aggravation!

So some people intentionally add numbers on. I have enough trouble when they're accurate.

New parking area for geospud should be interesting. If I pass where I did park before while on the hike, I won't be a happy camper. Parking wasn't the problem, just hiking there. Where I got the numbers was nothing but water around! I can't imagine how we're going to park on the opposite side of the water and get there. Hmmmmmmmmm. Guess we'll see. This is one of those caches that bothers you until you find it, but you're going to spend a good amount of time there to find it. Another day of finding three caches? LOL!

Congrats on the Palm IIIxe!!! I met someone on the trail a couple weeks ago that showed me how he logs his finds in. Interesting. Have fun with it and the kids! You have a great weekend, too. Happy caching!

 

[Pin Wizard]

I'm starting to have a problem with geospud. The owner posted new coordinates on the page of where to park. All this does is put you in an area where there are no signs of any kind, and you walk to the cache area from there. So rather than actually seeing the "private property" signs and walking by them, you're now going around them or in the back door so to speak. You're still on private property.

First I parked where the numbers are. Got out and decided to walk the street as opposed to the tall grass along the open field way. What a coincidence that the road parked on runs into the road where I parked last weekend. But I hadn't come to this end of the road. Sure enough there was an opening to the property there also. But I still took the road for a bit to check for signs. After several feet, there was a "no trespassing" sign! So then I walked back to where I parked and went in through the field for a bit. Ended up coming to the property I just saw from the road, but I was behind those signs. Grrrrrr. I'm ready to start e-mailing people that found it and ask if they knew it was private property. Will be interesting to see the answers. So for now, I still haven't found it.

 

[MiJo]

Sandy,
I'm sure we would pass on Geospud. We don't like caches that have anything to do with private property unless the owner has given definite permission. If that is the case, it is always stated in the cache write-up. Reading this one, it doesn't appear to be that way. We do have some here that are on the outside border of private properties, which we will usually do. It could be you have to traverse all the way around along the edge of the private property. It may not be worth the trip!
We did one yesterday before the heavy rains came. Right now, we have winds around 45 mph, from the sounds of it. Sammy and Jose seemed to enjoy it but we had the feeling they would have rather been playing a video game.
Our Palm IIIxe is supposed to ship from MI on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out all this paperless caching software and stuff. We'll see.
Good caching!
Mike aw: aw: aw: aw:

 

[Pin Wizard]

I don't know if there is an edge to walk to this. When I ran into the man with the pups and girl last weekend, I had to be between 75 and 100 feet tops away from the cache site. And the site is on the very edge of the water. I don't think it's possible to get there without setting foot on private property. Had I kept going yesterday, I would have come to an area we did last weekend and would have had to go to the road again in order to bypass the water. Hmmm.

McClusky...that was the last name of the man that owns it. I tried to google McClusky connected with Virginia Beach and came up with nothing. But he certainly must have a substantial amount of the property if not all. The man I ran into said the city of VA Beach wants to buy the land from the person, but they don't want to pay the price tag of $50 (or was that $500) million! I'm thinking $500. Otherwise my GPS must be WAY off. But I found other caches just fine yesterday.

Glad the kids had fun! Oh, I know that sometimes my son has his Gameboy in hand while we're walking to a cache. Ugh. He's getting better about leaving it in the car though.

We had strong winds yesterday, and I now see the pines outside blowing also. A day and a half ago it was 70 degrees! Today we woke up to a dusting of snow! Yesterday was windy and got colder and colder all day long. Then the rain. Yuck! We went after a cache at a new Starbucks in VA Beach. This has a parking garage with at least three levels connected to it. Ended up on the 2nd floor walking on the outside of the building. Brrr. And a bit high! Gorgeous view of a park on the boardwalk and the ocean! And 4 crazy people surf boarding! There were hanging lights every so often above us that were blowing like crazy. Good thing they had extra cables connected to them. But darling son still moved along the wall rather than walking under them.

Hope your Palm IIIxe arrives SOON!

Now to pull the quick caches today. Forget the parks, too cold to keep going. We'll do the short ones so we can dash back to the car and warm up!

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

Well, our Palm IIIxe arrived on Thursday and it is in great condition. It already has 500 caches loaded into it! We didn't get to do anything this weekend due to my DW straining her back and a couple other things we had to do. Her back is doing much better today. We are getting up very early (2:00 AM) to take her sister and a friend to the Newark NJ airport. I had hoped to do a few caches down that way but it will probably be way too early since the sun doesn't come up 'til around 7:00. It will probably be around 4:30 when we drop them off. We'll take the GPSr and Palm just in case, though. It looks like we will be getting some wintry weather overnight; hopefully, it won't delay or cancel their flight, or make driving treacherous.
That one by the private property sounds weird. You should try emailing the last people who found it to see if they had to venture onto private property. It probably isn't your GPSr since it works well for other caches.
Good caching!
Mike

 

[Pin Wizard]

Glad your wife is feeling better! Hope your SIL and her friend got through their traveling okay. Wow! Up at 2 a.m. I've had that as a bedtime many times, but never rising. LOL! Good old Newark Airport...I'm originally from NJ and have been there quite a few times.

Glad to hear that your IIIxe arrived and is working well. I've heard a few nightmare stories when it came to people buying things on E-bay. I've never been much of a fan of them and haven't bought anything through them. Sheesh...I don't even like Pay Pal.

I did e-mail one person at least a week ago about his finding geospud. I didn't really expect an answer back, and I haven't gotten one. Hmmmmm. Yesterday we went looking for another one that geospud's owner placed. Map point always takes you to the closest spot to the cache. Well, I'm sure he probably trekked from the VB Aquarium through the woods without signs, but Map Point took me to a neighborhood on the far side of those woods. Care to guess what sign was posted? Private property! Now I'll check every one of his caches before trying them. It does seem a bit strange because that's the only place I saw a sign like that...at the residential area. There's a main road these woods run along, and it's quite a distance to the aquarium. In the entire area, there aren't signs. Strange. Had a good day yesterday though and found seven. A couple we gave up on. They are the ones that bug me. LOL!

Time to run. Darling son needs to get to the library. Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

I have used Ebay a few times for purchases and have fared very well. No complaints, so far. My SIL, who flew from Newark, actually has a "store" on Ebay and she does a pretty good business. I don't blame you though as I've heard some horror stories, too. Anyway, we will be able to start paperless caching for less than $35, which is pretty good.
We live in Easton, which is right across the Delaware from NJ. Newark is about a 1 hour drive for us, as long as traffic is moving at a normal clip, which isn't very often.
Maybe geospud's owner is the guy who owns all of the properties!?!?!? That would be something. It's really weird that his caches turn out that way. I would probably stop looking for his if that happened to us.
Good caching!
Mike

 

[Pin Wizard]

Paperless caching for less than $35!!! E-bay might be worth that!

So Easton is very close to NJ then. I'm told that Richmond is about an hour drive from here. I find that hard to believe unless you're flying. VA Beach is 40 - 45 minutes from here.

LOLOL!! I'm sure geospud's owner wishes he owned all that property. That would be something if he did.

There's a new cache out close to where I work. Across the road from Starbucks! Two birds with one stone for lunch tomorrow!!! Guess I blew my chance at my first "FTF" today since I didn't have my GPS with me. An ammo can. I can just imagine how much "stuff" there is to get through to get it. LOL! This one was put out by a guy that finds 20 caches in a day...consistently! How can you possibly get all those?

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy,
I think we did OK with Ebay on the paperless caching. We got the Palm IIIxe and HotSync cradle for $21 plus $4.80 shipping. The CacheMate software to make it work was $8. That was it since we are already Premium Members. We have around 500 caches loaded into it now. Each one has 6 pages of information, including the logs posted by the last 4 visitors. It's great! Now, if we're out driving around somewhere, we can set the GPSr to detect the nearest caches and, if we're near one, we'll have all info for it.
NJ is less than 1.25 miles from our house (as the crow flies). In fact, I work in Phillipsburg and can sometimes get to our parking lot in less than 12 minutes.
Too bad you missed the FTF! We should get into the habit of carrying our GPSr, camera and Palm with us whenever we go out. A few weeks ago, we could have logged some historical markers in Bethlehem if we had taken our stuff with us. My DW's back is doing much better so maybe we'll get out Saturday to do some caching. Tonight, we'll be celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary by having dinner out. We don't usually go out to "nice" restaurants unless we are at WDW! We're strictly "diner" people.
Have fun caching for lunch!
Mike