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

[lilallybean]

Welcome twinklebug...this is a fun thread and we do talk geocaching lots. Congrats on your first find!!! We love going out hunting for treasure . Hope that you join us and keep us posted on how you do. I revisited three caches today with family memebers...let them do all the leg work while I sat and laughed. Traded out TBs...left 2 and took 2. Happy hunting all

 

[MiJo]

lilallybean: It's good to hear your recovery is going well! Too bad about the cache near your work place. Maybe the directors will change their minds and put it back. Glad to hear you had fun watching the newbies! Hopefully, we'll add some new cachers to our ranks.

twinklebug: We do drift off topic sometimes but that's usually when the weather or chores has cut into our caching time. Read back through the posts and you'll find lots of geocaching stuff! If you have any questions, let us know and we'll be more than happy to try to answer them for you. CONGRATULATIONS on your first find! What kind of GPSr do you have? Programming them is usually fairly easy. Do you have a USB cable with it? If so, you can download the coords right off the site.

My DW and I hope to get out a little today and tomorrow (since I took a vacation day) and so some caching. We'll see how it goes with our porch tomorrow; maybe we'll go before we start working on it.

One of our local cachers, who is currently in AZ, received an email that we believe is bogus. It states that geocaches on PA State Gamelands are illegal and will be removed. A couple years back, we had a local "kid" who felt the same way and was stealing our caches. We think he may have a hand in this somehow so we are checking into it. Hopefully, it is bogus and everything will be OK.

Good caching everyone!

 

[MiJo]

We managed to get out for one cache this past weekend but it was the kind we like: a nice hike through a nature preserve. This time, we were hiking up the side of a small mountain, along a ridge, and back down to the Musconetcong River in NJ. The trail was rocky, making it tough on the old knees, but we persevered. Once we got near the cache, we sent the dogs in for the find and our female got to it first. We then hiked back up and out along the same trail. We had hoped to get out on Monday but my whole vacation day was spent working on our front porch.
We are getting conflicting info on caches placed in our State Game Lands. One source says it's fine as long as a couple simple rules are obeyed and another claims it is unlawful. We're still trying to get it figured out but we think the guy who was stealing our caches a couple years back may have a hand in this somehow.
That's about it for the past weekend.
Good caching, everyone!

 

[Pin Wizard]

twinklebug...Welcome and congrats on the find! Off topic? Not too often. Occasionally when someone isn't feeling well, surgery, babies, etc.!

queenie...Did you get that bug out there?

lilallybean...Glad you're out there caching again! New cachers are fun to watch. I watched a new cacher with me last weekend. Of course, now he'll probably put me to shame since he read his manual and understands how his GPS operates. I've read my little wallet card with the features. That's it! Guess I really should read the manual.

Mike...Do all GPSrs have USB cables? I bought one for my etrex, but I'm ready to return it since it's a regular plug and not a USB. I'm on a laptop and probably not purchasing a desktop for a while. This cable is no use to me now. I even tried taking my GPS to work hoping to hook it up there. Nope, can't even get a signal in the building.

Hope your porch is done soon!!!

I thought geocaching.com info said that State parks are off limits. I've seen a couple listings at state parks recently and wondered about them. Don't think I'd go there looking.

I hit insignificant #400 this weekend! Still no FTF. In our area, there's a joke that 400 is insignificant since the person that does the certificates on our yahoo board never seemed to make them for 400. They made one for me! And today, three days after I hit 400, someone said congrats. LOLOL!

Hoping to play hookey from work one day next week for caching. It would be nice to work four days a week, cache three.

Happy caching!

 

[hdecker]

Pin Wizard - In Missouri I guess it's okay to place them in state parks - there has been one in every one we've been to so far. We had another great weekend of geocaching - we are trying to get all those little tiny ones that this team has been putting out because so many people have made nasty comments about them and now he's going to archive them and not do any more - I'm so bummed - we really loved his mini micros. I did send him an email though telling him we loved them and that we were sorry everyone else was being such a poop (can I say that here?).
I had an extra special caching experience yesterday. I have a friend who has a grandson that is the same age as one of my DD's and whenever he comes to visit DD goes and spends time with them. Well, we told her about booking our trip and the free dining and she has never been so we said why don't you come with us (she hates to plan and research) so she booked the trip but didn't tell the grandson so we took a small mickey mouse lunchbox and put a Mickey antenna topper; some disney dollars and a WDW postcard in it and wrote on the postcard - surprise , you're going to Disney. Then we went and hid it on the outskirts of his grandparents farm; logged the coords into our gps and picked him up for a day of geocaching. Needless to say, it was priceless. Not only did we get to introduce a new family to caching, we get to introduce them to Disney - our two loves.
Hope everyone had a Happy Easter - Holly

 

[lilallybean]

Hdecker...that is such a great idea!!! That was a great idea! I bet that was a great moment! We have thought about doing a geocaching birthday party with our DS. Go to a big local park and place our own temp caches for the kids to do. Glad that yours worked out for you.
Who is it that is going to archive their micros? I know you all are up in the city...we may have to make a trip up there just to try and hit a few before it is too late.

 

[MiJo]

hdecker: What a great idea with the lunch box! We'll have to remember that when our DGD is old enough for us to take to WDW. She just turns 2 months "old" today!

Sandy: Apparently, not all GPSr's come with a USB cable, although most are capable of connecting with one. Our Magellan did come with one; for others, you have to purchase it separately. You don't need to be able to receive a signal to download coords to your Etrex. I connect the USB cable to my 210, connect the other end to a USB port and turn on my GPSr. It then comes on in a USB connectivity mode so I can download info to it. You don't have to be tracking sats for that. It could be you have a serial cable so you would have to connect to your laptop (or PC) that way, like you would a printer. It might be easier to exchange your cable for a USB cable and try that. You also need software to download the coords to. There are free ones out there on the Net. The software acts as the middle-man between the PC and GPSr. I think a lot of cachers use EasyGPS.

We didn't get to do any caching this weekend but we hid a new micro. I want to post a couple pics of it because I think it's pretty creative, although it has probably been done before. I have a few 1/4" wide x 1 1/2" long plastic containers. I glued a rust screw head and rusty washer together and then glued them to the bottom of one of the containers. It is now in an old abandoned utility pole near an old conduit bracket so it looks like the hardware that had once held the bracket in place on the pole. We have 2 finds by a couple of our more experienced cachers and 1 DNF by another.

We found out there is no problem placing caches on State Game Lands here in PA. We think the emails stating it was illegal may have somehow been the work of our old cache thief buddy. It is illegal to place caches in National Parks but each state sets its own rules regarding these things.

Our porch is pretty much done. We still need to add lattice around the base and it can be stained once the wood dries in a couple months. We now have to do a little work on the path leading up to the new steps.

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter!
Good caching!

 

[hdecker]

lilallybean- Their caching name is Phenixcachers. I don't know how to post a link here but if you use the zip 65613 his first one is at the bottom of page 1 and then goes on to 2 and 3. Go to their profile and caches and read the ones he's archived. It seems people were just very cruel to him.
We really did enjoy our little lunchbox deception. It was interesting though because they have a slave cemetary on their property and there is an actual cache hidden there that we went after. Everyone seems to have a problem finding this one but don't you think that if you walked into an abandoned cemetary that the last burial was in 1899 and you saw a brand new windchime hanging in a tree that it might strike you as odd? I'm not sure why this is so difficult have a great caching week!

 

[lilallybean]

hdecker...I sure hope some of those are left by the time we get to head down there in August! I hate to see folks being so mean. This should be a fun time out...if you don't like the way a person hides their caches...don't do theirs. That should have solved the problem. Some of us like to do any that we can and will face what comes with it. I will be watching to see if I can do some of these in a few months.

 

[MiJo]

Sandy: I checked the manual for the basic Etrex model and it appears it can only connect via a serial cable (probably the one you have). You do have an option, however. Places like Circuit City sell adapters such as this one:
Serial to USB adapter for around $30.
One of the reviewers mentioned he/she used it to connect a Garmin GPSr to a laptop using it and it worked.
When you mentioned not getting a "signal" at work, I assume you mean a satellite signal. As I posted earlier, you don't need any signal to download data to your Etrex. It is all done via cables, not sat signals. If you can hook up the cable you have to the PC at work, you should be able to download Waypoints from geocaching.com. Hook the cable to your Etrex and the PC BEFORE turning the Etrex on. That should allow it to power up in a data transfer mode. That is how my Magellan 210 works. There isn't a whole lot of info about this in the manual for the basic Etrex that I downloaded. You do have to be a Premium Member to download Waypoint data, so I assume you are. If so, you should be able to download the Waypoint data for a cache to your PC at work. If you can do that, save it where you will be able to find it later. Then, you must have some type of software on that computer, or on your laptop, to "translate" that data into data the Etrex can recognize. If you didn't get any from Garmin when you purchased your Etrex, you can download EasyGPS for FREE from the Internet. It is quite similar to my Magellan Geocache Manager software. It should be possible for you to download the Waypoint data to your work PC, transfer the data to a floppy or USB card and then transfer it to your laptop. That way, the conversion software can be on your laptop instead of your work PC (unless that doesn't matter). That way, you can use your laptop to upload the data to your Etrex instead of having to use your work PC. This is actually easier than it sounds. I can download 200 caches into my Magellan in less than 2 minutes, start to finish.
Let me know what you think.
Good caching!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy: I almost forgot! Congrats on #400!!!! Wow! You guys got there quick!

For Everyone: Here are the links to 4 photos of our latest micro. It is placed in an old, abandoned utility pole in a park here in PA. You can try to find the cache by checking the first two photos. The third is a real spoiler and the fourth is the container itself. The old, wooden pole was formerly home to some type of electrical conduit that is now gone. Some of the old hardware still remains. Good caching!

Micro Photo #1
Photo #2
Photo #3
Photo #4

 

[Pin Wizard]

It is illegal to place caches in National Parks but each state sets its own rules regarding these things.

That must be it! National Parks, not State Parks. Thanks!

That must be some cache out there, Mike. I'll have to check those links after I'm typing this. Thanks for the info on the GPS also. This past weekend I actually returned the cable to the store since I didn't think I could use it. Nice to get the $35 back any way. Can't believe they actually have GPS's out there that aren't capable of having a cable connect! I just ordered a back up GPS online today. Some place had a sale price of $99.99 for a Magellan. Decent price compared to the store. I think I saw it in Bass Pro Shops for $149, but it still doesn't have anything to download. But at that price, I'm not that picky. It does have maps, which my current GPS doesn't. I bet darling son will grab the Magellan!

Two hundred caches into your GPS THAT fast? I may have to save my $$ for those cords I need. And thanks for the congrats on 400!

hdecker...Glad you had a good time caching! Thanks for mentioning your state parks. That got me wondering again, and then I saw Mike's post on National parks.

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy: I believe the cable would have worked with your GPSr, just not for a USB connection. Which model Magellan did you order?

Our micro has been found 3 times, the last time with a hint. The first two cachers who found it are experienced at micros and the cache looked a little different then. Originally, we had a small rusty washer and screw head glued onto it. That fell off for some reason after they found it. While grabbing it for maintenance, my DW suggested using an old nail head since that is what is already in the pole. That's what I did, so now it blends in better.

 

[Pin Wizard]

You're right! It would work with the GPS, but not with the laptop the way it was. The Magellan is a 300.

Sounds like a good one you have out. Won't be so easy to find unless they've found one similar to it in the past. Let us know how it goes!

Today we went to an "Earth Day" event. Cachers met for breakfast. So great to catch up with them and compare notes! After that it was 8 for the day until the rain poured down. Found the first part of a three-stage multi then had to give up. Between the downpour and also finding a sign pointing us to the interstate, that was it for the day! We'll see what tomorrow is like.

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

Sandy,
Earth Day is a great thing. We try to CITO whenever we go caching. Yesterday, we had a clean-up day at our church and then we helped out our DS and his DW at their house. Our DGD's Baptism is today so we were prepping for that. It rained pretty heavy here all day so we probably would not have done any caching anyway.

Our cache has been stumping everyone since we switched from the screw head/washer to the nail head. Since that time, several cachers have had trouble and they have either called a lifeline for a hint or have emailed us.
Here is the link: Revised

I'll have to check out the 300. I don't know anything about it.
Good caching!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Looks like a great cache, Mike! Definitely a tough one to find unless you've come across something like this before.

I'm sure your DGD's Baptism was beautiful even with lousy weather! Bless that little angel. And you certainly contritubed to CITO on the right day.

I went to visit a friend in the Richmond area on Sunday. Of course we had to find a few caches. Hope to take all the kids out soon!!

Happy caching!

 

[MiJo]

Boy, this thread has been quiet for a while!
We managed to do a couple caches on Monday. I took a vacation day so we decided to try a couple local ones that we had neglected to do earlier. The first one was a micro/virtual combo that took us to a historic farm smack dab in the middle of Bethlehem, PA. We had heard of it (Burnside Plantation) but had never visited it before. We really enjoyed the walk in and spending some time looking around the restored structures. The second was another in the middle of town that surprised us. It is a micro at a burial site for a few hundred soldiers of the Revolutionary War. One is buried in an unknown soldier's tomb; a few others are buried in a small grave next to the tomb; and, according to a plaque, a few hundred more are buried in the embankment between these two gravesites and a highway. The cache container had "moved" so we needed to fashion a tool to retrieve it. My DW and I then spent several hours babysitting our DGD.
We're thinking about increasing the Difficulty level of our micro. The last couple to find it took 4 tries and then they only found it with a hint! We may have to put a hint on the page afterall.
Erin's baptism was wonderful. The sun actually came out in the afternoon which gave some of us the opportunity to enjoy our son's deck.
I have decided to change jobs at work after 19 years of doing the same thing day after day. I'm looking forward to it but I also have a little anxiety about switching jobs. I'll be working in our R&D building, which is a much more relaxed area then the production area, which is good. Fortunately, I have some good friends working there so the transition should be pretty easy.
I guess that's it. I hope everyone is OK and just too busy to post their adventures. Good caching!

 

[hdecker]

We haven't been able to get out for awhile for several reasons - 2 teenage DD's and the end of the school year stuff; the closest we have to us now are 70-80 miles one way and gas prices are such an issue it doesn't seem worth it; and DH and I have weird work schedules this month. Oh well, we have a short trip planned over Memorial Day so we can pick some up then. Hate waiting that long but gotta combine stuff anymore. Happy caching to those that can get to it.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Mike...Those sound like great caches. Must have been a bunch of fun! The one at the graveyard must have been interesting!!

Glad you had more time with your DGD. And glad the baptismal day turned out nice at some point. I'm sure it was a very special day. I still remember darling son's day like it was yesterday. AMAZING how fast they grow! He just turned 13 last month. AUGH!! A teenager!

If you have to raise the difficulty level of your cache, it MUST be good! I doubt people will think to check a screw, nail, or a bolt unless they've come across one in the past. Then you never forget it!

Congratulations on the job switch!! Yahoooo!! I hope you like it, and I hope the adjustment to it goes by quickly. I'm sure you'll like working with a new bunch of people. I'm sure there's some anxiety in job changes for most people. I know there always is for me. But it passes. Good luck with the new position!

hdecker...Good luck with the teens and the end of the school year! I'm having a time accepting my son's transition to a teenager. No way am I ready for this. Rather frightening that I'm dealing with it on my own also.

Closest caches are 70-80 miles away? Oh, no!!! Maybe you can place two or three near where you live to get people out there. I know I wouldn't go to an area with only one, but I probably would if there are two, and definitely would if there were three! Then people visiting will find other great places to hide something and your area will be on the way! I would be in major withdrawal if a cache were 70-80 miles away. This area is saturated with them...it's GREAT!


I didn't find too much this past weekend. Saturday I think it was 5. Then Sunday we went to visit a friend and his kids. He said I was "Jonesing" because I didn't go caching that day. So we went and found two. We'll see what this coming weekend is like. Let's all hope for nice weather!

Happy caching!

 

[hdecker]

Pin Wizard - it's not that there aren't any around us - there are - we've just done them all already. That's how far we have to drive to find ones we haven't done yet. I did check today and there are 2 new ones out there within a few miles so we'll be heading for them this weekend -