[Team Deejay]

Back in the old days (like 1988 or so), when there were many competing PC standards (MSDOS, Mac, AppleII, Kaypro, Z80, Unix clones, Amiga, etc.), the standard conventional wisdom was to determine what software you needed, then buy the hardware that would run it. I believe this is still good advice today.

[Team Deejay]

Handicaching.com is a great site, but it is actually a tool for rating caches which are ALREADY rated as terrain 1 (or maybe a handful of 1.5s). The site to look at for deciding what exactly is “handicapped accessible” is http://www.clayjar.com/gcrs/
Note that the website only rates in whole stars, so the 1/2 star ratings are up to you. Also note the requirement is handicapped accessible, not necessarily wheelchair accessible.

To summarize the website, the following should be true for a terrain 1:

• Hiking distance less than 1/2 mile (round trip)
• Paved path or boardwalk
• No overgrowth
• Minimal to no elevation change
• No special equipment required (i.e. you can’t claim a boating cache is terrain 1, even though the above 4 requirements might be correct.)

The problem with NOT adhering to this standard is that you will be disappointing many people who rely on the Terrain 1 rating to select caches they are physically able to reach.

[Team Deejay]

@rogheff wrote:

Would an ammo can hidden in the stump of an old tree, frozen in a solid block of ice also be not available? Micros on the ground aren’t the only caches that have issues in the winter.

My Winter caching kit
GPS
Palm
Compass
Warm clothes/Gloves and Hat
Boots/Gaiters/Snowshoes/Skis
Stick for probing out buried caches (metal detectors also work well)
Portable handwarmers for melting out small containers and warming batteries
Axe/Hatchet for “melting out” larger containers
Propane torch for opening Riddler caches

[Team Deejay]

When I find “micro on the ground” hides in Wisconsin, I usually suggest to the owner (not in the log) that a higher location would be more appropriate. That said, micros in the woods tend to be not winter friendly, regardless of how high they are located.

[Team Deejay]

I think that usually these are still with the original owner, who takes the coin to an event for people to discover. It is just too much trouble for some to get their item back out of the cache listing. That said, I doubt that it hurts anything if people want to use an event for virtual storage.

[Team Deejay]

Plus, remember that reviewers are NOT acting on behalf of the WGA, but instead on behalf of Groundspeak (owners of geocaching.com, for those few who didn’t know). The WGA has no involvement in geocache placement review.

(and, if you place a cache on private property with permission, which otherwise meets the guidelines, we will publish it. Just get permission from the property owner and make sure the affected neighbors are in on the secret.)

[Team Deejay]

@Mrskracker wrote:

@Team Deejay wrote:

Welcome to the party. We live in Rochester, so drop us a note if you want some company on your first hunts.

Thank you, much appreciated!

I see many people here are on “Teams” is it usually family teams or a group of close friends?
If we decided to form a family “team” would I have to create a new account here in order to log for the team?

Just sorta feeling things out. Thanks for any and all info!

In order to log caches, you need to setup an account on geocaching.com. You can use the same name as you have here, or you can make a new name. It is your choice. Once you do this, you should edit your profile here to indicate your gc.com name. Most people have one account for their family, but there are many who have different accounts for individual members. Again, this is your call. Just do what makes sense for your situation.

[Team Deejay]

Mmmmmm….Worms….

[Team Deejay]

Welcome to the party. We live in Rochester, so drop us a note if you want some company on your first hunts.

[Team Deejay]

@3 Hawks wrote:

Can I use NT with my Vista Hcx? I have a 2 GIG card and I have TOPO 2008 loaded for everything east of the Rockies with room to spare.

Looks like it, but the website is ambiguous due to the unit being so new. I’d call Garmin and ask before I bought it.

[Team Deejay]

Back to the original topic, I deleted around 90 temp finds as when I was between 1000 and 1100 finds. I kept my bonus logs and multiple logs when the caches as specifically designed to be logged multiple times, such as the old ? cache in Kenosha/Racine, so I have something like 10 “nonunique” logs. I did this so that my find totals are under the same basis as the majority of the geocachers in the country. In other words, I did it because I wanted to, not because it was a “rule”.

That said, logging a multicache once for each stage will probably result in your logs getting deleted by the owner, unless the cache was specifically designed for multiple logs.

[Team Deejay]

Welcome, and don’t let those Fox Valley boys scare you off. The rest of us are actually pretty nice.

[Team Deejay]

This might be a good Christmas list item from one of your kids. You can pick one up at NewEgg.com for under $20. These things have gotten very cheap lately.

[Team Deejay]

While my first GPS was a yellow etrex, and it is about as bulletproof as they come. The problem is that, because it is a serial interface, and doesn’t come with a cable, it probably isn’t the best choice for a technophobe. It also doesn’t use any sort of maps, so it is not usable for auto navigation. Basically, it is fine for a beginning geocacher (if you add a cable) who can handle a serial interface. It is probably the cheapest GPS out there that CAN download waypoints, but that does little good if the owner can’t get the serial interface to work.

My thoughts would be to move up a level to a mapping unit with a USB interface. For a Garmin, the cheapest would be an eTrex Venture HC, which has a color screen, USB interface, mapping capability, and the new high sensitivity chipset. The only negative is that it has 24 MB of map memory, but no capability to use a microSD card, but this is probably not important to a technophobe user. You can find one online for around $170.

[Team Deejay]

I had this happen once. Pull the batteries to reset. I’m not sure exactly why this happens, but I suspect a software bug.

[Author]

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