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Let’s see:
If trails are worn to the cache, archive it.
If it isn’t visited frequently, archive it.
Now… frequently visited caches tend to show well-worn paths. The vegetation surrounding older, less frequently visited caches has plenty of time to re-grow between visits.
Unless the cache is located on pavement, our two main tests for archiving a cache seem to indicate most caches should be archived
quote:
Originally posted by kbraband:
Don’t feel bad, Joe.
And to top things off, my secret identity is blown.
[This message has been edited by Thraxman (edited 01-21-2004).]
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Originally posted by houseofbrew:
It’s interesting to see that the most letterbox finds is only 1!
I have *Ahem* THREE letterbox finds.
Of course, I’m not on your list.
Then Again, I shouldn’t be surprised because I haven’t logged any caches in about 8 months. Hmmm. Maybe I should fix that this weekend…
I don’t think I can beat that. BUT, I remember a couple years ago, back when I was trying Geo DASHING, I headed south to hit some dashpoints and had three caches planned at the far end of my route. Well, I put just under 400 miles on my truck that day, and one of the caches was missing. 400 miles, 2 caches, and I think I scored 4 dash points.
Perhaps people just aren’t over that Cold War Era fear of radiation yet. Glow In the Dark may be a name that is instilling fear in the masses, who think you might have a radiation point source stashed in there.
You want WHAT installed WHERE??? -JoeThrax Radio:
” TARGET=_blank>http://www.live365.com/stations/thraxguy
Looks like there is at least SOME interest then I have also been contacted via e-mail by one other person interested in helping out.
The next step would be to decide if we want to meet in the near future for planning purposes, or simply use an online forum.
I’ll contact all of you sometime this weekend.
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Originally posted by The Snail:
Hi, I’m wondering if the base map included with the Legend is sufficient for geo caching or do I need a supplemental map, ie MapSources Topo?Any replies would be greatly appreciated!
Hi! To answer you question about the base maps: The truth of the matter is that you don’t need ANY maps built in to go goecaching. I started with a yellow Garmin eTrex, which had no road-map capabilities at all, and it worked quite well for me. As someone else mentioned, the map feature can be handy in getting you to the parking area (which is one reason I upgraded last summer), but you certainly don’t NEED it.
Bottom line: The base map may or may not be helpful to you, but it will not hurt to have it on there. Just make sure you can load more detailed maps into the unit in case you find yourself wanting them months down the line.
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Originally posted by beggymike:
Steve,
I know the Meridian line has some issues with waypoint projection. There has been talk that Thales has been fixing it through newer firmware, but I don’t think they have reinvented the wheel just yet.
Download the v4.02 update for Meridian. It fixes some waypoint projection issues. I haven’t tried waypoint projection since I installed that update, so I couldn’t tell you how good the fix is.
Incidently, I notice there is an additional way to do waypoint projection on the Meridian (and probably other units). Obviously, you can use the waypoint projection feature. But I have also projected waypoints by moving the cursor on my map out to the desired distance and heading on the map display.
BTW, do any modern units NOT have waypoint projection? Even my Yellow Garmin eTrex had the feature!
Just for comparison to Rangerboy’s Garmin V… I can key in specific addresses and it will get me there. I have used this feature many times when traveling out of town and it works quite well. I do not think, however, that it contains a database of pizze places. I can search for cities, highways, airports, waterways, and parks, but as far as I can tell, it is not loaded with commercial businesses. Of course, there MAY be a download for this, but not that I know of.
Good point Alan.
I have my Meridian right in front of me. I have examined it completely, even removed the batteries and looked in the battery compartment, and I cannot find a “Made In” statement of any sort, which seems odd. It may have said something on the box, but that is buried in a closet that I will not even attempt to open until I finish at LEAST my first cup of coffee.
Given a choice, I generally try to purchase items that are made in the USA or Canada by American or Canadian companies. This is not always (or even frequently) possible. Also, this USUALLY is not a major political statement against other countries…it is simply that I like to reward companies for keeping factories over here, and paying tax dollars here. In reality, I know it is not as simple as this. The economy is so global now that I assume “Made in USA” means “Yup, we mounted the circuit board in the case and screwed it shut here, but everything else was done in Malaysia”. Which is fine… I’ve been to Malaysia, and the people were great.
Yeah, ain’t that a bummer? I’m in the mode of not buying French products, but I bought my Meridian about a year ago, when it didn’t make as much difference to me. Oh well. I’m still happy with it.
Yeah, ain’t that a bummer? I’m in the mode of not buying French products, but I bought my Meridian about a year ago, when it didn’t make as much difference to me. Oh well. I’m still happy with it.
I switched from a Garmin eTrex (little Yellow Model) to a Magellan Meridian last summer.
First, let me say that I loved my little yellow eTrex, and enjoyed hunting many dozens of caches with it. The physical design, with the buttons on the sides and its basic shape and feel cannot be beat. Also, the user interface was very intuitive, and the unit seemed to have a sense of humor. Just look at the little guy walk out and plant that flag when you turn it on! The eTrex line’s major flaw is simply the patch antenna. They don’t hold a good lock on satelites like units equiped with Quad Helix. It’s accuracy was fine, it was just frustrating at times when signals were weak and I would only lock onto three satelites that formed a straight line. Some days this was a problem, other days it wasn’t.
On to my Meridian. I switched for three main reasons.
1) I wanted something with MAPS! The Magellan Meridians all have base maps of major highways, and you can install detailed road maps easily. This is nothing unusual… plenty of other models support this. But the Meridian has a nice large screen on which to display them.
2) It has a quad helix antenna. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a big deal. The Meridians lock onto satelites like they are hungry The more satelites, the better.
3) The Meridians accept SD cards to expand the memory. I love things that are expandable. I chose to buy the basic unit, and added a 32 meg card. To give you an idea of how much that can hold, I just downloaded detailed road maps for about 65% of wisconsin, and I think it was well under 7 megs.
4) It has that mysterious WAAS capability.
(Note: that was actually FOUR main reasons)
Now, about the WAAS. I need to read up on it some more. Sbukowski seems to know a little more about it than I do. But in general, units with WAAS capabilities are advertised to have accuracies of about 10 feet vs 40 feet without. If I stop moving, and give the chance for the unit to begin averaging, I can sit and watch as the distance to the waypoint starts to change. I have found this to be helpful in some situations. If my “needle” seems to be doing some weird things, and I have a lock on a WAAS satelite and several regular ones, I stop for a couple minutes and let the unit do its stuff. More often than not, this is somewhat helpful. But don’t expect miracles.
At the campout this weekend, I made a point to set my Meridian down about 2 feet from each cache I found. I was surprised that many times, after averaging for a couple minutes while I stamped my book, the distance to waypoint would read much less than 10 feet, even if it read 20 when I first found the cache. I remember 3 cases where it settled out at 3 feet or less. I am not sure what to make of that… were those caches placed with GPS units that were also WAAS enabled, and the user let it average for several minutes before marking the co-ordinates? I don’t really know.
The bottom line, however, is that no matter what unit you have, you must remember that the person that hid a cache probably did not get a perfect set of co-ordinates. Even if you assume the range of error on a WAAS unit is 10 feet, and the hider had a range of error of 10 feet, you must add the two errors together, so you have a twenty foot radius. And that would be under perfect conditions, hiding and hunting.
Bottom line– I am very happy with my Meridian. But I tend to think that most modern units are probably fine choices. WAAS is becoming a standard feature, as are Quad Helix antennas. Garmin, Magellan, and Lowrance all have gobs of happy customers.
I skimmed the article, and to tell you the truth, it is one of the better articles I have read on the sport. It sheds a very positiveimage on Geocaching. The artwork is the only bummer, and is probably due to the fact that the artist had nothing to do with the article itself.
I think the only reason people assume caches are buried is because the word “treasure” is used way too often to describe a cache. People hear treasure, and a few words come to mind–Gold, Jewels, Buried… and NONE of these fit a cache. Why do so many people within the community insist on using the word then? Perhaps if we made a concentrated effort NOT to call Geocaching a “High tech treasure hunt” the assumption that they are buried will be less severe. Seriously.
Aside from attempting to eliminate collisions at caches, one of the ideas behind the mother cache was that this was a social event… while waiting for batons to return, people would socialize at the mother. I stayed at the mother for several hours, and saw this happening quite well.
I am toying with the idea of having a summer mini-event in the Janesville area, and using the mother-cache concept. I saw a few of the mentioned problems, and have thought of a few ways to deal with them:
– To stop people from writing down co-ordinates, I would simply lock all the caches, and attach the appropriate key to each baton. If someone visits a cache with written co-ordinates, they simply will not be able to open it.
– Passing batons without returning them to Mother: I don’t see this as a HUGE problem. The idea of having only one team hunting a cache at a time is still intact. I did this myself at the campout. I radioed the team who had the baton for the last cache I needed, and said I would meet them half-way when after they found it so I could save a bit of time. I didn’t feel bad about this at all because the spirit was intact, and as many of you know, I had passed many opportunities to grab batons earlier so others could complete the Mother.
– Wait time at Mother: Once again, this is not a big problem from my point of view. If I hold a mother-cache mini-event, I would try to have a good number of satelites to correspond to the expected number of people, but socializing at the mother is part of the design. Alan brought up a good point about diminishing returns, and I think that works great for a mini-event… early in the day, there will be heavy hunting, and as the day goes on, there will be more time spent at Mother chatting, eating, etc. Obviously, anyone who does not WANT to socialize has about 800 other caches in the state to hunt Mother Cache concept is intended for social events.
– Someone mentioned trampled grass around Mother. Good point. At the campout, placing the Mother at a pavillion would not have worked very well. The mother and satelites were intentionally placed away from the rest of the action, and there was, from what I could tell, no groomed grass or shelter in the general area to place it. This might be something to keep in mind for future events if we do more Mothers. If I do a Janesville event, my plan is to Put Mother withing 20 feet of some charcoal grills and picnic tables
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