"Must Have" GPS case

I wanted to put a quick plug in for an awesome protective case for the Garmin eTrex color series of GPSr's. The definition of an eTrex color includes the eTrex Vista C series, Venture C series, Legend C series, and the Summit C series. These units all have color screens and are all basically the same physical size (approx 4.2 x 2.2 x 1.2).

I've had one of these color units since I first started caching in Dec 2005. Since then I've acquired quite a collection of Garmin eTrex units - most of them color units. My kids use them when we go out caching and, of course, the kids aren't quite as careful with them as I'd like them to be. So shortly after I bought my second color unit a couple of years ago I searched for a case that would protect it from the wear-and-tear my young children put on it.

After quite a search I came across Foarm on Amazon (here's a link to search for Foarm on Amazon.com). After continuing to search and look for more options there was nothing like Foarm anywhere. So I bought one to try it out.

Long story short... The case is absolutely awesome! It holds the unit snugly and surrounds them with a plastic protective shield. Unlike other cases, there is no plastic cover over the screen - which usually make the screen very hard to read. Instead Foarm ships 2 screen protectors with the case.

I think I've now purchased 11 of these eTrex cases - 4 have been given away to other family members. I absolutely love these cases. Matter of fact I also bought two of them for my GPSMap 76CSx's. I see they now have one for the Garmin Colorado, too.

So if you looking to protect your eTrex color, 76 series, or maybe even the Colorado GPS (or have someone on your Christmas list who is) check these guy's out at Amazon. I've been very pleased with their product and customer support.

Note: I am not affiliated with Foarm, Inc in any way. I just tried their product and have been very impressed.

Geocoding addresses and loading them into your GPS

What does "geocode" mean and now is it going to help me? Geocoding is the process of converting an address (like 123 1st St) into a set of coordinates (expressed in Latitude and Longitude). I suppose that's not really correct, though. There is no "conversion" going on. Goecoding really finds a set of coordinates for a given address. In my testing I found it to be fairly accurate - at least close enough for me to get where I need to go.

How it will help you depends on what you're trying to accomplish. In my case, I work with the youth group at my church. Sometimes I provide rides to or from various activities and have to pick them up or take them home. I know these kids and their families very well, but that doesn't mean that I know how to get to all of their homes. I also don't know their addresses off the top of my head so just typing their address into the GPS isn't always an option, either.

So with the problem in mind I set out to find a solution. This article describes what I found.

As I thought about the problem I came up with a basic set of steps that I thought I would need to do.

1. Get the address data I needed
2. Format the data into proper format - whatever that meant
3. Geocode the addresses
4. Create a GPX file to load into the GPS.

Seemed pretty simple, I guess. At first I thought it would be fun to break out the coding skills and write something that did this for me. However, after a few hours with Google, testing a few things, and throwing some things away, I put my coding skills back on the shelf and came up with a fairly straight forward process for "Geocoding addresses and loading them into your GPS."

I tested the process with the Garmin line of GPS's. I tried it with a Garmin Nuvi 660, eTrex Vista HCx, GPSMap 76 CSX, and other eTrex units. I didn't have access to other brands to test but assuming they can deal with GPX files this should work just fine.

Once you've created the GPX file you can either load it onto your GPS as waypoints or you could even load it as points of interest. Points of interest act differently than waypoints so feel free to experiment with it until you get a format that you like. For this article I'm going to load the data as waypoints.

You should also take into account how may waypoints and/or points of interest your GPS can handle. In the Garmin line there are some that can handle 500 waypoints while others can have 1000 or more. Just make sure you consider how many you have and how many you're going to try and load.


1. Get your list of addresses - electronically of course unless you like typing.

2. Format the list into columns with the following structure (Excel works well). Make sure the first line is a column heading. You can use the example below to get it started.

Address City State Zipcode Name Description Symbol

Address = The street address of the person. "2400 Pennsylvania Ave"
City = The city. Try and be specific. "Coon Rapids"
State = The 2 letter abbreviation for the state: "MN"
Zipcode = The 5 digit US zip code "55432"
Name = The name of the waypoint you want in your GPS. I like the families last name for this. Keep in mind your GPS limitations on the length of a waypoint name. You'll also want to make each name is unique. Think about this one - don't just jump in with any old name.
Description = This will show up in the waypoint "comments" in the GPS. Keep in mind the max length your GPS will take. It will usually truncate it for you but you never know.
Symbol = The name of the icon you want to use in your GPS.

Here's an example of what it might look like (the lines may wrap)

Address,City,State,Zipcode,Name,Description,Symbol
123 1st St,Landen,MN,82520,Macfarlane,123 1st St 952-555-1212,Residence

You can see that I also decided to add the phone number to the Description field. That way I'll have their address and phone number in the GPS if I ever need it. Be creative and try various things with the name and description. You can't break it and anything you add can always be removed if you don't like it.

Here's a hint while you're testing... In the example above I used "Residence" as the Symbol (GPS Icon). The Garmin line of GPS units allow you to delete waypoints by symbol. So, if you use a unique symbol, say something like "Diver Down Flag 2" you can easily delete all the waypoints you just added by removing only the "Diver Down Flag 2" symbol. This will allow you load and delete the data as many times as you want without harming any of the existing data on your device.

Same logic should be applied to Points of Interest. Make sure you use a separate POI file just for these addresses. That way you can easily reload your other POI files if needed. I'm not going to go into details about POI files for the Garmin units but you can find ton's of information by Google'ing "Garmin POI"

3. Assuming you used Excel in step 2, save the file as a CSV file. If you didn't use Excel and just used a text editor, that's fine, too.

4. Open the CSV file in a text editor (wordpad or notepad) - NOT Excel!

5. Highlight all of the text. Press CTRL-A for a quick way to highlight all.

6. Press CTRL-C to copy it to the clipboard. You can also choose File | Copy from the menu on most text editors.

7. Open a web browser and go to the following URL http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocoder/
This web site is going to do the rest of the work for you. You can read all about what it's doing by visiting the web site.

8. Click in the white box labeled "Input" part way down the page.

9. Press CTRL-P to paste the address you created earlier into the "Input" box. You should see all of your address in the box. If nothing showed up, go back to step 4 and try again.

10. In the "Type of data:" dropdown box, select "Tabular (columns & a header row)"

11. Press the green "Start Geocoding" button to the right.
It will read the addresses in the "Input" box, lookup the latitude and longitude of the address, then create a set of formatted data in the "Results" box located below the input box.

12. If you want to keep the latitude and longitude data around for some reason you can copy can paste it into a new text file. I don't save this data. It can always be obtained again if needed.

13. Just to the right of the "Results" box is a button labeled "Create a GPX file" Press the button to create a GPX with all of your address in it.

14. Once the "Create a GPX file" button is pressed, it will create the GPX and open a new web (depending on the number of address you converting it may take a little longer). At the top of the page you can download the GPX file. In the middle you'll find the contents of the GPX that you can cut and past if you wish. Save the GPX file to your computer.

----- Note: From here you should check with your GPS documentation to see how to load data from a GPX file. The following steps will describe one way to load waypoints to a Garmin GPS by using the Garmin Mapsource software.

15. Start Mapsource and open the GPX file you saved.
You should be able to see all the waypoints for the addresses you used on the web site. You should also see the correct symbol/icon you used (eg "Diver Down Flag 2")

16. To send them to your GPS as waypints:
a: Connect your GPS to your computer and turn on the GPS
b: Select "Transfer | Send to Device" from the Mapsource menu.
c: Select Waypoints under the What to Send section.
d: Press the Send button to send the data to your device.

That's it. You now have all your friends loaded as waypoints on your GPS. Assuming your GPS has turn-by-turn navigation, you can now easily navigate to a an address by searching for the waypoint.

Questions and comments are always welcomed!

Note: I am not affiliated with GPSVisualizer in any way. They control the web site and may change it. In order to support the development of free tools like GSPVisualizer, feel free to contribute to them by using the links on their web page.

Woohoo! Winter Caching is back!!

I may be crazy but I really enjoy winter caching. Yes, sometimes it's too cold but for the most part as long as it's above 20 degrees it's the best time to be out.

I suppose some of it has to do with cleanliness. Many of my finds are done at lunch time. That means I'm wearing dress clothes most of the time. In the summer I all too often come back to work with dirt smudges on my pants or leaves on my back. The great thing about winter is that I cover all of those dress clothes up with "winter gear".

So two days ago I dawned my winter coat, snow/wind pants, snow boots and headed out for some caches. Now two day's ago I only needed that because it was cold. No snow on the ground yet but the wind was very cold with temps in the low 30's.

I didn't have much time so I only went after two caches (I'm leaving the names out because of the picture that shows the cache container). I headed out into the woods which soon became a swamp - but it's cold, right. There shouldn't be any water problems in the swamp when it's this cold... Silly me - Soon I stuck my boot into 6 inches of mucky, muddy, swamp water. Duh! it's only been cold for a day. I kept moving forward to find the cache and then on to the next one.

Side note: There you go - another reason winter caching is the best. Even though my foot was 6" under water in the muck, I didn't care! My snow boots are water proof and come up to my calf - see there are many reasons why I like winter caching.

The next cache was a great walk. It was cold outside but it was a clear afternoon which made the 1/3 mile walk each way worth it. After seeing the title I had a good idea what I was looking for but how could it be a regular size cache if it's what I think it is. Humm, maybe the hider messed up....

As the picture shows, nope, he didn't mess up. That's how a shot gun shell can be a regular size cache!! My glove is in the picture to show a relative size. Very cool container. Made finding it even more difficult.

Two days later.... (that would be today).

Today I had time to renew my drivers license which expires in a couple of weeks. I went a little early to miss the lunch traffic and it worked. I got out of there very quickly so off I went to Central Park in Roseville to find the caches - it's only a block away, how could I pass them up? The difference this time is that it snowed last night! Real winter caching today!! I once again dawned my winter gear and headed out to find a few caches.

I was able to nab 5 today, which once again cleared out Central Park for me.

ADAT The picture of the baseball field is close to where this one was hidden.

Fir Protestor by Posen. I love caching in Roseville primarily due to Posen. He has some GREAT containers! This one was near a wasps nest that was nesseled in a pole about 12" in diameter. Yikes! See the log posting for a picture.

Make an ash of yourself more winter fun - climbing a hill.

Fowl Ball This one was starting to make me mad. I can't believe how long it took me to find it!

Girls Scouts are Prepared Another Posen hide - but one that I wasn't expecting. Not his normal type of hide made this one harder that it should have been. Oh well, a find is still a find.

After all of that, my gloves were soaked, my pants and coat were wet, but my work clothes were dry and clean as could be.

Now back to work I go after a most excellent day of winter caching!

More Travel Caching in Dallas, TX

It seems that caching is been very slow this month - at least while I'm home. However, I once again spent a few days in Dallas, TX and was able to grab a few caches in the evenings. I don't know how much business traveling you've done but for me caching has made it much more enjoyable. Before I got into caching business travel meant uneventful evenings usually in front of the computer working because there really wasn't much else to do. However, caching changes all of that. Now in the evenings I go caching until dark. Then back to the hotel to log the finds. It makes it all much more enjoyable.

This last trip to Dallas was no different. I was usually finished for the day around 4:30 or 5:00. However, this late in the year the sun goes down around 6:45 or 7:00. Being a stranger in a strange town I don't like to do any night caching. I don't really want to deal with the police when I'm not from around those parts.....

On this trip I was able to snag somewhere around 40 caches. All of them were fun but the rest of this post is about some of the more interesting finds.

The first cache on my list to do was The Grassy Knoll. If you think about it long enough I'm sure you can guess the significance of this cache. It's a virtual cache because the area is considered a US landmark - so I didn't find any container but I learned a great deal.

It made me think back to all of the old news footage that is seen of the events when Kennedy's motorcade drove past this small grassy hill. Standing there I could remember that footage and see how it happened. In the picture to the right I'm standing somewhere near where a shot likely came from. The closest building on the left side of the picture is the "Book Depository" building and the far right-hand window of the second to the top story (just above the trees) is where others claimed to have heard shots. Anyway, there's lots of stories that can be found all over the net. It was just pretty interesting to see the site where it all happened.

I've noticed that Dallas has a great concept for neighborhood parks. They call them "Greenways" which are parks that weave behind houses and across streets. They're very nice. This is one of them. I spent way too long looking for this cache - What a view. I spent a lot of time sitting on the rocks shown in the picture just under the fence on the grass. I even found a friend while searching - a small gardener snake rolled up in the leaves. Made me jump back but I never saw him (or any of his friends) again.

This one 'scuse me while I... was a fun one. You can see from the pic there's a large freeway involved and of course it's on a walking bridge over the freeway. Ok, so that part really isn't that interesting - we have lots of those around here. The interesting thing is that if I were able to follow that freeway for about 25 hours or so I'd end up right back here in Minnesota. That freeway is I-35E - and if you stay on I-35E it will lead from Dallas, Tx all the way back to St Paul Minnesota. I often thought it was funny that I-35 splits into E and W in the Twin Cities, but it was even funnier to see that it splits into E and W in Dallas, too.

In Texas they have an "early voting" capability. Voting actually started when I was there and evidence could be seen all around. The picture to the right was taken as I was coming out from finding a couple of caches. The polling place was about 500' from where all of these signs were lined up. Boy I can't wait until this is over...

I've always been a Dallas Cowboy's fan. I used to follow them a lot. I had Cowboys room decorations, coats, clothes, uniforms, etc when I was a kid. So it was kind of cool when I found Made Me Glad - 'cause it did. This picture on the left was taken from the cache site (and zoomed way in). After finding this cache I headed toward the Cowboys Training camp to check it out - and get a few caches around there. Of course it's all locked up and visitors are not allowed, but it was still fun to see.

The last cache on one evening was planned to put me next to a Fry's Electronics store so I could waste some more time in the store. The cache was "I'm Fryed" and it must have had something very valuable in it at one point. The last picture to the right shows how this cache is guarded - and that thing is less that 50' away from the cache - in an open parking lot. I thought this was a pretty interesting 'unit.' I wonder what it's used for. I can't imagine them needed to use this for the Fry's parking lot but maybe, I guess. It also has a great view of the freeway from here so maybe that's the reason. At any rate, I grabbed the cache quickly and moved on.

Overall it was a great caching trip. I was able to grab some fun and memorable caches. Because of caching I was able to visit some new places, see some new things, and experience the memorable - things that I wouldn't have done otherwise. Thanks, caching, for making it fun!!

FTF, Lunch, and some Dallas Caching

I've been pretty busy at work lately and haven' t been able to do as much lunch caching as I like to - oh, ya, it's been raining, too. So when I saw a new cache pop up only about 6 miles from work (as the crow files, that is) I had to jump on it.


It was about 10AM when I finally got around to checking my email (and forget about checking it on my phone, there just hasn't been time). I noticed a new cache had been published that morning. I didn't really pay attention to the time it was published but I new it was after 7AM 'cause that's when I turned on my phone and there wasn't an email at that time. I pulled up the cache page and it was still blank - no finders yet. Woohoo - maybe a chance at an FTF for October. (It's not official, but I like to grab at least one FTF each month - except for those few months this last summer when Rebelex was gobbling them all up before I could get there).


I checked again around 11:30AM and still no finders. Humm... I might get lucky. There are other caches in the area that I haven't been able to go after (plus one DNF I would certainly like to rectify!) so it looks like this is the place for lunch today. New Road (GC1GXD9) was found at about 11:45AM. See the log for the suspenseful ending to the quest.

The it was off to Childs Play (GC1G7JN) - which I had previously DNF'd on Oct 2, 2008. I had to find that thing! As I approached the parking lot, a city truck loaded with sod turned into the lot just ahead of me. Rats! This may cause some issue since the cache is within view of the parking lot. That thought quickly dissipated as I watched the city worker get out of his car and head to the port-o-potty (see, there is good reason for having an inside job - no portable restrooms). As he went in I quickly headed out to GZ. I scanned the area for places I hadn't searched yet - and there weren't many. I did notice a couple of places, though, and immediately started searching them. In less than 2 minutes I had the cache in hand as was signing the log. I quickly put it back, made it back to my car, and was driving off before the worker finished his business. I don't know how I missed finding that the first time but at least the cache is now off my DNF list. (see the log entry here)

I went on to find two other caches just to the south. I just hadn't spent the time to walk the trails in this area but sine I was here and the first two went so quickly I figured I might as well do it today. Both were fairly quick finds but at noon there are quite a few walkers, runners, bikers, and stroller pushers in the area so I had to time it just right when I decided to leave the trail. Those caches were Beyond Repair (GC1F79E) and Pictureesque (GC1F7A6) - both hidden by TopGear. Thanks for the hides!


As my post below indicated I reached 2000 finds while on a business trip to Dallas, TX. The rest of the pictures in this post are from some pretty interesting caches and places in Dallas.

This was a tough one to get to. Around and around. You'd never know that this was in the middle of 3 major streets just hanging there. As I walked back from getting this cache a person waiting for the light to change asked if I found the cache. He was a cacher, too.







Ok, this isn't a Dallas cache. It's from the Minneapolis area. I can't say much else but the hider put a lot of work into this. No, you're not looking at the container!

This one turned out to be missing. You're looking at the cap of an acorn. The acorn was not a normal acorn size. The cap your looking at was about 1" across. The bottom part is missing - which was the cache container. If you look really close you can see the fishing line it's hanging by.

One Bugger of an FTF

Caching at lunch today wasn't quite what I had intended. I had planned on grabbing 5 new caches in the area - they've been placed in the last couple of days. One was a possible FTF so I went that way first - Calvin Chooses his fathers Nursing Care Facility (no I don't get the name either but that's ok).

Here's the story as it was written in the log on geocaching.com.

WooHoo!! FTF @ 12:58PM. This was actually a co-FTF with __________ (Dang! I didn't write the caching name down and now I've forgotten it - sorry about that)

This was one BUGGER of a find!! I spent about 40 minutes looking at every spot possible. I climbed, poked, prodded, dug, sifted, and moved just about everything. Did you notice that this was hidden BEFORE all the leaves started to fall!! Yes there is a bed of new leaves (with many more to come in the near future).

Then I realized..... the east side of one tree is the west side of another (see the cache page to intrepet what the means)... Yikes, that makes it even harder! So more poking, prodding, and sifting.

You know I have a meeting back at work that I'm supposed to be back for at 1:00. I don't think I'm going to make it...

It's about 5 minutes to 1. If I leave now I'll be about 10 minutes late....

One more try - I usually leave my electronic compass off on my Garmin Vista HCx. I'm going to turn it on and see where it leads me.

Ok, I've been to that tree already. Yep been there too. Humm, I've been here a lot - it's still pointing over there. I've been here before but I'm going to poke around some more.... VIOLA!! There it is!!

That was one bugger of a find, that's for sure!

Cup of Joe event and caching after

Tbone and I decided that we wanted to go to the Cup Of Joe event organized by Fireman121 and Skatergirl today. It was a small gathering but we had lots of good conversation and then headed off for some caching. At the event Bus&Betty talked about their first WhereIGo cache and it made me want to find one, but even more I want to make a fun one. So that may be in the works sometime... It was also good to meet FlagFinder for the first time. Minnesotabrad rounded out the group and also brought his Cache-A-Maniac's guest coin for people to see (I left my coin at home in my coin book).

Part of our conversation at Cup of Joe was about a cache only about 1 1/2 miles from the event put out by Grey Wolf and Wild Rice called Jambro Hates . It's been DNF'ed a ton so we all thought it would be a good idea for all of us to go and look for it together. Luck for us we did. It was a bugger of a find. One of those that is right there all along and when you find it you do the famous forehead slap and "Duh!!"

Afterward Tbone and I did some more caching in the area. We ended up grabbing 7 caches and one DNF.

We spent over an hour at Centerville's 150 cache and didn't come up with the find - another DNF for us. There really aren't that many hiding spots so I hope to find that the cache is missing so we don't look so bad.

Overall it was a great day of caching. Tbone and I had a great time. Next time maybe we'll have a few more Sokratz kidlets along, too.

Ring Ring goes the Geocache

I know cachers are a friendly bunch and I've seen it in action before. But these log entries from one of my recent hides takes the cake. Not only does it prove that people generally want to do the right thing but it shows what a little bit of luck can do....


Cache: What's your sign? (GC1GCGJ)

September 18 by notsmike (1581 found)
Looking for this cache, I dropped (lost) my cell phone.Not knowing where I misplaced it I called it to see if I could locate it. XHawk was looking for the cache and heard the ring, answered it and waited for me to come back and pick it up. Very nice meeting you XHawk and thanks again.notsmike [view this log on a separate page]

September 18 by XHawk (714 found)
I usually stink at puzzles. So I was real happy to solve this one. Doubled back to the car to put on long pants. A good idea on this one. Found cache right after hearing a phone ring. After signing log, I hung out and waited for notsmike to show. Nice meeting you today. TFTPC![view this log on a separate page]

Is that cool or what??

Find #2000!!

WooHoo!! I made it to 2000 cache finds. It took me 2 years and 9 months to get to this point - with tons of fun along the way. I've gotten out into parks and places I've never been to before. I've met some really friendly people. I've found some great caches in very memorable spots. Thanks to everyone who helped me get this far.....those that hid caches, those that put up with the "newbee" questions, and those that came up with some fun puzzles (after all, it was those puzzles - and the thrill of the hunt - that got me hooked on this). Thanks everyone!

I happen to be traveling today so I wasn't able to really do much planning for my 2000th find. I had to pick something close but that would be memorable. So I picked Wagon Wheel Park Petting Zoo Bonus Cache (GC1C48Q). On the surface this seems like a simple puzzle but there are 6 other caches that you have to complete before you can do the final puzzle.

There were other caches in the park so I thought it would be a good place to start my caching in Dallas. So off I went....

(In the order I found them...)

Wagon Wheel Park Petting Zoo #5 - Boy I made this hard, but at least I understand what I'm looking for now.

Wagon Wheel Park Petting Zoo #6 - Humm, a DNF - am I going to be able to finish this with a DNF on one of the stages. Oh well, I'm still going to ge tthem all.

Wagon Wheel Park Petting Zoo #3 - Getting used to the way the hider hides them by this point.

Wagon Wheel Park Petting Zoo #2 - No problem - routine micro.

Wagon Wheel Park Petting Zoo #4 - Routine micro.

Wagon Wheel Park Petting Zoo #1 - Tennis balls galore if anyone needs one you can get them here.

Now solving the puzzle...

Missing one of the number might make this hard but it turns out I got lucky. #6 is the least significant digit of the north coordinate. So this just might work. Theres only 5 possible number it could be and since it's the least significant digit I decided to mark them all and look at each one.

I headed out to the first guess. Not easy to get to and I might be on private property. As I get closer I see where the private property ends and the public park begins (there's probably a way to reach this area from the park but I went a different way). Back into the trees about 100' or so and.....

Bingo!! First guess was right. I love it when I get lucky! Fun find and well worth the 2000th find.

Now I'm off for the next 1000....

Tough FTF Hunt

Yesterday (9-8-08) at about 4:45 a new cache popped up.  Roseville PNG (GC1G3BK) is only about 4 miles (as the crow flies) from where I work.  I decided it was time for me to pack up and head out - maybe I would be able to get the FTF!

I arrived at ground zero at about 5:15 or 5:20 and started the search.  I of course scoured the traditional locations very quickly and came up empty (BTW, future finders, don't play with the electrical box taped to the light pole.  The cache is NOT in there and the electrical box is live).

The area is definitely muggle heaven.  Tons of people around everywhere... but I can't give up now.  I widened the search radius and continued on.

After a short while I noticed three people walking toward me so I started walking back toward ground zero.  Soon one of them gave a little "hello" wave and smiled.  Of course I waved back and could tell they were cachers as well.  Turned out to be Lasreaine, Magicite, and Moonpies who were also hoping for the FTF.

We all continued looking throughout the area.  Some widening the search area and others keeping around ground zero.  Finally I heard the sweet sound of "found it" from right behind me (5:35PM).  Yes, behind me because I just searched that area.  It was Lasreaine who came up with the find - and it was a tough find at that!!

You can read my cache log for some more insights.  Lasreaine's log is there too.

Thanks for the fun hide, Joukkusisu.  It was great to meet three new cachers today and I hope to see them again sometime.

NOTE: Turns out this cache has been a thorn in others sides.  Lots of DNF's in the first 24 hours.

27 Mile Bike Ride

It's been a long time since I've written anything here. There is so much to write about - lots of caches, vacation caching, etc, etc - and the more I think about it the more it seems like an argues task. So to compensate, I've just put off writing anything. Well, that has to stop - now. So I'm going to have to just skip the fun, exciting stuff I haven't written about and move on.....

This weekend EagleEyeMN (my oldest son) and I went for a bike ride around Forest Lake (both the town and the lake). Our goal was to make it a 25 mile ride - it ended up being a little over 27 miles in the end. Of course I planned a series of caches to do along the way, too. Finally tally was 19 finds, 0 DNF's, 1 we decided we couldn't get to, and 2 that we skipped because they haven't been found for so long (and we had to keep moving).

We parked the car at Tolzmann Park at the north end of the lake, got the bikes and the packs ready and headed out counter-clockwise around the lake. Our first cache was about 400 feet away - whew, that's was a tough ride :-)

Our second stop was disappointing - and gave us thoughts of not being able to complete both tasks - 25 miles AND all the caches we have on our list. The cache just didn't seem to be accessible from where we were and if we wanted to go around to get it we'd spend too much time. So we decided to skip it and keep going.

The next part of the ride was filled with caches. Of course some of them were very quick - either EagleEyeMN or I would spot them and be picking up the cache before the other one even got off their bike. Those type of caches helped us stay on time (although the only time commitment was that we had to be done in 8 hours - not too difficult).

At about the 7 mile mark we started looking for The Treasure Hunt (GC1FV3J). This was a fun multi stage cache. The cache hider, Plumcitykitties, did an outstanding job with both stages of this cache. They spent time in ensuring that both containers were unique and fun. Thanks for all the work, guys! You'll have to go find the cache yourself to see what I'm talking about.

Next we headed back toward the lake and decided to stop for lunch at Beltz Park and X-Ray (GC1CXG0). Another excellent cache hide by Plumbcitykitties! The park was hopping with kids and a couple of adults so the fact that we were stopping for lunch made it a little easier to grab the cache. Luckily, EagleEyeMN put is eagle eyes to work and found the cache right away. However, it took some time before we could actually retrieve it. When the time was right we made the grab and got it back quickly. Thanks for another great hide, guys!!

After eating and grabbing the cache it was time to move on. We skipped one on the way to Hardwood Creek WMA (GC59A2) because it hadn't been found in a long time - and the fact there there were two cars and a handful of muggles at ground zero when we passed by. We did, however, stop and take a quick 2 minute break there anyway.

Hardwood Creek WMA was interesting. You can read the log to get some more information. Needless to say we were lucky to get out of there without getting poison ivy.

By this time in the ride we were both tired but still feeling pretty good. We made it about 16 miles and were at the south end of the lake. Only 5 caches left to go on our list.

We headed up the east side of the lake and took another break at the next cache - North Shore Trail (GC1709T). Fun hide - mostly because of the muggle traffic. We were lucky today, though. The muggles were already out on the lake and not coming back in yet.

Status check.... EagleEyeMN is doing just fine and I'm starting to get tired. I'm not hurting yet but that last couple of miles were a lot more difficult for me than for him. Finding the cache - and grabbing a candy bar - gave me a few minutes to recover before heading on.

As we continued to head up the east side of the lake, we decided to skip the next cache because it hadn't been found in a while and we needed to keep pressing on. Thinking back on it now I should have stopped and taken another break - but we didn't.

Last stop for the day was Kulenkamp Memorial Park with 4 caches in the park. Although mostly uneventful in this park there was one multi cache - Sudsy (GC16ZPJ) - that needed some help. Checkout the log for more details. The other interesting cache in this park was Kavanaugh Red (GC1CMJH). Seems some soon-to-be hunters wanted a deer stand in the park. I don't know if hunting is legal in that park but there's a deer stand at ground zero now (see my log).

We now have all of our caches done and it's about a 3 1/2 mile bike ride back to Tolzmann Park and the car. We're both tired but getting the caches in this park gave us time to recuperate. So off we went.

We finally arrived back at the car. EagleEyeMN was tired but still feeling "ok." I, on the other had, was about to DIE!! The last two miles of the ride really did me in. We didn't stop since leaving Kulenkamp park. It was only 3 1/2 miles but it really did me in. My quads were about to explode! I did all I could do to get off my bike and walk over to a bench to sit down for a rest. EagleEyeMN graciously took the time to pack up the bikes while I just watched from a distance (thanks, dude!).

Overall it was a fun day. EagleEyeMN and I were able to spend some good time together and he was able to prove his young legs were much better than my old legs. That's ok, though, I can still do more push ups than he can :-)

Holiday Caching and an FTF

My sister-in-law and her family are here visiting for the holiday. We just got cleaned up from a morning of paintball fun (but that's a different story all together) and I sat down to check email. While I'm sitting there two new caches pop up. One puzzle and one regular. Our visitors have only been caching once before - when they visited last time - and they've never done a puzzle cache before.

I printed the cache page out and handed it to my brother-in-law. After a few minutes he had it solved. Then I explained that these two caches had just popped up and that if we left now we might be able to get the coveted "first to find" honors (I explained what that was, too).

After a few minutes we had a group of six of us who wanted to go and a list of 10 caches that we might be able to grab - including the two FTF's. Of course each kid that came wanted to have a GPS so I had to load 4 other GPS's with waypoints (and charge the batteries that were dead). Loading only takes a few seconds with GSAK but charging took 15 minutes - and every minute counts when hunting FTF's in this area.

We headed straight for the first FTF attempt. ROCKIN' by KC0TWB. By the time we made it to the cache site the listing had been published for around an hour. The group was hopeful that the FTF might still be possible but I wasn't so sure. An hour is a long time in these parts.

After some hunting the kids finally found it (only a couple of small hints to get them going in the right direction). They were impressed by the container and the work put into it. I think they're beginning to like this game!! We opened the log and, yep, we were too late. We were 3rd to find. The kids wanted to trade all the SWAG so I pulled out the SWAG Bag and added a bunch of trinkets to the cache.

That one didn't result in an FTF but we had one more chance - the puzzle that my brother-in-law solved. We all piled back into the car and headed straight to that one (passing some other caches along the way in hopes of an FTF).

The next one was TXT4FUN by meralgia. When we pulled up I thought to myself another one of these (no, not an LPC but another popular hide in parks). As we approached I thought, yep it should be over there. The kids thought so, too, and started searching the area. I stood there watching the other five search and noticed something just a little different. Humm, that looks interesting. I meandered over and took a look - trying not to get the attention of the other five. Yep that's it - very cool! My sister-in-law saw me look at it and now we're playing the waiting game - giving hints every so often to get the group in the right spot. One of them even said, "What's a _____ doing there?" (sorry can't give too much away) But he didn't go check it out. We finally gave enough hints so the kids all found it.

We opened the container hoping that the log book might be blank. Slowly we opened the log book and VIOLA! A blank log book. WooHoo! We were first to find!

That was a fun find and now they're hooked. We continued the day finding more caches in the area, including the ones we passed on our way to the FTF. In all we nabbed 7 before heading home for dinner.

That night my brother-in-law ordered a Garmin Colorado 400t from Amazon. It will be here on Tuesday so we can play with it.

Note: the pictures are not from the caches mentioned in this posting so they are not spoilers for those caches. They are other caches we found today.

Trifecta Caching

WooHoo! A trifecta all in one cache!! I've had a trifecta day, or a trifecta week, but I don't think I've had a trifecta cache before!

Trifecta: The situation of having three major accomplishments or achievements in a sport, profession, or pastime.

Pastime: That which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably; sport; amusement; diversion; games.

Game: A pursuit or activity with rules performed either alone or with others, for the purpose of entertainment.

"Would you like to play a game? How about Global Thermal Nuclear War?" (10 bonus points of you know what move that quote is from)

Since Geocaching is a game, and a game is a pastime, and a trifecta is an accomplishment in a pastime I think the name qualifies: Trifecta Caching.

June has been a slow caching month for me for many reasons. Now that it's July I can get back on the bandwagon again - and there's no better way to do that than to start with a trifecta cache!

X=GZ (GC1DQGK) by Topgear was that cache.

The cache popped up last night as a new puzzle cache. I thought I might have a chance so I quickly solved the puzzle the old fassioned way (printed a map of the area with the coords on it then used a compass to disect some lines, drew a couple more lines and viola - ground zero was found). I was pretty sure Rebelex wouldn't be going after this since it was a puzzle, so my odds of being "first to find" where even higher. So I added X=GZ to my list of caches to go after on the way to work in the morning.

On the way to work I arrived at a parking lot near the cache. Another car was ahead of me and parked in the same end of the parking lot - where no other cars were.

"Humm", I thought, "Looks like I might have to share this find with another cacher."

I quickly got out of the car and so did the other person. We kinda glanced at each other and moved on. He grabbed a very large bag out of his trunk and headed toward a door.

"Whew, I think I'm back on my own for the hunt."

Approaching the cache I waded through tons of poison ivy, mosquitoes who wanted to drain my body of blood, and even a tic or two. After a short search I finally made the find, traded a travel bug, and signed the log.

Ok, now here's where the trifecta comes in. My three achievements are:

1. Marked off another day for "Bakers Dozen." This will be a puzzle for Day 5. My bookmark for the Bakers Dozen caches can be found here.
2. I needed an X for "Alphabet Soup" - X is the last one I need to finish that puzzle. My bookmark for the Alphabet Soup caches can be found here.
3. WOOHOO!! First to Find at 8:05AM. I really didn't think this one would last until 8AM but it did. I haven't had an FTF for quite a while - April 17 - so that makes it 2 1/2 months. SWEET!!

I finished the caching day by completing Day 5 of Bakers Dozen at lunch.

I wonder if there's such a thing as a quadfecta for next time....

KB Challenge - Minnesota Bakers Dozen

Last week I spent all of my caching time working on the King Boreas Minnesota Baker's Dozen challenge cache. I've written about this challenge before so you've probably heard about it, but the essence of the challenge is to find 1 cache on day 1, 2 caches on day 2, 3 caches on day 3, all the way to 13 caches on day 13. Now the day's don't have to be consecutive days or that would be impossible for me to complete - I don't cache 13 day's in a row. The other major rule is that at least one of the caches found on a particular day must be either a multi-cache or a puzzle cache. That throws an interesting twist into the whole thing. Visit the cache page for more details.

So last week I found myself ignoring the coveted FTF's just because I've either already hit my number for the day, or the FTF might be a multi or a puzzle and I can't go get it because I already have my multi or puzzle for the day. So I passed on a couple of FTF hunts.

However, last week I was able to complete some of the bigger number day's. Here's my cache bookmark which shows my progress so far. I focused on the bigger number days on the weekends because it's almost impossible to get 12 or 13 caches at lunch. I used to be able to do it but now I have to drive too far because I've cleared out the area close to work. Now just getting 3 or 4 caches takes up the lunch time (and sometimes I'm only able to get 1 or 2).

The progress last week looks something like this:

• Sat June 14 - Day 13 - Tbone and I did this. Another post talked about our adventures on our bikes.
• Mon June 16 - Day 4
• Tue June 17 - Day 7 - This required a longer lunch, though.
• Wed June 18 - Day 2 - The multi I did here was a killer. Took way too long - but fun!!
• Fri June 20 - Day 12 - I was at a baseball tourney and was able to get enough caching in between games to get the full 12 done.
• Sat June 21 - none - I had high hopes of getting day 11 out of the way - but there was no time between baseball games today.

So overall it was a successful week - getting Day 12 and 13 out of the way. Only 4 days left, 5, 9, 10, and 11. I'm afraid it will take a couple of weekends to get 9, 10, and 11 out of the way, though.

Back in the Saddle

Wow, it's been a while since I've been able to get out and do some geocaching. I've been dealing with pneumonia for the past couple of weeks and am finally well enough to get out there. So TBone and I decided to take our bikes and go ride some trails. Of course the trails we picked were loaded with caches, too. We ended up grabbing 13 today - just enough for day 13 of King Boreas' Minnesota Bakers Dozen Challenge. I still have a few more day's to fill in but I'm getting there.

Tbone and I had a great day. We found some pretty tough caches, Tbone found some fun SWAG, and we traded a few Travel Bug's and Geocoins. We scared up 5 or 6 deer - got to within about 30 -40 feet of a couple of them before they ran off. The mosquitoes were out in full force! I think they almost carried us away a few times. The worst part is when you're stopped to sign the log - the mosquitoes are relentless when your not moving!!

Then of course there were the tics. Ton's of them. As you can see from the pics we were in grassy areas so I went first to try and break the path for Tbone. That also meant that I got most of the tics. I think we pulled 15-18 tics off of my clothes. Tbone had about 4 or 5 during the day. None of them bit us, though, so it looks like we found them all.

All in all, we had a great day finding 13 caches, 5 or 6 deer, a few ducks, and lots of dragon flys - and doing it all from our bikes. Thanks for going with me today, Tbone. I had a great time!!

Sokratz Lab

I was able to do some lunch caching today. Only had time for three quick grabs but the fun part was solving a puzzle last night. Lost in Minnesota was a fun puzzle cache that took me some time to figure out. I wasn't sure if the cache really was in Minnesota or not but after I solved it I found that it really was in Minnesota - even though a Utah cacher hid it (with help from someone around here). All you puzzle hiders out there, check this one out.

I've spent some time in the Sokratz Lab lately. Now my lab is nothing like the Posen lab, I'm sure, but it still creates some pretty fun containers.

Many of these containers have already been hidden in the last month but there's sill plenty more to be hidden this summer. Of course I can't show you all of them or it would give them away. The picture here shows some of the more "traditional" ones you may find next time you hunt a Sokratz cache.

San Francisco Caching

I spent last week in San Francisco on business and of course had to get some caching in. I was able to find 29 unique caches in the downtown area - all within walking distance from Mascone Center. According to the track log I walked 9.5 miles on Tuesday, 4 miles on Wed, and 4.5 miles on Friday. And don't forget the San Francisco terrain. This isn't Minnesota anymore. There are more steep hills than I imagined. Many of them had stairs instead of sidewalks because they were so steep. I sure had a good time, though, walking through the streets and seeing things I would have never seen. Here are some that I thought were interesting....

Franciscan Complex - Alcatraz Terrane - My first cache on the trip and my first Earth Cache. This was a pretty cool place. I learned something about Graywacke, too. Not at all what I expected.

Parrot's Perch - Wild parrot's, how cool is that. Boy they were loud, too. This as an interesting place. There wasn't a road but a set of stairs that did a "switch back" to get up the hill. Everywhere along the stairway there were walkways to the houses. It's hard to describe without actually being there.

Watermelon Hill - This is evidently a place where David Letterman rolled a bunch of watermelons down the hill. Boy it was steep!!

Lombard Street - Yes, this is the famous curvy road hill. This was a fun cache. I met a cacher from Tennessee here. Lots of great views from this vantage point. And of course tons of muggles in the area!

At the Pier - This is a Web Cam cache at Pier 39 (the tourist area). You'll have to checkout the log to see the pictures of Sokratz playing at the pier. I'm on the phone with my wife so she could take the picture from the web cam.

Bamboo Alley and Chinatown Tour - These were a couple of puzzle caches that took you on a sight seeing tour. Saw things I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

S.F. Cable Car Barn - This was a fun place. It's at the heart of the cable cars. This working museum is where all the cables that power the cable cars run from. It was pretty interesting to see how it all works.


Of course there a couple of DNF's (did not find) in there too. One of them really bugged me. At one point there were 4 of us there looking for it.

Union Square - We couldn't find this one at all. I came here on two different days and at one time even had one of the street vendors selling art work helping me look for it. It was maddning. After leaving I sent an email to the cacher I met at Lombard Street because she had found this one, too. Boy did I feel stupid when she told me where she had found it. Yikes - sometimes you feel like a nut, and this was that time!

Of course there were many other fun caches there too. Overall it was a great caching adventure for a couple of days in San Francisco.

I took some pictures along the way and used GPicSync to sync the pictures up with my GPS tracks. The result in .KMZ file can be viewed in Google Earth (don't confuse that with Google Maps, they're two different things). You can download the 3.6MB file from here.

Free Maps for Garmin units

I haven't had much time for caching the past week. Work has me hopping right now. It will slow back down in a week or two - then they'll be more time for caching again.

I have spent some time looking at maps for my Garmin units that I don't have maps for. I found some excellent maps (most are works in progress).

First Topo Maps from http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/mp_main.html.
They cover Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Colorado and they are great! I took an older eTrex Legend (old blue - with only 8meg for maps) and loaded some of the Wyoming maps. I choose Wyoming because I grew up there and thought I would know if the maps were accurate or not. Well, the they are exceptional! The contours are excellent, plus you get street maps for cities and towns!! Next time we go out there I'll definitely load the older GPS's with these maps. The kids will love it compared to not having any maps at all.

They also have some off road maps for Minnesota. You Minnesotans might want to check them out.

My second great find was http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/.
Although the map choices are sparse, they have "How To's" to teach you how to create your own maps. I thought this was pretty good, and if I find the time, I might just try it myself.

Next it was off to http://openstreetmap.org/.
A very interesting community based project. These guy's are mapping the world one saved track at a time. Take a look at your area and I bet you'll be impressed. What I found most useful about this site was the European maps that can be generated. If you're planning a trip over seas, take a look here and learn how to make your maps before you go.

Lastly, follow this topic in the GroundSpeak Forums http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=189762.
These are the best street maps I could find (for free!!). ibycus is doing an outstanding job creating a complete USA map set. If you haven't seen this yet, it's a "must see." The only issue that I could find is the speed of the GPS. I tried loading a set of maps on the old eTrex Legend. They load just fine. However, the blue eTrex Legend just isn't powerful enough to draw the maps quick enough. It took forever because of all of the detail ibycus is providing. However, on the newer color eTrex line it worked great.

So, if you're looking for maps and don't want to pay a bundle, the resources above are a great start. And if you can't find what you like, you can always make your own and contribute them to the cause.

Find #1700 and What GPS to Buy

Today's the last day of April and I only need 5 finds to make it to 1700. I figured I better go get em. Turned out to be a fun afternoon with find #1700 being Number Search by Topgear. It was a fun puzzle and find. I ended up grabbing 7 caches today before making it home from work.

Yesterday I was asked by my father-in-law was GPS my brother-in-law should buy. No this isn't s soap opra, it's true :-) Anyway, below is my answer. It's pretty long but I thought it might be useful for someone else.

My personal preference is Garmin so I only look at the Garmin units.

First, lets look at a couple of prices on eBay just to get an idea of what some lightly used units are going for.

eTrex Legend - $64 (used, from an individual person)
(the old blue model, 8meg of ram, not really useful for any maps - maybe some topo's)

eTrex Legend - $78 (referbished by Garmin, sealed box - looks and acts like new)

eTrex Legend Cx - $101 (refurbished by Garmin, sealed box - just like new)
(color unit with the same menus as the Vista's (we both have Vista's). The x means it uses an expansion card which is good if you want maps).

eTrex Venture Cx - $95 (used, from an individual)
(the only difference between this and the Legend Cx is that the legend comes with a memory card and this one is yellow)

In order to understand the units we have to understand the model numbers that Garmin uses. They use letters after the model name to identify some features. The important ones are:

1. C=Color unit - I wouldn't go B&W on anything that I was going to use. It's just not worth it anymore.

2. x=memory card - Make sure to the get the x models that use memory cards. You can fit road maps for ALL the US on a 2gig card – with room for “points of interest” or Topo maps. It's great not to have to reload maps - ever.

3. H=high sensitivity - I would also get a high sensitive unit. None of the ones listed above from eBay are H units but boy I can really tell a difference between my older units and the new Vista HCx. The Vista HCx keeps a lock very well, even in tree cover. I wouldn't necessarily rate this one as high importance. If price is important, this could be given up to save a few bucks.

4. S=Sensors. If the S is used it means the unit has an electronic compass and a barometric altimeter. However, if the S isn’t used, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the unit doesn’t have the sensors. You can count on the Vista line always having the sensors but in the latest Vista HCx they don’t use the S anymore.

Now lets look at the eTrex line and what the differences are.

Current Models: (these are currently being sold in stores)
eTrex Venture HC - ok choice, but it's doesn't have the x (no memory card). It's limited to 24 meg of RAM.

eTrex Legend - not recommended - no C and no x. B&W and only 8 meg of RAM

eTrex Legend HCx - This is a recommended choice! It doesn't have the electronic compass or barometric altimeter but in my experience that stuff isn't used that often - at least not for Geocaching.

eTrex Vista - not recommended - no C and no x. B&W and only 24 meg of RAM.

eTrex Vista HCx - This is a recommended choice! This is the step up from the Legend HCx. It includes the electronic compass and the barometric altimeter. This is the one I currently use all the time.

GPSMap 60CSx - good choice but more expensive. Has everything in the Vista HCx

GPSMap 76CSx - good choice but more expensive. Has everything in the Vista HCx

Colorado 400t - this is the current Cadillac of handheld Garmin units. It's brand new with some awesome features. Topo's for the US come preloaded. Of course it's currently running about $600, too :-)

Next lets look at the discontinued models that are still pretty good. You can find these on eBay - gentley used or remanufactured.

eTrex Legend C - ok choice. 24 meg of RAM for maps. no electronic compass, no barometric altimeter.

eTrex Legend Cx - good choice. Same as Legend C but uses a memory card for more RAM. Includes a memory card.

eTrex Venture - not recommended. Only 1 meg of ram for maps. B&W model.

eTrex Venture Cx - good choice. Exactly the same as the Legend Cx but but doesn't come with a memory card in the box. It's also yellow in color.

eTrex Vista C - ok choice. 24 meg of RAM, electronic compass, barometric altimeter.

eTrex Vista Cx - good choice. memory card, compass, altimeter, just doesn't include the high sensitivity receiver like the Vista HCx model.

There are of course many other models that I've skipped. Some of those that might be 'Ok' are.

GPSMap 76C
GPSMap 76Cs
GPSMap 60C
GPSMap 60Cs
Rino - has models that are equivalent to the eTrex but also includes the walkie-talkies.

Alright, now lets get to the question at hand. What would I recommend.

My Assumptions:
1. You want maps so you'll need a mapping device, not a "plain" device.
2. B&W won't due - plus there aren't any B&W models that will hold many maps.
3. Small is better than large. Specifically, the eTrex line would be better than the GPSMap line because the eTrex is so much smaller.

As part of the recommendation we need to look at prices. Here are the prices for new units from Amazon as of today (4/29/08). This should be a pretty good idea of what they're going for right now. Note that you might pay more if you buy it from a local store.

eTrex Vista HCx $225
eTrex Legend HCx $190
eTrex Venture HC $137

Here's are some rough prices from eBay for discontinued models. These are just examples. Prices on eBay change continually.

eTrex Vista Cx $195
eTrex Vista C $160
eTrex Legend Cx $115
eTrex Legend C $100
eTrex Venture Cx $110


Recommendations:
1. Spend as much as possible now and be happy with the device. There's always budgets that have to be factored in so know what the budget is and buy the best possible unit. If the budget is $350 then buy the Vista HCx and City Navigator and US Topo's 2008 (maps). If the budget is $100. Look for a used Venture Cx or Legend Cx on eBay.

2. I've really liked the Vista line. However, I have no problem recommending saving some money and getting the Legend HCx instead of the Vista HCx. The electronic compass and barometric altimeter are nice to have but I've never used the altimeter and I almost always leave my electronic compass off to save batteries. The electronic compass also only works when it's held level - and calibrating it all the time can be a pain.

3. Because of my assumption #3 above, I'm ruling out the GPSMap 60 and 76 lines. I really like my 76CSx. The screen is bigger and easier to see. But I much prefer carrying around the smaller Vista HCx.

4. I'd really like to get my hands on a Colorado 400t. But because I haven't played with it myself I can't really recommend it to someone else, yet. So I think the Colorado line is probably out.

Ok the bottom line.

1. If you can get the Vista HCx - do it. You won't be disappointed.
2. If you want to save $35, get the Legend HCx - again, you won't be disappointed at all. Apply the extra $35 to maps.
3. This one is a toss up. If you want unlimited maps then you have to go with a used Vista Cx or Legend Cx. If you want better reception then you have to go with the Venture HC. Hard decision to make.

If I were buying my first GPS, knowing that I'm going to use it the way I do today (roadmaps and geocaching), I would buy the eTrex Legend HCx. I like the size, the color screen, the memory card. I don't use the electronic compass or altimeter enough to care about them.

Remember on top of the price of the device you also have to purchase maps. So don't forget the cost of that, too.

Now if you really want to go bare minimum. The new eTrex H (replaced the old Yellow model) would be ok. The problem is that it’s running about $85 to $90 and for only $20 more I can get a color mapping GPS that is much better. This is the exact reason I ended up getting two B&W Legend’s like listed above. They were cheap and better than the Yellow.

This was very long winded, but hopefully it will help.