Greetings from L.A. (Lower Arkansas)

[arkfiremedic]

I guess it is better late than never to introduce myself. I'm from Lower Arkansas where I am employed as a Firefighter/ Paramedic and also as the Police Chief of a small neighboring town. My caching partner (six-year-old daughter who has her own account named 2Ter) and I have recently completed the Arkansas DeLorme and State ParkCache Challenge. We are both looking forward to meeting everyone at the meet and greet in El Dorado next month. I am also looking forward to getting some insider advice/suggestions on how to put these Geocaches automatically into my GPS without having to hand write/enter each and every one in my G.P.S. I have pages and pages of hand written Geocaches divided into towns and trips and I know there has to be an easier way (hopefully). (My problem was not buying a Garmin- hindsight is 20-20). See you next month.

[AR-HICK]

I used to live in L.A. but it was London, Arkansas, Now I reside in Morrilton. I am planning on seeing you in your L.A. next month it is going to be a hoot! Fried Tators that look like Donuts? Who would have ever thought about that, must have been a Genius!

Welcome to the ArkGeo we are glad you joined our little group.
I might even buy you a Spudnut and tell some lies about the State Parks Challenge.

Ar-Hick

[jclaudii]

Welcome to the board. Hope to meet you guys out on the trail soon. There are lots of geocaches down south and some of them are pretty darn good.

On helping with your organization issue. Are you a premium geocaching.com subscriber for $30 a year. If not I highly suggest you become one. The main reason is Pocket Queries. The pocket Queries let you do on the fly and scheduled searching of caches around a particular area (zip code, cache, coordinates, etc). After you enter in your criteria, it will e-mail you a file that you can upload to your GPS that includes all the caches.

You can also go one step further and download the program called GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife). http://www.gsak.net/
You can download it for free and use the full version to see if you like it. It basically does what you are doing on paper but on your computer. It will let you save and organize your caches by any way you chose. By area, by cache size, by last found, by last placed, by never found, by difficulty, etc. When you go to the event, I bet you can find someone there who uses GSAK and can walk you through it. Heck some events even have "lessons" on how to use the program as well as how to use the "paperless" caching options.

Paperless caching usually requires a newer GPS or a PDA. If you'll pm me your zip code and your e-mail I'll send you a sample pocket query so you can try it out.

What GPS do you use?

Jclaudii

[flannelman]

Hi and welcome to ArkGeo!! You will get a lot of good info at the event. There should be a lot of experienced cachers down there for you to talk to.

[QuartzCachers]

Hey arkfiremedic! I am looking forward to meeting you at the shindig in El Dorado. We have crossed paths, down in your neck of the woods, but just haven't run into each other yet. I have enjoyed your logs on my Lake Catherine S.P. caches. Welcome to this site. It is very helpful and informative. Just don't cross the foxes! :lol:

[cfd29]

We are looking forward to meeting you down south in a couple of weeks, I too am on our local fire dept. You have been very busy around the state, congrats on completing those challenges!!!

See you at spudnuts!!

CFD29

[arkfiremedic]

Not knowing what I needed (I wanted a color screen) I chose the Bushnell 200CR. It is relatively new <6 months old. I have downloaded the GSAK program to my computer, but cannot figure out how to load the caches into my program. There is NO information available on this GPS that I can find online other than a manual and an occasional review. Maybe someone familiar with the program can help me figure it out in El Dorado next week (I'll buy them all the spudnuts they can eat if they can!!) It is very time consuming to write the name-coordinates-hints-and type of cache for each one and then type them into the program and upload them to the GPS. Not to mention the human error (mine). Thank you for your help. I am indeed a premium member and my zip code is 71730. Thanks again.

[jclaudii]

arkfiremedic have you created a Pocket Query yet? If not, I suggest you try creating one. The link can be found on geocaching.com and logging in. Then either click on your username at the top or "my account" on the navigation bar. Then look on the right side of the screen and you'll see lots of headings, look for "Premium Features" and then under that is "Build Pocket Queries". Create a new one and selected the current day of the week so it can run for you that day.

They sometimes get backed up on weekends and fridays, but the file will eventually come to your e-mail address. It will come as a .zip attachment and download it to your computer somewhere. On GSAK just open it up and click the file open icon in the top left and tell it where your file is you just downloaded and it will do the magic.

On your particular model you may have to use the File>Export feature which lets you export it in a format your gps software can understand and then upload it to your gps from your software.

Good Luck...

[likestocanoe]

So very glad to have another geocacher in LA and in Arkansas. Congrads again for your most recent accomplishment! Good Job ! ! !

We are looking forward to meeting you in Eldorado Saturday. Will your caching partner be with you? Save a spudnut for us.

likestocanoe gang
Jim, Sandy, and Tanner

[arkfiremedic]

She will be here with me. Looking forward to meeting you all. Been busy putting some new ones out tonight for everyone to find!!!

[HuntDawg]

Hey folks!!!! I'm another newbie from LA- Watson Chapel south of pine bluff. I'n new to this so new I havent found my first cache yet. I been looking but with no luck. I hope to see all you guys in August at Smackover Geocache Event. I'm not a firefighter but I build all of the Arkansas Forrestry commissions water tanks for their fire trucks. Anyways see yall all soon.

[arkfiremedic]

HuntDawg- Welcome to the sport, game, hobby, addiction.... I can tell you my wife wishes I hadn't found my first cache either :wink: If you still haven't found your first by the event please holler at me. I am a co-host of the event and would be HAPPY :D to show you around L.L.A. that would be Lower (than you) Lower Arkansas. There are dozens and dozens in the immediate area and with an all day event there will be plenty of time to show you around. You may also want to check out the event on Geocaching at the Smackover Oil and Brine Museum while you are there. It is a traveling exhibit geared directly toward geocaching- www.geocaching.com (http://www.geocaching.com) cache # GC1QPDH. It is very informative (and of course you can get another icon to go along with your event icon!) It is on my watch list and literally people have traveled from all over the United States to visit it. There is also a chance for you to get a regular, multi, puzzle, and Earthcache all in the area. Once again I welcome you. P.S. this sport is more to me than the "find" and the "numbers". Some of the best people I have ever met are involved in this sport and many will be at the event.