Cache Mania

I didn’t buy my eTrex legend for geocaching. I bought just because I thought GPS was a cool technology. A friend at work introduced me to the idea of geocaching and with eTrex in hand I decided to give it a go. The eTrex was a good entry level unit that allowed me to try geocaching. I doesn’t have all the features of more recent units but it will certainly do that job.

My first experience with the unit was a complete failure, operator error! I did not enter the coordinates correctly and I was way off the actual cache location. Thank goodness for GPX format files and writing directly to the unit from the caching website. Once I corrected my own error I tried again with greater success. That was the last time I used that unit as my primary geocaching GPS. Between that second find and when I started Caching again I had purchased a Garmin GPS 60SCx.

Pros

• Inexpensive
• geocaching.com compatible
• rugged
• long battery life

Cons

• Black and White screen
• Low resolution
• serial connectivity only (needs a USB to serial connector)

Tags: eTrex, Garmin, review
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The Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx is my primary GPS for geocaching. You would this this unit was purpose built for geocaching the features are so easy to use. It even tops the Garmin

Colorado in it’s abitlity to easily add waypoints on the fly.

Pros

• Long battery life
• Clear bright screen
• Geocaching specific features
• On the fly waypoints
• Delete waypoints directly on the unit

Cons

• Not designed for paperless caching
• Does not support on-board pictures
• No wireless functionality

Tags: 60CSx, Garmin, GPSMAP
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The Wilfrid G Crozier reserve has played an important role in preserving the beauty and ecology of the Niagara Escarpments. The 4-hectare reserve straddles a section of the escarpment near Milton. Donated to the Ontario Federation of Naturalists in 1972 by Wilfrid G. Crozier, the reserve allowed the Federation to appear before hearings on the Niagara Escarpment Plan as not only an interested party, but also as a landowner.

This reserve, though small in size, straddles the Niagara Escarpment, from the field which fronts on Highway 25 below the bluff, to the bluff itself, to a field above the rock edge. The cliff at this point is not high, but it is typical of escarpment outcrops in this region. Much of the surrounding land above the escarpment is forested, and the Bruce Trail passes through the middle of the property. [Hilts 1984]

The escarpment face, except for the top five metres or so, is mostly buried behind a talus slope. Plants that have managed to gain a foothold in crevasses and on ledges include such uncommon species as 

Slender Cliff-brake and Walking Fern. Spikenard, Selkirk’s Violet and Spotted St. Johnswort are other interesting plants found on the property. Here, the escarpment rim is dominated by Eastern Hemlock with a scattering of Sugar Maple, Paper Birch, Eastern White Cedar, White Ash, and Red Oak. The cliff-edge forest extends about 12 metres back from the face and then opens into old field again.

Above and below the short cliffs that divide the reserve in half are old fields that have been tilled. In the recent past, these fields have been used mostly for grazing and hay mowing. Now they are good examples of old-field succession communities. A very open cover of young trees such as White Ash and White Elm gives way to mostly shrub cover – Hawthorn, Staghorn Sumac, Chokecherry, Raspberry and the like – as the visitor moves away from the base of the slope.

Geocachers can help ensure places like the Wilfrid G Crozier reserve exist by supporting organizations like the Ontario Federation of Naturalists.

Tags: Conservation
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The site has been moved to Wordpress but not all the content has been transfered yet.  The new look is in place and I’ll be adding the content back in.

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