I've been meaning to lay out all the stuff I carry when I am caching, and today I got it done.
I use a Garmin Nuvi 200w, a Dell laptop running Microsoft Streets & Trips and Google Earth (offline) simultaneously, and a Garmin Colorado 400t. All of these are set on different zoom levels, so I have several different perspectives on the road ahead. The Pharos 500 gps puck provides position data to both software programs at the same time by using a program called GpsGate, which creates virtual ports on the laptop. Both the Colorado and the Nuvi have 12 volt power cords, and the laptop is running on a 12 volt to 110 converter.
For PnGs, I carry the Colorado in the soft camo case, mostly so I don't lay it down on the ground when I'm signing a log and forget it. I have a Zagg screen protector on the Colorado. It’s pretty good, although insect repellent melted the first one I got. For rural caching, and hikes a long way from the truck, I wear the belt which has everything I don't want to walk all the way back to the truck to get. From left to right is my cell phone, a neat utility case I got at Gander Mountain that holds the Colorado and a bunch of other stuff, keepers to keep the belt from riding up, a pair of gloves in an old handcuff case, a three compartment digital camera case I got at Walmart that holds swag and trackables, and a small zippered case I got out of a cache that holds my signature swag.
My Trek stick has a small compass on the top of the handle, and I rigged up a hook at the bottom that I use to move stuff around and pull caches out of places where I don’t want to stick my hands.
Below the belt is extra swag, extra batteries, my glasses (which I will come back to) and a digital camera. Lots of virtuals require a photo. I also keep a notepad in the truck, as well as a small notepad in my pocket, along with my pen. While the Colorado keeps up with my finds and DNFs, in order, I think the Rock’nRoller on the Colorado is too slow for cache notes, so I make those when I get back in the truck.
The glasses are tri-focals, although I guess they are called “progressive” now so maybe it doesn’t sound like someone that wears them can’t see. I absolutely hated them when I was first conned into getting them, but geocaching has sure changed my mind about them. I love them now. My vision is 20/10 corrected, so I am a long ways from blind, but I can’t see squat up close anymore. Reading glasses are essential. But on and off with those all day got old real quick. The tri-focals allow me to sign logs and make cache notes, see the laptop and gps devices without changing glasses, and the difference in searching is just amazing. With my head stuck in a bush or tree, I can see clearly from right up close, all the way to the other side, and everything in between. Made a difference in my DNFs when I started wearing them.
The utility case photo didn’t come out very well, but you can perhaps tell that it has a large, deep pocket, a smaller zippered pocket in front, and two mesh pockets on the side. It also has a zippered pocket on the back, at the bottom, where I can shove several small trash bags and zip lock bags between the fabric and the hard shell case back.
Inside the utility case, I carry an extending mechanics mirror that saves my old tired knees, a spare pen, and an extending magnet that I use to recover nanos that have fallen down in the holes and pipes where they were hidden (it has a clip on it that I can use to attach the blue strap on the far right, so I can lower it way down in pipes or holes). Since some of our caches around here involve multis that have parts of padlock combinations, I started carrying some oil for the padlocks. They get weathered and hard to open, and sometimes you can’t tell if you have the correct combination from the puzzle, but the oil solves that. The flashlight is a good ‘un, and it will light stuff up even in daylight, which sometimes helps. The knife I rarely use, but I’ve got it. More spare batteries, a little camo tape for cache repairs, some nylon string because you just never know, and a small tape measure in case I have to measure something for a virtual. My pocket knife is a small Swiss Army that has scissors for trimming cache logs, and tweezers. I also have a lighted magnifying glass, which I got out of a cache, in the truck for cactus spine removal. The little folding mini-tool is called a Mini Bearpaws, and I use the pliers to remove nano logs. They are a lot handier than tweezers. I also carry a cheap compass, because I don’t always have the Trek stick with me, and the electronic compass on the Colorado is a big pain in the butt to use. In the truck I have binoculars, some rope, some clothes hangers and stiff wire, and either a step stool or a milk crate to stand on.
And who said Inspector Gadget was dead?
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