Anyone going Geocaching this weekend? **NEW CACHERS...POP IN!**

[JohnsonsRUs]

I got the Geomate Jr. at REI, it just came on the market 5/11. I think it is meant for kids, but it seems like a good way to get started. I looked on the geocaching website and it seems like there are a lot where we will be, so I am very excited. Some of the people we camp with have done them in past years.

We have only done the Letterboxing in the State Park where we camp, but it was a fun way to spice up some trails that we have been on many times.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Have fun with your Geomate Jr.! I was reading a bit about it on the GC.com site. Wow! It's preloaded with a bunch of caches in it! If it were me, I'd probably just check online prior to hunting for any of them to be sure they are still active. It didn't seem like the GPS could be updated with caches that are active and those that aren't. But it sounds neat!

 

[BunsenH]

Found my first international cache while on vacation last week.

It was on Jost Van **** in the BVI. A beautiful spot and a satisfying cache.

Silly filter - **** is dike with a y

 

[Pin Wizard]

Congratulations on the international cache! Wooo hooo!! That is neat! I laughed when I saw the asterisks for what the filter picked up on. Too funny!

Last weekend we went caching in Richmond. Not nearly as exciting as international caching, but still a lot of fun! Don't know where we're headed this weekend. Probably just around our basic area being darling son will be taking up Saturday with lacrosse things. I'm glad he's finally found his sport!

So who went to Geowoodstock? Anyone?

 

[jme829]

We did our first hunt today..had a blast....Minnesota state parks were free today and the one we went to (Ft. Snelling) is a demo park, so we were able to rent the equipment (free!) and take part in their Geocaching Wildlife Safari. It was a multiple cache (3 waypoints before the final cache) to collect critter cards. The hardest part was figureing out what we were doing with the GPS, once we figured it out, we had no problem finding things.

One question I have is if you can use a regular GPS to geocache. We have a Garmin Nuvi (350 I think) that we use in the car. (it is portable)

This is something we definitely want to start doing more of.

 

[MiJo]

jme829: Congratulations on your first Geocache find and welcome to the thread!
You will love this hobby. As for your question, a car GPSr probably won't get you close enough to a lot of caches but it's worth a try. You will probably need a handheld GPSr for many caches, especially micros. Good caching!

Sandy: I've been away from the thread for quite a while, probably because we haven't had a lot of time for caching lately. We became grandparents for the second time a few weeks ago! Our DGS ended up in the natal ICU for several days but he's been home now for a week and a half and he's much, much better! We've also been doing a lot of yard work but we hope to get back out caching soon.
In more good news, we're heading back to WDW with our Navy son in October! He was able to get us into Shades of Green, the military resort near the Poly and he can also get us great deals on park hoppers. We can't wait! David hasn't been there in almost 20 years so he is looking forward to it, too. He made E-5 a couple weeks ago which is quite an accomplishment since he won't even be in 3 years until August.
I definitely have to check back into this thread more often!
Until next time, Good Caching!
Mike

 

[sbell111]

Have fun with your Geomate Jr.! I was reading a bit about it on the GC.com site. Wow! It's preloaded with a bunch of caches in it! If it were me, I'd probably just check online prior to hunting for any of them to be sure they are still active. It didn't seem like the GPS could be updated with caches that are active and those that aren't. But it sounds neat!

They are coming out with an update kit for the geomate jr this month that will allow geojr users to update their units. In the mean time, it's important to remember that the caches preloaded to the unit were carefully selected to limit the number of caches that have been archived.

 

[sbell111]

One question I have is if you can use a regular GPS to geocache. We have a Garmin Nuvi (350 I think) that we use in the car. (it is portable)

Lot's of people cache using nuvis. Check out this thread.

 

[Pin Wizard]

jme829...Welcome! Hope you are having fun with your new hobby. I think I may have used my nuvi for one or two caches. I went back to my Garmin 60CSx as soon as I could. Probably found a cache I couldn't wait to find and was caught without the usual one on me. I don't know that I'd be out hiking in any woods with it though. Probably just the urbans.

Mike...Congratulations on your new DGS! I'm glad to hear that he's doing better. If he was in the NICU, he had THE best care! What they can do is amazing. I bet your yard looks gorgeous! Hopefully, you'll find a little time in your busy schedule to do a bit of caching. Congrats to your son! Wooo hooo!! And I know you'll be having fun at WDW in October! Speaking of jobs...my nephew in the Coast Guard has finally put in his 3 years on the boat. He's more than ready for a "land" job. They don't waste any time, do they! He returned to WA from the boat today, he has to be at his new job in FL TOMORROW! When do they get to pack and send their belongings?

sbell111...That's great that they have an update coming out! Unfortunately, caches are being archived all the time. Things can change quickly when it comes to active caches. We are now in our 5th year of caching. There are 634 caches we previously found that are now archived! Way too many! I hope just as many new ones are coming out!!

TBs...gotta love them and at times dislike them. I have a fairly new cache at a park. There were about 4 TBs/coins in there. Someone found the cache today and said there weren't any trackables in there. Hmmmmmmm...there was a new cacher that found the cache a few days ago. I've e-mailed them hoping that they took them and just don't know what to do with them at this point. Hopefully, I'll get an e-mail back soon. In the meantime, one of the coins was one of mine that I just placed in the cache...it's first stop. That one is/was headed to Greece! Ugh. Guess I'll have to decide on another coin to send with that goal if this one doesn't make it back. But I really hope they all are dropped somewhere.

Happy caching!

 

[Carl]

I haven't read all of this thread, but can a Nuvi 270 be used for geocaching. I don't see a place that the co ordinates are displayed.
ETA: I went to the link above, but it looks complex. Is there a simpler way to do it?

 

[Pin Wizard]

Carl...I've only tried it once with a cache if I remember correctly. I was glad when I had my hand held again. Most comments I've seen for our area seem to think it's not nearly as accurate as a hand held. I know my Nuvi 350 just shows the map and has the flag at the end of the destination. I'm not sure how accurate it would be. Maybe someone else will pop in with comments.

 

[jme829]

We did our 2nd hunt this past weekend. We're still just doing th MN state parks for now until we get a good handle on what we are doing. But I think that geocaching equipment will be on our Christmas lists this year!

The MN parks let you borrow their units for free. I think they are called Etrex or close to it. They are yellow and seem pretty easy to use so we'll probably go with that model once we are ready to buy since that is what we are used to using.

One thing that is funny is for both hunts, they told us the GPS range was within 15-20 ft of the cache, but we have found (at least so far) that it takes us pretty much directly to the spot. We still had to hunt at this last one as they really did some clever hiding. But, the GPS put us basically right on top of the cache.

We can't wait to do our next hunt!

 

[Pin Wizard]

JME...that's great that the parks let you use their GPSers free. Wooo hoooo!!! I used a little yellow Etrex for a long time until it died on me. We were caching in a town 65 miles away, so I was glad I had a back up in the car. LOL! I was a bit worried where I might be able to run and buy one in that area just then. Since then, they've built a Bass Pro Shop in the area.

Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[chyam]

I always wondered about this stuff....and although I really don't have the time to persue it I will say that I found my first stash in Wisconsin on my vacation.....I didn't have anything to leave but I did sign the paper stating as such....it seems like it would be alot of fun....I know it was exciting finding something I wasn't expecting!

 

[MiJo]

Hi Everyone,
I figured it was about time I stopped by again as I hate to get too far behind on this thread! What could be better than Geocaching and WDW!?
Our DGS is doing great so our concerns about his health are now behind us! He's coming up on 2 mo now and growing like a week and doing all the things he should be doing. Now, we're waiting for our 2nd DGD to come along next month.
Team SAR-Dogs is growing by leaps and bounds!
A couple weeks ago, we took our DGD (3 1/2 yo) for a surprise day with Thomas the Tank Engine. She was thrilled.

We have made a slight adjustment to our WDW plans for October: we will be staying at POFQ with a military discount instead of SoG. Thanks to the Military Salute, our DS (Navy) will be getting us 1/2 price Park Hoppers! Speaking of DS, he just spent 2 weeks as a volunteer company commander for a group of 28 Sea Cadets at Ft. Indiantown Gap and he really enjoyed it. He is now considering staying in and trying to become a boot camp CC.

We actually managed to get out and do a little geocaching this month! We just finished up part of another house project so we may be able to find a little more time now. I'm hoping we can get out more during my vacation week in August.

jme829: that 15-20 feet may have to do with the accuracy of the satellites at the time you were caching. Our Magellan shows both distance to the cache and satellite accuracy; I'm not sure what the Etrex shows. At times, we may show an accuracy of 40 or 50 feet depending on foliage, etc. We've noticed there can also be a difference between a Garmin and a Magellan, so keep that in mind when you are caching.

I guess that's about it. I shall return.

 

[BunsenH]

Are there many/any caches on WDW property? (I know that I can search myself, but I'm looking for expert opinions more than spots on a map.) THANKS!

 

[sbell111]

sbell111...That's great that they have an update coming out! Unfortunately, caches are being archived all the time. Things can change quickly when it comes to active caches. We are now in our 5th year of caching. There are 634 caches we previously found that are now archived! Way too many! I hope just as many new ones are coming out!!

I'm in my ninth year as a geocacher.

While it is certainly true that geocaches get archived from time to time, my experience has been that there is more being placed than being archived. Further, the bulk of the really good ones have staying power.

It should also be noted that they carefully chose the caches to be initially loaded to the geomate jr to minimize those caches that would be more likely to be archived soon.

Are there many/any caches on WDW property? (I know that I can search myself, but I'm looking for expert opinions more than spots on a map.) THANKS!

There was a time when geocaches were placed on Disney property. There used to even be physical caches inside the parks. Unfortunately, shortly after 9/11 Disney put an end to it. All physical caches were removed. Only (now grandfathered) virtual caches were allowed to remain. I am proud to own one of these virts in DL.

It was my hope that we could get someone at Disney to place an 'official' Disney geocache, but my attempts at contacting the correct people to make it happen failed. Jeremy did state that if a cache were placed on Disney property with explicit permission, he would allow it to be listed on geocaching.com even though it would likely be in technical violation of the 'commercial' guideline.

 

[BunsenH]

......
There was a time when geocaches were placed on Disney property. There used to even be physical caches inside the parks. Unfortunately, shortly after 9/11 Disney put an end to it. All physical caches were removed. Only (now grandfathered) virtual caches were allowed to remain. I am proud to own one of these virts in DL.

It was my hope that we could get someone at Disney to place an 'official' Disney geocache, but my attempts at contacting the correct people to make it happen failed. Jeremy did state that if a cache were placed on Disney property with explicit permission, he would allow it to be listed on geocaching.com even though it would likely be in technical violation of the 'commercial' guideline.

That was my unresearched assumption. The idea of geocaching inside WDW is intoxicating. It would be great if Disney could create some sort of 'game' for geocachers similar to the 'Kim Possible' activity at Epcot.

 

[OctMtnWoods]

sbell111, now there's a name I thought I recognized from there.

 

[MiJo]

Are there many/any caches on WDW property? (I know that I can search myself, but I'm looking for expert opinions more than spots on a map.) THANKS!

We found a few caches on property during one of our trips several years ago. There was (is?) a virtual in EPCOT; and we found a micro in Norway, but I think that's gone now. An interesting one was placed across the street from DTD in a grassy area outside a personnel building or something. We went over and searched for it but with no luck. When we got home, we found out the cacher before us had been swarmed by security while looking for it and it had to be removed. I'm glad it wasn't us!