-
Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/
Geo Cachers
- Thread starter thcri
- Start date
Not me, but I will admit that I am fascinated by it. I never even knew it existed until I went looking for a GPS unit. It seems like a fun thing to do for the whole family. I will probably give it a try at some point (when the weather is warm)
thcri
Gone But Not Forgotten
Doc said:Hey Murph, how about explaining in detail what the heck you guys are talking about. I have a portable GPS ...but still I'm lost!
This is a question that I would have expected from Junkman. Since I have known him he has pretty much been lost
Doc,
You can find out all the information you want at www.geocaching.com.
But in a nutshell a person will go out and hide a container of some kind. Post the cordinates on the geocaching web page where you can pick up the cordinates and then try and find the container. If you find the container there is trinkets for you to swap out. Take a pen and leave a golf ball for instance. You also place a log in a notebook and log an entry on the web page. Now just because you have the cordinates does not mean you will find the cache real easy. Typically a good GPS is good to 6 ft. A older standard one may only be good to 25 feet. So how accurate is the guy that marked it and how accurrate is yours, you could be off by 25 feet easily. I, when I get to the area typically turn off my GPS and then go by the tips and hints.
There is multi-caches where you have maybe up to 4 different places you have to go to find the last cordinates. Place 1 tells you the cordinates to place 2 and so forth. Sometimes you will find stories that go along and help you determine the cordinates. One cache that I want to go to is in a cemetery. In order to get the cordinates you have to count headstones etc. Another multi-cache I did last summer I ended up in an old Jewish Cemetery in North Dakota. Everybody was buried above ground. This cemetery was out in the middle of nowhere. There is also travel bugs placed in containers that have an ajenda. Travel bugs are small items with a dog chain tied to them. The web page will tell you where the bug wants to go. IE example, travel bug "bear" wants to get to Ireland. So the goal when you pick up that bug is to move it closer and closer to Ireland. Or it may want to go from California to New York and back. You can track these travel bugs and watch their progress.
Another interesting thing is survey markers. They are really tough but there is an interesting story that goes with each one. These typically were place in the late fifties and now are hard to find. GPS and a good metal detector will be needed.
This all got started about 5 years ago by one guy who placed a cache and posted it on the web out in Oregon. Today, there are 233801 active caches in 220 countries. In the last 7 days, there have been 133254 new logs written by 22831 account holders.
You can place caches yourself and register them. It is a great past time. One day two years ago I hiked through a State Park and walked 5 miles just for one cache, but the view was worth it. Now State Parks are being a$$ holes about the whole thing and they are finding the caches and destroying them, then giving the cache owner a fine.
But go to the web page and just mess around a bit. If you create a user name and log in you will find me under "thcri". That's a givin.
Send me your cordinates to your house. I will send you back an aerial view from 1993.
Any more questions just ask.
murph
Every time someone brings up geocaching, I get excited by it, look it up, look up caches near me, etc. But -- until the time that Grandma is no longer with us (Betsy's Mother is now 101-1/2 years old, and lives under our care), we're not going to have much time for that sort of thing. Plus, I need more commitment or better reminders, or something -- when we do get time for an infrequent trip, I forget to check for a cache in the area where we're going.
But -- I love the idea, like a high tech scavenger hunt combined with a sports car rally. Maybe some day.
But -- I love the idea, like a high tech scavenger hunt combined with a sports car rally. Maybe some day.
Bu Yong Xie
New member
Me and the family just started geocaching last month. Had a few warm weekend days in January where we found some. I beleive we have six so far, it is a great family activity to get outside and hike a bit. Also use the old noggin a lot. My kids are 8 and almost 6, we have fun trading items. I have a Garmin Legend C and Santa brought the kids a yellow Etrex original. Also have the Garmin GPS 18 hockey puck receiver hooked up with the laptop. Got that one for the Mapsource City Select bundled with it.
Wannafish
Floppy Member
My oldest son thinks its a great time...go out in the middle of nowhere - get stuck - walk 4 or 5 miles back to where he can finally get a signal on his cell phone - call me and try to guide me to where he is so I can pick him up and then go pull his vehicle out...
I now have a Magellan Meridian. It is vastly superior to my 12 year old Meridian in being able to acquire and maintain signal. The old one struggled to acquire if left on the dash of my car. The new one has NO problems acquiring and maintaining signal. Even works inside my house! I am just amazed with it.
Oh yeah - all he has to do now is give the co-ordinates of where he is and I get to find a Great Cache - my son!
I now have a Magellan Meridian. It is vastly superior to my 12 year old Meridian in being able to acquire and maintain signal. The old one struggled to acquire if left on the dash of my car. The new one has NO problems acquiring and maintaining signal. Even works inside my house! I am just amazed with it.
Oh yeah - all he has to do now is give the co-ordinates of where he is and I get to find a Great Cache - my son!
Bu Yong Xie
New member
I haven't come across anything like that here in Missouri yet.
Beautiful pictures. That's what geocaching is all about right there!
Beautiful pictures. That's what geocaching is all about right there!
P
Pigtails
Guest
It's a great past time... We like it. I bought my husband a new GPS last summer. He gave me his old one.. haha A lot of fun..
Thanks for reviving this thread -- since it first came up, my wife was introduced to Letterboxing, a much older and less technical form of geo caching. First started in England in the 1800's, it's not as wide spread in the U.S. as the newer geo caching, but it looks like it will be a bit easier for semi-invalid old pharts like me. Letterboxing
Hmmm . . . the evil PB just thought that it would be really funny to set up Geocache traps. Set up some web cams and trap some unsuspecting geocachers in a cage!
Ha Ha Ha!!! Sorry, I'll put evil PB back in his cage now.
Ha Ha Ha!!! Sorry, I'll put evil PB back in his cage now.
Hmm. The cage idea may be a bit too much, but the web cam idea is actually interesting! It would be fascinating to capture the reactions of the searchers who reach their goal. It would be neat to put a message in the cache that the finder is on camera; they would start looking wildly around, trying to find it, while the world watches on the web!PBinWA said:
The only problem I can see is that it might be expensive; one of our local developers teamed up with the Audobon Society to put a web cam on an Eagle's nest where the developer had preserved the nest. The setup of web cam, wireless interface, solar power and the rest came to a reported $200,000. Of course, the developer may have been padding that number somewhat, but at any fraction it's still a lot. Unfortunately, several months after getting it set up, Huricane WIlma destroyed it and they haven't set it back up, yet.
{EDIT} After a little more checking, I found that the actual price tag was $150,000, not $200,000, and it included the cost of a wildlife specialist to do tagging of the eagles with tags that can be tracked real-time by satellite. The hurricane actually destroyed the tree in which the nest was built, but the eagle's have already constructed an alternative nest in a nearby tree. The reason the webcam has not been reestablished is because of permit limitations -- they won't be allowed to approach the area until Autumn, 2006, when there is likely to be no young'ns.
They established 2 web cams, one a high-power lens that provided closeups from 250 feet away.
The developer, Ginn & Company, is developing an area known as Tesoro (treasure?) in Port St. Lucie, where I live. The lots are in the $500,000 and up range, and the lowest dwelling prices are around $1.2 Million for a small condo and about $4 Million for a house, so I think they'll be able to afford to set the camera back up when permitted.
It's a private, gated community, so there will be no possibility of a geo caching site anywhere neat the nests, even if that were a good idea.
Last edited:
I know a few people that are into this also. They always seem to have a great time with it. I had heard about the issues in the National Forests. On one hand it is unfortunate that they are cracking down on the treasures. But on the other hand a good outdoor ethic says you should not be leaving anything behind. So that is a tough decision!
Whats a shame is you would think the National Forest could set up stands at senic hiking spots where you might not have a treasure box ,but at least you could sign in a log book with your user name. I have not tried it yet but I think the Idea of just being out there would be as much fun as tring to find the treasure