Does anyone here geocache?

I have picked up a new non-ICE hobby, Geocaching.

Does anyone here do it? I have friend that our kids are now in a race to see who can get the most. I noticed some people take this very, VERY, seriously and are rather snobish about it. Others seem to be in it for fun. I guess it is just like motorsports.

Any recommendations, experiences, advice?

P.S. This was to get my wife off of my back about talking about cars all the time.

when my child gets older, I really want to try.

In reply to Ignorant:

Oh great, so this won't be for just my own selfish self interest!!!

I am currently using my work (with their permission) Blackberry 9000 global phone with BlackStar Navigation software.

Seems to work better than my boss's 2003 Magellan SporTrac PRO Marine he let me borrow.

Current cost investment...$0

Both of my younger brothers do it regularly, I've gone along a few times, adds a nice punctuation to an otherwise aimless walk.

My wife and I use to do it all the time. We had a short hiatus when our son was born, but now he toddle on his own, I'm sure we'll get out there and do it some more. My advice. Read logs on cache's before you go out looking for them. It gives you idea if they are going to be impossible or not. Brings you to a lot of places you never knew existed.

I haven't done it in a while, but we had a really good time with it. Need to get out and do it again!

I just use my Garmin - regular old windshield mount car kinda Garmin. Works fine, but I suspect if I got hard core the battery wouldn't be up to a long hike.

I do it. The kids LOVE it! When the world thaws out from this global warming (6 degrees this morning) we'll hit the woods again.

I started with one last summer, I hope to get out more this year.

<- Team Honu. We have cached in five countries. We have a number of "first to finds" and a bunch of travel bugs.

We haven't been active lately though.

Wow, lots of geocachers' on here. I have a trip for work that lands me in Boston, New Hampshire, Japan, and 3 regions of China.

See if I can't get some down during down time, or get put in jail for being an American spy in China LOL!

I have absolutely no clue what you people are talking about!

I gotta go google. BRB.

I haven't geocached in a long time but I love it! I have used two different garmin units, but neither were anything special. It is so cool to ponder where someone may have hidden it and then to find it is a totally different spot is so awesome. I always bring something small to leave, like those penlights from the dollar store or a small toy, because there are so many families doing it, I like to put something kids will like. The closest one to our house was about about 6 miles away in a local park

FlightService wrote: Wow, lots of geocachers' on here. I have a trip for work that lands me in Boston, New Hampshire, Japan, and 3 regions of China. See if I can't get some down during down time, or get put in jail for being an American spy in China LOL!

We'll send an egg roll with a file in it.

Wally wrote:

FlightService wrote: Wow, lots of geocachers' on here. I have a trip for work that lands me in Boston, New Hampshire, Japan, and 3 regions of China. See if I can't get some down during down time, or get put in jail for being an American spy in China LOL!

We'll send an egg roll with a file in it.

I have geocached in China, no big deal, just like anywhere else

My wife and I cache. We've turned my brother in law, my brother and his girlfriend, and some of our friends onto the sport.

We are totally in it for fun. Our primary GPSr devices are our cell phones, my wife's HTX Hero and my Palm Pre. Both of those phones have a lot of free geocaching apps available. We do have a secondary device, a 5 or so year old Garmin ETrex. We also put the TomTom to use a bit to get us in the area.

If you're going to buy a dedicated GPS for it, get either a Garmin or Magellan. Anything else is crap. Get something that does mapping, it makes finding things much much easier.

Keep a cache box. We use a pencil box with our secondary GPS, some pencils, a pad of paper, and a bunch of trade items in it. It's often in the glove compartment of our Daily. If we have time to kill, we pull out our phones and do a quick cache.

Sounds interesting I may have to try this with my daughter this summer.

EastCoastMojo wrote: I haven't geocached in a long time but I love it! I have used two different garmin units, but neither were anything special. It is so cool to ponder where someone may have hidden it and then to find it is a totally different spot is so awesome. I always bring something small to leave, like those penlights from the dollar store or a small toy, because there are so many families doing it, I like to put something kids will like. The closest one to our house was about about 6 miles away in a local park

I'm sorry, but according to the article on wikipedia, geocaching dates back to the year 2000 or so, so there isn't any way you "haven't geocached in a long time", since 2000 was just 10 years ago, and I'm sorry to say, that doesn't qualify as a "long time".

Not as often as I would like, but my younger sons and I try get out at least once a month. Primary unit is a Magellan 300m. I have the Geocaching app loaded on my HTC G2 phone but haven't had a chance to use it much.

never heard of it but now i'm interested

I've done it. Since the GPS is doing the work, I don't find it as interesting as letterboxing. Especially in my area, as some of the letter boxers here are very creative with their story lines.

1988RedT2 wrote:

EastCoastMojo wrote: I haven't geocached in a long time but I love it! I have used two different garmin units, but neither were anything special. It is so cool to ponder where someone may have hidden it and then to find it is a totally different spot is so awesome. I always bring something small to leave, like those penlights from the dollar store or a small toy, because there are so many families doing it, I like to put something kids will like. The closest one to our house was about about 6 miles away in a local park

I'm sorry, but according to the article on wikipedia, geocaching dates back to the year 2000 or so, so there isn't any way you "haven't geocached in a long time", since 2000 was just 10 years ago, and I'm sorry to say, that doesn't qualify as a "long time".

At least I knew what everybody was talking about

A lot of hikers here (Tucson) seem to like it. Me...meh.

(meh is an Arizona Indian term. Canadian snow birds picked it up while over wintering down here)

EastCoastMojo wrote:

1988RedT2 wrote:

EastCoastMojo wrote: I haven't geocached in a long time but I love it! I have used two different garmin units, but neither were anything special. It is so cool to ponder where someone may have hidden it and then to find it is a totally different spot is so awesome. I always bring something small to leave, like those penlights from the dollar store or a small toy, because there are so many families doing it, I like to put something kids will like. The closest one to our house was about about 6 miles away in a local park

I'm sorry, but according to the article on wikipedia, geocaching dates back to the year 2000 or so, so there isn't any way you "haven't geocached in a long time", since 2000 was just 10 years ago, and I'm sorry to say, that doesn't qualify as a "long time".

At least I knew what everybody was talking about

Don't get audacious with me, young whippersnapper!

Just read up on it. Sounds pretty cool. May give it a whirl when it thaws out around here. So will a car GPS do the job or do i need something a little more specific?

PubBurgers wrote: Just read up on it. Sounds pretty cool. May give it a whirl when it thaws out around here. So will a car GPS do the job or do i need something a little more specific?

Where I live there is a lot of stinging nettle, and poison ivy. It is actually better to cache in the winter when all the plants are dead and the vegetation is low/less brush to mess with