I started geocaching as a way of learning to use my Garmin etrex (really basic hiking-type GPS). It reminded me of orienteering, without the time pressure, and with a treasure hunt thrown in.
Some day I'll get a better GPS (WAAS-enabled, with contour maps, etc), but it's a fun activity even with a cheap GPS. It's also a good way to break up a long drive.
foxtrapper wrote: 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.
You must have had some bad hides. I have seen about a dozen bad hides from the ones I have done (27 at this time)
A few make it really worth it.
The best is a guy drilled a bolt out and attached it to a road sign. Very clever.
Geo caching in the snow is awesome, just trying to stay warm is the hard part.
One of my favorite hides: I did a multiple, one of the stops I took a plastic salt shaker, and covered it with camouflage duct tape, and hung it from a tree(above the average sightline) with a camo'd bungie cord. Most people get trained to look at the ground, so I made sure it was attached to a tree with a lot of exposed roots and crevices. I know it drove some folk nutty.
I also did a multiple that I set up as a choose your own adventure.
I have done it with friends. They use it as way to get their kids out into woods for long hikes. 
Maybe we should do an auto-rally geocache.
1 Find starting point 2 Go to local drag strip and find cache 3 Go to local autocross and find cache 4 Go to local junk yard and find cache 5 Go to local stealership and punch sales manager and service/parts manager. 6 Go to local hang out and laugh about 5
I like the concept!
FlightService wrote: Maybe we should do an auto-rally geocache. 1 Find starting point 2 Go to local drag strip and find cache 3 Go to local autocross and find cache 4 Go to local junk yard and find cache 5 Go to local stealership and punch sales manager and service/parts manager. 6 Go to local hang out and laugh about 5 I like the concept!
brilliant! 
We don't do it, but my wife was telling me about reverse-geocaching that she read about. Somebody built a box that is electronically locked, and has a GPS unit in the electronics. It will only open when taken to the correct location in the world, and is limited to 50 tries. If you're in the wrong spot, it tells you which direction is the right spot, but not the distance. The maker gave it to friends of his as a wedding present. I think he did tell them that the correct location is on a small island that their families used to visit.
slantvaliant wrote: Some day I'll get a better GPS (WAAS-enabled, with contour maps, etc), but it's a fun activity even with a cheap GPS. It's also a good way to break up a long drive.
You really don't need it. I use an old Garmin 60-series with a cracked screen I picked up years ago at an REI used gear sale. It has no mapping software whatsoever. Learn to use it with the raw UTM data, a topo map and a UTM square. It will take you maybe ten minutes. The military uses GPS this way.
WAAS is nice to have, especially for more accurate GPS altitude.
Last year, I geocached my wife's Valentine's Day present. I gave her the Pasadena USGS topo and the cache UTM coordinates. She plotted the location and navigated us back to the site. It was hilarious. We were laughing so hard our faces hurt. She really like the blouse and earrings too.
Geocaching is fun to do with another couple. If they're hardcore, pick up a couple caches on a hike. If they don't hike, find an urban cache or two.
This sounds interesting. I'm going to mention this to my wife and see what she thinks about it.
Waas really isn't necessary. location coordinates are only as good as the person who posted the coordinates. Once you are within 50 feet, you should be prepared to start looking for the container.
It is a ton of fun, especially if you like the outdoors. It really gets you to new an different locations, you might have never had an occasion to visit.
Jerry From LA wrote: Learn to use it with the raw UTM data, a topo map and a UTM square. It will take you maybe ten minutes. The military uses GPS this way.
Agreed. I'm a former Boy Scout, I was on the ROTC orienteering team in college, and I'm a retired Army Officer. I understand UTM, MGRS, latitude and longitude, etc, and I'm a fair navigator and/or forward observer for someone who never had those job descriptions. I learned with map and compass, paper and pencil and the old GI grid overlay, even played with an E6B on the side for the math, but I love what a GPS can do.
If it were purely for geocaching, the etrex is OK. I've tried geocaches that were well enough hidden that the accuracy of the etrex left a lot to be desired. WAAS and maps make it much more useful for that and other things.
It took a little practice to learn how to use the buttons on that particular unit, how to navigate its menus, etc. True of any unit. The best practice I've found is geocaching.
OTOH, my etrex was a gift, and I've enjoyed it immensely. I've found all but one of the caches I've tried for.
Interesting. We use an etrex, don't use waas and it's not had any accuracy issues that we ever encountered. It does not like sitting still, is about the only thing I can think of being problematic...but I think that isn't just a etrex thing.
Besides, if the gps plops you down right on top of the cache, what is the fun of that? The adventure is finding it.
Again, if you're only using it for daytime geocaching, it might not matter much.
sachilles wrote: Interesting. We use an etrex, don't use waas and it's not had any accuracy issues that we ever encountered. It does not like sitting still, is about the only thing I can think of being problematic...but I think that isn't just a etrex thing.
In some areas and conditions, WAAS makes a much bigger difference than other areas. WAAS exists to provide better angularity in a variety of conditions.
Besides, if the gps plops you down right on top of the cache, what is the fun of that? The adventure is finding it.
The best a GPS can do is plus or minus ten feet. So even in the best of conditions, you still have to search a circle with a radius of ten feet. The secret is to think like someone trying to hide something. If there's one bush in a 20-foot circle, it's pretty obvious. In dense growth you have to think a little harder.
Oh yeah, you will still have a hunt on your hands even if there's only one obvious place it can be - like the hollowed out bolt mentioned earlier. People get creative with the caches.
EastCoastMojo wrote: Oh yeah, you will still have a hunt on your hands even if there's only one obvious place it can be - like the hollowed out bolt mentioned earlier. People get creative with the caches.
Yeah, it's a little different in "The Wild." In-town caches are often hidden in plain sight. They have to be in order to keep ordinary civilians from happening upon them.
In my town the "up skirt" is very popular
You go to a light pole and lift the trim ring at the bottom. That is where they usually hide alot of them.
Disappointing it was a light pole.
Jerry, you read my post out of context. I'm an experienced geocacher who has been part of the hobby since the early days. My response was to those that expect the gps to plop them down right on top of the cache, and when it doesn't they get all grumpy. The fun is the search.
I don't get grumpy about geocaches unless they're significantly off, or have been raided, but there are times I'd like to mark a spot very precisely. I sometimes use GPS to identify problem locations for customers.
Remember, you have to add the inaccuracy of your GPS to that of the cache owner. E.G. +/- 14' on my etrex (about as low as it goes while I'm 'caching) added to +/- 14' on someone elses expands the search radius significantly.
I've seen some really fun caches. One was, theoretically, just a GI ammo can in the open. Right. It blended in quite well with the clumps of what passes for vegetation in far West Texas. Simple, clever and fun. Oh, and you couldn't drive right to the field - it took some work to get on the right dirt path in what first appeared to be open, flat terrain.
I've also seen some near cliffs and other tricky terrain. Precision is a good thing there. It also helps one avoid attention from the muggles.
Oh, and I saw one cache I didn't care for. It was in a fake J-box on a light pole. I really don't care for encouraging folks to open up what appear to be electrical devices.
Maybe I am grumpy ... 
I have been thinking about trying it for a while.... I like the idea of it.
I recently upgraded to the HTC EVO 4G (android smart phone) I think its probably an ideal platform for geocaching since you ought to be able to access the look up the cache information and it has a built in GPS for the navigation part of it.
Are there any good geocaching apps out there?
I have had good luck with BlackStar for my blackberry 9000, there are alot that work with the premium geocaching.com subscription ($30 per year) I don't know what is different between them though.
sachilles wrote: Jerry, you read my post out of context. I'm an experienced geocacher who has been part of the hobby since the early days. My response was to those that expect the gps to plop them down right on top of the cache, and when it doesn't they get all grumpy. The fun is the search.
Yeah I took you literally. We don't get grumpy or complain about not finding caches. We're outside, having a good time and sharing laughs with friends. So what if you don't find the thing? It's not like a cache is full of rubies.
In reply to Capt Slow:
Columbus is what we use on the (Android) HTC Hero. It is free and it works really well. You can download it through the marketplace.
Bumping like a bad canoe, But just tried this with my kids tonight. Surprisingly a lot of fun for them. We found 1 of 3 caches in nearby parks to our home. Oldest (8) had a blast chasing the coordinates with the phone.
Has anyone else been trying this? Any hints when description says cache is not a coordinates, but at nearby park? in this case there's 2 parks relatively close, one across a very busy main 4 lane divided highway
I bought the Groundspeak app for my phone and use it to geocache with. It isn't the most accurate, but it's great on a long trip or when I'm out of town.
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