geocaching

Geowoodstock

Sun, 20 May 2012 15:51:00 GMT

Anybody going?

My FIRST!

Sat, 19 May 2012 23:49:46 GMT

So proud of myself, found my first geocache (green bison tube)! Found two others today as well and ready to go hunting again tomorrow :)

Anyone near-ish to Collingswood/Cherry Hill area of NJ? Would love to meet up with fellow chachers and see what we can find :)

Is that a bomb? No, it's a geocache!

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:34:11 GMT

I just heard on the radio that someone found a "suspicious object" in a tree near a local recreation centre. They called the police. The police took pictures of it and sent the pictures to the bomb squad. The bomb squad said, "Well, it doesn't LOOK like a bomb, but better safe than sorry," and advised the police to call the military. (We don't have a bomb squad on our Island, so the military takes care of most explosive things.) The military came out, took a look and said, "That's not a bomb. That's a geocache."

I'm wondering what that geocache looked like to make someone mistake it for a bomb.

ETA: Link http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Treasure+hunt+package+sparks+bomb+alert+Colwood/6612573/story.html

Battery container advice

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:40:52 GMT

I always carry AA batteries around with me for my GPS, my digital camera and my iPod charger. The problem is, I don't know what to store them in. I tend to toss the used ones in the bottom of my purse or backpack till I can either recharge them or dispose of them, but the problem is that when I buy new ones, as soon as I open the package the batteries fall out, and then I don't know which ones are new and which ones are used. Does anyone have advice on a good container for storing batteries?

Second question: have you ever found something unusual (non-cache-related) while out caching? I've discovered a few small, hidden parks that I didn't know existed before, and once I discovered a different type of cache -- a cache of stolen items. There was a pile of iPods, digital cameras, CDs, DVDs, and a few television remote controls(?) all stuffed in a spot in the bushes. I went to try to hunt down a security guard from the nearby museum, but they wouldn't leave the museum and the stuff was gone when I went back.

Solar storm could disrupt GPS signals

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:12:39 GMT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/biggest-solar-storm-since-2005-underway-will-peak-tuesday/2012/01/23/gIQAivH6KQ_story.html

This article says that a solar storm could disrupt satellite signals for the next coupls of days, including GPS, and some high-frequency radio communications. So be aware of this if you're out caching!

Let's get creative!

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:25:42 GMT

I just ordered all of this stuff on Amazon -- I only got this many to get the free shipping, so a lot of them were pretty much free.

Any creative ideas of what to do with this many bison tubes? I don't think I'll ever in my life get around to putting down this many caches.

Also, each of these has the smaller little plastic tubes inside.

New Geocaching Vlog!

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:02:02 GMT

Hi folks. I just posted the first episode of my new geocaching vlog, The Cache Diaries, yesterday. I'd love if some folks visited the video and let me know what they think. I'm hoping to commit to keeping this project going through 2012, but I need some people to actually watch the videos or I'll probably get discouraged. I hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzqnIZoweio&feature=plcp&context=C36c9a65UDOEgsToPDskKBajMM5eCiTPnn9Jq0oijA

Indoor caches?

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:04:56 GMT

I have discovered that in my town there are at least a couple of caches that are, or at least appear to be, indoors. One of them actually requires you to go inside a coffee shop and ask the proprietor where it is. He's the one who actually "hid" the cache. It's sitting on a table in the coffee shop. To me, this is less like geocaching and more about promoting a business and getting people to buy coffee. Is this ethical?

Then there's another one that I'm not sure about, but my GPS keeps pointing at the building and telling me that the cache is 20 to 30 feet away, and that distance would take me inside the building. The building belongs to the Canadian Armed Forces and is open to the public only during specific times. Do people actually hide caches inside buildings? This is a VERY large building (about a square block in size) and I thought that GPS units didn't work indoors.

With both of these caches (assuming the second one is indoors and it's not just my GPS getting confused by all the buildings) you can find the cache only during business hours, which doesn't seem right to me. Not everyone can go out caching between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday. I'm on holiday from my job right now, but when I go back I'll be limited to caching on weekends.

Greetings from Alaska!

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:16:21 GMT

Don't suppose there are any other Alaskan cachers here?

Just found this comm, so I thought I'd say hi.
I've been caching on and off since early April. A friend turned me on to it. So far I've found 8 caches- not a lot, I know, but I hunt as my schedule allows, and I've been working without a GPS.
I downloaded the official app today. Think I might go out and try it. I hear it's supposed to work offline, which is good for me because I'm totally reliant on WiFi for internet. No 3G here! ^^;

Anywhoo, I've said my piece, so that's it. If anyone wants to look me up on the website, my username is Runa Roma. Happy caching all!

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:19:18 GMT

I have some rechargeable (nickel-metal hydride), but there life is too short, and my Geocashing partner do not like to have to change out the batteries so often. So I end up using alkaline.
I don't know if my charger is a bad one (Energizer universal charger).
Can old alkaline batteries be recycled? I have a lot of old ones.

Second find and a question

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:17:04 GMT

I purchased a Magellan eXplorist GC, and my partner and set out almost immediately and found our second cache. It was one we'd looked for a couple of years ago with a previous GPS, and we hadn't been able to find it. This time I read all the logs beforehand, and I think this GPS worked better at finding it, also.

My question is: how do you choose which caches to look for? There are many caches within a short distance of my home, and I can't decide if I should look for just easy ones or look for slightly harder ones. (The one we found today was two stars rather than one star.) I am reluctant to look for ones in which the first few comments are "couldn't find it."

Found it!

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:45:58 GMT

After reading all the log entries and all the advice from you guys on this comm, my partner and I returned to Arcadia St. and found the cache. Okay, technically he found it, but with my assistance. I just had eye surgery yesterday, so my vision isn't great, but the item was also quite well camouflaged.

My partner and I are going to take a geocaching class together next week, and I hope to purchase a new GPS to go with it.

What am I doing wrong?

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:45:38 GMT

I am still very new to the idea of geocaching, but so far I think I'm a big failure at it. I've tried to find two different caches, both rated as "easy" and very close to my home. Both times I wound up with nothing, even though (according to the geocaching website) other people have no problem finding them.

Example: since I don't have a GPS at the moment, I downloaded a free intro geocaching app from geocacing.com. It showed me the location of the cache on a street map. It was at the very end of a certain street. At the end of that street was a small paved area on the edge of an embankment. with trees around. The cache description and hint said not to go over the embankment, and that the cache was at chest height. Well, my partner and I searched every tree and bush that was at chest height, and we didn't go over the embankment, and we found nothing. Nada. Zip. Yet when we checked on the geocaching website, it said that someone had indeed found it today before I went looking, so it must be there somewhere! All the comments on the site said "Easy! Supremely easy! Easiest cache I ever found! Supremely easy!" and things like that.

Now, my eyesight isn't exactly 20/20, but my partner has pretty good eyesight, and all the comments made it sound as if the cache was likely to jump up and smack you in the face as soon as you got anywhere near it.

We also tried a different cache with a GPS, also rated easy, and just as with this one today, absolutely no luck no matter how hard and long we searched. In fact, we tried twice, and still no luck, even though there were plenty of comments from other people who found it.

So with or without GPS, it seems my partner and I must be missing something really essential if neither of us can find something that is supposedly so ridiculously easy to find.

Swag

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:19:46 GMT

http://dealnews.com/m/deal.html/445040.html

Finger flashlights for US$0.22 in a quantity of 40!

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

OpenCaching and Chirp

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:06:24 GMT

I got an e-mail from Garmin. They were offering to give away Chirps for adding caches to their geocaching site OpenCaching.com. (For every cache you add, you get entered to win a Chirp.)

The chirps are radio beacons that you can program with cache info. They will show up on some (not mine) Garmin GPS units.

I always like when someone creates a product to promote their products and names it open. From a cacher's point of view, I can't see a benefit of having two caches to list my finds and hides one. (Free is a very good price and extra features are inexpensive.) I assume, the benefit to Garmin is gecocaching.com doesn't have a category to promote their new geotoy.

Anyone see a benefit to having two caching services?

Advice for first GPS?

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:06:59 GMT

I've never geocached before but I have a few friends who do and for awhile now I've been considering it. I think I'm ready so of course the first thing I need to do is purchase a gps. And that's where this post comes in, can anyone offer advice on what a good purchase would be for a gps?

I'd like something that is good for both city and countryside.
Needs to have a good battery life.
Something that can store a number of coordinates.
Price range I'm looking for is something under $200, ideally under $150.
And... whatever else that is good for a geocaching gps that I'm leaving out.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

I have four geocaching Souvenirs

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:25:47 GMT

Ooh, I have four souvenirs now: The 10 Years one, and one each for South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Kinda cool.

Garmin chirp unboxing, programming, detection, reading, etc

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 15:47:16 GMT

With photos, over on my journal:
unboxing
programming

The chirp is designed to transmit a waypoint, with a comment, to any compatible Garmin (for now) device that gets close to it.

Garmin chirp

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 03:15:25 GMT

Garmin announces the chirp on the Garmin blog.
“With chirp, geocachers have a new tool to enhance the joys of creating and finding caches around the globe,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “In listening to and participating in the vibrant geocaching community, Garmin created a one-of-a-kind device that builds on popular innovations such as paperless geocaching and downloading cache details directly to the device.”

Product page.

GPSfix has a hands-on review.

GPSLodge post on the chirp.

GPSTrackLog post.
The Garmin chirp was announced this morning — a wireless geocaching beacon designed for multi-stage caches, although it seems to cry out for other uses as well.

Slightly larger than a quarter and weighing in at 1 ounce, the chirp has a one-year battery life and a range of 32 feet. It can transmit hints or coordinates for the next stage of a cache

Wireless-enabled Garmin Dakota, Oregon and GPSMAP 62/78 series units are listed as compatible. The chirp is password protected and provides the owner with stats showing the number of visitors the chirp has recorded.

Related (?) post by Jeremy Irish.

ATTN: geocachers with a .edu email address

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:32:46 GMT

Amazon is offering a free 1 year subscription to Amazon Prime (Free 2 day shipping, $3.99 overnight shipping): http://amzn.to/bSH8jP

This is being marketed towards college students but all you need is a valid .edu email address, so teachers and alumni can benefit from this too!

Now is a time that I wish I was still in college. Oh well, what can you do?

Be sure to label your containers...or use clear containers!

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:14:39 GMT

Another geocache blown up:

From the GeocachingGear Twitter feed:

Around 5:30 p.m. Monday night the bomb squad was called to the parking lot of Gabe's Tower on Triplett street after a suspicious device was found.

Full story here.

Crossposted to my own journal.

waves Im new

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 03:15:34 GMT

Hi there, Im new here and went on my first cache finding adventure today and have a few questions.

I won a Garmin Nuvie 255 on Ebay a few weeks ago for $18.00 and while messing around the Garmin website I noticed a link to download cache sites, I love to hike (well I did before I broke my hip) and had heard a bit about geocaching so I figured I would download them and check them out.

I ended up going to 4 different sites today and while only two were successful (one was missing and the other was way out of my fitness level)I am totally hooked!

I do have a question or two.

1) How many of you guys park and hike to your sites? The two I went to today that I found were in city settings so I ended up driving and parking about a mile away and then walking the rest..Is that par for the course or do most people hike the whole thing....

2) My area is cache depraved, how would I go about setting one up and letting people know about it? What makes the best container?

3) What do you guys leave behind?

Thank you guys so much for any info and I cant wait to get up early tomorrow morning and head back out :D

Geocaching down.

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:44:13 GMT

Just got: Unable to connect Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.geocaching.com.

Edit: 17:00 seems to be up. A commenter reported it up earlier than this.

Release Notes here.

Site problems?

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:27:49 GMT

Anyone having problems accessing the site this morning?

It's after 11:00 CDT now and I'm not having any problems.

The Last Airbender is hiding caches or stuff in caches.

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:10:31 GMT

You are all familiar with Project A.P.E. caches (if not, click here).

Well, apparently, the Last Airbender is now involved with geocaching.

From the official GC twitter: Find out what movie character is hiding treasure in geocaches... http://bit.ly/atOon3 Hurry. There's one four to find!