Geocaching

Dp we have anyone here into this sport? Geocaching is a game where people hide items, record the coordinates, log them on Geocaching.com, and then you use your GPS unit to find them. Getting to the coordinates is easy--finding the items can be difficult.

I am wanting to give this a try. I signed up for the free membership at Geocaching.com today. I need to get an SD card for my Garmin so I can enter multiple coordinates from the computer and save them.

That sounds wicked cool.

I have already downloaded a couple of coordinates to the Garmin locally just to see what is hidden. Both are regular sized caches, so that means that they will be hidden in a box about the size of a standard ammo box. It could even be an ammo box!

There are some rules to geocaching, though. If you find a cache with goodies in it, you are allowed to take the stuff. However, you are to replace it with something of equal value for the next guy to find. Some people even place "Travel Bugs" in the box for you to take and hide in the next cache you find. These bugs are registered online, and you log where you found them and where you hid them. This info goes to the original purchaser only so that he/she can track where their Travel Bug is.

Also, be sure to hide your stuff so that Muggles can't see them. Muggles are people who do not play the game. You don't want someone stealing your hidden treasure.

Clear boxes should be used if you are hiding anything around a bridge or place of public interest. This way, if a non-gamer finds it and reports it, the bomb squad won't be called in to detonate your cache.

DO NOT hide things within 150 feet of a railroad track. There have been several people through the 10 year history of geocaching that have been killed while hunting for a find and hit by a moving train. Trains are a no-no!!!

I've got the coordinates for a couple of finds nearby just to see if I'd like this. My inner redneck is thinking that I may like or even love this.

My sister-in-law was really into this for a while (not sure if she still is or not). Her idea of "something of equal value" probably did not equate with what others would probably expect, and IMO she put/replaced some practically worthless stuff in some of those caches.

alldatndensum wrote:

DO NOT hide things within 150 feet of a railroad track. There have been several people through the 10 year history of geocaching that have been killed while hunting for a find and hit by a moving train. Trains are a no-no!!!

How can you not hear/see a train coming???

That's what I thought, but there are stories and news articles out there telling of people getting hit by trains. So, please don't hide things near railroad tracks.

alldatndensum wrote:

That's what I thought, but there are stories and news articles out there telling of people getting hit by trains. So, please don't hide things near railroad tracks.

Now you KNOW that I would have to put it near trains. If/when someone was run over, I would consider it 'thinning the herd' if you will.

I took two sons of some friends of ours with me yesterday and went geocaching for my first time. We had coordinates for 4 local caches, but ran out of time with the cloud cover yesterday. I just got dark SO fast. Of course, we started late in the afternoon.

Anyway, we found our first cache in a small cemetery near Norene, TN. It was named Neflheim. The hint for it was that it was the Norse Underworld. I kinda figured that it would be a cemetery before we ever followed the GPS units to the site.

Our 2nd find was called Spring Creek. The cache was hidden near the Spring Creek Presbyterian Church.

Our third cache we went after stumped us. It was SO cold, snow was covering all the rocks and trees where someone could have hidden their box. After about 30 minutes, we gave up.....for now. Because it was getting dark, we did not try for cache number 4.

What was in the box and what will you replace it with?

The boxes don't usually have anything of value in them. Sometimes they will have cool things, and you need some various items (stock up at Dollar Tree or sale rack at Walmart). If you see something you want, take it and replace it with something you think is cool.

From the first find, I kept a small pin that said "Love". I didn't really want it, but it was something from the first find. I kept nothing from the 2nd find, but I did sign the log inside. I also went to www.geocaching.com and logged my find online.

Following in Alldat's footsteps, my wife and I gave geocaching a try today. We had pretty decent luck, finding 4 cache's. Our finds were 'micros', having nothing more inside than a log to sign and date.

All in all it was a blast....except for that arctic blast that nearly froze us to death!

Looks like you found several micros.

I think that Topshot would love the ones where you'd have to really hike to find. Somehow, I could see Vonnie & Aart doing this together.

LOL, we can try this.
Good idea to get Aart away from cross country skiing and speed skating.

Let me figure out what this really is.

Vonnie, go to www.geocaching.com . They will have all the info for this. Actually, with some of the cross country skiing that Aart does, there could be caches that people have hidden somewhere near where he travels to. Some people just search for these on vacations as they are traveling. I have the coordinates for several in my area that are close to or on the freeway. One group put them all across the state of TN just to see how many you could find.

Right now, I have the coordinates loaded into my GPS (the only expense you have to spend to start) for 16 caches just sitting there begging for someone to find them.

There is a period following the link in that last post. It won't send you through with it there.

I fixed it for you, Nick. It will work now.


I went again today with my buddy Tyler (aka Boomhair). We went after 7, and located 5. Two were regular caches, and three were micros. The two we did not find were either well hidden or muggled (removed by someone who does not geocache).

Had a lot of fun, and am looking forward to doing more of this.

My not getted to go today. My car got brokeded.

When my sister is back to her warm sunny isle next week and mom's moved I'll check it out.
Aart told me we can do geocaching here too.
You only need a GMS thing.

You hang out with Boomhower, Chris?

thatsprettycoolrightthere.

Boomhower? No, Boomhair. That's Tyler's user name on geocaching.com .

TT goes for the joke... but no workey...

Yeah, it did get lost in translation.


I went out again today for a little while looking for two sites in Lebanon, TN. I found one micro fairly fast, but I am learning that I really need a better GPS to do this. An automotive unit is not the best way to do this. You really need to be able to find coordinates based on latitude and longitude. The Garmin nuvi 200 I have gives good driving directions, but kinda sucks when you enter in real coordinates.

The 2nd micro I went after was a DNF (did not find). I think it is on the opposite side of the freeway than what my GPS is telling me.

I have ordered a sweet Garmin unit to help with finding geocaching. It is a Garmin eTrek series. I think I'm really going to like this sport better with the right tools.

My husband figured out on his Black Berry is an option you can use for geo catching.
I hope we can figure this out in the weekend.
Yep, I promise to stay away from the train.

I don't have a Blackberry. I've been trying to do this with an automotive GPS. It works, but it is not very accurate as far as searching by longitude/latitude. I found someone on the discussion forum at Facebook about geocaching that was selling the Garmin eTrex Venture HC unit I was wanting to get. At Amazon, the cheapest place I can find these, the price was $128. This person had bought a new unit and was only asking $65 for this. The new Garmin came with the owners manual, computer cord, installed batteries, and a geocoin that I have registered and will eventually hide in a cache that I find.

So, as soon as this nasty rain moves through, I am getting out hunting again. I have put together a nice, but inexpensive hiking pack to help with this. I have a backpack that has my trekking pole, camera, GPS, small notebook, pen, gloves, multi-tool, small foldable saw & shovel, and my goodies for trading. I am SO ready to get into the woods and see what I can find.

After payday, I am planning on becoming a paid subscriber at www.geocaching.com so that I can see better caches and be able to transfer multiple cache sites to my new Garmin and my old one! Combining the two, I think I'll be a caching beast!