Posted: 3/3/2010 3:59:57 PM EDT
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Is Geocaching any fun? Any of you into it? How long have you been into it?
*Edited for spelling |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Is Geohashing any fun? Any of you into it? How long have you been into it? Geocaching? I've never done it but it sounds like a good way to get to know your GPS unit. Geohashing sounds like a pub crawl for stoners. http://wiki.xkcd.com/wgh/images/thumb/Coordinates.png/400px-Coordinates.png Interesting. I guess you really do learn something new every day, whether you like it or not. |
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I enjoy it.
It gets me out and exploring both the urban and wilderness areas. It does NOT use proper coordinates that one would use for land nav. please keep this very much in mind if practicing with your GPS. Most caches don't have any real value in them, it is much more the thrill of the hunt. 
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Is Geohashing any fun? Any of you into it? How long have you been into it? I don't know about Geohashing, but regular hashing was fun. Jane |
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I was into it in the 90's.
A buddy and me were two of the very early members on the geocaching website. We did a bunch of caches together, and also had our own individual ones. After 9/11 it wasn't a great idea to be wondering around in the woods, conspicuously looking for hidden ammo cans under rocks, so I took a break. I never got back into it. It was lots of fun, but for me, once I proved I could do it I moved on to other things. Great way to enjoy a hike, practice orienteering (especially without the GPS using a topo map and a compass) and get some exercise which having fun. |
i wanted it
| I work for a canoe and kayak livery in the summer and we have a ton of folks that do it rent or kayaks to find the caches on the river. I have never done it, but they really enjoy it. My favorite one is a plastic lizard on a tree about 100 yards up river from the shop. |
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I did it for a year or so. I think I had a little over 100 finds. It is a great way to learn to use your GPS and it provides a good excuse to get out and see some things you wouldn't otherwise see. It also gives you a bit of exercise. The things that turned me off from it were the chiggers and ticks in the summer and too many lame caches. Too many of the caches I found were barely hidden and most were full of broken McToys and other stupid shit. When I created caches, I tried to make them really clever with tough hides. I loved it when people posted that they were stumped! I also tried to stock them with cool stuff.
It's certainly a worthwhile endeavor, though. I say give it a shot. |
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I've always wondered, what do you find typically? My girlfriend wanted to do this with me. Usually it's a hidden ammo box or tupperware box, with a log you can sign. Sometimes a camera so you can take a pic of yourself that the box maintainer later prints and puts online. Kids like it because some people leave little novelty toys in it, plastic dinasours, etc... for kids to take. For adults, it's just kind of neat to be in the middle of nowhere ,and find a hidden box in a rotten stump or small cave, etc... |
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I did it for a year or so. I think I had a little over 100 finds. It is a great way to learn to use your GPS and it provides a good excuse to get out and see some things you wouldn't otherwise see. It also gives you a bit of exercise. The things that turned me off from it were the chiggers and ticks in the summer and too many lame caches. Too many of the caches I found were barely hidden and most were full of broken McToys and other stupid shit. When I created caches, I tried to make them really clever with tough hides. I loved it when people posted that they were stumped! I also tried to stock them with cool stuff. It's certainly a worthwhile endeavor, though. I say give it a shot. I did one here, I called it "Tour Missoula". It started out of town a bit went across town to the second step, across town again to the second step, back across town to the third step, once more across town to the forth step and then back across town to the final step. Which was located 150 feet west of the staring point  I got a lot of positive feedback from that one
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I've always wondered, what do you find typically?. Mostly junk. You see a lot of cheap plastic figurines, Happy Meal toys, $1 store crap and a lot of give-away swag. When I was geocaching I put cool stuff in my caches and brought along good stuff to trade. Things I considered good trading stock included foreign coins, lapel pins from area attractions, polished rocks, CD case rippers, cheap balsa wood airplanes (unassembled still in the package), geocaching pin back buttons and even lottery tickets. I figured any good cache was worth a trade item that cost a buck or two. When friends traveled overseas I'd give them $20 and tell them to bring me back Euro dollar coins and I'd scatter those around. Sometimes if I found a really cool cache, I'd drop off an official geocoin travelbug. Maybe I took it too seriously, but it used to piss me off to see all the broken McToys. It wasn't so much that people weren't willing to spend any money, it's that they didn't put more thought or creativity into it. |
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Quoted:
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I've always wondered, what do you find typically?. Mostly junk. You see a lot of cheap plastic figurines, Happy Meal toys, $1 store crap and a lot of give-away swag. When I was geocaching I put cool stuff in my caches and brought along good stuff to trade. Things I considered good trading stock included foreign coins, lapel pins from area attractions, polished rocks, CD case rippers, cheap balsa wood airplanes (unassembled still in the package), geocaching pin back buttons and even lottery tickets. I figured any good cache was worth a trade item that cost a buck or two. When friends traveled overseas I'd give them $20 and tell them to bring me back Euro dollar coins and I'd scatter those around. Sometimes if I found a really cool cache, I'd drop off an official geocoin travelbug. Maybe I took it too seriously, but it used to piss me off to see all the broken McToys. It wasn't so much that people weren't willing to spend any money, it's that they didn't put more thought or creativity into it. For me it is about the find, I like cool stuff, but I'm not disappointed if there isn't cool stuff
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I checked my geocaching profile. I had 178 finds and placed 15 caches. All but two of the caches have been archived. I've still got a few travelbugs out there. I did this one bug that I started here in the state capital with one keychain. I asked people to add keychains or trinkets from other state capitals as it traveled.
This thing has traveled more than 30,000 miles so far: Show-Me the Capitals travel bug Here's the last picture of it posted on the geocaching site: 
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Quoted:
I enjoy it. It gets me out and exploring both the urban and wilderness areas. It does NOT use proper coordinates that one would use for land nav. please keep this very much in mind if practicing with your GPS. Most caches don't have any real value in them, it is much more the thrill of the hunt. ??? Visit geocaching.com. It is set up for the beginner. |
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For me it is about the find, I like cool stuff, but I'm not disappointed if there isn't cool stuff I can appreciate that, but I liked creative caches. For me, the cache contents were part of that when doing traditional caches. Honestly, I had some of the most fun with caches that didn't have any trade stuff at all. I did a couple of micro caches that didn't have anything in them but a tiny log book. The three best ones were stumpers . . . 1.) I fitted a waterproof match container into a lead pipe cap and placed it on top of a pipe stump in a historical structure. It was in plain sight but fooled people all the time. 2.) Another one had a film can mounted inside a chain link fence post topper. Again, drove people crazy because it just looked like part of the fence. 3.) I did one multi-stage cache where one of the steps took you to the front of a storefront. The coordinates for the next stage were casually placed within the display INSIDE the store window. People looked all around outside on the sidewalk but few people looked in the window. And yet the coordinates were there in plain sight. |
| My li bro and his wife are big into it. Great time waster imo. we found one behind my father's house in a hidden trail..never ever new anything was back there. They took the cache coin and filled out the enclosed note book and I sacrificed my lucky .40 shell I carry in my wallet. To donate to the next cacher. |
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I did it for a year or so. I think I had a little over 100 finds. It is a great way to learn to use your GPS and it provides a good excuse to get out and see some things you wouldn't otherwise see. It also gives you a bit of exercise. The things that turned me off from it were the chiggers and ticks in the summer and too many lame caches. Too many of the caches I found were barely hidden and most were full of broken McToys and other stupid shit. When I created caches, I tried to make them really clever with tough hides. I loved it when people posted that they were stumped! I also tried to stock them with cool stuff. It's certainly a worthwhile endeavor, though. I say give it a shot. I did one here, I called it "Tour Missoula". It started out of town a bit went across town to the second step, across town again to the second step, back across town to the third step, once more across town to the forth step and then back across town to the final step. Which was located 150 feet west of the staring point I got a lot of positive feedback from that oneSo, sometimes you have to follow steps like a scavenger hunt, or what? I thought they just give you the coordinates and you go find it? Quoted:
I checked my geocaching profile. I had 178 finds and placed 15 caches. All but two of the caches have been archived. I've still got a few travelbugs out there. I did this one bug that I started here in the state capital with one keychain. I asked people to add keychains or trinkets from other state capitals as it traveled. Here's the last picture of it posted on the geocaching site: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d196/Bladeswitcher/13159857-f6c5-45da-bf5b-edc9b96e584.jpg What do you mean, they were "archived?" |
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Quoted:
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I enjoy it. It gets me out and exploring both the urban and wilderness areas. It does NOT use proper coordinates that one would use for land nav. please keep this very much in mind if practicing with your GPS. Most caches don't have any real value in them, it is much more the thrill of the hunt. ??? Visit geocaching.com. It is set up for the beginner. Sorry - Most geocaching sites and hides are set to TRUE NORTH, not magnetic. They use different datums than USGS Quad maps and the lat/long settings are usually set up differently. Most decent GPS units will have "modes" that you can pick for caching or proper nav use. Just make sure you are using the right one for the job. 
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So, sometimes you have to follow steps like a scavenger hunt, or what? I thought they just give you the coordinates and you go find it? What do you mean, they were "archived?" There are different kinds of caches. The most basic ones involve some sort of waterproof container loaded with a logbook and trade stuff. The site provides the coordinates and you go find it. THere are also multi-stage caches where only the coordinates to the first stage are provided. You use the clues there to lead you to the next stage. Some of them can get pretty involved. There may be some new wrinkles that I'm not familiar with since I haven't done it for a while. Archived means that something happened to them (they went missing, for example) or I didn't want to maintain them any more so I took them down. The entry stays on the site so people can read the old logs but its no longer an active cache. Gee, all this talk about geocaching makes me want to get back out there. The weather is supposed to be decent this weekend, I may fire up the GPS. |
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I did it for a year or so. I think I had a little over 100 finds. It is a great way to learn to use your GPS and it provides a good excuse to get out and see some things you wouldn't otherwise see. It also gives you a bit of exercise. The things that turned me off from it were the chiggers and ticks in the summer and too many lame caches. Too many of the caches I found were barely hidden and most were full of broken McToys and other stupid shit. When I created caches, I tried to make them really clever with tough hides. I loved it when people posted that they were stumped! I also tried to stock them with cool stuff. It's certainly a worthwhile endeavor, though. I say give it a shot. I did one here, I called it "Tour Missoula". It started out of town a bit went across town to the second step, across town again to the second step, back across town to the third step, once more across town to the forth step and then back across town to the final step. Which was located 150 feet west of the staring point I got a lot of positive feedback from that oneSo, sometimes you have to follow steps like a scavenger hunt, or what? I thought they just give you the coordinates and you go find it? It depends on the cache. The most basic setup is to have the coords on the website. But then you can get creative, and the cache will have coords for another cache not listed online, or will have more scavenger-hunt type instructions (take X steps in Y direction, look for the black rock, find the film canister under it for the next clue). Or you can get really creative and have more MIT Scavenger Hunt style clues which require an army of nerds to solve
I haven't gone in a while, but I've got nothing going on this weekend.. maybe I'll see what's in the area. |
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I've always wondered, what do you find typically?. Mostly junk. You see a lot of cheap plastic figurines, Happy Meal toys, $1 store crap and a lot of give-away swag. When I was geocaching I put cool stuff in my caches and brought along good stuff to trade. Things I considered good trading stock included foreign coins, lapel pins from area attractions, polished rocks, CD case rippers, cheap balsa wood airplanes (unassembled still in the package), geocaching pin back buttons and even lottery tickets. I figured any good cache was worth a trade item that cost a buck or two. When friends traveled overseas I'd give them $20 and tell them to bring me back Euro dollar coins and I'd scatter those around. Sometimes if I found a really cool cache, I'd drop off an official geocoin travelbug. Maybe I took it too seriously, but it used to piss me off to see all the broken McToys. It wasn't so much that people weren't willing to spend any money, it's that they didn't put more thought or creativity into it. Yikes! CD case rippers? polished rocks? One mans treasure...Just sayin' 
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| we have had dumbasses walking thru the woods, and parking behind my house randomly for a while.. just recently i saw a guy pull something from under a dead tree......... i went to investigate, and found a ammo can, ... it had geo coordinates in it and a log book........ |
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I checked my geocaching profile. I had 178 finds and placed 15 caches. All but two of the caches have been archived. I've still got a few travelbugs out there. I did this one bug that I started here in the state capital with one keychain. I asked people to add keychains or trinkets from other state capitals as it traveled. This thing has traveled more than 30,000 miles so far: Show-Me the Capitals travel bug Here's the last picture of it posted on the geocaching site: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d196/Bladeswitcher/13159857-f6c5-45da-bf5b-edc9b96e584.jpg I think I might know the person who added the Snoqualmie Falls keychain I got into it for a while, then kinda fell out of it. For me it was more about the destination than the cache itself. a lot of the hides out here lead you to some pretty senic places. I've been to old mining town ruins lost in the reprod forrests, seen things in the woods that make you wonder how it got there, and even found a hidden gnome village that someone set up.
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| If you have a pair of hiking boots and a GPS you're already equipped. The problem is sometimes the cache that you're looking for is really tiny. Since you're GPS can be off by a couple of feet, trying to find something the size of a can of shoe polish can still be hard even if you're standing right on top of your coordinates. But its cheap and easy to get into, so give it a shot. If you don't like it, you can quit. It's as simple as that. |
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I've always wondered, what do you find typically?. Mostly junk. You see a lot of cheap plastic figurines, Happy Meal toys, $1 store crap and a lot of give-away swag. When I was geocaching I put cool stuff in my caches and brought along good stuff to trade. Things I considered good trading stock included foreign coins, lapel pins from area attractions, polished rocks, CD case rippers, cheap balsa wood airplanes (unassembled still in the package), geocaching pin back buttons and even lottery tickets. I figured any good cache was worth a trade item that cost a buck or two. When friends traveled overseas I'd give them $20 and tell them to bring me back Euro dollar coins and I'd scatter those around. Sometimes if I found a really cool cache, I'd drop off an official geocoin travelbug. Maybe I took it too seriously, but it used to piss me off to see all the broken McToys. It wasn't so much that people weren't willing to spend any money, it's that they didn't put more thought or creativity into it. Yikes! CD case rippers? polished rocks? One mans treasure...Just sayin'
Hey, it beats broken yo-yos and twisted plastic slinkies . . . I used to put lottery scratch-offs in them occasionally. I kept hoping that somebody would post that they won $10,000 but it never happened. |