It's been a few years since I've been geocaching and my dog needed a day of good exercise so I spent the day yesterday at my local State Park hiking and doing a little treasure hunting.
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Here are a few very basic things to consider:
1) Carry a backpack or fanny pack with some important safety items.
- a basic survival pack ($20)
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- flashlight
- map and compass
- ? mobile phone and camera
- GPS
- extra batteries
- water, candy bar
- ? walking stick
2) Don't leave your stuff in the car thinking you will be right back. :banghead:
3) Wear the proper clothes (layer) and footwear for the environment and weather.
4) Check the time it gets dark.
5) Use your GPS a little at home before so you are comfort with the screens and functionality. Maybe enter the GPS locations prior to your trip.
6) Pick up an area map showing the trails, that's where many geocache can be found. Pushing thru the pricker bushes isn't an enjoyable day.
Great Post!
I learned a few things recently Geocaching as well.
-If you don't upload the cache coordinates from the computer directly into your GPS, always double check the numbers. Otherwise you could end up somewhere interesting and unexpected... or in the middle of a lake. :dans2:
-If the maps are free, it can't hurt to carry a second one. This way if someone loses the first one you have a backup.
-If you use a hiking stick, it can be used for more than just hiking, like poking into holes to move leaves or get a cache from a difficult location.
-If it's hunting season (or even if it's not) wear bright colors, and remind your hiking buddies to wear bright colors too. Don't forget about the pooch! It's better to be safe than sorry.
-Even if you bleed on the first cache, and don't find the first two caches, with the right attitude you can still have an awesome time. :thumbsup:
Geocaching.com has an app for the iPhone, so if you don't have a portable GPS, you can get in on the act too. I don't recall whether it's a free app or paid, and I'd bet that there's an app for Android as well. The app interfaces directly with the web site, so you don't need to do any transcription of coordinates.
It can drain your battery pretty fast since your GPS will be on heavy use, so a portable battery pack for your phone would be a good idea.
Our boys love the larger, goodie-laden caches, so we have a special backpack with all of the goodies we put back in the caches when we take stuff out.
And you'd sometimes be surprised where the caches are, how close they may be to you, and some of the history behind some of the locations. We have about 10 of them within walking distance (couple miles) from our house, most just for regular cache-hunting fun. One of the closest ones to us has some history. It is a photo-op virtual cache where the spy Robert Hansen had one of his dead drops.
Aside: If you saw the movie Breach, you got to see a small part of my town because they did some of the filming at that site, too. I think it may be where they apprehended him, but I don't recall exactly.
Joe.....what do you mean the app doesn't work at FC? Can you only use your smartphone to geocache if you have cell phone reception? I thought you still had GPS function and could use it provided you downloaded the maps prior to going.
Matt O 2006 Skyline Nomad 27' travel trailer. Previously owned 1986 Coleman Columbia / 1992 Coleman Senecca / 1989 Born Free Class C RV.
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