Geocaching

[BBoy]

Just throwing it out there...Anyone geocache?

[bigbrian]

Yes, I do. Its been a little while since I last did it, but an interesting hobby for outdoors

[babymikeblue]

i do with my parents

[Yvhuce]

What is it?

[Bettypooh]

Geocaching is where you "cache", or bury, the "Geo", or earth- so to be a successful Geocacher one must bury the entire Earth into itself

OK, enough silliness Geocaching is where someone hides a container with a logbook for others to find. It's usually done with a GPS to mark the spot Sometimes larger containers are buried and you put things in it to trade with the next person who comes along. In short it's the adult version of playing hide-and-seek with a high-tech twist I know a couple people who play but I know more who cache with GPS's without sharing details because they don't want someone else finding what they buried Me, I'm an old-fashioned map-and-compass person No waiting for a satellite lock and dead batteries don't stop me

Bettypooh

[BBoy]

Yeah, its a high-tech form of hide and seek.

I've been wanting to do it for years and got a GPS for Christmas. Found 5 while on holidays and another one the other day at lunchtime from work.

This could be addictive.

[Baby Drew]

Yep, I sure do.

Haven't done so for a few months now but still have an account.

Must get back into it.

[DL88]

What is it?

An attempt to justify littering

[AutieAB]

An attempt to justify littering

Go post that on Groundspeak's forum if you want an argument

Anyway, yep, occasionally. Incidentally, I originally learned about geocaching from a poster here who had his statbar in his signature . I enjoy making and hiding unique or camo'd larger containers and am certainly not a fan of urban LPC micro spew. Big containers in nice places FTW.

Found: 200-odd

Hidden: 5 (All placed under permission agreements with the landowners concerned, FWIW!)

[glycerine]

I just got a used DeLorme PN-40 off of eBay for $130 and plan on starting to geocache Real Soon Now.

Check out GroundSpeak.

[babykatie1]

i do

about 1600 finds

i'm not addicted, really i am not.

[glycerine]

Any good references for a newbie?

[Jackiewope]

I've gone caching a few times, it's awesome! Still waiting for it to get warm (and for me to buy a GPS that isn't my brother's iPhone) so I can do it again with some friends. =]

[Bettypooh]

OK, who's going to be first to 'gift' a Depends coupon?

Bettypooh

[DL88]

Go post that on Groundspeak's forum if you want an argument

No arguement just true, when you are in an area with say Indian pottery you leave it for people to see in the future, you don't take it with you. They left things of value and beauty.

[AutieAB]

Any good references for a newbie?

Well the website blurb is here:

http://www.geocaching.com/about/default.aspx

As for useful advice, start with something listed as being a 'Traditional Cache' (this icon: ), with a low-ish difficulty rating maybe in a local park or by a nice lake - somewhere you might have wanted to go anyway. You might want also to pick caches that are listed as being of size 'Regular' or 'Large'.

There will almost certainly be loads around you to chose from so pick carefully. Like everything else in life, there are outstanding geocaches and utterly crap geocaches. If your first few finds are crap ones, you might be disappointed. If they're good ones, you'll be dangerously addicted before you know it . Look at some of the previous logs and photos to get an idea what to expect ('spoiler' photos often give helpful hints to newbies) and if it's somewhere you want to visit.

Don't expect to find a gold bar or a 10 dollar bill or you'll likely be disappointed . The swapping stuff thing is mainly for the kids so it tends to be McToys and trinkets.

When you're looking for a cache, it's not buried - they never are (although it might be under some dead leaves or whatever). When you've found it and signed the log, replace it in the same spot, hidden in the same way for the next person.

If you enjoyed yourself, say so in your online log. There is *nothing* cache owners like more than getting nice Found It logs.

Oh yeah, and if you go somewhere off the beaten track: Waypoint the car!

[AutieAB]

No arguement just true, when you are in an area with say Indian pottery you leave it for people to see in the future, you don't take it with you. They left things of value and beauty.

Geocachers don't take things either I think you're misunderstanding the take-something leave-something concept - it applies to what's inside the box, not outside

By definition, a (hidden) container placed there with permission from the land owner is not litter. If it's placed without such consent, I wholly agree it's asking for trouble but please realise that the majority of geocachers are actually responsible outdoors people too and we self-regulate our game well . There's quite a bit of a difference between a well-hidden air-tight container with a few toys and a notepad inside and a discarded McDonalds wrapper, don't ya think?

Some large organisations, including plenty of state and federal government agencies welcome geocaches and geocachers on their lands:

http://www.gastateparks.org/geocaching

http://lanier.sam.usace.army.mil/geocaching/index.htm

http://www.gagb.co.uk/gagb/glad/index.php

Heck, even the NPS, who were staunchly anti-geocaching for a long time are starting to come around and allow a few here and there.

[BBoy]

It would be fun to have a couple of caches that were either only known to the DL community or we used certain 'handles' to state we are part of the diapered geocaching community.

[DL88]

Geocachers don't take things either I think you're misunderstanding the take-something leave-something concept - it applies to what's inside the box, not outside

By definition, a (hidden) container placed there with permission from the land owner is not litter. If it's placed without such consent, I wholly agree it's asking for trouble but please realise that the majority of geocachers are actually responsible outdoors people too and we self-regulate our game well . There's quite a bit of a difference between a well-hidden air-tight container with a few toys and a notepad inside and a discarded McDonalds wrapper, don't ya think?

Some large organisations, including plenty of state and federal government agencies welcome geocaches and geocachers on their lands:

http://www.gastateparks.org/geocaching

http://lanier.sam.usace.army.mil/geocaching/index.htm

http://www.gagb.co.uk/gagb/glad/index.php

Heck, even the NPS, who were staunchly anti-geocaching for a long time are starting to come around and allow a few here and there.

I worked in some mountains during the summer at a camp and they had set up geocaching things about 6/8ths of the way through the summer and after they set them up there started to be a big problem with littering. People were basically using them as trashcans lol.

What you explained is completely different from what I experienced.

[Yvhuce]

I just got a used DeLorme PN-40 off of eBay for $130 and plan on starting to geocache Real Soon Now.

Does that come with a Flux Capacitor and Mr Fusion?

No arguement just true, when you are in an area with say Indian pottery you leave it for people to see in the future, you don't take it with you. They left things of value and beauty.

They didn't leave it for people to find. They were either hiding it from the White Man, or left it because they were all forcibly moved or killed off... Genocide and displacement will tend to do that...

[glycerine]

Does that come with a Flux Capacitor and Mr Fusion?

They didn't leave it for people to find. They were either hiding it from the White Man, or left it because they were all forcibly moved or killed off... Genocide and displacement will tend to do that...

1) Yup, with the Flux Capacitor option. This lets me get to a location BEFORE I leave. Slick.

2) No, they weren't hiding it from the White Man. In the 1300's there weren't any White Men in the western hemisphere to hide it from!

[DiaperKyle]

Going out caching tomorrow for the first time since fall, since our weather is great now! Got about ten scoped out that I think I can snag in the morning.

[bbgirlmichelle]

Daddy and I were introduced to geocaching over a year ago, we love it, but didn't do much of it. This summer we've been doing a lot of camping with the friends that introduced us to it and we got back into it and found 18 caches in the last month. We found 2 today and are going to try for 4 tomorrow.

Last fall we picked up a Garmin Dakota 20 after repeated frustration with the iPhone losing it's satellite lock.

*huggles*

Michelle

[Rihanna]

I'm barely into it. A married male female couple and a male friend are heavily into it. Last October, they were all without jobs, although they had new ones lined up to start weeks later.

They decided to do a cross country trip, (from Detroit area,) to find geocache #1 outside of Seattle, WA. They found it & posted pictures. ....

Edit, deleted the rest of message on the advice of another because I had posted too much info on my friends to the point where they could be found and identified on the geocache site. They're "vanilla" and I don't want to see them outed from a diaper site.

Thanks A AB!

[Rihanna]

You might want to edit your post a little - there's enough info in there for anybody familiar with the ins and outs of geocaching.com to ID your friends. It's been found Two people logged a joint FTF a couple of weeks ago.

I stand corrected, my info was a month old. Checked w/the single male and so far, as you said, only two people have found it and they were together doing the team find.

Edited today, Sept 4, to remove certain info & names.