Geocaching

Joined
Feb 16, 2008
Messages
46
Location
Pittsburgh
TomTom Model(s)
one xl
I've recently been introduced to the "sport" of Geocaching. Anyone have any advice or experiences you would like to share?
 
Geocaching is the best. However, you can use your TT to get you close to the cache but you will need a handheld unit for the rest of the way, in case you have to bush wack. TT is not easy to use to actually find the cache. You do not want to damage you TT in the field. I have used my TT to get me there which is real nice, and then I use my handheld away from the car, just in case I drop it. Hope this helps.
 
I've recently been introduced to the "sport" of Geocaching. Anyone have any advice or experiences you would like to share?

Geocaching is Fantastic Fun , with little costs , fun with family, friends or alone , good for any age and even the handicaped can play (verify the caches specifications first) im sure you are famaliar with geocaching.com but wrote it for others whom may want try it, site is free but if your a member theres a few extras . Heres the story of my first cache , the kids loved playing pirates and searching for treasures they hid in the house and one day i finally decided to check up on geocaching (even though i owned a offroad gps for years and i fell on icenryes geocaching site and watched his videos (one man show !) and found it great and i got the kids out to do a first cache the kids had so much fun , we did a few more and this was in the snow ! It was probably the first time i spent so much time outdoors with the kids doing something they enjoyed ! it was worth all the money in the world for them, my total cost for the whole day maybe 20 bucks in gas. You can get a cheap gps unit at walmarts or get a sophisticated unit , i use my hp ipaq pocket pc and a bluetooth gps recevier works great , oh yeah your gonna want to have a pair of gloves and watch out for poison ivy (i learned the hard way lol) i could tell a few funny stories but my post is already too long , check out icenryes videos and geocaching.com site for cache info (Have Fun) and Welcome to an addictive sport ;)
 
Geocaching keeps the kids in good health by prying the video games off their hands. It keeps family member together, unlike most other distractions.
 
You didn't say, but have you visited the Geocaching web site,
http://www.geocaching.com/ for information and lots of stuff?

Yes i am a member there , this were you get all the caches info for any region and its free , the videos are on icenryes website and you can view from epsiode 1 to now thats got lots of tips tricks and lots of fun to watch this one man show , if your new watch his shows and join up on geocaching.com , theres adventures for young and old in geocaching , try it and you will love it !
give an update :)
 
Geocaching keeps the kids in good health by prying the video games off their hands. It keeps family member together, unlike most other distractions.

Very true made me spend more time with the family outdoors then ever and also kept the old buzzard (ME) off the computer for awhile LOL
 
And to get back on the real subject of experience or funny i had a few
heres one , i did this cache at 11:30 at night with my 7 year old son at the time , having been drilled in being careful not to tell what we are doing, here we go about to enter a very dark forest near our home , as were about to walk in i do not see a police cruiser approache with its lights off , since i was yapping about being careful , my son saw it before me and in a second heres the cop hand on gun asking what were doing , beleive it or not my seven your old starts calling the cats name at the top of his lungs and saying here kitty kitty , well that burst the cop in two ! i finally told him what we were doing and now hes a geocacher hmself !
 
And to get back on the real subject of experience or funny i had a few
heres one , i did this cache at 11:30 at night with my 7 year old son at the time , having been drilled in being careful not to tell what we are doing, here we go about to enter a very dark forest near our home , as were about to walk in i do not see a police cruiser approache with its lights off , since i was yapping about being careful , my son saw it before me and in a second heres the cop hand on gun asking what were doing , beleive it or not my seven your old starts calling the cats name at the top of his lungs and saying here kitty kitty , well that burst the cop in two ! i finally told him what we were doing and now hes a geocacher hmself !
I bet he had the best story at roll call! :D Good story!
 
I bet he had the best story at roll call! :D Good story!

Oh yes he did :D actually see him from time to time and he got a few other guys to cache with him.
Heres another one that happened in park were theres a bunch of kids and all around , well the cache was hidden underneath a small building about 15x20 feet washrooms or something to get to it you had to crawl under the front steps , so after waiting quite a long time i crawl under and tell my older son to watch , the wife an 2 other kids were on the swings further away, well here i am under in the dark trying not to make noise , finally find the box on top of a beam, trade some treasure and sign the log book in the dark(flashlight was almost dead) i kept on hearing foot steps so i silently wait apx half an hour or so then crawl close t the stairs and call out is it okay to come out NO Answer........ wait another few minutes and crawl out to find my son took off to play on the swings and there right in front of me theres a couple sitting on a picknic table just watching me crawl out in awe.....well i felt really stupid and all dirty , and the only thing that came to mind (don't forget i have a gps in my hand) i walk towards them looking at my gps and do a circle around them and just say damn still cant find that leaking pipe,then made a bee line to the swings told the kids lets go... because those people were laughing there heads off , im pretty damn sure they thought i was a pervert.....gave my son a next time you go...... next is the night cemetary story..........
 
I do use mine for geocaching. I also have a handheld unit to use out of the car. Do not want to damage my TT.
I use it for Geocaching of sorts. I like being able to enter coordinates and navigate to them. I use it at work to locate people calling in GPS enabled cell phones.
 
So, do you use your Tom Tom for Geocaching, or something else?

no i use my hp ipaq pocket pc and a bluetooth Globalsat gps receiver in conjunction. the ipaq stores the maps downloaded automatically from geocaching.com , and i use a program called geoscout , a vey good program since it has all the same info thats on the geocaching.com site even the pictures etc , instead of just coordinates and the tomtom will not have a signal under heavy trees , i tested it for fun, plus the battery will not last long enough so i strongly suggest to any one not to use it for this unless there familiar with the area there going in , its very easy to get lost because of the fact that you watch the gps more then your surroundings so always be careful and carry extra batteries for gps ( i have two batteries one last 12 hours and the second more then 24 on the ipaq and the receiver can last more then 35 always on) for any one starting you can get a cheap gps for around 50 dollars and waterproof
Have Fun and always be careful
 
Thanks everyone. It's really great to hear these stories and suggestions. I can't wait until I can get the time to go on a hunt myself.:D
 
Try one with my xls, there was too much snow, and TT wanted to bring me to the side of the road. As favorite it can show us with a star the place, but getting there you have to press many time the arrow to know your position.
Apparently tripmaster can help there.
 
Addicted

Wow! I stumbled across this thread a couple of days ago and thought that Geocaching sounded like it might be fun. I did not have time to follow the link to the geocaching.com web site at the time, but made a mental note to check it out when I got the chance. :cool:

Well last night (Friday), I got around to it and "oh boy", my obsessive-compulsive nature kicked into overdrive! I signed up for an account, and started working on map overlays for my TT 1XL for areas near me that had cache locations (JPG overlays for the "browse map" and BMP overlays for "offroad" 3rd party). When I do overlays, I generally take the extra time to set up both "browser" and "offroad" because I have already documented the corner locations of the raster images, so just reformatting the JPG to BMP and adding all the text file notes doesn't take that much extra time. Besides, I like the idea of being able to toggle in and out of the 3rd party software and have a "real" TT reference point.;)

I started "hunting" today about 12:30 (after lunch). By 6:00pm, I had 3 "kills" under my belt. I only spent about 2 hours in the field (hunting) because I had some other stuff to get done, but I'm hooked! :eek:

The first 2 were a walk in the park (literally). But the last one took me up a wooded creak that I knew about, but had never explored. It was close enough to roads, or the end of roads, that the TT wanted to "snap" to the roads (about 25 yards away). That made locating the cache with "browse map" alone nearly imposable. However, because the "offroad" software allows you to "unsnap", it can be used to reliably put you within about 2 or 3 meters of the coordinates. :rolleyes: Except for battery life, I don't think a "hand held" dedicated GPS unit could do much better than that!

I already have the next 4 hunts all planned out, and the wife says she will tag along. Yes! Maybe I have finally found a hobby that is family friendly.:D
 
Wow! I stumbled across this thread a couple of days ago and thought that Geocaching sounded like it might be fun. I did not have time to follow the link to the geocaching.com web site at the time, but made a mental note to check it out when I got the chance. :cool:

Well last night (Friday), I got around to it and "oh boy", my obsessive-compulsive nature kicked into overdrive! I signed up for an account, and started working on map overlays for my TT 1XL for areas near me that had cache locations (JPG overlays for the "browse map" and BMP overlays for "offroad" 3rd party). When I do overlays, I generally take the extra time to set up both "browser" and "offroad" because I have already documented the corner locations of the raster images, so just reformatting the JPG to BMP and adding all the text file notes doesn't take that much extra time. Besides, I like the idea of being able to toggle in and out of the 3rd party software and have a "real" TT reference point.;)

I started "hunting" today about 12:30 (after lunch). By 6:00pm, I had 3 "kills" under my belt. I only spent about 2 hours in the field (hunting) because I had some other stuff to get done, but I'm hooked! :eek:

The first 2 were a walk in the park (literally). But the last one took me up a wooded creak that I knew about, but had never explored. It was close enough to roads, or the end of roads, that the TT wanted to "snap" to the roads (about 25 yards away). That made locating the cache with "browse map" alone nearly imposable. However, because the "offroad" software allows you to "unsnap", it can be used to reliably put you within about 2 or 3 meters of the coordinates. :rolleyes: Except for battery life, I don't think a "hand held" dedicated GPS unit could do much better than that!

I already have the next 4 hunts all planned out, and the wife says she will tag along. Yes! Maybe I have finally found a hobby that is family friendly.:D

Well welcome to Geocaching ! And yes its family friendly also clubs in almost every state in us and provinces in canada ! Check out the videos in my link i think its in 32 or 33 but start with #1 lots of tips and funny at times, the guy does a great job ! Just 1 suggestion i have to make make sure you do not go to far in the woods using your tomtom because of the battery capacity , once your really hooked i suggest you get a gps for geocaching even if its the cheapest one because the batteries last from 10 to 12 hours straight and even then we always bring extras in case, let us know how your next caches go and how your wife liked the experience ! Have fun fellow geocacher and always be careful. :)
 

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