GEOCACHING anyone ?

[Y_lifter]

www.geocaching.com


I have had a GPS receiver for a year of so used for hiking, offroad etc
and decided over the holidays to give this geocaching a try.

At above site I searched by my local zip code and found a few nearby.
Went to a couple of wilderness areas that had caches hidden in them
over the holidays and actually it was quite fun..
Half of the fun is when people post online the location and you learn of a new park or preserve or whatever that you didn't even know was near you..

Then its fun following the GPSr on trails etc to the LONG/LAT that they give you. Some are in nature areas with no one around and some are in city parks where you must be carefull not to let people see you get the cache as they may pilfer it..

The GPSr will get you to maybe 10 ft or so at best of the hidden cache and then most are covered very well by brush etc.. Some are easy to guess where it is (base of a tree) and some are really tough to find.

Caches are usually ammo cans or camo painted plastic sealed containers with a few toys/trinkets to trade and a log to sign. Some are micros like a film can with a slip of paper inside that you simply sign.
They you go back online and post up on the owners cache page that you found it and what you took or left as a trade item..

They also have Travel bugs that are toys that have dog tags attached that are registered and serial numbered. You can pick one up at one cache and move it to another one, posting and tracking its movements online.
Some go hundreds of miles and Country to Country even..

My Daughter is excited about joining me on my next outing..

 

[WODIN]

Ever found a Finger? That'd be freaky.

 

[TC2]

What's a good GPS receiver that doesn't cost $50,000??

 

[Y_lifter]

What's a good GPS receiver that doesn't cost $50,000??

Garmin and Magellan both make several that start just over $100 basic and go to around $300 max for a full featured hand held with driving directions..


I have a Magellan Meridian Gold
Amazon.com Price: $224.25

Maps, connects to a PC to download etc..

 

[BrandonXJ]

Yeah, I do this often in the spring.. I've hidden a few myself. it gets a little messy in the winter here, but definitely a good way to get outside and get some fresh air. Just remember to mark where you parked your car on the GPS first, before you get lost!

 

[Y_lifter]

I think the coolest geek thing I've seen for us that like to put down the PS2 game controllers and go outdoors is a 12 mile GMRS handheld Radio with built in GPS receiver..

If you get a pair of them, you can use the radio as normal and the GPS receiver.

But the coolest thing is you can actually send your GPS Long/Lat coordinates via
the radio to the other person that has one, so they know where exactly you are if you get seperated or need to hook back up..

 

[Testosterone boy]

My expensive GPS is no more accurate than my basic one was.

 

[Y_lifter]

Even the low end ones today are as accurate as the $500 ones
as long as they have a quadrifilar antenna and WAAS.

Very few of the mid range cheap($130) entry ones today don't have WAAS ..


The low end receivers without WAAS and a Patch antenna vs: WAAS and a quadrifilar antenna will make a huge difference in accuracy..


Just having WAAS access can give accuracy 95% of the time as good as within 3 meters. Worst accuracy with WAAS according to the feds would be 7-10 Meters.

Not having WAAS drops the accuracy up to 5 times as bad

 

[PoyeBoy]

Geocaching is pretty okay, I urban explore so it goes kinda hand in hand, I know people that have found over 1,000 caches

 

[Y_lifter]

I'm at a screamin total of 3

LOL


What is this Urban Explore ?
Bar Hopping ?