anybody go geocaching?

[wanna-b-ballin']

well its not very well known, but sure is wide spread.

its something that i never hear about, yet i do it on occasion.

i'm curious if anybody here participates. anybody?
www.geocaching.com go ahead and type in your zip code, see how many are in your town. and to think you never knew it existed...

Geocaching is an outdoor activity that involves you getting off your lazy butt and useing a GPS to find caches hidden around the world.
the caches are small containers that someone hides, and records the coordinates with a GPS, and then posts on the internet for other people to find.
they may be 20 miles from civilization on the Napali coast of Kauai, or underwater at your favorite swimming hole. you never know.

how can something you have never heard of be so big? i dunno, but it is!

there are all kinds of geocaches. some are smaller than film canisters, some are .50 ammo cans, and some are just a vista point where you can catch a great view.


enough of explaining.

my favorites are the micro caches. especially the ones that really stump you for an hour or two. i have found one that was hidden inside of a bridge ( a bolt was cut, the cache put in the hole, and the bolt stuck back in the hole. arrrg, that was a toughy) and also one that was camoflauged as a broken tree branch.

have you ever done this activity before?
never done it, but want to?

i think you should be aware of these hidden containers, incase you stumble across one. its mean to steal them, because it leaves geocachers out there searching for nothing, and they took some effort to place.

oh yeah, the containers contain a log book and usually contain goodies for little kids to trade for. you bring some little toys with you, and exchange them for other little toys of approximate equal value.
discuss

[Army]

AGDRob is famous here for his GC adventures. Now that I'm home, I am going to start locally, as the Geo sites show many caches in my area...should be fun!

[Indignant]

One of my neighbors does it alot. I am starting to read up on it, it seems like a really cool way to pass the time.

[wanna-b-ballin']

so people do kinda know about it. alright. i thought i was all alone here.

[Aggressive Rooster]

sounds fun checked and theres a cache near my house might try this out

[Glickman]

there are all kinds of geocaches. some are smaller than film canisters, some are .50 ammo cans, and some are just a vista point where you can catch a great view.


the first rule of geocaching is...

dont talk about geocaching...

[wanna-b-ballin']

if you dont talk about it, how do people learn about it. if people dont learn about it, where do we get the caches to search for?
people learning about what those strange things they find is a good thing. you wouldn't want them to be stolen would you?

[wanna-b-ballin']

the first rule of geocaching is...

dont talk about geocaching...

haha, actually i was just wandering on the geocaching website, and the first rule is to take something from the cache.

[steimway]

Holy cow. There are like twenty caches within 10 miles of my house. Pretty cool. Looks like I've got to get a gps unit.

[mutigerfan04]

my wife's family is big into that. I am just the crazy in-law with a paintball gun.

[Thordic]

I've gone a couple times, I have a crappy Garmin eTrex but it does the job. Its fun, I really should do it more.

[TheTramp]

From the website: "Hopefully, this cache will fare better than our last one, which became infested with snakes."

That'd be a interesting suprise! :eek:

[ArmySyko]

I've gone a couple times, I have a crappy Garmin eTrex but it does the job. Its fun, I really should do it more.

My Vista C is one of the eTrex brands and it's held up really well. I wouldn't trade it for a Magellan or an other model.

I'm planning on starting although there are about 30 caches within 15 miles of the base. Not to mention Benchmarks (BM's) are all over the place too.

[Muzikman]

I have been caching since 2001. I know RobAGD (and most of the old AGD satalite techs) cache and Alley also caches.

It's alot of fun, and for me the destination is more reward than the find a lot of times.

Thor, I have been using my eTrex Summit and for caching it works great. I wouldn't try to navigate my car with it though. Some time soon I'll be picking up a B&W Vista.

[Muzikman]

Not to mention Benchmarks (BM's) are all over the place too.


Benchmarks are a lot of fun. If you get into the BM hunting let me know, I can give you a lot of pointers on how read the data sheets if you have any problems. I can also point you to some great pieces of software for caching and BM hunting.

Also, check out www.waymarking.com It's new and not released to the general public, but it's going to be cool too IMO.

[ArmySyko]

I've been doing the whole mapping thing for the better part of 12 years. The caches are a harder search than most of the BM's. The cool thing about BM's is finding the ones that haven't been logged by the USGS or the State. Those are always the slickest to have on your list or to have pictures of. :cool:

[Muzikman]

You are talking about finding the Bm's that are listed on the topo maps? Or are you talking about ones that have been placed by the NGS/USGS and not been recovered since their monument? If you are out there looking for Benchmarks that are not in any database, it's almost pointless as there are going to be hundresda of thousands I bet, as every organization has placed a benchmark (be it a chisel mark, bolt, drill hole, or disk) at one time or another.

I look at BM hunting from the side of helping recover BM's and have that updated in the database incase someone actually wants to use it.

If you are into Maps and have a GPS, you might be interested in the National Maps Corp.

http://nationalmap.gov/

[RedBeard]

something along the same lines, letterboxing.
http://www.letterboxing.org/
Basically you get clues to where something is and have to find it. more treasure-huntish..

[ArmySyko]

If you are into Maps and have a GPS, you might be interested in the National Maps Corp.

http://nationalmap.gov/

I've used this for a couple of different products in the past (historical geography, mapping dispositions, USGS-NIMA comparisons, etc.) and it's a really great resource. I've looked for the real BM's before but I save that for the larger camping trips that I do away from home. It'll be hard for me to go camping after living away from home for nine months. :tard:

[RazorMonkey]

There are TONS of them around me... Wow... This seems like fun! :clap: I'll probably buy a GPS in a week or two :)

EDIT: There's one in my uncles backyard! HAH! :rofl:

[Indignant]

the first rule of geocaching is...

dont talk about geocaching...


What is this, fight club?

[Glickman]

What is this, fight club?

jesus. it only took how many posts? :p

[Indignant]

14.

[Alley]

I've been caching for about a year now! ...only have like 40 finds though. I think thats a normal day trip worth of finds for RobAGD. :)