5 Caching Campers

Here here. I hate using/taking my Blackberry out on the trail. My camera is about the same size as my GPS, they should be a single unit. My Blackberry could fit in the same space as well, all three devices could all share the same screen. A 3G Blackberry/Nikon/Oregon Coolpix Smartphone GPS, I'd buy that. My BlackBerry pearl (Sprint) has a GPS and a camera built in. Neither one is as good as the stand-alone unit. There's also an application I could subscribe to (Geocache Navigator) on my BlackBerry that, in theory at least, would tell me what caches were closest to my current location without me having to do any prior work (Right now I load up CacheBerry with a GPX file for the area I plan to cache in and have it tell me what's nearby... but it requires running a PQ before I head out for that area).

Granted, I haven't looked at it in dept, but about the only use I've seen for it is making it easy to find caching friends. I just go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/myfriends.aspx and click on their link instead of having to bookmark their profile or try to remember a cache they've done. Outside of that, I could think of a pretty long list of things that would be nice to have... though honestly, I'd rather see a Groundspeak sponsored Facebook app then have them try to create their own social network.

This is a really nice idea. I like the open source and cross platform nature of it. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to actually do anything on my system. I downloaded and extracted it and ran the jASAK.jar file. It came up with a window that looked like it would list caches if I had any (obviously I don't yet) but I couldn't get it to actually load any caches. I tried doing the "File -> Open" thing and selecting my GPX file, but no dice.

The craziest cache we've attempted to date has been Death Defying. We didn't end up finding it due to a lack of willingness to shimmy out on the branches of this tree when it had been raining not more than an hour or two before we got there. At least we assume that's what we had to do as we didn't find it on the trunk

I don't have Verizon, so I can't say this with 100% certainty, but I believe VZ Navigator will use a GPS if the phone has one built in and is not limited to just tower triangulation. I do have a BB Pearl 8130, but it's with Sprint. My GPS is not locked and I didn't have to pay the ransom to be able to use it. Like another poster here, I use CacheBerry. This means that I have to go through the work of getting the GPX files on to my phone (if you have OS 4.5 you can email them unzipped to the phone and save them to the SD card). You can also refresh your information about a specific cache by going to the cache's web page and selecting the button to "Download GPX". It will then load directly into CacheBerry and you'll have the latest/greatest information about that cache. When you find a cache, there's a memo section you can go to and flag it as found and also add any additional information. Currently, there's no way in the app to put in that memo field that you didn't find the cache, but I typically just flag it as found and then type "DNF" into the memo field. There's an email feature that will send you an email with all the caches you've marked as found along with a link to that cache's page and whatever you put in the memo field. I typically send myself that email at the end of the day then just click on all the links and log my find. I considered getting Geocache Navigator, but didn't really like the subscription on top of my geocaching.com subscription. If I need to, I can connect with my laptop to the Internet using the BB as a modem and run a PQ if I'm in an unexpected area. CacheBerry is not free software (unfortunately) and to get the most out of it it's also helpful to have GSAK (also unfortunately not free), but it's not really required. Both of those programs have a free trial (which IIRC Geocache Navigator didn't) so during the trial I got accustomed to doing things with those programs. I still haven't gotten around to purchasing GSAK, but those nag screens are getting quite annoying!!!

The nice thing about coord.info is it's owned by Groundspeak. You don't have to do anything special to and it works for all caches. For the other URL shortner services, you first have to first go to their website and get a short URL for your longer URL. The coord.info link is also more recognizable in that the part after the '/' is the cache ID not just some random string.

I also use CacheBerry. In addition to being able to load GPX files from pocket queries, you can load the cache page in the BB browser and select the button for the "GPX File". CacheBerry will then import the information from that one cache in its database. Great for refreshing information to the latest/greatest or to get more than the 4/5 (I don't remember which) logs that come in the PQ. It's also useful for adding a new cache (such as when you get an email alert out on the road).

Probably. And adding it to the subject may be helpful from some, but it would be the harmful to most. If they wanted to add it as a "hidden header" (eg, x-geocaching-bookmark: list1) it wouldn't interfere... otherwise it'd just make the subject that much longer.

I find with my phone, a BlackBerry Pearl 8130 from Sprint, I can get to within about 60 feet of where the cache is. I think I could probably get closer, but even with BlackBerry maps all the way zoomed in, I just can't tell on the map which way I need to go as my "where I am dot" is pretty much covering the point.

I would love to have an RSS feed of my finds. I've tried to emulate that by having my own blog (HayleeBugg Geocaching) which provides its own feed.... but it'd be much nice to have it be a bit more automated. I would also be nice if there was a Geocaching Facebook application. There's one that will but your stats image on the "boxes" tab, but I'm talking something that does a little more. Nothing that would require you to use Facebook in order to geocache, but something that would put my finds into my mini feed. I've thought about something that would allow people to upload a GPX that would then generate stats and through things into the mini feed, but I don't have the time to do that right now .

No, it doesn't. And I"m thankful for that every time I pick it up (my previous phone was Windows Mobile and though I tried real hard to ignore it, it was really nothing more than a PDA with a phone application. The BB is a very nicely integrated phone/pda).

I use a similar setup in that new cache emails go to an address I can retrieve from my BB. Where I go different is that I then visit the link in the email and download the GPX file. That file then loads into CacheBerry which allows me to push it a waypoint to BlackBerry maps (it can also push to Google Maps, but I tend to use the BB maps more often... I've gotten used to the direction of travel option when navigating). By doing this I also get the description and hint (with the ability to decrypt the hint easily). Though to this point I only have one FTF... but my wife and I have only been caching for about 1.5 months .

Is there any software to do a Wherigo cache on the BlackBerry? Is there any plans to make some? There's only a couple less than 50 miles away from me so they're obviously not that popular around here, but I'm still a little curious about them....

Good call... I know I won't go near that stuff so I'm sure the critters will avoid it too