The Cache Checkers

I have a question my TomTom One. Last time I visited here, there was a GPS forum...? I have 8 caches I've selected with help from the PQ member feature for my boys and I to do while traveling from our home in NE Ohio to a cabin in VA this weekend. Is it possible to get my TomTom to plan a route with the cabin as our final destination, but these caches as stops along the way? I have played with my TomTom, but I can't seem to get it to plan any other route than from my starting point to one destination. I am still digging through my huge file of owner manuals.... Can anyone here help me out? I also have a Magellan Triton which I can turn on when I know I'll be coming up to a cache, but if I were able to see it on my TomTom first and save the batteries on my handheld, that would be great.

My boys and I spend the summer with my parents up in Northern Michigan. My sister knows how much I like to geocache but I don't really get the oppurtunity with three boys and a traveling/hunting husband. She said she'd watch the kids and I could take a day and find some caches in my home state. The night before my outing I found a cache had been newly published abd logged online by only two people. I headed out there with my Geodog Kit and found the regular sized cache under some boardwalk steps and opened it up. I was surprised to find it completely empty except for the log, a penci and someone's "I was here" calling card. I wasn't all that upset because I was by myself and am perfectly fine with signing the log and claiming the find on the cache info page. However, when signed the online log, I did share my disappointment that a regular sized cache was so completely empty and that someone had left only their calling card. I mentioned I was out alone that day, but I often find caches with my kids and they would have been extremely bummed to find a cache big enough for their kind of goodies, but empty of fun. Laer that day I got an email from the cache owner and the FTF, saying how rude I was to post such a thing, that the FTF prize was a t-shirt and that caches are often found empty and to put something in there and carry on. I'm still new to this wonderful game, but I didn't think I owed them an apology. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I did say that a cache three days old should have had more in it than a FTF prize and who wants to trade something for a business type card with a stranger's name on it? I again said how disappointed my kids would have been, but they would have gotten over it. They didn't reply back and I hadn't thought about it since until I read through this thread. What are your opinions?

You take your four year old to a cache that is empty and he has a fit because there is nothing for him. You take him to a cache where it's filled with stuff he'd like and he has a fit because he can't take it all.

I have a question about this and my TomTom One. Last time I visited here, there was a GPS forum...? I have 8 caches I've selected for my boys and I to do while traveling from our home in NE Ohio to a cabin in VA this weekend. Is it possible to get my TomTom to plan a route with the cabin as our final destination, but these caches as stops along the way? I have played with my TomTom, but I can't seem to get it do plan any other route than from my starting point to one destination. I am still digging through my huge file of owner manuals.... Can anyone here help me out? I also have a Magellan Triton which I can turn on when I know I'll be coming up to a cache, but if I were able to see it on my TomTom first and save the batteries on my handheld, that would be great.

I would assume that you could add the geocaches as via points along your trip, at least that's what I did with our Garmin Nuvi. It will route you to the caches first, but keep you on your way to your final destination. Are you talking about my Tom Tom one or my handheld? I'd like to be able to use my Tom Tom until I get close to one and then turn on my hand held. Is it even possible to use a Tom Tom this way? I'll ask this question under GPS.

I didn't read all the posts, so I apologize if this is a repeat. I geocache because it gets me out of the house. Right now I'm a SAHM to a 4 and 2 year old. When the weekend comes or an evening is open I say, They're all yours!, to my hubby, I go out caching because it's a great escape and excercise. I take my rat terrier with me and we both enjoy the time out. I love using my GPS and brain. I don't much care about what's inside, but I love finding TB's and coins to pass on. HOWEVER, my attitude is different when I have my 11 year old and the 4 year old with me. It's sad to see how disappointed they are to arrive at a cache and find only a nut and bolt or nothing at all. When they leave the site unhappy, it's harder to get them out there with me on another hunt.

I hope I said that right.... I am a new Premium Member and am very excited about the finding caches on a route feature. Last night I ran a few queries to find 8 TB Hotels within 2 miles of my planned route from my home in NE Ohio to a cabin I'll be staying the weekend in in Virginia. I have a Tom Tom One to get me close to caches and a Magellan Triton hand held to get me the rest of the way. Does anyone have any suggestions how I should go about planning these cache finds? Can I use my Tom Tom to tell me when I'm close to the cache without changing my final destination, and then use the handheld, like I have been doing? Or, do I need to keep my handheld on the 6 1/2 hr drive to watch for upcoming caches? I plan on jotting down how many miles they are from my home coords, but if I can avoid a lot of extra work from hearing what someone else has done, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Thanks so much!

Of course. Thanks so much.

Hello, What is the quickest way to discover how many caches are in one area? I was recently at a cache in a local park and was told there are three others and several across the street. I don't know if they are placed by the same person. I entered the zip code, but it would take me awhile to look through them all. Anyone know any shortcuts?

I use the Vantage Point software my GPSr came with to transfer the caches I'm interested in finding from geocaching.com to my handheld. VP lets me fill in important info like who it was hidden by, description and the size of the cache. However, on a recent hunt, we were unable to find the hiding spot. I was pretty sure it was a regular one, but as my memory comes and goes, I went through the pages of my GPSr, but was unable to find the size, although I know I filled it out before transferring everything over. Am I missing something, or have to turn something on to see this part of the cache info? Thanks for any help you can give. Yolanda & Hunter The Cache Checkers

That makes sense. I have been having email problems. Thanks so much.

Hi all, I've been a member at the geocaching.com website since November. I haven't logged in since my last find on Jan. 1. Now that I have, I'm being told my account has not been validated and that I need to request a code and activate my account. I did request the code but am concerned if I enter it and tell it to activate my account like it wants, I'll lose my Finds and other info. Do I need to do this again? Most of my profile and detail pages says in red that my account needs to be validatede. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for your reply. I just scrolled thru the menus and didn't see anything about "lock to road". I have no idea what I did with my manual! One more question, please! I don't normally tell my TomTom to get me home as I usually know how to get back. Last time we were out I did and my unit said I was still 200 yards away from home as I pulled in the driveway. I went into Change Preferences and told it to change my home to my current position, but it still says I haven't reached it. I then tried changing my home by typing in city, road and house number, and it still shows I'm 170 yards from my destination, and here I am sitting at the computer. I don't know if it's always done this or not. I've only had my system since mid-October and don't remember if I ever used it while driving home. Anything to say about this?

I've only found four caches in the past few weeks (do it on the weekends with my son) and am using the TomTom One I bought for my vehicle. Once I get to the part where it tells me I've reached my destination, I bring up the Details page and touch the signal strength and it shows me my coords. I walk around paying attention to either the N or the W until it's about right and then the other way until the other numbers match the cache coords and then I put it away and use my eyes until I find it (or not!). TomTom's aren't meant to be held and aren't rugged or waterproof. I'd suggest a lanyard to connect to the back and put it around your neck. I used it in the rain once under an umbrella. So far we're doing good, but I'll eventually get one that I won't have to worry about breaking if it gets dropped.

I was at a cache yesterday that was alongside a dirt path in the woods next to a park. About 20 feet from the hidden cache was a split rail fence that marked the property of the two houses closest to the park. My GPS took me to the road on the other side of the fence, next to these two houses, and was telling me to walk across these people's yards to get to the cache. Obviously my GPS doesn't know that's a no-no. I had no idea where I was, so I zoomed out and saw another road on the other side and went there. This road dead ended by a path into the wooded area I needed to be. At another location my GPS wanted me to park on a residential street when there was a parking lot in the area of the cache, one that was mentioned by the cache creator. Is there any settings I can change on my GPS so it gets me to the cache in a way I can get to by walking? I understand it'll get me to the closest road, but in these two instances I needed to or should have parked somewhere else. This may even be a dumb question, but I wanted to ask.

Those of you who might even now have snow on the ground (we do), do you continue this hobby during the winter? It's not the cold that I'm asking about, I'm from Northern Michigan, it's the digging through snow that I'm not so sure about! Should I bring a snow shovel, snow blower, or other gear to find the cache? LOL I'm new to this and have already struck out on the only two my son and I have attempted so far. Do you do more detailed research on the caches you have your eye on?

Funny! Thanks! The CO mentioned a certain park I know dogs are welcome to, so I let my son bring his dog. When we got there it was in such a remote location with no new graves since the late 1800's, I didn't think it would be a problem. I think it was just bad timing that the woman across the street pulled into her house right after we arrived at the cemetary. We were actually up a small hill and I don't think she would have known we were there if she hadn't arrived the same time as us. I did have a garbage bag with me! My son and I packed a backpack of supplies after reading the first page on the website. Scraping aside the leaves we found a beer bottle.

Thank you all! I guess I missed that it had camo tape on it. Sign O' the Times we're going to do today!

Here I am again. My son and I attempted 3 caches today. We did them in the order they were listed on the Geocaching.com Hide and Seek page. The first was in one area, the other 3 miles one way, and the 3rd in almost the same area as our first. Now, gas is much cheaper these days, Hooray!, but I'd rather not drive around in circles all day! LOL How can I plan our route to avoid backtracking? I like to be surprised; both my son and I enjoyed typing in the L&L and following our GPS, whom we call Richard. How do you plan your cache hunts in one day? Thanks again!

Double post.

Oops! Another newbie mistake! LOL Here's the info: GCP4YD It is a micro, and I know that's a size new cachers shouldn't go for first, but it sounded easy enough! LOL It was last found on Oct. 25. Thanks!

In a search I just posted about I saw a woman watching my son and I. She was standing in the driveway in a house across the street (we were in an old cemetary) and watched us walk around for a few minutes and then disappeared. It was our first cache search and her eyes made me a bit nervous. What do you do if a muggle approaches you? I've read how you should act nonchalant if there are muggles nearby and only when it's clear to pull out the cache. What if you're spotted and asked what you're doing? You can't be sure the stranger will be honest and leave the cache alone. What if the muggle is confrontational? How do you deal with that? What are your good/bad experiences with muggles? Were any of you sent to a cache that was on private property? From reading here I realize Geocachers have different opinions on cemetaries. The woman across the road may have thought we were trouble makers, a mother and son team of grave robbers we aren't, but I suppose you never know. I want this to be fun, but don't want to worry about people giving me a hard time.

But we're not letting it get us down! Hi everyone. I'm Yolanda and my 10 year old son and I have recently started Geocaching. I discovered this attractive hobby last Sunday and my son and I looked forward to today. Even though it was raining outside, we still set out on our first hunt! Our GPS, a TomTom One, led us there w/o a problem. The location was right off the main road, in a small old, but maintained cemetary. We deciphered the hint, "centrally located oak", but found nothing there. We weren't sure where really to look, but we raked at the leaves under the clump of trees, looked at the base, in any holes we found and up in the branches. I did read in the online entries that past cache discoverers found the cache in different places and one said it was buried. We looked at other trees and even around the gravestones. No luck. We've logged our DNF and am hoping to get another hint from the creator. Will he read it in that log or should I email him? We went on to a second cache, but that's in another post!

Hi all, I accidently came across Geocaching while researching my GPS unit. I love scavenger hunts and am so glad I came across this group. My 10 year old has teamed up with me. Anyway - My GPS got us to our first cache w/o a problem, however, on our second one we entered the coordinates and followed the voice, even though it was going a different way from which I thought it would go. I followed it anyway and it told me I had reached my destination and we were on a residential street, nothing but private property all around. We double checked our entry and it was correct. This cache was recently found on Oct. 25, so the coordinates on the info page must be right. Any explanation why this happened? My husband told me my unit has driving and walking options. When should I switch to the walking feature? Our first cache was right off the road. I've seen some caches that give coordinates to parking lots and then coordinates to the cache. If there isn't a parking lot, how can I tell when to park and start walking? I appreciate any help you offer us. We were very excited to start Geocaching that we went out today, even in the rain! We didn't find our first one, but I blame that on being newbies and not knowing what to watch for. Thanks again, Yolanda