srskas

When I go out with my 6yo daughter we usually bring some small trinkets that she finds fun, such as braclets, small toys, pencils, erasers, etc. Some of the more grown up things I've found ore seen are golf balls, a buisiness card holder, old CD's, tire pressure gauge, etc. I think a good rule of thumb is to bring something small/inexpensive that you'd (or her) would like to find in the cache. the most important thing I try to teach is to trade even so that it is fair for everyone. I live just down the road in Florissant and have seen some pretty good caches thus far. I've only been caching about 4 months I've been caching mostly in North Couty & St. Charles county since it's close to home and work. I'd suggest if you want to find trading items, look for the larger caches. I have found some very good ones in Truman Park in Hazelwood (I found my first 3 there). A cache in the area with great stuff is Riverwoods DVD X-Change (GC17QWH). Lots of trade items, not just movies. It is an easy to find with a great view of the river and a couple smaller caches nearby. There are also several in Ft. Bellfontaine, Sioux Passage, and Champ County Parks. These are next on my list next time me and my daughter go out. Hope to see you out on the trails!

Funny you should mention it. I got this exact model for Christmas and found my first 24 caches with the Roadmate. Trust me when I say it is not an ideal unit for caching. I have since upgraded and find it much easier with a hand held unit (I have a Magellen Sport Track Pro). It can be done but you need to have some basic oreintation skills and overcome several issues: 1. The only way to tell your latitude/longitude position is on the "tow" screen which you can access from the menu (the tow truck icon at the bottom of the screen) or on the upper right hand corner of the map screen. 2. The latitude and longitude are not as accurate as what is listed on the cache page. The Roadmate is only accurate to DD MM SS. The cache listings are in DD MM.MMM (or fractions of a minute). You can convert this format to something close by multipliy the decimal minutes by 60. For example if you have 39deg 59.362, multiply .362*60 and you get 39 deg 59 min 21.72 sec. But the Roadmate loses those fractions of a second on it's display. This lack of accuracy will also greatly increase any potential margin of error. A standard handlheld unit may have a margin of error of +/- 10 to 50 feet (depending on who you ask, how the coordinates were oringinally taken, and the satillite signals). By not having the fraction of a second accuracy, you may double, or triple that margin of error (10 to 150 feet or more!). As such, you will have to expand your potential search area when you get to or near the coordinates. Because of this I found myself having to use the hints, maps, and logs than I would have liked to. 3. There is no way to input lat/long coordinates into the unit. You have to rely on "getting close". For most that I found with this unit, I would park close by, go in the direction that I knew the cache was in, and watched my GPS get closer to the Lat/Long that I had calculated. The compass on the unit is not the most responsive, so it sometimes got very frustrating. I would reccomend taking a compass with you if you use this unit for just this reason. Remember that Latitude increases as you go North, Longitude increases as you go West. 4. The battery life on this unit is about 4 hours. This will limit you as to the types of caches you will have time to look for. It also has an automatic shut off of about 20 minutes if you are not in a route, so you may have to constantly be restarting the unit, then wating for it to find the satilites again. 5. The unit is not very rugged. I was always worried about scratching up the touchscreen or dropping it in the mud. I would defenately hold on to it tightly, and invest in a touch screen protector (which I would reccomend even if you didn't use it for caching). All this being said, it can be done and it can be fun too. I would stick to easier difficulty/terrain caches. Urban micros can be easy, but can get boring too. I found several parks and trails in my area with multiple caches. These make good places to get your feet wet. I certainly wouldn't rely on this unit if you plan on taking any sort of long hike into unknown territories. Stick with simple urban/suburban areas until you get the hang of it. If you like the hobby, upgrade your unit to a hand held. Good luck

Hello All. My Name is Steve and I'm in St. Louis MO. My Geoexpereince started around the first of the year. I got a Magellen Roadmate 1200 for Christmas and though that there had to be something else I could do with this thing. I googled "GPS Games" and Geocaching came up. I read about it, did some research on caches in my area, and decided to go on my first on January 2nd. I picked a park near my home with a great walking trail that I frequented with 3 caches along the tral. The main problem I had was I had to convert the DD MM.MMM format on the cache page to DD MM SS because that is the most detailed my automotive GPS got. After the math, it was fun. I enjoyed getting out and finding these caches that i've proabably passed by dozens of time before and never knew were there. Since the Roadmate doesn't allow input of the coordinates, I had to use a compass as well to move in the direction of the caches. It was pretty challenging, but I enjoyed having to break out the old Boy Scout Orientation skills. I also had to limit it to mostly urban Micros and suburban type caches. I found my first 24 caches by this method which I am very proud of! Since then I found an older Magellen Sport Track Pro on e-bay for $50 bucks and have since found an additonal 25 caches. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather where I can get out on the trails like I used to and have some fun.

False, sort of. I've not hunted a FTF, but have hunted a cache on my lunch break and returned to work covered in mud. Twice actually. t/f. The next cacher has at least a dozen finds using only an automotive GPS.

I believe finding the cache the way it's meant to be found is the only way to do it. I can't believe that there are hundreds of thousands of people within 60 miles of the cache and not one could figure it out. Isn't the point of placing to have it found? If someone placed a traditional in your area and no one could find it and all the SBAs would come rolling in, the reviewer asks for it to be checked and the if owner never does, it get archived. Why do puzzle caches become exempt from that rule on the puzzle side of it? If the puzzle doesn't work, it needs to be checked. In theory, I would agree with you, however nobody has ever logged a DNF. Why would anybody want to SBA a cache that nobody has solved and a find has never been attempted. I don't agree with an SBA on a cache that hasn't been solved. As long as it is rated appropriately, I say it's cool. Personally, i think the SBAs are just sour grapes from people that can't get a for an open cache in their bubble. Good luck, I hope you (or somebody) does find it.