yogibear

In today's San Antonio paper: Death ends high-tech scavenger hunt Web Posted: 12/13/2004 12:00 AM CST Mariano Castillo San Antonio Express-News Police searching for a man participating in an Internet scavenger hunt found his body Sunday after he apparently fell in Eisenhower Park on the far Northwest Side. James Chamberlain, 64, failed to return home Saturday from the scavenger hunt, known online as a "geocache." His wife reported him missing just before 9 p.m. Saturday and gave police coordinates on a global positioning system that Chamberlain was using as part of the contest. Those coordinates led police to the park, where they found his car. A police canine unit and helicopter searched brushy area around the park throughout Saturday night, aided by the Heidi Search Center and San Antonio Park Police. Sunday morning, searchers found Chamberlain's body, dressed in blue jeans and a T-shirt, off one of the park's nature trails, park police Sgt. David Rodriguez said. Chamberlain's family gathered at his home Sunday afternoon. They declined to comment, except to say his death appeared to be an accident. Police apparently did not suspect foul play. An autopsy was scheduled for today. A "geocache" is a high-tech treasure hunt in which participants use a handheld GPS unit to find items hidden by other players. Courses are downloaded from the Web, where thousands of starting coordinates for caches can be found. In the most common variation of the game, participants replace an item they find with another of equal value. The Web site geocaching.com showed several courses go through Eisenhower Park. Several of those were no longer active because park police had asked scavenger hunters, called "geocachers," not to go off the trails, according to user comments on the site. Two courses that met the park police's criteria were available to download, including one near where Chamberlain was found. If this was the geocache Chamberlain was on, he was searching for a film canister with a Web address that would reveal coordinates for a bigger cache at Huntsville State Park. "From what I understand, he found it," Rodriguez said of the canister.

Does anyone know if it's possible to get coordinates for a location if you only have the address? I wanted my friend to "find" her birthday present instead of me just giving it to her(it's a gift certificate at a climbing wall gym). The problem is that I don't live in the same state so I can't go get a GPS reading myself. Is there anyway to do this? Thanks.

At the Garmin website, they just pushed back the release date to September.

At the Garmin website, they just pushed back the release date to September.

I've gone caching alone a few times, but I didn't enjoy it. As soon as the car was out of site, I started to get a little nervous. As a female, I just don't feel safe alone in the woods. (Even with a walking stick, which I wouldn't know what to do with)

The Garmin rep that I spoke with today said that the units will not be available until July. Which sucks because I wanted them before I left for vacation. Crap.

I'm in for 2 Rino 110's.

I just found them for sale (advanced sale, of course) at advancedgps.com. Rino 110: $169.00 Rino 120: $249.00

Just out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea how much these units will probably cost (each or per pair)? I'm looking to purchase a new unit soon, but would definately wait for the Rino if the price is right. Any ideas?

We're going to Tahoe in June and are specifically renting a car to drive to Utah. We've heard so much about the geocaches there that we couldn't resist. I've printed out a map of caches in the state and am trying to plot a course based on scenery and cache selection. I can't wait to see what all of you guys have been talking about!!

Two more geochicks here. (One's a red-head from a box.) We read about geocaching in a local paper last summer. We bought a GPS two weeks later and started immediately, now we're hooked! Yogibear and The Weasel.