chops2

I'd tell them to go jump in a lake before I'd help them close down a place where I want to spend time at with my family and friends.

Addicting it certainly is! Thanks!

Thank you! I did explain the whole geocaching thing to him, but he still looked at me with a blank stare. I'm pretty sure he was just as clueless about it after I told him as he was before I told him. Oh well. You can't beat them all. So I'm doing pretty good so far? That's good to know. Thanks again. I'll check out the blog thing and see what it's all about. I was fortunate enough to be able to use my friend's Dakota 20 yesterday for a little while when we were out. I noticed it's a bit different than the touch screen on my iPhone, but it's manageable and functional, and that's what I like. It's also quite easy to use. Most likely, that'll be the one I'll go with unless I find an Oregon 450 on sale somewhere for a tad more than the 20.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! My girlfriend, daughter (hers) and I just got back from a quick outing and found 3 out of 4 caches. The last one was only because we didn't have enough light plus a rent-a-cop stopped by to see what we were doing, then kept a watch on us from a distance. Anyway, my iPhone 4 did pretty good, but once up close on the third stop, the compass started hoping around a bit, but I think it's because my friend was texting me since he was out geocaching as well 80+ miles away! LOL Then again, maybe it had to do with 7' tall chain link fences on three sides. Who knows. What I do know is if we keep this up, I'm definitely going to get a true handheld GPS!

I've been looking through there actually. I do like the two mentioned above though for their size and that they have a touch screen and not buttons.

Hello all, I just started "lurking" this morning and decided to make a post. My best friend (oglesj) got hooked on geocaching several months back and has been bugging me about trying it ever since. Well yesterday he came over to hang out with me, my girlfriend and my brother. We went out for a couple hours to do some geocaching just so he could show us what it was all about. Within the first ten minutes, I had installed the "Intro" version of the software on my iPhone 4 so I could track along with him. (He uses his iPhone 3GS and Garmin Dakota 20.) After about another 20 minutes and finding two somewhat easy caches, I liked it so much I went ahead and installed the full paid 4.2 version like he has! I know the iPhone 4 isn't a dedicated GPS, but it's pretty darn close with the Dakota 20 accuracy and is much better than the older iPhones, including my friend's 3GS. The point is, we had fun yesterday and found 6 out of 7 caches. The last one was the one we couldn't find, and we searched for over a half hour in the dark, under and in a bunch of trees. After reading a few other posts on that particular cache, it's a camo one and is difficult even during the day to find. I'll definitely revisit that one at some point. Anyway, I just wanted to say "hey" and share my first experiences geocaching. Fortunately my girlfriend is also interested in it as well as having the opportunity to do a little iPhone photography along the way, so I see us having a future in this little venture! And yes, iPhone photography is another new hobby of ours. We both have a ton of paid apps on our phones dedicated just for that and I haven't used my DSLR in quite some time now because of it! LOL Nerds and their techy toys!... BTW, if we do in fact keep up with this geocaching (and I'm 99.9% sure we will), I'm going to purchase a GPS as well, mainly for the exceptional battery life and better accuracy and features. Already looking at the Garmin Dakota 20 and Oregon 450.