Drysideshooter

My wife and I just got in to Geocaching and are having a lot of fun. I've set a goal of finding a minimum of 25 caches a week. I would like to place a few hike in caches before the end of 2023. We are doing a month long train trip through the country in January, and stopping and spending time in several cities along the way. I would like to find at least a couple caches in each city that we visit. My main goal is to keep getting out and having fun. A HUGE thanks to everyone that takes the time to place and maintain caches. This is a cool community.

I can certainly understand what robertlipe is saying about the community being too small to warrant producing a full featured app and keeping it updated at a price that most would be willing to pay. I just recently got into geocaching, though I have a lot of experience with navigation/GPS overall. My wife and I are having a LOT of fun. I have the same phone as the OP, a S22 Ultra. I've also been downloading caches into a Garmin Montana 680t. In our local area I've figured out that some cache owners are probably placing their caches with an accurate GPS. On some of those, where my phone may not get me close to the cache using the app, the 680t has placed me pretty much right on them. For us, I am finding that using my phone to get me to the general area, and then using the 680t once close to a cache, is working very well. In a couple areas where there wasn't cell coverage, and I didn't have offline maps downloaded, the 680t was a necessity. With a bit more searching, I'm confident I could find most caches with just my phone and the app. I think for folks starting out that may want to see if they enjoy the hobby, and they don't already own a stand alone GPS, a phone is enough to have some fun and see if they get hooked. I think it's really cool that pretty much anyone can get into this hobby at any level they like, with something they probably already have. Being a gadget guy that also enjoys navigation and such, having a GPS to use adds to the fun.

Hello all! Though I've been involved with navigation through orienteering, flying, boating, hunting, etc. , I've just recently become involved with geocaching. My wife and I are having a lot of fun exploring caches in our area, and look forward to looking for more while traveling. We have noticed that the caches that require a bit of a hike to get to are much less visited, and they have been some of our favorites. Great excuse to get some exercise and experience some new trails. I am anxious to place a few caches, and have been looking at some hikes we enjoy, and checking to see if there are caches already there. I've found some great hikes, some with fantastic views, that have no caches. I have a very nice laser engraver that I use for engraving firearms, knives, and other items. I've been thinking it would be cool to engrave some "First to Find" coins for the caches that I place that require a bit of work to get to. The coins would be specific to the cache. If I named the cache "Bob's Mountain Lookout", the coin would say something like "First to Find - Bob's Mountain Lookout" on one side, and have a pertinent saying, like "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" on the other. I would note on the cache page that the first to find the cache will have a custom coin for them to take to commemorate the find. I assume that is okay, and doesn't violate any rules? I figure if someone is willing to take a bit of a hike to get to a cache and be the first to do it, getting something cool might be fun. Maybe I could also do something like add another custom coin some time after 100 log visits or something to incent people to keep visiting the cache? We also have a couple boats and some kayaks. I think placing some cache's that would be accessible only to paddle craft, and require a bit of effort to get to, would be a lot of fun for some folks. We already have some of those in our area, but there are a lot of very cool areas with no caches. Placing caches in some favorite areas would be a great way to get me to visit the areas more frequently as I would need to do cache maintenance and such. I had no idea how big this hobby had become, and how many people are participating. We live in south centra Washington, and the number of cache's is mind blowing. Some folks have gone to quite a bit of effort to place and maintain some really nice caches. I very much want to give back to the community and place some fun caches as well.