gamemn

I think the best and worst part of geocaching is mother nature in Minnesota. It's my first year of geocaching. I like the wooded trail caches. Beautiful scenery, free of muggles, and a good source of exercise, are all reasons I like the hikes. The weather here lately has to be rivaling a rain forest climate. On one occasion, I had to pull my teenage daughter back down from the mosquitoes that were carrying her away. It has been hot and wet and too buggy. I haven't cached for two weeks now. I'm at the mercy of mother nature, and she seems to be %#^(@*. The Minnesota government shutdown made me crabby too. I did a cache on the 4th of July that was in a state park directly across the lake from my parents' lake home only to find out later that the cache had been made unavailable because of our state shutdown. I took the boat over and tied up to the dock. The signs did not say closed. They only said the park was not being supervised or maintained. I found the multi cache, took it from the mosquitoes, and boated back across the lake. I went to log it online and that's when I found it was unavailable. Hope I don't get into trouble when I do log it.

I am curious if there is a difference in the way somebody starts this activity when they get started using a phone instead of a GPS. What I am suspecting is that many that get started on the smartphone simply see the app, download it, and start playing. Do they see it (at first) as just yet another smartphone game? Those that get started by using a handheld GPS must visit the website and learn a bit about what they need to do before they can even begin playing. Smartphone users do not. When I heard about geocaching this spring, I found Geochaching.com. There was a spot to tell the site what unit I would be geocaching with. My phone, a Palm Pre, was listed there. I chose it. It must be OK. The next thing I did was check my phone for apps. I found the free app and I it was a good program. It had things like "find the nearest cache" So when you say did I see it as a smartphone game. No. But, I did see it as a way to test if my family would enjoy this activity enough to invest in a premium membership or a GPS. I have since bought a Delorme GPS and will purchase premium membership when my free 30 days is up. Only because I am a freak in everything I do, I delved into these forums. I have gained much knowledge and continue to persist even though the tone towards "newbies" is less than welcoming. Is growth for geocaching such a bad thing? Were you not a "newbie" at some point?

I am curious if there is a difference in the way somebody starts this activity when they get started using a phone instead of a GPS. What I am suspecting is that many that get started on the smartphone simply see the app, download it, and start playing. Do they see it (at first) as just yet another smartphone game? Those that get started by using a handheld GPS must visit the website and learn a bit about what they need to do before they can even begin playing. Smartphone users do not.

This could be a fascinating twist to the game. I just wanted to let you know that I have had very poor results with my Palm and the two apps available to Palm users. The Palm's camera is very poor. I was only able to decode a few.

I just wanted to share in the sentiments of some of the other newbies. I didn't know. Many things I have learned never occurred to me until I delved into these forums. I've learned a lot. I started with a smart phone as well. I downloaded a free app and it worked well enough. I find out later that I had downloaded an illegal app, according to this website. I didn't know. I have since purchased a GPS and love it so far. I guess that what I want to say is that, not everyone knows or understands the rules. Nobody reads the manual until something goes wrong. (My husband and I had extra parts when we finished putting together our grill!) Some of us newbies just need a gentle mentor or a fleeting suggestion. Everyone was a newbie at one time. Someday, when I hide my own caches, I will understand why short logs are annoying. However, some of my first caches were quite unremarkable. (I already know that I do not care for the Walmart parking lot caches.) Even so, I will respectfully log from now on. By the way, how may caches do I have to log before I am no longer considered a "newbie"? That would be a nice goal for me this summer. The term "newbie" just sounds so dirty. Happy Caching! Missy

I was wondering this too. I actually searched the forum for the topic "injuries". My family is relatively new to caching. Only 17 found so far. We started without knowledge and ended up doing mostly roadside and urban caches. We tried a county park cache and now we can't bear to do the caches in town in high muggle areas. The parks here in Minnesota are beautiful to walk in and difficult enough to get us into better physical condition. Last weekend, we went caching the day after a good rain. The trails were soggy at best. We came upon a steep decline and decided to tough it out instead of turning back. My youngest daughter went fist. She slipped on the mud and went down. She pretty much crab-walked the 40-50 feet to the bottom. The rest of us slipped and pretty much scooted down on our butts. When I slipped, I landed on my wrist. Nothing serious, but painful. I fell again later and could hear a bunch of cracks in my back. I guess what I am trying to say is that, although nothing serious happened that day, I can see how something could easily happen. I see the importance of never caching alone, and the importance of bringing a cell phone with. Waiting for the weather to get better in Minnesota is not an option. We will just have to be as careful as possible and bring blankets with to sit on in the car when our butts are muddy.

Thank you dlf! The drag and drop info was all my computer illiterate azz needed.

I have the same problem. I downloaded the WebOS Quick Install. Now, I can get apps from the installer, but what am I supposed to download from the installer?

Well, as a newbie, this whole thing is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I just stared geocaching a week ago. I use a Palm Pre(WebOS)as my mobile phone. Of course, I am locked into that contract for another 15 months. I downloaded a free app and it worked great except for the compass when in the gz. I have the opportunity to purchase a Delorme PN60 for $200 through a program at work. I was going to order it right away and continue to use my phone until I get it. I like the phone app and would probably have used it along with my new GPS. After the "improvements" to gc.com. I can no longer log into my app. It says invalid username or password. I assume my app has been blocked. Unfortunately, the gc.com approved apps, are not available for my phone. This, and the snobbishness that some users exhibit, certainly do not make me want to upgrade to premium membership, and may turn me off geocaching altogether. Too bad. It was going to be a fun summer for my family and I.