Larth's Clan

When I first started Geocaching, which was litterally the other day, I was having a lot of difficulty finding caches. Today and only finding my 20th to 24th cache, I'm a hundred times better already. One of the ones I found today was one I couldn't find my first day and let me tell you, I walked straight to it and couldn't believe I didn't see it the first time. So my point is that you'll get much better at finding the caches. If at 24 finds I'm amazed at how much better I am, I can't imagine how good these nuts with 100-1000 finds are. (I want to be a nut, btw).

What's that saying... "So funny, I forgot to laugh"? *Segerguy*, I saw your unit. I will tell her about it tomorrow. I think she's more into some instant gratification and wants it faster than the post could get it to her. Anyhow, my mother went to the pawn shop and saw a Garmin Etrex Legend C for $119. I don't think it has a detailed map on it though. This would be a must if she hasn't a lick of address finding skills, right? She also saw a Magellen Explorist 200 for $80 at the pawn shop also. I see online that this doesn't come with a detailed map either, right? So, anybody have any suggestions or whatnots?

Hey all, thanks for peeking at this thread. I'm oh so new to Geocaching and by pure luck, I had already purchased a GPS perfect for the game (or is it more sport?). Now my mother is into the game/sport and would like to buy her own GPS but one that is the cheapest yet will get the job done. So the two questions are... What can she get that's cheap and will extra software be needed? Basically, what does she need to get to get going, for the least amount of money. Oh and I think the unit really ought to be able to take on downloaded waypoints. Thank you so much if you can help us. I imagine these are fairly easy and asked often questions for you all. I can look for cheap GPSs but I can't say that I'd be 100% on if it will do the job. I'm just a newbie, I need help .

I haven't phoned a friend but I have my family with me so there's four active people searching at a time. We're all under one name too. Is that cheating too then?

Er, last time I checked, females could pee outside too. I'm a girl and I pee outside almost every night around 4am, lol. I have a 3.5 hour newspaper route, out in the country, and a lot of coffee. I don't think I've nailed a cache, even though I was a muggle up until last week.

I wish I understood any of this. If I were anywhere near close to understanding, I would assume I needed the application you wrote? This is nothing I could do myself.

I have a 60CS and I tell you what, I haven't a clue what the "geocaching" icon thing means and haven't needed it so far. Do you have the mapsource software? If you do, update it via the computer... the non beta one. Sorry for the lack of link but I think it'd be pretty easy to find at the website. You'll then be able to download the coordinates directly from the cache page to your mapsource. Then you can copy/paste them in any file you want, make a route out of them and send them directly to your GPS unit. Then you'll find your cache files under routes. I've been putting all my locations in city or area specific routes so that if I'm in Marysville, I can just open up the Marysville route and get all the caches I have downloaded for that specific area. I'm pretty lousy at explaining things, and oh so new myself. My only advice is to ignore the geocache icon changer. However, if that is some sort of thing that would be benifitial to geocaching, I hope someone fesses up. Learning the GPS functions aren't fun but you'll get the hang of it. Good luck!

Yay! <-- Newbie already has Garmin 60CS Neoprene GPS Carrying Case! I will remember to use my lanyard now though, due to this thread.

This thread is exactly what I needed. We'll be driving from WA to TN in June.

I hate edit. At least OP was captured in quotes. We only have a few finds so far but I really like wasting time with my family... for free.

This is a question I've been wanting to ask, thanks canpaddle. Okay, when I hit zoom, the closest I can get is a circle that says 20 feet. So that would be 10 feet from either direction of me (diameter), right? If I was out in a better clearing (I haven't tried since I noticed this circle thing), will my GarminGPS 60CS have a smaller diameter circle?

Kai, again, thanks for the great list. I don't have any plans at this moment to do anything that I'll need anything special for but am going to plan an outing like that really soon. My goal is to eventually become someone that can and will hike a bit to get to caches... assuming they exist in hikable areas and I'm sure they do. And yes, it would be nice to have these things in the car and ready if we should need them. As far as who gets to tote the oversized Coleman backpacks we have, it will be the older two of my boys. That's why you have children in the first place I believe, lol. Plus they like doing it too.

First make sure you are using the latest version of MapSource, which is 6.9.1 (There is a beta version out, but don't pick that one). Go to MapSource Updates for the latest. Then, go to File/Open/ and under: Files of type, select LOC files. MapSource will open your .loc file(s) and you're golden. I'm golden! Thanks a bunch, Timpat!!!

Kai, you're making it too easy for me then Another geocacher that made the mistake on emailing me about finding his cache that I'm now pestering, suggested wire, gloves tape and magnet also.

Kai, you have great suggestions. I like how you've listed things to repair or maintain the caches too.

Sorry, this probably has been covered many a time. I'm setting up a backpack to take with us on our first official, spend the whole day, GPS packed full of waypoints, geocaching experience tomorrow. The only thing I can think of is flashlights and baby wipes for dirty fingers... oh and a pen and pencil. Soooooooooo, what do you take with you or what is just essential?

Really? I'm glad to here that. I put it in a box last night! I logged about it too and I think the box hadn't had any vistors as of late. Maybe buisness there will pick up? I've seen a lot of bags of nice enamel pins at thrift stores. Perhaps that's an idea?

...must hold off hiding first cache.... must hold off... get another 44 caches... learn... patience.... AAAAAH! I will wait. I'm glad this thread is here. I was going to wait but that urge was getting to me like something bad.

Today was our first geocaching and found 3 of the 5 we set off to find. My husband, toddler and I did it while the older boys were at school. We wanted to see if this was something we'd like and could do and wow, yep, we like and we did! We just explained to the older two boys (10 and 7) what we did and what it is all about. I'm thinking we should of waited on telling them as I'm being bombarded with questions and pleas to go out in the dark and find a few. I can't believe I've owned a GPS since October and didn't learn about this until last night. What an amazing way to spend time with the family!

Lost in confusion, thanks for presenting the question. I needed to know this info also. I was copy and pasting the info from Easy GPS-Geocache First onto my MapSource. Timpat, I'm downloading that update right now. Thanks!

Thanks everybody, this is a perfect thread for me as a very, very new geocacher (like today). I wasn't sure what I'd find today (I just learned "micro" means no prizes/trading) but searched for things in my house, just in case. I grabbed some nice enamel pins from the local bus company, another enamel pin of Edgar Martinez and a new tire gauge. I think I might of been okay if I needed to use one of them today. Anyhow, thank you to the thread starter, for the info and the awesome pictures!