travisa Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 Just thought I would write and tell everyone about my first geo-caching expirence. These are just a few of my first mistakes/observations. I was looking at GPS units one day on a website (don't know why... just was) and was on garmin's website.. I happened to see this banner about geocaching. Kinda cought my eye so I decided to look. Few days later I bought a GPS. Now originally I thought (as most people do) that more expensive was better. I bought the best I could afford, a garmin legend. This is a great unit and I would suggest it to anyone looking for serious navigation. Is it required for geo-caching. No. After going on my first few trips I soon learned that my favorite this is that arrow that points in the direction your supposed to be going. So therefore the 100 dollar e-trex would do everything u could ever possibly want to do for geocaching. My second mistake. Thinking that the GPS unit could lead me right to the treasure. AHHHH... well not exactly.. My first find was 64 feet off from where it "should" have been. I spent the first 30 minutes chasing that arrow around. The GPS is not a compass.. It doesn't know when u turn your body (u must walk). It took me a while to get the hang of this. Since my GPS unit offered such convient storage of so many waypoints I decided to put all of them in for a 65 mile radius.. Some 390 some odd waypoint in all. I didn't bother to look at the descriptions or anything.. Decided that I would just wing it on my adventures. This was also not a good idea. I went to http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=1609 without looking and didn't know it involved climbing.. So if u don't wanna get bummed look... hehehehe.. so much for technology. For anyone who bothered to read this far... hehehehe... thanks for reading So far love the hobby and can't wait to hide some caches of my own Quote Link to comment
+MAntunes Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 It remembers my first GC experience - Thanks for sharing it quote: Thinking that the GPS unit could lead me right to the treasure. AHHHH... well not exactly.. That's the chalenge! If your unit pointed the exact spot, it'll be too easy and, gradually, would loose part of the funny. quote: The GPS is not a compass.. It doesn't know when u turn your body (u must walk). Some units do. It's a feature present on units that has a magnetic compasss (mine has ) quote: I didn't bother to look at the descriptions or anything.. Decided that I would just wing it on my adventures. A jump in the dark... I like that! As you said in the log; "live and learn". Always... Manuel Antunes Quote Link to comment
jarja_grl and G-man Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 Being a newbie myself, I can relate to you, but what the heck! We're trying I initially tried this without a GPS. My husand located the cache because he is far more stubborn than me and it was a 3/3 cache. Then (full of ourselves and our superior talent) we tried a 1/1 and spent an hour digging through the woods and got nada, zippo, the goose. It didn't take a week before we had purchased our Sport Trak and were on the way. Now, we're at the stage where we're burning through batteries like they're free becuase it seems critical to know the exact place that we are in the world at any given moment, all the time, even when we're a mile from home. I imagine this silliness will wear off eventually and we'll just be down to spending our free time navigating the briars and brambles of our state and trying in vain to explain the fun of this to those who just don't get it. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 Welcome to a great sport! The Legend is a good choice for a unit. If you get the Mapsource Topo software (or any of the mapping products), you'll find the map screen to be much more useful. The topo comes in very handy because it can tell you which side of a river a cache is on, or if there is a ravine, or mountain between you and the cache. The arrow tells you the cache is thataway, but doesn't tell you what is between. You learned some lessons quickly. One of the first newbie mistakes is that they expect the GPS to take them directly to the cache. Congrads for figuring that one out. Many of us do what you did and download a bunch of waypoints to the GPS. That way, whenever you are travelling, you can can just check it to see if any caches are nearby and head out on a spontaneous hunt (the Topo software helps with this too, because it can tell you right away if the cache is easily doable). BTW, if you have a PDA (Palm, Clie, etc...), you can dowload 100's of cache pages to the device. That way you'll have the "printouts" with you all the time. No more carrying paper. Search these forums for the terms "spinner" "watcher" "mobipocket" and "plucker" for more info. "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day" - Dave Barry Quote Link to comment
+Team PCBeach Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 Another tip is to buy a cheap compass. I have one of those 3 dollar comapss, wistle, thermometer deals you can get at Walmart. I clip it on my GPSr case so it is with me all the time. Really helps if you are in an area where the GPS signal has problems. I also used it to find an underwater cache. Kept the GPS on the boat and my wife yelled range and bearing to me and my son. We swam around using the compass and finally found the cache. One of our more exciting finds. Quote Link to comment
fat_cat Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 quote:it seems critical to know the exact place that we are in the world at any given moment, all the time, even when we're a mile from home. I imagine this silliness will wear off eventually Uh-huh. That's what I thought about my husband too. But, four years later, it's still critical to not leave for the grocery store -- which is 1/2 mile away -- without the GPS. He offered it to me once when I was going to my parents' house. "But I know how to get to my parents' house." "But you might need it." I shouldn't make fun, since giving up his GPS is the ultimate sacrifice, but I just truly didn't see the point. Obviously, the solution was to get the adapter that allows it run off the car charge. Paid off quickly in battery savings!! Quote Link to comment
Mushtang Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 quote:Originally posted by jarja_grl:I imagine this silliness will wear off eventually and we'll just be down to spending our free time navigating the briars and brambles of our state and trying in vain to explain the fun of this to those who just don't get it. Don't plan on it. I've had my GPS for 6 months and still carry it with me wherever I drive and watch myself on the map. My brother has had one for over a year and he still does the same thing too. From what I can tell with talking to others, this isn't something that'll wear off soon. And Jarja_grl, if you're in the lawrenceville area soon, give my cache Gwinnett Co Fairgrounds Micro a try. It'll give you some good experience in not to assume anything. ---------------------------------------------------------------- "A noble spirit embiggins the smallest man." - Jebediah Springfield ---------------------------------------------------------------- Quote Link to comment
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