Geocaching Without Premium Membership

[+Airmapper]

Not all of us are Premium members yet, some of us will become members and some of us will stay non-paying members. But for those of us who cache without the benefit of PQ's, let's post some ideas and methods to organize caches until we spring for premium membership. This should also help newer members who are leery of becoming a paying member just yet, but still want to learn how to find, display, and get their info into a manageable format.

 

Welcome are tips on downloading and converting .loc files. Caching along a route, and an other tasks that involves getting cache information in a form you can use while out caching, like printing methods, and ways to make notes for a cache that you can read on the trail.

 

If you post here, please stay on topic, and don't criticize another players methods. If you know of a better way to do something, please post it for everyone to use.

 

--------

My method.

 

I use Easy GPS, Easy GPS companion and GPSBabel. I load my .loc files one at a time, combine them with EasyGPS companion, convert them to .usr (Lowrance format) in GPSBabel, and load them into a mapping program.

 

As to my methods on taking cache info with me, I've yet to find a truly efficient way, but for now I print out a list of waypoint's (GCXXXX) and write short notes like "easy micro" or "3 star Ammo can" and take the sheet with me. I print out all info for multi, virtual, or puzzle caches.

[+Yamahammer]

I'm a PM but here's one for you guys.

 

Say you have a waypoint on a cache. You want to get all there is as local as you can. In the middle of the page, usually next to the map, there is a list of links. One is, "All nearby caches I haven't found" or something like that. When you click this link, a list of all caches you haven't found, that are near that particular waypoint, are listed. This works instead of 'hit and miss'.

 

[+Mopar]

Not what you want to hear, but if you are unsure about spending $30 a year, spend $3 for just one month. It's cheaper then the paper and ink from printing all those cache pages out, and a whole less aggravating then searching for a cache that isn't there because your printout is old.

[+welch]

Caching along a route,

Figure out your route, then use Buxley's maps to zoom/pan along the route. The maps plot a dot for each cache, clicking the dot will take you to the cache's info. So you'll have to record the info, or at least a waypoint by hand. Also some places with gaggles of caches and limited zoom make it hard to pick out landmarks.

You could also do similar zoom/pan on the OLD style gc.com maps, but you have to change the radio button and for info you have to click the map then follow links at the bottom.

 

Printing method??

You mean other than just printing out all the pages?

I suppose you could use a word processing program and copy/paste the coord and important description info into a page, resize and then print that... save a few pages.

 

As with all stored data you need to verify the data... printing out pages now to use 6 months from now doesn't work very well. Always double check before using whenever possiable!

[+Thrak]

I'd have to agree with Mopar. When I started I was unsure as to what I wanted/needed so I paid the $3.00 for a one month premium membership. It took me about 2 days to decide that I was going to buy a year. It was soooooooooooo worth it.

 

$3.00 isn't much to gamble. Really.

 

Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread. We now return you to the original question.

[+Moose Mob]

OK folks, I realize it's tough and the temptation is high... but PLEASE stay on topic. This thread is about the comparing notes on geocaching without paying the 10 cents a day. Everyone is already aware of the benefits of premium membership.

 

Thank you.

[+Airmapper]

Some good tips so far. (BTW I have a working method I use, but am always open to new ideas.) Intent of this thread is to help all geocachers who for some reason or another aren't members. I plan on becoming a member, but for now I don't have the equipment to fully support it, and assume other people aren't members for similar reasons.

 

Thanks for the link to buxley's maps, it looks like something I could use.

[Tahosa and Sons]

I just keep it simple. First I find a good spot to hide one about 3 to 4 miles from the trailhead, then I see how I can incorporate a nice virtual or equations into solving the final solution. When I look for them I'll just write notes and use Nat Geo Topo for control of waypoints.

[SCP-173]

Befriend a premium member... or many.

[+nfa]

make printouts at work after hours

 

use the "all nearby caches" button to find other caches near one you will be hunting

 

once you have found all of the caches you wish to hunt, use GSAK to load all of the coords to your GPSr by first downloading the loc info for each cache from the gc.com site

[+budd-rdc]

I cached for 4 months without a Premium Membership, but the site has changed somewhat since. I was able to zoom and scroll GC.com maps back then.

 

As already mentioned, Buxley's Geocaching Waypoint is a good starting point. For cache-dense areas, just pick a random waypoint in the vicinity, and go to the cache page and search for nearest.

 

On road trips, you can search By State from the main GC.com page, then pick a local city, and narrow it down.

 

For local searches, you can pick caches based on a certain user's profile, especially if you've already enjoyed one of his or her hides.

 

There ARE benefits for caching without PM. When I chose which caches to go to, I was picky on location and container size, which meant lots of urban micros were skipped. Maybe that's why I don't whine about micros or lame locations, since I learned early on how to mentally ignore them

[+CYBret]

There are applications out there that will convert .html (web pages) over to Palm format. These can be used to convert cache pages over to be read on your PDA.

 

Here is a list of some that are available. There used to be an Internet Explorer plug-in that would do this much quicker, but I don't believe it's available any more.

 

Bret

[+reveritt]

OK folks, I realize it's tough and the temptation is high... but PLEASE stay on topic. This thread is about the comparing notes on geocaching without paying the 10 cents a day. Everyone is already aware of the benefits of premium membership.

 

Thank you.

Just what we need...the topic police.

[robertlipe]

I use Easy GPS, Easy GPS companion and GPSBabel. I load my .loc files one at a time, combine them with EasyGPS companion, convert them to .usr (Lowrance format) in GPSBabel, and load them into a mapping program.

You do know you can do the merge .locs with GPSBabel, right? It's the very first example under "Advanced Usage" in http://www.gpsbabel.org/readme.html

[+Team Neos]

Before we became premium members I used this system, which worked "fairly well" was fairly low-tech, and used a little less paper than just printing out stacks of cache pages

 

We chose an area we wanted to visit, and decided how much time we would have to cache. (I was always over-optimistic about this, but hey....).

 

I located the one cache that I most wanted to do while I was there, and selected that page. Then I printed out the map that showed the nearest caches by number and the list of caches. This part took some tinkering, and I often changed my mind about which nearby caches I really wanted to do--but after a bit I got good at centering the map where it would be really useful.

 

I copied and pasted the list of caches into my word processing program, tinkered with it so it fit on the number of pages I was willing to print, and printed that out. My program allows me to keep the symbols for the type of cache and the difficulty/terrain.

 

I looked through all of the cache pages and on the printed list I made notes about the coords (parking cords too, when available) the hints, and any helpful advice that I saw in logs. I wrote the coords on the left side of the page so I could try it without the hints etc first and then refer to them if I needed them.

 

When Buxley's was working, I used it to locate caches I might want to find along the way to my main target, as well. I did a frustrating click and search method to do the same after Buxley's was shut down--but that involved printing out multiple maps sometimes. Now that Buxley's is up again I use it again now and then just because it is fast and I am a visual person.

 

Any time I needed a map or an image of something, I copied it into my email program and printed off just the image, then wrote on the page to identify it. Sometimes I would need several small maps and I could fit them on one page. I could also have done that by saving the image to my machine and running it through one of my image processing programs, but I only found one image that required that much effort (a statue that had to be matched to another image).

 

The only real drawback to the method was entering all the coords by hand. I admit that my dyslexia caused me to make an error or two along the way. Other people have already suggested ways to avoid that problem.

 

The whole process took some time, but I enjoyed it and it helped me to look forward to the outings. It wasn't a great method for those days when we decided on the spur of the moment to go out --especially on the weekends when the server is busy--because I am on dial up and even with a fast machine, I can only open pages so fast. I recommend late night middle of the week for this method!

 

I am glad that we opted for membership. In about 15 minutes I can have ALL of the data for 100 caches near a location loaded into both GPS units and both PDAs. With my old method, it took me an evening to get all the info ready for 20 or 30 caches. Buit the pre-membership method did work, it was just super frustrating when we changed our plans to go to that spot ---I felt like I had wasted a lot of time.

 

One advantage to the paper method was that I could use the paper to write down any trades we made at the caches or any notes about cache condition right next to the cache information. That helped a lot when we were writing up our online logs. Nowdays we make a running list as we visit each cache, either on paper or on one of the PDAs and somehow it seems like a nuisance to have to keep finding that page to make a new note.

[+hydee]

OK folks, I realize it's tough and the temptation is high... but PLEASE stay on topic.  This thread is about the comparing notes on geocaching without paying the 10 cents a day.  Everyone is already aware of the benefits of premium membership.

 

Thank you.

Just what we need...the topic police.

Topic police are not needed but forum moderators are. Thanks Moose Mob for volunteering as a moderator and helping to keep a happy community.

[bogleman]

I have been a Non-premium member for about a year now, this should change in the near future - I use the site enough I think it's time to throw the dog a bone.

 

As for tips - KISS - I visit the site find the cache(s) that I think I can find then enter everything into the GPS by hand. I have used small post-it-notes for hints/ect. This works fairly good for me, the most I ever found in one shot was 13 (2 DNF). The pocket CPU with wireless internet is looking really good, hot spots are everywhere - mabye if I'm really good Santa will hook me up.

[vagabond]

Here is a little program you can use if you want to use a pda, I;ve used it in the past and it very helpful.

 

geoclipping

[Bjornian]

I promised myself the first day I saw this site. I would pay when I averaged 2 caches a week for one month (so did 8 caches in a month). I haven't reached that yet.

[+budd-rdc]

I promised myself the first day I saw this site. I would pay when I averaged 2 caches a week for one month (so did 8 caches in a month). I haven't reached that yet.

Based on my experience, it didn't quite work out that way. Premium Member features made my Geocaching experience significantly more convenient, especially in reducing preparation time before I left the house. The cache density is high enough in my area that my find count per week didn't change all that much after PM.

 

The fun factor doesn't change either.

[+geoclam]

Quote:

Not all of us are Premium members yet, some of us will become members and some of us will stay non-paying members. But for those of us who cache without the benefit of PQ's, let's post some ideas and methods to organize caches until we spring for premium membership. This should also help newer members who are leery of becoming a paying member just yet, but still want to learn how to find, display, and get their info into a manageable format

 

I'm a complete noob.

Not even gone out on my first hunt (that will happen this Saturday).

However - I am excited by this sport.

Did not hesitato to spend my 30 bucks to help support a group that has attracted my interest.

Why not just spend a few dollars?

Especially, if you've already paid for a GPSr.

Why are you reluctant to support this community?

Geeezeee...

It's only a coupl'a big mac meals (supersized) or a few Latte Grande.

[+welch]

Getting back on topic...

 

"downloading and converting .loc files"

What/why are you converting .Loc files to? EasyGPS (and probably others) can open, merge and save them, and also upload loc to a gps. (I'm assuming you have a gps cable, which is very useful even if your not a 'premium' member)

[+Hynr]

For those who don't understand the reason for the thread, look at the OP's profile and you can probably figure it out. Anyway, it is an interesting question that many have when they start geocaching or if they are on a limited budget.

 

Here are some tricks that I recall from the days when I was doing it with minimal financial investment:

 

Reducing paper/ink/toner: display cachepages with the "printer friendly" setting and resize the browser screen to minimize wasted white-space; grab the browser window with Alt-Printscreen (this is with Windows), open a wordprocessor, format page to landscape and drop this image onto half (or use portrait layout and put it into a quarter) of the page. Repeat and you can get 2 (or 4 cache pages) per printed page.

 

Cache data management: EasyGPS is pretty minimal; go with GSAK - it does much more. It is designed to handle full gpx files, but can easily also handle LOC files. These can be accumulated into a database. In addition to allowing you to load this database into your gps (the way that EasyGPS does), this also allows you to create a gpx file that can drop into Google Earth (which is free mapping). It does all the GPSBabel stuff for you. GSAK will run without cost to you if you are willing to put up with the nagging. If you ever go whole-hog into geocaching, this will probably be your tool of choice, so getting to know it early is a good thing.

 

To print a listing of a day's worth of geocaching before heading out: EasyGPS and GSAK show nicely on the screen but the printout is never quite that nice. Display with either software what you want to see on paper (resize window to show only what you want) and then use Alt-Printscreen to grab what you see. Paste into a wordprocessor or graphics software and print that out. It ends up compact on one page.

 

If you go caching with sheets you printed out more than a few days earlier, be sure to compare each one to the actual web page to check: (1) has it been disabled or archived? and (2) have the coordinates, difficulty and terrain changed?

[+wandererrob]

if you don't mind the emails, you can add caches of interest to your watchlist for future reference.

 

Other than that I just randomly did searches in the area I was heading, chose those that looked interesting and printed out those few.

[ju66l3r]

I find that I never go after enough caches at any one time to make printing or PQs necessary.

 

I also find that most caches can be boiled down to the important pieces in about a third of a piece of paper (and that's leaving plenty of room for notes and things). I have a notebook that I then add all of my info into, including driving directions, nearest cross-streets, and so on. Anything I need to obtain while caching (like puzzle info, etc) gets short-handed into the notebook as well.

 

I'm only using a yellow Etrex and have become fairly adept at punching in the coords. I also end up using the first 3-5 letters of the cache or most important word in the cache name for the title (instead of the GC#).

 

All told, I use no ink (other than my pen) and no whole sheets of paper (other than what's in the notebook) and rely on the logging features of GC.com to hold all of my records other than the checkmarks in my notebook. I'm a very tech-saavy and gadget-loving guy, but when it comes to geocaching, I find it works best for me when I don't get too plugged in.

 

The only thing I have ended up dealing with, with some difficulty, when caching in this manner is the clues/hints. Rather than copy out the encrypted letters, I either have to decode them before leaving (which can often spoil a good cache depending on the detail/quality of the clues) OR what I've gotten used to doing since having a web-enabled phone is to access the cache page via WAP (and now my Treo will even just go to GC.com) and reading the clues online if I am truly stuck.

[lost02]

We have an iFinder and a Palm m515 and cache paperless.

 

We download complete cache pages to the Palm and view them with Plucker. We sometimes also download the Google Map Hybrid view to help get to the cache.

 

For co-ordinates we use GDM6 - the free mapping software from Lowrance. It displays the co-ordinates on our PC and saves them to the PCs hard disk or to the SD card. To get the .loc files into GDM6 I wrote a small little program the converts .loc files to .txt files which can be imported into GDM6.

 

When going out to cache we look on the map in GDM6, pick an area, and head off to the first cache. Once found/not found we head to the next closest one as calculated in the GPSr.

[+CoastieGeorge]

check out the stuff with google earth. I have no idea how to do it, but my friend does. It is so cool. plan the trip that way...

[+jimmyreno]

>>>>>>I load my .loc files one at a time, combine them with EasyGPS companion

 

If you haven't edited the loc files the easiest way to combine them is use the DOS copy command to concatenate them.

e.g.

c:> copy *.loc all

then rename all, all.loc

 

EasyGPS saves files in a nonstandard format, which in some ways ruins them.

Edited November 7, 2005 by jimmyreno

[Looking for Treasures]

Geocaching is a really cool sport, as it can be done at so many different levels. It started out for us as a free family sport, not even having a gps, but using the clues in the logs to find the caches. We would use the maps to get us close to the cache, then turn the kids loose to find it! With all the new gadgits today geocaching can be as fun a sport as you want it to be. From low tech to high tech its just as fun as you make it.

[ParentsofSAM]

We are not PM's and I was hopeing thios thread would answer some of my questions too.

 

We would like to know how do we go paperless with a Palm IIIe and a Magellian Explorist 100. We can not do pocket queries or download waypoints to our GPS. Any hints or tips for us.....

[+Jeep_Dog]

We would like to know how do we go paperless with a Palm IIIe and a Magellian Explorist 100. We can not do pocket queries or download waypoints to our GPS. Any hints or tips for us.....

Sure, since you can still nab the .loc files. You can use several of the programs found on GC's resources page and manually enter pertinent data from the cache pages into the third party program, then send them to your PDA.

 

Plus, an added benefit to this is after you have done all this manual work and cut/paste operations, you stand a better chance of memorizing the cache details, not needing to reference your PDA and saving on batteries.

[+welch]

We would like to know how do we go paperless with a Palm IIIe and a Magellian Explorist 100. We can not do pocket queries or download waypoints to our GPS. Any hints or tips for us.....

I don't think that gps model has a connection port, so your not going to be able to upload/download waypoints.

[+PanamaJack]

The biggest benefit of membership are without a doubt, the GPX files. I usually pay for month memberships whenever I'm about to take extended trips to get GPX files for the new area. That happens about three times a year. In between, I update my local area GPX file with the updates I receive weekly. I use GSAK to add the new caches to my original file and save an updated GPX file for my PocketPC as well as an updated mapsend file for my GPS. Lately, I've also been saving a loc file to drop into Google Earth.

 

With this method, I get memberships every three or four month and my local area data stays fairly updated. I don't have access to current logs but the ones I have are at worth, four months old.

[ParentsofSAM]

Ok we broke down and spend the $$ for the PM so now I can get the special querys.....now if we could only figure out to get them on to the pda, we would be set to go paperless

[+ByrnedFish]

ive been caching without PM for 4 months and was getting frusterated and about to get it when google earth came out. On google earth i have turned on major raods and parks. This outlines the parks in green and shows the raods as red lines and labels them. With this you can easily find all the caches in a single park or the caches near the roads you will be traveling on. in cities you can zoom in and even see what buildings the cahces are near. Google Earth has made it so i dont feel it necessary to buy a PM anymore, as there are very few MOC in my area. The only upgrade i would consider is getting a GPS that can hook up to teh computer so you can downlaod the waypoints. I am still entering tehm by hand, which is tedious and has resulted in having the wrong coords and not finding the cache. I also tend to print out all the sheets on the caches and keeping them in a binder that i bring along. I can then takes notes on tehm and pass them on to my geocaching friends if they need help.

[+Airmapper]

Here lately I have been printing out a list of GC# and then hand printing notes for each one, just enough to let me know how hard it is. If it's a multi or a puzzle, I'll usually print out the whole page.

 

And of course I load all the caches I've selected to the GPS.

[+dougsmiley]

Heres a free method. Probaly want to use the "Printable" webpages with it.

 

Install Pluckthis for firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/morei...ication=firefox

 

Install JPluck:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jpluck/...up.exe?download

 

Install Plucker on Palm Device:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/plucker...onhires-1.8.zip

 

Open Jpluck, right click on the printable cache page (w/ or w/out logs) and click pluckthis, make sure to check "convert now" and select your hotsync in the prefrences, hotsync, and you should have all the files that were in the pluckthis window.

 

As of now, I can't get it to see me as logged in and view the coordinates. I'm working on a solution for that..

 

Enjoy! I use an old Visor Edge.

 

Edit: More info

 

Edit 2: Found a solution to the problem. Set your firefox "cookies.txt" in the jpluck preferences and you appear as logged in. The nice thing is, you can set it to update the pages, and should a cache go missing, you can see the latest logs, provided you hotsync reguarly.

 

Edit 3:Wow. These files are small. I reckon I could store 1500 local caches on my 8mb palm.

Edited December 6, 2005 by dougsmiley

[+bwmick]

I admit it, I like maps, my GPS has a data cable and I like to play with any gadgits that others are dumb enough to let me tinker with. having said that before I found PQ's, gsak and cachemate I used to do the old fashioned copy and paste into mapsource for the caches I thought I would like to try. benefits of this were that mapsource could create a route between the selected caches. It was a little time consuming, but as I said in my origional statement. I like maps.

 

As far as the pages go, initially I printed them out, and was just starting to look into printing multiple pages on one printed page when I went paperless. Had the pda might as well have another reason to play with it.

 

google earth is a very nice way to look at the layout of caches on a nicely detailed map. it has been said that you can't take it too seriously for placement though as the points seem to float a bit.

 

not real helpful but it's what I did.

 

Bwmick

[+ToTheSummit]

I've only been at it less then a month. I haven't sprung for the PM yet just because I am concentrating on learning one thing at a time. I wanted to first get comfortable using my GPSr. And secondly I am learning how to use the software I got with it.

 

I have a Magellan unit and I gotta say that I love the Mapsend Topo 3D software. I just print out the top page for each cache that I'm going to visit (a little research and I can figure out where I'm going and which caches I want to hit) and then I go into Mapsend and manually create waypoints for each cache. Then a quick print gives me a topo map of the area I'm going with each cache pinpointed. I then just map out a route in my head and off I go.

 

This system works well for me because I have been using topo maps all my life and I still feel funny not having a paper map to pull out and look at. But my next step will be to start eliminating the paper and putting all info on my GPSr. This is where I will now be getting a premium membership and start taking advantage of its features. I'll be paperless-caching in no time!

[+GZseeker]

Hi- I have been caching about a year. I travel full time in an RV, so internet access is frequently not readily available. Many RV parks have added WIFI, but many remain without. This also means I frequently am with my laptop at the RV park office with out a printer available and connected at 21-28kbps.

I use EasyGPS to download all 20 caches on a summary page after changing my 'home locatin' lat/long to the current location, then go to the next page for the next 20, download, etc. Each download creates a new 'tab' in EasyGPS. I combine all the cache info on the 'tab's (ctrl-a, plus ctrl-c, select a master tab, ctrl-v to paste those 20 onto the master tab). When all info is combined on a master tab I save it. Later at the RV, I send this .LOC file to the Garmin eTrex GPS from the laptop usb port still using EasyGPS. While still connected to the internet at the office, I also go to cache detail pages and with IExplorer, I save each page to a GPSCache folder in My Documents. Back at the RV, I review these and select some for a visit. If they are close to roads I frequently just take the laptop along and use an Inverter in the vehicle for PC AC power. Other times I print some out.

If I will be at one location for a while I download a lot of them to the PC, delete those I can not readily do or not interested in and sort them by geo-locations into sub-folders of My Document/GPSCache folder (like N, S, E, W, foothills, downtown, etc).

What I am really looking for is a way to download all the cache detail pages, like I do the waypoints on the summary page, at one time. I was using IDM (Internet Download Manager- a very handy tool to have for many things) but the summary page has changed -if you open a detail page in a 'New Window' gc.com treats it as 'not logged in'. So you do not get the map and other details for the 'detail' page. That is what I get now with IDM- no details.

Any help out there??

[+hotshoe]

We don't have any high-tech toys besides the cheapest possible GPS. A VERY old Mac computer, and, naturally, dialup. Sometimes it's better to work at the public library.

We don't travel much, so it's always possible to be prepared in advance if we are going to be someplace interesting. I save cachepage to word-processing files, additionally typing in whatever map info, etc, I predict we might need. These get edited and printed out 4 to a sheet of paper. The pages sort into manila folders - you could use a looseleaf binder - depending on the direction from home generally North West or South (no East for us). Within the directions, sort by approximate distance from home. Input all cache coords to the GPS, labeling with meaningful names; jot note on the cache printout cross-referencing the GPS label. We have a couple hundred caches loaded this way, including every cache unfound in about 25mile radius. As we find them, delete coords from GPS, of course, and cross off from paper listing. (Recycle paper when all 4 found) Check website for caches that have been temporarily disabled, note those on their printouts (takes about one minute per week), and add new ones, if any, in our "neighborhood". Whenever out and about, have an idea from map if there are any caches nearby, then turn on the GPS to check nearest (which of course is nearest cache already input, not necessarily the nearest actual cache - no instant notification.) People say you can't use old printouts because coords might be changed; that just hasn't happened to us. Our DNF's so far have all been caches which are still where they're supposed to be, just not found by us. It all works out OK.

[+epd1]

I don't even have a real gps yet... but I will get one eventually. I just use an iphone. Because I didn't upgrade to ios7 or ios6, I first downloaded the old Geocaching Intro app. That app is way better than the new geocaching intro because the old one limits the amount of geocaches you can find. Once I had the old one downloaded, ios7 came out and I got it. But I just never updated the Geocaching Intro app. While you can only find Traditional 1 to 2 stars difficulty terrain, most geocaches are within that range (at least where I live). For all other geocaches, I use MotionXGps and hand punch in the coordinates and print out the info of the cache. So for me, geocaching costs $2.99 (that was the cost of MotionXGps) which is way cheaper than the $10 geocaching app and it is more accurate.) So downgrade to ios5 for a bit and download the old geocaching app, then spend 3 bucks to get MotionXGps.

[+cheech gang]

We don't have any high-tech toys besides the cheapest possible GPS. A VERY old Mac computer, and, naturally, dialup. Sometimes it's better to work at the public library.

We don't travel much, so it's always possible to be prepared in advance if we are going to be someplace interesting. I save cachepage to word-processing files, additionally typing in whatever map info, etc, I predict we might need. These get edited and printed out 4 to a sheet of paper. The pages sort into manila folders - you could use a looseleaf binder - depending on the direction from home generally North West or South (no East for us). Within the directions, sort by approximate distance from home. Input all cache coords to the GPS, labeling with meaningful names; jot note on the cache printout cross-referencing the GPS label. We have a couple hundred caches loaded this way, including every cache unfound in about 25mile radius. As we find them, delete coords from GPS, of course, and cross off from paper listing. (Recycle paper when all 4 found) Check website for caches that have been temporarily disabled, note those on their printouts (takes about one minute per week), and add new ones, if any, in our "neighborhood". Whenever out and about, have an idea from map if there are any caches nearby, then turn on the GPS to check nearest (which of course is nearest cache already input, not necessarily the nearest actual cache - no instant notification.) People say you can't use old printouts because coords might be changed; that just hasn't happened to us. Our DNF's so far have all been caches which are still where they're supposed to be, just not found by us. It all works out OK.

 

Your last 5 words are what is important. This has worked out great for you for 10 years, so just keep on havin' fun!

[Pup Patrol]

We don't have any high-tech toys besides the cheapest possible GPS. A VERY old Mac computer, and, naturally, dialup. Sometimes it's better to work at the public library.

We don't travel much, so it's always possible to be prepared in advance if we are going to be someplace interesting. I save cachepage to word-processing files, additionally typing in whatever map info, etc, I predict we might need. These get edited and printed out 4 to a sheet of paper. The pages sort into manila folders - you could use a looseleaf binder - depending on the direction from home generally North West or South (no East for us). Within the directions, sort by approximate distance from home. Input all cache coords to the GPS, labeling with meaningful names; jot note on the cache printout cross-referencing the GPS label. We have a couple hundred caches loaded this way, including every cache unfound in about 25mile radius. As we find them, delete coords from GPS, of course, and cross off from paper listing. (Recycle paper when all 4 found) Check website for caches that have been temporarily disabled, note those on their printouts (takes about one minute per week), and add new ones, if any, in our "neighborhood". Whenever out and about, have an idea from map if there are any caches nearby, then turn on the GPS to check nearest (which of course is nearest cache already input, not necessarily the nearest actual cache - no instant notification.) People say you can't use old printouts because coords might be changed; that just hasn't happened to us. Our DNF's so far have all been caches which are still where they're supposed to be, just not found by us. It all works out OK.

 

Your last 5 words are what is important. This has worked out great for you for 10 years, so just keep on havin' fun!

 

One wonders if hotshoe is still caching the same way, 8 years later.

 

 

B.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Pup Patrol

[+cheech gang]

We don't have any high-tech toys besides the cheapest possible GPS. A VERY old Mac computer, and, naturally, dialup. Sometimes it's better to work at the public library.

We don't travel much, so it's always possible to be prepared in advance if we are going to be someplace interesting. I save cachepage to word-processing files, additionally typing in whatever map info, etc, I predict we might need. These get edited and printed out 4 to a sheet of paper. The pages sort into manila folders - you could use a looseleaf binder - depending on the direction from home generally North West or South (no East for us). Within the directions, sort by approximate distance from home. Input all cache coords to the GPS, labeling with meaningful names; jot note on the cache printout cross-referencing the GPS label. We have a couple hundred caches loaded this way, including every cache unfound in about 25mile radius. As we find them, delete coords from GPS, of course, and cross off from paper listing. (Recycle paper when all 4 found) Check website for caches that have been temporarily disabled, note those on their printouts (takes about one minute per week), and add new ones, if any, in our "neighborhood". Whenever out and about, have an idea from map if there are any caches nearby, then turn on the GPS to check nearest (which of course is nearest cache already input, not necessarily the nearest actual cache - no instant notification.) People say you can't use old printouts because coords might be changed; that just hasn't happened to us. Our DNF's so far have all been caches which are still where they're supposed to be, just not found by us. It all works out OK.

 

Your last 5 words are what is important. This has worked out great for you for 10 years, so just keep on havin' fun!

 

One wonders if hotshoe is still caching the same way, 8 years later.

 

 

B.

 

OOPS! I didn't notice this was a zombie thread (the title seemed so familiar). My bad.

Edited November 3, 2013 by cheech gang

[NottheMuggle]

So I'm fairly new to the hunt, only having 14 traditionals, 1 virtual, and 2 events, but I found using the c:geo app to be a big help. I haven't had to print anything off since it has all the relevant info (coords, detail, description, etc) as well as a live map and a few other features that don't require being a premium member.

 

As for my hunting methods, I first look at my map (either on the app or my laptop) and break up the area into zones. When it's time to hunt, I pick a zone and go.

 

Unless you're confident in your powers of observation, I also recommend hunting with a friend. From the caches that I've found, some of them are easy to miss as a novice, especially if they're 3 stars or more in difficulty.

 

Good hunting.