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I've been doing this wrong the whole time?


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Ever since my first caching experience in March 2004, I have apparently been caching the hard way.

 

Well, two years, 3 GPS's, 250 smileys and a load of headaches, I finally figured out how to enter in the coords correctly with the GoTo button and the arrow and all that stuff. And it was from a topic in the Getting forums I read tonight that corrected me. Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :laughing:

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

Edited by ElectricBird
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Ever since my first caching experience in March 2004, I have apparently been caching the hard way.

 

Well, two years, 3 GPS's, 250 smileys and a load of headaches, I finally figured out how to enter in the coords correctly with the GoTo button and the arrow and all that stuff. And it was from a topic in the Getting forums I read tonight that corrected me. Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :laughing:

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

 

I have to say that I admire your honesty. :laughing: I heard of that being done, but I have never done it. The first thing I did was read my manual, when I got my GPS.

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Ever since my first caching experience in March 2004, I have apparently been caching the hard way.

 

Well, two years, 3 GPS's, 250 smileys and a load of headaches, I finally figured out how to enter in the coords correctly with the GoTo button and the arrow and all that stuff. And it was from a topic in the Getting forums I read tonight that corrected me. Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :laughing:

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

 

I admit, that's how we did it too for the first few weeks. I think it's kind of good, because it gives you sense of how the coord works, so now when the arrow is all a flitter, I can ignore it and just watch the numbers.

 

We do things the easy way now though!

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Well, I think we geocaching the old fashioned way: we print up the cache page and the map page and take it with us. We don't download the caches into the GPS, in fact I am not if we can, our GPS Megellan Sportrack is about just over three years old.

 

We like reading the description and possibly the hint if necessary.

 

We do recycle them though.

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I know of a geocaching couple who at least back when they were at 4,000 finds had found all their caches that way and even preferred that method over the arrow. I've heard rumors that they've converted to the arrow since then, but I don't believe it. He was pretty adamant about the numbers being better and easier than the arrow method.

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Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :laughing:

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

 

I used my GPS enabled cell phone in this way to find my first few caches. The phone would only show my current coordinates, then only if I hit the button to update them. No arrow to point the way or other wise store waypoints.

 

To get the phone to work like a regular GPS meant that I had to pay an extra $10 to $15 to the cell phone company. I said no thanks and continued to find caches this way until I purchased my Magellan.

 

My very first find was a multi with a 35MM film can as the first waypoint. Looking back I am a bit surprised I found it using that phone.

 

Jim

Kc8bdr

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Ever since my first caching experience in March 2004, I have apparently been caching the hard way.

 

Well, two years, 3 GPS's, 250 smileys and a load of headaches, I finally figured out how to enter in the coords correctly with the GoTo button and the arrow and all that stuff. And it was from a topic in the Getting forums I read tonight that corrected me. Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :laughing:

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

 

I did for the first two or three caches I found. Gotta give you credit sticking with geocaching for 250 finds by matching coordinates. Its not an easy way to do it.

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nah, figured out how to download coordinates and use the map on my gpsr my first shot.

 

though I did just discover a week ago that mouseover on an image on a log at geocaching.com shows a popup thumbnail of the image.

 

Wow, that works in Firefox. Not so well in IE7 (I only get the left side of the image, but then, many things don't work with IE7). I just discovered recently that a cache page has a map on it in some browsers without having to click on one of the map options. I visited my mother and viewed cache pages on her computer. Each one had a map on it. None do on my computer in IE7, Firefox, or Opera. I have a big white spot where she had a map.

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When we first started caching, we did that for the first time out, and realized there had to be an easier way. I spent a day reading the manual (argh!) and the forums here and figured out how to get the cords into the gps.

 

A couple of trips out later, we ran into a couple who had been caching for a year or two. They had the same gps and asked us if we knew how to put coords in the gps. We told them we did, and they asked us to please show them!

 

So no, you aren't alone. You do have a lot of perseverance though!

 

That's a lot of caches to find via the "drunken sailor stroll" (that's what we called the way we felt walking this way and that trying to get the cords to match up).

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Ever since my first caching experience in March 2004, I have apparently been caching the hard way.

 

Well, two years, 3 GPS's, 250 smileys and a load of headaches, I finally figured out how to enter in the coords correctly with the GoTo button and the arrow and all that stuff. And it was from a topic in the Getting forums I read tonight that corrected me. Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :laughing:

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

I used to use that method, but not because I didn't know how to use the navigation screen. My old GPS II would only show distances to 1/100th of a mile (53 feet). So the only way to determine when you've hit GZ is by looking at the current coordinates.

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Ever since my first caching experience in March 2004, I have apparently been caching the hard way.

 

Well, two years, 3 GPS's, 250 smileys and a load of headaches, I finally figured out how to enter in the coords correctly with the GoTo button and the arrow and all that stuff. And it was from a topic in the Getting forums I read tonight that corrected me. Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :laughing:

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

 

In did my first few caches like that and it didn't work out so good. I even brought a compass along so I could have this conversation with myself...

 

"Ok, I'm at XX.XXX which is right on, but I need to go XXX minutes West, so here's west....ok off we go...oh crap....river....uhhh...."

 

Then I discovered the Find'n'go feature and now I can say..."oh hey 190 feet at 167 degrees....Boy this is a lot easier...."

 

--MGb

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Ever since my first caching experience in March 2004, I have apparently been caching the hard way.

 

Well, two years, 3 GPS's, 250 smileys and a load of headaches, I finally figured out how to enter in the coords correctly with the GoTo button and the arrow and all that stuff. And it was from a topic in the Getting forums I read tonight that corrected me. Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :)

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

 

I did for the first two or three caches I found. Gotta give you credit sticking with geocaching for 250 finds by matching coordinates. Its not an easy way to do it.

 

Same here, probably the first 2 or 3 caches. I had a extremely cheapie little Garmin Gecko. How did the OP never get lost in the woods using that method? :D

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I used to always use the "highway" page to find my caches in my first Garmin. It works good if you can go straight to the cache. It doesn't work as well when you are following streets and having to make turns. It's definitely easier than watching numbers change but not as easy as watching an arrow. I finally found where i could change the screen to follow an arrow and i've never looked back.

 

I have seen several people use the arrow to get near the cache, then switch to watching the coordinates to zero out. Either way will work but i'm not sure why they don't realize that following the arrow and zeroing out on the distance does the same thing, only alot easier.

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Since I dump all my coordinates into the GPSr with GSAK, I use a 3-part approach. First, I use the "navigate on roads" function to get me parked reasonably close, then the "navigate off-road" function and follow the arrow to the general area of the cache. Then sometimes I'll keep watching the arrow, other times I'll use the actual coordinates and "be the arrow" myself. That last bit depends on how well my mental image of compass orientation matches reality. Sometimes the terrain is such that I can't keep an accurate notion of where north is in my head, so I stick with the arrow. If I have a clear landmark that lets me orient my mental compass, the numbers are often better than the GPSr arrow.

 

The hard part, of course, is to stop looking at the GPSr and start looking for the cache. I spent 45 minutes, in 20 degree weather, in dark snow-covered woods last night looking for a cache, and at least part of the problem was that I kept staring at the screen, not the surroundings.

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I follow/match up the coords. AND I LIKE IT BETTER! :) By matching up the coords, along with a compass, I can pinpoint & project exactly where the cache is. :D

 

I can tell just how far N.,S.,E., or W I need to go by adding/subtracting what GZ is from what the GPSr screen reads.

 

ie....If the cache is at

N 41.33.500 W073.33.500, and the GPSr says I'm currently at ...

 

N 41.33.100 W073.33.600, then I know I need to go ....

 

North 400, and East 100 .... I check my compass & see which way more North. Chances are there is a trail that goes mostly north, and will probably turn a bit east.

 

I find this method really, really helps in areas of bounce or lost signal; I've already projected how far I need to go in one direction.

 

Try it, you just may like it!

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well, can someone please explain what this all means? i'm not sure if i am doing it the hard way or not. i could not understand the original post as far as which way they were doing it before compared to how they are doing it now. sorry for my ignorance, but i'd really like to know.

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Ever since my first caching experience in March 2004, I have apparently been caching the hard way.

some stuff deleted . . .

forums I read tonight that corrected me. Since I started, I had just gone to the page on my Magellan Explorist that showed the coords and matched them to the coords to the ones on the piece of paper. Apparently I could've made it much easier! :ph34r:

 

Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

 

ElectricBird,

 

I started out geocaching that exact same way for the first couple of geocaches. Don't remember how I figured out that I was doing it the hard way . . . may have been when I returned my Lowrance iFinder and bought an ETrex Legend and read the manual. The second seemed to be much more user friendly.

 

JohnTee

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Oh Well. Does anybody else use my method?

Yes, I did that for about my first 20 or so caches. Then one night I discover how to enter the coords into the GPSr, the GoTo button, the arrow and all that stuff. :ph34r: It was great and I use the arrow ever sense. But I have to say that, I am impress: because of the fact that you did that for two years. :ph34r:

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I did that for my first cache. I have a Garmin eTrex Vista and it displays the coordinates on the same screen as the compass. When the compass was going all over the place, I just followed the coordinates until I got to the ones I needed. I haven't done that again though. Mind you, I only have 9 finds so far.

 

June

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That was too funny...sorry...had to laugh. But, sometimes when the GPSr won't settle down very near the cache site, I'll switch to that view & use the numbers to pinpoint it. Sometimes that works better than the arrow when you have rotten sat reception - don't know why.

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Um I still do that, lol. Almost 500 finds and Ive either just walked towards the coordinates or entered them manually sometimes. (I dont have the cable for the Venture)

 

I just bought a new Legend Cx but I can't figure out how to send the PQ to the thing with the cable so looks like I'll still be doing it manually.

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This is how I locate my finds, using my Magellen SportMap.

I don't use the arrow or the updating coordinates screen. Instead I use the map screen which showes position on the earth's surface, relitive to all other hand entered waypoints (still very much a paperful cacher). I use the 'go-to' feature, and have position error and distance in the info feilds. I then look back and forth from 'reality' and my GPSr screen to see where I need to go and try to visulize where GZ is in relation to where I am. As i get closer to GZ I keep zooming in untill i get to the 100feet screen and then start the true search.

Just the way I go about it...

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I have used a map and compass to Geocache. There is no rule that states you have to use a GPSr. Of course, I am a firm believer that a person should be able to use a map and compass before learning how to use a GPSr, you never know when the GPSr could give out and leave you stranded in the deeps woods.

 

Don’t worry about how you use your GPSr. In the long run, you probably have a better understanding of coords.

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