Other activities

[oldtool53]

Hi,

 

I am new to this geocaching stuff and was wondering what other activities that you folks may combine with or include with your hunts. So far I see hiking of course, kayaking, metal detecting and even mushroom hunting.

 

Mark

[groundhog123]

Hi,

 

I am new to this geocaching stuff and was wondering what other activities that you folks may combine with or include with your hunts. So far I see hiking of course, kayaking, metal detecting and even mushroom hunting.

 

Mark

 

Well, lets see......I have hunted caches while bicycling, bacpacking/hiking, camping, kayaking. I have not hunted a cache while involved in the newest sport I just took up..............sailing catamarans. Maybe someday. I really want to place a cache now that will have to be found by doing one of the above more strenuous activities and not really be able to simply walk to. I enjoy making caches much more of a physical challenge. My last placed cache is about a 3 1/2 mile round trip walk but can be grabbed much quicker by bicycle.

[+cache_test_dummies]

Waymarking.

[+Kit Fox]

1. Peakbagging
   
2. Aviation Archeology
   
3. Hiking
   
4. Hunting / Fishing
   

[+Harry Dolphin]

Sight seeing

Travel

Benchmarking

Rest stops on major highways.

 

Went to Philly to see King Tut, and found four caches and a benchmark.

Went to Maine to visit my sister, and found one benchmark and one cache in Connecticut, five of each in Rhode Island, about the same in New Hampshire, and four rest stops on the Mass Pike on the way home.

Found some great places!

[bogleman]

benchmarks (better hints & they don't move)

hunting

nosing around

[+Blaidd-Drwg]

Shopping (often for outdoor items for use in caching)

Fun time with friends (going as a group or to events)

Dining. (It's hard to do a day of caching without a good meal being involved)

Travel (OK, so I usually add caching into travel, but they do go together well)

[+Confucius' Cat]

Photography (of course)

 

 

 

[+Too Tall John]

Aside from those mentioned:

• Birdwatching
  
• Rock hounding
  
• Shopping
  
• Letterboxing
  
• Working (sometimes I get to take people caching as part of my job)
  
• X.C. Skiing/Snowshoeing
  
• Off Roading
  

I especially liked Harry Dolphin's suggestion of sightseeing. If you're in an unfamiliar area, who better to show you some cool spots than a geocacher who lives in the area?

Edited October 25, 2007 by Too Tall John

[+Roaring_Fork]

Fly Fishing while Geocaching. Either way I get to find or catch the something

[+Confucius' Cat]

Fly Fishing while Geocaching. Either way I get to find or catch the something

I might have kept fishing if I would have ever actually CAUGHT one

[+Rattlebars]

Besides the typical hiking, pic taking, sightseeing which really don't need mentioned. Only maybe some unusual ones? I have a cache ( GCXKKQ ) that is EASILY accessible with a canoe, but really hard overland. So, canoeing (but I haven't found one with the canoe yet).

 

Then there's this.....

 

[+JamGuys]

"what other activities that you folks may combine with or include with your hunts"

Work cutting, yard ignoring, wife pleading, cop explaining, muggle swearing, thorn bleeding, tick flicking, bushwhacking, the list goes on .........

[knowschad]

Spray painting, woodworking, epoxy putty molding, matchstick container disguising, getting lost, getting found, mushroom hunting, creative writing... I guess that's enough.

 

I used to have a pretty nice lawn.

[+Ambrosia]

It's amazing how many things you can combine with geocaching. I wouldn't even try to list them all. It's a way of life, basically, and I can combing caching with pretty much every aspect of my life.

[+Snoogans]

It's amazing how many things you can combine with geocaching. I wouldn't even try to list them all. It's a way of life, basically, and I can combine caching with pretty much every aspect of my life.

 

Yep. Me too.

 

My wife doesn't really appreciate that about me. But she keeps me in check, so that's a good thing..... At least she tells me it is....

[+Dgwphotos]

I will often stop and do a cache or two if I am heading to buy photo supplies. I have also discovered spots to photograph while geocaching. This summer, I visited a ghost town known as Franklin while geocaching, and I realized it would make for a good photographic subject.

 

I went back later and took these:

 

 

 

The cache is Black (Diamonds) to Dust II

[+Ambrosia]

It's amazing how many things you can combine with geocaching. I wouldn't even try to list them all. It's a way of life, basically, and I can combine caching with pretty much every aspect of my life.

 

Yep. Me too.

 

My wife doesn't really appreciate that about me. But she keeps me in check, so that's a good thing..... At least she tells me it is....

Ditto.

[+Ambrosia]

I will often stop and do a cache or two if I am heading to buy photo supplies. I have also discovered spots to photograph while geocaching. This summer, I visited a ghost town known as Franklin while geocaching, and I realized it would make for a good photographic subject.

 

I went back later and took these:

 

 

 

The cache is Black (Diamonds) to Dust II

I had meant to mention that before, Dwoodford, that I love those pictures. Good job.

[+zenpanda]

I started spending more time with my husband & teenagers (they all love it). I can photograph the caches, waymarks, benchmarks, people, and scenery. I meet great people. I have lost weight!

 

[+Prime Suspect]

I always have a couple of rod'n'reels and my tackle box with me, in the trunk of my car. It's surprising how many caches are near good fishing spots.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Prime Suspect

[+chris2537]

Amateur radio!

[+eigengott]

Hiking, photographing, climbing, bicycling, blind dating.

[+kabads]

I collect the GPS trails and edit maps once I get home (www.openstreetmap.org). OK, so I'm not geocaching whilst creating the map, but it makes me walk a bit further when geocaching (to complete the pathway trail on my gpsr).

[+Bushlight]

Beer drinking

[+elmuyloco5]

On top of the hiking, sightseeing, and snowshoeing, we also find it helps with.....homeschooling. We use it to teach lessons in geography, math, photography, social studies (about the places we visit), and science (we do nature journaling). They've also learned alot about their state as we've traveled to almost every county now while doing our state challenge.

[+flight w/o wings]

Horseback riding

Edited October 25, 2007 by flight w/o wings

[+Travelinmatt76]

During one of my recent cache hunts I did a lot of swearing and freaking out. Like when I backed into a huge spider web I did some swearing. Then when I turned my head and saw the HUGE brown spider crawling over my shoulder I swore a whole lot more. Then I freaked out and got a bad case of the willys.

[+Draghkar]

Besides hiking... Waymarking of course and also photograhy...

[+briansnat]

I've combined hiking, canoeing, skiing, sight seeing, snowshoeing and fishing with geocaching.

[+IANNA]

Picnicing

[+ThirstyMick]

Hiking, Sightseeing, Letterboxing, Photography and Beer Drinking! When we travel we always try to find a new Brewery (or old favorite) to try something new that we can't neccessarily get at home.

[+Clothahump]

Taekwondo.

 

SWMBO and I drive to tournaments on a regular basis. I'll download caches along the route and in the area, and we'll snag a few before heading back home.

[+Dgwphotos]

I will often stop and do a cache or two if I am heading to buy photo supplies. I have also discovered spots to photograph while geocaching. This summer, I visited a ghost town known as Franklin while geocaching, and I realized it would make for a good photographic subject.

 

I went back later and took these:

 

 

 

The cache is Black (Diamonds) to Dust II

I had meant to mention that before, Dwoodford, that I love those pictures. Good job.

 

There are more that I haven't been able to print. I also plan to go back and shoot more, since I ran out of film before I got to the cemetary. Since it's hard to predict exposure because most light meters aren't sensitive to infrared, I have to bracket my exposures by giving less and more exposure than the meter suggests, and that uses up film. I only had about 5 different subjects on a 36 roll of film. It's expensive film too. It's about 11$ a roll. I also intend to shoot some at Cougar Mountain near Newcastle, another area I discovered while geocaching.

[+Too Tall John]

• Dog Walking
  
• Litter Picking
  
• Proposing(ok, I didn't do it, but...)
  
• Learning arts and craft techniques, or making them up (in designing interesting caches, or in carving a stamp for letterbox hybrids, or...)
  
• Getting lost
  
• Animal Rescue
  

Edited October 26, 2007 by Too Tall John

[+carefreehwy]

The pups and I are hikers who cache. We rarely do urban caches. Nature photography is more our thing.

[+Snoogans]

 

[*]Proposing(ok, I didn't do it, but...)

 

I did.

 

I proposed to the Snoogstress back in camp after I got done hosting the GW4 Meet-N-Greet. I was wearing a coconut bra and a Hawaiian Lei that I picked up at a now hated and reviled "pocket cache" about 10 campsites away.

 

 

Just FYI, I've never logged any pocket caches, but I would have logged that one. I'm not saying it would have been right, but just to document my Indecent Proposal is all....

[+Viajero Perdido]

Then there's orienteering - geocaching's distant cousin. (Both involve finding things hidden in the woods, after all.)

 

Oh look, there's an "O" event tonight in a park where I still haven't found those 3 new caches. So I'll go and do:

* Control 1

* Control 2

* Detour to GCABCD

* Control 3

* Big detour to GC1234

* Control 4

...

 

Done this way, it can be a challenge getting back before the course closes. (And no, I don't get a very good time. Oh well.)

[+Snoogans]

[*]Animal Rescue

 

I just remembered that I did that too.

 

Our group was waiting for our canoes to be delivered for the Floatin' Down the Crik event and it came to our attention that a stray momma dog (Lab) had been hit and killed nearby leaving 5 pups behind. Our group rescued 3 or 4 of them and other folks in the area took the rest.

 

More than one of these dogs ended up being called "Cache."

 

This is the one that rode in my canoe. He's wearing my dog's harness.

 

I thought the dog should be called "Igloo," "Iggy" for short since it stayed on top of that cooler for the whole 20 miles on the creek. I think it got named "Cache" though.

 

 

Here's another of the pups:

 

 

And another:

 

[+Ambrosia]

I will often stop and do a cache or two if I am heading to buy photo supplies. I have also discovered spots to photograph while geocaching. This summer, I visited a ghost town known as Franklin while geocaching, and I realized it would make for a good photographic subject.

 

I went back later and took these:

 

 

 

The cache is Black (Diamonds) to Dust II

I had meant to mention that before, Dwoodford, that I love those pictures. Good job.

 

There are more that I haven't been able to print. I also plan to go back and shoot more, since I ran out of film before I got to the cemetary. Since it's hard to predict exposure because most light meters aren't sensitive to infrared, I have to bracket my exposures by giving less and more exposure than the meter suggests, and that uses up film. I only had about 5 different subjects on a 36 roll of film. It's expensive film too. It's about 11$ a roll. I also intend to shoot some at Cougar Mountain near Newcastle, another area I discovered while geocaching.

Oh, boy, that brings back so many memories. I'm so glad we've changed to digital photography, I can go through 400 pictures in one session, which I couldn't even touch before. I've found that my photo skills have increased quite a bit, and I get greater satisfaction out of it.

[+TroutBum1]

How about some"Back Woods Lovin'", as mentioned in another thread?

The wife and I engage in this "activity" quite often, while fishing, hiking, and now caching. Just another excuse to go out in the middle of nowhere and have some "fun".

[+Snoogans]

How about some"Back Woods Lovin'", as mentioned in another thread?

The wife and I engage in this "activity" quite often, while fishing, hiking, and now caching. Just another excuse to go out in the middle of nowhere and have some "fun".

 

Okay, TMI.

 

Some well known local cachers bragged about their trist at my Row vs. Wade cache. Wait a minute! I just realized that was a pun and irony at the same time.

[+gravechaser]

I take coordinates for the cemeteries that we are brought to or that we stumble across.

 

The local genealogical library had abt 60 cemeteries "transcribed", which means they've been visited and the tombstone information was written down. That was last done btw 1970-1974 so I'm adding coordinates, and directions (thanks to my MapSource addition!) to their cemetery books and I mark waypoints at them so I can return to update the "newer" residents. I've added so many small family cemeteries that the library is up to 136 and going! The kids like doing this with me, we talk history, technology of the times, local relationships, etc.

 

Plus all this walking should count as working out- I've lost weight during the months that I do all this walking.

[+Jeep_Dog]

I do regular, run-of-the-mill activities:

 

1) Fly fishing

2) Hiking

3) Rock Hounding (I tumble rocks)

4) Cow tipping

5) Body disposal

[+Dgwphotos]

I will often stop and do a cache or two if I am heading to buy photo supplies. I have also discovered spots to photograph while geocaching. This summer, I visited a ghost town known as Franklin while geocaching, and I realized it would make for a good photographic subject.

 

I went back later and took these:

 

 

 

The cache is Black (Diamonds) to Dust II

I had meant to mention that before, Dwoodford, that I love those pictures. Good job.

 

There are more that I haven't been able to print. I also plan to go back and shoot more, since I ran out of film before I got to the cemetary. Since it's hard to predict exposure because most light meters aren't sensitive to infrared, I have to bracket my exposures by giving less and more exposure than the meter suggests, and that uses up film. I only had about 5 different subjects on a 36 roll of film. It's expensive film too. It's about 11$ a roll. I also intend to shoot some at Cougar Mountain near Newcastle, another area I discovered while geocaching.

Oh, boy, that brings back so many memories. I'm so glad we've changed to digital photography, I can go through 400 pictures in one session, which I couldn't even touch before. I've found that my photo skills have increased quite a bit, and I get greater satisfaction out of it.

 

I shoot about 125 photos a game when I shoot sports, which I couldn't do when I used film for sports. I do a lot of editing, so I end up using only about 10-15 shoots from the entire take. I used 3200 ISO film for sports and I miss having the high speed, since my D70 only goes up to 1600 ISO. That's the only thing that I miss about shooting film for sports. With the IR, though, digital is more expensive because you need either an expensive filter that blocks all visible light which requires a much longer exposure than the film, or a camera that is modified to take only IR photos, which makes it a single purpose camera and it costs $300+ to have the camera modified. The filter doesn't work with all cameras either. The filter I used here is only about 30-40$ (I got it free from a member of the Popphoto forums who gave away a bunch of filters) vs the IR filter, which is $125+.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Sprinting. An activity that hadn't been part of my life since college days.

 

Stepping on a ground hornets nest demonstrated to me that the years can be pealed away and that youthful spring brought back into one's step.

 

Stepping on a wild piglet got the same response - I also discovered that, like a subatomic particle, it's actually possible to spontaneously alter direction and speed without ever passing through a stopping point.

 

Something I demonstrated AGAIN the day I paddled around a bend in the small stream and realized that the obnoxious airboat noise I thought I was hearing was amorous alligators. Got that 'yak up on plane for a bit.

[+Confucius' Cat]

I'm so glad we've changed to digital photography, I can go through 400 pictures in one session, which I couldn't even touch before. I've found that my photo skills have increased quite a bit, and I get greater satisfaction out of it.

 

I too an SO glad we have digital photography. i am nowhere near a pro, but I have worked alongside a few and am privy to the pros big secret: shoot a LOT of pictures and you get a few good ones.

 

I started in photography when i was in high school, shooting for the school newspaper and the yearbook. Back in those days, colour was just not done by an amateur- even a very serious one, and school publications were WAY too cheap to have anything but B&W.

 

So I learned to process my own B&W and had a down and dirty cheap home darkroom. Still the film and chemicals were a bit costly for a 15 yr old using his own money and buying multiple rolls of film to shoot a night time football game was an un-affordable luxury. I remember "pushing" ASA400 with Diafine to ASA2400 because i couldn't afford flash bulbs (electronic flash was WAY out of the question). The pushed film was grainy as all get out, but you got usable available light pictures at night. I would have given a small body part for an SLR!

 

We've come a long way. My caching trips now often involve a hundred pictures or more. Once in a while I get a "good" one.

 

What i ahven't figured out yet is what to do with all the "so-so" pictures, much less the blurred and improperly exposed obvious crap. I tend to keep them all "just in case." Sometimes I look at them a little differently and see something cool i missed before. So I have a lot of storage media.

 

I love to take pictures. I just wish i had "the eye" my daughter has. She has the makings of a pro. She's at Ball State right now learning how. (donations graciously accepted LOL)

 

edit: deleted incorrect quote name citation

Edited October 27, 2007 by Confucius' Cat

[+Dgwphotos]

I'm so glad we've changed to digital photography, I can go through 400 pictures in one session, which I couldn't even touch before. I've found that my photo skills have increased quite a bit, and I get greater satisfaction out of it.

 

I too an SO glad we have digital photography. i am nowhere near a pro, but I have worked alongside a few and am privy to the pros big secret: shoot a LOT of pictures and you get a few good ones.

 

I started in photography when i was in high school, shooting for the school newspaper and the yearbook. Back in those days, colour was just not done by an amateur- even a very serious one, and school publications were WAY too cheap to have anything but B&W.

 

So I learned to process my own B&W and had a down and dirty cheap home darkroom. Still the film and chemicals were a bit costly for a 15 yr old using his own money and buying multiple rolls of film to shoot a night time football game was an un-affordable luxury. I remember "pushing" ASA400 with Diafine to ASA2400 because i couldn't afford flash bulbs (electronic flash was WAY out of the question). The pushed film was grainy as all get out, but you got usable available light pictures at night. I would have given a small body part for an SLR!

 

We've come a long way. My caching trips now often involve a hundred pictures or more. Once in a while I get a "good" one.

 

What i ahven't figured out yet is what to do with all the "so-so" pictures, much less the blurred and improperly exposed obvious crap. I tend to keep them all "just in case." Sometimes I look at them a little differently and see something cool i missed before. So I have a lot of storage media.

 

I love to take pictures. I just wish i had "the eye" my daughter has. She has the makings of a pro. She's at Ball State right now learning how. (donations graciously accepted LOL)

 

 

Edit, edit and edit some more! That's the biggest thing I learned while shooting sports for my university's student newspaper. I would take 200-300 photos and edit down to 10! Yes, I did save a lot, but my editor only wanted 10 max. I have no problem deleting "so-so" photos and especally blurry images. I have a set of critera that I use when editing. Focus on the wrong subject, gone. Out of focus, gone. Confusing, gone. No ball (if the game uses a ball), gone. Then it gets hard, because it gets down to the merits of the image. If you want to check out some of my work, I have a link to my Flickr page in my Sig. I tend to shoot more carefully when I am shooting for myself and I generally use the D70 for sports, photojournalism, and geocaching and less for art. For art, I prefer my FM or my N80. I still maintain a darkroom, though it's getting harder to do, due to the difficulty of finding supplies, as my local suppliers seem to be going out of business. I may start relying on B&H Photo in NYC and Freestyle in California for supplies.

[+Too Tall John]

First aid

• administering and
  
• requiring
  

Edited October 30, 2007 by Too Tall John

[+TKOFaith]

Maybe this isn't the answer you were going for, but I started Caching for the opportunity to spend time with my kids. I have a son who's 12 and a daughter who's 10. I realize that I can't make up for the years that I've lost by not being a very hands-on Dad. But I saw GeoCaching as a way to improve my relationships with them in the time that I have left before they grow up and move out.

 

TKOFaith