First Cache hunt....got a question.

[+Woodstramp]

Got a new "mapping" GPS for hunting, fishing, car travel and hiking. Internet searches for newbie type questions kept leading me here, to your forums. Geocaching was never part of the original reasoning for getting the explorist.

 

But, now it sounds like a fun thing to do. Found some local cache coordinates on Geochaching.com's Zip deal. Thought I'd give the closest one a try, yesterday/.

 

The cache was smack in the middle of a man's front yard. (If the GPS was telling the truth, that is.) What I'd like to know is if this is a common thing? Is trespassing on private property a major part of Geocaching? My original idea of Geocaching was finding them in stashed in public places or rural or abandoned areas, not in a cinder block in the foundation of an occupied house.

 

Is this common?

[+Cardinal Red]

What is the GC Waypoint number of the cache in question? Did you read the description on that cache page before you went searching for it? Trespassing is NOT a major part of Geocaching. Under the right circumstances, a cache can be placed on private property, with permission. That's not trespassing.

[+MountainRacer]

What is the GC Waypoint number of the cache in question? Did you read the description on that cache page before you went searching for it? Trespassing is NOT a major part of Geocaching. Under the right circumstances, a cache can be placed on private property, with permission. That's not trespassing.

 

Quoted for truth. In my experience, a cache placed on private, residential property is usually at the CO's house; this would generally be denoted on the cache page. I cannot stress enough the importance of reading the cache pages before you go out on a hunt. That is a common mistake that many rookies make, and is a major cause of confusion for cachers and the muggles that may catch them struggling and ask awkward questions.

[+briansnat]

Your unit will be accurate to 10-30 feet and so was the unit of the hider. So the geocache can be 30, 50 or more feet from where your GPS says it is. Even if your unit was pointing to a guy's front lawn there was a good chance the cache wasn't actually on the property (unless it was the cache owner who placed a cache on his own lawn).

 

It was probably a micro stuck to a street sign in front of the house.

[+Miragee]

Another thing to consider is the Datum on the GPS. If you were using a different Datum than that used on this site, which is WGS84, you could have been anywhere from 10's to 100's of feet off from the actual cache location. Also, if my GPS is leading me somewhere other than where I would like to look for a cache, I'll keep driving.

[+Woodstramp]

What is the GC Waypoint number of the cache in question? Did you read the description on that cache page before you went searching for it?

 

I'm new to this and only got the co-ord's. Wasn't aware of all these other details until tonight.

[+Woodstramp]

What is the GC Waypoint number of the cache in question? Did you read the description on that cache page before you went searching for it? Trespassing is NOT a major part of Geocaching. Under the right circumstances, a cache can be placed on private property, with permission. That's not trespassing.

 

Quoted for truth. In my experience, a cache placed on private, residential property is usually at the CO's house;

 

Thanks for the info. That would make some sense.

[+Woodstramp]

Your unit will be accurate to 10-30 feet and so was the unit of the hider. So the geocache can be 30, 50 or more feet from where your GPS says it is. Even if your unit was pointing to a guy's front lawn there was a good chance the cache wasn't actually on the property (unless it was the cache owner who placed a cache on his own lawn).

 

It was probably a micro stuck to a street sign in front of the house.

 

On this particular cache spot was located at an intersection. The Magellan pointed to the guy's yard (built in compass) from the vantage point of the two roads. This Magellan has the "no WASS" problem, but is very receptive. Anyway, it's no big deal. First try and all.

 

This first one I had to hand enter the co-ord's. That was pain until I found out (with the help of my computer-savvyer daughter) that Geocaching.com has a way bulk load GC's straight into the PC and then into the GPS. That is really nice.

[+Woodstramp]

Another thing to consider is the Datum on the GPS. If you were using a different Datum than that used on this site, which is WGS84, you could have been anywhere from 10's to 100's of feet off from the actual cache location. Also, if my GPS is leading me somewhere other than where I would like to look for a cache, I'll keep driving.

 

WGS84 is the same datum my Explorist is set for.

[+Cardinal Red]

What is the GC Waypoint number of the cache in question? Did you read the description on that cache page before you went searching for it?

 

I'm new to this and only got the co-ord's. Wasn't aware of all these other details until tonight.

 

Hi Woodstramp. We're trying to help you figure out what you were looking for, but we need info. Here is a link to one on my caches: Can You Reach It? Click on that link and look at the cache page. Notice, the Waypoint number is GCV96P. We can search by that number, and read the cache page. Or if you just provide the coords from the cache page, we can search by those. Give us something. Now I want to read this cache page.

[+Woodstramp]

What is the GC Waypoint number of the cache in question? Did you read the description on that cache page before you went searching for it?

 

I'm new to this and only got the co-ord's. Wasn't aware of all these other details until tonight.

 

Hi Woodstramp. We're trying to help you figure out what you were looking for, but we need info. Here is a link to one on my caches: Can You Reach It? Click on that link and look at the cache page. Notice, the Waypoint number is GCV96P. We can search by that number, and read the cache page. Or if you just provide the coords from the cache page, we can search by those. Give us something. Now I want to read this cache page.

 

I went back to GC'ing.com's page to find it again. GC18CP0 is the number on the cache.

[+Cardinal Red]

OK. You were looking for In Between Two. It is a Small size cache with a D/T rating of 1.5/1.5 that has never been DNFed. It is near the highway, not far from a Church across the street. There might be a goat and some chickens there? The Hint is quite specific. I believe I could probably park in the Church lot, and find this without a GPS. None of the finders have raised any concerns about the hide. It is Bike friendly, Dog friendly, Motorcycle friendly, and available 24/7. That certainly doesn't sound like there are any private property issues.

[+Woodstramp]

It is across from the church. That's the first place I e-compassed the direction of the cache. Then I turned on the road beside the house and the needle still pointed to the yard.

 

Like I noted, my explorist has the WASS problem. Maybe it's off a good bit?

 

This was just a first go at cache hunting. I'm more interested in doing this in remote hiking/hunting areas, anyhow. I'm not really interested in more populated areas. Been logging some caches in a local National Forest area tonight, BTW. Thanks to everybodyfor all the pointers.

[+BCandMsKitty]

Like I noted, my explorist has the WASS problem. Maybe it's off a good bit?

 

Not having WASS won't affect the accuracy of your unit other than a few feet. It might affect losing sat lock some but I find even that may be overblown. I have an Explorist 500LE and just did a firmware upgrade. I get WASS now. The only difference from before that I can see is that I get a lock on more sats, and when I'm marking a waypoint I can get an accuracy indicator of 10 feet, where I couldn't get better than 12 to 15 feet before.

[+SassyGingerNinja]

Also, take note that a lot of GPSers work better if you are moving. Some people call it the "drunken bee dance." You'll know what I'm talking about as you do some more. LOL! If you stand in one spot and spin, your GPS takes some time to reset the direction change or might even get stuck in the last direction in which you were moving. Just move around a little bit like a "drunken bee" going back and forth and it should correct itself.

[+Woodstramp]

This AM went to the pharmacy to fill an RX. Guy said come back in 45 minutes.....second go at cache hunting....GPS file said there was one about a mile away.....found location. It was a fountain in a micro-park. Did the bumble bee thing. GPS said I was withing 10 feet.

 

Never found the cache, though there were several places at the site it could've been in (fountain and several holly bushes. Next attempt there I'll take some young'ns. Let them have some fun with sharp eyes.

[+pacogoatboy]

It seems counterintuitive for a game that's based on GPS coordinates, but you can't rely on your receiver too much. With the error in the coordinates of the person hiding the cache and the error in your receiver, it could be off by a good bit. Sometimes you'll just walk right up on top of one, but other times you'll be off by 60 feet or so. If you think about all the places you could hide a 35mm film canister in a 120 foot circle (60 foot radius around the actual cache) it's just nuts (especially in the woods...) Generally speaking, if you get to the coordinates and there isn't a neat little spot where you could hide something reasonably nearby, try walking away (100' or so) and coming back again from a different direction. You'll wind up in a slightly different spot from the first time and it can help point you toward the hiding place. Your receiver will put you in the neighborhood of the cache, but beyond that it's all about scrounging around till you find it. (There are some hiding spots that are commonly used that you probably would never even think of until you've found one, like under the square metal housing at the bottom of light poles in parking lots. It's not the best place to park a cache, certainly not the most interesting, but there are a fair number of them hidden in those things.)

 

Aside from getting around receiver issues, you can try reading the cache page and hints carefully and bringing notes and/or printouts about them with you, looking at the satellite image of the location by clicking the map at the bottom of the listing and choosing either satellite or hybrid (again, this can point you a little off if the cache owner's coordinates were less than fantastic.) You could also try looking for a regular sized cache with a low difficulty just so that you'll have a better chance of finding something. Even if you live in a city, I'd be surprised if there isn't some spot that is REALLY tough to get to that would satisfy some of the outdoors aspect of what you're looking for. It can be frustrating when you go out looking and can't find anything several times in a row. Once you get a couple, you'll be hooked.

[+Miragee]

This AM went to the pharmacy to fill an RX. Guy said come back in 45 minutes.....second go at cache hunting....GPS file said there was one about a mile away.....found location. It was a fountain in a micro-park. Did the bumble bee thing. GPS said I was withing 10 feet.

 

Never found the cache, though there were several places at the site it could've been in (fountain and several holly bushes. Next attempt there I'll take some young'ns. Let them have some fun with sharp eyes.

When you are first starting out, I would recommend reading the cache page first, then all the Past Logs, and the Hint. Somewhere in all that information you'll get a clue about what you are looking for in a location like that if the Cache Owner didn't state it was a magnetic keyholder or a bison tube or a small, cammoed, ziplock baggie.

 

I cache "paperless" with a Palm m515 and have up to 15 Past Logs I can scroll through to get hints if I'm having trouble figuring out where the cache is.

[+clevek]

Please note that the hidden caches come in different sizes, small is probably not the best first-to-find cache, try looking for regular, like in this link:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=440ba20d-f6e5-4ddf-8e7f-b163f0ad84ef

also, scroll down after reading about the cache, there are links to other maps that will help you out on that first page. You can also copy the coordinates into a "google" search and then when the page loads, click on maps, tkakoc(take care and keep on caching)!

[+paleolith]

If you are reading the compass while standing still, be careful. The ones built in to GPS receivers do not respond as quickly as a standard compass. Also, some require calibration any time the batteries are changed, or even when the unit is turned off. I have a compass in my Vista HCx but I'm about ready to turn it off completely; the drunken bee dance seems to be a lot more useful.

 

That said, it appears that this cache is probably on the boundary between the road ROW and the private property.

 

Edward

[+Woodstramp]

Thanks for all the additional advise.

 

Our family went to the local city park this afternoon to meet with some long-lost friends. After a spell, I turned on the GPS into Geocache mode and POOFf there were 3 caches in the park. Gave the GPS to my kids and we beat the bushes for two of the hides. We found nothing. Of course, that area of town suffered an F1 tornado last week, so what we were hunting might be in the next county.

 

We'll keep trying till we find some. Like I said, thanks for all the tips. I always lost interest in things that are easy, so maybe my luck so far is a good thing?

[Keystone]

That said, it appears that this cache is probably on the boundary between the road ROW and the private property.

That's correct. And the cache owner is the owner of the adjacent private property.

[+randyheggen]

 

Have question for anyone who can help. Just began cache adventures, I just found one the other day and that led me to the website. by coincidence I do GIS work at WORK. I have a huge list of benchmarks I plan to submit. MY QUESTION, I use pretty sophisticated submeter accurate equipment at work, and could bury a washer and record coordinates, come back a week later and find it. BUT, using the coordinates supplied in hidden caches, I use my personal IPAQ and DeLorme earthmate. I would REALLY REALLY like to transform the .LOC or .GPX files into shapefiles. I have found software thats "supposed" to work, but it trashes the projection, and I cant figure out how to fix it.

 

I have even tried ESRI forums, and havent gotten lucky yet. Using my IPAQ with a shapefile, you can do a "find" feature that shows direction and distance to location. In addition, I have went to at least 6 coordinates, and never found the cache. I KNOW I was at right spot, and I can also use ARCMAP at work, and use curser to go to coordinates, I can also create shapefiles doing that, but it takes a while for EACH cache. Life would be SO much simpler if I could just do a transformation.

[+Woodstramp]

 

Have question for anyone who can help. Just began cache adventures, I just found one the other day and that led me to the website. by coincidence I do GIS work at WORK. I have a huge list of benchmarks I plan to submit. MY QUESTION, I use pretty sophisticated submeter accurate equipment at work, and could bury a washer and record coordinates, come back a week later and find it. BUT, using the coordinates supplied in hidden caches, I use my personal IPAQ and DeLorme earthmate. I would REALLY REALLY like to transform the .LOC or .GPX files into shapefiles. I have found software thats "supposed" to work, but it trashes the projection, and I cant figure out how to fix it.

 

I have even tried ESRI forums, and havent gotten lucky yet. Using my IPAQ with a shapefile, you can do a "find" feature that shows direction and distance to location. In addition, I have went to at least 6 coordinates, and never found the cache. I KNOW I was at right spot, and I can also use ARCMAP at work, and use curser to go to coordinates, I can also create shapefiles doing that, but it takes a while for EACH cache. Life would be SO much simpler if I could just do a transformation.

 

Sounds like you might want to ask this question in the other forum here called "GPS and Software". They seem to like to hash out more complicated technical stuff there. I'm not being rude or trying to run you off this one. Just thinking you might get your answer faster there.