Rookie Needs Assistance

[+Jaguar Paw 7]

Hi all,

 

I'm a rookie GPSer and geccaher. Mty daughter and I went out for about 1.5 hours yesterday and tried to locate two caches, to na avail.

 

I was using my new Garmin Vista HCX with w/ City Navigator NT 2008 and topo north america. I felt we were close, but i couldn't seem to get closer with just gps or the way i was using it.

 

Please help as I gecacaching sounds like so much fun and my little daughter viewed it like treasure hunting. Help us go find those 2 we were looking for then we'll catch on I'm sure!

 

Once we get a little experience we want to place a geocache of our own because there aren't amny around our small city in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Also, the travel bug sounds fun, I amy by a few.

 

How do geo coins work?

 

Thanks for any and all advice!

 

Peace.

[+TeamGumbo]

What was the difficulty ratings of the ones you tried? It's easier to start out with 1's and 2's.

 

When you get to a spot, ask yourself: where would *I* hide it?

 

The irony of geocaching is, it really does get easier the more you do it...you start to recognize patterns and likelihoods. That initial learning curve can be somewhat steep, but stick with it and it will be very rewarding.

 

Also: is your GPSr set to WG84 (edit: WGS84)? That is the mode that all www.geocaching.com caches are listed at.

 

FTR, I'm a newbie too, so load up on the salt.

 

Edited April 5, 2008 by TeamGumbo

[+Miragee]

I agree with TeamGumbo. The first caches you want to look for should be either "Regular" or "Large" containers with a Difficulty rating of 1.5 or less. Those will be much easier to find as you get used to your GPSr and the "hide" techniques used by fellow Geocachers. Sometimes, even a Regular-sized container can be hidden up in a tree, so don't forget to look up if you don't find the container under an obvious artificial pile of rocks or sticks. Don't expect the cache to be right at '0' on your GPSr. Once you get within 30', start looking for places you might hide something.

 

As to Geocoins, many are beautiful and highly-collectible. People buy them and trade them. Some coin owners are brave enough to release them into the wild and hope they will travel. Some do and accrue lots of miles; others don't because they are stolen by "coin thieves."

 

If you find a Geocoin and look it up on the Site by its tracking number and find that it has been Activated, you need to move it on to another cache as soon as you can. Occasionally a cache owner will put out an Un-Activated Geocoin as a FTF prixe. If you are lucky enough to find one of those, you can either Activate it and keep it, or Activate it and send it out to Travel.

[+TrailGators]

Pick some low difficulty ones. The terrain doesn't matter but generally higher terrain ones are easier to find than a lot of urban caches plus there are no muggles around.

[+huskerrich2000]

be aware of what you are looking for. The three I saw in Las Vegas are listed as altoids tins in which alot of people insert magnets, in fact I just confirmed that two are definitely magnetic. Once you learn about this hider's technique you will begin to catch onto what is happening.

[+Rontro]

Alot of new cachers forget to zoom up on their targets. I know I didn't do it when I first started out. On the GPS screen it may look like your right on top of it, but in fact you are still have a bit to go.

 

Another thing to do is to turn on data fields. On a Etrex press the "menu" button and from the list select data fields. Turn on as many as you like. I personally use 2. Then on that same menu select "change data fields". I suggest you have "Accuracy" and "Dist to next" These two values will tell you how close you are to the cache and how accurate your GPS is at that location. For example if you have an accuracy of 10 feet and the cache is 4 feet away. You can say that you should be within 14 feet of your target. That should help making the find a bit easier. The only problem with this method is you are at the mercy of how accurate the cache ower's GPS was, but it should get you in the ball park.

 

Here is how I find a cache:

 

1) Get to the location

2) Use the GPS to get as close to target as you can get.

3) Read the cache description and title carefully

4) Look for the cache.

5) If you don't find it "read a few of the past logs"

6) If you don't find it "use the hint"

7) Still don't find send an email to the cache owner for help.

[Neos2]

You did one thing absolutely right...you went out to look for two caches, gave the search "enough" time and quit before you got too frustrated. Hurrah for you! Sometimes people keep looking until they feel upset they can't find the cache, and it becomes a chore, a task, a negative experience.

 

huskerrich2000 seems to have the clue you need to know where to look for those caches. If you can't find them, you may want to head into the next good size town and try looking for hides someone else made. It might just be that you aren't used to caching enough to do the ones your local cacher put out.

Edited April 6, 2008 by Neos2

[+Robespierre]

New...... but gaining experience quickly.

[+Jaguar Paw 7]

I wanted to thank everybody for taking the time to reply!

Right off that tells me that geocaching has good people involved and I eager to get more involved and to include my wife and two daughters. The more the merrier, ey?

 

[+simpjkee]

There's a Las Vegas, New Mexico? I never would have guessed!

[+the hermit crabs]

I just took a peek at the caches in your area, You're right, there aren't many at all!

 

There are only four in the city/town itself: three Altoids tins and a micro. These are not the best sort of caches for a you to start with, partly because they are small, and partly because your daughter will be disappointed at the lack of "treasure".

 

But if you go a few miles outside of town, there are two that look like they'd be great starter caches:

Hot Springs Cache

Winding Road Cave Cache

They're both regular sized, with a difficulty level of just 1.5, they're in nice scenic areas, and the cache contents are described as "Fun for kids, lots of toys".

[+snowball 58]

Hi all,

 

I'm a rookie GPSer and geccaher. Mty daughter and I went out for about 1.5 hours yesterday and tried to locate two caches, to na avail.

 

I was using my new Garmin Vista HCX with w/ City Navigator NT 2008 and topo north america. I felt we were close, but i couldn't seem to get closer with just gps or the way i was using it.

 

Please help as I gecacaching sounds like so much fun and my little daughter viewed it like treasure hunting. Help us go find those 2 we were looking for then we'll catch on I'm sure!

 

Once we get a little experience we want to place a geocache of our own because there aren't amny around our small city in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Also, the travel bug sounds fun, I amy by a few.

 

How do geo coins work?

 

Thanks for any and all advice!

 

Peace.

 

 

If you are using City navigator to to navigate to the cache , make sure you change from on road mode to off road. The on road mode will only take you as close as the nearest road.

[NH_matt]

It may seem hard at first but keep with it and you will find them. On my first cache I looked for an hour and then got discouraged and went home. I went back the next day and it was in such an obvious place. Keep with it. I have a 5 year old and a 8 year old and they both love it. On long trips it is nice to load up some caches along the way to keep the kids from driving me crazy and break up the drive. Good Luck and keep at it.

[+minnesotabrad]

I see in your profile you had two finds today. So congratulations! You are on your way.

[+WaylessWood]

Family caching is great fun. You might consider starting off by finding a few on your own so that when you take your daughter along you have a head start in learning the game. I've only been at it for about 6 months and it definitely gets easier with more caches under your belt.

 

I'm not familiar with the Vista model, but here are a few things to consider.

 

How are you navigating to the caches? If you are using routing over the road or follow road, then that will get you close but not close enough. The problem becomes one of the GPSr recalculating the route if you pass a turn it wants you to make. It is ok to use follow road when traveling by car to the vicinity of a cache. Once there you will want to recalculate the route using off road routing or direct routing.

 

A lot of cachers configure their GPSr to prompt them for the routing method. Then you can choose based on what you are doing at the time.

 

Another thing that helped me tremendously is to turn the Lock on Road option off. This is useful if you are traveling on roads all the time and don't have great reception, as the GPSr will show you as being on a road. Unless you are far enough away from one. This was a great source of confusion for me, as it caused the GPSr to appear to stop tracking my movements. See if your unit has this option.

 

Have fun.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Funny coincidence, there! Me too... My bookie needed assistance the other day as well (he had a body of one of his "clients" that needed to be gotten rid of...), so... small world!

 

Oh... wait...

 

oh.... uh... duh... you said "rookie"! Ooopps! oopsie-doopsie!