+solo63137 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I've been interested in try ing Geocaching for a few years now, so I saved up and ordered a Garmin 400T... (No more crap on credit!!!) Can't wait till it comes in and we can try this out... By we, I mean my 13 year old daughter and I... I'm always looking for fun stuff we can do together; inside and out (mostly out).... She likes exploring woods, parks and stuff as much as I, so hopefully we'll have a good time at it... We are in the St. Louis Missouri 63137 area from the looks of the site, we have several caches within a 10 -20 minute drive... One or two in walking distance.... Oh, 1st goofy question, what should we leave in the caches??? I thought I read somewhere, your supposed to leave something that someone else can use... Seems like everyone would leave Waterproof matches Again, can't wait to try our hand... Quote Link to comment
+Stargazer22 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Welcome to the fun. Trading items in the caches is entirely optional. If you decide to trade, the concept is to try to trade even or better. That means if you take something from the cache, leave something in the cache of equal or greater value. Don't take a $8 LED flashlight and leave a golf tee. Remember that the caches may be visited by folks with kids, like your 13 year old. Other folks may have even younger kids with them, so please don't leave anything that's not kid friendly in a cache. That means matches, knives, lighters, etc... Remember back to when your little oak tree was just an acorn and don't leave anything you wouldn't have wanted her to get ahold of back when she was a little one. Things I personally like to find and leave: Compass, rain poncho, caribiners, water bottle clips, little flashlights, keychains, glow sticks, survival blankets, first aid kits, etc... Your local camping department will have all of this stuff and more. Just remember to stay away from the sharp things, things that make fire, or things that go boom. Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 To get the most out of that unit - you will want to become a premium member for $30 per year to take advantage of GPX files and paperless caching. Also learn Pocket Quesries - here is a tutorial: http://www.markwell.us/pq.htm Keep trades fair. I usually have for trading: decks of cards matchbox cards single screwdrivers ducktape packs dice foriegn coins small stuffed animals misc dollar store items Quote Link to comment
srskas Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I've been interested in try ing Geocaching for a few years now, so I saved up and ordered a Garmin 400T... (No more crap on credit!!!) Can't wait till it comes in and we can try this out... By we, I mean my 13 year old daughter and I... I'm always looking for fun stuff we can do together; inside and out (mostly out).... She likes exploring woods, parks and stuff as much as I, so hopefully we'll have a good time at it... We are in the St. Louis Missouri 63137 area from the looks of the site, we have several caches within a 10 -20 minute drive... One or two in walking distance.... Oh, 1st goofy question, what should we leave in the caches??? I thought I read somewhere, your supposed to leave something that someone else can use... Seems like everyone would leave Waterproof matches Again, can't wait to try our hand... When I go out with my 6yo daughter we usually bring some small trinkets that she finds fun, such as braclets, small toys, pencils, erasers, etc. Some of the more grown up things I've found ore seen are golf balls, a buisiness card holder, old CD's, tire pressure gauge, etc. I think a good rule of thumb is to bring something small/inexpensive that you'd (or her) would like to find in the cache. the most important thing I try to teach is to trade even so that it is fair for everyone. I live just down the road in Florissant and have seen some pretty good caches thus far. I've only been caching about 4 months I've been caching mostly in North Couty & St. Charles county since it's close to home and work. I'd suggest if you want to find trading items, look for the larger caches. I have found some very good ones in Truman Park in Hazelwood (I found my first 3 there). A cache in the area with great stuff is Riverwoods DVD X-Change (GC17QWH). Lots of trade items, not just movies. It is an easy to find with a great view of the river and a couple smaller caches nearby. There are also several in Ft. Bellfontaine, Sioux Passage, and Champ County Parks. These are next on my list next time me and my daughter go out. Hope to see you out on the trails! Quote Link to comment
+ras_oscar Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I cache regularly with my kids and they each bring a swag bag. A small bag of trade items that they harvested from their desk as "things I'd part with but don't want to throw away." Quote Link to comment
+Knight2000 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Don't take a $8 LED flashlight and leave a golf tee. I left a NIP LED flashlight once and a caching couple that has lots of finds left a lucky penny for it. Seriously. Quote Link to comment
+Knight2000 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 (edited) Buffalo nickels are about 40 cents a piece and I think some would like them. 50 cent pieces and $2 bills if appropriate. $1 gold pieces too. I also leave $1 shirts sometimes. (Same with $2 bills.) We used to be able to buy carabiners 4 for $1. The supply dried up though. We would buy like 40 at a time. If I would have had the money, I would have bought a lot more. Edited April 15, 2009 by Knight2000 Quote Link to comment
+Stargazer22 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Don't take a $8 LED flashlight and leave a golf tee. I left a NIP LED flashlight once and a caching couple that has lots of finds left a lucky penny for it. Seriously. We have some local folks that I wonder if they are trying to make a living off the items in caches. They go for the ones with listed decent FTF prizes within minutes of publication and will always take the best item and will note that they left a small, slightly chipped ceramic cup (this was left for a $20 gift card once), or some other defaced item. They don't even leave an undamaged item! P.S. The $1 shirts are cool! Quote Link to comment
+Headhardhat Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Welcome to the obsession, you and your daughter will have a ball geocaching. If you want to see what it is like. I highly recommend looking at some of my tutorial videos about geocaching. In particular the one called A Day of Geocaching with HeadHardHat. It will give you a little taste of what it is like and there are other tutorials that may answer some questions you may have as well.. http://www.geosnippits.com If you have any questions just ask, we all are glad to help. -HHH Quote Link to comment
+solo63137 Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Thank you all for the many replies... Talked to my daughter about this on the School/Work this morning and we are both looking forward to it... I will check sites/links mentioned in the next night or so we will check out or try and find the caches mentioned as soon as my GPS comes in... Stay tuned for the questions... Quote Link to comment
+Jeep4two Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 ustoy.com can be a great place to order swag/gadgets/trade items from. They sell stuff by the dozen or gross. It's mostly inexpensive Chinese made stuff but they have some nicer stuff too (ironic that it's called USTOY?). Anyhow - you'll love the hobby/sport. It's addictive and extremely fun. Take along a digital camera on your treks to capture those interesting finds, nature, funny moments, etc.. Quote Link to comment
+solo63137 Posted April 18, 2009 Author Share Posted April 18, 2009 OK, just got my unit in Today, unpacked and updated/patched etc... Used the site and grabed the 2 closest Cache sites, btw, Importing them into my 400 as as easy as clickin a mouse button... Worked great! Here is the updates on the two sites I tried to find Tanglewood -No find http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...3a-c893677209d6 ~~~~~~~~~~~ Matchless in Bella Fontaine Park - Found http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...c5-f3521e9fd2f8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Not sure if I just don't know how to read this thing right yet or what... Here are the steps I took for each I use the driving directions to get me pretty close Walked around in the woods/propertys talked about on the caches page looking at the cache, not not get anywhere near the 1st one??? Thinking this was me, not knowing how to read the map, even though it seems simple... 2nd one, after I got within a 1/16th of a mile, I was messing with the buttons and ffound a compass mode... Switched to that for Grins... It had a meter that told me how many feet... I started walking in different directions wachting the feet increase or decrease till I got the hang of it, then it let me to within 10-25 feet of the find... Would love to see the actual process someone with a simmilar unit (Colorado 400t) follows... Daughter is out of town this weekend, thought I'd get educated a bit more and get the process down before I take her out.... (read Daddy, wants to look like he really knows what he is doing) I really enjoyed it and can't wait till I get time to go out again... I'm hoping to have some time Sunday after Church.... Quote Link to comment
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