Caching without a GPS?

[elbarney]

I was introduced to this awesome game over the weekend by a friend of mine and am addicted now! So far I've only found two (with three failed finds), just going off of some written down clues and dots on my map. XD I'm sure its a bunch easier with a GPS, but I'm kind of enjoying hunting without so far.

Just wondering if anyone goes about it this way? Or is a GPS is going to end up being a must-have?

 

Thanks!

[+Riverwolf]

I've heard of a person that found 2,000 without a GPS and I found my first 8 without a GPS myself. I personally think that a GPSr would be a better option and you'll have a lot more success finding the caches with one.

 

Good luck and welcome to an addicting sport!

[+niraD]

You are not alone. After my first four finds using a borrowed GPSr, I found 328 caches without using a GPSr (using Google maps and satellite photos). I finally bought a GPSr, but I still don't use it for every cache hunt.

[+slowdownracer]

I've done a few without my GPSr, but there were recognizeable objects in the Google map to guide me. If the cache is hidden somewhere in the middle of the woods, I think you would be lost without a GPSr.

 

[Chumpo]

This is the guy to ask right here:

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/Default....bd-846f28ddcb36

[+mfamilee]

We accidently found a cache before we started officially caching... does that count?

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

I've heard of a person that found 2,000 without a GPS and I found my first 8 without a GPS myself.

 

WaldenRun did most of his sans GPS.

[+bittsen]

I only did one without a GPS, and no cheat sheet either. Just remembered it was on a pullout near a milepost.

 

A GPSr makes things a LOT easier.

[+cmhall9]

My first 9 caches were found without a GPS. Just a zoomed in map of the cache location. I finally got a $30.00 GPS off Craigslist. Works great. I'll usually do virtual caches without a GPS.

[+geodarts]

I did some without a gpsr before encountering a cache that I could not find without one and breaking down to get a cheap one off of ebay. That was in the days before google earth, satellite maps, and the like so I had to stick to caches where the description narrowed down the search area. These days it would be a lot easier, and even in the woods or canyons where the location is harder to spot, the gpsr itself may bounce a great deal so that the search area is wide in any event -- I tend to give more description and hints in those areas and reading the logs might also help. One young cacher in my area did quite a few without a gadget before he ran into someone with an extra gpsr.

[+mcrosson]

I started out without a GPS, just plugging the co-ordinates into Google Earth. It works fine for caches where there are distinct landmarks nearby, but you'll have a lot of trouble trying to find anything in the middle of a uniform landscape like woods or a field.

[+Damin69]

I have found 4 without GPS. All I can say is the GPS sure makes it a heck of a lot easyer.

[Dinoprophet]

I've done a few. I found one without GPS, maps, coordinates, Google -- nothing but the knowledge that there were two caches in a particular park I was visiting. I walked a quarter mile in (about the right distance for a cache in a park this size), looked around the area for obvious hiding places up to 200 feet from the trail, identified one notable tree, and scored the cache. I tried to find the other cache in the park, too, but didn't get it.

[+ecanderson]

If all of the experienced cachers here were to think back, I suspect they'd all admit to finding caches without use of the GPS. Surely we've all driven up to at least a few, not even bothered to take the GPSr out of the car, and successfully signed the log? I'd bet this has happened to me 50 times, and another 50 times where I took the GPSr out of the car but never looked at it. You drive up, look at what's out there, and you already know where you're going to look. Any of those caches could be found with ease using GE.