newbees

[njtj]

Hi we have just been brought our first gps by santa and cant wait to get out there and start searching any tips greatly reecieved,

[+ecanderson]

Hi we have just been brought our first gps by santa and cant wait to get out there and start searching any tips greatly reecieved,

 

A person could spend pages with tips, but there's a pair of them I'd start with right away.

 

Sooner than later, you will start wishing for an easy way to load caches into your unit based upon some sort of selection criterion. The geocaching.com site allows you to do this by means of a "Pocket Query" -- but only if you're a member. For $30 a year, it's worth it for the PQ feature alone. You'll find you can download entire batches of caches for your GPS in a given geographic area of interest.

 

The second suggestion, and it couples with the first, is go to www.gsak.net and have a look at the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife software. Many of us don't even begin to tap its potential, but it's a very handy tool. Since you didn't say WHAT GPS Santa brought you, we can't know if it will include the descriptive information for caches and the latest log information for each cache (only the relatively newer models do this), but GSAK will let you keep those on your notebook computer if you want to haul it along.

 

Don't know what kind of cell phone you have, but if it uses a fairly competent browser, you can always access geocaching.com with that. If your phone uses a fairly lame browser, you should be aware that there's a WAP (truly basic basic browser service) called wap.geocaching.com that most phones can see. This will give you access to full descriptions and log information in the field if you need it, too.

 

In short, it's nice to be able to load your GPS with the caches you want, and have good descriptive information in the field to go along with them.

[+brochill]

I just started too, and I have to say that patience is the best thing to have. It can get pretty frustrating when you can't find the dadgum things.

[+ecanderson]

Hi we have just been brought our first gps by santa and cant wait to get out there and start searching any tips greatly reecieved,

Next order of business will just be to dive in and see what you can find!

 

While you'll eventually find them to be a real kick, you might want to avoid caches with difficulty "star" ratings above 2 stars until you are comfortable with the operation of your GPS. It's enough to learn how to get everything working without making the task of finding the caches too hard as well. Until you have found a few and have a sense of what people are likely to hide and how they hide things, just stick with the easier ones. It won't be long before you get the sense of where things might be and your eyeballs start to see things that look just that tiny bit out of place that might indicate a hiding location.

 

At the beginning, it might also help if you go ahead and decode any hints that may exist on the cache page unless you can do it on phone/notebook in the field. You may also want to look at previous logs to see if there is any help for you there, too. Whether you want to continue to do that will be up to you. Many of us don't bother to look at anything but the owner's description as we start our search, and resort to reading the rest of the cache page only when we get stumped.

[+wimseyguy]

Look for regular sized caches with a difficulty rating under 2.5 that are in parks or the woods. Leave the other stuff for later once you get the hang of how some cachers think and hide things.

 

HAVE FUN!!!!!

When it isn't fun to be searching somewhere, stop and go look for another one somewhere else. I've been caching for over 7 years and still practice this mantra.

[+ecanderson]

Hi we have just been brought our first gps by santa and cant wait to get out there and start searching any tips greatly reecieved,

Experience counts for a whole bunch in this game. The more experience you've got under your belt, the easier things will come after a time. Unless you've been caching with a friend already, you wouldn't have seen some of the more common container types or how and where they're hidden. So have some patience. You'll also discover that certain cache owners have preferences for a particular type of hide and location. That can make it easier.

 

Read the descriptive information at geocaching.com for placing caches. Even if you don't place any of your own yet, it will help you understand the limitations that are supposed to exist for others. You'll also want to get a feel for what the terrain stars mean so that you'll have a sense of how a cache might be hidden. If you're on flat, level terrain at ground zero, and there's nothing but a big tree there, and the terrain is listed as a 3.5, you can bet you have some tree climbing to do! There's not a lot of those around, but be prepared!

 

While you're reviewing the gc.com site, also look to see what we use as a traditional measure of a container size. You'll see micro, small, regular etc defined there. Having a decent idea of the size of the cache sure does make looking for it a whole lot easier.

[+ecanderson]

Hi we have just been brought our first gps by santa and cant wait to get out there and start searching any tips greatly reecieved,

Understand the limitations of your GPS and that of the person hiding the cache. You will hear all kinds of stories about the real accuracy of these units, but a good one these days - in the right circumstances of tree cover, etc. - can put you within just a couple of feet of a cache on a pretty repeatable basis. However, real caching isn't always done under ideal circumstances. Getting up next to a bridge, or under heavy tree cover, etc., will cause your GPS to put your target within a much wider circle for you to search. The better view your GPS has of more satellites, the better your accuracy. And don't forget that the coordinates you are using are only as good as the GPS and conditions when the owner of the cache placed it!

 

Let your GPS settle, especially under less than ideal circumstances. Be sure it's turned on and acquiring a decent set of satellite signals as you wander up to the cache, and then, if there's a lot of clutter or it's a tough cache, you may want to wait a bit until your GPS settles down to a decent distance and quits wandering.

[+chrisrayn]

Eat your vegetables.

 

Drink plenty of water.

[+ecanderson]

Hi we have just been brought our first gps by santa and cant wait to get out there and start searching any tips greatly reecieved,

OK. Now forget all of the above, go to the main page of the geocaching.com web site, punch in your zip code, and see what pops up. There may be some "member only" caches that you won't be able to see, but it's likely that you'll see quite a number of them in your area. Find the closest ones.

 

Select one and look at the difficulty. Be sure it's not rated higher than 2 stars. Punch the coordinates for that cache into your GPS manually. Check any hint information. Look at the logs.

 

Now go FIND it! And have fun, and report back to us whatever you discovered for your first find!

[+brodiebunch]

My two cents for what its worth:

 

If you cannot find a cache, please do not mark cache as "Needs Maintenance" or "Should be archived"

The problem will most likely be beginners luck (or lack thereof).

 

Please don't pick up a travel bug just yet. Especially if you quickly decide you do not like geocaching after all. I have had several travel bugs meet an untimely death in a newbies car, desk or wherever because you found and retrieved the travel bug then stopped geocaching.

 

Find a good walking stick.

 

Enjoy!

[+bittsen]

Here are a few tips for finding caches.

 

Get a good sense of the creative ability that people can have. Some caches are very creatively hidden.

Look for anything that might be out of place. ANYTHING. It can be anything. Maybe a rock is a different color or texture. A pile of sticks all by themselves. A piece of bark that seems to be sitting "just right". An extra bolt on a guardrail. Etc.

Don't be afraid to look at the hints. They are there for a reason.

Think of where YOU could hide a cache in the area the GPS takes you.

Look for faint (or not so faint) trails that seem to be leading you to a place off of a trail.

Remember to look UP once in a while. Not all caches are low to the ground.

Also remember that if a mouse can get into a place, so can a cache.

 

There are a ton of helpful hints out there. Learn from each cache. When you find a "new" kind of hide, think of how that could apply to other caches in unique ways. Keep track of the ones you didn't find and after a while those can be easy because you will learn new ways to hide caches.

 

And most of all. Enjoy. When it stops being fun on a particular cache, DNF it and go to the next.

[+BrrrMo]

Go to YouTube and search under Geocaching. @ hours of this is worth many hours in the field, and no I do not think this is cheating.

[GermanSailor]

Hi we have just been brought our first gps by santa and cant wait to get out there and start searching any tips greatly reecieved,

Get the coordinates of a traditional geocache near where you live, read the hint, read the logs and go there and find it! Best thing is to look for small, or regular sized geoaches first. Micros can be hard to find, especially in the beginning.

 

Have fun, but be warned geocaching is highly addictive!

 

GermanSailor

[+Dive-n-diva]

Mark your cachemobile. Unless you park in a Wal-Mart parking lot, its a good idea to mark the location of your car so, after you wonder through the woods you will have a good idea as to where your ride it. Your GPS will also have a route you can 'track back' but the way points are easier.

 

First thing I did with the kids was to teach them to use track back.

 

Been there, been lost, done that.

 

Have fun and Good Luck

[+bittsen]

Adding on the post above.

 

If you plan on going on unfamiliar trails, see if you can download trails maps for the area. Sometimes you might find yourself lost as to which direction to go on a trail. Having those trail maps comes in handy.

 

Make sure tracks are turned on when you venture into the wilderness. It's much easier to backtrack than it is to get a rescue out to find you.

[+Elementry]

Go to YouTube and search under Geocaching. @ hours of this is worth many hours in the field, and no I do not think this is cheating.

good advice.... if they do the video o.k. you c an learn lots.