New to this, looking for help on trip to Windemere

[+mintfresh]

Hi all, just started out geocaching and thought I'd drop into the fourm.

 

Anyway, I've done a few caches in my local area, and am going up to Windemere for a few days soon, and would like to maximise my geocaching when there.

 

At the moment I have found all my caches using (unauthorized application mention removed) on my Android phone. If your not familar with this, it allows you to geocache 'on the fly', so it does all the work of finding caches in the location you are currently.

 

Anyway, to the point.

 

1) Can anyone recomend some good caches in and around Windemere. I quite fancy a long walk when there, so a few that provide a good walk would be good. Also possibly any to check out on way up (From Cheshire)

2) Any recommendations on equipment or preparation I should do. I suppose mobile coverage will be poor, so I can't rely on c:geo to search for nearby caches! I have Geo Beagle as well, which can import LOC files.

3) I've seen both a travel bug and a geo coin in the local caches, am I ok to take these on my journey in the hope of dropping them off in a cache I find?

Edited March 10, 2010 by mtn-man

[+Guanajuato]

1 - In Windermere itself theres a few sneaky micros. There's one on Orrest Head, as well as one on the way up - worth doing. I'd recommend going over the ferry (on foot or by car) to the western shore to pick up a few caches over there. School Knott & Brant Fell are worth doing too - a good round walk leaflet is available that'll take you to both. Slightly further afield, Kendal has loads of well-thought out caches - the Safie series (Sedgewick Saunter and West Bank Wander) make a fantastic riverside walk between Kendal and Sedgewick. There's 3 caches on Scout Scar, which is probably the lake's best kept secret. You'll just have to do a little homework on my cache up there, but its worth it, really! If you see any caches by Martlakes, its probable they'll be good ones!

 

2 - It might be worth checking out TrekBuddy. That way you can have offline cache details (from a GPX file, not scraped, unlike on-the-fly apps). Geoshrine may also work on an android phone. Both of these work on pretty much any phone with Java.

 

3 - Yep. That's the whole idea of TBs/Coins. Just check that they don't have a specific area to stay within though. I know there's a couple in Cumbria that should stay in Cumbria.

 

Finally. Enjoy it!

[+mintfresh]

1 - In Windermere itself theres a few sneaky micros. There's one on Orrest Head, as well as one on the way up - worth doing. I'd recommend going over the ferry (on foot or by car) to the western shore to pick up a few caches over there. School Knott & Brant Fell are worth doing too - a good round walk leaflet is available that'll take you to both. Slightly further afield, Kendal has loads of well-thought out caches - the Safie series (Sedgewick Saunter and West Bank Wander) make a fantastic riverside walk between Kendal and Sedgewick. There's 3 caches on Scout Scar, which is probably the lake's best kept secret. You'll just have to do a little homework on my cache up there, but its worth it, really! If you see any caches by Martlakes, its probable they'll be good ones!

 

2 - It might be worth checking out TrekBuddy. That way you can have offline cache details (from a GPX file, not scraped, unlike on-the-fly apps). Geoshrine may also work on an android phone. Both of these work on pretty much any phone with Java.

 

3 - Yep. That's the whole idea of TBs/Coins. Just check that they don't have a specific area to stay within though. I know there's a couple in Cumbria that should stay in Cumbria.

 

Finally. Enjoy it!

 

Thanks alot for the comprehensive reply. I don't suppose you have links to the particular caches you mention? I plan on downloading the files for offline use just in case.

 

I've had a quick look for the apps mentioned, didn't get on too well with Geoshrine, not tried Trek Buddy though. Think I'm covered for offline caching with Geo Beagle. and another app I've found today (forgot name). I'm stuck with LOC files for now as I'm not a paying member.

 

Havn't had chance to revist the local caches yet. but hopefully will be able to take them on the trip! Anything in particular I need to do in terms of logging for these? I'm very new to this and havn't quite figured it all out yet.

 

Thanks again for the reply.

[lakeuk]

I'd recommend using GCTour to geocache details, following link is a guide I did for saving details as pdf's which I view on my ipod touch (assume android can view pdf's), you can also download gpx (containing basic details)

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...t&p=4085267

[+Guanajuato]

I've not got on that well with Geoshrine either, but I thought I'd pass on that its available.

The thing I like about Trekbuddy is being able to plot the positions on a (shrunk) OS Map (using Mobile Atlas Creator) It really is only suitable as a backup for navigation close to the cache, but great for getting on the right footpath to the cache!

 

I'd suggest doing a search from the homepage for Windermere and Kendal. You then get a list of caches ordered by distance from a defined point. You can then click the 'Map It' button to see them plotted on a google map that you can drag around to you hearts content - very useful.

 

I've put a bookmark of some suggestions together. I already had a bookmark for Safie's west bank wander, and Martlakes put a bookmark together for Safie's Sedgwick Saunter.

 

Dave's (LakeUK) link looks like it could be a useful tool - You've never been doing this too long to learn something new.

 

What I missed was suggesting the circuit of Levens Park. If you come off the main road into the lakes at the first roundabout after the motorway you can park up (Here or Here) and do a lovely circular walk of about 2 miles, labelled up as 'Levens Park Circuit' in the first bookmark list. Some of the more southerly Safie series are pretty close by as well. A combination of the three series centred on Sedgewick will give you a lovely walk of anything from a couple of miles to about 8 miles.

 

Another place to look is round Staveley - the 'Secret Staveley' Series is excellent. Wilf's Cafe and Hawkshead brewery are worth visiting. I've yet to do the Jason's Jaunt circuit following the river south of Staveley, but it looks good!

 

When you pick up a travel bug or coin, you'll see a code printed/etched on it. If you click on 'Trackable Items' on the left of the homepage, you'll get a space "Enter the Tracking Number of the Item:" - put the code in there and click 'Track'. That'll give you the TB Details. Click on 'Add a log entry' in the top right of the page. Then you can log you find, much as you would a cache. On the drop-down, you'll need to select 'Retrieve from...' When you come to drop it off in a cache, its a good idea to note in the log book that you've dropped a TB/coin in. When you then log the find of the cache, below the box where you enter you log, you'll get a list of the trackable items you've picked up. just select whichever items you've dropped into the cache before you submit your log. It's all there on the Trackable items page though.

 

As I said before though, ENJOY IT!

[+mtn-man]

At the moment I have found all my caches using (unauthorized application mention removed) on my Android phone. If your not familar with this, it allows you to geocache 'on the fly', so it does all the work of finding caches in the location you are currently.

I've removed the reference to the unauthorized site scraping application. Keep in mind that using such applications can cause you cause you to lose your ability to view the site for violation of the Terms of Use for the site.

 

The site is working on an application for the Android phone.

[+mintfresh]

Thanks for the further information Guanajuato, lots there for me to look into.

 

lakeuk, this information sounds very handy, will have a look at your tutorial.

 

mtn-man, I was not aware of the issues with this app (when I posted the inital post, have since read otherwise!), I've found it very useful in starting me out caching, so its a shame to hear. I will not mention it again, hope the offical app is out soon!

[+maxkim]

Easy option for brief visits that we sometimes do is to home in on an area, find all nearby caches and then use GC's map feature which we print, and print off basic cache details for the ones we intend finding. Cheers Max

[+mtn-man]

mtn-man, I was not aware of the issues with this app (when I posted the inital post, have since read otherwise!), I've found it very useful in starting me out caching, so its a shame to hear. I will not mention it again, hope the offical app is out soon!

Thanks for the nice reply. I hope it is out soon too! Since I use Verizon in the US and since they don't seem to be able to get the iPhone, I may move to the Android phone at some point soon.

[+mintfresh]

I'd recommend using GCTour to geocache details, following link is a guide I did for saving details as pdf's which I view on my ipod touch (assume android can view pdf's), you can also download gpx (containing basic details)

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...t&p=4085267

 

Been giving this GCTour a go, but having issues with the print view. It opens a new window, and I can see a list in the background, but there is an overlaid progress bar and it never seems to finish. Even just doing one cache it never seems to finish.

 

Any ideas what could be up? I've tried on 2 machines and had the same thing happen.

 

Thanks

[+mintfresh]

Back from the trip now. Only a brief vist unfortunately!

 

Got quite a few caches done, maybe not as many as an experienced user would. Thanks for all the help! Took loads of printouts in the end and used these to backup my positions on Geobeagle., all in all worked well.

 

Had a few I had a try at but didn't find, suppose I should log DNF for all those? Not sure if it was just me not looking hard enough or what though.

 

Dropped of my own travel bug (TB33MPJ) and picked up a geocoin and another TB. Didn't get chance to take the local ones. Also logged all my visits with my new Gecko geocoin (TB3AT69)

 

Thanks again for the help everyone, thanks to you and geocaching I'm sure I had a much better expereience on my visit to Windemere.