Another noob with some questions!

[+Cindyj2]

My son who is 9 and I are new to geocaching! I'm my son's den leader and I learned about geocaching while attending our local scouting university. Then I checked out the site here and posted on my facebook wall about it and got lucky that my next door neighbor popped up and said she had a gps from a year ago that she'd bought for geocaching and had barely used and that she'd sell it to me. Heck I paid her $30 for a garmin etrex venture hc. I had been scouring walmart online and ebay and some other sites. And it came with some topo maps and software for the computer as well and the fited cover for the unit. Think that was a pretty good price considering they sell for $80-$100. And she gave me a protable dvd player and some games for our old ps1 that she found while looking for the gps and she thinks she might have more maps for it as well that she'll give me if she finds them. Were gonna try to get her to go out with us one of these days too. Love my neighbors!

 

But anyway this software on the computer I'm wondering what I need it for really? I think when I loaded caches to the gps they went straight to the gps and then if I wanted from the gps to my computer. But with everything here on the site i'm wondering why I need them on the computer too? Or is it just so that I can see all caches on a map at once? I guess I mean that the site keeps such good track do I really need to do that on my computer too?

 

Also I'm a single mom and there are approx 460 within a 25 mile rasius of my house and with a not so great car we don't like to travel too far from home. Wondering how long it'll take us to get all those? Hoping they keeps us busy for a good while.

 

So that being said what are the must haves in this premium membership do I need? I read about some of the features and am wondering if we really need that. Cause I don't think that's a ton of money for a whole year but with the gps that I have I can load like 500 caches and when we go somewhere I can just look on it to see if there's anything close to where we'll be going and print off the cache page and I figured we'd start notebook and save them in it to look back on someday or to check on some that we weren't able to find.

 

So i'm just wondering what about the permium package is so awsome that in our situation we would need?

 

I'm so glad my son likes this too! He's a webelos 1 this year but when he gets in boy scouts I believe there's a patch he can earn for geocaching!

 

After our first few finds in the wind and cold of late fall and 1 dnf I wasn't sure he wanted to keep going till he said a week later that he wanted to go find another so we went out in our winter coats in the sprinkling rain and found another! Now here in central il were buried in about 5 inches of snow I've never wanted spring to come so fast! Hoping this gets us out of the house more often and gets us some exercise and we learn alot about the places we go! We really want to get to this one called Phooning for love! And take some funny pics for it!

 

Still also hoping to buy a couple trackables and start a cache here in town and get my cub scout den interested in it as well but it's just too cold to get 8 boys and their parents out for this this time of the year.

 

Thanks a ton for helping us! And thanks for reading my long post!

 

Take care all!

 

Cindy

Edited December 29, 2010 by Cindyj2

[+entogeek]

One of the advantages of a premium membership is the ability to create pocket queries. When you design your query you can use the winter friendly attribute so the list that is generated will only contain those caches that you should be able to find during the winter. Nothing worse than hoping to go find a cache only to realize once you are at the location that it is on a guardrail that was recently covered over by the snow plow or that it's hidden under rocks buried under the snow. But if you're only going to go out for one or two at a time, then you can save yourself the money and just download the individual caches to your GPS. But before you do, check the listing of the cache and see if it has the snowflake attribute - if it does, you should be good to go. If it has the snowflake symbol with a red-line through it, then wait until the snow is gone.

 

When you log your finds on-line, the site keeps track of them for you. Using a computer comes in handy if you want to plan a route when you go caching or if you want to see what the topography looks like - that is assuming you have topographical software installed. My suggestion for now to keep your son's interest going, is to limit your caching to winter-friendly caches until the snow is gone, keep the D/T rating to 2/2 or less and go after medium to large size containers. That way, when you find them your son will be that much more excited. There is plenty of time ahead to go after nanos and micros and all of the DNF's that go with them.

 

Good luck!

[+Cindyj2]

Oh boy still so much to learn! Thank you about the snowflake icon as I had never noticed it and it took me a minute to find that. lol

 

I'll probably keep the software on the computer since I already put it on there that way it's there if I do need it but I was wondering if there was some part of the process that I was missing.

 

Also I thought I read on a post that someone, long story short had a problem with a cacher so she made her cache a premium cache? I looked on her profile for it and it wouldn't let me see it? So i'm wondering is there significant amount of premium caches in our area that we could be missing out on? And were all those stats and graphs part of the premium membership too?

 

Thanks a Ton!

Edited December 29, 2010 by Cindyj2

[+NicknPapa]

Oh boy still so much to learn! Thank you about the snowflake icon as I had never noticed it and it took me a minute to find that. lol

 

I'll probably keep the software on the computer since I already put it on there that way it's there if I do need it but I was wondering if there was some part of the process that I was missing.

 

Also I thought I read on a post that someone, long story short had a problem with a cacher so she made her cache a premium cache? I looked on her profile for it and it wouldn't let me see it? So i'm wondering is there significant amount of premium caches in our area that we could be missing out on? And were all those stats and graphs part of the premium membership too?

 

Thanks a Ton!

 

I would leave the software because it contains the drivers that allow your computer to talk to your GPS, or at least that is the case with my Garmin handheld.

 

I just looked through the first 10 pages of caches that are within 25 miles of your first find (a micro? That's fairly impressive ) and only found 1 premium member cache. If you enter the coords for your first find in the search for a cache field on geocaching's homepage and go to page 5 it is the 7th cache from the top. "Calvary Saints" is the name. When you look to the right of the name there is a column that shows travel bugs, etc. In that column there is an icon that looks like a head and shoulders. That icon denotes premium members only.

 

entogeek's advice is pretty good. Keep you son interested. Especially in winter make the caches fairly easy and larger so he remembers the fun instead of walking around with cold feet and finding a film canister with a soggy log or some such. Also (and I may be mixing threads here) you are right. At the boyscout level there is a geocaching merit badge. It's really new, so new that the last time I looked they still hadn't published any material for it although that has been a couple of months or more now.

[+Cindyj2]

NicknPapa thank you so very much for looking for me!!!! I really appreciate it! Yah the Long Nine is the closest for us. So glad I learned another new thing about the icons! I'll definately keep the software on the lappy and i'll stick with the free membership and get me some hiking shoes instead! lol

 

Thanks for the advice too about keeping Matthew interested over the winter and next week when we take my dad to a routine doc visit we'll have about an 1 1/2 to kill so i'll have to get loading and printing.

 

I also am our Cub Scout packs award chair and just haven't had a chance with a knowledgable person to even ask yet about geocaching and plus we have plenty of time as my son is a Web 1.

 

Thanks again for the help!

[+Cindyj2]

Oh and thanks about the micro for our first find. I've lived here my whole life and so I really knew the place and from reading lots of the logs it took us a few min to find. lol

[+NicknPapa]

NicknPapa thank you so very much for looking for me!!!! I really appreciate it! Yah the Long Nine is the closest for us. So glad I learned another new thing about the icons! I'll definately keep the software on the lappy and i'll stick with the free membership and get me some hiking shoes instead! lol

 

Thanks for the advice too about keeping Matthew interested over the winter and next week when we take my dad to a routine doc visit we'll have about an 1 1/2 to kill so i'll have to get loading and printing.

 

I also am our Cub Scout packs award chair and just haven't had a chance with a knowledgable person to even ask yet about geocaching and plus we have plenty of time as my son is a Web 1.

 

Thanks again for the help!

You are quite welcome.

 

Since you are your pack's award chair this might be of interest. One of the requirements for the Boyscout level geocaching merit badge is

9. Plan a geohunt for a youth group such as your troop or a neighboring pack, at school, or your place of worship. Choose a theme, set up a course with at least four waypoints, teach the players how to use a GPS unit, and play the game. Tell your counselor about your experience, and share the materials you used and developed for this event.

Might be something to discuss with your local troop and would give your Webelos an outdoor activity with a troop (Arrow of Light requirement).

 

Yes, I'm involved is scouting too, in fact we were helping one of the boys in Nick's troop with his Eagle project when Nick found our first cache. By accident no less and it was in the wrong place.

[+Cindyj2]

Very Cool NicknPapa! I will deffinately look into that one of these days and that way when it's a bit warmer that would be very fun and a good way to introduce the boys to this! We've got about 5 inches of snow here in centra IL right now and i'm sure more to come before this winter is over. lol

 

So nice to meet another fellow scouter here! Our pack is a big mess right now so this may just be an activity with the troop and my den. We just got a new CC willing to actually do the job so hopefully things will be changing soon for the better.

 

Thanks again for the info!!!!

 

Take care!

[+Cindyj2]

OMG this place is amazing and full of wonderful people! A very kind person here has upgraded us to premium status!

 

My son and I are so excited to try these new features out!

 

Thank you thank you!!!!!!

 

Cindy and Matthew