Hello, New here

[+The Three Harrell's]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to say hello. A friend of mine called me about 9 years ago and told me he had discovered a new sport (new to us) while he was participating in another new sport, disc golf. He said he was out Geocaching and come upon a basket that you throw a frisbee like disc into to score points. I asked about Geocaching but he quickly went into the disc golf thing and I forgot he had even spoke about Geocaching. In the last 9 years I have heard of this but had never checked into it until now.

Fast forward to yesterday while I am on vacation at the beach in Oak Island, NC. A friend of mine, I grew up with her and her husband and we have been close for the last 20 - 25 years, (we are 40 and up). Well my friend has been doing this for a little while and gave me a taste of it and I think I am really interested. I have an 8 year old daughter who enjoyed today and my wife liked it as well. We were waiting for a ferry today and with the help of an I phone we discovered there was one just outside of the ferry gates. I found it, what a thrill! I should have let my daughter find it but I got wrapped up in it. Anyway, there was a log and a neat coin. We signed the log and just put everything back the way we found it. Not sure if I was supposed to do something else and niether did my friend, so I hope we did right.

That brings me to some questions that I have. Should I upgrade my membership this soon in my new hobby? If so can I do the 3 month deal and get the same benefits as the year membership? At the end of 3 months can I extend for the rest of the year? I have a droid and a Garmin Nuvi 200, I know these will work but I am really leaning towards a dedicated GPS unit for this. Any good GPS units out there for around $150. I have read most of the guidlines and had no idea that this was this big. Should I log that find from today and if so where? Or should I wait until I upgrade my membership?

I appologize for all of the questions but I believe in doin things right if you are gonna do them, it makes the end result much better. I look forward to learning from all of you and I hope to share some knowledge in the future. Thanks.

Scott

[+geohiker7]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to say hello. A friend of mine called me about 9 years ago and told me he had discovered a new sport (new to us) while he was participating in another new sport, disc golf. He said he was out Geocaching and come upon a basket that you throw a frisbee like disc into to score points. I asked about Geocaching but he quickly went into the disc golf thing and I forgot he had even spoke about Geocaching. In the last 9 years I have heard of this but had never checked into it until now.

Fast forward to yesterday while I am on vacation at the beach in Oak Island, NC. A friend of mine, I grew up with her and her husband and we have been close for the last 20 - 25 years, (we are 40 and up). Well my friend has been doing this for a little while and gave me a taste of it and I think I am really interested. I have an 8 year old daughter who enjoyed today and my wife liked it as well. We were waiting for a ferry today and with the help of an I phone we discovered there was one just outside of the ferry gates. I found it, what a thrill! I should have let my daughter find it but I got wrapped up in it. Anyway, there was a log and a neat coin. We signed the log and just put everything back the way we found it. Not sure if I was supposed to do something else and niether did my friend, so I hope we did right.

That brings me to some questions that I have. Should I upgrade my membership this soon in my new hobby? If so can I do the 3 month deal and get the same benefits as the year membership? At the end of 3 months can I extend for the rest of the year? I have a droid and a Garmin Nuvi 200, I know these will work but I am really leaning towards a dedicated GPS unit for this. Any good GPS units out there for around $150. I have read most of the guidlines and had no idea that this was this big. Should I log that find from today and if so where? Or should I wait until I upgrade my membership?

I appologize for all of the questions but I believe in doin things right if you are gonna do them, it makes the end result much better. I look forward to learning from all of you and I hope to share some knowledge in the future. Thanks.

Scott

[+geohiker7]

HI, somehow the origianl post was added..sorry, I am new too to this all.

I did do the yr Premium Membership as you get hints on the device to aide you in fining the cache, as well as supporting a fun hobby.

I have eXplorist GC

 

eXplorist GC by Magellan

 

It as $150 at Gander Mountain.

 

Preloaded worldwide basemap; paperless geocaching; holds 10,000 geocaches; high-sensitivity SiRFStarIII GPS receiver; WAAS/EGNOS-enabled; 2.2" color screen; rugged and waterproof; runs 18 hours on 2 AA batteries

 

Hope this helps...

[+The Three Harrell's]

Thanks Geohiker7, yes your input helps and I appreciate it. I am looking at the same GPS but I have heard some bad stuff about it but I guess if you dig long enough you will find bad on anything. Good luck with the new hobby. Thanks.

Scott

[+ARHogFanz]

I just signed up for the 3 month PM and from what I can tell, it has all the benefits of the year long membership. As to whether or not to upgrade this soon, it's up to you. I was over 100 finds before I upgraded because I wanted to make sure this was something I was going to stick with. Also, at the time, $10 was a little easier on the wallet.

 

I've got the official app plus the $10 PM & am very happy with my $20 investment. When my subscription ends, I'm going to do the $30 because I have discovered that this is indeed a hobby I want to stick with.

[+The Three Harrell's]

Thanks ARHOGFanz, I appreciate the input. I think I am going to do the $10 deal and see what happens. Gonna go out and see if I could locate some Cache's this evening.

Scott

[+Fianccetto]

Hi Scott, glad you went for the premium membership, it does help in a lot of ways, especially if you're travelling around quite a bit, as we found out recently. (The pocket queries help with that).

 

We recently bought a Megallan Explorist GPS to replace the Garmin Oregon 300 I lost. It cost half as much and we have found it to be much better. Whereas the Oregon we had would use up the batteries in about 2 - 3 hours of use, the Megallan has got us through well over 10x that in the last week. This meant we didn't feel the need to keep turning it off while on a train of several caches, and it was also quicker and easier to note which caches we had found, for later reference when logging online. The screen is clearer (although smaller) and it changes from screen to screen more quickly. Waypoint marking (for saving the coords of where you intend to place a cache) is just as easy, and all this for half the price. We got the offer of 3 months free premium membership with it, but as we are already premium members, it didn't come up (there was no extension on offer!) I think if you get the 3 months free first, and then pay the $30 for the year, you get the full 15 months, if you time it right. If you go to the Groundspeak shop, there's some deals on with some of the ready made caches + membership which look pretty good if you're in America.

 

We would have used our android phones, but there was very little phone reception in the county we were visiting this last week, and even where we did get a signal, we couldn't get the geocaching app to work. We were able to use them sometimes to see the satellite map, to get from the parking to the first cache, but couldn't access any cache pages or info.

 

Good luck with your finds, hope you and your family have a lot of fun with the game.

[+The Three Harrell's]

Thanks Fianccetto, I am glad I bought the membership, at the very least I am helping the site. Thanks for the info on the Megallan I think that is the way I am going. Did you buy the $149.99 unit? It looks like it works well with the site here. I have been using my droid phone and it has worked well but the battery life is bad, I could not do any extended (3hrs) length of time on a hunt without it going dead. If I am on a trail or in the woods I would like to keep the phone battery charged in case I need it. I appreciate the post.

Scott

oh yeah, I am in America...Virginia.

[+Fianccetto]

I got the Magellan eXplorist GC - spent more than £150 on it, let alone $150, it seemed to have all I needed. Coincidentally I did find the Oregon that I thought I had lost, in a bag under a load of leaves and sticks I had collected to use as natural camouflage for some caches I've been planning to hide! We're still glad to have the new one, and it means Mr F. can have a gps with him when he goes caching in America when he's over working in Houston, or when in Sweden, or wherever. We managed a 22 cache trail while on holiday with the Megallen (after a 15 cache one, and having the unit switched on when logging on the laptop too) which we never possible with one set of batteries with the Oregon.

 

However, reading around the site (do a search for Megellen, as well as for any other units you're considering) there do seem to be some people who have had issues with this type of GPS. I hope we don't have those problems, but we have only had this for a about a week, so early days yet. Some people recommend the Dakota.

 

Also, to give a fair comparison, the Megallen does lack the more advanced features the Oregon has: electronic compass, Wherigo, touchscreen, topo maps & ability to load aerial imagery.

[+The Three Harrell's]

I picked up the Magellan Explorist GC today from Best Buy, $149.99. I looked at the Dakota 20 but it was $350, just to much right now being that I am new. Maybe in the future I will have a need for one that nice. Thats great you found your other one, never hurts to have an extra of anything. Good to know about the batteries.

I have been playing with the unit this evening and it seems to be just fine. I have noticed a few very minor things that I do not like but that is with everything I guess. I hope they work well for all of us.

I am taking it out tomorrow morning for a test run, wish me luck and I will keep you posted.