New to geocaching, couple of questions :)

[Igneous_Is_Bliss]

Hi all,

I'm a 21 yr old geoscience student at the University of TX at Dallas that loves backpacking and hiking (recently did the John Muir Trail with my bf!). Being avid hikers we started to get interested in geocaching, but haven't started yet - just joined the site today. Apparently there's a cache on our campus so on Monday we'll check that out.

We'll probably just use our smartphones to begin with, eventually getting the Garmin eTrex ($45 on Amazon, since we're broke a** college kids ).

 

On to the questions: What is the difference (pros and cons I guess?) between a geocoin and a travelbug? I know they are both trackable, but why would one get a geocoin over a travelbug or vice versa?

What kind of "swag" do you find in caches? Just so I have an idea of what to bring if I find something. I was thinking of making little geocaching keychains from shrinkydinks. Would that be okay?

Searching on this site, I've found a lot of caches in urban areas, and less on actual hikes - is this normal or is it just bc I'm in the DFW area? I'd rather go on an actual dayhike or something

 

Anyways just thought I would introduce myself and hopefully I can find some sort of get together in the DFW area to meet other geocachers!

 

-Katie

[+Touchstone]

What is the difference (pros and cons I guess?) between a geocoin and a travelbug?

 

The following link to the Trackable index page in the KB should answer most of your question:

 

Trackables

 

The main difference, from a "broke college" student perspective, is that Geocoins tend to be much more costly, than buying the Trackable "dogtags" which you can attach to almost any object. The other unfortunate consideration, is that Geocoins tend to go "missing" much quicker.

 

The shrinky-dink idea is an excellent one, and lends itself well to attaching the tracking dog tags to.

 

Searching on this site, I've found a lot of caches in urban areas, and less on actual hikes - is this normal or is it just bc I'm in the DFW area? I'd rather go on an actual dayhike or something

 

Without a doubt, the vast majority of geocaches are located in urban areas, rather than in the backcountry. I'm not all that familiar with the DFW area, but just about every large urban area in the U.S. has a very high concentration of caches.

 

What I tend to do when I'm headed out for a hike is to either do a quick search on the GC maps, or plug in a set of coordinates in the Search page to see what is available. I then will fashion a Pocket Query (a Premium Member feature) based on some cache in the area.

 

Big Congrats on finishing the JMT! Still looking forward to doing that from start to finish someday, but in the meantime, we tend to take a trip each summer which either crosses or takes a small portion of the JMT. You might recognize this place (...shameless plug warning)?

 

Muir Hut Challenge

 

Edited October 1, 2011 by Touchstone

[+DonB]

Hi all,

I'm a 21 yr old geoscience student at the University of TX at Dallas that loves backpacking and hiking (recently did the John Muir Trail with my bf!). Being avid hikers we started to get interested in geocaching, but haven't started yet - just joined the site today. Apparently there's a cache on our campus so on Monday we'll check that out.

We'll probably just use our smartphones to begin with, eventually getting the Garmin eTrex ($45 on Amazon, since we're broke a** college kids ).

 

On to the questions: What is the difference (pros and cons I guess?) between a geocoin and a travelbug? I know they are both trackable, but why would one get a geocoin over a travelbug or vice versa?

What kind of "swag" do you find in caches? Just so I have an idea of what to bring if I find something. I was thinking of making little geocaching keychains from shrinkydinks. Would that be okay?

Searching on this site, I've found a lot of caches in urban areas, and less on actual hikes - is this normal or is it just bc I'm in the DFW area? I'd rather go on an actual dayhike or something

 

Anyways just thought I would introduce myself and hopefully I can find some sort of get together in the DFW area to meet other geocachers!

 

-Katie

I'm not familiar with your area but I did a quick look and I see a Westover Park with what looks like a hiking trail with quite a few caches along it.

[+EdrickV]

Travelbugs are intended to be attached to an item (the traveler) while Geocoins are not.

Travelbugs are in general cheaper then Geocoins.

Travelbugs come as a set, with the main tag and a "copy" tag. (Normally you send out the main tag and keep the copy. If the main tag vanishes for a long while, you could send out the copy.)

Geocoins are often smaller then a travelbug + traveler would be and thus may fit in smaller caches.

Geocoins are collected by many people and (I've heard) have a higher rate of disappearing from the wild.

Geocoins can have unique icons and artwork on them, while travel bugs pretty much all look the same. (There are some items out there that are made to act like Travelbugs, but I think would offically be classified as Geocoins, like Cachekinz.)

Geocoins are often bought by collectors who have no intention of putting them in caches.

[+Steve0512]

There is a plugin to Google Earth to help you find Geocaches. I find it very helpful to view caches in areas where we are thinking about hiking.

[Narcosynthesis]

A geocoin is a specially minted metal coin designed to be sent out as a traveller and to be tracked via the geocaching website.

A travel bug is similar in that it is an item that is designed to travel between caches and be tracked on the geocaching website, the difference is that instead of being a special coin, a travel bug is a tag with the relevant tracking code on it which can then be attached to any item you wish.

 

Swag in caches can vary somewhat, but is typically small cheaper items - small toys and trinkets mainly. Not all caches are suitable for swag depending on their size, and what I would really recommend is heading out to find a few caches and see - there is no requirement to trade swag or leave anything, so you are free to have a look and see before creating any personal swag or similar. Geocaching shrinkydink keychains are a perfect idea though.

 

Yes, urban caches are more common, or at least ones in relatively accessible areas - more cacher traffic to find them, and easier to keep an eye on and maintain. There are caches out on hiking trails though, you just need to figure out which ones you can get.

I think you will have to expect to spend a day hiking to find one or two caches though, rather than spend a day caching in an urban location and finding 10+, the journey rather than the numbers...