Hello There, Hope to get started in this adventure

[+TeamPennyFinder]

I saw Geo-caching mentioned on another website and it got me curious. I found this site and have now joined. I hope to get my wife involved as I am disabled and can not drive. (epilepsy) This sounds like it could be fun and get us to do something besides watching TV together. LOL!

I have an older TomTom One. Is something like that accurate enough to Geo-cache with?

 

Thank You.

[+Tim2AKAT2]

Welcome and yes you can with a TomTom but it is much harder. Eventually you will want to get a handheld GPS or a GPS enabled phone to make it easier. It is a fun game and I enjoy the places in town that it takes me. Hope the wife takes you caching. Tim2akaT2

 

PS with a name like pennyfinder could you be a metal detectorist, or coin roll hunter?

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Thank You for the encouragement and the advice. I am already eyeing some sites that may be in a good walks walking distance.

 

LOL! Penny is the wife's name. hehehe

 

I used to Love metal detecting, had a White's. Son "borrowed" it years ago and it came back non-functional, so now just sits in the closet.

[+The Blorenges]

Welcome

 

If you have good maps and you're good at map-reading you might even be able to find your first few caches that way, without needing a GPS:

 

Look at caches near your home area, look at the traditional caches (the ones with a single green-lidded box as their icon), look at the map on the cache page. Look for lower D/T (Difficulty/Terrain) numbers. Read the hint if there is one.

 

Good luck anyway

 

MrsB

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Thank You MrsB.

 

I have been looking at the google maps that are in the Geo website and there are about 3 caches within 2 miles of me. I am starting to get excited. I need to start doing some walking anyway. My once powerful chest has fallen "south" over the years. lolololol

[+coggins]

visit an Event Cache meeting in your area and you might meet some locals that you can cache with. Might help to get you started and share a ride:)

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

My once powerful chest has fallen "south" over the years.

 

So, gravity affects you too, eh?

 

There are lots of ways/techniques to geocache. Having a state-of-the-art GPSr is only one option. A number of folks have thousands of finds without use of a GPSr at all.

You see, the only thing that the GPSr does (really) is put you in the "area" of the cache. The rest is still up to you. Learn to spot things that aren't in natural order (disorder) and you have probably found the cache (it's hiding spot). Then too, don't look for the cache itself, more rather look for it's hiding spot!

 

Your TomTom will do for starters, but you will probably want to upgrade sometime (it most always happens, anyway).

Just remember, bread and butter is good -- lots of bells and whistles cost! On the other hand, cake IS better with frosting.

 

Prior advice about attending an Event Cache cannot be overstated. Lots to learn and there will be many there wanting to help you.

 

Good luck, and most importantly -- HAVE FUN.

[+CanadaKate]

I This sounds like it could be fun and get us to do something besides watching TV together. LOL!

Thank You.

 

Welcome to a great way to definitely do something more interesting than watching TV. There are caches available for many different levels of physical activity ... you can always start with some that require a short walk and work up to the long woodland hikes.

 

Have fun!

 

CanadaKate

[+TeamPennyFinder]

This forum is not only informative, it is also friendly. Thank You all again for the advice. I will see if there are any local clubs. Can not believe that at my ago I have never heard of this.

 

Cake with icing.... mmmm... I think that is part of why my chest went south. lol

 

I will start looking on Craig's List.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Does anybody have any views on the Garmin Legend H? Found that one on Amazon for $89.99 new.

[+NanCycle]

This forum is not only informative, it is also friendly. Thank You all again for the advice. I will see if there are any local clubs. Can not believe that at my ago I have never heard of this.

 

Cake with icing.... mmmm... I think that is part of why my chest went south. lol

 

I will start looking on Craig's List.

 

Nothing against Craig's List, but do take a look at the GPS Garage Sale section in the GPS Related Topics in these forums.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Thank You DoubleBent I did not even see that section. Will look there.

 

This forum is not only informative, it is also friendly. Thank You all again for the advice. I will see if there are any local clubs. Can not believe that at my ago I have never heard of this.

 

Cake with icing.... mmmm... I think that is part of why my chest went south. lol

 

I will start looking on Craig's List.

 

Nothing against Craig's List, but do take a look at the GPS Garage Sale section in the GPS Related Topics in these forums.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

I went and looked at the Garage Sale section of the site. It needs some major moderating. A lot of threads need to be either deleted/archived/cleaned up as the units are sold. Only 1 unit in my price range but it is for a Garmin that is 5-6 years old and I am leery of purchasing one of that age as I do not know the expected life time.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

TeamPennyFinder:

 

If you can hold out until the "after Thanksgiving" sales -- do they call that Black Friday? -- you can get some WUNNERFUL buys online.

 

Brand new, almost state-of-the-art units for close to or even more than half-off. Amazon.com partners do some super sales. Keep monitoring it, as when you notice it, jump on it (as they usually have only a few left).

 

Is how we got our PN-40 Delorme for less than half-price.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

LOL! Thank You Gitchee-Gummee. I will consider that as one of my options. Trying to hold back though when I am excited about something is very hard to do.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Is the PN-40 Delorme any good with out the map disks? Or do you need them?

[+Team Firenze]

you can get free maps online that are almost as good. I just loaded them in my new garmin.

[+hukilaulau]

If there are only a few caches near you I'm guessing you live in farm country somewhere

You might look in the regional list and see if there is a forum that covers your area. That way you might find some locals to hang out with. Geocachers generally are a friendly bunch.

[+mdplayers]

just a reminder that if you are using a GPS designed for use in a car, you might need to see about changing it to pedestrian mode so it doesn't try to force you to stay on a road.

 

good luck getting started, keep us updated on how your search for caches goes as well as the search for a GPSr.

[+BMndFul]

Hope????? Hope, is what i use when I vote. Sheez, make a commitment and come out and join the fun. Seriously, you can also check REI for their "garage sales" most stores have them on a regular schedule. In addition, selected stores offer GPS classes. Try and find the instructor, usually one of the senior sales associates. I had one of the instructors parking lot field test a few GPS units with me before making my selection. In addition, I got $100 off because of the sale.

Edited November 8, 2011 by Russ!

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Well this morning I had my wife (on the way to work) drop me off at the corner of nowhere and nowhere a couple of miles from the house. There were supposed to be three micros with in a few miles of this location.

 

I had already put the coords into the TomTom and put it in pedestrian mode. I loaded one up and it was half a mile away. Excited I took off walking with my TomTom, backpack, and walking stick.

 

"You Have Reached Your Destination," the TomTom informed me.

"Huh? But... but... I am in the middle of the blasted road!"

 

I zoomed in as close as I could. Sigh... there was no way to tell which side of the road it was on even. I tried to think like I was hiding something. After half an hour I gave up. ARG!!

 

Oh well I will try again. Next! Oh goody, 1 1/2 miles.

"Turn around when possible," TomTom said.

LOL! Great it was back in the direction I had just come from.

 

Oh well... walk.... walk... walk... walk...

 

"You have reached your destination," informed the almighty TomTom.

Once again in the road, once again not knowing what side.

Search search search "Where the heck is that Micro stashed?"

Again after about a half an hour of searching I give up.

 

Set HOME, oh my gosh I am 3 1/2 miles from home! I am not a young spring chicken anymore. Oh well.

 

Walk walk walk walk...

"You have reached your destination," said the TomTom.

"Huh? Wow, your right on the mark TomTom if about 200 yards off is on the mark." (sigh)

 

Tired, I finish my journey and am greeted happily by my dogs who act like I have been gone forever.

 

So, even though I am tired and came up empty I am still happy and will be sticking with it. Gosh knows I need the exercise and the scenery is nice.

 

Now I do have a question. Do I log the two caches that I tried to find as DNF's on the GC site? And if I do that am I allowed to go back and try again and if I find them then mark them as found?

[cheryl1701]

the first few geocaches i ever found were with a tom tom one, and yes, some of them needed a return visit and a little more experience to find. you might find it easier if you spot the area on google earth first before going out to find, also take a printout of the cache description and logs with you when you go, look carefully at cache descriptions before heading out, perhaps finding a micro is not you best choice for a first find.(larger=easier) I found about 20 caches with the tom tom before i decided that maybe the caches in wooded areas might be more fun to find, i went to the local pawn shop and paid 40 bucks for a garmin legend. happily used this for caching until i received a garmin oregon for my birthday, If you want go to my profile page and look at the first few caches i found, most were along country roads, or in city parks close to home using google earth. tom tom is only a road gps and therefore will say you have arrived when you're on the road next to it. (this could be off by quite a few meters), once you get the hang of geocaching, what we call geo senses will take over once you're at the location, (also known as GZ) ground zero, there are only so many places you can hide a container, and you will learn what these are as you go, once you have mastered these, its time to move on to more complicated ones. Don't worry if you didn't find the first few you went out for (I didn't either). you will eventually find them, and that is where the addiction begins! happy hunting!

[cheryl1701]

oh and i never posted "did not find" on any of my first caches i tried for and didn't find, i knew they were there by the posts from other cachers. just tried again after a bit more experience, sure enough they were there. don't get dismayed, you are just not looking for the right ones for your experience level.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Thank You cheryl1701 for the advice. I will try to find bigger sizes at first. Will have to get the wife to drive a little more out of her way on the way to work. Plus walk home will be much further. Or hopefully she will have a day off next week and I can try to get her hooked. LOL!

 

I went to see your page. I must say that I am extremely impressed! The number of micros to your credit, wow!

 

But in looking closer at your page I see that you have had help. A very sharp eyed sheep for a geocaching buddy. BTW your gallery had me smiling. Thank You.

 

So, now I have got to find me a buddy to take with me to help me. I need to choose between my Naked Mole Rat bobble head or Bob the Grunting Hedge Hog stuffed toy. MMM... or maybe both to double my chance!

 

Now peeps, got another question. I have located a used Delorme PN-40 for hiking and used Delorme PN-60. The PN-60 is about $15 bucks more. Is the PN-60 that much better?

 

Pricey at about $160.00. But maybe if I put on my sad face and roll around in supposed agony I may be able to convince the wife.

[cheryl1701]

I would really recommend a few finds before investing in anything, let's find out how you like this before spending the bucks, using a tom tom will actually make you a better finder because you will have to check everything within a large radius to make a find, some are extremely clever hides out there and finding the clever ones will give you a great deal of satisfaction. also check out some of the pictures others leave on the cache pages (this will tell you what you are looking for). be careful if you decide to take pictures, a lot of cache owners will delete your find logs if they feel your picture of the cache is a spoiler. I usually take my cue from what others have posted, if im not sure i just take a picture of the logbook and i am careful not to put in much background in the pictures.

my little buddy the geo sheep has caught the attention of many a cacher and Groundspeak as well,

http://blog.geocaching.com/2011/01/go-geocaching-dont-forget/

occasionally i meet other cachers on the trails and introduce ourselves, only when i pull sheep out of the bag for the pic, do the the other cachers know who i am.

good luck, be sure to log your finds (with your adventures in finding them)so we can see your progress.

[+baack40]

I started caching with an Etrex Legend. Cost me about $59.00 at the time. I had to hand load the caches for quite a while until I purchased the cable for it but I think that was only about $24.00 or something like that. Cached with it from July to April and then knew I was addicted and purchased a Delorme PN40 (Happy Birthday to me from hubby lol) I like it as it loads the cache page with logs and hints etc. Found on sale on Amazon. Other than the paperless caching and being able to use field notes for quick ref only, placing travelers etc. which I used to just jot down on a piece of paper, it works about the same as the Etrex.

 

I would love to find someone as excited about geocaching as you are to go caching with as most of the time I go by myself. What part of the country are you? You may have stated it before but I just skimmed through the postings a bit.

 

Might want to check Craig's list, when I was looking to upgrade I found one on there but missed it by about an hour. Grrrrrr. Was a Delorme for half the price that I actually paid and had only been used a couple of times. Too bad.

 

I also searched on Ebay for one too. Just an idea. Got a pawn shop close to you? Have seen them in there too. You could also look up someone in your area that hides caches and ask them if they know anyone that has a used one that they would like to sell. Sooo many cachers start out with the cheaper models and then upgrade and still have their older ones laying around like I did. I donated mine to the boy scouts in the area to use since they now have a badge for geocaching. They were very appreciative of the donation and have contacted me several times about how many times they have used it and how many caches they have found. I enjoy getting the emails from them.

 

Good luck with your caching and finding a GPS.

 

BTW your wife has a nice name as it is my first name also.

 

Penny

Edited November 8, 2011 by baack40

[+baack40]

oh and i never posted "did not find" on any of my first caches i tried for and didn't find, i knew they were there by the posts from other cachers. just tried again after a bit more experience, sure enough they were there. don't get dismayed, you are just not looking for the right ones for your experience level.

You can log your DNF if you want to. You can revisit a cache as many time as it takes to find it. I would sugget saying you are a new cacher to let the cache owner know that it is probably there but as a new cacher you just didn't find it.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Hi baack40,

We are in East TN. There are a few pawn shops around but they just about want brand new prices for anything be it a piece of junk or not. At times brand new items in stores are cheaper. But I will call around. I have checked ebay and I guess since the holidays are coming up people are jacking those prices as well.

I am just about positive that I am really going to enjoy this a lot. There is just not much within walking distance of the house. One thing I thought of was to also try to rope my parents in, they live about 15 miles away from me but I will say it is good exercise. LOL!

 

I just looked at the caches that you can buy on this site. I am kicking myself in the rear right now because I am almost positive that I looked right at one of the caches. I saw what I thought to be a rusty nut and bolt beside a guard rail so I paid it no mind. I ignored it because there were other rusty nuts and bolts lying around, but separated. This one looked to be threaded on. I am going to smack my head when I go back and that is what I was looking for. lololololol

[+baack40]

Hi baack40,

We are in East TN. There are a few pawn shops around but they just about want brand new prices for anything be it a piece of junk or not. At times brand new items in stores are cheaper. But I will call around. I have checked ebay and I guess since the holidays are coming up people are jacking those prices as well.

I am just about positive that I am really going to enjoy this a lot. There is just not much within walking distance of the house. One thing I thought of was to also try to rope my parents in, they live about 15 miles away from me but I will say it is good exercise. LOL!

 

I just looked at the caches that you can buy on this site. I am kicking myself in the rear right now because I am almost positive that I looked right at one of the caches. I saw what I thought to be a rusty nut and bolt beside a guard rail so I paid it no mind. I ignored it because there were other rusty nuts and bolts lying around, but separated. This one looked to be threaded on. I am going to smack my head when I go back and that is what I was looking for. lololololol

LOL Yup we have all smacked ourselves in the head more than once when we have gone back to a site and found it. Went to one site 4 different times before I found the cache and why did it elude me the three other times? I have no idea, just missed it. Wrong angle, sun in my eyes? Have no idea but it eluded me, LOL

 

Might want to go on ebay and search geocaching containers and browse, there are some really sneaky ones out there. LOL Best to have all the knowledge you can collect before going out. You will be amazed at some of the deceptive cache containers there are.

 

Too bad, too far away, Ohio here. LOL

 

Penny

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Oh oh! Anybody need answer fast as I found a Magellan Explorist 200 by calling the local pawn shops. (thanks again baack40) He is willing to barter and price match. (hope he knows about amazon used sections lol)

 

Can this unit do true paperless caching?

Is this a good model?

 

Thank You.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Nevermind. I found out that it does not. In fact you can not even hook it up to your PC.

[+Team Firenze]

If you can afford it and you feel that you are that into it get the delorme. I would assume the couple of bucks extra would be worth it. Remember when you are looking for micros that they may be nanos. A standard micro is like a film canister. A nano is much small like the size of a half inch thick dime and usually magnetic. Also, take a look at the Cool Cache container thread in the main forum. There are a lot of good ideas there on what a cache can look like.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Thank You Team Firenze. I will take a look at that part of the forum I have not yet.

 

But now I found another choice two cities over at another pawn shop. My fingers have been busy today. LOL!

 

It is a Magellan Explorist GC.

 

So now I am really confused. LOL!

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Thank You for the encouragement and the advice. I am already eyeing some sites that may be in a good walks walking distance.

 

LOL! Penny is the wife's name. hehehe

 

 

Does she get lost often?

[+TeamPennyFinder]

LOL!! No, I just consider myself lucky to have found her around thirty years ago.

[+Team Firenze]

Thank You Team Firenze. I will take a look at that part of the forum I have not yet.

 

But now I found another choice two cities over at another pawn shop. My fingers have been busy today. LOL!

 

It is a Magellan Explorist GC.

 

So now I am really confused. LOL!

 

My understanding is that is a GPS pretty much made for geocaching. I think its pretty entry level so you should be able to get it pretty cheap. I would check in the GPS forums but I think that would be a good entry-level unit for you.

[+hukilaulau]

Well this morning I had my wife (on the way to work) drop me off at the corner of nowhere and nowhere

 

Man, I LOVE that spot! That's my favorite place to start a caching day.

That's a great story. You should consider submitting it one of the geocaching mags.

 

Oh, BTW, I would suggest that you DO log your first hunts as DNF's. You will enjoy reading the logs years from now when you're an experienced cacher.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Thank You hukilaulau,

I did have fun even though I came up empty. I WILL be returning to those sites. They WILL be mine. LOL! I think I will log them as DNF's but make it clear that it was my first outing as I am new to this.

I do not know of any Geocaching mags. lol

 

To everybody,

The wife is taking me to the pawnshop after she gets off today so I can look at the Magellan Explorist GC. They say over the phone that it is in like new condition still in the box with everything.

They are asking $110.00 on it and of course add the almost 10% tax rate to it. I talked to them again a few minutes ago and told them to have the batteries charged so I can check it out.

I am worried about some of the reviews where people say they cannot read the text as it is to small and they have a hard time seeing the screen in daylight. My eye sight is not the best so I want to check it out.

Just wish it was closer. Oh, and of course I will be haggling if I want it. LOL!

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Thank You hukilaulau,

I did have fun even though I came up empty. I WILL be returning to those sites. They WILL be mine. LOL! I think I will log them as DNF's but make it clear that it was my first outing as I am new to this.

I do not know of any Geocaching mags. lol

 

To everybody,

The wife is taking me to the pawnshop after she gets off today so I can look at the Magellan Explorist GC. They say over the phone that it is in like new condition still in the box with everything.

They are asking $110.00 on it and of course add the almost 10% tax rate to it. I talked to them again a few minutes ago and told them to have the batteries charged so I can check it out.

I am worried about some of the reviews where people say they cannot read the text as it is to small and they have a hard time seeing the screen in daylight. My eye sight is not the best so I want to check it out.

Just wish it was closer. Oh, and of course I will be haggling if I want it. LOL!

 

Just a few more comments that will hopefully be more useful than my previous about your navigationally challenged spouse.

 

I can't help but wonder if your Tom Tom was still set for road navigation if it took you to the middle of the road each time. Basically, all a GPS really does is indicate your current location. It also shows your current location relative to some other point (i.e. a destination location) given the lat/long coordinates of that location. Finally, it provide means to navigate from your current location to the destination and can do that in one of two ways. In "Pedestrian mode", it's essentially a "as the crow flies" form of navigation. In "Driving mdoe" (or whatever term is used for your GPS) it will attempt to navigate from your current location to a destination by following a "route". A route is merely a linked sequence of "known" waypoints between two locations. You can effectively equate a route to the roads on a map. For auto navigation GPS devices it uses "driving mode" by default (because they're meant to be used in cars/trucks) so that when your GPS provides directions for navigating from a hotel to the nearest Chinese restaurant it won't tell you "drive forward at 270 degrees" resulting in a collision between a solid building or into a a river. However, although many geocaches are located very close to roads, most geocaches are not *on* routes, thus, if the GPS is in "Driving Road" it will attempt to navigate to a point *on* the route close to the destination. That could be 50' or even 500' away from where the cache is actually located. In "Pedestrian mode" the GPS will ignore the routing information and just attempt to direct you directly to the destination point from your location.

 

One of the mistakes that many make when first starting out is to "follow the arrow" or match up the coordinates on the GPS with the published coordinates for the cache. If this game were about getting as close as possible to the published coordinates with your GPS that might be a good strategy. However, it's a game about finding geocaches, and more often than not, even when you *can* get your GPS to show coordinates identical to the published coordinates, the cache could be 30-40 feet away. Instead of trying to use your GPS to get all the way to the cache, use it to get to the general area and then start looking for places where a cache could be hidden. As you gain experience, the potential places where a cache might be hidden will become more obvious and you may find that you can locate the hiding place from 100' away.

 

Oh, and next time you go out, you might want to bring your dog with you. It sounded like he/she was telling you the they'd like to try geocaching too.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Well, I was not able to make it to the pawn shop today. Wife was not able to get off at the time that she thought she would be off. Oh well.

 

NYPaddleCacher,

What I have is the original TomTom One. It has very limited settings. But what I did was to set it in the preferences to: "always figure the walking route". That is as close to a pedestrian mode as this one can come. The later models of the TomTom One may be better. In fact I am pretty sure they are. But this one when you go off the road even into a parking lot gets confused as all get out and starts telling you to "turn around when possible". LOL! In fact if you try to set a way point (which you can do if on a road) that is not on a road or extremely close to a road you get an error screen telling you, "No known Route." and it ignores you. I have to set my Home using either my address or run out to the mailbox and set my current position. But even when I did that it still was waaaayyyy off walking back home. I tried setting it from my front porch and I think it started smoking trying to calculate that. lol

 

My dogs would Love to come with me, but I would have to start carrying Monty my pug very quickly as he tires easily. Soldier Girl my boxer/pit could keep up but she would snack on all the local cats, birds, possums, rabbits, snakes, etc... LOL!

[+TeamPennyFinder]

Sweet Victory! We went back to the first one I tried. It got found and now I have one very angry naked mole rat. LOL!

[cheryl1701]

Sweet Victory! We went back to the first one I tried. It got found and now I have one very angry naked mole rat. LOL!

 

absolutely terrific log entry, and congrats....now go find another... and it begins...

did you get another gps or use tom tom?

Edited November 14, 2011 by cheryl1701

[+TeamPennyFinder]

cheryl1701,

Believe it or not the only thing I used this time was the map imagery that is on the cache page. Using advice I zoomed in as close as it would let me and then did the satellite view. That was good enough to let me know what side of the road to look on. Sadly it was more accurate than the TomTom. LOL! I still have not been able to make it to the pawn shop as the brother to my wife's boss died so she has been having to work extra hours to cover the store. Plus I have just about made up my mind that I want a Delorme PN-60 over the Magellan Explorist GC. The **60 has better reviews and I want to start out right. So, I may just hold my taters and see if the prices will tumble on black Thursday or Friday.

 

Thank You for the compliment on the log entry. I took my cue from you. LOL! Also I thought that yes, I may want to look back years from now; so the more detail and story the better to jog my memory. I do not know if the naked mole rat will be making a return. I want something more pose able. hehehe...

 

Oh, everybody,

I bought my first SWAG stuff today for when I find a bigger cache that has stuff. The SWAG I bought was just $1.00 each. 1) dog leash, 2) bag of hair scrunchies for a little girl, 3) a tape measure.

So, do I leave that stuff in the original packaging and bag it in a baggie also? Is that stuff good enough or do I need to buy more expensive stuff?

 

Thanks everyone!

[+baack40]

cheryl1701,

Believe it or not the only thing I used this time was the map imagery that is on the cache page. Using advice I zoomed in as close as it would let me and then did the satellite view. That was good enough to let me know what side of the road to look on. Sadly it was more accurate than the TomTom. LOL! I still have not been able to make it to the pawn shop as the brother to my wife's boss died so she has been having to work extra hours to cover the store. Plus I have just about made up my mind that I want a Delorme PN-60 over the Magellan Explorist GC. The **60 has better reviews and I want to start out right. So, I may just hold my taters and see if the prices will tumble on black Thursday or Friday.

 

Thank You for the compliment on the log entry. I took my cue from you. LOL! Also I thought that yes, I may want to look back years from now; so the more detail and story the better to jog my memory. I do not know if the naked mole rat will be making a return. I want something more pose able. hehehe...

 

Oh, everybody,

I bought my first SWAG stuff today for when I find a bigger cache that has stuff. The SWAG I bought was just $1.00 each. 1) dog leash, 2) bag of hair scrunchies for a little girl, 3) a tape measure.

So, do I leave that stuff in the original packaging and bag it in a baggie also? Is that stuff good enough or do I need to buy more expensive stuff?

 

Thanks everyone!

Wow, you are ready to go with the swag. Shouldn't have to bag it. If its in the original pkg should be ok. If it was like a deck of cards in a cardboard box I would bag it, but the stuff you have should be fine.

 

I have a Delorme PN40 and like it really well. I found mine on sale and saved about $100 at the time. Be sure to watch Amazon for sales, that is where I bought mine. Also I have heard REI has great sales too. Good luck with your purchase. It took me a while to figure out ins and outs of it and still don't understand all there is to know but learning something all the time by watching the forums and reading comments and questions about it. I don't understand all the terminology about gps's so am a little slow on picking up on the tricks of the trade. Good luck sounds like you have started out right and got the fun part down. LOL Liked the log and the pic, really cute. LOL

[+Chief301]

Sounds like you're off to a good start...and that you're discovering that there is a bit of a learning curve to this game! The Delorme PN-60 that you've selected, from what I understand, should serve you well for Geocaching (I have a Garmin myself, but many people like the Delorme units). Your TomTom will usually try to take you to the nearest street location (maybe even in Pedestrian mode, I'm not sure)...you'll have a much better experience with a handheld.

 

Also, you'll find that the handheld will last much longer on a set of batteries than your car GPS...usually 15-20 hours on a fresh set. Most handhelds are not rechargeable but use regular AA batteries, so if it goes dead out in the boonies you can just pop in a fresh pair and keep going. Not so with the TomTom.

 

When you start getting off the beaten path you'll also appreciate that the handheld GPS can take a lot of abuse...drop it, kick it, dunk it in a puddle, it will keep working (or should ). Stuff that would kill the TomTom or a smartphone, they're just not made for it.

 

As far as swag goes, you can either trade swag or not, it's up to you. It's not required that you take anything, but just remember if you do to leave something of approximately equal or greater value (trade up or even). It's even OK if you take nothing but leave something anyway, just to improve the swag level. The stuff you selected sounds like excellent swag...1 or 2 dollar stuff is about right for most caches. Just remember, no food items or candy or even stuff that might have a strong smell (candles come to mind) as they will attract critters almost as much as food will.

[+baack40]

I would make a suggestion. I learned this with my other GPS. Batteries are a real expense. I bought rechargeable batteries and and charger. I have 8 batteries and one charger that charges 4 at a time. Takes about 11 hours to recharge them. I have heard that the rechargable unit in the Delorme is not that great so I didn't purchase that, I have used the energizer rechargeables now for almost a year and they are still doing fine. I suppose they only have so many recharges but I haven't found that out yet. LOL Regular batteries work ok but since it takes alot of power for the GPS they don't drain totally. When using them along time ago I found I could use them in other things after they were "Dead" for the gps.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

My wife brought me home more SWAG last night to add to my collection.

1) fat writing pens on lanyards

2) small picture frame

3) small picture frame with cross

4) small calculator

 

I have went ahead and bagged them and added a shiny penny into each bag as our "calling card". I am impatiently awaiting for when she (Penny) has time for our next hunt.

 

baack40,

I am glad that you like the PN40. I have read good reviews on it also. I considered it but it is almost as expensive used as the PN60 in most cases. Rechargables is how I want to go. So, I will also get a charging station and rechargable batts.

 

Chief301,

Thank You for the heads up on what not to put in as SWAG. I took that as sound advice.

The TomTom batts only last about 1 1/2 hours. It will be good to have something that lasts longer. Plus something that is built for a tad of abuse. I am a klutz.

 

[cheryl1701]

Tell me where which cache you drop that in, so i can go get it, that's terrific swag!

[+TeamPennyFinder]

LOL, Thank You cheryl1701. I was hoping it was good enough. I still have to add some real small items to my SWAG so I can also trade with smaller cache sizes. Unfortunately what is mainly in my area is Micros. But I will keep these items in my backpack and take it with me when ever I get out of the house. Well, I will do that when I finally get a paperless gps and run PQ's for close by caches when we go somewhere.

I do not understand why all the micros in my area. Good grief I live in the boonies, surely with all the woodsy areas people could hide regular to large sizes. But I guess property owners have a say in that matter.

I am looking forward to one day placing a cache of my own. I have already got an idea of what I want my cache container to be, but do not know if it is in existence yet or I have to somehow make it.