New!

[+Astrologian]

Hello all! My name is Roman and I live in Ellwood City, PA -- it's a small town about 40min. north of Pittsburgh. I graduated from Slippery Rock University in 2011 with a major in Psychology and minors in Biology, Chemistry, and Criminology. Currently working on my master's degree in Criminal Justice and I work part-time as a Correctional Officer at my local county jail.

 

I just recently discovered geocaching and can't wait to get started with this! I love adventuring (even though I do prefer hotels over tents) and it's always a great feeling to discover something that's hidden and all the surprises that go along with it! Any geocachers from my local area or any of you geocaching veterans wish to pass on a few tips or suggestions for a newbie?

 

Thanks fore reading everyone! Looking forward to sharing some great stories with you all!

[+Bubbles&Bonkers]

Welcome, Roman! I don't live anywhere near you, I'm afraid, but have a blast! I see you don't have any finds yet. I'd say start with the ones with a one star difficulty rating and ones that are larger than a micro. That should give you some success and you'll start getting used to what you should look for. It's tons of fun and takes you to new places all the time. And you get to meet cool people along the way. I'm with you, I prefer hotels to tents!!

 

Happy caching!

Sweetpea3 aka Kelly

[+arprodeo]

Hi Shedidthistime!

I always enjoy hearing about someones new enthusiasm for geocaching. Have a really great time , check out events near you where you will meet the geocaching group nearest to your home. I enjoyed reading about your educational achievements-you sound like a bright guy. Even though I find them challenging, try a few of the puzzle caches. You get two shots of excitement-one to solve the puzzle and then another to go and find the physical cache. Puzzle caches are the ones with the ? in the description. Good luck and remember-Have Fun!!

[+niraD]

A common recommendation for beginners is to stick with small size, regular size, and large size caches. Until you're more experienced, avoid micro size caches, some of which are smaller than most beginners can imagine (sometimes called "nanos"). Save those for later, after you have some experience.

 

Also, stick with caches that have a difficulty rating of no more than 2 stars . Save the more difficult ones for later. You may also want to choose caches with easy terrain ratings. (The difficulty rating tells you how hard it is to find the cache once you get there. The terrain rating tells you how hard it is to get there.) And it is often best to start with traditional caches, which will be at the published coordinates. Multi-caches or mystery/puzzle caches or other cache types can require more work just to figure out where the container is located.

 

Under ideal conditions, a consumer GPSr will be accurate to about 3m (10ft). That applies both to your device, and to the cache owner’s device, so you may find the container 15-20ft from ground zero under ideal conditions. Under less than ideal conditions, both GPSr readings can be much less accurate. Once you get within that distance of ground zero, put your device away and look around for places where a container could be hidden.

 

Go ahead and read the cache's additional hints (if provided), and read the past logs and look at any photos in the cache's image gallery. They may help you understand what you're looking for, and how/where it may be hidden. It may also help to look at some of the cache containers available online. For example, check out the cache containers sold by Groundspeak. Also, take a look at the Pictures - Cool Cache Containers (CCC's) thread in the forums.

[+Jayman11]

Welcome to the fun!

[hoosier guy]

Glad to have you with us!

[mac367]

Welcome to game. I have family in Kittaning, Yatesboro and Rural Valley, just a bit east of you.

[+Astrologian]

Thanks for all the input and the warm welcome everyone! I just found my first cache yesterday morning on Halloween! This is a lot more difficult than I originally estimated, as I struggled (and failed) finding 2-3 other caches before finally discovering my first.

 

The biggest thing for me is being watched by muggles, I mean I could look all day in an area for a cache, that's no problem, but if it's in a busy part of town, I don't want the odd looks and possibly the questions to follow! So I have cut my searching sessions pretty short.

[+The_Incredibles_]

Welcome to the obsession!

 

Congratulations on your 1st find! Don't worry if you DNF, that's a big part of caching and you will get better with experience.

 

Searching in high muggle zones can be challenging. There have been some threads on how to make things easier for yourself. What I like to do is check out GZ from a distance first and always give a good read of the description and hint before getting to GZ. That and trying to pick less busy times. If people ask what you're doing, you can always say you lost your pet boa constrictor.