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Geocaching For Dummies


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My copy of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching" arrived today. I've looked it over a bit. Very impressive. I like it a lot. Definitely an addition to the "Approved texts" list at Geocacher U. :lol:

 

Good work, guys n' gals!

 

Bret

With over 400 finds, I'm wondering if you learned anything from the book. :lol:

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With over 400 finds, I'm wondering if you learned anything from the book. :lol:

that's one of the reasons I haven't bought either of the books yet. there's a lot of info in the forums, and i'm also heavily involved in the local club, so it's hard to know if there's anything in there, though I did see a section on using a manual compass that looked helpful. might just go ahead and order both books anyway. :lol:

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I also recently purchased "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching" from Amazon.com, and am enjoying it immensely.

 

Also bought "Hide and Seek with your GPS" and "The Geocaching Handbook".

 

I was wondering if anyone else knew of really good geocaching books, and do they all say the same thing? The "Idiot's" book I'm reading appears to have been written with the help of Groundspeak staff and is very thorough--I don't know what someone else could write about that hasn't already been covered in the "Idiot's" book.

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With over 400 finds, I'm wondering if you learned anything from the book. :lol:

Ok...I guess it's time I came clean here. The fact is, when it comes to books I have a little "problem." For example, here's a picture of part of my office wall (taken from my latest Travel Bug):

 

497064ca-6bff-4565-84eb-1d3db7801ca3.jpg

 

That's just one of the offices and part of the shelf and it doesn't take into account the books that are in storage...somebody help me.

 

As for learning something from the Idiot's Guide, I haven't gotten into it yet, but I see a few things in there that are totally new to me (software I've never even heard of that intrigues me). I learned quite a bit from Geocaching: Hike and Seek with Your GPS too. At any rate, considering how much I enjoy this little obsession, it's just nice to have a copy.

 

Bret

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I'm waiting for the Geocaching guide for intelligent people :lol:

 

One of my pet peeves is reading something that is stated as a fact, but you know it wasn't researched and the information is actually false. For example, stating that you can look at satellite images at lost outdoors.com. I don't know if that was in any of the books or not, but I see that posted in the forums quite often.

 

I'm curious if anybody who bought these books has found examples of misinformation similar to the example I provided.

 

Edit:typo

Edited by cachew nut
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Wow CYBret, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one! I have to restrict myself from trips to the bookstore, I always leave with much more than I intended to. I have a stack of books about kneehigh that I have yet to read (Geocaching: Hike and Seek with Your GPS is in that stack) as well as three books "in progress".

My husband doesn't understand my infatuation with books and thinks it maybe an illness... one I'm passing on to my daughter (who probably has WAY too many books for a four-year old just learning to read :lol: )

 

Anyway, sorry for that slight detour. As mentioned I bought Geocaching: Hike and Seek but have yet to do more the skim the pages. I will definitely be purchasing the other Geocaching books, even if just to see another perspective, as soon as I save enough money to afford a trip to the bookstore. Mmmm, I love the smell of new books!

 

Not that I need any more books but anyone have any other recommended reading for Caching/Hiking besides the ones mentioned? :lol:

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Not that I need any more books but anyone have any other recommended reading for Caching/Hiking besides the ones mentioned?  :lol:

How To Stay Alive in the Woods by Bradford Angier is an old favorite.

 

How to Hide Things in Public Places by Dennis Fiery was interesting too, but I opted to just borrow it from the library....hmmm..the government probably has me on a list somewhere now. :lol:

 

That book was referenced in this thread and if you notice my post at the bottom, this guy even had some sort of early 90's version of geocaching. At any rate, it was a fun read and the reaction on the librarian's face was worth it.

 

Oh, the cover is great too, you can see it here.

 

Bret

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Ok...I guess it's time I came clean here. The fact is, when it comes to books I have a little "problem."

I have the same problem Bret. So you are not alone. My parents also have that problem, so it must be inherited. Your children are doomed to a life of book shelves and boxes full of books in every room!

 

Because of my thing for books and apparent inability to properly use the public library, I am sure I will buy any gecocaching book that comes out. :lol:

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I know what you mean! I break down and go to half-price books quite often and I'm always a little hesitant when I get home curl up and start reading and....

yikes, what is that mysterious substance?! :lol:

But I guess I've probably put my hands in worse things caching! LOL.

 

but I can't stand it when the spine is broken!! :lol: If I'm gonna get a floppy book I want it to be b/c I've loved it enough to read over and over! :lol:

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Hmmm, how can I express this without pissing someone off?

 

A book about geocaching? Is it necessary or even desirable? I understand the need to “dumb down” complicated things like FrontPage or HTML using that format. For those types of activities such a book would be a good thing to have close at hand. But geocaching? Sheesh. I mean, hey, I’m not into the whole rocket scientology brainy surgery stuff, but I was able to figure it out on my own. I might have to look for it in the bookstore next time I’m there just to see how they fluffed it up enough to fill a whole book.

 

You want to know how to geocache and you’re a dummy? Here you go:

 

Step 1, using the Fudging manual that came with your receiver, load the coordinates of the cache you desire.

Step 2, walk in a manner such that the arrow points to the top of the display.

Step 3, when the “distance remaining” is 20 feet or less, start looking around for an odd pile of sticks or bark

Step 4, look under that pile

 

No charge.

 

What’s next, “Reading for Dummies”?

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Well Criminal you certainly didn't piss me off and I do own one of the books (and will probably purchase others).

As stated, reading is almost an illness with me... I LOVE to read and when I find a hobby I enjoy I want to know all I can about it.

I unfortunately don't have as much time as I would like to cache (although am making a real effort lately to find more time!) so I bought the book for the same reason that I read the forums. Any way to gain more knowledge or feel more 'connected'. Will I learn anything, who knows? But some of it is very amusing to say the least.

 

To each his own.

And BTW - your story in Today's Cacher was great! What an awesome trek. (and your puppy is too cute)

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Step 1, using the manual that came with your receiver, load the coordinates of the cache you desire.

Step 2, walk in a manner such that the arrow points to the top of the display.

Step 3, when the “distance remaining” is 20 feet or less, start looking around for an odd pile of sticks or bark

Step 4, look under that pile

Yeah, that’s pretty much the whole book. Kind of hard to imagine they made it last 316 pages…but 316 pages is just a drop in the bucket compared to these forums, huh?

 

As I stated with Erik’s book (Geocaching: Hike and Seek with Your GPS), there was a lot of information in that book on hiking and navigation. I’m sure I could have picked up a book on hiking or navigation or researched it in other places and got the same stuff, but I bought a book on geocaching instead.

 

From what I’ve seen of the Idiot’s Guide (excuse me the Complete Idiot’s Guide) so far the majority of pages are focused on the stuff that surrounds this very simple game. I see headings on map basics, map reading, potting coordinates on a GPS, using mapping software, gear selection and a lot of other stuff that could have been gleaned from a variety of different sources, but here it is in one book and written with an eye towards geocaching.

 

And as SunshineSnuz put it, there’s just something about a book that connects with some of us. When I was fishing a lot more I loved reading and re-reading Isaak Walton’s "The Compleat Angler." It’s 350 years old, but the basics are still there. On the other hand, an issue of Field and Streams would always hit on some issues for the current moment. Maybe these books on geocaching and the forums themselves work together in the same way.

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I've always had a fundamental problem with the whole "Name-of-the-topic for Dummies" and "Complete Idiot's Guide to Something-or-other" concept. I mean, really... "Hey everybody! Look at me - I'm a Complete Idiot AND a Dummy!" (Not only that, I apparently have a serious problem with my self-esteem as well.) And who here owns "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amazing Sex" and/or "Sex for Dummies"? (No, I'm not making those up!)

 

To be fair, I have browsed through a few of the titles (not the "Sex" ones) at the library and they appeared pretty well done. I just don't care for the titles. Why not "The Beginner's Guide to This" or "Whatever for the Novice"?

 

And on the topic, I had heard that several Geocaching books were imminent and pleased to learn it. Takes the sport to another level.

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Hmmm, how can I express this without pissing someone off?

 

A book about geocaching? Is it necessary or even desirable? I understand the need to “dumb down” complicated things like FrontPage or HTML using that format. For those types of activities such a book would be a good thing to have close at hand. But geocaching? Sheesh. I mean, hey, I’m not into the whole rocket scientology brainy surgery stuff, but I was able to figure it out on my own. I might have to look for it in the bookstore next time I’m there just to see how they fluffed it up enough to fill a whole book.

 

You want to know how to geocache and you’re a dummy? Here you go:

 

Step 1, using the Fudging manual that came with your receiver, load the coordinates of the cache you desire.

Step 2, walk in a manner such that the arrow points to the top of the display.

Step 3, when the “distance remaining” is 20 feet or less, start looking around for an odd pile of sticks or bark

Step 4, look under that pile

 

No charge.

 

What’s next, “Reading for Dummies”?

Criminal,

 

Is the book really different than someone coming to the forums and asking questions? For something so simple, we sure spend a lot of time here answering questions. Maybe the book puts all the answers in one spot?

 

B)

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I know what you mean! I break down and go to half-price books quite often and I'm always a little hesitant when I get home curl up and start reading and....

yikes, what is that mysterious substance?! B)

Ask anyone who works in a public library: they receive regular reminders, in the books which people check back in, that reading in bed hasn't yet been completely superseded by watching the late TV news :lol: .

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One of my pet peeves is reading something that is stated as a fact, but you know it wasn't researched and the information is actually false. For example, stating that you can look at satellite images at lost outdoors.com. I don't know if that was in any of the books or not, but I see that posted in the forums quite often.

 

I'm curious if anybody who bought these books has found examples of misinformation similar to the example I provided.

 

Edit:typo

Wait - I missed this. Cachew? You can't see satellite images on lostoutdoors.com? I use them all the time.

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One of my pet peeves is reading something that is stated as a fact, but you know it wasn't researched and the information is actually false. For example, stating that you can look at satellite images at lost outdoors.com. I don't know if that was in any of the books or not, but I see that posted in the forums quite often.

 

I'm curious if anybody who bought these books has found examples of misinformation similar to the example I provided.

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching." Page 36.

 

I just noticed it...not gonna give it away....just wondering if anyone has the book and notices it too. :lol:

 

Bret

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