Geocaching By Opportunity

[+KaiserKlan]

It's interesting to me that so many cachers plan a geocaching trip to the gnats eyelash of detail. They find an area, get topo maps, maybe even road maps to get them in the area, spend hours planning every aspect of their trip. And this is very cool, but what I usually do is geocache by opportunity.

 

I'm driving through an area, and low and behold there just happens to be a geocache .2 miles ahead, so I stop by and pick it up. I'm board, so I pick up my GPS turn it on, find the nearest cache and off I go.... Work is boring me to death today but 5 miles away I see a cache, you'll find me there in minutes.

 

How do you geocache, by opportunity or do you plan out each adventure?

[+DustyJacket]

Yes.

[+boulist44]

Since I don't have an in car system to detect caches I generally find it a good idea to pre-plan otherwise I miss them.

As a matter of interest how do you find a cache by opportunity without knowing the co-ords etc.??

[+KaiserKlan]

I have the GPS pre-programmed with 500-600 caches in and around where I live, or where I expect to be. I live in Missouri but am frequently in Minnesota so before a trip I'll unload the MO files and load up the MN, then my Garmin is mounted to the dash and as opportunity stikes, I geocache.

Edited August 4, 2004 by KaiserKlan

[+fly46]

I look through the websites for caches I want to do, then when I feel like caching, I do them, one here, a couple there, etc..

 

Maybe I won't have 2347392048372958 finds when all is said and done, but I think I enjoy this more as a social activity (event caches, talking to other cachers, etc) and a diversion here and there then I do about going after numbers, etc..

[+JohnnyVegas]

I do the same thing, my girlfrind lives 90 miles away. When I am driving to or from her place if I see a cache pop up on my GPS screen I will look for it if i have time. the really strange thing is that some times it seems I have better luck at night.

[+carleenp]

I have done it both ways. Sometimes the planning is part of the fun. Other times I like to just randomly go find things. Sometimes it is in between, such as some loose planning and then a measure of randomness.

[uperdooper]

pretty much like carleen here. if i'm home alone i will go get a couple when i feel like it. if i'm going caching with my brothers i plan it out so we can hit as many as we can, with the least amount of driving. gas is expensive right now so some planning doesn't hurt.

[+tirediron]

'nother fence-sitter here. I do both, depends on the time, the mood and the rest of it.

[kayaker22589]

It's interesting to me that so many cachers plan a geocaching trip to the gnats eyelash of detail. They find an area, get topo maps, maybe even road maps to get them in the area, spend hours planning every aspect of their trip. And this is very cool, but what I usually do is geocache by opportunity.

 

I'm driving through an area, and low and behold there just happens to be a geocache .2 miles ahead, so I stop by and pick it up. I'm board, so I pick up my GPS turn it on, find the nearest cache and off I go.... Work is boring me to death today but 5 miles away I see a cache, you'll find me there in minutes.

 

How do you geocache, by opportunity or do you plan out each adventure?

Oppurntunity. I have to since I don't have a car.

[+briansnat]

It's interesting to me that so many cachers plan a geocaching trip to the gnats eyelash of detail. They find an area, get topo maps, maybe even road maps to get them in the area, spend hours planning every aspect of their trip. And this is very cool, but what I usually do is geocache by opportunity.

 

I'm driving through an area, and low and behold there just happens to be a geocache .2 miles ahead, so I stop by and pick it up. I'm board, so I pick up my GPS turn it on, find the nearest cache and off I go.... Work is boring me to death today but 5 miles away I see a cache, you'll find me there in minutes.

 

How do you geocache, by opportunity or do you plan out each adventure?

I do it like you most of the time. I grab a cache if I happen to be in the area, or sometimes I'll plan a hike in an area where I know a cache is and bag it on the way. Once in a while if I see one pop up close to home I'll go after it.

 

The only time I'll plan a day of geocaching is when a bunch of us get together for a group hunt.

[+hwyman]

Depends if I decide to cache by foot or car. If I'm in hiking mood, I will plan my route a bit to allow me to visit as many caches as I can in a sensible order. If I'm in the car, I just punch up the nearest cache and go!

[+2qwerqE]

Since my GPSr was given to me as a gift, and I'm financially challenged, I don't have a computer cable for it. So I can't download tons of coords at a time. I have to manually enter the coords, and that means looking them up one or ten at a time. So, yeah, I have to plan my cache routes. I do have a number of sheets printed that I haven't seeked yet, and I often grab those if an opportunity or impulse hits. That's about as spontaneous as I can get under the circumstances, tho.

[+Team Perks]

I do both too. When I'm going somewhere via a specific route, I will plan out which caches I want to grab on the way. When I'm going to be able to spend a day caching in a particular area, I'll usually just dump a pocket query into the GPSr, load the PDA up with cache pages, and then wing it.

[+Crouching Hiker, Hidden Cache]

I plan about 95% of my caching trips, mostly because I just don't find myself in random areas with both spare time and my GPS. Accordingly, I don't generally download or program coords unless I have the intent to cache. Many caching trips for me involve a trip over to NJ nowadays, which if not I'm not caching, I'm there for other reasons and don't have the opportunity.

 

Also, NJ can be a pain in the butt to navigate if you don't know where you're going, so I like to plan my route ahead of time so I'm not watching my GPS and driving. Usually I will plan a whole-day trip, but if there's a particularly interesting one, or one that I suddenly decide must be conquered, I'll plan a trip for one or two caches also.

[+flask]

i'm sorry, but how does this question fit in with real life?

 

i wake up every morning with the plan that if possible i will get a geocache. this means that i PLAN to shunt aside my responsibilites and all other plans if an opportunity to geocache comes up.

 

i PLAN to consider "an hour and a half away by car" as "just around the corner". i PLAN to go on errands that just HAPPEN to take me forty miles off my usual route on the way to the grocery store.

 

and on really BIG caching days i download a couple hundred waypoints and drive until i'm in the middle of them and i hunt whatever happens to look good.

 

so where do i fit in?

[+ZackJones]

I do both. I may start out with a planned route but once I'm out in the field if something pops up on the GPS screen I'll detour to find it, especially if there's a TB listed in the cache. This is one reason why I enjoy paperless caching.

 

Zack

[OuttaHand]

I would love to be able to just grab caches on a whim, but I'm not so fortunate. I don't drive. So if I'm out-and-about it's because it was planned. And it's because there's a reason for it.

So when I know I'm gonna be out-and-about I will put together a list of caches that may be near where I'll be. I will have each of those caches planned out.

When I see a new cache near me I print it out, then get a satellite image of its area and print that out, too. I also put the waypoint into my mapping program to see exactly where it is. If it's tough to get to, I'll print a map for it too.

So I generally have each cache planned out to the Nth degree.

Example: we're going to Iowa for a wedding in a couple weeks. I've got the caches printed, the satellite images printed, the maps printed, etc. I just have to hope we get time (and the wife's permission) to pursue a couple of them.

[+The Commissar!]

I plan a days worth of hunting away from home (mainly just the most efficient route) but as new caches pop up in my home range I grab them as the opportunity presents itself or just find some excuse for being home late if its an involved multi...

[+TeamK-9]

My caching is sort of "planned opportunities." Every once and a while, we'll plan out a half day or so of caching in a certain area, and we'll go out and do it, but normally we just cache by chance.

 

Like maybe I know that I'm going to a relatives house, I'll look up local caches, and maybe hit them if we get the chance. Normally, our caching is planned like this "hey, we're going to xxx town today, maybe we could get some caches while we're there, why don't you look and see if there's any good ones" and of course, I look up the zip code and look for caches and print out the sheets of any good ones in the area. But like I said, that's how a lot of our caching is done, otherwise it's done in bursts of 2-4 caches in one general area, not usually planned very well....

[+KaiserKlan]

I've noticed that lately I play around with GSAK a lot to narrow down my opportunistic geocaching (YIKES!). For example my wife's GPSr only holds 500 waypoints, mine holds 1000, so I create two files of roughly the same area, but I limit hers to the 500, then I create another file for the PDA (paper-less you know) of the same 1000 I use for mine.

 

Anyway, it works, we still find most of our caches on the spur of the moment, stopping for one on the way back or way to someplace but I like to make sure we both have it in our GPSr. We did plan a trip to once to Iowa and Nebraska to geocache but even then we only stopped for a cache when and if we felt like it, no other criteria at all. Even when we traveled to San Diego, Laughlin, and London for the specific purpose of geocaching, we did not pre-research caches, we just loaded up the nearest 500/1000 and off we went.

 

I love this sport, no matter how you do it, everyone has fun with it.

[WH]

I prefer the high tech approach. I keep a laptop computer in my car loaded with a GSAK file of the caches in my area. I update the file ever couple days so I can be sure to have the latest caches.

 

Also on that computer is a topographic mapping program that can interface with my GPS and show me where I am at any given instant. The topo map is littered with blue dots which represent the caches I have yet to find.

 

When I get in the geocaching mood, I can see what caches are nearby, the best way to drive to them and I can read the cache description in GSAK.

[+Lehigh Mafia]

Since we are still "New" to the Geocaching Circuit. We go with the Plan Ahead game. If we know we are going to hit a "Certain Area", we will look up all the caches around that area. It seems to be what works for us right now.. Plus it kinda give the Hubby & I a reason to take a "Trip" together without the Jr. Mafia..

Lehigh Mafia

[+Colorado Cacher]

Im sure we all have different tastes when it comes to cache finding. Myself, I prefer to go hiking and see the scenery and enjoy my time away from it all, and see what I can find only for me. Enjoy.

[+thekitedude]

I guess I do both.

 

My job gets me out and about the county on a daily basis but when I leave home I mostly dont know where I am gonna be later in the day.

 

So the GPS and the PDA are loaded with about a thousand caches. Thats planning.

 

At lunch or after work I turn on the GPS and see whats close that I could do. Thats spontaneous.

 

On weekends with the family we pick out a couple in one area to do. Thats back to planning.

 

Mr. Flexible, that's me.

[+5¢]

I have about a 50 mile circle I drive on weekends and grab a cache every few miles on the outside radius of my home area to not wear out my close caches when I need a fix.

[+W7WT]

Things go much better for me if I do extensive planning. We are planning on going on a sightseeing, geocaching trip from Bremerton, Washington to BC and AL in Canada in about a month. We will be traveling in a van type RV. My wife is a non geocacher and we are both in our late 70s. I have planned out about 60 caches along the way. I do my preplanning and selection by looking at webpages and the next closeth cache. I then print out a print friendly page and also put it on my watch list. Then I get a PQ using my watch list usually for each day. From the PQ I download all the information and last four logs using cachemate to my iQue. Using GSAK I then open the same PQ and download it to my 76C, 76S and to MS S&T. In S&T I print out a map of the days journey showing all the caches. If there are a lot of caches in a area such as Cranbrook, BC, I will also print out a detailed map of the caches in Cranbrook. My wife doesn't drive the van but will read to me the descriptions, hints from the printed page. If I need the logs I have them in the iQue. Both the iQue and 76C are routable GPSs. The 76S is just a backup.By the time I do all this I have a pretty good idea about the caches. Yes, I do wear both suspenders and a belt. Dick, W7WT

[+Will+Bill]

We usually plan geocaching on the way to or back from trips that have already been planned. For the caches close to our house, though, we usually make special trips, and once we drove about 20 miles to get a ton of caches.

[+hbrx]

Oppurntunity.  I have to since I don't have a car.

Strange. Its the contrary here.

Carefully planned. Since I dont have a car.

Biking, busing, training and subwaying my way around...

 

hbrx.

[+art begotti]

for me, geocaching opportunities depend on the type.

basically, i read all the new caches that come in my area (not that many), and just remember where they are (by using the mapquest maps). if i happen to be in the area and have time to kill, i might go to a quick grab'n'go type micro. in fact, just yesterday, i walked across the street from a dentist appointment to work on one.

 

however, for the most part, my caching is still planned... new micros are running few, and so i have to plan the next puzzle/multi i will head to.

[+Searching_ut]

I've done about 60 percent as the target of opportunity type thing. It makes it a whole lot more fun as you can easily turn a 1 or 2 terrain difficulty into a 4plus without even trying. Of course this sort of caching only works if you have pocket queries.

 

I do however now try to take the Pocket PC as well so I can see what sort of cache I'm looking for when I get there. Those virtuals can really mess you up otherwise.

[+GPSKitty]

I prefer the high tech approach. I keep a laptop computer in my car loaded with a GSAK file of the caches in my area. I update the file ever couple days so I can be sure to have the latest caches.

 

Also on that computer is a topographic mapping program that can interface with my GPS and show me where I am at any given instant. The topo map is littered with blue dots which represent the caches I have yet to find.

 

<drool> I'm so jealous. I want to be like you when I grow up. I wouldn't begin to know how to cache "WH style", but it sounds like my kind of heaven.

When I finally get a laptop, I may become your new best friend as I pick your brain for tips and ideas.

 

I have a small stack of cache pages of my area and they are in the GPSr too. If an opportunity to cache comes up, I take the pages and the GPSr and I'm out the door.

I plan trips too, if I'm going to be out of my immediate area.

It gets kind of cumbersome and confusing. I have a PDA but I am still working on getting the cradle to work, so no paperless caching for me right now.

[+lostinjersey]

i have stacks of printouts in my car should I be in that area. unfortunateyl I sometimes assume I had a printout when i really don't. or I find that once there the cache is a NF. oh... the coordinates were updated. or it was archived. or some such irritation. I generally try to plan it before leaving the house at least.

[+kayakanimal]

It's interesting to me that so many cachers plan a geocaching trip to the gnats eyelash of detail. They find an area, get topo maps, maybe even road maps to get them in the area, spend hours planning every aspect of their trip. And this is very cool, but what I usually do is geocache by opportunity.

 

I'm driving through an area, and low and behold there just happens to be a geocache .2 miles ahead, so I stop by and pick it up. I'm board, so I pick up my GPS turn it on, find the nearest cache and off I go.... Work is boring me to death today but 5 miles away I see a cache, you'll find me there in minutes.

 

How do you geocache, by opportunity or do you plan out each adventure?

I do both...

The only LOCAL caches are 40 miles away. So I plan them out.

 

When I go out of town on business I just hit what looks cool.

[WH]

I prefer the high tech approach. I keep a laptop computer in my car loaded with a GSAK file of the caches in my area. I update the file ever couple days so I can be sure to have the latest caches.

 

Also on that computer is a topographic mapping program that can interface with my GPS and show me where I am at any given instant. The topo map is littered with blue dots which represent the caches I have yet to find.

 

<drool> I'm so jealous. I want to be like you when I grow up. I wouldn't begin to know how to cache "WH style", but it sounds like my kind of heaven.

When I finally get a laptop, I may become your new best friend as I pick your brain for tips and ideas.

 

I have a small stack of cache pages of my area and they are in the GPSr too. If an opportunity to cache comes up, I take the pages and the GPSr and I'm out the door.

I plan trips too, if I'm going to be out of my immediate area.

It gets kind of cumbersome and confusing. I have a PDA but I am still working on getting the cradle to work, so no paperless caching for me right now.

Id be more than happy to help