+Counter Fit Cache Posted December 25, 2002 Share Posted December 25, 2002 Well, opened the e-trex Legend this morning. Spent an hour with the manual, came upstairs, and used EasyGPS to download two waypoints to go GeoCaching. Went right to both, but was only able to log one "find", as I only found the starting point of the other. (Next time, I am printing it out!) Anyway, wow, this is FUN! My kids and I are are leaving in a few minutes to go complete the earlier half-find, and find another. Merry Christmas everyone!! Chuck ChuckyBrown Quote Link to comment
+BrownMule & Jackrabbit Posted December 25, 2002 Share Posted December 25, 2002 Merry Christmas my friend and welcome to the madness. Quote Link to comment
+Smitherington Posted December 25, 2002 Share Posted December 25, 2002 Hi Chuck: Welcome to geocaching. The addiction hits some of us pretty hard! Happy caching! Smitherington David J. Brown This seems to be a Brown thread. Quote Link to comment
+bradtal Posted December 26, 2002 Share Posted December 26, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Smitherington:Hi Chuck: Welcome to geocaching. The addiction hits some of us pretty hard! Yep, in fact, a recent study showed that it is easier to quit the addiction of smoking than it is to quit the addiction of GeoCaching!!! Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now. Quote Link to comment
TheFroggers Posted December 27, 2002 Share Posted December 27, 2002 My girlfriend gave me the eTrex Legend for christmas too.....i was only planning on using it for hiking, UNTIL i came across the word geocaching in a review for the gps unit. i have already planned, unknown to my girlfriend, OUR first cache hunt....heheh....i am excited.... Quote Link to comment
millerx4 Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 I got a GPS for Christmas from my wife. Since we were headed out for a mini family reunion I found some geocaches in the area we were staying. Being a typical male I started out with all the confidence of a Navy Seal. I took my wife, 2 children and nephew. We found a path (not THE path) quickly full of ourselves we set off for the hunt. When I started worrying about my 4 year old falling down the step incline I should have realized maybe we were not in the right place, NOOOO I decided I would go on myself and leave the family behind (mistake 2, mistake 1 was not turning back). 30 minutes later carrying enough burs's to start my own prairie and breathing like I just ran the Chicago Marathon I found THE path and got within 50 feet! At that point I figured I would take the path back to my family and bring them along to find it. THE path had two forks, taking the path leading in the general direction of my family; I wound up at the top of a ski hill. Ok, your thinking well he has his act together now, he turned around WRONG! Having been an avid skier in my youth I chose to ski down the hill in my hiking boots! Actually it was quite fun and I got allot of funny stares from the people running the ski lift. Funny I arrived at the spot where I left them just less than an hour ago and they were gone DUH. When I got back to the truck I found a note that they went to the ski lodge to warm up, eat and call a search party. The note also said call them on the radio and let them know I am ok RADIO! I knew I forgot something when we left! Good news is I found them before they called the sheriff (they had inquired into how to get a search party). We did not find the Cache, but did find 3 others over the next two day's. We are now all hooked on Geocaching but have some rules. 1. Never separate out of earshot. 2. Always take radios, take a phone if it will work. 3. If we can't find it, let Mom operate the GPS. 4. When nobody else can find it and the 4 year old says it "ober dare" believe him! 5. When the sheet shows 4 stars for difficulty and terrain believe them! Quote Link to comment
+Counter Fit Cache Posted December 30, 2002 Author Share Posted December 30, 2002 On my Legend, from the main menu, hit "find". Find they waypoint you want, then open it. From there, there is a "go to" option, with a pointer. Keeps you going in the right direction! You were able to post a reply, so I assume you made it back ok!!! Don't give up! Chucky ChuckyBrown Quote Link to comment
+Centaur Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 Welcome new Geocachers! Have fun with the addiction! We all are. And anyone in or near Chicago, see more of us crazy folks at ChitownCachers Quote Link to comment
+Centaur Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 quote:Originally posted by millerx4:1. Never separate out of earshot. 2. Always take radios, take a phone if it will work. 3. If we can't find it, let Mom operate the GPS. 4. When nobody else can find it and the 4 year old says it "ober dare" believe him! 5. When the sheet shows 4 stars for difficulty and terrain believe them! Great! and all very true! Welcome to the madhouse! Quote Link to comment
Sleddog Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 Yep, we're new to the sport due to a nice gift from Santa, too. Took the GPS to work on the 26th, dead day in the office, so I surfed Geocaching.com and low-and-behold I discover a cache in a small park in a residential sudivision about 5 miles from me! Took the GPS, manual, cache description sheet, sat in the bank parking lot and entered the coordinates, hit "Go to" and off I go. Found the location and stood at the spot where the cache should be hidden, but with it being in a senior citizens residential area, I didn't want to stir up the residents, so I didn't count it as a find. But the clue is dead on. Went out Friday with wife, FIND; went out solo on Saturday morning on a 2-part cache, FIND; and took my wife out late Sunday afternoon, FIND! Sunday the sun set while we were out and thank goodness for the navigation feature or we may have spent the night trying to find the Jeep. Whomever founded geocaching - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! Sleddog - Team WeedWhacker "We're not accurate, but we cover a lot of ground" Quote Link to comment
targetdrone Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 I got my very first find on the way home from Circuit City with my Legend back in October. I picked a cache between home and the store. It was a 3.5/3 but I didn't know any better. I needed the clue but managed to get the cache, making alot of beginner mistakes along the way. I am now lighter, healthier, wiser, and happier. Thank goodness someone told me about geocaching. "I can't find the longitude for the North Pole" Quote Link to comment
Eeyore and Shadow Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 quote:Originally posted by millerx4: We are now all hooked on Geocaching but have some rules. 1. Never separate out of earshot. Good idea. quote:2. Always take radios, take a phone if it will work. Good idea #2, but take the phone even if it may not work, And always take extra batteries for anything that uses them. quote:3. If we can't find it, let Mom operate the GPS. Yet another good idea. But you'll probably get soo hooked you'll want to upgrade eventually and unit 1 becomes moms anyway. quote:4. When nobody else can find it and the 4 year old says it "ober dare" believe him! True be this. Little ones the force be strong for. (Dont' worry everyone develops the force eventually, no matter how bad they have the dad gene.) quote:5. When the sheet shows 4 stars for difficulty and terrain believe them! Trust the rating system, if anything expect the rating to be low. ratings are set by the hider who generally knows the ideal way to find the cache. The hunter doesn't always use the same approach. (As you have so entertainingly accounted for.) And don't be afraid to log a not found or an embarassing incident while caching. they are generally more fun to read than a plain "found it" log. There is no reason to be ashamed of an incident that happened caching. Somethign similar has happened to most of us at one time or another. Keep caching and have fun its one of the best sports I've ever taken part in. Eeyore I'm one sat short of triangulation. Quote Link to comment
+jollybgood Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 < We found a path (not THE path) quickly full of ourselves we set off for the hunt. When I started worrying about my 4 year old falling down the step incline I should have realized maybe we were not in the right place, NOOOO I decided I would go on myself and leave the family behind (mistake 2, mistake 1 was not turning back).>> This reminds me of my second cache. (The first one was really an easy one). It was a cache in a local marsh near Lake Zurich, IL. I got of my van, set my etrex up to point the way and off I went. No way I was going to follow the trail. Why take the LONG way? So off I went out across a field of tall grass. About 700 feet later I found myself surrounded by cat tails and in marshy ground. My etrex indicated I was only 250 feet away. Why turn back? I was so close. So onward I pushed. To make a long story short I ended up in black murky water up to my hips. Lost a tennis shoe in the mud. I was so out of shape and short winded at the time that I barely made it to shore. To make matters worse I couldn't find the cache and had to come the next day (when I discovred the cache was only 20 feet off the trail.) When I got home I was a muddy mess and my wife and daughter feared for my sanity. Jolly R. Blackburn http://kenzerco.com Quote Link to comment
+SherwoodForest Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 My first cache hunt (jan 2002), started off on an old road going through the metropark. The arrow pointing to the cache veered off to the left, and the old road bent right, so.... I saw that I was ONLY! .33 miles from the cache (yes, i really didn't know any better), so I in my infinite male wisdom(?) decided to bushwhack to the cache. After a grueling sixth of a mile (could it really have been only that far?) I reached the edge of the ravine. (You may ask "What ravine?" Well, unfortunately, I was asking myself that exact same question -- because I hadn't noticed that as I drove to where my car was parked from the valley parkway that I drive all the time, I had been quite steadily and significantly going uphill (about 140 feet, not much if you are a mountaineer, but not anything i was expecting)) So, I had to find a way down the ravine. Wandered along the edge, and finally found a trail that went down the ravine (and yep, it was a side trail from the main trail i'd left so long ago). That trail kept heading north (and away from the cache), so I bushwhacked up a shallower section of the opposite slope (the trail i left i found out later went up this slope not far north of where I climbed up) Find another trail at the top of the slope (which branched up the one i should have climbed up), and I follow this until it seemingly veers away from the cache at a distance of 300-some feet away. So, no wiser for any of this experience yet, I go off-trail again... After more bushwhacking, I finally get to the mystical 40-foot radius... but couldn't find the cache (was looking in branch piles, not under fallen logs). Had to give up because it was getting dark ( only 3 pm, but there was a snowstorm coming). Of course, I couldn't find my footprints from bushwhacking in, so I had to find a new bushwhack out... finally got back to the trail, and worn out from the experience, decided to follow it... saw that it went down the one hill, back up the other, and back to the main trail... Needless to say, when I went back later (Armed with a lot more knowledge about the park, its trails and topography), I had no trouble whatsoever in finding the cache... So now, I do not willingly ever leave a trail to find a cache until i am under 200 feet away from it (and in almost all cases, I never need to leave a trail at a further distance...) Cache well, and see ya round the bend... Quote Link to comment
+evergreenhiker! Posted January 5, 2003 Share Posted January 5, 2003 I attempted my very first geocache back on Valentine's Day of 2002. I chose Tie Mill. This cache is hidden up on Squak Mountain that flanks south side of Issaquah, Washinton. This was a 3/3 cache I believe. Took the old camcorder up...videotaping every second! I never found it that day...read teh hint and did a lot more bushwacking than I needed to! Battery died out and I didn't have extras...carry extra batteries was first lesson I learned! I fruitlessly spent hours and hours combing the steep, sometimes trecherous hillsides for items that matched the clue. Found an old mining shelter, but no cache. I came back February 28 and I, remember just like yesterday, the thrill seeign the feet to go shrink into mere hundreds...tens...feets...cache!!!! Wow!!! I was hooked for life and now over 350 finds. My car still has the sticker flag from that first find. I left an old field notebook. I have all this on film so it'll be fun to look at one of these days. Have a blast...just remember extra batteries...and if going in the backcountry...first aide and rest of the ten essentials. I now log no finds, but didn't for that first one. Quote Link to comment
+Last Lap Gang Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 Though we've cached about a dozen times now, we ran into our first panic yesterday. Lots of bushwacking, loosing daylight, four dogs on leashes, and snow. We finally found the right path, and realized that we'd started off all wrong to begin with. A tip for people who place caches: Distinguish a PATH from a ROAD, from a TRAIL. My interpretation would be that a PATH is probably as wide as a sidewalk. A TRAIL is wide enough to go single file. A ROAD dirt or ground and has obviously been driven upon. It could also be paved, but then it would have to be distinguished from a STREET, which is also paved, but travelled heavily. Hmmm. I just made that up. Maybe I'll post that in a more central location. Quote Link to comment
latvija Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 A cousin and I set out with our two 4 year old boys on our first cache hunt two years ago. Testosterone ran high as we compared 'units', joked that a map wouldn't be necessary for a city park, we'll be back before breakfast, etc. We trudged the poor troop for no less than four hours straight up several cliffs, over cacti, through bushes, and in circles a few times. Fortunately we had enough water and the boys thought the adventure worthwhile in pursuit of buried pirate treasure. When we finally discovered the cache, we learned that it was just two feet off a trail only 1/4 mile from a parking lot! Even so, I still refuse to consult a map prior to caching or to read the logs. The roving arrow of my beloved yellow etrex makes the hunt that much more fun. Even a 1/1 can be interesting when you've no idea what awaits. Quote Link to comment
KozAZ Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 My wife and I found our first 3 caches in one day. We found some odd things on the way. The first cache we came across a cave with candles, weed bed, canned food, and a garbage sack for a pillow. The second cache we came across a horse skeleton. The third cache, after we found it, we took a short cut and came across a metal bar sticking out of a piece of granite. No idea how it got there, (middle of the desert) thinking of making a virtual cache of it so somebody can identify it for us. Anyway, made it alot of fun for the both of us! [This message was edited by DesertTrekkers on January 07, 2003 at 02:00 PM.] Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.