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First Day


DaJeep

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Back on August 7 and 8, I rode my bicycle a total of 173 miles as a part fo the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (www.pmc.org) before a bad shift resulted in my knee having problems. Luckily I didn't do any real damage, but it will take some time to return to normal.

 

So, for the past 10 days, my life has been spent at home sitting. I am lucky (or unlucky) enough to work from home, so that made at least one part of life a non-issue. However, having been very active and not being able to get out was making me stircrazy.

 

My lovely wife used the first ever Massachusetts Tax Free Saturday to buy me a toy I had been pining over for a while - a GPS receiver. I have had a GPS device for years as I had picked up an old Garmin 45 back in the early 1990's when I was just out of college and all my income was disposable. However, with SA and the single channel receiver, it was of marginal use on land, and practically useless in the woods. I used it mainly to "Geo-Bag" to coin a term. That is, set waypoints when I traveled. Over the years, I've colected such waypoints as the summit of Mt Washington in January, The Sam Desert of India (600 miles from the Tora Bora caves), the metronome in Prague, and a host of others.

 

Well, in getting ready for the Pan-Mass this year, I began doing rides with a lot of hills including climbing up some of the 'mountains' in Massachusetts. on one of these trips I saw another cyclist with a GPS unit and although I neglected to get the model, found that they had come a long way and was very interested in the fact that some models could show "Total elevation climbed". Exactly one statistic that cyclists love to ponder.

 

So i wanted one of these new gadgets, but the budget and the wife's "but you have a GPS" kept me from getting one.

 

It didn't stop me from shopping however. For months I drooled over the Garmin eTrex units justifying to myself that mapping is really a good thing to have.

 

Whenever my wife came home on the 14th and tossed me the REI bag with that 'grin' on her face, I figured she found some of the Patigonia T-Shirts I love on sale. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect what I found in that bag. There was a brand new Garmin eTrex VistaC, the Garmin US TOPO maps, and a mount for my bicycle.

 

I was in heaven. Not only is the color screen absolutely stunning, but the customization of the display just blew me away. I hobbled out into the back yard to let it see the sky and was shocked when it had found 7 satilites in under 3 minutes. (A similar cold start on the old GPS 45 would have taken at least 20 and as long as 40 minutes) Even more shocking was the fact that I still had signal when i went back into the house. Not a great signal to be sure, but enough that I still had 4 contacts. This was unheard of with my old unit.

 

Sunday saw the remains of Charlie pass through and thus I was content to read the manual from cover to cover, play with the mapping software, and basically just forget about my aching knee for the first time in a week.

 

And then, on page 62 of the manual, I saw a term that I had not seen before.

 

Geocache

 

I had the unit on as it draws power from the USB connection to my laptop and i quickly went to the screen the manual was talking about. There, I read the following:

 

"Find hidden treasures using GPS coordinates posted on the Internet by those hiding the cache. Find the cache, fill out the logbook, take something out, put something back in, and return the cache. For more details visit http://www.garmin.com/outdoor/geocaching/."

 

I have to admit, I was practically drooling. This was far too good to be true. I must have spent the next 4 hours just searching and reading about the sport. I started with the technology. While I had researched units for land navigation on a bicycle, I never gave much thought to how accurate these devices could be with WAAS and no SA.

 

And naturally I stumbled across this website. I didn't do much on Sunday but read. However, I think I was hooked then.

 

Monday was a work day, and as always, my clients were able to keep my attention all freaking day long. Never fails that when you would love to have an easy day to do something, all hell breaks loose. (:o)

 

Finally, later monday evening, I was able to log back onto geocaching.com and I realized that I never even looked to see if there was anything around me. I had also not created an account. So, I did both.

 

Not only are there a large number of caches around me, most were in places I knew pretty well. A plan grew in my head. Well, if i can't bike, surely I can hobble down some easy trails and find an ammo box or two.

 

So i downloaded 2 pages of coordinates and then discovered that the VistaC was not on the EasyGPS software. Took me a few moments to find a compatible USB device, but once I did, I was able to download all the waypoints and see them on the map around my home.

 

Tuesday, I was feeling a bit better. My work was done about 4pm and I headed out. Not used to tracking with a map on a GPS, I used the compass page mostly. The bright red arrow pointing to my destination.

 

I had selected my first cache not becuse it was the closest, but because i knew the trail it was on. The Assabet Trail/Canoe Launch was my goal. I don't know why it is rated as 2 stars in terrain or difficulty, but I guess i'll get used to the markings as time goes by.

 

I pulled into the parking area. At this point the voice of reason began asking the questions of "is this a good idea?" "What about your knee?" and "What will your wife say?" Luckily the spirit of adventure quickly found the duct tape and reduced the voice of reason to a faint "mmmm mmm" that was drown out by the birds and running water.

 

I have to admit, I did take it easy. Slowly moving down the trail like a tall Igor following the slightly wavering red needle. I watched as the distance dropped from .4 miles to .39 and then .38. I was getting closer.

 

At one point, the markings changed from miles to feet and I quickly saw the numbers fall from the 500's to the 400's. Only 300 now, less than a football field.

 

The arrow began moving to the left. Maybe the trail turns. Maybe it is off the trail. I didn't know. I couldn't remember the web page directions or even the hint and being very careful about waste, I never printed anything.

 

100 feet now. Definately over to my left. Surely the glorious testement to modern technology I held in my hand would know far better than I where to go. And so I followed. I found a trail to the left and at the fork, I took it. There was the river. My arrow pointing to the river. Surely it isn't in the water.

 

40 feet now. The needle is getting erratic. Still pointing in front of me, but swinging from side to side. I reach the water. The arrow points behind me. Did I walk right over it and miss it?

 

I stood still and watched the red beacon; begging it to show me the way.

 

12 feet. But which direction?

 

Suddenly I remembered the old GPS and how inaccurate it was. I looked down at my hand. 12 feet. Surely I can't expect any better than that here in the woods.

 

I placed my GPS on a rock and looked around. I honestly had no idea what I was looking for. It felt like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes, that I looked around. I didn't see anything.

 

Did I get it wrong? Was my GPS way off? I picked the unit up off the rock noticing that it now said 3 ft. and as I did so saw something white behind the rock under some old logs and sticks.

 

Surely they would not bury it.

 

Alas as I moved the log, I saw the clear container with a white lid and my spirits soared. I quickly extraced the container from it's lair and opened it. I found the book and thumbed the pages. I had expected each person to sign a line with a date similar to what you see on a funeral book. But no, here were messages - one per page - from people who had stood here before me. I must have read every one of them. And then I added my own. Probably the longest message in the book, and I doubt anyone will be able to read my writing (there is a reason I use a computer) but my mark had been made.

 

Now for the trade. I had gone through two boxes in my basement to select items that I had kept for sentimental reasons and found a few that meant something, but were something I could part with. Into the cache I stuck three 20 rupee notes that I had brought home from my trip to India back in 2000 with my wife. I have very fond memories of that trip and perhaps some child will find those bills and dream about the palaces, or be inspired to look at the poverty of that nation.

 

What to take? Well, the first thing I saw when i pulled the box from under the log was the pink smily face of a puzzle. So, that now sits in my bag as a momento to my first cache.

 

I returned the cache, recovered it with the logs, and hobbled back out to the truck.

 

Energized, I decided to try another. I simply clicked the next waypoint on my GPS map screen that was close and hit "Go To". The compass screen came up, the red needle was pointing, and with a smile and anticipation of a boy holding a girl's hand for the first time, I wedged the GPS between the dash and windshield and headed out again.

 

All in all, I hit 5 locations that afternoon. 4 were a success, one was a failure as I did not know that the GPS coordinates were just the start of a puzzle, and not a final solution. I stood at the coordinates staring at a red spray can marked "Oil Foam" wondering if it was a virtual.

 

Each time I would drive around the mark looking for a way in. one of those choices was not a good one and I ended up climbing a very steep hillside which did not do my knee much good I suspect. I got the cache, but I realize that I need some way to carry some basic directions. What would be nice would be a way to assemble and print a list of caches with just the bare minimum of information like location, preferred start, and hazards. Then, for the more complex ones you print the whole description. That way paper waste would be kept to a minimum.

 

I know people have palm solutions. I've tried the palm. My first was a US Robotics PalmPilot that a friend of mine who worked for USR upgraded several times for me as I 'drop tested' the unit several times. Later commercial versions also became damaged with what I would consider minor mishaps. Since given up on the Palms as my cellphone can do all the address book and scheduling I need now. (and it is one less item to carry)

 

Got back home last night tired from the exersion and very happy with what I was able to achieve. Got frustrated at the Geocache site for all the server errors I was having trying to log my finds, but was finally able to get in.

 

I am looking forward to visiting some other locations. I even talked with a person who maintains a cache near a location I want to place one about helping me manage it as it is a bit far from my home, but the location is highly worthy of having people visit. My first Cache, however, will be on my own property I think. I have a good chunk of land and most of it is easily accessable to the public, but few visit. I can easily place a very large and not terribly hidden cache perfect for beginners or those with young children. As I see what other caches are around, I will work on that idea.

 

One thing I noticed (and it might be just because of the few i visited) is that every one was a tupperware style plastic bin. I'm just wondering how those hold up in extreme cold. Most plastic containers I know of will crack very easily when just below freezing I can't imagine then surviving a New England winter. I have a nice metal Rocket Case, basically a very large ammo box that I'm thinking of using. Any tips on maintaining these in terms of rust prevention? Or does the military paint do that just fine?

 

I know this post is already starting to get a bit long, so I'll end this by saying:

 

I wish I had found this sport years ago. I'm not sure that I like the fact that the location alone isn't enough in so many cases. I figured that half the fun is figuring out how to get TO the cache, not just in finding it. I do like the efforts that people have made in researching the areas of their caches and creating caches to draw people to unique locations. You can be sure that as I travel now, I will be looking to download some caches to visit.

 

Thanks everyone and I'll Cache you later. (sorry, couldn't resist)

 

Chris (aka DaJeep)

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Wow, that is long. Welcome to geocaching. You're in for a lot of fun and finding a lot of places that you never knew existed, even in your own backyard. Tupperware and Rubbermaid are the most common containers and hold up for a season, or two in the harsh, northeastern weather, but eventually need replacing. Ammo boxes are much better and the preferred cache container for most of us. BTW, you have a very nice wife.

Edited by briansnat
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Wow, you write very well! I was able to "see" what you were doing while you were writing - I bet you will have some fabulous logs!

 

I understand your enthusiasm - I just made my first finds as well - fabulous!

 

I hope your knee gets better soon - and like Briansnat said, you have a nice wife to buy that for you! I hope she will enjoy caching with you!

 

Good luck in your gc travels!!!

 

pam :o

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This is one of the best accounts I've ever read of how someone discovered geocaching and progressed through their first finds. If your online logs are anywhere near as interesting, the cache owners in your area are in for a real treat. Cache owners *love* people who write stories like you do.

 

Welcome to the sport, from your usually friendly forum moderator and answer guy.

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So, welcome. I figure that you're a 32 year old in great shape. Recognize that some of us go 20+ plus years past that, and can only remember one shape. At least I stillhave my hair. My Dad caches at 76. But, anyway, if you thought that cache was rated too high, don't sweat it. I reduced one of mine once, so now the old guys complain.

Very verbose account, and I loved every word. Looks like you condensed my first six months of discovery into about a week. When your clients come by for their palm reading, you can take them out with you. :P

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Another thing, if you're so dead set against printing out the pages, seriously consider getting a Palm and Cachemate. You don't have to get anything expensive. You can pick one up on e-Bay for as little as 10-20 bucks, so if you break it, you haven't lost anything (except a few hundred cache pages :P ).

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Thanks all.

 

Amazed to see so many responses so quickly...

 

Yes, I know I married the right woman. (:P) At least until hse finds out about last night's outing. Have to say my knee is feeling OK today, so no harm done.

 

Briansnat : I think I will stick to ammo boxes. Still wondering how well the paint on those hold up. We'll see. As for the Palms... Well, I'll see how far I get without it for now. Was fun just driving around trying to figure out where best to park. I like the idea of just having coodinates.

 

Pam : Thanks, and good luck to you too. Take on some challenged and soon the 'shape' will change. I dropped over 60 lbs a few years ago when I decided to becoem more active. One reason I'm going nuts right now is that sitting around is just too easy. (:D)

 

Keystone : Will try to be sure to submit good logs. at least i will on-line. Being creative in the log books is not as easy and for some reason the delete key never works.

 

Zack : Depends. I have a stable of them. Right now I usually am on either the Cannondale MTB or the Haluzak Recumbent. Went recumbent on the road due to Carpel Tunnel issues on long rides. Heavy, but so much more comfortable.

 

Robespierre : Off by 4 years, but not bad. Guess i have just been looking for a guide to the ratings as you are correct in that one person's view is likely to be very different than anothers. In my thinking, a flat .4 mile trail being a 2 makes me wonder how to catagorize a 3 and 4 if setting a 5 would probably be a long no-trail climb up a mountain. Which is why i need to do some more of these and se how the ratings go. I suspect it isn't linier in nature. Much like a 73 decibel sound is actually twice the volume of a 70 deciblel.

 

Black Mage : I hope so. In 5-8 weeks according to the doctor... By the way, I like the 8-bit, but there is a good story over on WTF comics.

 

Sounds like a nice group of adventure seeking nuts here. (:D) My kind of crowd.

Edited by DaJeep
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