Who Needs A Gps?

[Jumbo Village]

Hi,

 

My work colleague and I are avid Geocachers, but I'm the one with the GPS. I've shown him the basics of it, but just recently he's been finding them with no GPS at all! Just download the Streetmap page (Mapquest isn't very good is it? ) and off he goes!

 

So then, a couple of questions:

• Is this breaking any Geocachers code? Should we only be using the map as a last resort?
  
• Are the caches getting too easy?!
  

I will admit that the majority of these have been virtuals, but some regular ones too.

[+Roberts-tribe]

First one I did was without a receiver. Didn't have a map either come to that, but I did know the area very well.

 

I recall seeing posts here that some people prefer to use maps and don't use machines at all.

 

Fair do's I say ...

[+Brenin Tegeingl]

Well done to them, it just adds to the dificulty. There's a cacher in the US, who does not use a GPSr, and whose finds No in the hundreds, me I'll stick to using a GPSr.

Dave

[+Simply Paul]

I found my first five by cache page and clue alone and only really bought a GPSr so I could start setting! I've also done another couple of caches 'by hand' when I'd run out of batteries, and could have done many others without the need for GPS. I say fair play to anyone who can find these things without a handset, but planters might want to think about making it harder through their cache-page if they only want GPS-owners to locate their treasure-boxes.

 

SP

[+kbootb]

The city centre ones are often best done by map and clue. But the ones in the open?

 

Well... you can get there with traditional map and compass and to be honest now I have memory map the old skills do kick in and the GPS is a reasurring backup. It's often used as a 'how much further' meter to keep the motivation up.

 

The only time I really use it as sole nav device is when I am doing a multi or puzzle and have not had the co-ords before. I can't remember the last time I did a cache by simply getting in the car and following the arrow all the way. I did this to start with, but these were in areas I knew well.

[+Team Maddie UK]

Lynn and I did our very first cache without a GPSr and discussed at some length wether to bother buying one at all. I certainly felt that the map and compass approach was perhaps a little more challenging. We broke down though and you certainly would have trouble accurately placing them without one.

 

Martin

[+We'reLostAgain]

Did my first with only a map ang the OS grid, when i saw where it was then did the code i realise ti was the tree we used to climb as a kid (only one on that side of the river)

 

Have now got GPS and am gonna start to put it to good use.

 

Planning my first plant over christmas

[+Inukshuk and Arwen]

Hi folks

you might be interested in this article by Merlin who also started out as a mapandcompass cacher.

 

best wishes

inuk

[Deego]

On a recent caching trip . I did not need a GPS to find them . Just waited for Pyoung1s or Pharisse to find them for me then I just signed the log. (Think I found 2 all day) Next time we go out I will take my Dog lead with me to clip on to Pyoung1s so he doesnt dash off as soon as we get close

 

Some caches can be done with out BUT I like using the GPS its more hitech

[+kbootb]

Merlin's article is very interesting... but I'd hate to do that in a dense forest. We were in one recently and had to follow very winding tracks, not only to keep GPS signals but also just to make progress.

 

There was no way we could have kept count of how far North or West we had gone as the paths would all over the place.

[+Sue and Bernie]

During a trip to Cyprus, with a geo-geeking virgin colleage, we tracked down a number of caches with just the GPS! This was quite a fresh slant on hunting them down in a direct straight line, trying to go as the bird flies. Doing this, without the benefit of large scale maps, was a lot harder and led us into a lot of dead ends.

 

We followed roads that start of heading in the right direction then veered off at 90 % - or degenerated to goat tracks! At one cache, we walked north from the parked up car for about 3/4 mile through some pretty wild terrain only to find a car park some 400m north of our target!

 

It was great fun though....

[+Belplasca]

Of course, a GPSr is essential to log a virtual that requires a photo including the GPSr to validate the find...

 

Bob Aldridge

[+Snosrap]

I thought the whole point of Geocaching was to provide an excuse to buy the shiny kit in the first place!

[+Mike+Mary]

We began with Streetmap printouts and only bought an Etrex when we knew we'd been bitten by the caching bug. Our most satisfying early find was a cache in the depths of a forest where the clue was "...between two silver birch trees." There were hundreds! It took a lot of 'where would I hide it' thinking to locate it.

[+OzGuff]

The US cacher referenced above is probably WaldenRun. The link takes you to his profile -- almost 2000 finds and over 1000 TBs found. Most (except for locationless) without the aid of a GPS.

 

I have a few under my belt, but only because I admitted having a problem and gave my GPS to the wife. (As i see it if I don't have my GPS with me then I am not really geocaching. Right? )

[+McDeHack]

There have been a few caches in the past that I have found, and I have not even needed my Etrex or a map.

 

Most of these are placed in and around London. And as I can recognise most of the descriptions on the cache pages they are too easy. I will confess that I do need the hints at times.

 

A couple of days back my mate Philgn was dropping a client in a London square. As we are both radio amateurs we chat during the day. When I learnt where he was I told him that there was a cache in that square. I directed him to where the co-ords were (as I had done this cache) and told him to go find it. I did tell him that it was a ‘Micro’ and gave him the hint as best as I could remember.

He did find it, and is going to log as found.

Is this a first, as a radio controlled directed cache find?