Guest Jennie Posted July 9, 2001 Share Posted July 9, 2001 Hi all I read about geocaching a few weeks back and thought it a great surprise idea for a bithday party for my son Nicks 16th birtday! There are at least 5 hidden "treasures" within 10 miles of our town. What I would like is any suggestions that will help this surprise GEO party go smoothly. We will all be first time "geocachers" at the party! Thanks......Jennie P.S. His gift is a GPS Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted July 9, 2001 Share Posted July 9, 2001 Dang - I wish somebody would surprise me with an upgraded GPS for my birthday! There are at least 5 hidden "treasures" within 10 miles of our town. Let me just reiterate for clarification: You're getting your son a GPS for his birthday, and as a way to culminate the party, you want to take him (and possibly other family members) out on a hunt of one or more of the five caches in your area. The idea is for your son to open his GPS, have a list of coordinates, enter them into the device in a relatively short time, and then start hunting. Right? Since everyone involved in the party is new to Geocaching, I might suggest the best thing to do is to find an experienced Geocacher* in the area that is willing to sit down ahead of time and chat with you for a while to answer some questions - preferrably someone with the same general type of model that you're getting for your son. Normally, I would just say read the manual and learn about it. However, these are different circumstance. I don't know if Aunt Betty and Uncle Lou who drove 40 miles from Annaheim to see their nephew would want to wait around while he reads the manual on entering waypoints and learns all the features. This hypothetical experienced Geocacher can help you in researching ahead of time which Geocaches to hunt for that would be good for first timers. Most likely he's visited all five and wouldn't mind helping a "Neocacher" (BTW - I REALLY like that term) out. If he also has the same model, he can also give you step by step instructions (and even a demonstration on his) of how to enter the coordinates and follow it to the cache. You could impress the socks off your son by knowing how to work the new toy. If you're lucky enough, this hypothetical cacher might even meet you at a good parking spot for the first hunt to help out. Having him along would guarantee that you will find the treasure. If he's "experienced," he's probably visited the five caches alread and knows where they are. Most likely he'll probably keep his mouth shut as the rest of the group hunts - unless you start heading in the completely wrong direction. Just an idea, but I think this will guarantee a good time for all - even the expert Geocacher. Care to post your general Metropolitan area and GPS type? Maybe you'll find some takers here. (BTW - for me Metro: Chicago, GPS: eTrex - the little yellow one). *Sorry ladies - I referred to the Experienced Geocacher in the male "he" for ease, not to exclude you. Please forgive my usage of this male slant. [This message has been edited by Markwell (edited 09 July 2001).] Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted July 9, 2001 Share Posted July 9, 2001 Dang - I wish somebody would surprise me with an upgraded GPS for my birthday! There are at least 5 hidden "treasures" within 10 miles of our town. Let me just reiterate for clarification: You're getting your son a GPS for his birthday, and as a way to culminate the party, you want to take him (and possibly other family members) out on a hunt of one or more of the five caches in your area. The idea is for your son to open his GPS, have a list of coordinates, enter them into the device in a relatively short time, and then start hunting. Right? Since everyone involved in the party is new to Geocaching, I might suggest the best thing to do is to find an experienced Geocacher* in the area that is willing to sit down ahead of time and chat with you for a while to answer some questions - preferrably someone with the same general type of model that you're getting for your son. Normally, I would just say read the manual and learn about it. However, these are different circumstance. I don't know if Aunt Betty and Uncle Lou who drove 40 miles from Annaheim to see their nephew would want to wait around while he reads the manual on entering waypoints and learns all the features. This hypothetical experienced Geocacher can help you in researching ahead of time which Geocaches to hunt for that would be good for first timers. Most likely he's visited all five and wouldn't mind helping a "Neocacher" (BTW - I REALLY like that term) out. If he also has the same model, he can also give you step by step instructions (and even a demonstration on his) of how to enter the coordinates and follow it to the cache. You could impress the socks off your son by knowing how to work the new toy. If you're lucky enough, this hypothetical cacher might even meet you at a good parking spot for the first hunt to help out. Having him along would guarantee that you will find the treasure. If he's "experienced," he's probably visited the five caches alread and knows where they are. Most likely he'll probably keep his mouth shut as the rest of the group hunts - unless you start heading in the completely wrong direction. Just an idea, but I think this will guarantee a good time for all - even the expert Geocacher. Care to post your general Metropolitan area and GPS type? Maybe you'll find some takers here. (BTW - for me Metro: Chicago, GPS: eTrex - the little yellow one). *Sorry ladies - I referred to the Experienced Geocacher in the male "he" for ease, not to exclude you. Please forgive my usage of this male slant. [This message has been edited by Markwell (edited 09 July 2001).] Quote Link to comment
Guest Snowtrail Posted July 9, 2001 Share Posted July 9, 2001 Although I have a GPS now, my dad did something similar to me for Christmas one year. There were 5 clues. Each was a short riddle that pointed out where I needed to look next. I can't remember them all, but the first was something like "Did you do your chores today?' which meant that I had not emptied the trash. After I lifted the bag, there was the second clue of "gee, it's COLD in here' which led me to the freezer, and so on. I finally ended up in the same room as I had started and it prize was a pc sherlock game. You could do something like that for the first half of the search, and then find the GPS (make sure it REALLY well hidden or locked up). You can then use it for the next half. If the points are spread apart, it might take a long time to find them all, and other drivers may get lost. If it is a multi cache in a park for instance, you could lock the GPS in the car, and go around the park. The last cache points to the coords of where you parked (you'll have to figure this out ahead of time). Quote Link to comment
Guest Jennie Posted July 9, 2001 Share Posted July 9, 2001 I have to add that hubby and I opened up the GPS to figure it out a head of time. (Just to let you know.....hubby looked real silly walking down the middle of the street and doing circles to track a course!!!) He found it quit intertaining! We are in Michigan, west of Detroit near Hines Drive....so lots of "easy" caches within driving distance! (They have one star) The GPS we bought was the eTrex...the little yellow one! Thanks for the fast responses! Jennie Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted July 9, 2001 Share Posted July 9, 2001 I went under the assumption that the GPS was his present and you just wanted to go caching that day... Quote Link to comment
Guest Ttepee Posted July 9, 2001 Share Posted July 9, 2001 I had thoughts of doing something similar for a nephews birthday but I wasn't going to get him a gps... just hide his present and let him borrow ours to go find it....and not log the cache until after he retrieved his present.... then kind of let him maintain the cache. But like I said it was a thought... we never made it that far... the weekend of his birthday it poured all weekend so I gave up on that idea for the time being. Hope it works out well for you and your son has a great day... definitely a good idea to learn how to work it first. Ttepee Quote Link to comment
Guest Chris Juricich Posted July 12, 2001 Share Posted July 12, 2001 I would suggest, as well, that learning the ins and outs of the device would make sense, but with the eTrex,it's so damned easy (relatively) that any computer-savvy kid would probably be up and running within five minutes of turning the dadgum thing on. Easy cache locations to start... of course. wow, so many ideas! Quote Link to comment
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