+sacherjj Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 I found my first cache back in early 2001, a little while after this all began. I forgot to log some finds and fell out of geocaching for a while. After telling my girlfriend about it (when my eMap was just returned from a co-worker who had some fun with geocaching), she was interested. So, I started up again. No longer do we have to drive 40 miles to find a cache. The software and GPS units are just worlds better. I was trying to figure out how to write up something that expressed my excitement. I just got a new GPSMAP 60C, great GPS. I use a Kyocera Palm/Phone, that is always with me. Recently, I purchased Cachemate and loaded the nearest 500 caches into my GPSMAP 60C and Cachemate. After leaving a downer of a meeting yesterday, I decided to fire up the GPS and see what caches were local. I learned that a cache was 0.5 miles from my car as I was driving away. It was in a little city park I had been to before. I might have tried to find it without having the cache description, but I doubt it. Now with Cachemate, I lookup the cache from the GPS via GCxxxx number. Looks doable, so I'm off. Once I find this cache, after a nice little walk, the GPSMAP 60C offers me a little obsessive compulsive option. "Find Next?" it casually asks. "Come on, it is only 0.12 miles away." I think about needing to get home and do some things, but I press "Find Next." Now I need the description of this second cache, but with Cachemate it is no problem. The third cache seems to be gone and I get DNF. But it didn't matter. I'm walking 0.3 miles back to my car, talking with a cachers from one state over that I met in the park, and my mood is 180 degrees from when I started. I JUST GET IT NOW. Paperless caching. It isn't just about saving the environment one tree at a time. It is about being able to cache, with very little notice. Obviously, you still need to be prepared when doing caches with some hiking involved, where you might need more supplies. But some times, just a few well placed micros in a city park can lift your spirits and make a bad day so much better. How is it that finding little 35mm film cans in a city park can make you feel so much better? I don't get that yet. Quote Link to comment
+IVxIV Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 Welcome back to the obsession Yes you're account of paperless caching is the exact same for me. It's not just a case of saving trees, or being as hi-tech as possible lol. I head out in the morning for a day of caching, with only a SINGLE cache site as a target but that happens to be in the midst of other cache sites. Once finding the first cache, I look up on my Sony Clie Palm PDA what the next nearest cache sites are to my current position, and set off to find the next one. And so on.. and so on... It's also great that I can log my finds and record my notes within Cachemate, so when I get home I can transfer all that info back to Geocaching.com. I hate "pre-planning" a whole day Quote Link to comment
+Sputnik 57 Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 500 cache desriptions in you pocket is great. Imagine if the first cache your 60C showed was a mystery cache, and the description had started off with the annoying "the cache is not at the listed coordinates". Your GPSr would faithfully lead you to the middle of nowhere for a frustrating dnf. Being able to check difficulty, terrain and description on the fly is the only way to go. Sacherjj, your user number is 1616. There are now over 330,000 users on this site. That makes you one of the founding fathers. Welcome back!! Quote Link to comment
+sTeamTraen Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 (edited) For comparison: in Germany (where I get the most of my caches), I would guess that about half of the traditional caches can be found (easily) "paperless"; for the others, the hints and spoiler photos, etc, are often essential. And about 30% of caches are multis or mysteries, requiring the sheet, pen, calculator, etc. So we never assume that the cache is at the listed coordinates ! Also, we just don't have the density of caches (or indeed Wal-Marts ) in Europe that you do in the US. So setting out for a full day's caching and expecting to find 15-20 is just a dream for us ! (That's assuming we could afford the gas, at about $4.50 a gallon.) Edited February 27, 2005 by sTeamTraen Quote Link to comment
+sacherjj Posted February 27, 2005 Author Share Posted February 27, 2005 (edited) Sacherjj, your user number is 1616. There are now over 330,000 users on this site. That makes you one of the founding fathers. Welcome back!! Yeah, I was around whith discussion of selective availability getting turned off. Back then, I had to drive 40-50 miles to find a cache. I think I found four within an hour's drive and then found this site. Wonder how many of the sub-2000 users are still around. Edited February 27, 2005 by sacherjj Quote Link to comment
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