Learnincurve
Senior Member
- Location
- Chesterfield
I hope I'm not preaching to the converted here I did a search and only my post came up. For those saying geowhat?
What is Geocashing? It's using a billion pound satalite network to find tuppaware boxes in the woods.
How, what, where? you go to http://www.geocaching.com/ and sign up. There are two levels, premium and free, premium gives you access to the cashes people don't want teenagers with a mobile phone to ruin and Pocket queries - this is important for reasons I will explain later.
But what is a cashe? It is a container, from a tiny little magnet to a gigantic ammo can and everything in between. I have seen people convert logs into a cashe, I have seen a wooden frog that's been hollowed out, and I have seen rocks that are not rocks at all, but normally they are tuppaware containers.
How do I find them? You either use a geocashing ap on your phone (exactly the same drawbacks as using a phone as your sat nav) or you download the GPS files from the site individually or up to 500 at a time - using the aforementioned premium pocket quest, then you add them to your GPS and as you ride along you will see the little icons showing you where the cashes are. There are many many road side cashes, you may well have ridden past 50 on your way home from work today. You then read the description which will contain the exact clues as to where it is hidden. It may be easier to use the bike to spot them and your phone to find them.
What now? You sign the log, then if it is large enough to have other stuff in it, you take something out, but only if you have something of equal or greater value to put in. This is the part kids love because for your rubber ball they might get a cool marble or a shell and so on. After that you mark the cashe as found on the website.
That sounds a bit addictive and potentially time consuming does it not? Yes, yes it is, especially at first when you don't know what signs to look for or keep forgetting that those rocks that look like rocks might actually be a geocashe after all. I would say that you would have to be careful if you are commuting because "just one more cashe" may turn into 7 and you are now 4 hours late for work (as a hiker it's also a huge time sink if you allow yourself to follow the cashe rather than your route so off roaders would need to be careful on that one as well) but it's perfect for the cyclist that can't do a 30 mile round trip yet as it gives you a target or two to aim for, a rest while you look for it, and it's really rather rewarding when you find them. Especially if you can't find the begger the first 3 days you look and on the fourth you have that "Ah Ha!" moment.
A note on GPS, Garmin are huge supporters of geocashing, my hand held has a mode purely for geocashing. Satmap is annoying because you have to upload via the program and it takes ages - this bit is important, before you load you must go through each option tab and make sure all the photograph options are turned off, if you don't it can take hours for 100 of them.
What is Geocashing? It's using a billion pound satalite network to find tuppaware boxes in the woods.
How, what, where? you go to http://www.geocaching.com/ and sign up. There are two levels, premium and free, premium gives you access to the cashes people don't want teenagers with a mobile phone to ruin and Pocket queries - this is important for reasons I will explain later.
But what is a cashe? It is a container, from a tiny little magnet to a gigantic ammo can and everything in between. I have seen people convert logs into a cashe, I have seen a wooden frog that's been hollowed out, and I have seen rocks that are not rocks at all, but normally they are tuppaware containers.
How do I find them? You either use a geocashing ap on your phone (exactly the same drawbacks as using a phone as your sat nav) or you download the GPS files from the site individually or up to 500 at a time - using the aforementioned premium pocket quest, then you add them to your GPS and as you ride along you will see the little icons showing you where the cashes are. There are many many road side cashes, you may well have ridden past 50 on your way home from work today. You then read the description which will contain the exact clues as to where it is hidden. It may be easier to use the bike to spot them and your phone to find them.
What now? You sign the log, then if it is large enough to have other stuff in it, you take something out, but only if you have something of equal or greater value to put in. This is the part kids love because for your rubber ball they might get a cool marble or a shell and so on. After that you mark the cashe as found on the website.
That sounds a bit addictive and potentially time consuming does it not? Yes, yes it is, especially at first when you don't know what signs to look for or keep forgetting that those rocks that look like rocks might actually be a geocashe after all. I would say that you would have to be careful if you are commuting because "just one more cashe" may turn into 7 and you are now 4 hours late for work (as a hiker it's also a huge time sink if you allow yourself to follow the cashe rather than your route so off roaders would need to be careful on that one as well) but it's perfect for the cyclist that can't do a 30 mile round trip yet as it gives you a target or two to aim for, a rest while you look for it, and it's really rather rewarding when you find them. Especially if you can't find the begger the first 3 days you look and on the fourth you have that "Ah Ha!" moment.
A note on GPS, Garmin are huge supporters of geocashing, my hand held has a mode purely for geocashing. Satmap is annoying because you have to upload via the program and it takes ages - this bit is important, before you load you must go through each option tab and make sure all the photograph options are turned off, if you don't it can take hours for 100 of them.
