Hobbies (geochashing question)

[Arkansas]

Noticed there are not many recent post in this topic.  One that caught my eye while scrolling was geocaching.  I have heard of this and have always thought it would be fun.  (Not into the Pok?mon phase that's so popular right now!) Just wondering if any skilled geocashers have some helpful hints on how to start the geocaching.

Thanks!

 

[trdiller]

Helpful hints how 'bout dumb things I've done when I started.

1. Search out  larger caches to start. those 35mm film canisters are hard to find.
2. When you park your car in a parking lot make sure you mark this spot on your gps. My first time I parked in a forest preserve parking lot and following my gps deadheaded towards the cache. I did not follow any trials and my daughter was with me. We could not find the cache after about two hours and then realized we had gotten all turned around. I knew if we walked in one of two directions we would find the road. So off we went. We had to cut through a pasture with bison in it and finally got to the road. A driver stopped and we asked him which way to the parking lot. He didn't know but gave us a ride in the direction we thought. When we got to the car there was a forest preserve officer waiting  so that he could close the park.  He was not a happy camper.
3. most caches are just off a trail so deadheading (following a straight line to the spot) is not needed. follow a trail that leads to near the cache.
4. lately some caches are being defaced by people placing less desirable objects in them. look inside first before letting your kids see. Unless you want to explain what certain sex toys are. This  probably happens in more urbanized locations I haven't seen any but my co-worker who lives in a more urban area has.

Ask your local forest preserve officer if there are caches nearby.  They may even know short cuts to get to them. There is one in  a forest preserve about a half mile form my house. If I use the trails it is probably a mile walk. If I park outside the preserve on a side road and take the unused service road in after climbing the gate it's only a block or two walk.

 

[SailorSam20500]

Just bumping this back active.  Thinking other cachers will see it.  As I travel, I'd enjoy hooking up with others for caching runs.

 

[Old_Crow]

We Geocache.  We aren't fanatics about it, but when we're somewhere new and run out of stuff to do we'll pick up a cache now and then.
Best day we ever had was while staying at Big Lake State Park in Missouri.  When we asked the car GPS for the nearest Walmart and followed the directions, we found that it took us though 3 states.  Missouri(of course)then 10 miles west into Nebraska, then 10 miles south into Kansas.
After shopping I got on the phone and found a cool cemetery cache in the Kansas town.  Then when we got back to the Nebraska town, I located a cache at the city park.  Then when we got back to Big Lake, we located one just outside the park.
So, 3 caches, in 3 different states, in about 3 hours.

 

[OutdoorFT]

I googled it and am still confused on what this is.

 

[Prior member]

I don't mean to sound negative, but I wish they would ban that geocashing on public land.
If there is any thing I hate to see when we are hiking or paddling in the pristene wilderness is to come across a piece of 3 " PVC pipe with a plastic canister attached to it sticking out of the ground.

They belong in shopping mall parking lots!

Jack L

 

[Larry N.]

I googled it and am still confused on what this is.

Basically it's like a scavenger hunt, only there are places online to find info about caches (with coordinates) and folks use a GPS to search it out. They leave whatever they find there for others, though. Just a game that some folks like.

 

[blw2]

so some of the caches are larger containers.  Some folks set them up, and will prime them full of little happy meal toy type things, maybe some tokens, or whatever.... and usually a logbook in it.  the tradition is when you locate the cache you log the find, then you can take a treasure and leave a treasure.... maybe the thing you leave is something you pulled out of a different cache.
Then you are supposed to go online to the site, and log the find there.

The smaller caches may only have a log, nad nothing more.  I've seen a couple like this made form old 35mm film canisters
The one I'm familiar with is
https://www.geocaching.com/play
they have a smartphone app
or you can find sites on the web page, enter the coordinates into a gps and go hunting.  The site listing will have hints about what to look for.

I've only done it a couple times.  I first tried it thinking it would be fun to do with the kids when camping.... then found the app didn't work so well when data signal was weak.... like in state parks