Geocaching... anyone?

Tubby Rower · 22-09-2006, 14:53

Does anyone else geocache? http://www.geocaching.com/

I did it fairy extensively before my daughter was born and then subsequently found civ. The basic premise is that people hide these "caches" out and about in the world. They record the latitude and longtitude and publish those coordinates with a description of the cache, cache's location, etc.

I've hidden a few around my local area, and also found quite a few (~ 67 so far). You need a GPSr, but you can get those relatively inexpensively (< $100) unless you want one that will hold road maps as well ($200 - $1000 depending on size and other features).

Robboo · 22-09-2006, 15:17

I did one in college. I would love to do it again but I dont have a gps. I used the universities gps to find it. It was on a barrier island and you left a fishing lure and took a fishing lure. Its pretty cool...treasure hunting without being a pirate.

I may get back into it in the next few years. My masters research had a little geocaching to get back to the exact spot in the marsh, coast or ocean bottom. We used differential gps for some of our location so we were within "inches" of accuracy.

Tubby Rower · 22-09-2006, 16:13

were you using Military issue GPS? they have that style GPS, and they are available to the public but are mucho moolah and I think require a backback

Robboo · 22-09-2006, 16:44

I dont know if it was military but it was big. It had 2 components. One was placed at a known datum point as a base unit. Then we used a hand held unit to locate the study sites. We were measuring marsh gain and loss..so getting teh exact same location was necessary. I used the hand held during lunch to find the cache. It was cool to see who far off their gps was off compared to our super accurate one.

Hard work digging permanent refernce markers in clay soggy soil. Frigging hot, dirty and miserable job..then it started raining and that made it worse. (Someone remind me again why I am going back to graduate school)

Ginger_Ale · 22-09-2006, 23:23

I have a GPS that I bought myself, but I've never done geocaching. I've read about it in articles, though.

22-09-2006, 14:53	#1
Tubby Rower Moderator Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Middle of VA. Posts: 3,896	Geocaching... anyone? Does anyone else geocache? http://www.geocaching.com/ I did it fairy extensively before my daughter was born and then subsequently found civ. The basic premise is that people hide these "caches" out and about in the world. They record the latitude and longtitude and publish those coordinates with a description of the cache, cache's location, etc. I've hidden a few around my local area, and also found quite a few (~ 67 so far). You need a GPSr, but you can get those relatively inexpensively (< $100) unless you want one that will hold road maps as well ($200 - $1000 depending on size and other features). __________________ 3/2006 : Now, surely that must be because some fists might have caused internal damage to certain delicate parts?

22-09-2006, 16:13	#3
Tubby Rower Moderator Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Middle of VA. Posts: 3,896	were you using Military issue GPS? they have that style GPS, and they are available to the public but are mucho moolah and I think require a backback __________________ 3/2006 : Now, surely that must be because some fists might have caused internal damage to certain delicate parts?

22-09-2006, 15:17	#2
Robboo King Join Date: May 2006 Location: Cajun Country. Posts: 2,002	I did one in college. I would love to do it again but I dont have a gps. I used the universities gps to find it. It was on a barrier island and you left a fishing lure and took a fishing lure. Its pretty cool...treasure hunting without being a pirate. I may get back into it in the next few years. My masters research had a little geocaching to get back to the exact spot in the marsh, coast or ocean bottom. We used differential gps for some of our location so we were within "inches" of accuracy.

22-09-2006, 16:44	#4
Robboo King Join Date: May 2006 Location: Cajun Country. Posts: 2,002	I dont know if it was military but it was big. It had 2 components. One was placed at a known datum point as a base unit. Then we used a hand held unit to locate the study sites. We were measuring marsh gain and loss..so getting teh exact same location was necessary. I used the hand held during lunch to find the cache. It was cool to see who far off their gps was off compared to our super accurate one. Hard work digging permanent refernce markers in clay soggy soil. Frigging hot, dirty and miserable job..then it started raining and that made it worse. (Someone remind me again why I am going back to graduate school)

22-09-2006, 23:23	#5
Ginger_Ale Prince Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: America. Posts: 501	I have a GPS that I bought myself, but I've never done geocaching. I've read about it in articles, though.