Motorcycle camping/Geocaching

[Dragonslayer]

Looking forward to this years motorcycle adventures, while doing my annual assessment and organization of the camping gear, I've been thinking about doing some weekend motorcycle camping with a new twist. Add as a destination/mission, reason to visit points of interest, Geo Caching.

 

The Georgia State park system has instituted a Geo Caching game across all of the state parks to promote park visitors with a new interest in exploring the park system by searching for all of the geocaching locations throughout the state.

 

Having done all the motorcycle rally locations and looking for new ways to entertain myself. I thought this might be fun to pick a different destination on each trip. Travel to that destination, camp out for the weekend. This would allow cheap travel in a more intimate way of exploring the beautiful locations around the state and local points of interest off the beaten path. This could also be applied all over the country since it is my understanding that Geocaching is a hobby that is growing everywhere.

 

This could even be a new way to organize M & E's for small groups of like minded motorcycle campers. Maybe develop it into a game for all of VR members interested, kinda like the photo search game. this seems a lot more interesting than checking out the "Why" thread everyday.

 

I'm just now starting to research this and would appreciate any feedback of knowledge and interest. Here http://www.geocaching.com/guide/ is a link that explains what Geocaching is all about.

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2014 by Dragonslayer

[dave_wells]

Found this a few weeks ago

 

http://www.waymarking.com/default.aspx?f=1

 

[Brake Pad]

I have been hitting all the state markers in georgia, as I make my ride up north. this is one of the. Shellman Ga.

[krispy]

Biking and geocaching are a great pairing. We do lots of both. There are so many geocaches around the country that you can never run out of them. We find that geocaches will bring you to neat places that you likely would never find in any other way. We've been to small town or county parks and historical markers , scenic spots and such that we never knew were there, even though we live pretty close to them.

 

If you want to spend a weekend caching in a particular area, a good way to approach it is to go to geocaching.com, put in the location where you plan to center, put in how many miles out you're willing to look, and then let the site find the caches in that area. Then you can sort them by "favorite points" and come up with some of the best in the area. Favorite points get awarded for lots of reasons- an especially clever hide, a great location, a spectacular view, a great story or experience at the site, who knows? Sometimes the points may indicate that the hide was extra devious, and may be a real challenge, even for experienced cachers. Those are the most fun when you find them though.

 

There are some really creative and sneaky people out there doing some of the hiding, and those are the ones we really enjoy.

 

If you have any specific questions on caching, fire away. I'll try to help.

 

Larry

[tomephil]

I haven't done this yet but it looks like a great idea.

[Dragonslayer]

Biking and geocaching are a great pairing. We do lots of both. There are so many geocaches around the country that you can never run out of them. We find that geocaches will bring you to neat places that you likely would never find in any other way. We've been to small town or county parks and historical markers , scenic spots and such that we never knew were there, even though we live pretty close to them.

 

If you want to spend a weekend caching in a particular area, a good way to approach it is to go to geocaching.com, put in the location where you plan to center, put in how many miles out you're willing to look, and then let the site find the caches in that area. Then you can sort them by "favorite points" and come up with some of the best in the area. Favorite points get awarded for lots of reasons- an especially clever hide, a great location, a spectacular view, a great story or experience at the site, who knows? Sometimes the points may indicate that the hide was extra devious, and may be a real challenge, even for experienced cachers. Those are the most fun when you find them though.

 

There are some really creative and sneaky people out there doing some of the hiding, and those are the ones we really enjoy.

 

If you have any specific questions on caching, fire away. I'll try to help.

 

Larry

Larry,

Thanks for the input. I've already found and have registered at Geocaching.com. I tried to seek sites close to home and came to a map that showed there were dozens within just a few miles of the house. Actually I was amazed how many there are around the world, over 2 million. And, they do seem to be everywhere.

 

I'm curious now because in many of the locations shown on the map It seemed like an odd place to stash a cache. My plan is to find as many as I can close by to get a feel for how it works and then expand my search to other more scenic locations.

 

From what I can figure out so far, to search requires a purchase of their phone app for $9.99. This app appears to show you where the caches are and how to get to them. Is this how you get started? Or, are there other ways to go.

 

I figured I would start looking for them and report what I found. Some of the perks is that:

 

 

this is fun for all ages.

You can do this as little or as much as you desire.

Seems to be driven by the limits of your imagination.

You can do it on whatever time frame.

It can be done by yourself or with groups.

Endless possibilities of how to make it interesting.

Gets you out of the house and away from the TV, That is why I think It would be a great thing to do with kids.

 

Any hints you could add would be appreciated.

immediate questions I have now:

1. I have a laptop, a 7" tablet, a 4g lite smarter-than-me alcatel phone, a garmin etrex gps and a Tom Tom GPS for the vehicles. What is the best way to combine these to utilize these devices for Geo search.

2. I notice now that on Google Play there are literally dozens of free geocaching apps. Can you give me a hint on which one works best and is the most user friendly? User friendly is important because I'm old school and figuring out most of this hi-tech stuff gives me a headache.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Dragonslayer

[krispy]

I'll try to answer your question as they came.

 

Yes, some caches are in what seem to be "odd" places. We tend to not try for the ones in the busiest spots, or right in town. Too many "muggles" around wondering what you're doing and willing to destroy the cache after you are gone. We tend to head more for the country sites or quiet park hides.

 

The simplest, cheapest way for you to give this a try is maybe with your etrex, entering the coordinates for a cache one at a time, and let it lead the way. We use a Garmin Nuvi 500 I think it is. One of only a couple navigation (car) type GPS that is really designed to do caching in a slick fashion. With one of these, you can set to car mode, and it will lead you to the closest access (not always the best approach), and then switch to walk mode and get led in tighter. It also will have the description, hint, and the latest logs in it if you download them. That's the downside. You have to download them to have them.

 

To try your etrex, just go to the geocaching site, run the curser over the "Play" tab, and click on "Hide and Seek a Cache". Then you can enter an adress or zip code and a search radius, and it will give a list of all the caches in the circle. Then you can jot down the coordinates of the ones you want to try for, and away you go. You have only the coordinates and whatever you wrote down about the cache to go on. Not the best, but it's how we started too.

 

There are much better ways to go, however. I think you smart phone is actually the tool to use if you get into it. With the right app, you can fire it up anywhere, and it will show you the caches in the area. It will bring up the description, hints, logs, etc. My sister and b-i-l use their phone all the time as does my daughter and her family. I don't know the app they are using, but I can find out for you.

 

It is fun with the kids ( and grandkids) but some of the caches are really tough to find for the kids. Bigger ones are better for them to find, and they have little trade items in them that the kids can swap for. Take an item, and leave an item. Let's the kids have some practice in making choices too.

 

I don't know if you realize what you are looking for. The smallest caches will be in little magnetic cans, maybe 1/2" long and 3/8" across. Stuck to anything metal, bridges, gaurdrails, benches, cannons, tanks (these are the worst), who knows what. They range up thru 35 mm film cans, old pill bottles, cool whip bowls or so, and on up to ammo cans, and a few beyond that.

 

That should get you started. Just ask if I can help...

 

Larry

[Dragonslayer]

I'll try to answer your question as they came.

 

Yes, some caches are in what seem to be "odd" places. We tend to not try for the ones in the busiest spots, or right in town. Too many "muggles" around wondering what you're doing and willing to destroy the cache after you are gone. We tend to head more for the country sites or quiet park hides.

 

The simplest, cheapest way for you to give this a try is maybe with your etrex, entering the coordinates for a cache one at a time, and let it lead the way. We use a Garmin Nuvi 500 I think it is. One of only a couple navigation (car) type GPS that is really designed to do caching in a slick fashion. With one of these, you can set to car mode, and it will lead you to the closest access (not always the best approach), and then switch to walk mode and get led in tighter. It also will have the description, hint, and the latest logs in it if you download them. That's the downside. You have to download them to have them.

 

To try your etrex, just go to the geocaching site, run the curser over the "Play" tab, and click on "Hide and Seek a Cache". Then you can enter an adress or zip code and a search radius, and it will give a list of all the caches in the circle. Then you can jot down the coordinates of the ones you want to try for, and away you go. You have only the coordinates and whatever you wrote down about the cache to go on. Not the best, but it's how we started too.

 

There are much better ways to go, however. I think you smart phone is actually the tool to use if you get into it. With the right app, you can fire it up anywhere, and it will show you the caches in the area. It will bring up the description, hints, logs, etc. My sister and b-i-l use their phone all the time as does my daughter and her family. I don't know the app they are using, but I can find out for you.

 

It is fun with the kids ( and grandkids) but some of the caches are really tough to find for the kids. Bigger ones are better for them to find, and they have little trade items in them that the kids can swap for. Take an item, and leave an item. Let's the kids have some practice in making choices too.

 

I don't know if you realize what you are looking for. The smallest caches will be in little magnetic cans, maybe 1/2" long and 3/8" across. Stuck to anything metal, bridges, gaurdrails, benches, cannons, tanks (these are the worst), who knows what. They range up thru 35 mm film cans, old pill bottles, cool whip bowls or so, and on up to ammo cans, and a few beyond that.

 

That should get you started. Just ask if I can help...

 

Larry

Thank you , Larry

That information is helpful. I am very interested in selecting a good phone app and getting to know how to use it. The phone sounds like the best option but, my problem is that I'm still learning how to navigate on the smarter-than-me phone and my eyesight seems to be declining so it's hard to read the print and my fingers are too fat so when I try and use the touch screen it jumps all over the place and I spend all my time trying to figure out where I'm at and how to get back to what I was looking at. Right now it's very frustrating but, I know with practice I will get better at it.

 

My son thinks I'm an old school dinosaur because I'm having trouble getting the hang of it. I was much more comfortable with the old rotary phones. The transition to the push button phones wasn't that difficult. But, I kinda got lost after that. I just recently gave up my flip phone which I could use without a problem. I, like many am being drug into the latest technology kicking and screaming.

 

I plan on practicing on caches close by until I get the hang of it and then go exploring for more scenic and historical caches.

 

So, far it has been fun researching geocaching and talking it up to friends and family introducing them to it and getting them interested in playing. I'm really looking forward to this it seems like it will be a lot of fun.