Sunday, March 18, 2012

Creating a geocaching itinerary

Geocache route planning

So have you ever gone out to do a series of geocaches only to find that you went straight past one that wasn’t part of the series?  Or have constantly reminded yourself that  there’s a quick ‘cache and grab’ a quarter of a mile down a side road by number 20 of the main series only to then forget once you are out in the field?  When I am out caching with my friends, sometimes ensuring we do the right geocaches in the right order can be something akin to herding cats.  We waste a lot of time working out which geocache we should be using next and ensuring everyone is on the same page. read more

The Ultimate Geocaching GPSr Field Test

The ultimate geocaching GPS field test

If there’s anything to get a discussion going amongst Geocachers it’s the subject of GPS units.  With so much choice out there, knowing which one to buy can be difficult.  And geocachers have a very narrow focus.  We don’t care about all the added features, we just want to be able to navigate to geocaches.  And so with that in mind a few geocachers and I had an idea to have a field test and crown one of them the best for geocaching. read more

A Geocacher’s review of the Oregon 650

Garmin Oregon 650 geocacher review

Any geocacher will tell you that their most important piece of kit is the GPSr.  Whilst some are happy to casually geocache with a smartphone, those of us who are a little more ‘dedicated’ treat the selection of a new GPSr with the upmost of care. read more

Geocaching: Trackables 101

Geocaching trackables

It’s likely that if you’ve ever been geocaching, you’ve heard people talk about trackables.  But if you’ve ever wondered what exactly they are or how they form part of the game this article should give you the answers to all the basics and provide a few tips for moving trackables or setting off one of your own. read more

Earthcaches

Gunung Raja Earthcache

Gunung Raja Earthcache; via Flickr/CamSwitzer

As geocachers we are accustomed to all different sorts of geocache: from clip lock boxes to fake screws; from nano containers the size of a little finger, to large ammo cans; from suburban geocaches to ones atop mountains. It’s this diversity that gives geocaching its broad appeal. read more

Alternatives to Geocaching.com

Geocaching alternatives

Typically if someone was to ask where to go to find Geocache listings, they would be pointed towards the original listing site, Geocaching.com. But that is not the only one, and this month we take a look at some of the alternative listing sites available for geocachers and some of the differences in terms of the features they offer. read more

Two million geocaches

Geocaches in 184 countriesAs Geocaching.com approaches the two million geocache mark, they’ve posted an infographic (shown below too — click for larger image) showing everything from the number of geocaches by country to a breakdown by cache type. Congratulations to the entire geocaching community as you approach this milestone. read more

Logging Caches With GSAK’s ‘Geocaching.com Access’ Feature

GSAK and GeocachingBack at the end of last year, you may remember that I wrote an article on Using Field Notes When Geocaching. In this article I want to build on that and show how you can use your field notes together with GSAK to speed up the time it takes to log your caches. read more

UPDATED: Garmin’s new .ggz geocaching file format

Garmin Oregon 600 series ggz OpenCaching

The Garmin Oregon 600 series uses a new .ggz file type for geocaches

UPDATE: The new format may just be a compressed .gpx file (speculation, but it makes sense). Also,  apparently the new Oregons will support .gpx files:

The Oregon can hold an unlimited number of geocaches and supports GPX files from OpenCaching.com for downloading geocaches and details straight to the unit.

UPDATE 2Read our hands on Garmin Oregon 650 review.

When Garmin announced the new Oregon 600 series, they mentioned the ability to load a nearly unlimited number of geocaches: read more

Using field notes when geocaching

 

Geocaching field notes on iPhone

Using an iPhone to submit geocaching field notes

Newer technologies such as smartphone apps have put less emphasis on logs. As a result, many a new geocacher has fallen foul of just putting a dot or a ‘TFTC’ (Thanks For The Cache) for entirety of their log, only to be reminded politely (or in some cases not so politely) by the geocache owner that more detailed logs are ‘encouraged’. read more