Radiographer

I discovered geocaching about 2 months after I started commuting 15 miles one way to work every day. Seems to me biking and caching go very well together, but I've not seen any references to it in these forums (fora?). Anybody doing it? I've found quite a few caches just along my route to and from work.

derath

I do some geocaching. I actually was just thinking the other day it could be fun to find some while on my rides. When the weather gets better though.

LóFarkas

Orienteering is where it's at. Finding places when a GPS tells you where they are isn't exactly an achievement, IMHO. Not that I do much orienteering, though...

grapetonix

Yes. I happen to officially be the first geocacher of the country i live in. I never thought it would grow big so pretty cool to see the domestic caches increase to 5000+ in a few years. The concept is great and I think it can be mighty fun at times, but it really consumes too much time for the sake of, far as I see it, "nothing". Too many new geocaches are just placed at plain uninteresting places. So I'm pretty inactive.

Anyhow... cheapest GPS with map upload capability on the handlebars... that's MIGHTY handy! Allows one to get out and around more, knowing what to expect ahead.

DeafLamb

I do some geocaching, havn't in a while though since I lent me gps to a friend. I should get that back. I have a handlebar mount for my GPS (Garmin GPSmap 60cs) so I guess I could do some geocaching on my rides. Never really thought about it.

Ray

derath

Orienteering is quite fun. The club my wife and I used to do it with had an annual Bike-O, which was really fun.

Geocaching with a mapping gps? Want to really have fun go old school. I geocache with my old Garmin 12XL. I get the waypoint so I know the direction to go. But I have to wind my route by feel.

-D

drissel

Thought about it, but what fun is there just following an instrument, the idea of using a compass to find the item maybe from a waypoint sound more like it. I did alot of orienteering in scouts, you have to be pretty accurate to locate with in a foot or so. Maybe I will give it a try. I do need to get out more and enjoy life.
Dave

grapetonix

I think you have misunderstood the concept greatly. Finding a well thought out geocache is NOT easy. For added fun, omit the maps. You know the straight line direction to the cache but actually getting there is different. Also, make your first cache hunt an adventure. Finding a driveby cache is not fun, but a 2 hour hike through a nice outdoor area can be.

jamesdenver

i'm not a geocacher - but this site is related and pretty cool

www.confluence.org

MMACH 5

hmmm.
Lot's of people chiming in with opinions on something they've never even tried.
Typical.

ruppster

I geocache as well. Great reason to have a nice mountain bike. I use a Garmin eTrex Vista C. I purchased the gps for my job (I layout power lines for a rural electric cooperative), but found geocaching and not having to set up a cycle computer for proper wheel/tire diameter to be fun. The gps unit also revealed that my computer was off (showed 100 miles, but only 99 on gps).

rykoala

Yep, I'm a geocacher. See my link at my site www.rykoala.org. I just started doing it a couple of months ago, and I am really into it. Its lots of fun! I have 2 hides to my name, decent ones not just lightpost caches (which I am *already* tired of). I personally have wanted to go geocaching for a long time after hearing about it a few years ago. I just got a GPS and did it recently and its so much fun. My whole family loves it.

For the guys who bash it because its "so easy" because you just follow a GPS to some coords.... that's only a minor part of the game. I've been right on top of caches and taken a long time to find them. One I went back to 3 times before I figured it out. Depending on the cache, getting to it is only part of the fun. Trying not to be spotted when there's tons of people around and being stealthy has alot to do with the fun in the more urban caches. The ones that require a hike are tons of fun too!

As far as biking and caching, I am looking forward to doing that next weekend. I am placing 3 micro caches all at historical spots in my town. The first person to log all 3 caches will get a FTF (First To Find) prize that will be related to the cache- and it'll be a nice one

unkchunk

I did help a neighboor find some septic laterals once. The forked stick thing is a crock. Works better with two bent wires.

MMACH 5

Don't be too quick to doubt the cyclometer's numbers.

On a flat trajectory, a GPSr's displayed speed is as accurate as any device you can find. However, since a GPSr only measures latitude and longitude, when you go up or down hills, the speed and distance will be measured at less than what is actually traveled.

Many GPS units now have what is called "3D" mapping, which means that if you are locked onto four or more satellites, it will display your current altitude. Unfortunately, the unit's computer is not programmed to factor that into the speed and distance traveled.
That's what accounts for the difference between a device that measures the distance on the ground, (cyclometer) and one that measures the distance between two points, (GPSr).

The GPS sees all three of these as 1 mile. Clearly, each bike is not going to travel the same distance. Thus the speed will also be incorrect.
Full size graphic

Apparently, Garmin realizes the issues that come with measuring speed and actual distance traveled when using a GPSr.
Their new GPSr designed specifically for cycling uses a magnet on the spokes to measure speed rather than relying on satellite reception.

Garmin Edge Series

sbhikes

I used to go Geocaching a lot with my BF but we haven't done it in a while. We would do it hiking, not biking. It's harder than it looks, especially when you live in a 3-Dimensional place full of mountains or even sky-scrapers. One thing we liked to do was find a "secret" trail that not many people knew about and put a geocache in a spot that a) had a good view and b) would fool people.

How would it fool them? They'd be on the tried and true main trail, the gps would indicate the cache was practically right there, but actually the cache is 300ft straight up a cliff and the little side trail to get to it is a half mile away! Ha ha ha ha (evil laughter)!

ItsJustMe

I've been geocaching since about 2 months after the geocaching website went up. However many years that is, I don't know, it was within a year after Clinton signed the order to turn off S.A.

It's a fun way to get the kids out into the woods. For some reason just walking around isn't good enough for them, having a treasure hunt makes it worth their time.

I don't think I'd ever do it on a bike though. I have been out in the woods a couple of times on a bike, and for me it's just not much fun. I'd much rather walk than ride, unless for some reason I had a lot of ground that I had to cover.

IMHO people riding a bike through the woods instead of walking miss probably more than people driving a car down the road instead of cycling. 90+% of the fun of going into the woods is poking things with sticks, finding cool plants and bugs, seeing wildlife, exploring neat and different things. Cyclists in the woods seem to go in just to see how fast they can get back out again. Plus, no matter what they say, I've seen firsthand that cyclists tear the living crap out of trails, to the point where many of the previous best trails on private lands that I know of have were closed off by their owners within 2 years of mountain bikers becoming prevalent, due to more erosion in a year than 2 decades of foot traffic.

ItsJustMe

That's the best kind of cache. A good cache leads people to a cool place that they would not normally have gone to, and ideally via an interesting path that's not obvious.

Lately I've seen a few very good hides. A few weeks ago, we were within 15 feet of a cache for nearly an hour before we found it. It was in a fake rotten stump made out of foam and very well disguised.

ruppster

Good info, never really thought about it too much from that aspect (used to dealing with 300' power line spans). I did notice my average speeds went down a couple of mph, maybe I'm not as slow as I think.

dwightonabike

I went bicycle geocaching at the outer banks in NC once. Found a couple of sites, had some fun. Evidently bike shorts and shoes don't mix well with briars and swamp, and we were not able to make the third site. I would love to do more, there are lots of sites within bike-carrying distance of a road.

Wulfheir

what's a geocache?

ahpook

just chiming in with an AOL-ish "me too" here.

though we've been inactive for a while due to having an infant, we'll probably start up hiking again in the summer with the kid (now 15 mos) in a backpack tote. i mostly like the puzzle and multi-stage caches, and almost never do micros. lots of gx activity around the bay area here, and lots of engineers so the puzzles can get *tough*.

+1 Very true

rykoala

From https://www.geocaching.com/faq/ :
Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.