Geocaching, do you?
 

MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch

[Closed] Geocaching, do you?

29 Posts
24 Users
0 Reactions
107 Views
Posts: 2
Free Member
Topic starter
 

My son and me have been caching for years and now we do loads by bike to combine a nice ride and some fun treasure hunting.

Whats the best one you have done?


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 2:36 pm
Posts: 11627
Full Member
 

Didn't even know what it was until I stumbled across a cache in a fairly remote little bothy on Rannoch Moor. Took a mint but didn't have anything more exciting to leave behind than a pack of tissues.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 2:46 pm
Posts: 7129
Full Member
 

Only did it for the first time last month, but have done 32 since with my son and his mates. Great incentive to get them out walking/cycling...

Most interesting I found was a nano/bullet in Ambleside town centre.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 2:46 pm
Posts: 193
Free Member
 

I've done a few now with the kids - best ones have been a couple of ammo tins in Derbyshire - now trying to work out how to download locations from geocaching.com to the Satmap I've just bought


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 2:49 pm
 JonW
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Lasr weekend: Fear Factor 5 - 25ft climb up a tree!


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 3:11 pm
Posts: 56845
Full Member
 

Tried it for the first time last Saturday on Cartmel Fell. Great fun. I'll definitely be doing more of that


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 3:15 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Me, Started about 6 1/2 years ago.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 3:20 pm
Posts: 1642
Free Member
 

Tried it for the first time recently. After failing to find the first three or four caches I've given up! Bit like train spotting anyway.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 3:21 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Been doing it a few years now and it's taken me to some great locations

One of my favourites was

[url= http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCPNZJ ]GCPNZJRum & Egg[/url]

just off Bens Beach from the film Local Hero,

I did that after a week working on one of the Fort Bill worlds rounds ... total contrast and both brilliant


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 3:27 pm
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

Shhhssss, don't tell the muggles!


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 3:57 pm
Posts: 19
Free Member
 

I do this when I'm at my dad's as he loves it. Good fun where he is in France. Not so fun when he comes here to London though, he rummages all over the place.

Yet to do geocaching on a bike but I think if I do I shall coin the phrase velocaching


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 4:08 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

If the cache setters have been doing their job, finding one can often lead you to lovely out-of-the-way spots you'd not otherwise find.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 4:10 pm
 Haze
Posts: 5415
Free Member
 

Only did it for the first time last month, but have done 32 since

And you call me a geek...


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 4:35 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

We took it up recently. I started using my iphone but it gives us an excuse to really get to grips with using our Garmin....
The kids love it - they both started out saying that it was for geeks and then after finding one in a park in central London (just down from St Pancras station) they were hooked.
We did some great ones up in Scotland last week too. Definitely good for finding out of the way places.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 4:36 pm
Posts: 91098
Free Member
 

I thought about it.. then I thought.. meh...

How about publishing locations of sweet bits of trail or obstacles or something?


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 4:41 pm
Posts: 77703
Free Member
 

Funnily enough I've been meaning to do it for years, and finally found my first cache last month.

Most interesting I found was a nano/bullet in Ambleside town centre.

Assuming it's the same one, I spent about an hour looking for that sod without success. Where is it?


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 4:50 pm
Posts: 6256
Full Member
 

Best one I've ever done was up close and personal to a mahoosive glacier in Iceland.

Locally though it's my one, slap bang in the centre of Wales.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 5:14 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I did in a few years ago when I got a garmin then at easter I went and hid some easter treats on the moors and gave the kids the gps and they had a great day finding them .


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 5:38 pm
Posts: 7129
Full Member
 

Cougar...

*looks around*

in the middle parking bay outside the tourist information place. In the sign that says'taxi'

*got away with it, move on. Shuffles away furtively*


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 8:12 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

What is it, in a nutshell? Is it the modern version of letterboxing (not that I know what that is either)?


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 8:16 pm
Posts: 6256
Full Member
 

Pretty much so, yup.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 10:08 pm
Posts: 77703
Free Member
 

*looks around*

I'm not wholly convinced that the same one. I ended up (and I apologise cos my memory is hazy) under a monument / signpost or something, convinced that was it, with some sort of reference to lettering.

Having subsequently actually found a nano, I'm happy to believe that I was looking right at it and didn't see it, mind.

What is it, in a nutshell? Is it the modern version of letterboxing

That's actually a nie way of looking at it. It's like the old "dead letterbox" idea, but GPS coordinates are published. So you peg it into your GPS along with maybe a cryptic clue, and go hunting.

It's custom to take something and add something (took toy car, added Gnasher badge) and some people have trackable "travel bugs" that get moved from cache to cache. But that's not mandatory, signing the log is sufficient.


 
Posted : 10/06/2011 10:23 pm
Posts: 7129
Full Member
 

Sounds like the same one cougar - there's a war memorial there, and the hint says something about letters and words that are the same in several languages.

I did all the Ambleside ones a few weeks ago - this is the only one actually in the town. The rest are around the outskirts.


 
Posted : 11/06/2011 6:17 am
Posts: 77703
Free Member
 

Sounds like the same one cougar - there's a war memorial there, and the hint says something about letters and words that are the same in several languages.

Yes! Yes, that's it exactly. Damn it. I was looking at hotel signs and suchlike. I'll have another look next time I'm over that way. Ta.


 
Posted : 11/06/2011 8:45 am
Posts: 21016
Full Member
 

Only a couple of local ones (a couple we know are quite fanatical about it, hello Pete & Claire!) a few in Snowdonia - there's one on Elidir Fawr, which we saw a family group searching for last week.

Wish it had been around when I was a kid, I think it's a brilliant idea


 
Posted : 11/06/2011 11:19 am
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

recommend us an iphone app then, going to have a look round locally


 
Posted : 11/06/2011 1:00 pm
Posts: 42
Free Member
 

brassneck - Member
recommend us an iphone app then, going to have a look round locally

takes a lot of the fun out of it, although if you've not had the 'fun' of using paper maps etc it might be a good introduction


 
Posted : 11/06/2011 10:28 pm
Posts: 21016
Full Member
 

[url= http://www.geocaching.com/ ]Geocaching.com[/url] is the 'official' (biggest anyway) site. Downloadable apps available there.


 
Posted : 11/06/2011 11:10 pm
Posts: 1977
Free Member
 

If you have youngish kids they will love it. Mine are 8 and 6 and have loved geocaching on foot and bike for the last three years.

Kind of pointless as an adult unless you need motivation to go out and visit different locations. Which I would have thought is not an issue to MTB riders.
Still if you have kids, pop the co-ords into the GPS, hand it to the offspring and let them choose the route. Be it right or wrong as long as you have a fair idea where you need to be they will enjoy it.

One thing to note if they are Little'uns try to pick ones that are not "micro" and have a few bits of tat in that they can swap.


 
Posted : 11/06/2011 11:24 pm
Posts: 2877
Free Member
 

Used to do it regularly but especially round our way there are too many poor quality caches in totally insignificant locations with bugger all in them to make it interesting or fun any more.


 
Posted : 11/06/2011 11:25 pm