Lewies Blog

I have recently begun the game/sport/adventure of GeoCaching. This is such an exciting game. Every time I get ready to go out the door, I boast that I’m going treasure hunting. At this moment, I am a little excited about going to my next cache. However, through my recent adventures, I have started to learn a few things that may help others starting out like me.

1. Bring a snack and/or a beverage. Some of these caches are a ways off and can take some time to get to. Depending on the terrain, your body can use up a lot of energy. Also, make sure to eat a meal before you start out, and probably wait thirty minutes as well.

2. Bring a compass. Although your GPS receiver may have a built in compass showing you the direction you are traveling and the way point location, it may run into problems when you slow down at your final destination. Using a compass to compare the two will help you know what direction you are truly facing.

3. Cell Phone. You never know if you are really going to need it. You might end up in trouble. You may take longer then expected. What ever the circumstances, a connection to the modern world can sometimes be a life saver.

4. Tell somebody. Let someone know where you are going and what you are doing. Give them your destination GPS coordinates, how long you expect to be gone, the general direction you will be heading, and/or a link to the web page. The primary reasoning is that if you are not back after a while and people start worrying where you are, you can save much heart ache by letting them know where you are, and where to look if you don’t show up.

5. Batteries. Need I say more? Even if you just replaced your batteries, make sure you always carry a second set. Without your GPS, you could be out of luck and lost.

6. Prepare for the season/location - bug spray, sunscreen, long johns, gloves, inflatable boat, snow mobile, etc. It is great to enjoy the nature, but let’s not go overboard and suffer from it either.

7. First Aid. You may run into rough territory, or a wild animal.

8. Machete. Some terrain may have much overgrown foliage that makes it impossible to get to the final destination. You may need to cut a path to get through. However, I would suggest for you to think twice before using it. You are cutting up nature. Look for a way around it first.

9. Proper storage (such as a Backpack) Use this to store all of your goodies, and make sure you use both straps on your arms. I’m walking around with a camera tripod case that has one strap and it keeps falling off when I have to move my arms about.

10. Be aware of what you are capable of. This includes thinking ahead as well. My problems were crossing a stream in freezing weather and going down (and up) a very steep hill on my second cache adventure. This was some really stupid stuff that still has my back aching today.

11. Do not put 100 percent trust in the accuracy of your GPS device and that of the person who placed the cache. My device can get within thirty feet accuracy with good signals. Based on that logic, the cache could be sixty feet away from the coordinates if we are both off by thirty feet.

12. When you arrive at a location where you leave the road, log the way point in your GPS device, or write the coordinates down in a log book. This is one thing that I wish I had done on my second find. The only coordinate that I had to go back on was my house. This caused much time to be wasted going into unknown areas for over a mile.

13. Bring a log book of your own. You can log items such as:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 28th, 2004 at 1:42 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.