After all of the hullabaloo about geocaching, I decided to check it out. Signed up and entered my zip code and OH, MY!!!

There are 1,900 caches within 50 miles of my house! And I lost track after about 20 caches in the two parks nearest me-less than 10 miles.

I guess I better either learn to play nice or stay home (NOT!).
Stacy

Quote

There are 1,900 caches within 50 miles of my house!

AQ has recently introduced a rating system that might help choosing which letterboxes to hunt, but geocaching has not! Fortunately, every find log includes comments by the finder, and they're viewable by anybody, not just the owner.

If you get going with this at all, you'll need to learn to be selective. Personally, I choose not to hunt "micros" -- they're too small to contain any trade items, they can be devilishly difficult to find, and they're often hidden in urban locations such as a Wal-Mart parking lot. Sticking with "small" geocaches or larger already cuts the available caches in half.

Then look at the last couple of logs. If the finders sound really enthusiastic, like "Wow! Excellent place!" go for it. If they sound less than enthused, maybe not.

After I visited an area, a local there asked me why I didn't find any micros. I told him that I ran out of daylight just looking for the regular size geocaches -- and if I had had more time, I still wouldn't have hunted for micros, I would have widened the search area and hunted more regular size caches!

One more tip for anybody reading this: You don't really need a GPS receiver! Just log onto geocaching.com and do a search for geocaches in your zip code. Click on one so that the cache listing is displayed. Scroll down a bit and you'll see an entire selection of mapping options, including Google and MapQuest. Select the Google map. When it comes up, zoom in on it, and switch to Satellite view. You can end up with a satellite photo showing exactly where the cache is -- as close as you'd be able to tell with a GPS receiver in your hand. Just go out there and look around until you find it.

Also remember to decypher the hint on the cache listing.

I have found many geocaches and every single one that I found,
I found without a GPS. I used the information in the scrambled clue and my own knowledge of the park where the cache was located.


I don't like Geocaches. I find them Sloppy. --all that getting you to the correct spot and then you have to bushwack around until you find it stuff. Ugh.

But they appeal to people who like gadgets, these people, they like the whole trading items thing, they like their GPS, They are "HIGH TECH" with their travel bugs and such. They have big money behind them....Jeeps and Gramin etc. And they do put a bunch of money into their caches!! Do you guys know what an Ammo Container costs!!?? and all those Geocaching stickers that they put on them that they buy from the geocaching website. And they will start out with really cool trade items like DVD's and CD's and nice things until a bunch of "turn and burn" cachers come in and drop off all the dollar store junk. I give them credit for trying. It is just not my cup of tea.

I have had many of my stamps and boxes go missing due to Geocache problems. Unfortunately, Letterboxing is the sad stepsister of Geocaching. We are a little too "crunchy granola" with our hand-carved stamps and home-made logbooks. Those slick techno-geek geocachers will never take us seriously. They will take our cool stamp (maybe their mom can use it for her scrapbooking) and they will not look back.

-Amanda from Seattle

Quote

Unfortunately, Letterboxing is the sad stepsister of Geocaching.

my thought is that boxers are more sophisticated and refined!

Quote

We are a little too "crunchy granola" with our hand-carved stamps and home-made logbooks.

Maybe champaign drinking in the afternoon and granola eating for breakfast!

Quote

Those slick techno-geek geocachers will never take us seriously.

no-one can tell me that any store bought "prize" can compare to the art gallery that I call my logbook *wink*

six stars

I know what you mean. I did the same and there are close to the same number. That is why I haven't planted any LB in Xenia yet. I can't find a good spot that isn't already occupied. They have events here almost every weekend. I haven't looked for any yet, but they are there if I decide to. At least they are out there.

Hales Angels

I recently found a geocache while looking for a box. It wasn't hard to find I spotted it out of the corner of my eye while reading my clues on the trail. After I found the box I went back and signed the book in the cache just for giggles,I added TNLN. I've had a few cachers do this with one of my boxes. The ammo can was nearly full of basicly junk. I once thought about going the geocaching route before I started boxing, now after actually finding a cache.....I'll stick to boxing.

Shiloh

Quote

I added TNLN

and this means...????

night writer

Quote

I added TNLN

and this means...????

Took Nothing Left Nothing

Quote

Unfortunately, Letterboxing is the sad stepsister of Geocaching.

Oh no, no! I really liked a different definition I read a while back. Can't remember who posted it, so can't give proper credit. Here's the definition:

Geocaching is Letterboxing's artless cousin

Wisconsin Hiker

After all the drama with my missing 'EPoT: Houston Toad' stamp... I was a bit hesitant to hide my current series... however being teachable I checked out my plant sites on the geocache site... yes, I was appalled at how very many caches are out there! I actually saw that there was a cache in the very awesome (if I do say so myself) location I was planning on hiding a box.... so I decided to go out and find me a cache! It wasn't difficult at all without a GPS. I poked around through the dollar store trickets a bit mistified by the lure... signed the logbook=) and found a great home for my box a GOOD distance from the cache -just in case! This crash course has been very enlightening for me... but I'm still searching for the missing toad=( Big thanks to Kirbert for the help in this! Every student needs a knowledgable teacher!

~Queen Beeloved

Quote

The ammo can was nearly full of basicly junk. I once thought about going the geocaching route before I started boxing, now after actually finding a cache.....I'll stick to boxing.

Of course, many geocachers feel exactly the opposite, and don't see any point to walking away with only an ink image rather than any actual hardware.

I got in this game as an excuse to get outdoors and see places, and for that both geocaching and letterboxing work -- but I must admit that geocaching works better for this. I've gotten hooked on carving rubber stamps, though.

I never expected to care a whit for the trade items, since they are mostly junk and largely intended to be of interest to the 6-year-old crowd. However, I must admit I've found some pretty nifty stuff in geocaches! I actually found a hammer once, a pretty nice one, brand new with the packaging still on it. A friend of mine found a nice watch (cheap junk watches are more common). And for those of you interested in artistic expression, it's not uncommon to find homemade things of various sorts from jewelry to paperweights.

Quote

Quote

I added TNLN

and this means...????

Took nothing, left nothing. A common online log entry is TNLNSL, meaning "Took nothing, left nothing, signed log." You'll also see TFTC, which means "Thanks for the cache!" Remember, some of these guys are finding 30 caches a day, and you can end up writing a lot. The shorthand seems to work.

Another common trick is to write a paragraph about what you did today and copy the SAME paragraph into the logs for each and every cache you found.

There's no rule that says you even must document what you took and what you left. Some people just write about what kinda day they're having or whatever, and there's no telling what they took or what they left until you visit the cache.

WELL I do not own a GPS and after reading Kirbert's Google Earth sat image trick for finding them without GPS I figured I would check my area There is one located literally 250 feet from my backyard! and I never knew! I live butted up against a park and that is even closer than the letterbox I have planted in that park!!!!!! Oh the Horror! I might have to do something to retake the closest to my house hidden thing award. I need to get carving!!! Any who I am going to see if I can find it. It is in the middle of the woods so it could be difficult! I am going to have to use some step counting and other such things. The cache I am about to go after is "The McKinley Mall Overlook" (GCW2PE) If you go to the google maps satelite image and zoom all the way in I am the house directly to the right and down a LITTLE TAD . We have the garage with the big things in the driveway! one of which is a camper and the other is an old van my roomate used to have. So I guess the photo is about a year and a half old. It is funny to pick out your vehicles on maps taken from so far away. Any who I figured some might find it amusing to see how close this cache is to my house and I NEVER would have known! SO I am off to try to find it ! I will keep you all posted!
It's off to trapse through the mud!
ta ta for now as tigger would say!
chadams

My family started as cachers, and I'm the one who found boxing and moved that way. We do still occasionally cache, but in my very limited experience, they are mostly filled with McDonald's toys, mardi Gras beads and the like. Of course, as Kirbert says, sometimes you find a gem....and that's what I try to leave when we cache. My boys (and I), like to make polymer clay pendants, string them on hemp, and that's what we tend to leave as our contribution to a cache. I also strongly encourage my children to really look through the items and see what else is there. To pick something 'interesting' or 'different'. Sometimes they still choose the Happy Meal toy, and that's okay. But, generally, they choose some really cool items.

We've also taken the clear pop-out key rings from Micheals, put a little stamp on it (okay....so I can't stop the lber in me), and put a little note and yahoo addy on the other side. It's sort of an unofficial travelbot, and it's been fun to see where we might get an email from. They don't come often (maybe once every couple of months), but it's good for my children to see the kindness of strangers. Not to mention the geography lesson we make out of it! :-)

We do have a travelbot, but I haven't released it yet. Mainly because I keep forgetting to take it with me to put in a cache!

Personally, I prefer boxing. I like to more artistic aspect of it (which is why my plant count is close to my find count) as compared to geocaching. I like that, in theory, the clues lead you to the box, not to within a radius of the box (like caching). I like my little book of artsy-fartsy images, each of which tells a story.

Of course, I do have some caching stories too....like the time I put Ambesol on hubby's yellow jacket stings, because I was NOT turning around on the trail....

JPMcD

--all that getting you to the correct spot and then you have to bushwack around until you find it stuff. Ugh.

This weekend, as we were driving home from Thanksgiving with the family, my boyfriend and I decided to stop at Jekyll Island to hunt the many boxes there. While hunting, we came across a couple playing with a beepy gadget and looking around confusedly. Then my boyfriend heard them say the word "geocache."

We stopped and discreetly watched them for a while. It was a little disheartening--they were so obvious about it! The woman was having a loud conversation with another group of geocachers who had walked up--practically shouting trail names and talking about how hard the caches were to find. The man, all the while, was tramping through the woods nearby quite loudly.

Maybe we're just as obvious when we box--I realize that sometimes you get excited and forget to be casual and discreet. But I personally make it a point not to make a ruckus off-trail, not only because its obvious to non-boxers, but also because it probably means tearing up the landscape at the same time.

I learned about letterboxing through a podcast on geocaching. I knew right away which one was for me and which wasn't. That's not to say I have anything against the idea of geocaching. But come on, people, can't you be a little quieter?

"But they appeal to people who like gadgets, these people, they like the whole trading items thing, they like their GPS, They are "HIGH TECH" with their travel bugs and such. They have big money behind them....Jeeps and Gramin etc. And they do put a bunch of money into their caches!! Do you guys know what an Ammo Container costs!!?? and all those Geocaching stickers that they put on them that they buy from the geocaching website. And they will start out with really cool trade items like DVD's and CD's and nice things until a bunch of "turn and burn" cachers come in and drop off all the dollar store junk. I give them credit for trying. It is just not my cup of tea."

The difference between geocaching and letterboxing is exactly the difference between internet pre and post aol. Prior to aol, you're only chance of having internet access was thru your college computer account. Most colleges at least gave you the basics to cruising the internet, delivering e-mail and participating in chat-rooms. Then along comes AoL with cheap technology available to everyone, no instructions required, just pay your fee to AoL and surf the net.

Letterboxing requires that you read the rules on how the game works, solve the puzzle, carve your own stamp, acquire a logbook and go hunting. With Geocache, it's pay the fee (buy the GPS), fill your pockets with Happy Meal toys and surf the woods. No instructions required. And it's strictly a numbers count to them. There's no distinction between a great cache and a bad one, they're all the same.

IMNSHO, YMMV -- Dagonell the Pirate

Quote

Oh the Horror! I might have to do something to retake the closest to my house hidden thing award. I need to get carving!!!

hehehe
let us know what you carve ;)

ok after an hour and a half of trapesing back and forth over the same stretch of land, I am sad to report I have found nothing. I locked in all the spots my letterboxing senses told me to. In the roots of trees, next to logs, under "random" piles of sticks, etc.. etc.. I have nothing and quite frankly am a bit ticked off. I have no idea where to find this thing. How big is an "ammo container" ? I imagine it has to be bigger than most letterboxes to fit these "trinkets" so I imagine it should stand out more than a letter box. How accurate are those arrows on Google maps attelite images? If they are right on which I assume that they are, then I am completely stumped. This is frustrating any thoughts before I mail the placer?
thanks
chadams

Okay...size of can....it's pretty big. Here's a link of my kids with some of the cans we've found, to give you an idea of size and what one looks like.

http://www.atlasquest.com/gallery/viewalbum.html?gAlbumId=207

Also, thinking like a lber is good, but think bigger.

I've also used a stick with a metal tip to 'ping' the can. It helps, because sometimes you just miss it when poking with a stick.

Doing a search radius, and expanding that radius gradually is the best way in general to work, if you're not really sure.

I'll go back and look at the cache in question, and see if I can offer any more hints.

Jenni P McD

So was that an average size cache or large?
thank you for the photos
ss

Thanks! That was pretty large! So I am assuming Cachers Don't abide by the "no digging" rule? that might make a difference.
hmm...
I await your next post!
thanks again for the info so far!
chadams

ok now I am thinking even more.... How buried do they usually make it? I mostly focused looking around trees and other such covering but it could theoretically be right out in the open just buried? under sticks ? leaves? I suppose actually having a GPS would make things easier but I am one poor boy :-( oh well I tried using the edge of my neighbors house and the edge of the basketball court in the google sat image to hone in on the correct location. But that is going on the fact that the arrow is spot on... hmm....
chadams

Okay. Digging to hid is still pretty much a no-no. The idea is to use natural cover. The hole you saw covered with bark was actually a natural hole created by some water run off from downed trees. I promise. :-) They had some tornados during Hurricane Katrina, and all those downed trees were in a St. park, so the forestry service isn't in a hurry to move them, since they're 'natural'.

Anyway, the cache YOU'RE working on is a multi-stage. THink a letterbox with a bonus box, but you find the bonus FIRST, and the 'real' box second. The first caches in the series are usually smaller, and the last cache is the larger. Somewhere in that first cache is the coords for the big tamale, or how to get to it.

So, to find the first cache, go back to thinking like a boxer, because it's probably a piece of tupperware. Of course, it may even be an altoid tin painted black (I've found em) or something like that. My suggestion is to go back to where the coords SAY you're supposed to be, start there, and look VERY CAREFULLY in a 10 ft circle. Don't forget to think UP and down (often one of my biggest mistakes).

I couldn't find any real spoilers in the logs to help much, so I can't really offer more than that. Other than there's some MAJOR brush at an overlook obscuring a view of the mall. Does that make sense?

Good Luck!

Jenni P McD

That's an average size ammo can. They're are some actually bigger than that! However, that's pretty much the traditional size used for caching.

However, caches can be ANY size, and I added a few more pictures to the album so you can see.

Ok Thanks alot! That is ssome good advice! I thought that there would be two equally sized containers! I was looking for something pretty big! I still can;t believe I didn;t stumble across the tupperware or whatever it is cause I looked pretty thourougly (although appherently not enough). Now I am on a mission. I was just wandering around without without a GPS So i decided to call in reinforcements My buddy who owns a GPS is going to stop over later! Oh yeah This box doesn't stand a chance!!!
I appreciate all the help.
It was very useful!
It feels wierd to be back to feeling like a newbie again, asking a million questions and such.



chadams

crazy! I appreciate all the pictures! It was a big help to see them. It gives me a better understanding of the hobby.
chadams

Quote

The difference between geocaching and letterboxing is exactly the difference between internet pre and post aol. Prior to aol, you're only chance of having internet access was thru your college computer account. Most colleges at least gave you the basics to cruising the internet, delivering e-mail and participating in chat-rooms. Then along comes AoL with cheap technology available to everyone, no instructions required, just pay your fee to AoL and surf the net.

I suppose this is a good analogy, I just don't happen to agree with the characterization of AOL. I was online from home before AOL ever existed, and don't see why anyone ever paid them a cent. Neither do most other users I know. But, that's off-topic.

Quote

There's no distinction between a great cache and a bad one, they're all the same.

Boy, is THAT wrong! Clearly you haven't done much geocaching!

Okay.....I know I run a major risk of getting flamed on here for saying this, but caching CAN be fun. Well placed, well thought out caches can be an interesting challenge. And, I think the idea of 'buried treasure' appeals to the latent pirate in many of us.

My boys LOVE the hunt. They're actually better hunters than I am. I'm the nose to the grindstone on the trail one. I will hike and hike and hike without a break, because I want to GET THERE....lol

Anyway, my three biggest suggestions would be these:

1. Make sure you input the coords correctly. Yes, I know, but believe me, double check them. Even one little number off by one on the end can make a big difference in your search area (ask me how I know this....lol)

2. Remeber that GPS is a tool. Sometimes the BEST tool is your gut. If it doesn't "feel right" (you've got to know that feeling from boxing), then it's probably not. Back up, or take a break, or turn around and 'do it over'.

3. If you don't get dirty, stung, bitten, muddy, chigger-bitten, scratched or infected, you haven't done something right. :-)

Quote

ok after an hour and a half of trapesing back and forth over the same stretch of land, I am sad to report I have found nothing.

That means you need to log a DNF on geocaching.com. Lots of geocachers don't, since they are ashamed of being unable to find a cache I guess, but DNF's are very helpful. They tell other cachers that this cache may be difficult to find, and they tell the owner that the cache may have gone missing.

Of course, in your DNF log you probably should mention trying to find it without a GPS receiver.

You know, it may actually be missing. You might want to try finding a couple of other geocaches before giving up on the process. You might try finding one or two in which the hiding place is more evident in the satellite image.

Quote

How accurate are those arrows on Google maps attelite images?

Actually, they're notoriously inaccurate, by amounts around 30 feet! Has to do with the maps themselves, somebody had to match the maps to the coordinates and that hasn't always been too accurate. But if you have a GPS receiver in your hand, they're not always all that accurate either! Especially under dense tree cover. In fact, often dense tree cover causes the placer's GPS to give bad data and the coordinates listed on the cache listing end up off a bit.

I found one cache where the coords were 150 feet off -- but the only reason I found it was because somebody else had found it and told us that the coords were 150 feet off and gave us a good hint about which direction. Often a finder will list "corrected coords" in his find listing if the original coords are too far off.

One good story I heard recently: Some guy planted a cache somewhere that wasn't too far from a building. The reviewer (all geocache listings are reviewed prior to posting) looked up the location on the Google maps and it showed as being on TOP of the building. He refused to authorize the posting because geocachers shouldn't have to climb on somebody's roof to find a cache. The placer said it wasn't on the roof, that's a Google inaccuracy error -- but the reviewer still refused to approve it. Some of the reviewers are real goobers.

Crazy...lol...yeah...so was some of the places I found them....

Like inside the light housing in a parking lot in front of a shopping center (that's the plastic one GLB is holding). That one was fun, because timing was essential (obviously) as was the fact you had to figure out were the stinkin' thing was, and there WASN"T any dirt or trees or grass within 30 ft...lol