Geocaching?

[Coys1882]

Just so you know - most caches are 'take something, leave something' even something simple like a toy car or a keyring. We usually just sign the logsheet and move onto the next.

[saskflames69]

There was one 50 feet east of my house, or right across the street. It had an eraser in it. I left it because it was too easy.

[missdpuck]

Yeah, it's great. It's helped draw people to some of the underused/"unknown" Natural Areas purchased by the County over the years.

[prarieboy]

Originally Posted by JonDuke

So, what's the coolest thing you have found doing this?
Day 1 and I'm gonna have to go with the mini slinky.

Bud Light Lime Beer Koozies

[Wood]

Me and my girlfriend love it. We camp and go out of the city weekly so we've seen quite a few

I agree that some of the inner city ones can be lame, but there's still a lot of great and creative ones in Calgary. Fish Creek and the Glenmore resivoir/Heritage Park area come to mind

We have a Garmin GPS but rarely use it unless we need to. We mostly use our smartphones with the geocaching app

[boosterjuice]

I just discovered this yesterday and told my kids about it. They have been obsessing over this and couldn't wait to go geocaching. Took them this morning and we found our fist cache. This is an amazing family activity.

[old-fart]

It is a lot of fun. Kids and I really enjoy it. The wife isn't as excited about it, but the kids think it is a blast. Pretty cheap activity too ... Our handheld device was a couple hundy and we have gotten hours and hours of fun out of it.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

My old Garmin GPS is not "paperless" - can I use a smart phone in concert with this for all the "details" to make up for this where there is no/poor reception?

[boosterjuice]

I use the iPhone app

[firebug]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

My old Garmin GPS is not "paperless" - can I use a smart phone in concert with this for all the "details" to make up for this where there is no/poor reception?

Like booster above, I use the iPhone app along with my garmin.

The app now has the capability to save cache descriptions, hints, etc for 'offline' use so that you can still refer to that info when you are outside of cellular coverage.

Also, both Waterton and Banff national parks have geocaching lists that provide a 'reward' once a certain number of caches have been found. The Waterton geocoin is quite nice.

Our family is 'gorebug' if you want to follow along.

[Tyler]

Did this in Bridgeland for the first time yesterday - surprisingly it was a ton of fun!

Any good recommendations on FREE iPhone apps that don't have trial periods?

[Northendzone]

My son and I tried this activity for a while, but we then found it so competitive that I signed him up for minor hockey instead.......

[cavalera403]

My girlfriend got me into this in October when we were in Seattle and have been having a blast with it since. We have used it on several vacations as a semi tour guide to get us out of the tourist traps. In Hawaii we learned lots of cool interesting facts and even met some locals that showed us some public beach access areas the we had big chunks of beach all to ourselves.

I had been using the iPhone app and think it is awesome but for one flaw. It isn't very accurate. If you are looking for something smaller than a thumbnail in an area of plus or minus 5 meters and it is 4 meters off you are out of luck. For most urban caches it's ok but I would look into a garmin etrex 10 or etrex 20. You can use the GPS from your car as long as you can remove it and take it with you. ( not built in) I recommend spending the ten bucks on the app because like someone said you can save offline lists and have all of the info, map and sometimes helpful pictures.

It's fun and has been showing me places in the city I had no clue they were there and I have lived here my whole life.

One last thing that if you go to the geocaching website every once in a while there are meet ups and it is a good place to get tips on how to make the experience more enjoyable and meet some people who are really into the game.


Now off to another section of the city to find something new!

[firebug]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Did this in Bridgeland for the first time yesterday - surprisingly it was a ton of fun!

Any good recommendations on FREE iPhone apps that don't have trial periods?

Spend the $10.

You don't really need any of the additional benefits the $30 annual membership costs (unless you get really serious about it, and then it may be worthwhile).

Really, there's not much cost to this otherwise and it can provide hours of fun. The Groundspeak Geocaching app ties you into the largest database of geocaches in the globe and you can mark things from your browser and integrate them into you handheld GPS or iPhone.

[Clarkey]

Thanks for the comments on Groundspeak.

What is the latest and greatest for Apps (preferably free or low cost)?

[cavalera403]

I am currently sitting in my hotel room in Seattle waiting for tomorrow and the block party Celebrating 15 years of geocaching. The free app for iPhone is still the best but for the full 10 bucks you get everything you need and can find all the cache types