FIRST FIND!!!

YEA!! We've finally done it. Today we found 3 geocaches! We went 3 for 3.

Our first ever geocache was a huge UTZ's clear plastic container. We parked as close as we could get to the cache in a small parking lot across from the local ski hill. Behind us were people skiing, ahead lies a snow covered trail and adventure. We took our bearings and off we went. Our first problem was not being pepared to walk in the snow and mud. We had too many extras that we didn't want to leave in the car, so we toted them along with us. NEW RULE: take a pack and leave the extra's at home!
We found this first cache easily as we already had the clue that it was hidden in a hollow tree. I spotted this tree from about 50 yards away. The big cache was full of goodies and toys which we left behind. We signed the log the headed back to the Toyota for our next search.

The second search was rated a bit harder. We found the general area with no trouble. It was near a small airated lake with lots of brush. We searched for about 30 minutes before we got cold and decided to warm up. Back in the car we had a small snack and retook our bearings. After a short 15 minute warm up we were off again on the search. This time it only took about 5 minutes to locate a small container about thte size of a film can. The container was wrapped in camo tape and placed near the base of a willow tree. It was between the first branches and the base of the tree.
We logged the book and left in search of cache number 3.

The third cache was in the woods of a small park just a few miles from our home. We parked in a residential area then hoofed the 1/4 mile to the immeadiate area. We took a bearing and headed directly through a wods of small trees. Because we went the rough way I spotted the cache before I had time to take a second bearing. This was pure luck and in no way reflects our skill in geocaching. All in all we had great fun, got some well needed exercise and fresh air.

handheld & first search

Well the handheld unit arrived. Most times it works with about a 18 foot accuracy, this may not be enough to find caches.

This fear may have been proved true on the first search. Sandie and I went to Dubuque, Iowa to search for what was rated the easiest of searches ( a 1/1). We spent about 30 minutes looking near a boat ramp for a pill bottle with a log book. We never found it. It may not have been there since it had been hidden 2 years ago. I will try to contact the person that hid the cache to see if he knows if it is still there.

Newbie Geocacher

Alright, for her birthday recently I purchased a Garmin C530 GPS unit for my wife. I got a great price on the discontinued model. So far we love it. It's easy to use and gets us to our locations fast. One of the cool aspects of the 530 ( maybe other GPS's too ) is that you can find most local buisnesses by just clicking on them from a list... ie: restaurant>mexican>jose's. We really like that feature and expect it to guide us to some new and interesting places.

After purchasing the unit we discovered there is an activity called geocaching. Geocaching is a sport where you search for items ( usually a log book and a small token) with your GPS. These geocaches have been hidden on public land by other people interested in the sport. When you find the geocache, you sign the log book, take the token, and leave a new token. Then you put the geocache back in place. You can find the LAT/ LON (position)of these geocaches online.

After hearing about the sport we became interested to the point that we want to try it. My wife and I are not strangers to the outdoors. We spend much of our free time birding. In addition I'm very experienced with mapping and navigation.

Our first hurdle was realizing that our GPS does not give us LAT/ LON cooridnants. While we can enter the point we are looking for into the GPS via software on a PC we have no way to manually enter a point and search for the cache. This led us to the purchase of a handheld GPS. After searching EBAY I found a refurbished Garmin ETREX Legend. This is also a discontinued unit but we expect it to fill our needs. I've spent many hours the last few days reading the owners manual online so I somewhat understand this complicated unit. It has the ability to provide us with a ton of information.