This geocache blog post is about a review of 3 common types of units to use to find geocaches – Garmin, Blackberry, and iPhone and which one is the best geocaching GPS for you. In the past few weeks I’ve used each of these units to find geocaches and am providing my geocacher review on them.
Summary
- Garmin Colorado 400t Unit the foundational tool for geocachers with great GPS accuracy, hide information, and fantastic features like “turn by turn driving directions to your next geocache”, but requires uploading queries and downloading finds that add an extra step the wireless devices no longer need. I still would take this one out for when I know I’m going geocaching (weekends, vacations…)
- Blackberry Trimble Geocache Navigator Application if you have the blackberry, worth adding this for those “wonder if there are any geocaches around here” moments. But as any wireless device – depends on being in an area where there is a signal. It does upload the log information straight away vs. just posting a field note which is what the iPhone does.
- iPhone Groundspeak Geocaching Application same comment as Blackberry for those ”wonder if there are any geocaches around here” moments and signal issues. But this is made by Geocaching.com and has some offline capabilities that makes this better for me than the Blackberry app.
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Garmin Colorado 400t
Here’s the link to Garmin’s store about this tool.
COST $599
I bought this one when I started geocaching just over 1 year ago. It was the newest release at that time and had special features for geocaching – like including the hints and the past 5 logs automatically.
When I bought the driving maps in addition (yes, that’s how they make money) for a trip to Europe – I discovered a whole new fantastic aspect of the Garmin tool for Geocaching. The “we’ll give you turn by turn driving instructions to get to your next cache” feature. This stopped a lot of those navigating arguments straight away and made geocaching so much more fun when we were driving to areas of geocaches….
as I get more experienced and use wireless devices, this tool will start to get outdated. I don’t want to have to spend the time and steps I do now. Mainly the posting of the logs on to Geocaching.com after I have geocached. The wireless devices can send the information “Live” so it’s done.
An excellent review from fellow geocacher and hiker Calpidder, another from GPS magazine on this unit, and a blog review for hand held devices.
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Blackberry Trimble Geocache Navigator Application
Here’s the link to Trimble about this application.
COST $5.99 per month (but FREE trial for 60 days available)
I tried this out for a week and loved the features and functionalities. It had a good interface, was easy to use, logged the caches straight away (the step I least like to do). But is is slow to load up and find – I had my Garmin out and loaded and found a couple of caches before the Trimble app had found local geocaches…
Worth trying out with the free trial…we had issues trying to download on 2 types of blackberries and had to call for support (not a good message for a little application)
I’ll refer to HeadHardHat’s review as he went over much of the good and bad ad was super thorough about it. He even has his classic GeoSnippet video tutorials to help you along if you use this tool.
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iPhone Geocaching Application
Here’s the link to Geocaching.com about this tool.
COST $9.99
I just added this application last week and planned to go out for a geocaching day on Friday July 3rd with the tool. But that was the fateful day of the Fisher Fire (Here’s the geocachers updates on this) that brought down the servers for the Geocaching site – and the downside of an app that relies on the Internet was shown.
But the servers were up the next day and July 4th was the big geocache day (30+ in 1 day!)and we used the iPhone app. The navigating part is not so good – hard to know where to go, how far away you are.. But the details of the geocache are great including an inventory of any Travel bugs! So you can target finding these. And the ability to post a field not live is super great! At the end of the day I still had to go online and load them up – but was simply a click of a button vs having to remember information about each geocache find.
The tool can take a little while to find local caches – but less than the Blackberry Trimble – and you can alos access your pocket queries so do ‘offline’ caching from your iPhone – another big plus!
Summary – not yet ready to go 100% iPhone but see this as a great partnering tool when the hubby and I are out together. we can each have a tool that adds a different aspect to our fun.
Here is a link to reviews about other iPhone geocache applications from “Let’s Go Geocaching” – did not even know there were others. I’m sticking with GroundSpeak as it ties to my account. And $10 is not a lot for a one-time fee for the great interactions it has.
Update October 2010 – The best geocaching GPS market is growing strong with the iPhone app vastly improved, new GPS units from Garmin like the Oregon, and the Android Geocaching app entering the market.
Tags: Geocache Adventures, geocache app, geocache blog, geocache garmin, geocaching gps review, geocaching tools, iphone geocache
This geocache blog post shares the trip to Chicago for a conference and squeezing in some geocaching around the city. Especially when business is in a new state as the aim is to find a geocache in every state.
I started my taking a map of Chicago – looking at the tourist sites – and matching those to where Geocaches were – circling the spots that were walkable from my base hotel.
I then went out and had some fun! Here are some of geocaches I found and recommend:
Navy Pier was a fun place to go, a few geocaches in the area in walking distance.
I had a few DNFs (Did Not Find) on the day – so a little sad because I can’t just go back the next day.
GCHG28 – Navy Pier Micro
GCJYAE – Chicago History 102 – Milton’s Last Mission Multi Cache
GC1PPOX – Gate to The Illinois Waterway
Chicago Water Tower
This was in the middle of the shopping district and with the sales on it was hard to keep my attention on either. Went into a store and then went for a geocache….perhaps that is the perfect combination?
I enjoyed the virtual cache which had a bonus webcam geocache!
GCMDAX – Chicago Water Tower Virtual Cache
Tags: chicago geocache, Geocache Adventures, webcam, webcam geocache
Was at Torrey Pines State Reserve to complete a nice walk at the beach and a couple of EarthCaches. Along the walk there was an unusual object on the beach – have seen a seal on occasion – but his was much larger – and the shape made it odd to determine what it was. Is it the San Diego version of the Montauk Monster?
Interested in knowing more about EarthCache geocaches? This blog entry talks about the certificate levels and this is an example of an Earthcache in Zimbabwe, Africa.
Tags: animals, earthcache, Geocache Adventures, montauk monster, san diego geocache
Adding the second puzzle to the 4 week series I’m setting. This one is easy and can be done at the location.
The 4th cache will be based on the prior 3 and blog posts here…
Disclaimer: All caches will be located in Southern California
Puzzle #1 Blog Entry Geocache – Kings & Queens of England – GC1PZ7D
Puzzle #2 Geocache – Kings & Queens Of England - GC1QPYF
Queen Mary I of England 
MARY I (Bloody Mary) 1553 – 1558
Daughter of HENRY VIII and Catherine of Aragon. A devout Catholic, she married Philip of Spain. Mary attempted to enforce the wholesale conversion of England to Catholicism. She carried this out with the utmost severity. The Protestant bishops, Latimer, Ridley and Archbishop Cranmer were among those burnt at the stake. The place, in Broad Street Oxford, is marked by a bronze cross. The country was plunged into a bitter blood bath, which is why she is remembered as Bloody Mary. She died in 1558 at Lambeth Palace.
Use these clues for the coordinates:
1. Mary was born in “ABCD”
2. Daughter of Henry “E”
Final Coordinates are:
N D2 C4.EAB
W AA7 AD.67E
Cache is a small camo’d sized container hidden a few feet off the path. Room for small trade items and travel bugs. BYOP.
FTF is $1 – spend wisely…
This geocache blog post focuses on a Geocache Puzzle of the Week #2 – Kings & Queens of England – Mary I
Tags: geocache blog, geocache puzzle
I have come to prefer visiting nature from the luxury of a hotel room and not to camp. We went on a mini-break to Palm Springs over the Memorial Weekend and there was a Visitor center off the highway. It also had a geocacher – so how could we resist?
It stated it was on a nice peaceful walk….but for me I met a little too much of the local animal life too soon on the visit. We met a snake, a running bird (road runner?), and a big lizard eating a smaller lizard. Just a little too much in that hot weather and I shamefully / proudly (omit word as telling the story to peers or the truth) to screaming and running away! hee hee….
Still found the geocache – so was worth it?!
This geocache blog post focused on Palm Springs geocaching.
Tags: animals, geocache blog, palm springs geocaching, vacation
I am still on the learning trail of Puzzle Geocaches. Some can be quick and easy, whilst others are rock hard!!
So putting out a series of blog posts highlighting Geocache Puzzles – solve the series highlighted in the blog posts…..and I’ll publish a new cache at the end.
Disclaimer: All caches will be located in Southern California
Puzzle #1 – Kings & Queens of England – GC1PZ7D
Puzzle Details from Geocache Site
A puzzle cache to celebrate the monarchy of our homeland – England. Should not be too hard to find the answers, but likely not when you are out in the field.
1. Number of wives that King Henry VIII had = A
2. Month that Harold II died =X? B=X-3
3. Queen Elizabeth I almost died of smallpox in 156Y. C=Y+1
4. How many children did Queen Victoria have = Z? D = Z-3
Cache is locate at coordinates:
N 32 54.AB1
W 117 13.CD1
Cache is a micro cache with room for a log only. Bring your own pen.
Congrats to PQGeoTrekkers for FTF
This geocache blog post is about getting a FTF….
Wow – I always envied those other geocachers that had a FTF – wondered if we would ever get one. Knew that I did not scour the listings every minute – and was more of a weekend geocacher – so thought it was never to be. Well after we attended the World Wide Flash Mob V Geocacher Event (WWFM V) – we were wiped out and went home.
The next day I pulled a list of local caches and saw a brand new one. It was a puzzle cache (which I’m trying to get better at) and noticed that it said “tweet”. Was this something to do with Twitter?
Started a little search and found Part 1 – of course then I was hooked. I Twittered that I was on the path, and then stumbled onto the final location – hooray! It was sooo exciting but also nerve-wracking….would someone else also be on the way at the same time?
We rushed to the cache and were the FTF!! So we got the honor of writing “FTF” (First to Find) on the log sheet and anywhere else we choose to write about it….how cool! And our FFTF (can I trademark that a a new acronym?)
Interested to find this cache too? It’s A Little Birdy Told Me - GC1QWCV
This geocache blog post is about our first ever flash mob event….
I enjoy geocaching as a couple – and always wondered about other geocachers – but never really went to the next step of meeting others.
Well, the weekly email update from Geocache provides a list of events that are local and was seeing this event called “World Wide Flash Mob Event V – San Diego Old Town” over time and it just drew my curiosity. As the time grew closer – I decided to go and attend the event.
The event sounded so interesting – in 15 minutes you would:
- Meet other geocachers
- Trade items
- Sign the geocache log
- Do a bit of CITO (Cache in Trash Out)
- Eat with fellow geocachers (or should I say “kiss” them)
- Leave in a organized fashion and carry on with your day leaving the people around you dazed and confused…
We both attended the event and it was really fun!!! Met someone that works at the same place too – small world indeed!
Tags: Geocache Adventures, geocache blog, geocache event, geocache flash mob, san diego geocache
ooooh, it’s always felt a bit nerve wracking to hide a geocache – so I put it off for so long. This geocache blog post is about hiding a geocache string of hides.
I eventually tried it out with one a few months ago and it seems to have had a good response.
Well, we were off to Palm Springs for a couple of days and whilst driving in the dessert we saw there there was long area that had no geocaches. It is not often that you see this happen – so we took the opportunity and decided to place a series called “Dessert in the Desert”
Any geocache we place we like to keep a British theme to celebrate our British heritage – so this theme was based on desserts from England – a bit about their history and why they are so yummy. Perhaps inspire a few people to make a British dessert….
Here’s the bookmark for the series if you are interested….Dessert in the Desert
Tags: desert dessert geocache series, geocache blog, geocache hides, palm springs geocaching
This geocache blog post is about the geocache I found at the weekend called “It’s not a bomb” and in the description it talks about a recent event where someone found an object and called the police about a bob threat….which lead to the bomb squad being called out! The looks on their faces when they realized it was just a geocache. You can guess that that geocache was retired (and muggled) and they placed a replacement.
The event even made the local news which I thought was hilarious! But is does make me think that this has probably happened elsewhere….heard of any?
Here’s the article, which you can also read online.
Geocache Bomb Threat
Tags: Geocache Adventures, geocache blog, geocache bomb threat, geocaching history
