Father and daughter just starting out

WGA Member Joined: 2009-04-25 Posts: 4

Hello to all, I am fairly new to Geocaching. Having only done some Geocaching a few times, about ten years ago, with my daughter. My daughter brought the subject up during one of those “do you remember when” conversations; this sparked a renewed interest. A friend whom I kayak with, mentioned your web site, and suggested that I check it out.
I own an entry level GPS which is a Garmin Etrex that I use for when I am out kayaking. I thought I would take this opportunity to ask how do members select a Geocache to look for. I have to admit that I am not real familiar with navigating this web site, but hope to get a lot more practice in the coming future.
Sorry about the rather unimaginative nick name, I’ll try to think of something a little more creative soon.
Embarassed

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:32 am

Welcome DON!
I started by looking in the Hide and Seek a Cache, and entered my zip code. That's all it took to find the nearest 100 caches to home. Since I was rehabbing from knee surgery, I used the stars (*) for difficulty/terrain to ease into it.
If you start with a 4 or 5 * cache, you will get frustrated fast! But if your daughter is with you, you will learn the "ropes" twice as fast.

Have fun! Very Happy

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:50 pm

Welcome aboard DON!

What area of the state are you in? Maybe we can give a few suggestions on caches in that area to try.

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 8:34 pm

Welcome to the WGA! I use the zip code method under hide and seek caches, or if I am looking in a city I know, I use the street name, city, and state in the address box of hide and seek caches. It was recently mentioned in the forums to use the bookmark listings. I have yet to try that, but others who have way more finds than I do have posted these, so that is another way to go.

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:45 pm

Welcome to the cult Don. If you have a lot of patience and a police scanner, you can always wait for the bomb squad to get called. All joking aside, I go by the zip code of the area that I want to cache in.

I believe that there are a bunch of new cemetery hides in Reedsburg put by Gr8Eyes.

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:14 pm

Hey DON, welcome to the sport and the WGA.

looks like there are 4-5 other cachers in the REEDSBERG area that may be able to give you a hand on the local caches. you could private message(PM) them from here or from the www.geocaching.com site.
you can find out what their caching names are from the "members list" link on the left of the page here. you can also check for other members from nearby cities too.

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 7:30 am

Welcome to the addiction!

You have a very reliable little piece of equipment in that Legend. We have been using ours for over 4 years now and the only problems we have had was with the user.

We recently converted over to paperless because the legend doesn't have all those fancy features that newer units have for storing descriptions and hints. Going with a printout for the cache from GC.com is always a good start. Load the coords into the unit by hand or directly through the serial port and hit the trails.

Have fun and remember to protect yourself from all the nasty little things that are starting to come out now.

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 9:11 pm

hi, DON. Are you the same DON that posts on Russ' kayaking web site? If so, we have paddled together a couple of times, most recently last fall on the Wisconsin River starting at the Dells.

WGA Member Joined: 2009-04-25 Posts: 4

I wanted to say thank you for all the advice and the warm welcome. My daughter and I found our first cache at Mirror Lake yesterday. I believe that my daughter is hooked. She’s already planning our next outing.
Kabraband, yes, I am the same “Don” that post on Russ’s web site. It’s good to hear from you. It’s nice to find a fellow kayaker. One of the caches that I am looking forward to is on an island in the Yellow river near Necedah. I thought it would be nice to be able to combine the two activities.