GeoCaching Get your fanny out of that chair!
Last Modified: Saturday, 11-Sep-2004 16:33:50 PDT

• Canned Ham
  Combining GeoCaching and Amateur Radio
  An ongoing project to create a Geocache with an Amateur beacon
• Urban Caches
  Hiding in plain sight
  I have a thing for Altoids tins.
• I Love L.A. (Now That I've Moved Out) Geocache
  A Virtual Geocache
  Find LA in your own backyard!

Ah, if it was only that simple.

I got hooked on this fairly recently, mostly the result of my good friend Dave reminding me about it. So, one evening we went to look for one. We found it, and I was hooked.

So, after I've spent a few days searching for (and, as a general rule, finding them), I'm going to start hiding them myself. But a bit more on that later.

So, if you are vaguely interested in wandering around the desert looking for paint cans with toys in them, you might want to read the FAQ they helpfully provide. Then, go to their main page, type in your zip code, poke in the coordinates into your GPS reciever, and start looking.

What, you don't HAVE a GPS reciever? You should get one. Good ones (like the Garmin eTrex Legend can be had for around $250. If all you want is to play around, an inexpensive Garmin or Magellean reciever can be had for around $120. Most of the higher end ones allow you to upload maps from a PC.

After you've found your first one and logged it on their website, you'll probably want to assemble something of a ready to go kit for Geocaching. This is especially handy for the more remote locations. Those of you who hike (or were Boy/Girl Scouts as a kid) probably know all this. Anyway, here's what I carry:

• A clipboard (with the printouts of the caches I'm looking for)
• A pen, and usually an extra golf pencil (in case the pencil in the cache is broken or gone, I leave it behind)
• Extra batteries for your GPS reciever
• an FRS radio
• a basic first-aid kit
  Your first aid kit should have, minimally: an assortment of band-aids, a few alochol wipes, pain reliever, moleskin
• a bottle of water
• a change of socks (especially if it involves a fairly lengthy hike)
• a pocketknife
• local maps
  The more detailed, the better. For the really remote locations, topo maps are invaluable.
• trashbags

Yes, trashbags. Often times, these caches are left in places that have more than their fair share of garbage. So, if you seek 'em out, please do everyone a favor and carry out some trash. "Cache in, trash out!"

So that's the general scoop.

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