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The one thing you absolutely must take with you is your common sense. I'm constantly amazed at the number of people that leave home without it. It doesn't matter how much gear you have, if you aren't using your brain 1st, you are just asking for trouble.
Geocaching involves risk. There are many variables including weather, your level of fitness, the terrain, your level of outdoor experience, and others, that must be taken into account before you place or hunt a cache. Be prepared for your journey and be sure to check the current weather and conditions at your destination before heading outdoors. Use your head. This is a game, not an entry to the Darwin Awards.
One of the first things I found is that I need a compass to home in on the cache quicker. You can do it with just the GPS, but it takes longer, sometimes A LOT longer. I use a rather simple Brunton compass, nothing electronic, nothing fancy. I even carry maps (yes, paper maps!) for most of my hikes. My old GPSR eats batteries pretty quickly, so if I'm out for several hours, I will just turn it on once in awhile, get a good position, and mark it on the map with a pencil. That way, I don't need several spare battery sets (I do need at least one, remember the bit about being prepared?) and if I am lost, it won't take me long to get unlost, since I have marks on the map of where I've recently been.
Another handy tip: Use the GPS to get you within "compass range" of the cache. That is, when you are down to trying to follow a shifting bearing on your GPS. If you've done it, you know what I mean. Set the GPS to reference magnetic north and set your compass declination adjustment to zero. Stand in one place, read the bearing/distance off the GPS. Follow that heading on your compass until you have gone the distance you read from the GPS. Stop and take another reading with the GPS. Repeat until you have the distance down to nothing or have found the cache. I tried this a couple of times and once I was standing right beside the cache before I found it. |
As cachers become better and better at hiding, it becomes harder and harder to find them. There is a point in the hunt where you have to stop looking at the gps and start looking at the ground, or under the rocks, or in the trees, etc. We spent almost an hour finding the cache on Mt. Tam because we kept trying to make the gps lead us right to the cache. They can get you to about 5-8 feet if you are patient and keep approaching the cache from different directions, but after that you have to turn the thing off and start looking. Think like a cacher and look for good hiding places around you.
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