Covering the Geocaching Bare the excitement of treasure hunting with your family. Stretch your imagination and keep excited about the 250,000 active caches or treasures in over 200 countries that are waiting for you to discover. A few months after May 2000, when the Clinton administration lifted the limitation of selective availability in the way the GPS satellites were configured, Jeremy Irish built a web site called Geocaching.com. A new sport was born. The object of geocaching is to find caches or treasures hidden in different locations all over the world and then logging your find on the Geocaching.com web site. The cache usually contains any widget of some sort as well as a log book for you to record your find.

This article will go right into:

• How to start geocaching
• How to find your way back to the car
• Recording your treasures or caches on the Geocaching.com web site

Geocaching Has Never Been Easier

Your first step on your treasure hunting adventures is to look for cache by first going to www.Geocaching.com and find, "search for caches". Once you're there, type neither your: zip code, country or state. You'll see a list of caches in your area. Next, choose the cache you want, download the cache information onto your Pocket PC. After that, load this information on to your navigation software. You are now ready for your high-tech treasure hunting adventure.

Geocachers use mapopolis (www.mapopolis.com) to drive to the location where the caches are. What's nice about this mapopolis is that you get a voice to guide you turn by turn giving you the exact and precise directions of where the treasure is located. It would be a good idea to go to: http://www.kudzumonthly.com/mapopolis/GPXtoMAPLET.zip, the utility lets you convert GPX files to mapopolis maplet files. This way you make your life easier to get your cache site.

At the arrival point of the cache site, load Beeline GPS on your Pocket PC. The screen will show the caches in your current position. Now that you are on the map screen, tap onto the cache and select Go to Waypoint. Next, select the panel tab on your Pocket PC screen; you will now see an electronic compass. The arrow will point to the location of where the caches are in reference to the location you're standing.

Beeline GPS is said to notify you when you are 100 feet of your treasure hunt. Because you'll be trekking and want to conserve your energy, you will need to change the setting to one or 2 feet. Unless you're prepared to make this into a marathon, and have to either jog or walk 100 feet to get to your treasure. When you're within one to 2 feet of the cache, an icon on the map will change and a pop-up window will say. [You have arrived in gcv06y.] This indicates that you are very close to your treasure.

If you have done any geocaching before, there are some snags you may run into. First of all, even if you set the default setting to 1 to 2 feet, the actual accuracy is you're actually within 15 feet radius of the treasure or cache. I mean the beeline GPS is correct in that you are not far away from the cache, you'll have to use the software in your brains at this point to locate the actual treasure.

Usually, the caches or treasures are in a waterproof or weatherproof container. Another clue you may look for to get you closer to your cache is to view the previous cache finder's notes detailing a hint of where the cache is.

Let's pretend you found cache or treasure, go ahead and swap your cache for the cache that's in the container. Next, sign the log in the weatherproof box with the: date, time and name.

If you wish, you can enter the information right on your Pocket PC. Open the beeline GPS map screen; tap the icon that represents the cache. Click on geocaching found it from the pop-up menu. Go ahead and input your field notes for the next person that will be looking for this cache or treasure.

On the beeline GPS tracking feature, you'll see a red line from a house to your car. You'll also see a dotted meandering line on the screen showing the path that you took from the point you started to where the cache was found. The red line is just a point of reference. It's very important; for you to make a note when you are at the starting point on your Pocket PC before you head off into the woods looking for your treasure. Otherwise you'll have to call the 911 rescue team to rescue you if you happen to be there late at night and don't have a good sense of direction.

After going home and plunging into the shower, you're now ready to sit in for front of your computer or Pocket PC and go to the web site called Geocaching.com. The first step to log your successful cache find is to:

1. Switch on your Pocket PC, open beeline's GPS, find the cache you visited. Once you are on the waypoint management screen. You'll see a list of all the caches loaded on your Pocket PC along with the waypoint name. Find the one you want to make notes on and hit the edit button.
2. On your web browser, go to geocaching.com web site, log onto your account.
3. In the geocaching.com search window where it says, "view a cache listing" you'll see this a third way down the screen on the right hand side.
4. Type in the waypoint name of the treasure and click the search icon. You will now see summary page of that cache.
5. Under the navigation menu on the right hand side, click on [log your visit.] Next, you'll see a [Post a new log screen here].
6. Copy the notes you entered earlier to the comments field in the [Post a new log screen.] Earlier in the article, I explained you needed to open beeline GPS to select Go to Waypoint to begin hunting for your cache.
7. Once you're done, click the [submit log entry] button

If you happen to have a wireless data plan with your wireless carrier provider, you can do all of the above steps at the site of the cache find. If that is the case, it is better to use Geocaching.com's WAP site which is wap.geocaching.com.

Very often as parents we don't have a chance to be with our kids and spend quality time with balancing our careers, family life and health. If you look at how Geocaching can be an opportunity to look at our children with openness and receptivity, and see the purity of life expressing through them, at any age, it can wake us up at any moment to their true nature and to our own. A new day has dawned in geocaching. The earth has shifted just a bit and the rest of us can enjoy nature using your pocket PC, a GPS receiver and some simple software. Why not take your entire family out next weekend and find a treasure together!

Source: Smartphone Pocket PC Oct/Nov 2006

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