Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Geocaching?

I had heard about geocaching a number of years back but since I didn't own a GPS unit, I didn't think much about it.

But on this day I found out that our Cub Scout Pack would be doing some orienteering at the upcoming campout and maybe be using GPS devices as well. Well I got a Blackberry back in September, it has GPS functionality.

I did a little bit of research and came across the geocaching info. I was hooked! I sent out an e-mail to other folks in our den -

"Good afternoon,

Do y'all know about geocaching?

I had heard of it many years back but knew that it required a GPS to participate and I haven't had a GPS unit until this past Fall when I got my Blackberry.

I know several folks in our den now have Blackberries with I assume the GPS activated.

http://www.geocaching.com/

FAQs

Getting Started

Here is a map that you can scroll around and look at some of the present locations near us -

http://www.geocaching.com/map/default.aspx?lat=29.884167&lon=-95.5411

And here is the profile of one of the members of the site - lives in JV and was in Scouts.

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/Default.aspx?guid=ac515ab2-8671-4a57-91df-7a283e36d7e4

There is free membership and then there is a premium membership as well.

If any of you guys are interested in this, we could potentially have a group (like the LostGuys).

There are even a couple of spots near Stephen F Austin Park.
http://www.geocaching.com/map/default.aspx?lat=29.807467&lon=-96.095617

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I don't know why the boys are supposed to bring a compass and/or GPS this weekend, is it related to orienteering?

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Anyway, I find the above pretty interesting. Looks like it could require abit of free time if you really got into it but at least it would get the boys out and about doing something. Everyone loves an Easter egg hunt or scavenger hunt.

Comments?

Thanks,
Marc"

Shortly after, I sent this out -

"There is an app for the Blackberry that looks like it works in conjunction with the Geocaching site.

It has a free 30 day trial and then it is $14.95.

Point your browser on your Blackberry to - http://www.cacheberry.com/beta

I just installed it. Not sure how to use it just yet though. :-)"

Shortly after that, I sent this one -

"Hmmmm I'm trying to figure this out but not having much luck (after 20 minutes or so).

We might have to have a premium account on the geocaching site in order to dump info into the Cacheberry software on our Blackberries.

However, I am looking at other GPS apps for the Blackberry to see if we can input GPS coords that way."

And finally, I sent this one -

"OK, I have done alot more searching of Geocaching stuff available for Blackberries.

Try this one - Geocache Navigator. You can get a free 60-day trial here -
http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/rim/?utm_source=bb-ol&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=bb-ol-gn-04-08
Fill out the info at the bottom of the page, including your phone number, so that you may easily just download it to your phone without having to use the Desktop Manager.

This software looks to be very user-friendly. Once you agree to a couple of things, like the general rules of geocaching, which by the way one of them is Cache In Trash Out, very similar to our Leave No Trace Behind rule, then just choose a menu item like Quick Cache and it'll list all of the geocaches in your area.

Here are some other links that I bookmarked concerning Geocaching -

Goodnight!
Marc"
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