Geocaching with the Geomate Jr.

December 29, 2010

***Week of 2010’s favorite posts continues.  Oh geocaching, I found you this year and I don’t know how we lived in this world without you.***

I might be the only person who had never heard of Geocaching…

Dear reader Sarah D. alerted me that she was just about to introduce Geocaching to her son with the Geomate Jr.

Since I’d never heard of it, I immediately went to Wikipedia:

Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called “geocaches” or “caches”) anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware container or ammo box) containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.

(Thanks Wiki, I don’t know where I’d be without you.)

I did a local search on www.geocaching.com and we have hundreds of caches within just a few miles of our home.  So that should keep us busy for a while.

This past Saturday with beautiful weather, it was a perfect day to try it out. I only had to mention that we were “treasure hunting” and the adorables were uber-excited.

Here’s how it worked for our family:

Younger adorable “led” us with our own Geomate Jr..  Talk about user-friendly – he just followed the arrow.

I promise I didn’t even pose Uncle Romer for this photo.  The Running Man and his bro thought this was wicked cool.

Along the way, we found this family of ducks so we stopped for a look-see.

Now I have to admit our search took us into the woods where we spotted poison ivy.  So we took the boys out and sent Uncle Romer in with my camera to make the find.  Luckily he was willing to risk it.

The cache was marked by this blue ribbon…

And it’s tucked back at the base of this tree.

Ta-da!

He brought it out to the poison ivy-free grass (thanks Romer!) and we gathered around for a look.

Inside we found a cache log in the plastic bag, sunblock, and a collection of trinkets.  When signing the log, we learned that this cache had entertained visitors only the day before.

The adorables had a difficult time choosing their trinket.  Note to self: bring enough trinkets for each adorable to put 1 in so they can take 1 out, if possible.

Friends, I’m hooked.  We had the best time wandering around our little town on Saturday morning.  The Geomate Jr. is small enough to pack along on trips or in the car, and I love how easy it is to get started.

Dear reader Ryan Leigh, also a fan of Geocaching, created a “geocaching bag” – stocked with the GPS, spare batteries, items for trading, a pen, gloves, and bug spray – so they are always ready to go.  She also wrote a great article about geocaching on TriadSmartyPants.com that I found really helpful!

GEOCACHING TIPS:

Here are some ideas from Allen Bates of http://crustygasguy.blogspot.com, who together with his son, has located more than 1000 caches and hidden 27 of his own:

1. Caches in city parks or state parks work well as opposed to those on the side of the road. An outing of finding 2 to 5 caches along a trail makes it interesting without tiring kids out.  Reward with a treat or picnic afterward.

2. Little kids can generally spot the caches fairly quickly but make sure they are findable by checking the logs at www.geocaching.com beforehand to verify there won’t be any surprises such as bees, wasps, ants, or poison ivy or the presence of material unsuitable for kids.

3. If taking a group of kids, the group needs to be small. One kid per cache works best so each kid gets a turn holding the GPS during the search. Geocaching in large groups is not very much fun. If you have a larger group, split them into smaller groups with one adult (at least) per group.

4. The larger size caches have trinkets to trade for so use dollar store items or McDonalds’ toys to trade.

5. Before setting out remind the kids about caching etiquette: Trade for equal value, don’t reveal the location of the cache to onlookers, put it back like you found it.

6. Practice “CITO” (“Cache in, trash out”) by taking a garbage sack with you to pick up trash on the way to and from the caches.

7. Safety: Watch out for poison ivy. Pack bug spray, sun block, and water.

The GEOMATE JR.

This is the Apisphere Geomate Jr Handheld GPS Geocacher.
With 250,000 pre-loaded caches, you literally insert batteries, turn it on outside, and move directly to your nearest cache. It’s as easy as that.  I love that it’s small enough to keep in the car, or pack with us when we travel.

You can find the Apisphere Geomate Jr Handheld GPS Geocacher on Amazon.  I would also recommend the Apisphere Geomate Jr Geocaching GPS Update Kit . You can find them together as a kit at Geomate Jr and Update Kit.

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Category: Activities
Tags: Geocaching, Geomate Jr. |