(no subject)

[moominmolly]

Last night, I was wandering through the woods and found a mysterious little box. It was not a geocache, but it did prompt vespid_interest to mention geocaching as something I in particular would get a kick out of, which several different people have done over the years. Anyway, it made me curious:

[Poll #1414358]

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

No, but I think it would be FUN!

N.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Me too! Just looking at the map of caches near my house made me all excited that the world could contain so many tiny silly secrets. :) I don't know if N is old enough to really enjoy it yet, but she's definitely approaching old enough, at least.

[veek.livejournal.com]

Yes!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Let's go together some time soon!

[veek.livejournal.com]

Oh yes yes please.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I would be happy to take you (or a few of you) on a geocaching expedition. I've even placed one in Davis Square that you could find without a GPS if you want.

I have cached with wee ones as well and I think it is not unlikely that Natalie would enjoy it.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Although I love the idea of an expedition and totally don't mind going with people who've done it before, I think I don't want to be led so much as to just go and do it myself. :)

And I really hope she DOES like it! Good to hear that other kids her size have enjoyed it. I often swing between radically underestimating and overestimating her maturity level.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Who said anything about leading? Oh, I said "take", didn't I? I just meant that I already have a GPS, but I feel no actual need to be the one holding it at any given point. If you wanted, I could also help choose a plan that would be Natalie-friendly and such.

[veek.livejournal.com]

I often swing between radically underestimating and overestimating her maturity level.

So many factors go into that same thing for me, I can't even imagine how it is for you. You get orders of magnitude more informational input, and she's one complex little person.

[regyt.livejournal.com]

Ditto!

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

I've never done it, but I agree it would be fun and interesting.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should get a little group together to find all the ones along the Mystic riverside path and then have a picnic!

[veek.livejournal.com]

I'll bring... I dunno, food?

[cinnabarine.livejournal.com]

It's fun! Puzzles + GPS + wandering about outside + surprise! What's not to love?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Basically nothing!

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

Don't you have GPS in your phone?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly going to try it, since it's the free solution :), but vespid_interest reports that it's not quite accurate enough.

[cuthalion.livejournal.com]

If you can find a GPS with a compass in it you'll have more fun. I don't know about standalone GPS units newer than 2000 (then, the higher end ones had it, the lower end ones did not).

Any real GPS should be accurate enough for geocaching. Cell tower triangulation is not accurate enough. The iPhone 3G has a real GPS reciever while the 2G does not. The newly announced 3GS has a magnetometer (compass). I haven't used the iphone's software so I can't tell you whether it's convenient for asking "how far away and what direction is (37.785945,-122.39454)"

As for your poll: I also maintained a cache for a few years (though someone else took it over a while ago)

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

The iPhone 3G GPS usually has an accuracy of 56 feet for me, or 34 if I'm really lucky. (Nothing in between oddly.) I've had about a 50% success rate finding caches within 56-feet which is ok if I'm looking for one on a lark but if I just walked 20 minutes to find a cache it's frustrating to get stuck. It makes me not even want to try next time.
And in the forest where there is no reception it's almost useless.

[cuthalion.livejournal.com]

Aha! Okay the iPhone lacks WAAS it turns out. So it can be less accurate than other GPSes, contrary to what I said above.

I remember those numbers from my old Garmin eTrex Legend (which is what I used for geocaching). Those do have WAAS support, but they also aren't very sensitive, and my experience was similar to yours, except I thought it was more fun than you seem to have.

I think the discrete increments of distance is probably due to the discrete number of satellites it had fixes on.

[dbang.livejournal.com]

I've been geocaching and enjoyed it.

On my to do list of related things I have not yet done is letterboxing.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Ooooohhhhh.

[veek.livejournal.com]

I don't remember whether I've mentioned this before, but both of you might enjoy Dictionary of Words in the Wild. (http://ra.tapor.ualberta.ca/~dictionary/)

[arachne8x.livejournal.com]

I think letterboxing holds much more appeal for me. I really need to talk to my Mr. Mysterious Pants about it.

[razil.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was going to mention letterboxing. Less GPS, more riddles. And stamps!

[clara-girl.livejournal.com]

YES! i So want to try letterboxing :) :)

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I have tried it and it mostly time that has kept me from doing it again and again all the time and making a vast collection of stamps and buying many new stampmaking tools.

But it is awesome and I would love to do it more than the two times I think I have without becoming a rabid fan.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

No, but I hope to start soon :)

tell us a story!

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

and you opened the mysterious little box, and inside was...

Re: tell us a story!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

box!

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/molblog/3614725167/)

Contents: sunshine. A conch shell, a coin from aruba, a schedule to Logan airport, and a "Sun Tran" (Tram?) ticket.
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/molblog/3614735959/)

We put in a tiny tube of sunscreen, wrapped it back up, and replaced it in the sunset-sunbeam.

Re: tell us a story!

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

well, it's not "hope", but i guess that's not bad either. :)

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

Geodashing is also quite fun: http://geodashing.gpsgames.org/

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say that. What name do you go by on the GPSGames site?

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

I haven't done much since game 20 or so, but I am Ted on GPSGames.

Unfortunately, living on the coast means that about 60% of my close points would be underwater, and most of the rest are deep within the Los Padres National Forest, so there isn't much successful dashing to do. However, it's fun to read and watch other more well-positioned people do well.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

I went along with some people geocaching once to take pictures for the newspaper, but I don't think that counts.

[gretchens.livejournal.com]

Geocaching is GREAT for kids. A lot of times there are little toys to take, and you can leave a toy for the next kid to come along. Very cool.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Geocaching = awesome.

The geocaching.com folks have a very nice geocaching app for the iPhone that lets you look up caches near you. While the phone's A-GPS is not as accurate as true GPS, it's worth giving it a shot, IMHO.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm an old fogey but geocaching doesn't do it for me. The GPS does too much of the work.

[starphire.livejournal.com]

I haven't gone out looking for geocaches with a GPS in hand, but I've stumbled across one before, while out walking in the Fells. There was something slightly unnatural about the rocks covering a hole in a tree. I somehow intuitively knew it would be OK to take one of the items in the box (I got a glitter toy) if I replaced it with something at least as cool (I left a color-changing LED key fob) and put it back where I found it.

I love that they left extra wrapping material for you to re-wrap the box with.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I've never done it, but my husband does, and I would if I were in better physical shape. My husband enjoys both finding caches and hiding them, and I think you would, too.

It's a walk. It's a treasure hunt. It's a puzzle. Sounds good to me!

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what she said.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

Another GPS-based game by the same creator as Geodashing that you would probably really enjoy is ShutterSpot: http://shutterspot.gpsgames.org - figure out the exact location where the photographer was standing when they took the set of pictures (or take a set of pictures & let other folks figure out where you were standing). There are a couple in Boston for you to find (they're both pretty easy), and I'm sure with your eye for interesting photos, you could create some cool ones. If you want some pointers on what makes a good ShutterSpot, let me know.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

When my youngest nephew was N's age, he really enjoyed geocaching. It's also worth pointing out that many of the caches are hidden in places that make them hard for adults to see, but the little ones, with their much lower point of view, look up and say "There it is! Under the table!"