New Geocaching site under Hobbies - Montana Owners Club

timandsusan · 05-05-2008, 10:27 AM

Please start a Geocaching thread under hobbies for us cachers! I introduced the folks at the Spring Rally to Geocaching and some are interested in the MOC site having a place to post issues, ideas, great caches, etc.

Thanks,,
Tim and Susan Millington

RVWheels · 05-05-2008, 01:00 PM

Tim and Susan,

Thank you for the suggestion. We will take it under advisement.

Until such time as there is a separate topic area why don't you post either under NAVIGATION or just start a thread under the HOBBIES area.

RVWheels, MOC Admin.

exav8tr · 05-29-2008, 08:35 AM

I will second Tim and Susans request for a Geocache site also. We love the hobby and have geocached from So.California to Ogden Utah. Great Sport!!!

sreigle · 05-29-2008, 10:34 AM

I'd like that, too. We've had some great hikes doing geocaching. We find some are way too easy, though. The one I thought the neatest was in an area of good sized rocks. There was a clue "look under the rock." After lifting many rocks and almost giving up, I turned one over and lo and behold...
This guy drilled a hole in the rock and inserted a 35mm film canister! The log was inside, of course.

And the one and only geocache we never found was located at the bottom of this canyon, or was supposed to be. The owner thinks it may have been "muggled."

and was accessed by descending via these "natural stairs." Vicki is on the way back up in this picture.

timandsusan · 05-29-2008, 11:22 AM

Steve--I am not going to show that photo of your wife to my wife because she hates to not find a cache! I suggest that you and I meet somewhere and turn the geocaching over to our wifes while we cool it in the shade. Where were you caching for the canyon cache?? The cactus looks like some parts of Texas or Arizona.
By the way there are a ton of caches in Port Aransas, Texas and a good number in Aransas Pass and Rockport-Fulton area.

exav8tr · 05-29-2008, 01:30 PM

Steve, Tim, We have only missed on two. One we were sure one had been muggled, Henrieville, UT (near Bryce). looked for an hour and no luck.....The other was here in Ogden near a river in a canyon, but I was showing about 300 ft of bushwacking to get to it. The Owner of the cache didn't mention bushwacking and after the encounter with the snake, I declined to rummage through 300 ft of brush. There are many caches at Valley of the Fires State Park just outside of Las Vegas also, but, be ready to climb some rocks. Once up we had some beautiful views. Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction has many also and they made for great exercise. We are just getting started and have found about 60 so far. Cathy bought supplies to hide our own. Ya gotta love it, great way to see places not many others have seen. In most cases, beats the usual "tourist traps"......

sreigle · 05-29-2008, 03:58 PM

Tim, that sounds good to me! That one in the canyon is near Camp Verde, AZ. It is called the Kokopelli Thimble. The clue is to "stand at the pulpit and preach to the cache." Yeah, right. We looked for at least an hour. The "pulpit" is one of those metal stands with a lid under which is a log. This location happens to be on one of the hikes in a hikes book. Thus the log and the "pulpit." Darned if we could find it. There are quite a few petroglyphs in that area, too. Thus the hike mentioned in the guide book.

Also, we have not yet checked out the caches in the Santa Fe area, as you suggested awhile back. We leave here next Thursday and I'd like to do at least one before that. We have some family coming in to visit in a day or two so maybe after that.

Phil, we like those kind of hikes but prefer the bushwhacking when the snakes are still in hibernation. I'm a real chicken when it comes to snakes.

simonsrf · 05-31-2008, 09:11 AM

Tim and Susan,

We, because of you are now geocaching nuts too! We've now found 10, and have several more downloaded.

Having our own topic would be great!

sreigle · 05-31-2008, 01:33 PM

It is amazing how many caches there are, everywhere we look. I don't know how you all locate and download the info but I use Garmin's Mapsource, rightclick on an area and select the option to show me the caches available. It opens a webpage in my browser, at geocaching.com , and is already pinpointed to the spot on the map I chose. Easy.

exav8tr · 05-31-2008, 02:43 PM

One of the more unique caches we have found. This one was in Cannonville, UT and was placed by a 17 year old who is the son of the manager of the Bryce Canyon KOA.

Steve, we use the geocaching.com site by putting in our zip code, then going to the map (in the upper right, I believe), then we pick caches that are in areas we like to visit. We try and stay away from the city caches and try to find those on trails or up the side of a mountain.

At the 1000 Trails campground in Verde Valley, they had a geocache course within their park. We found all 10 and were given a hat, water bottle and several meal discount tickets at the park.

I could envision a Geocache contest at one of our rallies. Would make for a great day of hiking for those interested. Something to think about.......

Congrats Robbie, As a boondocker, this should be right up your alley as many caches are located in and around the state and federal parks..

simonsrf · 05-31-2008, 02:48 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

It is amazing how many caches there are, everywhere we look. I don't know how you all locate and download the info but I use Garmin's Mapsource, rightclick on an area and select the option to show me the caches available. It opens a webpage in my browser, at geocaching.com , and is already pinpointed to the spot on the map I chose. Easy.

Steve, when I right-click on MapSource I get, new waypoint, begin route, begin track, begin measurement, find nearest places..wish I knew how you got that to work.

Robbie

sreigle · 05-31-2008, 05:17 PM

It was just there, Robbie. I'm running mapsource 6.13.4. If you go to edit/preferences/weblinks tab, there I see geocaching.wlx and googlemaps.wlx (takes me to google earth for that point I rightclicked on, I think) and a button to Add Weblinks. According to Garmin, both of those I have came with mapsource but maybe a later version than yours. See if clicking the add weblinks button will show them to you. Here's what I found at Garmin's site at
http://www8.garmin.com/weblinkextensions/ . I cannot find those .wlx files on my system so maybe they're builtin. I'll do some googling to see what I can find out.

What are web link extensions?
Web link extensions are small add-on files that make MapSource more interactive. They create links between MapSource® and an external website so you can find out more information about a place or area.

MapSource includes two sample web links. One web link connects MapSource to Google Maps. Consequently, you can right-click a place on the map (New York City, for example) and select "View Satellite Imagery on maps.google.com." MapSource then opens your web browser, and the Google Maps website loads automatically with maps of New York City. Another web link connects MapSource to geocaching.com. You can right-click a point or place on the map and select "Find Near Caches on geocaching.com." The geocaching website opens and searches automatically for caches located near that particular point.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge
Where can I get web link extensions?
Two sample web link extensions are provided for you in the most recent version of MapSource. Or, if you want more web link extensions and you're familiar with XML, you can create your own. To get started, check out the XML Schema and our sample web link extensions: MapQuest | Google.

How do I add web link extensions to MapSource?
You can add web link extensions by clicking Edit > Preferences in MapSource. Then select the Web Link tab. See the MapSource Help files for more information.

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