While the rest of the world is finally phasing out the last of their non-smartphones, I have given up mine in favor of the simplicity offered by the basic phone. Continue reading “Back to the old ways…”
What’s changed in the last … 3 years!
It has been quiet here for far too long!
We have not been caching as much as we would like, life has definitely gotten busy now that both kiddos are in school (1st and 3rd grades), and work requirements are keeping me busier than I would like to be.
Life gets in the way of the hunt!
Since our surge for 1,000 cache finds (turning February from a month with 0 finds to the month with the most finds on our profile statistics page), our ability to get out and rack up the numbers has diminished. I’m busy with the book sales again, and now that Easter has passed, that should be letting up a little. Those 70+ hour weeks have occupied most of the daylight hours for the last few months, and even if there is daylight left at the end of one of those days, I’m usually too exhausted to consider doing anything other than going to bed!
Planning the route
Depending on how many caches we are going after, planning an expedition route may take up to two hours for me. I know that using a smartphone would allow me to plan the trip “on the fly,” saving a lot of prep time. I think that geocaching would be the only reason that I would want a smartphone, and I can’t justify the expense just for a hobby!
Let the hiding begin!
After breaking the 1,000 cache barrier, we figured it was about time to start giving back to the Geocaching community. I know that, in their enthusiasm, many cachers begin placing caches after only a hundred finds or less. We’ve been wanting to place some caches for quite some time now, but didn’t want to make any “newbie” mistakes. We’ve got ideas for easy “park & grab” series, and there’s also an idea or two that would translate into downright evil hides if we can muster up what it would take to create them.
What we take on the hunt
The cache list has been put together, and the GPS receivers loaded up with the coordinates. Now comes the time to load up the cachemobile. What we pack now helps to ensure a good day on the hunt!
Our equipment
We have two GPS reciever units that we use on our Geocaching expeditions.
When we first started caching, I was using our Nüvi 200. Before I purchased the premium membership with Groundspeak, I would “print” each cache page to PDF on our laptop, and save it to a directory on the hard drive with the file name prefixed by the number representing the order in which we would search for it. This was our version of “paperless caching.” The laptop would be with us on the hunt, and we’d have the Nüvi pull us to GZ after manually entering the coordinates. I’d leave it in driving mode until we got close to the cache, then I’d switch to “off road” mode with map orientation set to “track up.” It was a lengthy process, and to be honest, I’m surprised that we stuck with it!
Welcome to nhnomads.com!
Welcome to nhnomads.com, the website that chronicles the geocaching adventures of NH Nomads. Here, you’ll find advice on the hobby as well as stories about some of the things that we encounter while on the hunt.
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