This week, Verona-Cedar Grove Patch editor Chris Nesi and Patch intern Mike Madden took to the woods and streets in search of geocaches in the area.
To those that don't know, geocaching is a world-wide Global Positioning System (GPS) scavenger hunt in which people hide containers containing a logbook and other assorted items, and post the coordinates to a website, like geocaching.com. Geocachers then find the coordinates on the website, input them into a GPS unit and hit the road in search of the box.
Once found, the logbook is signed, and if desired, items exchanged.
The two geocaches found in this video are in Verona and Cedar Grove, but there are hundreds if not thousands more hidden in the surrounding area. For additional information how you can start finding geocaches of your own, visit geocaching.com.
Kathy Van Benschoten
6:43 am on Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Great article and very timely. I have been planning on getting a handheld GPS later today so we can join in the fun.
Teresa Akersten
1:57 pm on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
I love that you left the Patch pens ... will you tell us what you took?
Chris Nesi
2:25 pm on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
I was tempted to take that lion, but the thought of depriving some eager young geocacher of it would have weighed too heavily on my conscience. So in the end I took nothing.
Chris Peters
8:54 pm on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
this is AWESOME!! my son would love to do this!!! thanks for this enlighting video!
Chris Peters
8:55 pm on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
or maybe its enlightening.... you know what I mean, informative! lol.
Don
10:48 pm on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
A lot of older people have been intimidated by the technology - thinking its either too complicated or too expensive. Neither is true. Ive seen full featured personal navigation devices - the kind with stored internal maps and a screen, for sale for as little as $20 on ebay. That is usually old stock, non updatable unit, outdated maps, but on this part of NJ, that doesn't matter as much as it would elsewhere. Because we've had fewer new roads built, than many other areas. (with some notable exceptions- highways in particular- non-current maps can be dangerous there.)
Chris has a dedicated hiking GPS, perfect for geocaching. Other kinds of GPSs can be used too but -if you have an auto GPS and it has a SIRFSTAR III chip, its a good chip, but to geocache, you may need to be able to turn off the "static navigation" feature of those SIRF chips. See the URL below.
You can now also find USB GPS dongles (which work well with laptops) for under $20. But unless you have a friend to act as navigator, keep in mind that using a computer while driving is illegal and dangerous, because its distracting. Google Earth can also be used with cached images to track your progress on satellite photos in realtime in a car. Thats a lot of fun (as a passenger, not while driving!)
To turn off static navigation on a car GPS, look at SiRFdemo at http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25575 Depending on your GPS, it might help.