In our caching team, I am the navigator, and my husband is the finder. As such, I spend a lot of time looking down. That’s why this app called Transparent Screen so useful.

The app uses your built-in camera to give you an image of where you are walking even with your nose buried in your geocaching app. You can control the degree of transparency. As you can imagine, it can be a bit of a pig on battery life. It’s a small price to pay in order to keep you vertical.

Tricking Out Your Smartphone for Geocaching is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

I was looking at my overall stats the other day. One thing became clear. We don’t geocache much in the winter. We barely log a cache between November and April. I want to change that. Here’s how I intend to do it.

Time for virtuals and earth caches

These caches are so worth the effort. More often than not, they take you to a new place, even if it is in your hometown. You learn something. You log a cache–and you don’t always have to try to walk through two feet of snow.

Give stealth-only caches a try

Okay, my disdain for stealth-only caches has been well covered on this blog. Yet, these are the places that are typically kept up in the winter. They are also places that you probably won’t encounter snowmobiles. During the winter, the traffic will be down, so it’s a good time to snag a few of these.

Place your own cache

Do your fellow geocachers a favor–place caches that are winter friendly. The setting will give you everything you need to know about how easy it is to grab.

Go for those 5-terrain caches

A lot of 5-terrain caches around me are on on islands. We boat, so most don’t pose a problem. During the winter, you can get a good workout in and grab a cache at a time when there are probably not a lot of muggles around. Don’t forget your snowshoes though. A snow-covered lake has just as much snow as a windswept field–even more.

Duh, winter geocaches!

It’s easy enough to filter caches for those that are winter friendly. Don’t complain about not being able to get to a cache. Focus your efforts on those that the geocacher has been kind enough to identify as winter friendly. You’ll save yourself so much aggravation. It’s one thing to score a DNF. It’s another thing to freeze your a** off in the process.

Winter geocaching doesn’t have to be a break from getting out there. You just have to change your plan-of-attack and grab a different sort of geocache.

Photo by jodiferjun

5 Ways to Make Winter Geocaching Work is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

I was able to use GCC geocaching for an app that included Morse Code. My husband is a former ham radio operator, so he knew it pretty well. He appreciated the quick refresher to help us solve the puzzle and score the cache. This free Android app is worth the four megabytes it’ll take up on your smartphone. A pro version is available to that supports continued development of the program.

I might just have to change my mind about puzzle caches. With GCC to back us up, we have some great tools to use in the field. Hell, I might even be inspired to place my own puzzle cache.

Help with Puzzle Geocaches is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

It’s all about teamwork.

My husband and I have a system. His phone has the better GPS coverage than mine for some reason though we have the same crappy carrier with Sprint. So, he is the navigator, and I am the finder. When the geo-sense is working, I feel as if I am wearing 3D glasses and can spot the geocache no matter how well hidden.

Pay attention to hunting season.

It’s happened not once. We get to a place we’ve scouted out only to find it is closed because of hunting. Usually, it is shotgun deer season. That’s fine though: I’d rather not be prey no matter what the season. We have also found parks closed during bow season though. If you do any fall hunting, check the park’s website. Hopefully, they choose to inform people, but it’s not always the case.

Support the activity.

When we geocache, we bring along a stash of plastic bags. If a cache’s log is damp or the bag messed up, we replace it. If the cache has water in it, we dump it out and give it a wipe. It takes no time at all and helps everyone.

Explore the caches close to home.

We have found the best treasures while caching close to home. You really don’t need to travel far to find something cool. We’ve found parks, great bars and restaurants just by exploring a place we haven’t explored. Relish the adventure: it’s there.

Carry a flashlight and bear spray.

Even if it’s a bright sunny day, you can’t always see in those downed logs. Don’t go poking around without taking a good look. My husband almost found out the hard way. We were geocaching along the Mississippi River in a park that was known to have rattlesnakes. He spotted the beacon and starting looking for the cache — that is until he heard the rattle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him run that fast. Fortunately, the snake believed its warning was sufficient and didn’t strike. 

The second part of the warning is about bears. We live in the country, but bears have been seen not far from the metro area. We’ve geocached a few times at a park about an hour from us. It’s a beautiful place, with a magnificent waterfalls. Just the other day, I was reading about a hunter who took what appeared to have been a record bear. The bear weighed over 600 pounds. The photograph of him with the bear was astonding. Even more astounding was finding out where he got the bear — the very same park we have hiked and geocached.

I have a fear of bears. I’ve never seen one in the wild, but I have enormous respect for an animal that could take me out in an instant. In an odd way, I am glad this part of Nature exists. We don’t own it all. Nature just likes to remind us of that detail now and again. I appreciate the warning.

Image: Bear Country USA by mvipond

Top 5 Things I Learned While Geocaching is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

We also love caches that are not stealth only. I prefer a cache that we can take time to explore. For us, that means a drive in the country and off the beaten path–or within cell coverage. We found this out the hard way when we geocached in Door County, Wisconsin. You simply can’t rely on coverage. That’s why I like Backcountry Navigator Pro so much. With a little preplanning, we have coverage no matter what our smartphones say.

With BCNavigator, simply by selecting the topos I need, I have them available for offline use. I find this especially helpful if we decide to hike and gulp, not geocache. I can also upload a pocket query (with a premium membership to Geocaching.com) that has all the cache info, including previous logs. Topos have helped guide us more than once on the correct approach to the cache. It can mean the difference between scaling a hillside to an easy stroll.

In Door County, we cached on an island off of the peninsula. Coverage was doomed from the get-go. Despite that, we still had a great time geocaching. I was amazed at the accuracy of the locations, a credit to the geocachers who placed them. I was able to zoom in on the cache location and get a good idea of its terrain. I can’t recommend BC Navigator more highly, especially if you have Sprint. ; )

Geocaches Out of Range is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

I recently bought a pari of Vibram Five Fingers Sprint shoes. These shoes feature an extra strap across the top of your feet for added security for running or trekking across the landscape. I bought black shoes for their versatility.

My first experience took me a bit to put them on. With one of my feet, I cannot splay my toes, so I have to guide my toes into the right places. Once on, they felt surprisingly comfortable for how different them are from regular shoes. I quickly got used to walking in them. Then, it was the big test. I traveled to visit family, bringing only these shoes. Trial by fire, as it were.

The weather was hot, yet my feet were comfortable despite being black. It felt exhilarating honestly to walk “barefoot” everywhere. The promo materials mention a feeling of being closer to the Earth. I felt it. I lived it. Yest, it was true.

Today, they have their first long-distance field test. I’ll admit that my feet got tired after four miles of walking. I’m simply using my feet differently, hence the feeling. Once I learned to trust them to keep me safe, I did a lot better. My feet moved freely as if I were totally barefooted. It was a great feeling. Walking on sedges felt incredibly soft and comfortable. Yes, I did have to keep an eye on my feet while walking on gravel, but I quickly adapted. Since I’m constantly on the lookout for wildflowers and animal sign, my eyes are often on the ground anyway.

The only downer is that I’ll have to give up my barefooting lifestyle come winter. They sell a pair for cooler weather, but not for trekking through two feet of snow. Have to bust out the Sorels for that. Another thing may be a bit of TMI, but worth noting if you are seriously considering them. You need to keep the toenails nice and trim to comfortably wear these shoes. Not a huge problem, just something to bear in mind.

All in all, I am totally pleased. I love the feeling. I feel my legs getting stronger with the new challenge. Highly recommended for those wanting a new and different experience when outdoors.

Review: Vibram Five Fingers Sprint is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

I participated in the beta testing for AllSport GPS. With the awful winter we had, I didn’t get out as much as I wanted to test it. Instead, I tried the free version and made the leap to get the media additions.

I took it on its first trip last week. Talk about simple! Wow! The GPS hooked up quickly. Since we were geocaching, bird watching and morel hunting, I had to have a program that could pause/resume easily. AllsSport worked well.

The interface with pictures and videos was absolutely seamless. No glitches. No problems. Take my picture, save and we’re back on the trail. Uploading the trip was just as easy. All my pics nicely geo-coded were on my uploaded trip, with lots of other fun goodies like calorie burn, elevation and other stats.

Highly recommended!

Photo by Pawel Kryj

Review: AllSport GPS is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

When you geocache in the spring, you have to be prepared for wet conditions. You may dress appropriately with boots and warm socks. For geocaches, you should prepare for the wet, soggy cache. You can take along a few supplies to do some quick maintenance on a cache in-need. That is the great thing about geocaching–we take care of each other. For your geo-bag, you can add the following: 

• Extra plastic bags in a few different sizes
• Marker or rolling ball pen to sign wet logs
• Spare log sheets for quick replacement logs
• Paper towels to wipe up the interior of caches
• Disposable plastic bags for gathering up cache contents or collecting trash

It doesn’t take a lot. The idea of creating a great geocaching experience for other cachers is part of the game. You create a cool cache in a great container. You come up with a intriguing puzzle. You pick out a unique type of cache container. Why not take the same thinking to helping out a fellow cacher? Take an extra minute to fix up a geocache in need. Do a favor for the geocacher who took the time to place a cool cache for you to find and do some quick maintenance. What goes around, comes around , as the saying goes. In the geocaching world, this is a reality.

Geocaching Prep is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

We head to Door County the first weeks of June. Spring has still a lot of roaring to do this time of year, but work obligations force our choice. To be honest, I don’t mind the weather. It adds a bit of excitement to camping outdoors.

As I’m always reminded during the first rainy days, performance clothing such as North Face is definitely needed. You can’t face blinding rain without the proper clothing, nor can you skip taking a hike or going geocaching just because it’s raining. I recall a quote by the writer Colette who began each day with a walk. The reporter asked her what she did if it rained. Her response was, “I walk in the rain.” Brilliant!

If you’re looking for a waterproof, lightweight jacket to get you through the wilds of early summer or anytime when Nature has her say, than the North face resolve jacket can’t be beat. This is North Face’s answer to Gore-Tex. Their material is both waterproof and breathable.

For me, those two qualities are imperative, especially during the warmer times of the year. The last thing you want while geocaching or just taking a pleasant walk in the woods is to be uncomfortable. Waterproof is one thing, but breathability makes the walk pleasant.

What I like about North Face is all the little features developed obviously by people that trek outdoors. I like big pockets for caring my wallet, my smartphone, and other necessities. I want my hood to fit tight so I don’t have to wear a hat underneath. North Face has all of these. Not convinced? Check out this video for more info. Until then, cache on!

Facing the Challenges of the Outdoors is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

Now that the weather is warmer, there are no excuses for not staying active. Whether it is geocaching or another sport,  it’s time to enjoy the outdoors on whatever platform you choose.

If the health motivators of lowering your risk for high blood pressure and diabetes are not enough, embrace the personal goals of losing weight and keeping it off. Who wants to be fat and flabby when you can be healthy and energetic?

Enjoy the outdoors and walking as you go geocaching. Take in the fresh air. Listen to the birds. It’s all there for you to enjoy. If you find a geocache or three along the way, all the better.

Stay Active with Geocaching is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors