10 Best Gps Watch For Hunting

Best Gps Watch For Hunting in 2023

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A Modern-day Treasure Hunt

If your family owns a handheld GPS, has Internet access, and a desire for some safe, free, outdoor adventure, you have everything you need to start geocaching.

Throughout the world are hidden nearly a million small treasure chests called geocaches. A geocache is simply a weatherproof container that is filled with small trinkets or toys.

People who hide geocaches publish the GPS coordinates of the hiding places on Internet websites. Other geocachers then use the coordinates to find the hidden containers. There are over 10,000 geocaches hidden in the State of Wisconsin.

Getting Started

When some people think of a GPS, they think of it strictly as a travel aid. The fact is, given the correct coordinates, a handheld GPS can locate any position on the earth, whether it is an address on a city street or a boulder in a park.

Menasha resident Robin Cleveland originally purchased her DeLorme GPS software to help find restaurants, hotels, and gas stations while travelling. One day a friend told her about geocaching. Cleveland and fellow Menasha resident Chris Curry were curious.

"We looked it up on the Internet," said Curry, "There were four caches within a half-mile of our house so we said, 'Hey, let's try it.'"

Cleveland, Curry, and Curry's 11 year-old son, Brent, formed a geocaching team and called themselves "Team Bear Bear" after a stuffed family Teddy Bear. Since then they have found over 1,100 geocaches on two different continents including 14 U.S. states.

To find geocaches, people like Cleveland and Curry visit a free geocaching website like geocaching.com or navicache.com. GPS coordinates of every geocache are listed along with the geocache's name, description, and some hints to help people find it. The coordinates of the geocache are then manually entered into a GPS or, depending on the GPS model, are downloaded directly into the GPS from the Internet.

Where to Geocache

Geocaching is typically done on public property such as community parks and trails. Most local parks contain at least one geocache while larger parks contain more. In some cases private organizations, such as nature preserves, allow geocaching on their property.

Regardless of the location, geocaching is intended to be an environmentally friendly activity. Geocachers are always considerate of the terrain, ecosystem, and property encountered. One of their mottos, "Cache In, Trash Out," encourages individuals and teams to bring a trash bag to remove litter from the area while geocaching.

Jeff Root of Oshkosh, an outdoorsman who originally bought his Garmin GPS for hunting, believes the benefits of geocaching extend beyond just the environment. When it comes to Bailey, his 11-year-old son, Root believes geocaching has educational value as well.

"The thing that's nice for him, being the age that he is, is using the GPS and getting familiar with the GPS. That's going to help him," said Root. "He likes the outdoors and is into the Boy Scouts. For hunting purposes, sense of direction, it's huge."

Not only is Bailey learning some important skills, he's also having a lot of fun doing it. "I encourage people to do it because it's a fun hobby," Bailey said. "Once you get your first few in, you start getting hooked."

Cleveland agrees. "It's fun. We recently took out some friends of ours who were interested in caching. It was fun watching three kids just running and looking for stuff. Caching bonds a lot of friends and family together."

Finding Geocaches

Geocachers use their GPS devices to guide them to the general location of a geocache. Once there, finding the actual geocache can range from very easy to incredibly hard. "Some of the spots that the caches are hidden in can be pretty obvious," said Curry. "If you're in a park and you're walking with the GPS and its pointing 100 feet ahead of you where there's a single pine tree, it's going to be in the pine tree."

Geocaches might be tied to a tree branch or hidden under a rock. Most geocache containers are camouflaged to blend in with the terrain. It is also common to find geocaches inside fake rocks or logs. Somewhere in the Fox Cities there is even a geocache disguised as a bolt.

When searching for more difficult geocaches, Cleveland said she steps back, examines the area, and tries to think like the person who hid it. That's not difficult for Cleveland because she and Team Bear Bear have hidden over 60 geocaches, including one in a Fox Cities public library.

Cleveland notes that a geocache cannot be hidden without permission from the organization that owns the property. Most often it requires permission from the local Parks and Recreation Department. For the library cache Cleveland contacted the library staff and told them she wanted to promote reading and learning by placing a geocache in the library. The library jumped on the idea. They not only assisted with the hide but invited Cleveland and Curry back to host a seminar on geocaching.

The Treasure

Many geocaches are filled with small toys and trinkets (think Happy Meal). Other caches may not contain anything except a paper log sheet. However, every now and then a geocacher will make a pleasant discovery. Team Bear Bear, for example, has been known to periodically place restaurant coupons inside one particular cache.

According to geocaching etiquette, if you remove something from the geocache you must replace it with something of equal or greater value. Afterwards the geocache container must be returned to the exact spot where it was found so that other geocachers can find it.

Cleveland says that anyone from age 3 to ninety can geocache, including the disabled. "If you have trouble walking or are in a wheelchair, yes, you can do it. There are caches designed for that," she said. "It's a great family get-out-and-do-something game. There's a cache somewhere for everybody."