[Team_RedPanda]

My family and I are fairly new at this (55 finds!) and are attending our first geocaching event on Saturday, sponsored by our local Search and Rescue organization. It's a combination poker run/geocache.

From the info emailed to me: "Ten coordinates will be given to you after you register. For each container you find at the coordinate given, you will exchange an orange token for a playing card. Whoever has the highest poker hand out of 5 cards will be the winner of an LCD TV, GPS, or BBQ."

My question: How will the 10 coordinates be given to me? The kids and I use an iPad 2 with the geocaching app. Will it be possible to use the app to search for the coordinates? I don't suppose the caches could possibly be published caches that I will be able to seek out with the app. Should I borrow someone's "for reals" GPS unit for this event?

Any help appreciated, thanks!
--Kelly

[Sapience Trek]

There are plenty of apps in the app store that you can download to use your iPad as a GPS, which will allow manual entry of coordinates, but I don't have any recommendations on one to try. I'd suggest downloading a couple of them to try them out. Most likely the poker run caches will not be published caches.

[Pup Patrol]

Team_RedPanda, on 26 April 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

My family and I are fairly new at this (55 finds!) and are attending our first geocaching event on Saturday, sponsored by our local Search and Rescue organization. It's a combination poker run/geocache.

From the info emailed to me: "Ten coordinates will be given to you after you register. For each container you find at the coordinate given, you will exchange an orange token for a playing card. Whoever has the highest poker hand out of 5 cards will be the winner of an LCD TV, GPS, or BBQ."

My question: How will the 10 coordinates be given to me? The kids and I use an iPad 2 with the geocaching app. Will it be possible to use the app to search for the coordinates? I don't suppose the caches could possibly be published caches that I will be able to seek out with the app. Should I borrow someone's "for reals" GPS unit for this event?

Any help appreciated, thanks!
--Kelly

You could ask the event coordinator(s) and I'm sure they'll be happy to answer any of your questions.

I doubt very much that the set of 10 coordinates will be caches that are going to be published here on Groundspeak. (I couldn't find any event in your area listed on Groundspeak for this coming weekend, so I assume it's some other organization hosting it.)



B.

[J the Goat]

If you have the ability to borrow a dedicated GPSr, I'd go that route. Battery life is better, and you can see if it's a model you like.

[Mr.Yuck]

Pup Patrol, on 26 April 2012 - 04:41 PM, said:

Team_RedPanda, on 26 April 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

My family and I are fairly new at this (55 finds!) and are attending our first geocaching event on Saturday, sponsored by our local Search and Rescue organization. It's a combination poker run/geocache.

From the info emailed to me: "Ten coordinates will be given to you after you register. For each container you find at the coordinate given, you will exchange an orange token for a playing card. Whoever has the highest poker hand out of 5 cards will be the winner of an LCD TV, GPS, or BBQ."

My question: How will the 10 coordinates be given to me? The kids and I use an iPad 2 with the geocaching app. Will it be possible to use the app to search for the coordinates? I don't suppose the caches could possibly be published caches that I will be able to seek out with the app. Should I borrow someone's "for reals" GPS unit for this event?

Any help appreciated, thanks!
--Kelly

You could ask the event coordinator(s) and I'm sure they'll be happy to answer any of your questions.

I doubt very much that the set of 10 coordinates will be caches that are going to be published here on Groundspeak. (I couldn't find any event in your area listed on Groundspeak for this coming weekend, so I assume it's some other organization hosting it.)



B.

And better yet, a "by State" search shows no events in Nevada this weekend whatsoever. And I don't see anything in California matching that description either. Oh gosh, this "non-sanctioned" event could release the coords in a few different ways, none of which would be conducive to someone caching with an IPad. And I seriously doubt a "non-sanctioned" event would have it's poker run caches listed as caches on Geocaching.com, which you could look up on the app after they are published. From the information given, you may just have to pair up with someone with a GPS unit. Do you know how to enter 10 sets of coordinates into the Iphone app as waypoints if they were given to you on a sheet of paper?

[Team_RedPanda]

Mr.Yuck, on 26 April 2012 - 06:26 PM, said:

Do you know how to enter 10 sets of coordinates into the Iphone app as waypoints if they were given to you on a sheet of paper?

It's looking like that's what I'm going to have to figure out! I can probably arrange the use of a magellan explorist gc for that day. If I can get my hands on it by tomorrow, I will practice putting in coordinates.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

--Kelly

[Team_RedPanda]

Here is a link to the event in Carson City, NV in case anyone wants to join us!

http://carsonsar.com/fundraiser.aspx

I'm seeing just now that it says that a GPS isn't even required, just helpful... so this will be interesting to see how this actually works.

This post has been edited by Team_RedPanda: 26 April 2012 - 08:01 PM

[tdheot]

Wait, geocaching without a GPS or coordinates? I'm new to geocaching, so I don't know if this is already an established thing. Does this work?

[niraD]

tdheot, on 27 April 2012 - 11:20 AM, said:

Wait, geocaching without a GPS or coordinates? I'm new to geocaching, so I don't know if this is already an established thing. Does this work?

Geocaching without coordinates doesn't work. All caches are supposed to involve the use of accurate coordinates as an integral part of the hunt at some point.

But lots of people have gone geocaching without a GPS receiver. I found hundreds of caches without one before finally taking the plunge.

See also:
http://www.cacheoped...aching_sans_GPS

[tdheot]

niraD, on 27 April 2012 - 01:42 PM, said:

tdheot, on 27 April 2012 - 11:20 AM, said:

Wait, geocaching without a GPS or coordinates? I'm new to geocaching, so I don't know if this is already an established thing. Does this work?

Geocaching without coordinates doesn't work. All caches are supposed to involve the use of accurate coordinates as an integral part of the hunt at some point.

But lots of people have gone geocaching without a GPS receiver. I found hundreds of caches without one before finally taking the plunge.

See also:
http://www.cacheoped...aching_sans_GPS

Thanks for the link, saves me from having to ask.

So basically, you look up the coordinates beforehand, put them into google maps or something similar, then find your way there on your own? Pretty cool. I think I'm going to stick with my GPS for now though

[niraD]

tdheot, on 27 April 2012 - 05:22 PM, said:

niraD, on 27 April 2012 - 01:42 PM, said:

tdheot, on 27 April 2012 - 11:20 AM, said:

Wait, geocaching without a GPS or coordinates? I'm new to geocaching, so I don't know if this is already an established thing. Does this work?

Geocaching without coordinates doesn't work. All caches are supposed to involve the use of accurate coordinates as an integral part of the hunt at some point.

But lots of people have gone geocaching without a GPS receiver. I found hundreds of caches without one before finally taking the plunge.

See also:
http://www.cacheoped...aching_sans_GPS

Thanks for the link, saves me from having to ask.

So basically, you look up the coordinates beforehand, put them into google maps or something similar, then find your way there on your own? Pretty cool. I think I'm going to stick with my GPS for now though

I would just use the "Google Maps" link on each cache page, so there really wasn't a "put the coordinates into Google Maps" step. But yeah, that's the basic idea.

And some folks use old-fashioned paper maps.

All the GPS receiver does is get you close to the coordinates, so you can start searching. If you can get there without a GPS receiver, then go for it.