As covered in our geocaching and traveling posting not to long ago, I am very lucky that I get to travel a lot as part of my day job. Working in renewable energy affords me a pretty good life, and takes me to some amazing places. A few days ago I landed on Maui to start a weeklong work stint. I’ll be posting some geocaching stories from both Maui and Oahu over the course of the next week or so, so be on the look out for them!

Of course you can’t work 100% of the time, even when traveling for work and not fun. And the Hawaiian’s even have a saying for this “pau hana” which means “work is done”. I knew that between the end of work and sunset each night I would have a couple of hours to jog, play in the surf and even get a few geocaches under my belt. I wouldn’t be able to tackle the longer hikes this time around, but I did want to get Hawaii checked off the “to geocache” list.

As a frequent traveler I’ve become somewhat proficient at packing. I know how to roll my t-shirts and ball my socks in order to get the maximum amount of stuff into my suitcase. And I can normally nail the 50 lb limit within a couple of lbs to spare so I don’t have any heavy bag fees. I’ve even checked baggage with bottles of wine and other goods in glass jars and bottles wrapped in clothing. In short: I thought I knew what I was doing.

That cockiness cost me a little because when I started to unpack after this latest flight I realized that my GPSr had a chunk of the plastic taken out of it! After a few choice words that I won’t bother sharing on here, I held my breath as I tried to turn it on. To my relief it indeed did work, though the rattling around piece of plastic is a tad annoying. If it stops working while I’m here on the islands I’m not to worried about it as I know I can geocache with my iPhone rather easily.

But as with most things, I’m going to try and look for the upside here.

My GPSr is a Delorme PN-20, which when I bought it three or four years ago was the Cadillac of GPSr devices. I was drawn to it not only because of the device itself, but the amazing map software that came with it. Later Delorme released a software update specifically for geocachers which allowed paperless geocaching, and direct downloads from the geocaching website. In short, I was always very happy with it. And I don’t hold the device responsible for this plastic chipping at all.

But I’m a bit of a technology hound, and whenever the latest gadget comes out I’m normally near the front of the line to try it out. I had successfully fought the urge to change out the PN-20; after all it works great (even with a chunk of the screen missing).

But now I am starting to wonder if I shouldn’t upgrade. There are a lot of great GPSrs out there. I may try reaching out to some of the manufactures to see if they’ll let us here at madcacher try them out and offer reviews. You never know until you ask I suppose. Do you have any particular GPSr you’d like to see reviewed or have us try out? Let us know and we’ll be sure to contact those manufactures!

What is your favorite GPS? What are you currently using? Any recommendations? Please feel free to get ahold of us on our contact page, like us on our facebook wall or just leave a comment below!

Puzzle caches are one of my favorite types of geocaches to hunt for as they offer an additional challenge to overcome even after you’ve located what you’re fellow geocachers have left for you. Recently I got the idea that I might want to build a cryptex and hide it as part of a puzzle cache.

If you aren’t familiar with what a cyptex is, don’t feel bad. The word is actually fairly new and was created by popular author Dan Brown. If that name sounds familiar it should! Dan Brown was the author of the 2003 best selling book “The Da Vinci Code”. The name “cryptex” is a combination of the words cryptology and codex, and wikipedia defines it as “a small, portable vault used to hide messages”. In the book, and later the movie, the characters rush through a series of clues and events to find the secret code to open their cryptex and reveal a secret message. Sound familiar? The concept of a cryptex loans itself very easily to geocaching. (If you haven’t read the book I highly recommend it)

A cryptex is described in the Da Vinci Code as a stone cylinder that is made up of 6 smaller “stone donuts” stacked one on top of the other. The two end caps of the cryptex allow the user to look into the device and see the contents that are hidden inside. Each of these donuts is carved with the entire alphabet on the surface and in order to open up the device and retrieve the contents the user must spell out the correct word along a single line. Once the disks are aligned, it works much like a lock in that all of the tumblers align and the device can be opened.

Dan Brown even went a step further making his device able to destroy the message inside if it fell into the wrong hands. In the novel he states that the paper on which the secret message is written is made of thin papyrus wrapped in a glass vial of vinegar. If someone tries to force the device open, the glass vial would break, releasing the vinegar and destroying the paper with it.

As with anything these days, you can now buy a cryptex already made. I’ve included some links to Amazon below where you can go and buy such commercially made cryptexes if you want. I even added a link to the book, which as I said above is worth a read.

• Mini Cryptex
• The Da Vinci Code Cryptex 1:1 Scale Prop Replica
• Cryptex(tm) Security Box – Black Marble Pattern
• The Da Vinci Code

Or perhaps you’re like us and would like to try and make your own? You really don’t need to be that handy or have a large collection of expensive tools in order to do so. This video is not our own, but it is the one that I’m using as I do try to assemble one for setting out as a geocache. I thought I would share it with all of you in case you also want to give it a try!

If you do decide to build one, please send us a photo! Even if you decide not to build or buy a cryptex, we hope you’ll keep an eye out for one during your geocaching and let us know if you do! We’d love to hear about it! Send us an email on our contact page, Facebook wall or leave a comment below!

Now that I’ve somehow ended up with a BlackBerry Curve, an iPhone and an iPad, I’ve been doing alot of paperless caching lately with them. And since I’m far from being an expert on paperless caching with smart phones, I’m hoping to strike up a good, helpful conversation in the comment field below in that regard.

I’ll start off by offering my opinion so far. Obviously the iphone and iPad use the same app, so the extent of my smart phone geocaching extends only to the geocaching iphone/itouch/ipad app and the Geocache Navigator app on the Blackberry.

I’ll start with the Geocache Navigator app on my Blackberry Curve. Here’s my review, TOTAL waste of money! Why? Because it doesn’t even work! I’m assuming it’s the compatibility of my phone and not the app, but still, I paid something like $15 for an app that doesn’t work and I can’t even get the money back. I believe it should show a warning telling you what phones it’s compatible with before you purchase.

The iphone/itouch/ipad app is AWESOME! I love it! And it doesn’t matter which one you have to do paperless caching either. With the iPhone you can actually navigate to the cache without a GPS, but in my experience it’s very slow adjusting the distance and it just isnt’ as good as a GPS. So I still load each cache into my GPSr for better accuracy. However, as TomTom pointed out in the comment feild of another post “How do you Record Cache Details before a Hunt” you can actually use your iPod Touch or iPad to do everything else without a data plan, by simply using pocket queries!

Here’s what TomTom said, which I can confirm works perfectly “The Geocaching App ($10) supports all of the same features as

Smart phones make geocaching simple!

the iPhone, except for the realtime GPS location. You can create pocket queries online, and load them in to your iPod Touch for offline viewing. You can also choose which caches to mark as “Favorites” and it will save those for offline viewing. I have the entire southwest Michigan saved via Pocket Queries, and it hardly makes a dent in the storage of my device.

While using our Garmin GPSMAP 60Csx as our locating device, we can log field notes “offline” and save them for later on our iPods. Once we hit a WiFi hotspot (or get home), we click on
“Submit Field notes”. DONE!”

So in my own experience, I’ve had horrible luck with the Geocache Navigator app on my BlackBerry Curve and I LOVE the iphone/itouch/ipad app!

Do you use a smart phone for paperless geocaching? If so what do you use?

Whether you’re new to Geocaching or you’re just getting started, you most likely have a bag of some type, which you carry with you when you’re on your geocaching adventures. If you don’t then I highly recommend getting one and and filling it with the items listed below.

This list is a compilation of what I carry in my own bag and what other Geocaching friends mentioned to me on Twitter (thanks guys and gals) that they consider to be essentials.

1. Pens & Pencils – Most micros and even some smalls, regulars and larges do not contain writing utensils. If you go caching without a pen there’s a good chance you won’t be able to sign half of the logs.

2. Batteries – It’s great fun to be out hunting for caches in the middle of nowhere, or in the middle of somewhere for that matter But it’s not so much fun when your GPSr dies and needs new batteries!

3. Swag (Trade Items) – Especially when caching with children, it’s always good to have some small it

ems to trade for other items inside caches.

4. Tweezers – Many micro containers contain logs that are very difficult to remove. Tweezers have “saved the day” for me on several occasions! In some rare occasions tweezers are even needed to retrieve the actual Geocache itself.

5. Flashlight – Whether you cache at night or doing all of your hunting during daylight hours a flashlight often comes in handy. At night it’s obvious, but even during the day some hiding spots are much easier to find when a flashlight!

6. Paper and/or log books – Mannnnnnny logs get wet. It’s always good to help out the cache owner by replacing wet or full logs, so 1. you can sign the log 2. those who find the cache after you can sign the log and 3. the cache owner doesn’t have to deal with it. It’s cheap and easy, so why not?

7. Camera – You never know when you’re going to find a neat place, creative container, rare animal etc. on your geocaching adventures. Always have a camera with you, so you don’t have another “Darn, I wish I had a camera” moment

8. Cache Containers – I have a few extra nanos and bison tubes in my bag. You never know when you’re going to come across a great spot that needs a cache.

That’s what’s in my bag, what’s in yours?

photo credit: geishaboy500