Saturday

This past Saturday was the wife's birthday and she wanted to do something special. Not shopping, no big dinner, no trip to the theater. She's just not that kind of gal.

She wanted to finish the dam at Lake Murray near Irmo, SC.

If you Munzee, you know what these power trails are like. Walk and scan, walk and scan. It is time consuming, it is quite a walk and it's fun!

We started this particular cluster earlier this year, just before what I like to call the Great Undeployment of '13, which I know is a sore subject for some folk but it does play a part in this story. So be patient.

I started in Munzee when it first came around. I didn't think much of it at first. It tool a while to grow on me. I was still heavily involved in another geo hobby and was reluctant to change. Things and people get old and after a decade of the other hobby I decided that I would change. I still do the other hobby but if I continue in it as heavy as I was, I wouldn't have any joy left for it. So here I am.

One Sunday, when the kids went with my parents after church, we were in Camden,SC to get the weeks groceries and have lunch. She was playing one of those mindless games like Candy Crush or some such, one of the ones that keeps me awake at night due to the glow from her iPad on the other side of the bed and I was grabbing a few Munzees in between stops. She asked what I was doing and I grabbed her phone and installed the app. In a few minutes she was hooked. (See this post.) And so we found a hobby in common that we could enjoy together again.

We aren't really ones who Munzee for points. The only competition is between us and our friend Wally. I have never really worried about points in any of these games. I just want to get out and enjoy myself.

Which brings my back around to the point of this story. The dam at Lake Murray was a thick cluster. Some of the Munzees were four in one place. There weren't many that were there alone and I was dreading hearing that buzz of "archived" all day long. I really tried to find somewhere else that we could go and something else we could do for the day, but she only asked for this one thing, to finish that cluster. How can you say no to a gal on her birthday?


I could just imagine how long it was going to take for us to make it down the damn. And I could also imagine how frustrated I was going to be about halfway through. I hate when things like this happen and it dampens my enthusiasm for whatever game I'm playing. I only ran one power trail while I was deep in geocaching. It was 108 caches on New Years Day of 2012. I swore to never do it again because halfway through I had a "I just want to get this over with" mentality. I had fun with my friend that was with me, always did no matter what. But it was mind numbing to hit cache after cache. 

I was prepared for Saturday to be like that.

I was wrong.

I want to take a moment to praise the Munzers in that area. Either a very dedicated Munzer or a large group of them have gone through and removed at least 80% of the archived Munzees on that dam. No trash. It's a pleasant cluster full of active Munzees. This made me smile. I've seen archived power trails with moldy pieces of log left on their own in film canisters all over the east coast. I am very pleased to be associated with folks who take a certain pride in the game so as not to put a bad public face to it. It's refreshing, even more so because I found this in my home state. If I could afford it I would send most everyone that has a Munzee on that dam a diamond or a mystery just to say good job.

This is why I play these games. It gets me out and active. It lets me see the world. I get to see the history of the area, I get to meet other players. Occasionally, I get to tell people about whatever game I am playing. We had a gent download the app in front of us on the dam Saturday so that he and his boys could start playing.

We have our problems occasionally. Undeployed limits, clusters that don't follow the few rules we have to the letter, etc. But in the end this is all about fun and getting out there.

And this is why I play.

Geosphere

On Saturday I was allowed to get out of the house for a bit and wander. I cache and munzee and take pictures when I am out and found that Geosphere (iOS) is going to be a great tool in the combining of the output from three sites and two hobbies. All three sites (GC.com OC.us and Munzee) allow a GPX to be downloaded for use on your devices so with a little bit of a learning curve I was able to easily drop all three sites data into one group and export the data to another GPX to send out to my caching partner +Wally Turbeville.

I wanted to try this not just for ease of use but because of something +Dave DeBaeremaeker mentioned awhile back. When we are out in the field playing we don't want to have to switch back and forth between different apps and websites. Having all this data in the same place is much more satisfying as I only needed to run two apps, Munzee and Geosphere, the whole time I was out. It made it a much more enjoyable experience as I took Wally into the wonderful world of OCUS and took him to several of their caches in Charlotte. I am especially glad to see the virtuals with OCUS that I can find and have the chance to place. I was a late comer on virtuals for GC.com and while I have found several, sadly I will never be able to place one. I hated when virts were taken away from GC. I found them to be some of the most interesting caches. I do understand the reason for archiving the cache type though. People abused them and when a few bad apples abuse the right we all lose.

As far as I can tell, there is no icon for Munzees in Geosphere. Come to think about it, why would you need one? You can't scan Munzees from Geosphere or mark them as found. This was all done for planning and mapping purposes. As you can see each regular Munzee was marked as a MEGA because how often are you going to come across a Mega. Both OCUS and GC caches fell under the regular icons of what is available for their particular cache types. Mystery Munzees were marked automatically as CITO. We were glad to have a good map with a nice view of what was available to us in any given area. I opted to make regular Munzees a black pin and virtuals a white pin in the map view and was very pleased with the view I got from that. I was also impressed with the accuracy of the Munzee app in different conditions. It was a nice clear day but I usually have problems dialing in on locations with a GPS under power lines and such. Most of the coords were dead on with an iPhone 4s and the Munzee and Geosphere app. (Props to TermiteHunter for dead on coords at each of his OCUS hides we hit!)

All in all a great day. 30 Munzees, 5 OCUS caches, 4 GC caches. And we had fun! That's the whole point anyway. We found some interesting history due to all three of the different parts of a game we both love very much. Caching gives us more than just coords on a map. It gives us an education, skills we wouldn't otherwise have, friendship. I wouldn't have met Wally if it hadn't been for caching or most of the people reading this. If we haven't met, you never know, could be never, could be tomorrow.

S

Let's talk about WAAS.

I can't count the number of times I have run into a new cacher on the trail and have heard, "My GPS just isn't that accurate. It doesn't get me to the cache."

First, no GPS is going to put you right on top of the cache. The game just wouldn't be that fun if you were put dead on the X. Second, there's a multitude of things that can affect your GPS accuracy from tree blockage, power lines, solar activity, etc. C, there's something you can do about it with the right GPS.




Each manufacturers GPS is going to be different. 

Maps, settings, capabilities, etc. I've seen two GPS of the same model get wildly different readings dead on top of a cache. Sometimes tens of feet apart, even more. One thing I always check first for a new cacher, after politely asking if I can hold their GPS, is their WAAS setting. Most will not have WAAS enabled.

From Garmins site:
WAAS consists of approximately 25 ground reference stations positioned across the United States that monitor GPS satellite data. Two master stations, located on either coast, collect data from the reference stations and create a GPS correction message. This correction accounts for GPS satellite orbit and clock drift plus signal delays caused by the atmosphere and ionosphere. The corrected differential message is then broadcast through one of two geostationary satellites, or satellites with a fixed position over the equator. The information is compatible with the basic GPS signal structure, which means any WAAS-enabled GPS receiver can read the signal.

I knew one cacher that had his settings off and had the wrong format set in his GPS for a year. He was using the wrong datum and found 1500 caches. Quite a feat. In the end it made him a better cacher because he had to develop skills that he would not have attained otherwise.

What does this mean to you? It means that your GPS will be more accurate and put you in the general area of the cache more quickly. Typical WAAS position accuracy is three meters (9.84 feet). From there it's all about the geo-force, your eyes and hands. The best thing I can suggest is experience. Many cachers hide the same way, a lot. I know a lot of cachers that hide the same way all the time. LOL So that makes it pretty easy.

Check you settings, especially on older models, to see if your GPS is WAAS enabled. You might be surprised.

And if you're  one of the new breed of cachers who use them new fangled cell phones for all your caching needs, I can't help ya. Just kidding. I found something that really help with my iPhone 4S. But that's next time.

Next up: GLONASS

Munzee or I've created a monster...

Late in the morning on Saturday, my parents called wanting to take the kids out shopping so they could spend a bit of time with them. I don't care how long you've been a parent, how protective you are over your children, whatever worries you may have about them being away from your side, the answer is always YES!!!

+Wally Turbeville has gotten me interested in +Munzee again. I have to admit that I didn't give it a chance the first time around but, to be honest, no one was playing here. I placed the first Munzee in South Carolina. It has never been captured. A game is no fun when you're the only one playing in your area, no matter how much you try to get others to play.

A lot of folks don't like it, it's not geocaching. You don't find anything. What's the point? (I am getting to that.)

I have been geocaching for over ten years, as I have mentioned before. I always enjoy it but I do get burned out on it from time to time. A lot of folk don't put thought into their hides, the spots aren't interesting, the containers are lame, it's just another lamp post, etc. The same can be said for any of the geo location hobbies. It depends on the cacher/munzer(?) on what the hobby and the experience are to them. You get out of it what you give. My fun is in-between caches for the most part. If I'm alone the caching comes second as long as I have my camera or can put a paddle in the water. Or light up a tunnel with my headlamp.

But back to Saturday. We decided to go down to Camden, SC to hide (post?) a few Munzees that I had printed up. I also wanted to grab a few that were around the area, just testing the waters. At the first three, Mags / MASEEGARS / +Mary Ann Seegars just watched and then I saw this...

Their are 92 Munzee in this area. I know that makes me sound like a number whore, I'm not, I looked at it as more of a chance to try several different types. I grabbed Mags phone from her hands and downloaded the app. We hit a few single Munzee and then went to lunch. Afterwards, we headed for the rest stop off of U.S. 20 that we are going to be spending a bit of time at for the next couple of hours of free time that we have. 

I started showing Mags how to use the app while I refreshed myself. I am iffy about the iPhone app, but I also know that there is an update in beta right now so no review of the app right now and no complaints. It gets me there and much like my first GPS, the find/capture gets made. So I think we spent the next hour, maybe an hour and a half at this rest stop looking for those little QR codes. 

The placement of all these proved to be a pretty quick training ground for both of us, so much so that we took the kids back to a park in Camden Sunday and made a picnic lunch of McDonalds. The kids got to play at their playground and we got to play at ours. Six more Munzees in the bag and I thought that might do her for the week but then I get this today.

She ended up grabbing six today (Monday. During her "break") and making Level 8. Not bad from nothing at all on Saturday. And for her to strike out by herself is really something. I know she likes it.

She was with me at my first geocache find and for many in between. I have never seen her get overly excited about a cache. Saturday I looked over and she had a smile on her face doing this. She was actually enjoying herself. And in the end it wasn't about the Munzees, or caches, it was that we've found something that we enjoy doing together.

So I Munzee now. Munzees are cool.

She's going to make me do this.
I just know it.