Hi, I'm a nanny and heard about geocaching and thought it sounded like a fun, new activity that would get the kids outside. I don't know if I am just stupid, confused or don't have the right tools. I went to a website and found a lot of "caches" in the area, it said to enter the coordinates into my GPS to locate the "cache"... when I did this, it would only navigate us as far as the street that it was on, I feel like this is wrong because that would be nearly impossible to find. There was an app that I could download for this specific thing, but it was $10, so I didn't want to download it if it was unnecessary. Am I doing something wrong, do I need the app or are the coordinates only supposed to take me to the general location (the street)? If it does only take you to the street where it is located, how do you go about finding it? Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
sounds like you are doing everything right.
the gps you are using is the problem.
it seems you are using a hand held gps in car driving mode.
you would need a gps with pedestrian mode that can navigate off the road. some will say off road like this type of gps right here - this one does car, pedestrian, truck, and off road
http://www.newelectronx.com/proddetail.p...
look for pedestrian or off road mode in your gps and that should solve the problem.
Simba may be correct if you are using an automotive GPS. Some handhelds also have a feature that tries to avoid leaving the mapped highways in the unit, although this can usually be disabled in the settings. If you set any GPS to navigate by road, when you get very close to the area where the cache is located you will have likely have problems so be sure you select direct or hike or whatever similar option your GPS may have.
Finally, as far as phone apps (don't care for them personally, but I know many people love them) if you are using an Android phone, look for c:geo, a free app that works reasonably well. I keep it on my phone as a backup system and to sometimes read the latest cache logs, etc., in the field.
I use a $0.99 app where I just enter the coordinates I found online and it will navigate me to the geocache. GPS will only get you so close to the destination. Once you're within 10 ft. or so, you have to search for the cache which is often hidden in bushes or in the knot of a tree.
Usually when you get the coordinates online (geocaching.com or opencaching.com), there will be a hint about where it is hidden.
Are you using a handheld GPS, or a car that is used for driving? If it's one of the ones used for driving, they usually don't go off the roads where most caches are hid. So you would need a handheld, or certain phones work too. Then most handhelds allow you to load the coordinates (not just enter them yourself.)
