The New Google Map Maker

Who better to update hiking and biking trails in Google Maps than geocachers?!



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Jeremy Irish at TEDx

Jeremy Irish, President and CEO of Groundspeak, explains how geocaching.com got started, and why he loves it, at this TEDx talk. Find out why it's called a "R.A.S.H."



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Done and Done... Almost

On Friday, I found a cache on a day I had not previously found a cache before; December 9th. This marked the 365th calendar day of finding at least one cache, and means I have filled in my "days with a find" calendar, sort of:

The only day I'm missing now is February 29th, leap day. Luckily, the next leap day is only 81 days away. But if I don't find a cache on 02/29/2012, then it's a long, 1,461 days until my next opportunity to completely fill in the calendar.

Cache On!

Geoaching On An Android Device

If you've read this blog long enough, you know I use a combination of a Garmin GPSmap60CSx, and an iPodTouch, for geocaching. You also may recall that I used to use the Groundspeak iOS geocaching app, but recently migrated to Geosphere, as I think it has much better features, is significantly faster at loading pocket queries, and is better at searching lists of downloaded caches.

Having no experience caching with an Android device, I purposefully avoided discussing that topic in this blog. However, I've recently found myself in the market for my first smartphone (yeah, I know, welcome to the real world, Mr. GeoJoe). I'm pretty set on getting an Android device, so naturally, I am curious about what my caching options would be on such a unit. I know that Groundspeak also makes an Android version of it's geocaching app., but I was hoping there might be other options.

Apparently, there are, as during a casual search, I ran across this great blog site, called Android Caching, that discusses nothing but, you guessed it, Android Caching. So if you find yourself with a new Android phone and need to figure out the perfect geocaching app, this site has your back.

Cache On!

Shopping or Caching? - It's A No-Brainer

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, my daughter and I joined many of my college buddies and their friends and family for our annual Post-Thanksgiving-Day hike in Las Trampas Regional Wilderness in the hills west of Danville, California. Being somewhat of a shop-a-phobe, there really is no where I'd rather be on Black Friday than surrounded by nature and a few friends. While the weather was a little on the cool side by California standards (65 degrees F), it was still a perfect day for hiking and picking up a few new geocaches along the way. Here are the details of the hike from EveryTrail.com:

Las Trampas Post Turkey Hike at EveryTrail


Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Cache On!

Fall Caching

While anytime of year is great for geocaching, there's something extra nice about caching during the fall. The temperature is perfect as it is never so hot or so cold that you're miserable. And the disappearing foliage makes it much easier to find that cache that's eluded you all summer. Here are a few shots from my outing yesterday to get you in the mood:

So get out there, and Cache On!

GSAK Version 8 Released

A major upgrade of GSAK was released this past week, and includes many new features as it now takes advantage of the geocaching.com API. This allows the user to load cache data into their GSAK databases directly from geocaching.com. No more dowloading pocket queries to you hard-drive and then loading them into GSAK. Other new features in the version 8 release include support for custom data (virtually unlimited number of fields) and a newer, more modern look and feel. The full list of new features can be found here.


Since this is a significant upgrade, it does come with a cost:

• Brand new users (those that have never owned a previous version of GSAK) - $30
• If purchased V7 after 10/01/11 - Free
• If purchased V7 between July 1st and September 30th - $5 for the upgrade
• If purchased V7  between February 1st and June 30th  - $10 for the upgrade
• If purchased V7  between 10/01/09 and 01/31/11  - $15 for the upgrade
• If purchased V7 before 10/01/09 - $20 for the upgrade
• Version 6 users can get a token discount of $5, so $25 for the upgrade to V8

On a completely unrelated note, I hope everyone had an enjoyable 11/11/11 and was able to attend a cache event somewhere honoring our veterans. I attended a flash mob event in the tiny town of American Canyon (appropriately named), where a good, but brief, time was had by all.

Cache On!