What is this man doing?!

Why he’s logging his discovery of a GeoCache of course!

McCarthy Forest Pathes
(in cyan, by Myke and CondorCounter; 45.3505,-75.6525)
_{Google Earths Map: © 2006 Navteq, © 2006 Europa Technologies, Background Image © 2006 DigitalGlobe}

This past weekend, my father and I set off on a cartographing mission of the nearby McCarthy Forest on our Kona bikes. (He’s got my old Fire Mountain.) He’s got this neat little wrist-wearable Garmin ForeTrex 101 GPS receiver that we used to track our voyage and mark intersections as way-points. Unbeknownst to me, he’d also pre-programmed a few co-ordinates…
Along the way, we discovered our first GeoCache.

The Cache

Inside the cache

I’d heard of GeoCaching years ago, but not having a handheld GPS (I’ve got a USB mouse recv’r) or a bike, but mostly no significant inclination to go outside – didn’t really made playing hide-and-seek all that likely… I get the feeling that’s probably about to change: an excuse to use a GPS receiver, a digicam, my bike and something to ‘blog about… how could I say no?!

Actually – a couple good reasons: raspberries, thorns, brambles… blood…

More Ow.

The more I think about it, GeoCaching isn’t that far off from wardriving or Plazes either. Neither of which I’m a stranger to.

So now I have to find a GPS receiver that’s:
– Mac and Linux friendly
– Handle-bar mountable
– Readable at that distance
– saves tracks
– supports way-point direction

Suggestions?

Oh, and here’s some obligatory bike photos. Click for links to the galleries.

The Hoss in its Element

The Hoss and its Element