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Geocaching With Your Blackberry

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Geocaching In High Tech Style

Ditch your GPSr! Ditch your PDA! Go geocaching the high tech way!

We dove head first into the 21st century with our Blackberry Curve and the GeoNavigator software. Before we cached with a Garmin 12 Map (don't laugh. It worked.) and a Handspring Visor Deluxe (you're still laughing). Needless to say, it was a chore.

We were addicted to our Blackberry after the first outing. Here are lessons we learned while geocaching.

Paperless Geocaching

It's hard keeping track of notes, waypoints, and descriptions in the field. Using your smartphone, or in my case, my Blackberry Curve, you can easily go paperless while geocaching.

Want to have previous logs of your cache available? Want to go ahead and take a peek at the hint? How about a topo map to guide you in the right direction? Let me show you how to go paperless geocaching.

Here's What You Need

Tools and links to get you started paperless geocaching
Supported phone
Many options here. Check for your supported phone here.
Geocache Navigator
Check out the entire suite of Trimble products. For geocaching, you need GeoNavigator.
TwitPic
Tweet and share your adventures while out geocaching with your camera phone

Getting Started

Of course, there are a lot of programs for geocaching out there. What makes the GeoNavigator program shine is its direct connect with Geocaching.com, the source for cache data. With other programs you have to upload the GPX files to get going. Not so with GeoNavigator. The program is so powerful. All the tools you need are right here. Let's get started.

You have some options to start out. Let's say you're on a road trip and have some extra time for geocaching. Great! Use the Quick Cache option to identify caches nearby. The list provides the distance and the direction from you.

Maybe you have a destination in mind. Select Find Caches and you can enter an address, an intersection, or a zip code and get caches. You select how many and how far.

Or maybe you want to go after a specific cache. You read about it or perhaps received a published geocache alert on your phone. Manually enter the cache code and you're off and running for that FTF.

Get Stuff

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More For Blackberry Owners

Must see sites for Blackberry owners
Crackberry
Very active forums. The definitive site for the Blackberry owner
Trimble Outdoors
Products for your GPS-enabled phone. Go hiking, running, geocaching. The tools you need
Geocaching.com
You can't geocache without this site.
TwitterBerry
Tweet while geocaching! Share the love!
TwitPic
Such a cool service, it gets a second link
Vlingo
Your personal assistant in the field. It will open applications for you. Send your emails. Send your tweets. Make toast. Well, not that, but my assistant--I call her Yvonne--is a help always. Free application.

The Exploring Blog

Tales from the field.
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Important!

The Small Print

* Now available with Verizon Wireless

* Your GPS coverage is only as good as your phone coverage. If you're caching in the Boondocks, bring along the old GPSr if you have one.

* Geocache Navigator is a yearly subscription. There is a nice long trial to get you acquainted with the program to see if it's for you.

* Unlike your GPSr, your smartphone is not weather resistant. Repeat

Getting Your Smartphone

If you'd like one, here a place to start to get a good deal on your own Blackberry.
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Reasons To Go High Tech

  • No more batteries! And not just one kind. AAs for the GPSr. AAAs for the PDA. Gez!
  • No more paper! No more lists of caches, with coordinates scrawled on the size.
  • My geo-bag just got a whole lot lighter.
  • It's more accurate. My BB responds so much quicker while out in the field.
  • Did I say no more paper?
  • With the handy topo maps, no more taking the wrong direction. No more going up the hill when I could have gone around. No more surprise wetlands. Hurrah!

More Geocaching Fun

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Tips For Geocaching High Tech

Some lessons I've learned in the field that
  • If you're going someplace that you don't know well, set a waypoint at your car.
  • Maximize your phone's battery. Keep it on a charger while driving to the cache site.
  • Minimize the number of applications running in the background. Using a GPS is battery expensive. Don't add to the drain by having other apps that you're not using, running.
  • Carry a spare battery if you're going to be out for a very long time. You may need your GPS to get back to your car. That's not the time to find out it's dead.
  • Put your phone on standby to minimize battery drain when not actively seeking a cache.

Our Favorite Geocache

The final Halloween geocache.
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“Remember it's not the number of caches, but the journey to the finds that makes the game. Cache on!”

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wayfarer

My name is Chris. I am a Minnesota artist, specializing in watercolor landscapes of the North Country. Weborg Lodge combines two of my passions - painting... more »

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