GPS for Dummies.pdf - Engineering Surveyor

124Part II: All About GPSJust click the name of a cache displayed in the list about which you want moreinformation to see a page with the following information. (Cache details displayedon the page are shown in the upcoming Figures 7-4 and 7-5.) Cache name: The name of the cache (usually the cache name has somethingto do with the area where it’s hidden, who hid it, or a play onwords). Bonus: If you hide a cache, you get to name it. Who placed the cache: This is usually a cacher’s alias. Cache type: Caches can be traditional (a single container), multicaches(where clues in a single cache point to one or more other caches), orvirtual caches (a cool location that doesn’t have a container). Cache coordinates: These record where the cache is located in latitudeand longitude and UTM coordinates; these coordinates use the WGS 84datum, so be sure your GPS receiver is set to this datum. When the cache was hidden: The date the cache was originally placed. Cache waypoint name: All caches in the Geocaching.com database havea unique name: for example, GC followed by the numeric order the cachewas added to the database. You can use this to name a GPS waypoint forthe cache location. Difficulty: The difficulty rating is how hard the cache placer thinks thecache will be to find; 1 is easiest, and 5 is the most difficult. Whoeverplaces the cache decides the difficulty level, based on some generalcriteria, such as how steep or rocky the terrain is or if you have to gothrough very much underbrush to reach the cache. Terrain: The terrain rating is how difficult the terrain is. 1 is flat, easy,and level; 5 could be very steep and rocky with lots of underbrush andgenerally miserable travel conditions. Like with the difficulty rating, it’sup to the cache placer to rate the terrain. General description of the cache: Cache descriptions range from acouple of sentences to stories and history lessons about the location.Clues often appear in the description, so check it closely. Map location of the cache: At the top of the page is a small state mapfrom which you can take a general idea of where the cache is. A largermap with more detail appears at the bottom of the page. You can clickthe larger map and go to the MapQuest Web site, where you can zoom inon the cache site. Hints: The cache placer can optionally add hints to help a geocachernarrow his search. The hints are in code; I discuss these in the following“Finding the cache” section. Logged visits: This is a list of all the comments about the cache frompeople who have visited it and then logged Web site comments.