What do all these buttons do?

A few weeks ago I learned about a hobby called Geocaching, where people hide little containers of stuff, then post the GPS coordinates and some clues as to how to find them, then other people use GPS devices to track down and find the stuff. This seemed like the perfect hobby because it involves the outdoors and electronic gadgets. If only I could work Star Wars into it somehow…

This blog will detail my finds and failures as I scour the Charleston area and beyond for those hidden nuggets of joy. If you want more information on geocaching in general check out the link in the sidebar (My geocaching name is RedZeppelin, in case you care to peruse my finds and such.).

But first — my equipment. No, it’s not one of those blogs. Here’s what I go a-huntin’ with:

- Magellan eXplorist 210 GPS unit (more on why I chose this one later).
- GPS Babel software for transferring coordinates to the aforementioned GPS unit.
- Palm m500 for paperless caching.
- MacCMConvert software for transferring cache info to the aforementioned Palm.
- A Sony DSC-P41 camera. I’m much too clumsy to risk taking my good camera out into the woods.
- And a tiny travel first-aid kit for bumps and scrapes along the way. I would’ve purchased a larger kit but I wouldn’t know how to use most of the stuff in it.

I’ll probably get a cheap backpack and walking stick soon for longer hikes, but right now I’m just going for the easier caches until I figure out what I’m doing. I’m the type who could get lost on the way back from my mailbox, plus I haven’t mastered my GPS device yet, so I have no business going deep into the woods.