Treocaching = Geocaching in trees

Anybody familiar with Geocaching? Basically it is the activity of hiding caches of "stuff" places all over the world and having people find them based on the GPS coordinates. More info on www.GeoCaching.com

Maybe we could start doing TreoCaching. Exact same thing as Geocaching except that not only do you have to make it to the right place, you have to then climb a tree to actually get to the cache. Plus keeping the cache up in the air will keep the riff raff out.

Anyways, just looking to add a little adventure to some of the climbs

Later

Bakes

that sounds like a great idea.

Sounds fun to me.

Potential downfall: (pun intended) Joe GeoCacher guy finds our site, goes to the woods and finds the cache. Not much of a climber, but he can see a bag hanging in the tree. He starts climbing, falls and gets hurt. The lure of the goods were just too much to let him think straight.

Realistic concern?

I've been slowly collecting coordinates of some of the trees I climb.

love
nick

yes indeed a very major concern prob best to choose tree that can not be free climbed [1st branch to high to reach]

Yo Dude5, (as the saying goes).
A while back, TCI forum member Icabod dedicated a website to collecting GPS coordinates of the trees he and others have climbed. It was at http://treeclimbnc.dynserv.net but I think the site is currently down.

I too GPS-mark the trees I find as I wander through the swamps of Jersey in search of the ultimate climber. I download my GPS tracks onto Google Earth. It’s kinda neat to see an overlay of your travels on a satellite image.

My ”Treeocache” is more like a collection of stuck throwbags.
Some day I’ll go back and rescue them all!

So Dude5, what part of the globe are you currently residing in?
What kind of GPS equipment are you using?
Just wondering, and welcome aboard TCI forum!

I am in the Washingto DC area

I have not yet climbed a tree, but have a bunch of gear in the mail so hope to by weeks end.

I have a few GPSs (Garmin GPS III, Rhino 110, Rhino 120 + a GPSmap 60c that I use for work). If anyone is interested I could start up a simple tree database. I do a lot of web programming and coming up with one would be relatively simple and would only cost about 3-5$ a month depending on what ISP is used.

I too love Google Earth. It is the ultimate recon tool and record all my travels there.

MSN's virtual earth actually has better photos (they were taken by a low flying airplane rather than the satelites) if they have covered your area. With the birds eye view you can even pick out which trees you want to climb.

Later

Bakes

I have some Google Earth questions....go see the new thread!

http://tci-forums.com/viewthread.php?tid=868

love
nick

Dude5,
Looks like you may become the GPS consultant. I have a few questions you might be able to help me with.

I’ll put together a post on GPS stuff and move it over to the Not About Trees section of the board shortly. In the mean time, I think Nick hijacked us over to the Google Earth thread.

Later,
Ej

Yup my site is down, maybe for good unless I hit the lotto.

We aggreed that ethically speaking that we should not list a waypoint for a specific tree, but rather for a grove. This is to prevent overclimbing. I'd say drop some cache (HA!) in your favorite grove. Climbers could be notified here of the cache.

Climb Safe!
Icabod

Would it be better to have the cache at the treetop level- a place only for tree climbers with skill? Possibly a coordinate where you could see the cache with binoculars? Let the height factor weed out those with no climbing skills?

Originally posted by Treeman
Would it be better to have the cache at the treetop level- a place only for tree climbers with skill?

Treeman’s idea has merit.
If the trees are near the edge of a clearing, the GPS coordinates can be exact enough to get you into the specific tree with the stash in it. The stash could contain the written directions to the actual “ultimate climber” which should be near-by.

Unless you are a good enough climber to get to the primary treeocache, you can’t know where the exceptional tree actually is.

Yeah, it’s a bit involved but I like it!

Great idea! I'm a geocacher/letterboxer myself. I'm new to climbing...getting my gear in a few weeks. I'm in Edgewater, MD. Can't wait to start.

Haven't made a Treocache. Many would not get to the box if I hid it in a tree.

Although there is on that HAS to have a boat. The cache is 2 foot underwater in a no swimming sand pit.

I have been thinking what I can do to combine and use the two hobbies for fun.
They do have some that you can ONLY do at night, so a highly placed reflector could be involved.

If you have questions let me know. Some of the Geo folks use two or three programs like swiss army knife and one other to download all the things to the PDA for a paperless hunt.

I have NO GPS experience. I know of it but do not have a unit. Is it possible to put a cache up in a tree and have coordinates so someone can climb up to get to it? I hear these GPS units can get you close. Does it need to be visible or can there be a description of the tree's diameter and species to clue climbers in? Please tell me what is possible.

I have an older Treo 600 with an Intel embedded CPU. It's got about 256KB of SRAM cache.