Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

A friend reached out to the community looking for a Chirp-enabled GPSr.  He will be in Traverse City this weekend, and he wants to try his first Chirp cache.

Garmin Chirps are little black units (smaller than a pager) that emit a short-range signal.  In this area, you will most likely find them as part of a multi-cache.  If you walk within range of the Chirp with a Chirp-enabled GPSr, a window appears on your screen stating there is a Chirp nearby and asking if you’d like to read the message.  The message will include further instructions or coordinates to the next stage/final. 

So far I’ve only completed 3 Chirp caches – my favorite being My Little Birdie Told Me…. Chirp, Chirp GC2THHW located in Bicentennial Park in Farmington, MI.

You might see one or more of these
Geocaching Attributes on the cache page

The Chirp costs about $24 and has a replaceable battery that lasts, on average, a year or so.  I don’t think they’re popular due to the expense of the unit (sucks if it gets muggled) and that most Cachers use smartphones now (there’s no app for that!).  However, they are a hoot to do! 

SPOILER ALERT! Clatmandu wears a Chirp on his lanyard.  The message says to find Clat and do the chicken dance for him!  Dancers earn his path tag!  Yes, during our first Midwest Geobash, my family fell prey to the lure of “the shiny” and earned our tag in front of hundreds of other Cachers outside the scavenger hunt arena!

I also have one.  It’s attached to the Team Free Range Lobsters banner, telling all and asunder to stop by to visit our banner as it’s trackable!

I’m intrigued with the use of new technology as part of the geocaching game.  We have some pretty creative minds in the area.  In addition to the Chirps and Wherigos, we also have:

NFC POC GC4MF1Y – Uses the Droid NFC technology in a multi-cache on campus

Agent K vs League of Villainous Evildoers GC2XCP0 – Uses a webpage accessed via your smartphone for a super spy game of hot-and-cold.

Can You Follow My Lead GC4XTAC – Uses an iPhone app called Klikaklu.  In the mall, you are given images and you have to find where in the mall the pictures were taken from.  Once you snap a picture, matching the original image, the app cycles to the next image.  Eventually, you are led to ground zero of the final container.

On a serious note, I have heard other Caches complain that this use of technology is unfair to those that don’t own Garmins or smart phones or the right smart phone.  Bullshit.  It’s a community game.  Make a friend and go caching with them.  I don’t own a Droid so we gathered a group of friends and followed Ben & Amanda of theGrundalows around the OCC campus to try out the NFC technology – so cool!  One of my favorite geocaching memories!

I have spoken… Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

Klikaklu - Another LBG

I was SO excited to head out to the Livonia event last night - we've been snowed in for so long, and I couldn't wait to hang out with my LTG geo-buddies.  This group meets at one of three Livonia-area restaurants (first Wednesday of each month).  We have dinner, enjoy a raffle and normally go out as a group for some caching.  As we are in the middle of Winter (and it's about 5 degrees F), we normally limit the caches to one, but, in warmer weather, we will cruise to 4-6 of them.  Older Cachers get to spend time with their best mates and newer Cachers will learn alot!

Mibbs, our hostess, is fabulous.  She normally makes cookies and is great about circulating around the attendees. Everyone feels welcome!  And she's also great about pulling out some type of game or exercise that really breaks the ice.

Last night's attendance was low due to weather, but, I must admit, it was probably one of my favorite meets!  After the group photo in the Laurel Park Mall's food court, Mibbs announced that the event cache was in the form of a scavenger hunt created by Commander Overloard!  What is it about scavenger hunts?  It evokes images of children laughing and sunny days and great explorations.  Everyone loves a good scavenger hunt.  And, although geocaching is a type of scavenger hunt, this was a nice change of pace.

So, all iPhone users were asked scan a QR code and download an app from the App Store called Klikaklu (pronounced "Click-a-Clue").  I'd never heard of it, but I soon realized upon opening it that it was a a modern-day scavenger hunt very similar to Sighter.

Using this app, you had to navigate to 10 stops.  At each stop, you had to locate an item, "capture" it using the camera on your phone, and, once verified, you were given the clue to the next site.

To capture it, you would click a button and your camera would open. You had to align the object's edges with white lines that appeared on your screen. Once you aligned it, you would get a MATCHED message.

We had a blast - as only some of us had iPhones, the others had to walk with us.  It was fun roaming the mall en masse.  We would look for items, capture the image, read the clue and take off to the next location.  A 10-stop scavenger hunt, mostly indoors, on such a brutally cold night!  Passerbys looked at us strangely and many approached to ask us what we were doing (I think our adventuresome spirit was contagious!)

As we navigated through the mall, I think each of us had a problem at one time or another.  My app crashed, but, when I re-opened the app, all my saved locations were intact.  Some people had a difficult time capturing one site - but the app allowed you to override and move onto the next stage.  It was really easy to navigate, and it seemed to have no problems tracking us inside the mall.

So, how did it end?  At the final stage, we received a message "now it's time to sign the log".  Too funny!  I think it took us so long to find the cache because there were so many of us looking for it we kept overlooking it!  And, not only was the scavenger hunt the "event cache", it was also a LAB cache!  Frito Bandito won the raffle and will be able to claim a find on this LAB cache.  Brilliant!

Just a few minutes ago, the event cache actually published.  It's called Can you follow my lead GC4XTAC.  You can use the Klikaklu app to locate the cache or, as it's a traditional, you can just go to the posted coordinates.  I know which method I'd choose again!

Favorite point for Commaner Overlord!