Post by Admin on Apr 28, 2021 23:14:45 GMT -5
Alternative Caching ...What is it?
I know YOU started with an app on your phone for Geocaching.com
While they are the big players in town they are not the only ones.
While you are not so entrenched in GC I want ot tell you about the alternatives.
Opencaching.us: A not so large cache listing site in the US , Opencaching.us covers the entire North America area. The site is free with many of the same benefits of GC premium withiut the cost. Opencaching is somewhat local in that there are what we call NODES in several areas around the world. OC is much more popular in Europe, We call It OCNA here (OpenCaching North America) OCNA is smaller with fewer caches overall but we do have chace types unavailable on GC such as BIT and moving Caches. The GCGC area has quite a few OCNA caches. Expand your horizons by explloring OCNA
TerraCaching.com is another. There are Terracaches world wide and they have several locationless caches that can be found anywhere along with Cyber caches. Memebrship is free but you do need two sponsors to join, THe GCGC has several that will be your sponsor s and they ahve a method for gaining other sponsors for aspiring members. Don't let sponsorship deter you. There are not a lot of TC caches in the GCGC are but there are af ew and there are many in other area.
Navicache: if you run across them in your searchs they did exists but it appears abandonded. They are not accepting new members.
GPSGames.org: They have many GPS related games including geocaching. They have their own geocaching as well as listing some caches from other sites. OCNA was listed but that seems to have stopped. The other games may be of intersest.
The dominant sites are Geocaching.com, Opencaching.us and TerraCaching.com. Each offers much the same but with a twist. Don't limit yourself to GC. Explore the others.
Many get tied to their GC find count and don't want to complicate things with another site. This is short sghted. You can play on all.
The reason I said you are probably a GC member and started with an app on your phone is because they are the big frog (their logo) in the pond.
They probably encouraged you to join with a fee.
Caching is FREE. Even their site allows free membership.
You dont't get access to PMO (Premium Member Only) caches but they are few and you can do without them..
The other sites give you most if not all the other premium membership options for free.
There is no need to pay for what you can get for free.
Use another app and see everthing.
I use C:Geo for android (there are others that may work on iphome)
I can search, find and log on the app for any GC , OCNA or TC cache
You can download TC caches if you want to the app.for later use. I do.