Book Review - Hike & Seek with your GPS

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EcoTeam
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Book Review - Hike & Seek with your GPS

Post by EcoTeam » 17 June 04 7:53 pm

I was recently sent this caching book by the publisher, and am supposed to review it for the next issue of the newsletter :roll: , so until then...


Book Review:
Geocaching: Hike and Seek with Your GPS by Erik Sherman


This is the first book I have seen about Geocaching, so I approached the book with great interest and expectation.

This book has been professionally produced and published, with a list of at least 26 people who have worked on various aspects. The book even has it's own technical editor, another experienced Geocacher in Kelly Markwell.

My first impression was that the book presented itself very well, being nicely laid out, having lots of drawings and illustrations, as well as a very comprehensive index (I'm a sucker for a good index...)

The book is divided into several major chapters covering (among other things) an introduction to the sport, navigation techniques, bushwalking techniques and saftey, and of course hiding and placing a cache.

I liked the introduction to caching, and there is some good information on the history of the sport and how it evolved. Of course, there is also the obligatory detail on the types of caches, variations on the basic sport, geocoins, travel bugs, and the different web sites are also covered. All the basics are their and covered fairly well.

The chapters on navigation, map reading, and how the GPS system works are quite comprehensive. In fact I would say that they make up a good majority of the book. I did not read them in detail, but they looked to cover almost every technical aspect of navigation with and without the GPS.

The environmental and safety aspects of caching also got a hefty mention which I liked.

There are plenty of resource and web links to point beginners in the right directions too.

There is a fairly comprehensive chapter on hiding a cache, and all the major items and concerns are covered well.

As the book progresses though, I got the distinct feeling that it is a book primarily about hiking and navigation (hence the title I guess?) with Geocaching as a secondary concern. For example, there are oodles of comprehensive detail on selecting the right hiking gear. Selecting the right walking boots gets a good 5 pages, as many pages as that devoted to actually hunting a cache!

Although there is some good information in there, I was actually quite dissapointed with the section on hunting a cache. For example, there is the complete omission of using the standard and time-honored averaging technique for getting a better fix. The author seems to take a theoretical viewpoint and points out that the accuracy of a GPS is not that great and you can be up to 100 feet (30m) in error. While this may be true in theory, in practice every exprerienced geocacher knows that 15feet (5m) accuracy is considered the norm with various techniques like averaging. Averaging is given a brief mention in the placing a cache section though. But again, the author does not give it much importance.

I guess this brings me to what problems I found with the book, and things I felt were lacking...

First of all there is a major technical oversight. The author states (several times) that the accuracy of the altitude measurement with a GPS is "incredibly inaccurate and is not something to be trusted". Whilst this can technically be true (along with GPS coordinates!), the author does not explain that it can also be very accurate if used correctly. The author strongly recommends taking a proper pressure altimiter instead, which is fine. But then he casually mentions that these can also be very inaccurate if not calibrated correctly. "Someone in the store told me that they can shift by as much as 700 feet from one day to the next"! The "technical editor" should have picked this major inconsistency up.

The book markets itself to be one that negates "the need for searching the internet for successful information on caching". If this was the case then I would expect it to be somewhat of a comprehensive guide to all aspects of caching, yet I found it lacking in too many areas to be called a comprehensive guide. For example, there is virtually no mention of urban caching, it's all about hiking. Anyone reading the book would think that the only way to find or place a decent cache is to hike for miles.

But I think by far the biggest aspect of caching the book lacks is that of "paperless caching" and using a PDA to store HTML web pages, maps and the like. This is such a fundemental part of caching today that it seems incredible that it could be left out of a book like this. It is given a very brief mention, but a book like this could have been very useful to a much wider audience if it had at least a whole chapter on using a PDA and the various programs and HTML viewers available. After all, the book goes into some detail on using web based mapping programs, and EasyGPS gets a mention, but essentially nothing on off-line caching. What is even more puzzling is that the author has also written another book on Pocket Computers, so it's not as if he's a stranger to the subject!

While caching "gear" is mentioned, there are many essential items that are missing. I can easily come up with a list of 20 or more items that should be in a caching backpack. The information also seems to be scattered throughout the book. One comprehesnive "this is what to pack" list is what is needed.

I also could not find any decent information on datums, and it's certainly not in the index. This fundemantal and often confusing aspect of caching is a must for beginners and should be fully explained. Although to be fair, the author is US based, and they use the WGS84 datum so there is probably never a need for him to change or check datums. But in other countries who use multiple mapping systems and datums, it is essential knowledge.

Where are the great caching photos?? Any caching book is just begging to have some magnificent photos of a cacher standing on the edge of a spectacular cliff holding a cache. But sadly there isn't one caching photo in the whole book bar some shots of the obligatory hollow tree stump. The book tells you how caching take you to some great locations, but it doesn't *show* you. There are no photos of an open cache with all it's goodies either. I was dissapointed, esp considering that the author is also a photographer!

There were also a few grammar errors and typos, but that is fairly usual for any book.


What did I think overall?
As an experienced Geocacher (and book author) I know what I would have expected in a book on caching, but I'm afraid this book left me wanting... I don't think it is a book for experienced cachers, unless you want information on hiking and navigation. But there are better books devoted to those topics too, and in fact there are links to these in the book itself.
As a book on Geocaching for muggles and beginners, i think it's a fine book, and it definitely fills a void in the book shelves (any book on caching is a good thing!). I'd recommend it to beginners as a good general introduction.
Overall I would rate it 5 out of 10. But it could easily be an 8 or 9 if it only had a few extra chapters on the finer aspects of caching, and of course some great photos to grab everyones interest.

EcoDave :)

Mix
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Post by Mix » 17 June 04 8:26 pm

cool
<br><br>
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=507846
<br>
amazon has a few other Geocaching books too!

Dingbats
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Post by Dingbats » 11 July 04 9:41 pm

I'm wondering if there is enough passion and dedication amongst the aus. geocaching community to jointly write what we would consider the ultimate geocaching reference book.
<p>
I know there is the knowledge, experience and probably writing experitise. It could be developed open source style with some one doing the hard yards on a chapter and others submitting changes.
<p>
Would a reference like this be a good thing? Would it be worth the effort?

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