kenjennings

I would never DREAM of using these forums for any self-promotional activity, so I'm glad someone else resurrected this old thread. Yes, my map book is out and in stores (and a minor bestseller, in its first week) and chapter 10 is all about geocaching. If anyone reads it and has any quibbles with the content and/or the accuracy thereof, I'd love to hear so we can get any errors fixed for the paperback next year. Thanks to all who talked caching with me...it was all super-helpful.

I gotta say, that's exactly the kind of story that would be ideal for the book. Do you have any more info? I'd love to track this cacher down. I second the recommendation for Island of Lost Maps. On different lines, another recent book called Maps of the Imagination is also great. It's more about how we relate the way we think to maps, metaphorically.

Hey. thanks to all who have responded so far, including privately...looking forward to more. Some quick responses: 1. It is really me. See here, for example. But tozainamboku was cracking me up...I had read enough of that Ventura_Kids thread to get the joke. 2. Those links to Podcacher, Online Geocacher, and the Hunt / Unusual forums were very helpful. Checking them out now. 3. I visited the folks at Groundspeak a few months ago, and will probably look to do so again sometime soon now that I'm getting a little more hands-on caching experience. Finally: the overlap between general geography fans and cachers is an interesting question. My guess is that the initial crop of diehard cachers (say, 5-8 years ago) WERE almost exclusively map/geography buffs of one kind or another. Who else owned a handheld GPS back then? But as the sport grew, it accreted millions of fans who had no interest in geography at all: kids who liked Happy Meal toys, gadget geeks who just wanted to play with the cool new thing, outdoorsy types who liked the adventure, collector-mentality folks interesting in racking up big numbers of finds, etc. But still, at the core of it, come on, it's a treasure hunt using geographic clues. With caching, the clues might be numerical coords instead of "100 paces west of the hangman's tree" or whatever, but it's still essentially treasure-map stuff straight out of Treasure Island. Which I imagine is a big central part of what turns people (especially kids) into geography nuts in the first place. So I think there is still some kind of primal connection there. Am I crazy?

Hey, long-time lurker, first-time poster here on the Groundspeak forums. I'm an author currently working on a book about map and geography enthusiasts of all kinds. I wrote Brainiac, a minor bestseller about trivia nerds, and I was also the guy on Jeopardy! for much of 2004, if that rings a bell. I'm planning a chapter in the book that will cover geocaching and other GPS games, so I'm trying to get up to speed on the culture and appeal of geocaching. (My six-year-old son and I have taken up caching ourselves this summer and are pretty well addicted. In case someone asks: we do log our caches on this site, but under a separate account.) This forum seem to be a large, lively community of cachers, so I was hoping some of you would be willing to help out with your anecdotes, opinions, etc. What I'm looking for at the moment are funny/surprising stories that show amazing devotion to caching. Who are the real hardcores? Who here has planned elaborate vacations around geocaching, met their spouse caching, used caching for a proposal or a wedding, run up numerically amazing totals, made unbelievable sacrifices for their hobby, etc.? If not you, do you know someone else who has? The thread down below about Ventura_Kids' 413-cache day is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Feel free to reply either in this thread, or by private message. As far as I can tell, I'm not violating any forum guidelines by posting this inquiry here, but I'm sure someone will be along to tell me shortly if I'm wrong. Thanks in advance!