Jump to content

How Did You Get Into Geocaching??


Recommended Posts

A coworker showed me the GC site during the spring of 2002. Like many others here, I was pretty interested, but I didn't have a GPSr. At that time, I had a lot of other items on my 'to buy' short list.

We were both laid off in Jan 2003. One day while being unemployed... I got an ICQ message from him asking if I wanted to go out and check out this Geocaching thing with new GPSr that he bought. I had forgotten all about Geocaching, but now that he mentioned it, heck yeah! We were hooked the first time out and cached until dark.

Within a few weeks I had my own GPSr.

Since then I have had a few caching lulls. Buying a house and getting married have chipped into the caching time here and there. My wife is not too fond of geocaching. She likes the places that I find during cache trips, but she doesn't like the finding part at all.

Link to comment

Well... here goes. My wife was cruising along a section of the Old Dixie Highway with my daughter. They were studying some of Florida's history. They stopped to get pictures of an old sugar mill site. The goal was to have my daughter do some web research on the site. My wife previewed what links would pop up when my daughter ran the search, and one of the links linked directly to a cache page. SHe tried to find t a few times with my then 6 y.o. daughter. A little over a week later, (a week after my daughter's birthday) my wife took me and all 3 kids out to find this "cache" thingy. She brought me out due to my experience with ... well, my dad makes topographical maps. She needed me to help find this thing. I thought the entire idea seemed silly. My opinion remained unchanged by finding this cache. I helped her find 9 more before we finally broke down and bought a GPSr: a Garmin Geko 101. It appeared my wife liked this new hobby. I liked finding a couple of those weirdly placed film canisters. One night (about 10:30 p.m.) I got home from work, and my wife met me at the door GPS in hand. She said there was a new cache that had popped up on the screen, and she wanted me to go get it. I grudgingly consented to go find it for her. Yes I knew the area far better than she did, but I was tired. I arrived there, and found the container in short order. I opened it up to find... a blank log! I had shown superiority in finding skills and area knowledge over all others in the area! (Naw, I'm not the slightest bit competitive...) That was the one that got me hooked. My daughter just had her 8th birthday in April. She hit the 500 finds mark just 2 weeks ago at GW3. We have 600+ and Our family has a combined 120 caches planted with more on the way. BTW.... with our income tax refund, we did upgrade to a Garmin ETrex Legend. My wife is indeed hooked on this sport, but not as nearly as much as me and my daughter!

Link to comment

My obsession started with a phone call from a college buddy a couple of years ago. This call led me to the web and GC.com. Now some would think that what transpired supports the premise that I may have OCD because, by day's end, I had ordered my first - and not my last - GPS (Magellan Sport Track Pro). By the time it had arrived, I had already become familiar with the available SW. As it turned out, I was visiting my parents and two of my siblings were along when I went searching for my first cache (this is where I learned the importance of zooming in on the GPS...). We were all bit by the bug and me a little more. Now, with more than 1K finds and 103 hides, I can admit that perhaps there may be some credibility to that OCD accusation or you could just say that I enjoy having fun...

Link to comment

About a year and half ago I read an article about it in Scientific American. I knew that I had to try it. I had a Garmin 12 so the next day me and my son went out. He was just 5 and pretty excited about it. He dressed like a pirate since we were going on a treasure hunt. We didn't find the first one, the second one, while I was floundering about in the woods wondering why it didn't work, son announces here it is.

Link to comment

In 2003, an article on geocaching appeared in the FMCA magazine - a magazine for motorhome owners. Geocaching fits perfect with RV owners/users. Pretty much anywhere we go, there are caches :ph34r: Even better, there are caches along the way which helps to breakup the drive, especially for the geokids.

Link to comment

Word of mouth.

 

My fiance's co-worker mentioned it to him and he went to the Website to learn more. He printed out a site or two near his home, and went looking. I can't remember if he got lucky or not. Then he printed out a site in my town and took me out on my "virgin" seek. A REALLY virgin seek. We didn't even have a GPSr.....just relied on the clues. Found the cache though. Maybe it was too easy. Or beginner's luck. We have since picked up an Explorist 200, and an addiction for the outdoors. If we're not working, we're geocaching. Rain or shine, any chance we get. He goes out more than me though - different work schedules - and the Explorist lives with him. But when we're together.........

Link to comment

I remember reading a short news article in National Geographic Explorer Magazine a couple of years ago and scribbling down the web site. I didn’t do anything for some time and then one lousy day at work I was sorting though a pile of notes for web sites I had collected and logged onto to geocaching.com and poked around. The rest is history…

 

Like most people I know how who this, it is now an addiction worse than crack! I bought a new GPSr, a premium membership and wife says that if we stop at another cache along the interstate while we are traveling she is going to leave me. I told her if she will email the coordinates for her new location, come looking for her!

 

Seriously, it has been a great time over the last year. I have found places in my own backyard that I would never have known existed and met some wonderful people along the way. I’m hoping as that as more people join us, our reputation as a group and word of mouth will be our best advertisement.

Link to comment

I had read about it in an article in a magazine, it may have been National Geographic Adventure but I cannot remember which outdoors mag it was. It peeked my intrest but All I did was come to the Geocaching website and look around. I did that a few times before I actually started caching. At the time I was working on a hyrdographic survey crew, and I owned three GPSrs. So one day last December, roughly a year after I had read the article and lurked around the geocaching site, I struck out. Needless to say, I was hooked on my first find.

Link to comment

I was pondering a GPS for hiking/paddling. Then I learned about geocaching from a friend in my local XTerra club. It sounded like an added element of fun for those shorter hikes. That pushed me over the edge on the decision to buy a GPS.

 

The first few years I only cached sporatically, but this year alone I've doubled my finds and have really gotten into it. I'm now seriously contemplating a few hides of my own.

Link to comment

Well in my case, I've always has a GPSr for hunting purposes. In December, I was injured on the job (minor strain), and apparently wasn't going to be allowed back for some time. I needed a hobby to help me lose weight and not vegetate in front of the TV. I've always read about Geocaching. So I investigated into it some more, upgraded my GPSr from a Etrex vista (which I understand was a smart move) to a Garmin GPSMAP 60C, and been having fun for the past few months. It has been very beneficial for my health.

Link to comment

actually I got into it due to other forms of treasure hunting. Here in St. Paul, Minnesota, they hold an annual winter carnival, complete with a Medallion Hunt worth $10,000 to the finder. So originally I got into caching because geocaches were A. much easier to locate and B. Got me out in the parks so I could familiarize myself with landmarks or whatever might help me with the clues.

 

So really I'm an all around treasure hunter, geocaching is just one of the various ways I do that.

Link to comment

RECENTLY I encountered two guys looking for something along one of my favorite hiking trails. I went on my way, and on the return they were just finishing up and getting ready to move to their next cache. Since I knew the trail fairly well I answered some questions, then invited myself along. Found three caches, hiked way harder than I expected to. Got rained on. Climbed steep hills. Had a great time.

Next day I invested in a GPS, learned how to use it, and within a couple days found some local caches, BOUGHT A MAP!, drove around to find trailheads for future haunts, and have been telling everyone I know about it.

Here’s what I like about it…Life is impossible to get good coordinates for, and hard to navigate to any worthwhile destination. :o

When geocaching , you can plan, navigate, hike, find, and report your victories at the end of the day! That’s success! :o

Link to comment

I got into geocaching from school. I was in Cal I class and the teacher was working through some examples. On one problem he mentioned that it was like how the GPS system worked. I was interested and asked him about it at the end of class. I didnt have the time then to get into it. This last semester I had him for Cal II and started talking about it with him. GPS system ahd also come up in my Physics II class, and even had homework on solving location like a GPSr would. Well at the end of this summer I got my legend and have been enjoying it ever since.

Link to comment

Someone on the SVRider mailing list (an email list for owners of the Suzuki SV motorcycle) mentioned geocaching and included a link to geocaching.com. I was curious and went there. got the waypoints for several caches close to me, loaded them into my Garmin Quest (which I had gotten to help keep from getting lost riding to places) and went looking. Since I just started, I've only found two but hopefully the eTrex Legend that I just got (yesterday!) wil help :lol: as the Quest is designed to be used for street application.

Link to comment

Several years ago, it must have been shortly after SA was removed I saw a short bit on Tech TV about it. This guy with a reciever went down a hill and found an abandoned car that had a cache in it. It looked neat but I couldn't afford a GPS device at the time.

 

In 2004 I was going to Target and in the parking lot saw a white SUV with a geocaching sticker on it. I checked out the website and have been caching ever since.

Link to comment

Back around April 2002, I was logging in a Wheres George Bill. I looked at the George profile for the person who stamped the bill, and in their profile it said that they enjoyed Geocaching and had a link to the geocaching web site. I spent a long time looking over the geocaching link and a long time absorbing all the information about it that I could. Right after I got off the computer, I went to read the weekend newspaper and lo and behold... there was an article in it about Geocaching! Was it fate?! But, with no GPS, I couldn't do much. I had to wait it out for 4 months until my Birthday when I got my GPS (I got the GPS 2 weeks before my Birthday though because the very first geocache was placed in my county then-- that day, I got my GPS -- we were the second to find on that one but only by 20 minutes.

Link to comment

I came across the link for GC.com while on the Book Crossing site. I had heard of GPS, but didn't know anything about it.

 

I did a zip code search and found that there were about 7 caches in my small town! I literally printed off some cache pages and maps and ran out the door for my first find. I did my first few caches w/o GPS just to see if I would like it enough to pony up $100 for one. I have a habit of buying gadgets for activities that I lose interest in quickly, so I was being smart. Twenty months, 765 caches, 1 boyfriend, and several new friends later, it is the best $100 I ever spent!

Edited by Cool Librarian
Link to comment

I think i've posted this in a similar thread before.

 

I love the mountains, I love looking at maps, I love historical landmarks.

 

So I was surfing one day, looking at maps, and searching historical information about a certain area of the El Dorado Nat'l Forest. I was surfing along, looking at maps, and one of the pages that came up in my search was a geocache (Near Leoni). I looked at it, but brushed it under other IE windows. Later as I finished looking at all of the ones I had opened, I came upon it again, and this time read it more thoroughly. Then I went to the main site. Then I searched for them in my zipcode. I must have had about 10 within one or two miles of my house. I kept reading, and a couple weeks later I ordered a GPS, and got my girlfriend hooked as well.

Edited by Marcie/Eric
Link to comment
I think i've posted this in a similar thread before.

Ditto . . .

 

More than a year ago I heard something on NPR about Geocaching. I went right to the website and printed off several pages for the Geocaches near my home.

 

I took the pages across the street to my neighbor who has a little girl. I thought he and his wife and daughter would enjoy it as a "family" activity.

 

It never crossed my mind that I would enjoy doing this alone . . . :yikes:

 

Finally, last December, using some Christmas money, I bought a GPSr.

 

It took me more than a month to finally get out and find my first cache, but I was hooked. Now, just five months after finding that first cache, I have found 286, placed six and started a Geocaching blog. faint.gif

 

I won't mention my post count. :P

Link to comment

i got into it a few days agin when I overheard 2 of my coworkers talking about looking for something... I was imediately hooked... i have found 9 so far! my old as dirt GPS isn't working right just yet but I might have a fix for it that I willl work on tomorrow. but for now I borrowed my coworker's GPS garmin venture for the weekend... I'm loving it!

Link to comment

Fall of 2004, Parade magazine had an article about geocaching.

I'd been taking my grandkids out hiking, and adding a "treasure hunt" as a destination to some of our hikes seemed like fun.

I bought the least expensive GPSr, which (I found out) is more difficult to use.

My grandkids are still pretty young, so I still have to spend considerable time (and attention) on our hikes making sure they're safe, teaching them the essentials, kissing booboos, chatting about "stuff" and getting to know them, etc. Like when we saw a turtle on a log, and a snake swimming toward it, we debated whether the snake would eat the turtle or vice versa......

 

So fussing around with an additional gadget didn't really add anything to our hikes other than an added stress and distraction.

So, I still have the GPSr, I dust it off once in awhile, and use it when there are other adults along to share the work (of balancing the "technical aspects" with the "kid watching" aspects).

 

When they get a bit older, maybe this is something we'll learn together. And maybe I'll also invest in a better GPSr, that's more user friendly (or in my case, idiot proof).

:yikes:

Edited by monimoni
Link to comment

Two years ago I read an article about geocaching.com on slashdot.org. I looked to see if there were any caches near home and found that there was one 10 feet from the trail to the nude beach that I had passed several times earlier in the week. I wondered if I could combine the hobbies. Costco had the Magellan SporTrak package for $179 with a $50 rebate and I was off caching. Early on my grown daughter and I invented The Case of the Woeful Woodpecker and the Nudecacher Detective Agency, dragging my wife Detective Elizabeth along and she was hooked. It's been all fun since.

 

Nudecacher

Link to comment

working in the construction field and running machines I kept knocking over the

little flag markers that are all over the job site just couldn't turn the corners without hitting the flags so the foreman and I got talking and he said there must be away to mark them and put them back in the same spot they came up with a gps unit asigned it to me works great for the job now I walk the site mark each

flag so when I hit it i can put it back I was playing with the unit when it went into

geocaching mode got home that night found it the pc and been caching ever since

even got the family going now but it's time to up grade to better unit :D

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...