How Did You Discover Geocaching?

[+Uncle Alaska]

I think I read about it (back in 2001) in a magazine (maybe Reader's Digest?). Checked out the site online, and joined up after finding my first one.

 

I also remember watching my GPS EPE change when the SA was turned off (while I was still in college).

 

-UA

Edited July 30, 2005 by Uncle Alaska

[+entropysedge]

Someone on the SVRider mailing list mentioned geocaching and I followed the link they had thoughtfully included.

[+One Crazy Girl Scout Leader]

A fellow Wheresgeorge pal does it without a GPS so I gave it a try since there is one 2 min from my home. Found it and three more couldn't find one so I bought a GPS now the family and dogs love to go. You bet my troop will be Geocaching soon too. (Brownies and Juniors)

Edited July 30, 2005 by One Crazy Girl Scout Leader

[+dingermcduff]

I think I was mentioning something about the accuracy of various GPS units to a coworker and he told me I could check how mine was doing on a local geocache and showed me the website where I could get the coordinates.

 

When I went looking for my first one, I misunderstood what my coworker was describing and I actually thought I was looking for a marker placed by some government unit for the purpose of checking GPS unit accuracy. Boy was I suprised when I found All Gave Some... by Team Hooligan!

[darwinmay]

Well, I was on the rocketry IRC channel I frequent, and a guy in Germany talked about something called geocaching.... Sounded cool, so I asked for a link and found there was one close by, went out to find it, got it without a GPS, it ballooned from there.

[+JimmyEv]

Have any of you been introduced to the sport by accidentally finding a cache?

Yes. Good thing it was Tupperware. I don't think I would've opened an ammo box.

[+maggieszoo]

My husband had been bugging me for ages to get a GPS, but I couldn't see the point. He doesn't hunt or fish or hike. He gave up, I forgot about it. Then, I found a Bookcrossing.com book and there was a link to geocaching.com on their site. I was working 8p to 8a and called hubby on his way home from work 7a to 7p (we don't see each other much) and told him about geocaching and that I'd like to get a GPS. I had one by breakfast time!

[+Alice Band]

By accident really as I can speak other languages...I was on a trip abroad with my friend Alibags who has got 500+ caches under her belt. After we had finished for the day she grabbed me, got me to translate a Dutch log, gave me a quick breakdown of what Geocaching was and took me on my first, a Multiple. It took us all over the Dutch historical town, to places I would have never seen without it, and I was hooked!

I don't own a car so I am, for now, a slow motion cacher Sadly my partner doesnt share my interest; he thinks Geocaching is a sad, pathetic hobby so I have to find them alone in a part of Britain that is a relative cache desert.

 

The GPS device isnt new to me, I had last used them back in the mid 1990's to log, record and 'hide' Archaeological finds in the middle of nowhere in southern Italy for a giant research project. The device was like a brick and the aerial had to be in a precise position to pick up the satelites. We often left them for a bit and then returned to give it a chance to get a precise fix. Aaaah, those were the days....

[+GSDK-9]

I love hiking with my dogs and bought a GPS to play with while hiking. The Garmin site had a link to geocaching which jogged my memory to some articles I had read on it. Following the link I found myself here and now the family is hooked.

[+Team RAGAR]

Have any of you been introduced to the sport by accidentally finding a cache?

Fall of 2002 my wife and I are hiking on the Buckeye Trail located inside the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I notice a two foot high sign with NPS letter head about 60 feet off the trail. HMMMM what the heck is that way out there??? Well it is a notice from the NPS to any cache hunters saying the Geocache in this area has been removed and that it is a violation of park rules. GEOCACHING what the heck is GEOCACHING. Asked a ranger who was patrolling the trail and he did not know or did he and he was just playing dumb. Looked it up on the internet and wife bought me a GPS in May 2004 as a Birthday gift. Been hooked on the caching ever since. So I would like to thank the National Park Service for promoting the Geocaching hobby I cache because of them. Thanks NPS!!!!!!!!!!

[+The Waldo's]

I did a freelance hit for the Mob and as I was digging the hole I struck something with

the shovel.

Ok not true but I did find my first one by Accident a year ago today.

See my log on August 1, 2004 1942 B-18 by Plotthound2

[+Gecko1]

I also remember watching my GPS EPE change when the SA was turned off (while I was still in college).

 

[+Smukke]

A newspaper article in the "This Week" section of the Houston Chronicle, about a local cacher here in The Woodlands, Texas. After I clipped out the little box with 'www.geocaching.com' so I would remember to look it up, I tossed the paper in the recycing bin Now that I am hooked, I am wishing I knew who it was so I could make him show me how to really do this.

[+Dopefish]

I learned about it a few years ago from the TV show "The Screensavers" back when TechTV was still around. Looked it up online, found a cache near me and went searching for it without a GPS. Amazingly, I found it, and proceeded to actually buy a Garmin Etrex a few weeks later. Been doing it ever since, though work and college have both gotten in the way of me doing as much as I'd like too!

[+Mudinyeri]

Several years ago I helped my father-in-law purchase a GPS. He used it for a short time and then found it too complex and stopped using it. Fast-forward a couple years. I asked if he would mind if I borrowed it for an offroad trip I was planning since he wasn't using it. In searching the Web for information on transferring GPS tracks to topo maps on my laptop, I came across Geocaching. My father-in-law now has his GPS back and is starting to get into caching. I have my own GPS and usually combine caching with off road adventures but still haven't recorded a GPS track onto topo software on my laptop!

[+WizCreations]

I had to do it in school. My teachers, Team Taskmaster, somehow felt we needed to do it.

[mudhuggers]

Buddy @ work told me it was to find small containers of Treasure.......................then I went to find a Virtual cache thinking it was a regular. Did not know what a virtual cache was. I looked and looked for a container and gave up, then went home to check coords and found out what a virtual cache was.

[+WeekendWarrior1]

I found out about when I bought a GPSr for my motorcycle. I was on the GPS website and saw something about a "geocache manager". I read up on it and found out it was worth a try. Found my first cache a few weeks ago and have been going every weekend since. Sometimes in the morning during the week. :-) -WW

[+Gecko1]

I had to do it in school. My teachers, Team Taskmaster, somehow felt we needed to do it.

Just don't let them replace field trips with geocaching.

[+geo_trekers]

while working with a friend, he told me that beings I have a gps there is this game called geocaching that you use a gps to find treasures some where hidden. I looked it up on the internet and punched in the coords to one and went to find it and was hooked! GREAT FUN! Do not have the time to do it all the time. Wish I could find a way to paid to geocache I would never complain! LOL

[ImpalaBob]

My wife read about it in the paper and saw that a free course was being given at a local park. She and her girlfriend attended the course .... and before you could say "I bought a new Garmin 60C GPS" we were geocaching! ImpalaBob & Koikeeper