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How Did You Discover Caching?


Duncan!

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Saw this over at the UK forums and thought I'd give it a go here...

 

For me, it was when I hiked out to Goat Canyon Trestle in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park back in May of 2003 (before the trains started running again). Nope, I didn't accidentally find a cache (although I wish I had, it's quite a hike), but I did a google search on the trestle several weeks afterwards and I came up with a nearby cache. I then found Flagman's "Grandparent's Cache" in early June.

 

How did you get started?

 

D!

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Our 16 year old neighbor told us about it and lent us his GPSr so we kept it for a few months :D (well, he wasn't that interested in it!) and found all the nearby caches! :D Then I realized this was a great opportunity to spend lots of money we didn't have, so I did. :o (well, we had to have our own GPSr!)

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Snake read an article describing geocaching in the newspaper. We had an old Garmin eMap that didn't get much use and thought it might be fun to try and find a cache or two. We hand loaded coordinates for 3 nearby caches (never heard of GSAK or EasyGPS) and off we went. Rooster spotted the first one, an old rusty coffee can half full of water and we were hooked. :o

 

That cache is gone now, but we put another one in the park to commorate it. Link

Edited by Snake & Rooster
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About 2 years ago I was hiking Iron Mountain with a group of people. One of the guys had a GPS and was doing "something" with it. Me being naturally nosey went and asked about it. Although us nosey types were not allowed to touch his GPS nor his found cache I did learn about it. Did not acutally get my own GPS until early this year between then and now was going with different friends who did it.

And the rest is history.......I love it.

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We have a friend who is an electronics gadget lover and they had done a cache with their new GPS (a now-archived one that they DNF'ed on.) It sounded like something our family would enjoy (understatement!) so I bought a GPS for hubby's birthday in Nov, 2003. Needless to say we took to it with an enthusiasm that hasn't let up!

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I heard about it for the first time a year ago from a coworker, he had been doing it with a buddy of his & told us all about it. So I looked for this site Reg. about ayear ago, but just started caching last week for the first time & we are realy enjoying it my daughter & I have found 4 caches so far & she just asked if we could go after soccer practice today ;)

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A very near and dear friend of mine named Dave has had a lifetime of medical challenges due to diabetes. He never complains but has had some medical issues that would test any one of us. His eyesight was affected and lead to loss of his left eye. He spends each and every night hooked to a dialysis machine for nine hours. With all that he and his lovely bride Betty, I was best man by the way, lead a joyful and productive life. They are delightful to be near.

 

One day in 2001 Dave came to work with a GPS receiver. He figured that it might be useful for finding his way around afoot and on buses because he cannot drive an auto. Being naturally inquisitive he searched the Internet with respect to GPS technology and applications. He found the Geocaching site and clued me in on it.

 

Dave and Betty are Geocachers as well, Team Ribbit, although they aren't able to spend a lot of time on the trails. The two of them are part of the reason that I am devoted to this wild and crazy activity.

 

That's the truth as I know it. Thanks for asking.

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I heard a segment on NPR's (National Public Radio) "All Things Considered" about Geocaching. I thought it sounded like something interesting . . . for my neighbor.

 

I printed out some nearby cache pages and took them over to his house, thinking he and his wife and little girl would enjoy it as a family activity. I didn't think it would be something I would enjoy doing by myself . . .

 

More than six months later, I got a GPSr. I hung out in these Forums for several weeks before finally looking for and finding my first cache. thumbsup.gif

 

What a great adventure that was. :lol: I was hooked, B) and Geocaching changed my life . . .

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My dad (geospyder) got hooked last December and in March when my parents went to Omaha to visit my sister, they got her and her hubby (hubnpepp) hooked. My sister called me and told me "Dont let dad take you geocaching...you'll be hooked" Well they took us in April and 1 week later I was the poor (but happy) owner of a Garmin Etrex VistaC :lol: My kids both got GPS's for Christmas and the wrapping had barely hit the floor before my 11yr old daughter was online making a geocaching account of her own...We love to cache!

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It all started when we moved to Utah and started hiking. A little less than a year after that my wife bought me a GPSr as an anniversary present because my father-in-law convinced her it was a good idea (I love that man :blink: ). For a number of months it was just a novelty item that I would take on hikes. I saw "Geocache" and "Found Geocache" in the waypoint markers, and was curious. Then one day a couple months ago, my son brought home a sheet from Scouts that said they were going to go "geocashing" [sic], and "bring your GPS." My son asked me to come along because he didn't know how to use my GPSr, and knew full well I wouldn't let him take it anyway without me holding it :unsure: So, I went online to finally find out what this whole thing was about anyway. I Googled "geocaching" and found geocaching.com. After reading a few minutes, I was hooked. I registered, got my first set of coordinates to a virtual nearby, and that was all she wrote. Now I think my wife sometimes regrets giving the GPSr to me. I need to introduce it to my father-in-law so he can convince my wife I need a PDA for it. :lol:

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A long and slippery slope...

 

1) Three years ago, a coworker went out to the desert with some friends and was introduced to the sport. He mentioned it to me.

2) Two years ago, a cousin and family (The Wandering Posts) stayed with us on their vacation.. While they were here, they found several caches including the one at the top of the hill that I live on (Glick's Eternal View). This was my first cache.

3) 11months ago, a friend came back from Kentucky after being introduced to the sport.

4) 10 months ago, I quit my job. With more free time on my hands, I felt I had time for a new hobby. (Little did I realize how time consuming this hobby would become...)

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I got a GPS for Christmas 2002 because my wife couldn't think of anything else to get me. Since I like gadgets I was pretty happy with my gift. So a couple days after Christmas I was on the PC and I was searching for fun things to do with my new GPS. So I Googled for "fun with GPS" and came up with Geocaching.com. I was instantly stoked! I did a search for nearest caches to my home coords and saw 3 caches down the road in Clevenger Canyon. I hopped in the car with my youngest son Trevor and his friend Rachel and we took off to go hiking to find it. We found the ammo box for Yrium's Breeder cache about 30 minutes later and I was totally hooked!! :D

 

There weren't that many caches around Escondido 3 years ago compared to now. I did the three that were out in Clevenger canyon. Parsa had three down by Kit Carson park. I did a Jnglkat cache in SDRP. There were four down by Lake Hodges of which I did Rocket Man's two caches. I thought his multi was very cool! But the funniest thing I remember is seeing that Parsa had over 350 finds and thinking to myself "Holy Smokes!" :D

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bought a GPS to use for APRS, which is a Ham Radio activity. and while searching for information on gps' and what else i could do with mine (i bought a Garmin Legend) i found geocaching.com. i thought theres no way there will be any of these cache things near me. but to my surprise hundreds!!! so i went out and found one or two and here i am.

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A friend of ours who is totally into "gadgets" bought his wife a GPS for Mother's Day (how's that for a way to get a toy?). She had no interest in it so he was excitedly telling my husband about it. Hubby looked up geocaching.com and found there were several caches on the mountain behind us. We borrowed their GPS to find those caches and ended up keeping it for 3 months. We finally got our own and got hooked on the sport. Our friends however have not gotten the "bug" yet. While our GPS was in repair, we just borrowed theirs again. His wife finally gave their GPS to their son to use. So he gave her another one for her birthday!

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Reluctantly bought a Vista C after taking a wrong turn while hiking with my wife. Reluctant because about 5 years ago our son wanted a GPS for Christmas and we gave him a Magellan 315, if I remember correctly. Neither one of us could figure out how to use it properly. While searching the internet for tips on how to get the most out of the etrex, I stumbled upon geocaching. This Christmas the same son got me City Select for it which is phenomenal. GPSrs have come a long way!

 

Update: Dug out that old 315, replaced the batteries...doesn't seem that complicated now. We now have a backup!

Edited by SM0KEY
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A friend of mine that I used to bowl with (Team Strikers) was telling me about this little hobby he had and it seemed kind of interesting. Had the wife get me a GPS that Christmas and after trying to figure it out for a few days I attempted my first geocache. I think I entered East instead of West and when I got to the general area the cache was supposed to be located it said I was 3 or 4000 miles away. Finally found that first cache after making a few corrections and although I still hand enter everything and have papers coming out of every pocket, I do enjoy the finds. The DNF's aren't quite as much fun but they help with the learning. Now if I could only figure out a few more puzzles.

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A friend up the street took us on a hunt back in 2003. We thought this was an interesting "game" but would not catch the bug for months. When we mentioned geocaching to the inlaws in 2004, they took note and presented us with an eXplorist 100, for Christmas. It has served us well for more than a year now, but this Christmas, we moved up to an eXplorist 500, with geocaching software. So... no more fat-fingering all those coords in, manually. :lol: And then as if the hunt was not enough thrill seeking, we discovered the fun of hiding a cache and watching all of you come find it! ;) Great fun!

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I'd read an article a few years ago about it, and added it to the "things I'll do someday when I have more of that mythical substance called Free Time" list.

 

A friend of mine told me a couple months ago about his adventures, and my son's Scout troop did some caching activities. So my wife and I decided that a new GPSr would make 1) a fine Christmas present to the family, 2) a good excuse for all five of us to Go Out And Play, and 3) take a fun event of the aforementioned list.

 

Only one find to our credit to date (hey, we've been at this what, 3 days now?) but I promise it's the first of many...

 

s.

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My block has a block breakfast every year. One of the neighbors came down to grab some food and when folks asked what he'd been up to lately he got a big grin and said, "Treasure Hunting!". The neighbors laughed and he told us a little bit about geocaching. The other neighbors laughed some more and poked a bit of fun but I thought it sounded interesting so I made sure to get the web address. I went home and made a geocaching.com account and started reading the forums. I read a LOT of useful stuff and then over the next week or so I started checking out GPS receivers online. I looked at a lot of different models and, the more I looked, the more I wanted it all. Finally one day I saw a GPSMAP 76CS on eBay that was brand new in the box. The price was low so I sent myself email to check it out the next day. When I got to work the next day I got the email and looked it up and it was STILL low with 11 minutes left on the auction. I made a bid, certain it would jump to some really high price at the last minute. Boy was I surprised when I won! Then I had to go home and tell my wife I had just spent $400. :blink: The thing would have cost me $632 locally though (with tax) so it was a good buy.

 

By the time the unit arrived in the mail I had already read a zillion forum posts, tons of other online information, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching and had gotten GSAK and downloaded a Pocket Query. I opened the box, checked out the unit for maybe 20 minutes, loaded my Pocket Query, and went out and found my first cache - an ammo can in a stump that had been hidden by the very neighbor who first told me about caching. My first find was August 8, 2005 and I've been "averaging" 50 finds per month so far. I love it!

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I found out about geocaching at what is now the San Diego County Fair. One of my favorite things to do at the fair is visit the hobbies and collections exhibit area. This was back in 2003. I noticed a display having to do something with GPS's and it had calling cards and wooden nickels..I don't remember what else. I though it was pretty cool looking and seeing as how I had a GPS built into my car, I investigated. Went to the website...it was all very foreign to me.

 

I am very geeky and put in my zip code and noticed a cache right next to my house! It was Dan'oh's "High Fidelity" cache. We found the cache without a GPS based on the logs and the clue in the description. Once we found it we really wanted to find more. Went to go find a couple of others without the GPS, but soon found out we really needed one...went to Fry's picked up an etrex and off we went. We have been hooked ever since.

 

I really wish I could devote more time to this obsession / hobby, however, work, family and everything else comes up too. But everytime I get a few minutes, I'm off to find one. I do travel quite a bit with my job. I am all over the U.S. I have my primary 5 states, CA, AZ, UT, NV and HI...and when I am done working for the day and normally would be sitting around in a hotel room, I am hitting the local area looking for caches. It gives me something to do and I get to see areas I would have never seen before no matter where I am. Within the next two months, I'll be in Pennsyvania, New Jersey, New york, Utah and Hawaii. I'm hoping to do quite a bit of caching in Hawaii, given that I get some free time. ;)

 

Back in June, I invested more $$ into my obsession and bought a Jeep Wrangler. We've taken it out to the Bear Valley Caches, Truckhaven and most often Ocotillo wells to go caching. I *really* love my Jeep and we've had some great times.

 

I really enjoy the people that participate in this hobby/sport/obession. The kids like it too. It's good clean (depending on the cache and where it is) family fun! ;)

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I too logged a Where's George Bill that had been left as swag by Yrium (sometime in late 2002). The when I read Yrium's bio he explained that he was a Geocacher and how bills placed in caches had a great chance of being logged again. I read and was very interested in Geocaching. I had a Magellan GPSr that attached to my Palm 505 that was not bad for finding a street but did not perform well for Geocaching.

Fast forward to May, 2005. I was planning a vacation in the Sierra's and wanted to hike into a number of swimming holes. I know my sweet wife would never forgive me if got lost with her lovely children! So I started looking for a more trail worthy GPSr (the 505 and it's add on was now gone). I found a Garmin 60mapCS on sale for $450.00 and found a Garmin $50.00 rebate. Couldn't resist! The day I got the GPSr I started thinking about Geocaching. What a great way to learn how to use my new toy!

I logged on and found my first cache on my way home the same week!

Now I've found a hobby I love and a community for which I have developed a great respect. drexotic

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For a long time, I had wanted to get involved with orienteering but didn't know of anyone else doing it. About 2 1/2 years ago, we read a newspaper article about geocaching & decided that this would be fun! We tried to find several caches but couldn't. After I almost broke my leg looking for a cache, we were hiking back to the car when hubby saw a guy that looked guilty of something! We got to talking & found out the cache was there (about 1/4 mile from where we were looking!). When he found out we were using UTM numbers, he took our Legend, punched a bunch of numbers, & gave it back to us. We then were able to find a nearby cache & we were hooked! (OK, I was.) BTW, the other cacher was the infamous Tucson Thompson. :unsure:

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I read an article about geocaching a few years ago and thought "That'd be really cool!". Then I promptly forgot all about it.

 

A while later, I came accross an article again. I thought "That'd be really cool!". Then I remembered I'd already thought that. :laughing:

 

I found the geocaching website, and put out a general "Hey anyone in the area want to take me out on a few caches and introduce me to this crazy sport?"

 

I got several replies and went out with Imajika to get my first caches. It was a blast and we ran out and got a GPSr a few days later. I also got to meet Tahosa and do some caches in his area, which was great.

 

The sport interested me, but it was the great people I met that kept me going.

Edited by switchdoc
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I told a friend about the mudaves in Agua Caliente, and he took a whole group in there exploring. They found the Cookie Tin cache just by accident, and learned about Geocaching from the cache page. He came back and bought a GPSr and went and found a single cache in La Jolla. He told me about it and I checked out the site and got excited about the whole idea. So I ordered a GPSr and when it arrived, invited Andrew's youth soccer team that I was coaching at the time to go on a hunt for the Mustang Sally cache after our game that Saturday. We spent almost 30-minutes at the first WP thinking .3 meant .3 feet! Once we got that figured out, we were off on a 2-hour multi through Scripps Ranch. I was hooked. Funny, my friend who told me about the game has never even logged onto the site!

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In March 2001, I read a geocaching article in the SD Union Tribune. It just happened that my friend Frank (fkrexcal) had read the same article and we were both headed out to Borrego camping for the weekend with our daughters (Indian Princesses). Frank brought along a cache container so we could place a cache of our own and I had an old Garmin GPS38 that we brought along.

 

On Saturday 3/17/2001, we headed to the mudcaves and we were the second ones to find the infamous Mudcave Cookie Tin cache, my first cache find. Later that day when back at camp, we met Bikedog who was camped right behind us. He was sitting in a chair by a sign that had the coordinates on it for his new cache Yaquitepec, Marshal South Home, Ghost Mt, Borrego.

 

On Sunday 3/18/2001 we placed the first cache in Blair Valley Desert Peek-a-boo which is still active today.

 

Rocket Man

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I received my first GPSr (eXplorist 200) for my birthday in the spring of 2005. I mostly used it for hiking in the desert by my house and using it in airsoft to keep from getting lost while in the heat of battle! :D

 

In May I went on a church camping trip and a family friend noticed my new toy and told me about geocaching. I was a little interested but I figured it was something for little kids. Boy was I wrong! LOL! :D

 

I went on to GC.com and I was soaking up all the info I could. I was ready to rock n' roll! On June 8, 2005 I found Cave Mountain cache! I was so hooked (as you can tell from my log)! :D

 

Next day I wanted to go after Arizona Yankee but my eXplorist died on me. :D I decided to take it back to the store and not get another because I didn't trust Magellan as much as Garmin because my dad had a Garmin that worked flawlessly for many years. I found a new sport that I loved and now I couldn't participate because of lack of vital equipment! ;)

 

I saved my money and kept looking for a good deal on a Garmin somewhere because I couldn't get geocaching out of my mind. :D

 

Christmas 2005 I received not just one but a pair of Garmin Rino 120's. Since then I have found only three new caches because of lack of transportation (that'll change this summer! Look out Phoenix, there's gunna be a new driver on the road! :) )

 

Finds:

Cave Mountain

My Favorite Drinking Hole #14

Heart of Gold

Arizona Yankee

Plants:

Balding Bush

Another coming after it's approved!

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True Confession - I have no sense of direction.

 

So, when I went to New Orleans on a business trip about a year and a half ago, one of my business colleagues lent me their GPS for a while. It was great - and FILLED with geocaches. On the call to let them know that I'd made it and was - for once - NOT lost, they explained what the geocaches were and hoped I'd pick up a travel bug from one of them to bring back. Luckily, it was a relatively easy to find geocache - and I found it (no, I wasn't smart enough to sign the log or log the TB at the time) :laughing:.

 

After that, I was HOOKED. Had to buy my own GPSr when I got home, read all the info on GC.com, and started caching myself. No, I've never gone back and logged the cache I found in New Orleans, or the TB (gave that to my colleague when I got back to Utah) but I think the point was more to get me started. :D

 

Just like Drugs.. it only took Just one hit... :D

 

My Name is Rose, and I'm a geocoin /geocaching addict....There IS no help for me. :D

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Some friends took my wife and I out when they came to town. I didn't think much of it until we found a cache that I had pretty much stepped on a hundred times and didn't even know it existed. I was hooked at that point.

 

I'm what you call a 'starving-student' and needed something fun to do that didn't require money, so $100 bucks for a GPSr and $5.00 for batteries every few days is awesome for a hobby that can keep me busy day in and day out.

 

Plus, how much closer can a person get to real treasure hunting?

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I heard about a bucket that closed a bridge for hours because they thought it was a bomb. I heard this on the news one day. Thats when they mentioned geocaching.

 

About two years later my mom gave me a GPS because she knew I liked gadgets. Well Its a Maridian-Gold. Not good for streetnavigation much becasause you cant do street plots with it. However you can load USA roads into it but all "goto" is "as a crow flies" so I kinda was a little dissapointed with it.....then at work I was on the net looking for something to waiste my time. Then the word "geofind" popped into my head. I googled it and found the word I was looking for was Geo Caching I manually load my coords in and label them in a little hand book but it works for me.

 

I LOVE IT!

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In amungst some change I happened to notice a one dollar bill with some writing on it. Where's george.com. Not giving it much thought. I promptly and (now) sadly spent the bill at the next store, but the where's george.com stuck. When I checked out the web site I found a lnik or reference to geocaching, and since I like roaming around in the woods, thought this sounded kinda cool. The rest is history.

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A friend from No Whining Jr.'s cub scout den had 3 scouts and dads out to find 'Where's Olivenhein Cemetary'. I started using Google Earth to find caches and Mrs. NoWhining/NoWhining Jr. got me a GPS for Christmas 2005. Have been averaging 20 caches a month since. Placed first in January 2006 'Dog on a Wire'. I'm hooked and hope to travel soon for work so I can cache in new locations.

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We purchased a Garmin III+ to find our way around Japan while driving but when we went back to Colorado I just used it to find the car on hikes. One day my sister showed me an article in the local paper about geocaching and we went out and found a few but then had to return to Japan. There weren't many caches here in Japan at the time (still not a lot of them) but I found a few of the local ones. Last spring I returned to the states and really got into the sport. Bought a 60CS (my Vista was only B&W) and spent the summer caching a couple times a week. Can't wait to get back to Colorado for good next month (I hope) so I can get my 1,000th cache.

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I bought a GPSr in 2002 to use when hiking. When I logged on to the Magellan site to register my unit I noticed that one of the options for how I planned to use the GPSr was geocaching. I thought nothing of it. Being a techie type, I began searching the web for software to use with my GPSr to download waypoints and to map my tracks. Many of these searches referred me back to Geocaching.com. After a few weeks I decided to look for a geocache on one of my hikes and after that I was hooked.

 

The first hike I took using my GPSr, before I started geocaching, was in Topanga State Park. I went up Santa Ynez canyon to the falls and saw the ropes to climb the falls. I decided not to go any further that day. Little did I know that up the ropes was a geocache. This weekend, 3 years later, I will finally go to find this cache :lol: The best part is that I will have some of my new friends that I have met through geocaching with me.

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I was scouring the net for information on various places in the El Dorado Nat'l Forest. As a rule, when googling I open everything I find of interest in a new window, and then go through them all. As my flipping was finishing up, I noticed this page about something or other.

 

Checked it out. Long story short, in two weeks I was a premium member, bought a GPS, and had found my first cache.

 

Thanks you google.com

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