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Ever Run Into Other Cachers?


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We just got into geocaching this month, and today was our first sunny day. Our area was teeming with people and it became obvious at one cache that we had arrived just after another geocaher. He was walking around in circles and was coming out of a forested area trying to get a lock on his position. Finally I asked him and between my clues and his looking we found it.

 

Does this happen often? Has this ever happened to you? I am lucky enough to live in a very popular geocaching neighbourhood and have a feeling it won't be the last time!

 

Cheers,

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I've ran across cachers suprisingly at about 4 caches. Very cool experiences! I always get uncomfortable though. I don't want to give anything away or don't know how far along they are or have them think I'm trying to get info (especially in multis). I've also planned a few caching trips with other caches, which is fun as well!

 

I started a bookmark list for it; but right now most entries are for an event caching tour I went on.

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We (my cousin and I) ran into another cacher, as we were finding his cache! I went down to my cousin's house (about 60 miles from my house) and we were out in her area. There was one really interesting hide, up in a tree. As we were boosting the child up to get the cache (micro!) somebody drove up to the area. There area houses all around, and some construction too. I thought, "Awww darn. A contractor is out checking to make sure something isn't getting stolen." This was following the "girlie" on the street who glared at us becasue we had to turn around, and we were in her way for about 5 seconds and she couldn't drive out to check her mail! I was relieved when my cousin walked up to the truck and started talking to the guy. Turns out, she knows him from school, and he also was in the same class as my hubby. Funny how small the world really is!

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It's not an infrequent occurrence. http://www.mtgc.org/6deg and related pages.

 

Friendships can be born when this happens (as on my first) or you can get cold clammies that never pass...

 

Still, my most memorable was also my first. It was wayyyy less probable in '01 (esp. since it was a 15 degree) day when I ran into Sis and Murrcat on my second day of caching. As perspective, there were 88 caches w/in 100 miles at the time. Murrcat had 27 finds, so she was a Goddess.

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In the early days of this sport it was quite common for me to run into another cacher. Now, with so many caches out there its very rare. The only exceptions are the day a cache is listed when you might have a few people going for a FTF, or the first weekend a new cache is active, when a lot of people may head out after it. Since I'm not a FTF hound, I think its been at least 2 years, probably closer to 3 since I've met a fellow cacher at a cache.

 

I did meet a fellow cacher a few weekends ago when I was returning from placing a cache, but he was just hiking and not geocaching and met another this summer while backpacking on the AT (he saw my wife's GC.COM hat), but neither of us were geocaching that day.

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I've met a local couple that I aleady knew from some gatherings of local cachers in a parking lot last fall. Got caught up in a group of maybe 6 people trying to find a realtively new cache. Have run into a particular fellow orienteer more than once grabbing a couple nearby caches after orienteering events, but all in all not that many considering the number of caching trips I have made over the past few years.

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Having been doing this fun activity for only a week now, I was still not suprised by a fellow caching couple on my second find, Seems they beat me there by a few days and were just out walking the dog. It was only a matter of time in a urban setting before this would happen. I was amazed that it did happen so quick but not supprised. Hey "Red Vette" if your listening, We found the V8-4. NA-NA-NA-NA LOL

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I ran into a group of 3 cachers at a Virtual in a national park once. I had on a shirt with the GC logo on it and was holding my GPS getting the logging requirement codeword, and a woman looked at me and said "Are you geocaching?"

 

I met a few caching after an event, but I don't think that counts, as I was there for the event too.

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On one in a hundred caches I've met cachers. Give or take a couple people. It has not been a common occurance.

 

I have to agree. I am actually surprised at how infrequently I bump into other cachers.

 

That said, a couple of weeks ago I went to check on one of my caches that had a string of DNFs. It was, indeed, gone. Before I could turn to leave, I caught sight of the unmistakable bright yellow of a Garmin grasped in the hand of a man emerging from the brush. He looked up at me sheepishly and said "you're probably wondering what I'm doing. It's a game called..." "Geocaching" I finished, "and you're looking for Sand Trout".

Edited by Silny Jako Bek
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Once, while traversing the open wilderness commonly called Wichita, KS ... I came upon the cache site only to find an individual standing there looking at an object in his hands. I didn't take me long to figure out he was looking at his GPSr and upon close inspection of his plaid shirt and pin-strip overalls, I knew it could only be one person. The Geocaching.com forum legend ... Sparky. Some knew him as Sparky-Watts others knew him as Sparkington. Aaahh, the good ol' days.

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I've only run into other cachers twice that I can recall. Once was just after an event so we obviously had the same idea. The second time was recently when I took a geocaching friend out to find a cache I was having trouble with. We didn't find that one but I took her to another part of the series that I had previously found. The third cacher snuck up on us and helped her look.

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i hunt them down, i place some of my caches where i would recognise the stickers on the cars, and when i drive by if there is a car parked there i turn around and go back to see if there is a sticker on the window, then the fun begins, i walk down to the cache and hunt them down, and say " HEY, What are you doin' here.?" the looks and answers are hillarious. met about a dozen at my caches doing something simmular to this. always a good conversation starter.

Welcome to my hell,

Tim

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I've ran into other cachers several times while looking, but my most memorable was while I was placing a cache. I placed the cache and was hiking back to the trailhead, I met another team of local cachers on the trail, they had a cache container in hand ready to place it in the same area. It was a cool coincedence, we stood there chatting for about fourty-five minutes.

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Actually, it seems to happen to us quite a lot. We had our first geocacher meeting on our second cache find. Between him having a GPS and me having the hint, we found it pretty quickly. There are so many caches and cachers in the bay area that if we go a week without running into another cacher, I start to wonder where everyone is. Today we were out on the trail and ran into a new cacher and a couple who have been caching for several years.

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Yes I have run into other cachers several times. its usually pretty obvious when you see someone walking around with a gps in hand.

 

on my gps i have a gc.com lanyard, so you can cleary see it if im holding my gps in hand.

 

i also met the owner of a chache i went to look for one, i had looked for it the previous night and didnt fint it, so i posted a DNF log. so i went back the necxt day with my kids and we were sitting on some benches near where the cache was suppose to be, lots of people were around so i was wasting time looking at my palm, when i look up and see this guy sitting on another bench across from me wearing a white t-shirt with the gc.com logo on it. so i went over and asked him if he was looking for the cache, and he told me no, he was the hider and he was just checking on it since i posted a DNF on it the night before.

 

at another one i was searching for a new cache, i ended up finding it around 50 feet from where the coordinates said it was, i look down in the area where the gos said it was and see someone else wondering around, but i ddidnt see his gps. so i ask him if he is a cacher, he says yes, and i show him the way to the cache. worked out great for me, met a cool cacher, and he had the same type of gos ad me and he had maps software. :P very nice guy.

 

on anothr occcasion i met a cacher leaving as i walk up, i ask if he is a cacher, he says yes and we start talking. a few minutes later my oldest son decides to throw a rock and hit my younger son upside the head with it. blood everywhere, was a big mess. he helped me clean him up and bandage it.

 

and now 3 times ive come across other cachers at caches niether of us could find. although the last 2 ended up finding it after i left. suspicious i would say. :P

 

anyways. yes i have met other cachers while out. not often, but sometimes. more so on new caches.

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I haven't been caching too long, I only ran into another cacher once so far, I was placing a new cache and checked one of my other ones on the way out only to see it had been found that day, when I got back to the parking lot there was a truck with geocaching stickers in the back window, so I walked down a trail toward another cache and ran into the cacher there.

 

There's a lot of caches in my area, and most of the cachers know each other but I have yet to run into some of the most frequent hiders in the area, they've found my caches and I've found a bunch of theirs but I never seem to run into them anywhere, I always just miss them.

 

There's a TB hotel 8 miles from my house in a cacher's front lawn, I've been back a few times but surprisingly have never ran into the owners!

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Just passed 950 caches and these are actual "met on the trail" cachers. Met MANY more on the trail at events, but that's another story.

 

GEOCACHERS FIRST MET ON THE TRAIL (Non-Event):

Nostradumbass at "Hidden Valley" (NJ) 03/09/03

Natureboy44 at "Dwayne of Beekman Lane" (NJ) 04/13/03

Ekitt10 at "Bi-Centennial Multi" (NJ) 05/11/03

Waterboy With Wife at "One if by Land, Two if by Sea" (ME) 05/18/03

JRTTeam at "Sitting Crosslegged on the Floor" (NJ) 06/05/03

Mr Magoo at "Picture This" (NJ) 07/24/03

Prodigy at "Western Stream View" (NJ) 08/11/03

Marty621 at "Melvin's Multiple Madness" (NJ) 10/04/03

GaryandRyan at "Ice Cream Cone 'Jimmies'" (NJ) 11/15/03

GPS Girl at "The Stones" (NJ) 01/11/04

Team Hopewell at "Magoo's Missing Morgan on the Mountain" (NJ) 02/22/04

Team Bam Bam at "Helispot" (NJ) 04/10/04

Rattlehead at "Africa Loop Series 1: The Nile" (NY) 06/06/04

JohnnyRotten at "Cinnamon Girl" (NJ) 07/11/04

Scubadubers at "David’s Rock Collection Cache" (NJ) 12/05/04

RedlegMP at "XX Fun @ Day or NightXX" (NJ) 12/26/04

angryEMT at "Rocky Road Button Exchange" (NJ) 01/29/05

GeoKender at "TRL High Road" NJ 02/20/05

caz and Mrs.caz at "TRL High Road" (NJ) 02/20/05

soccernut at "Cook Stream" NJ 06/19/05

Wayfinders at ""The Dam Cache" NJ 01/08/06

Deddog at "The Dam Cache" NJ 01/08/06

Tyson Sprandel at "Solitude Lake" NJ 01/08/06

Zacho at "Solitude Lake" NJ 01/08/06

Puss-in-Boots at "down under" NJ 01/09/06

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I'd guess that I've met ten or fifteen while searching for caches. Can't say 'on the trail'. Met Added Value in lower Manhattan. The first was Tiffany's Slaves, on my second cache hunt at Ski Bowl. Most recent was TucsonThompsen at Force the Lock. Already knew Jerseytrex, but we've met them a few times while hunting.

Does the supermarket count? I was grocery shopping, and someone walked up and asked "Are you Harry Dolphin?" (That'll teach me to put my photo on my page!) (Nice to meet you The Walking Man!) Old Man Walking, lostwoods rambler, Viking66, AndyBott.

Not to mention my sister, Circles. We've done a few caches together, but I knew her long before I took up geocaching. Haven't cache with two of my brothers who are into geocaching: FunnyNose and rayr.

Edited by Harry Dolphin
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several times....

 

when I first started caching, I went for about five months without meeting anyone, then I met Mosiaca twice in two days!

 

Once I was doing maintainence on the way to the cache spotted Nanny Ogg and the Oggettes, but they didn't spot me!

 

Also met BigToad, Farrly and Flyingfisher....

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I've met fellow cachers twice. The first time we were heading towards the cache and as we passed the guy he said "It's still there". We stopeed introduced ourselves and I've gone caching with he and his daughter a few times.

 

Just yesterday I met another couple. I know they were cachers when I saw the GPS. I asked if they wanted some help in the hunt and they said sure so we hunted together.

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Y'all seem to be happy to meet others out on the trail. I'm the opposite...I am out there to be by myself or with my family for quiet. I don't want to talk to you if you come up on the cache I'm at.

 

We are usually very stealthy (one look out, one signs the log while the 3rd trades the items) and can slip away before we are noticed. We've sat a few feet away under cover while others were at the cache and they never knew. If they do happen upon us especially before I sign the log, I just walk off without signing until they've gone.

 

We really prefer annonimity. That's the thing that drew us to this sport...something we could do that would be fun and didn't involve interacations with other persons other than the occasional crap we get from online communications - we were blasted because of one of our log postings for no reason...it had nothing bad and no spoilers but they didn't like what we wrote so we've reverted to just posting Found Cache/Signed Log in the cache logs both at the cache and online.

 

Anyway, that's my way :-)

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I've met a few of the local cachers at caches. A number of folks met up at my latest cache - all trying for a FTF but it took them a while. <_<

 

Heck, I live in Northern California (Chico) and met a couple from San Jose (about 4 hours south of here) - at 11:45 at night. They were visiting folks here in town when a series of caches got published. I zipped out and snagged 7 of them that night (6 FTF!) and on the second one I hit there was the couple from out of town. They tried to look really casual (yeah, right - at 11:45 outside of a closed restaurant) but when I asked, "Find it yet?" his flashlight popped on instantly and they went back to looking. :o

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Y'all seem to be happy to meet others out on the trail. I'm the opposite...I am out there to be by myself or with my family for quiet. I don't want to talk to you if you come up on the cache I'm at.

 

I'm sorry that you feel that way. I enjoy the social aspect that comes along with Geocaching. I've met some very interesting people this way. While I can't say that I'd want to go out and have a beer with everyone that I have met, I've established a few friendships this way and feel that I'd be missing somthing if I purposely ignored other cachers. <_<

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Idaho is not a populous state so it is very rare that I encounter other cachers. I have cached in almost all of the states west of the Mississippi, and haven't found them hiding behind the bushes while caching in those states either. I have met almost as many Police officers while caching as other cachers, but that's another story. <_<

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