How Did You Get Hooked On Geocaching?

[+deafnut]

My happen on newpaper and start read thought it fun . then call my family and they look up and (lamo ) my mother say i know why u want this so u can get money ..... me say no i want to be outside more than inside my mother favorite word to me (if i make liite mistake ) she awaly did say ( cull) so .... but i become accidet with it and the frist deaf play in alaska !!!! my brother was second i show him and he start like it .

[+hikerT]

I heard about geocaching from a friend I play softball with. She had just heard about it from her friend a few days before, and I looked up "geocashing" on the internet. It sounded right up my alley so I went out and bought an e-trex. I had 25 finds in about a week and a half when my friend asked me if I had looked it up. I told her how many I had found and she was shocked! She hadn't even gone out and bought a GPS yet, she was just going along with her friend on a few caches.

 

Needless to say, I have over 1000 caches in just under one year, sold my e-trex to my friend and upgraded to an explorist 400 and PDA. She has now just found her 27th cache in 2 weeks( 6 of which I placed!)

Edited August 9, 2007 by hikerT

[+Geofam4]

We live right beside the creeper trail in Virginia. One day we went on a bike ride just for fun and we always wondered what it would look like under the bridges so we checked it out. When we were coming back up from under it we noticed there was a cache hidden underneath the bridge. We took it out and read about geocaching. A few weeks later I bought a GPS and was hooked!

[+Dolfy]

I ran across it after looking up upgrades online for an e-trex legend that I had. I wanted the option to load more maps and the color screen. I used the legend for when I was out in my Jeep four wheeling. After browsing the site and learning more about it I knew it was something that I could get into. I love being outdoors and the cheaper the better! Only big cost was the gps (60csx). I love the hunt and I get extremely competitive when it comes to figuring out other peoples hides. It's too much fun figuring out where they are!

[+W7WT]

I had a Garmin 45 GPS (still have it) before Geocaching came in. Read about a new sport called Geocaching in a Sony Camera Forum. Found a cache within a mile of my house. Grabbed the 45 and hopped on my scooter. The 45 lost satellite reception about 10 feet into the forest. Bought a Maggy 330 and found the cache the same day back in August 2001. Now we have almost 2000 finds, 48 states, and most of the counties in Washington. I am 82 and the wife is 81 we will be going to Hawaii Geocaching to celebrate our 60th wedding anv. Then to Alaska to visit our son and get the 50th state. Great hobby. Dick

[+W7WT]

dupe sorry

Edited August 24, 2007 by W7WT

[RV'n Iowans]

Can't really say I'm hooked on geocaching yet, but over the past three weeks I'm thinking it's going to happen. Been researching this site daily, bought a GPSr, have some coords loaded into it & am ready to go. Except right now most of the cache locations around here are in flooded or at least mud laden areas due to the record rainfalls of the past week. So I'm patiently waiting

 

What actually got me interested is this: I'm very active in a metal detecting forum; the adminstrator added a sub-forum on geocaching, and to my surprise there were several members already geocaching. Since then other MDers on the forum have become geocachers, so I figured "Why not at least look in to it?" I did look in to it and now am ready to go out and see if this hobby is really for me.

 

Time will tell

[Ranger Fox]

I hope you have fun, Dick. Around here, someone hid a nano (a quarter inch magnetic cube) in the woods as part of some difficult series. I joked around about buying a metal detector to find the thing and was later told he heard my joke and went out and sprinkled nuts and bolts around the site. Since some of the coordinates in his series were off by up to 100' and others right on, I went out, bought an MD, and went out to the site to find the nuts and bolts. That actually served as verification of where I should search. So, after picking up all the nuts and bolts I could find, I found the cache five feet away.

 

There are a few uses for MDs in geocaching other than that.

 

Have fun!

[RV'n Iowans]

I hope you have fun, Dick. Around here, someone hid a nano (a quarter inch magnetic cube) in the woods as part of some difficult series. I joked around about buying a metal detector to find the thing and was later told he heard my joke and went out and sprinkled nuts and bolts around the site. Since some of the coordinates in his series were off by up to 100' and others right on, I went out, bought an MD, and went out to the site to find the nuts and bolts. That actually served as verification of where I should search. So, after picking up all the nuts and bolts I could find, I found the cache five feet away.

 

There are a few uses for MDs in geocaching other than that.

 

Have fun!

 

I think having a metal detector along to help find those tough to locate caches would be an asset, particularly one with a small 4" coil that would filter through a lot of the iron junk that seems to be about everywhere. But darn, it's just another thing to drag along, and on long walking hikes it would be a pain

 

I will always have one along in the truck, since I'm an avid MDer. If I can't locate a cache on an occassion, I can come back again with the MDer and try again.

 

Dick

[+Shuckymomo]

I actually got into it by reading an article about the guy who started it all. I was living in Portland at the time and liked what I read. That was 2001, I think. Always kept it in the back of my mind but didn't get a GPSr until mid 2006. Now, I'm really hooked and can't wait to meet up with other cachers on the hunt.

[+JustKeely]

I had given my husband a GPSr for Christmas a couple of years ago, which he requested for an overseas deployment. He used his GPSr all year in Iraq to find his way across the desert in his Humvee. While he was gone, I read an article about geocaching, I wish I could remember where. It was in a magazine, probably about travel. When he came home, I thought this was something we could try as a way to spend more time together as a family. We all went out together for the first hunt, and I think it is funny when I look back at how little we knew then. About two months after our first find, when we had found less than ten, we went to GW4, since it was in Texas that year. Since then, we have gone caching crazy! Mostly it is me, but I am so hooked and have met lots of friends through events and activities that I hang out with now and go on power caching trips with. It has given us a mission to some of our outdoors adventures and also given us a zest for travel.

[+Annabe]

Law and Order

[+ranger family]

We were introduce by some cacher friends from Melbourne Australia when they were over for Christmas. I was taught navigation in the army the old fashioned way by map & compass so the GPSr was a natural progression. A great sport & way of life.

[+ravens3]

I googled a local landmark and came up with a cache page. Two weeks later, I purchased a GPSr - which greatly disappointed my husband, who wanted to get me one for Christmas.

[+Custheyder]

I was lecturing at a night class on Visual Basic .NET and in the break, while their brains cooled down, one chap in the class told me about it and the fun he'd been having with his kids running all over the countryside.

 

It appealed to my techie-hippie (gadgets in the great out doors) and so signed on hee, picked up a GPS from eBay (Etrex) and haven;t looked back. Now I've introduced a couple of others to the game as well.

 

Last weekend I was sweating like a warthog and puffing like a train climbing up the side of South Barrule and a chap came down the other way with two young kids. He was just out for a walk, but after we chatted for a while and I told him what I was upto, I gave him one of my printed cache pages and off he went to look into it. Possible new convert. (He already had a GPS for his mountain biking)

 

Now to place a chache or two of my own.

 

Cust.

[+AustinSweetnSour]

I had some very good friends that showed me the ropes & have even been sweet enough to loan me their GPS until I get my own, as I am now hooked

It's something I can do with my kiddos, and beats the heck out of Chuck E. Cheese!

Thanks, Stu & Tiff!!!! (The Avengers)

[+Nochipra]

We saw a brief story about geocaching on TV back in 2003. We already had a gps so we said why not give it a try and have been hooked ever since.

[jarvis's]

well to start things off i talked my wife into buying me a gps for Christmas so i could use it for ice fishing and record my good fishing spots on the lakes.. used it a few times and thought this thing sux and through it in the conner of my closet and thought id never use it again... hearing the " you just had to have that dadgum thing" twice a month ... i opened my buckeye rual electric magazine that i get every month to see a topic on something called geocaching treasure hunt and had a picture of a gpsr and i ignored the topic and finally read the whole magazine and finally started on the geocaching topic and read the whole thing with interest.. showed it to my family and thought man i could actually use my gps.... logged online and loading my gps and ever since i have been using my etrex legend like a pro !!! lol

[linus84]

A friend at work told me about Geocaching, some months later i bought a GPS, havent been so active though but im working on it

Edited October 8, 2007 by linus84

[+Lost & Found]

I got into it because I was trying to find some information on using a gps.

My husband and I both hunt and we have for years with little or no trouble. Always used a compass but was always familiar enough with an area to find our way out.

It was a beautiful fall day no snow on the ground, I had shot a deer and he took off over the hill . I have never had a deer go more then 50, 60 yds. I was going to wait a bit. My husband had heard the shot and walked over. while we're talking, it starts to snow. We decide best not to wait too long because the trail will be covered, so off we go. Over the hill, the deer jumps up and takes off. argh!

So it starts snowing harder and because it was warm, the snow is melting as fast as it's landing. weird weather. But I was able to track it. every now and again we'd jump him up again. We chased him for 4 hours. finally my husband stops and says, "I have no idea where we are". We had walked for hours not sure which direction we had been going. I was upset that I was going to lose the deer, but he pointed out that we had to get out before dark.

Even with the compasses, we ran into swamps and knowing there were swamps in the area, we had no idea which swamp we were at. When we found the road we were 2 miles from our truck, and it was dark. Funny how you can hunt all day but the moment you realize your lost, you expend alot of energy.

It snowed all night and we went back the next day but had no clue where to even look for that deer.

My husband told me that day, go find a gps and learn to use it.

So the first gps I bought was a Magellan Sporttrack. I loved it. I now use a Magellan Platinum. While we use it mostly for hunting I do a few geocaches once in awhile. This year my work scheduled has sucked so haven't had time to do much. But I enjoy taking the grandkids out and exploring and they love to find "treasures". It's always loaded with caches so if i should find myself with some spare time, I have no excuses.

[+aclays]

We were vacationing in Canada with the family, my wifes uncle (who is an avid cacher) had brought his gps along when we were off seeing the sites. We had some time to kill, so we followed his gps off to a couple caches. One of the first caches we went to involved walking half a mile on a rocky beachfront. That was probably the one that got me interested enough to come check out the website. I love exploring new areas, and finding a cache is just plain fun.

[lennie400ex]

one day I was at work play with my gps I got and a guy I work with told me about it so I look at geocaching did my first one and got hook and it a lot fun thanks geocaching

[+ladderman7]

while sitting in the waiting area prior to surgery, i happened to see an article in Texas monthly. i had won a garmin etrex at a seminar and had not used it for much more than a speedometer for my go-kart. took my son out and on the first day we found a couple sweet caches and now we are hooked. the weather is finally cooling down so off we go again.

[zackem77]

I must say if it wasn't for my children...I wouldn't have a clue!!! On a beautiful, slighlty drizzling Sunday afternoon {Oct 14/07} the family {My husband, step-dauaghter Alysha, 9yrs old, my daughter Emelie 10yrs old, my son Zackarie 9yrs old & myslef} decided to take a three hour long walk in Sunnidale park. It has spectacular colours during the fall season. As we were treking throught the woods my son & daughter were telling us about this box full of little treasures that they had found last year while playing hide & seek with their father sometime last year and that they wanted to show us. To my amazment after doing some "circles" around the area WE FOUND IT! It wasn't until that day that they realized exactly what it was. We found some information about GEOCACHE and I later researched it on the internet & explained to them what they had found. Well isn't the coolest thing on earth was their response! It was quite amazing to find the note they had left last year...we took several pictures of our findings including that note and the new note we left. We didn't take anything but we did leave a hair clip, magnet, a tube and an apple crumble pie recipe. That's all we had on us. Now we know and for our next hunt we'll be prepared! I think this might be our new weekend activities! I can't say in words how I feel that this is going to be a family activity filled with wonders and exploration! I hope these to be wonderful memories for our family. I must say I myself might be hooked on this idea. I can't believe that my children stumbled on this treasure by pure luck and now it might be a family tradition. Let the fun begin!!!

[gramz]

Some friends of ours were into geocaching, but never said alot about it. Sounded like fun to me, but we were always too busy to really check it out. Someone gave my dad a Magellan SportPro. He's a ham radio operator and loves to do "fox hunts." I told him about geocaching and encouraged him to try it. He did and enjoyed it. About a year later, my husband was hurt in a motorcycle accident and was off work for 13 weeks. We didn't have any money for vacation, so when the time came, we asked my dad if we could borrow his GPS. We could do a little geocaching when my husband felt up to it. At first we would only go out for an hour or so. Then as he got stronger, we stayed out longer. Well, that was 2 months ago. Now, he's back to work and we've managed to find 97 caches! We are definitely hooked and dad is more interested than ever! It's been fun to have something new in common. We are planning to buy our own GPS as soon as the budget allows. Then... lookout!!!

[+edge1255]

I read a book by David Morrell called 'Scavenger', about a deadly treasure hunt using geocaching themes. He even gave Geocaching.com a plug in the story! By the way, David Morrell was the author who gave the world Rambo!

[+beagle_camper]

my dad told me about it, and he found out about it at a boy scout thing.

[+robbymcdobby]

A couple of friends from school told me about geocaching in early 2006. I thought it was cool, but never did anything about it. Then, about six months ago, my friends told me about another one of their geocaching adventures. It sounded so cool, that I decided I had to try it.

 

For about 3 months, I did nothing. Finally, I started researching GPSr's online. I wasn't sure if I would remain interested in geocaching, so I decided to buy a cheap GPS--a Magellan Explorist 100. VERY basic model. After creating my GC.com account, my GPSr arrived in the mail.

 

On GC.com, I spotted a cache less than 0.25 miles from my house. So, I walked over one night and found my first cache. It was so exciting! I knew from that moment that I was hooked. After 1.5 months of caching, I have 40 finds.

 

Going for a couple more tonight.

Edited November 29, 2007 by robbymcdobby

[+waterwitch2]

I was looking at hand held GPS units for my boat to replace my Magellan 310 that was acting strangely (I had to do a master reset every few weeks to make it work). I kept seeing the term "Geocaching" during my searches and finally looked it up to see what it was. I found this site and saw there were quite a few caches in my area and went out and found a few and now I'm hooked.

[+imusttravel2000]

A co-worker asks if I knew anything about the GPS on the market. I told her that I never heard about GPS. She said that her neices uses theirs to scavanger hunt caches. Then she gave me the website.

After searching the website, I ran out and brought a GPS garmin unit. It took hours of cattle country to find my first find. Rule #1 learn about what the coordinates mean. Now this new hobby engulfs my life and my family supports it. Maybe they can get a GPS unit to find me at times.

[+Team Idasam]

I was out shooting when a guy on a Dakar style bike pulls up and asks me if I could cease for a bit. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was looking for treasure. I watched him until he left and then went to investigate. Everything else is history.

[+stever525]

I got started in Jan '07. My family had gathered in Cambridge, Mn for my Grandfathers funeral. My cousin from San Diego told us that we were going treasure hunting. Little did we know how addicting this would be. We ended up doing this cache (GCYHFM) and a few others. The weather was beautiful that day. 5* and breazy. I think this only made us better cachers. I have since cached in all kinds of weather. 100*+ - 5*- Sunny, snowy, rainy, dark. I am determined not to let anything stop me!

 

Long live the geocaches!

Edited December 2, 2007 by stever525

[GeoPirates2007]

I saw the icon on my GPSr and googled it. Between my natural need for treasure and my competitive nature, the rest is History

[stsung]

I knew about geocaching for a long time. My friends and one of my schoolmates do geocaching (in the extreme way). I always wanted to joint hem but I was rather scared to try it...(5/5 danger, abandoned mine does not sound that good). Even though when I was young I could go to any abandoned mine or dangerous place and have fun. Now I changed.

 

Anyway my boyfriend got himself a GPS so we started to geocache...easily reached caches but anyway we already had some fun and some really nice experiences both creepy and nice ones.

[Oil Can]

Was doing some research on a GPS i was wanting to buy and under the options page it said Geocaching. I thought what the heck is that? Googled it and it brought me to this site. Did some more researching on Geocaching and thought cool. I would be able to get more use from my GPS othen than for routing on the city streets.

[+vw_k]

I started working for a company selling ski and snowboard clothing and the stores outdoor department sold GPS, when I was being trained on selling GPS my friend at work told me about geocaching. I looked up geocaching.com, found my nearest cache and went and found it using just the clue and my local knowledge, I told another friend who already had a GOS about cachuing and we started going caching together. 155 finds later I still don't have my own GPS!!

[+the church mouse]

I was going on vacation to Illinois to my uncle's house and a student in his computer class geocached. I almost didn't go, but I chose wisely. So we went out and found a couple of caches. The first cache I found was in a corncrib. I was hooked. When we got back home and I made my account I started to officially Geocache after Christmas.

[fishdirt]

An old high school friend and his wife got me hooked. When he first described it to me I was thinking "man this is like some secret underground thing that a lot of people don't know about" for some reason that blew my mind and I was interested. So when he came down to catch up on old times and hang out we planned on sledding (a couple 30 somethings wanting to sled haha) and do the caching. At first I didn't know what to make of it as we wondered around. I liked the visual hunt aspect and got extremely excited when I found the cache hidden very well. We then went to a park for another. This one was hidden very very well. In my head I started to realize this was a good side to things I like to do such as exploring woods, hiking and camping. I am eternally grateful to him for showing me this. I have since shown two friends. The latter thought it was fun even though it took all of 2 minutes to find. I love the hunt. More caches in more nature settings and I am set.

[+rock_rat]

The short answer Kate & Leo. Being a huge geek I used to watch a show called The Screen Savers and the hosts Kate & Leo did a segment on this new thing happening out west called "Geo Caching". It took me a few months to save up for a GPS but that was where it started. Now Kate is gone, The Screen savers are gone, Tech TV is gone, and only my obsession remains.

[+Toaster Rodeo]

My sister was a science teacher and she had to do a class on outdoors, and they told her about geocaching - she told me. I blew it off - then I decided a GPS wouldn't be a bad thing to have (since I have no sense of direction) and hey, why not try the geocaching thing?

 

1 word...addiction.

[+casey97]

A friend of mine kept pressuring me into trying it. But I was raised right and did not try it. More and more “friends” began to peer-pressure me until I thought I would just try it once just so I could tell them I did not like it and they would leave me alone. Unfortunately I was one of those first time addiction stories you see on the after school specials. Now I am obsessed with when I am getting my next fix. I have strained relationships and neglected family obligations all because of this habit. I have exhausted all local sources and am now spending horrendous amounts on gas. I went from “casual” experimentation with a Venture Cx and went into full blown addiction with a Vista Hcx.

 

This story gets even worse. I walked in on my nephew last week, and he was looking at pictures of cache containers on the internet. I confronted him about this. I asked where he learned such behavior, and to my horror he said he learned it from watching me. Remember this addiction affects not only you but your family.

[+qlenfg]

I bought a GPS for motorcycle travel out in the rural areas and saw an article on confluences. In reading up on them I found out about geocaching and decided to give it a shot.

 

Poked around on GC and found some caches near the house. Found a few the first day out, then more and more. Got the wife interested so I could justify the purchase of a newer GPS, and another...

 

Most of what we run across around here are micros, and some will definitely make you pull your hair out.

[Aux10]

For me my high school music teacher announced that he was starting a geocaching club with the slogan "Sign up for the hunt!" So after he explained it during assembly I went home and found geocaching.com. So then I knew I wanted to join this "secret society of treasure hunters". So I got a gps tried a few and then joined the club. Sadly it only lasted two high school semesters. It disbanded last year after his wife had a baby and for some reason left to become a used car sales man. IDK why he did that he was the best music teacher the school had since the one that left when I was in 3rd grade. (I go to a private school and we have grades 1-12 in the same building. I'm a senior now btw.) For some strange reason the one I had in third grade magically appeared last quarter as a office assistant. Shortly after I joined the club my brother got into the sport and bla bla bla... idk... lol. Well and thats how I joined.

[+Rottweiler]

Me and a frind of mine were always out and about in the woods, hiking, walking and the such and stumbled onto a cache near seal island bridge Cape Breton, forget the name of it and couldn't find it on here since. Read the note inside with the web address to check this thing out, I signed the log, put er all back, already had a GPS so when I finally got onto this site I was already and set to start, stoped for a cpl years but since started again last month.

[+malweth]

It's a little convoluted (and I have yet to search out my first cache) but:

 

I'm totally new. I'm trying to get in shape and do more outside activities. I've been walking (on streets) and measuring my heart rate and distance. I hate running, though... and a neighbor showed me a set of trails near my house - so I figured I should get started in hiking.

 

Unfortunately, google maps is great for road walking (distance calculator), but trails are totally invisible. So added to my birthday wish list was an e-trex... I found geocaching from that (Garmin must be a big fan of geocaching.... was the sport started by a GPS company?)

 

Come to find out, my parents have an older GPS, e-trex vista (plain old B&W, no "H"). They're bringing it next weekend as an early b-day present and (weather permitting) we'll be hiking in the woods near our house to seek out the couple of caches hidden there. I'm really looking forward to it and have some hike/cache trips planned for the summer already (Arcadia, for one close by). I think my Chocolate Lab is loving this even more than I am!

[+Team O-Zone]

Last year, my husbands company had it's christmas party . We were chatting with one of his clients about different hobbies and the client said that they had just gotten involved in geocaching. I had remembered seeing a few News type programs about geocaching over the years, but never really thought much about it. Well he described the fun he & his wife were having, and his wife saw my face light up. She looked me straight in the eye and said "The web site is www.geocaching.com".

 

The next day I was on the web site and I was hooked. There was a cache just down the street from our house at the park. I told my son (5 at the time) and my husband about the hide, and we google maped the coords, because we did not have a GPSr at the time, and we walked to the park. It turns out that hide was muggled, but we were hooked. I spent 1 to 2 hours a day on the web site learning what I could about caching and different GPS systems. That christmas, my mother in law gave us a check for $300, and I used it to buy the Garmin 60CSx. The rest is history!

Edited April 17, 2008 by Team O-Zone