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After leaving the office today I thought I would stop and find one micro-cache before going home. I was wearing a tie and office clothes but it was dry out and this was just a short distance off the road. It was near a park and there were some parents and kids nearby. It appeared to be the standard micro-in-a-spruce-tree so I started examining this tree when one of the parents approached me. Instead of the usual, "what are you doing" question, he asked "are you checking the trees or soil?" Not wanting to get into a conversation but also not wanting to be rude I mumbled "no I'm just geocaching". He looked confused so I had to follow up and flash the GPS. So he then asks, "are all trees in the City tracked that way"? "No" I said, "just the elms (Dutch Elm disease), and I'm just looking for a small container but sometimes they're hard to find". At that he seemed to feel that I was too busy doing my job and he shouldn't bother me. Unfortunately that only lasted for about 60 seconds before he came back and said he was an environmental technician and asked again if this was about the soil. I don't know what he thought was wrong with the soil, but I was starting to enjoy this so now I had my pen out with a pad of paper and made it look like I was really into this tree. I said no, just the trees, certain trees that need to be checked out. Again I responded without really looking at him so he must have figured I was too busy to stop and explain. Fortunately his little boy wanted to play more and he had to go back to the park. I decided I had pushed my luck far enough and decided I would come back and look some other time. Perhaps I should have said, "were you the one who called this in" and that might have given him reason to let me "get on with my job". You meet the strangest people while geocaching, even though I was probably acting much stranger than him.

;)

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I had a similar thing happen. I had just found a cache in a swampy area and a guy walk up behind me while I was signing the log book. He looked at me and said "doing a study?". I said "yes I am" picked up the cache and walked away to sit a good distance away and waited for him to leave.

 

Instead he came over and started questioning me about the types of fish and aquatic life in the swamp. I went into a spiel about oxygen levels and high water temps endangering piscine lifeforms and started going on about tadpoles, types of snakes, frogs etc... using every big, or scientific word I could think of. It had its desired effect, because the guy's eyes started to glaze over and he said "I was just wondering if I should bring my fishing rod here" and beat a hasty retreat. Mission accomplished! Truth is that I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

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A friend and I once had some construction people who were hanging around eating lunch in the park ask us if we were the park arborists. We said "sort of" and then got asked about why we hadn't gotten around to taking care of getting some trees they had complained about etc! ;) We told them it wasn't our department and knew nothing and took off!

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Not only are people you meet while caching sometimes rather strange, they also

are clueless about anything remotely technical. Explaining Geocaching to them

would be a lost cause, since they seem not to have a clue about anything beyond

their own trivial pursuits. I got into Geocaching like I got into Ham Radio, since

I have a curiosity about, well, a lot of things. Many out there could not learn

anything new, even to save their own lives, and are doomed to wander the

earth in sheer ignorance!

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I was looking for a cache in a snow covered city park in Portland, Maine, in December only to find out later I was using an old listing and the cache had been archived weeks before. There were lots of people walking their dogs or jogging and I was there long enough so one nice lady I had said 'hi" to earlier was walking back by and noticed I was still searching. She asked: "Are you a member of that society that hides things?" I almost laughed but it was a pretty good description from someone who wasn't into geocaching. She then told me that I was looking in the correct spot but she was sure that the cache had been taken some time ago. Muggles can be very helpful and quite often know where caches are.

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"The Society that Hides Things" :)

 

Sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch.

 

I like it!

Yeah, that is waaay more interesting than the time two of my students and I hunted a cache not far from our school. A woman walking her dog was also in the park. The boys were trying to be somewhat stealthy, but she watched our efforts fairly closely for a few minutes before asking, "Are you playing that satellite game?"

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"The Society that Hides Things" :)

 

Sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch.

 

I like it!

 

And the GPS is that "machine that goes PING!"

 

I once had a hunter holler to me from across a wood, "I know what you're looking for!" and he was very excited to meet an actual geocacher.

 

Another time I was doing a virtual. I had to walk near Lake Michigna on a really cold winter day. Some ladies walking thier dogs seemed to mistake my GPS for a camera, and asked if I was going to take pictures of the ice -- since not many people would just walk out here in this weather. I said "I just came out here to read this sign about fish." (That's what I needed to do for the virtual). I clearly scared them!

 

Bec

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Has anyone considered printing up cards to handout to muggles that explains the sport? Although, on second thought this might discourage their comical questions.

 

I always keep a couple copies of the geocaching brochure with me. Works great with curious muggles. I even gave one out at a yard sale once. I was negotiating a price for a bag full of toy cars with a youngster when he asked "why do you want the entire bag". Rather than try to explain geocaching (we had more yard sales to visit) I just handed over a brochure. It worked great, ...possibly even spawned a new geocacher or two. :)

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<snip>. I went into a spiel about geocaching <snip> using every big, or scientific word I could think of. It had its desired effect, because the guy's eyes started to glaze over and he <snip> beat a hasty retreat. Mission accomplished! Truth is that I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

I've done much the same thing, but telling the truth or at least my version of it. :)

 

The Society who Hides Things! I Love it. :)

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After leaving the office today I thought I would stop and find one micro-cache before going home. I was wearing a tie and office clothes but it was dry out and this was just a short distance off the road. It was near a park and there were some parents and kids nearby. It appeared to be the standard micro-in-a-spruce-tree so I started examining this tree when one of the parents approached me. Instead of the usual, "what are you doing" question, he asked "are you checking the trees or soil?" Not wanting to get into a conversation but also not wanting to be rude I mumbled "no I'm just geocaching". He looked confused so I had to follow up and flash the GPS. So he then asks, "are all trees in the City tracked that way"? "No" I said, "just the elms (Dutch Elm disease), and I'm just looking for a small container but sometimes they're hard to find". At that he seemed to feel that I was too busy doing my job and he shouldn't bother me. Unfortunately that only lasted for about 60 seconds before he came back and said he was an environmental technician and asked again if this was about the soil. I don't know what he thought was wrong with the soil, but I was starting to enjoy this so now I had my pen out with a pad of paper and made it look like I was really into this tree. I said no, just the trees, certain trees that need to be checked out. Again I responded without really looking at him so he must have figured I was too busy to stop and explain. Fortunately his little boy wanted to play more and he had to go back to the park. I decided I had pushed my luck far enough and decided I would come back and look some other time. Perhaps I should have said, "were you the one who called this in" and that might have given him reason to let me "get on with my job". You meet the strangest people while geocaching, even though I was probably acting much stranger than him. :)

 

How far did you have to track that tree before you caught it?

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I was looking for one near where a homeless resident had set up camp a couple of years ago. I didn't realize he was there until after I had examined several trees. He spoke up and asked if I was a cop. Told him the city had sent me out to count the catepillars in the trees. He declined my invitation to help with the count.

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they also are clueless about anything remotely technical

What is so technical about Hide and Seek using a GPS?!? :ph34r:

 

That answer only brings more questions.

Usually I take the time to answer all the questions. Some times I just wish I had said something witty like the rest of you nuts.

Always fun to walk in a park in one off my orange T-shirts from work carrying a clipboard. It is amazing how many people leave when I show up. Think I'll try wearing the hard hat one of these days and see what happens.

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"The Society that Hides Things" :P

 

Sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch.

 

I like it!

 

Lol! I think it was something like "The Society of People that Place Things on Top of Other Things".

:ph34r:

"I am happy to report that last month we placed a total of 34 things on top of other things."

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Doing cache maintenance a few days ago... a security guard came out of a nearby business to ask what I was doing. I explained that I was from the local Audobon Society (true) and that we'd gotten a report that a pair of ospreys were nesting in the trees nearby. I showed him my GPS and said I was logging the coordinates of the location for the 'records'. He thought that was pretty cool. He was looking way up into the 200+ spruce I'd been standing near as I drove away. :shocked:

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As a plumber that often caches in the plumbing truck, I was wandering the edge of a park that was next to the back yards of several houses looking for a place to hind a cache. One of the homeowners came out of the gate to see what I was doing. Holding up the GPSr I said that there was a gas leak reported and that I was testing the air for combustibles. He was satisfied and left. I was hoping that he'd have some more questions, cause I was getting ready with the "If you see me running, try to keep up."

 

DAryl

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