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What Are The Chances?


Abigail

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I ran into a fellow-teacher yesterday in Walmart. We chatted. Suddenly she says "I thought about you this summer!" She goes on to tell me she was waiting in her car for her grandchildren to finish day care. She notices a car pull up, a young boy emerges, runs across the road, climbs a fence, he pops the cap off the fence, removes something from inside and takes it back to the car. A few minutes later he returns the object and returns to his car. She realizes that they must be caching. My daughter (genius that she is <_< ) said "They must have been checking the log."

 

I've seen 3 cachers. Two were driving away from a cache we were about to find. Another time, I saw cachers looking through swag in a cache I hid near my home (in hopes of seeing other cachers).

 

What are the chances that you would be sitting there minding your own business and see a cacher?

 

Abigail

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Some people bird watch. some of us watch the elusive native and migrating cacher in action. "ohh Honey get the camera! Look at this one!" Looking at a camera Crocodile Hunter sytle "Here we have the elusive suburban geocacher! and a quite fine representation of the species he be! Oh look he's found the container, lets watch and see what happens.... Oh this is very good! The cacher must've found a bit 'o swag in there as he's doing what we call in the profession the "Wooohoo I found good swag that's not mcjunk!" dance" <_<

I love meeting other cachers on the trail or at a cache location we all seem to love to tell our stories :ph34r:

 

-PMaholm

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Well, in terms of accidentally meeting other cachers, I think it has happened to me 3 times. The first time it was obvious - we both had out GPS units out. The second time was fairly recently. I was taking my nephews caching when I commented to one of them about following the bearing. A family walking by asked if we were geocaching. Much fun! The last time was very recently when I was walking by brothers dog on a trail and trying to find a cache. There was lady walking across the hill, and SHE was a geocacher. We had a short, but fun talk.

 

There have been other times where I have intentionally met other cachers, but that does not count.

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What are the chances that you would be sitting there minding your own business and see a cacher?

 

With a geocache in every practically shopping mall in the country, pretty good. <_<

 

Not long ago I was driving when I passed by a geocacher I know emerging from the woods. I had no idea there was a cache there. Turns out he was returning from a FTF.

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I've run into a couple near caches. Only once did someone notice *us* that I'm aware of.

 

My 2 children and I were standing in the area of an elusive micro earlier this summer, when an older couple walked by us on the trail.

We tried to look un-suspicious, said hello, they went on their way. A little while later they walked back past us again, and the man said "are you geocaching?"

I was surprised he knew what we were doing! He whipped out his GPS, and told me they had found their 800th cache that day. They're my new heroes- they travel the world and geocache in their retirement.

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I have met many other geocachers unexpectedly while looking for a cache or while on the way to/from a cache. And just last week I saw what had to have been a geocacher searching for a cache I have previously found on a walkway that crosses a bridge near a highway - I saw him while we were driving by at 60 mph, but it was pretty obvious what he was doing.

 

Well, in terms of accidentally meeting other cachers, I think it has happened to me 3 times.

Make that 4 times. I met n00b while walking in a park located not far from my office. He had his GPSr in hand (I didn't have mine with me), so I asked him if he was geocaching. It was funny because we knew each other through the forums, but we had never met before.

 

After we met, we walked together to a nearby Earthcache that neither of us had logged.

 

Meeting n00b was a memorable experience for me, but it sounds like he doesn't remember it at all. <_<

 

 

 

 

:ph34r:

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Not yet, but I did have a muggle catch me one day, a few weeks ago. I was looking for a suspiciously difficult 2/2 micro at a rest stop here. After my 2nd visit, I guess I was being non to inconspicuous. He was walking by the nearby soda machines when he turned to me and said "Hey, you're geocaching, aren't you?"

 

We struck up a nice conversation, and I showed him and his kids how this GPS thingee worked. No find, but we had a good time, and I think I converted another one. <_<

Edited by Jhwk
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Near caches or on the trail to or from caches we have ran into several other cachers. We see many cachers that we know going after the new caches. Like the day a new cache popped up less than a mile from my home, it had only been posted for 30 minutes so we jump in the car. As we approached the Soccer field we saw HereFishyFishy's truck pulling out :shocked: , or one day when we hard strange noises in the woods to look up and see The Veep heading toward us trying to spook us.

 

I did have one unique experience. My wife and I had stopped at Dairy Queen in Vienna IL for lunch, I was wearing a Garmin shirt and as a group of guys were leaving one stopped and asked if we were geocachers. They were on their way from St. Louis to TN for work and he said he wished he was going caching.

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I have met many other geocachers unexpectedly while looking for a cache or while on the way to/from a cache. And just last week I saw what had to have been a geocacher searching for a cache I have previously found on a walkway that crosses a bridge near a highway - I saw him while we were driving by at 60 mph, but it was pretty obvious what he was doing.

 

Well, in terms of accidentally meeting other cachers, I think it has happened to me 3 times.

Make that 4 times. I met n00b while walking in a park located not far from my office. He had his GPSr in hand (I didn't have mine with me), so I asked him if he was geocaching. It was funny because we knew each other through the forums, but we had never met before.

 

After we met, we walked together to a nearby Earthcache that neither of us had logged.

 

Meeting n00b was a memorable experience for me, but it sounds like he doesn't remember it at all. :shocked:

:(

I forgot, because you weren't geocaching! Er.. uh... hehe hehe... *gulp* *loosens collar*

 

I should be particularly embarrassed for this omission because Mr. Dummy also told me about an earthcache that day. Because of him I was able to log my first (and so far ONLY) earthcache near another cache I was trying for. He's a great guy. Don't ever listen to what they say about him. :P

 

I'm very sorry, CTD. Next time I see ya' I'll bring a cheese wheel or something for ya'! ;)

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I've only met one cacher by chance while out caching, it was on a FTF run on a cache near my hotel in Schamburg Illinois. We both DNFed it, but I had an inspriation as I was logging my DNF, ran back out, found it, and got the FTF.

 

The next afternoon I was out caching again, and ran into the same cacher, which was good, because one of the caches I DNFed earlier in the day was one of his, and he confirmed I was in the right spot, I just hadn't reached far enough into the hole in the rotten tree :shocked:

 

There was one other time in Albuquerue that I DNFed a cache (once again, on a FTF try), and as I was walking through the desert to my rental car a yellow jeep wnet bouncing by in the general direction of the cache. I did't think much of it until I went to log my DNF and say the DNF from the guy in the jeep :(

Unfortionatly, that cache had bad info, and I left NM before it was corrected.

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When I was still a muggle, I would sit in my car while my kids were in Karate class, I noticed several times people walking up a hill behind the Dojo. I always wonderd why anyone would do this, there seemed to be nothing of interest up there. Then I found the Geocaching website and noticed that there was a cache up there, GCJT30

so the next day instead of sitting there, I climbed that hill, that became my first cache find.

 

On two other occasions I ran into cachers while searching for a cache and we all looked together.

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When I was still a muggle, I would sit in my car while my kids were in Karate class, I noticed several times people walking up a hill behind the Dojo. I always wonderd why anyone would do this, there seemed to be nothing of interest up there. Then I found the Geocaching website and noticed that there was a cache up there, GCJT30

so the next day instead of sitting there, I climbed that hill, that became my first cache find.

 

On two other occasions I ran into cachers while searching for a cache and we all looked together.

 

Yeah, caching sounds like much more fun than sitting in the car waiting :shocked:

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We always think people are geocaching cause we are obsessed...That man in the bushes, with his back toward us... HAS to be geocaching... One couple found us on a trail one day and asked if we were geocachers because of our car decal. They weren't official geocachers but she still could tell us where the cache was that we could not find(go figure), another time we met a local cacher and his daughter on a FTF try. We also placed a cache on our property which has introduced me to three other geocachers from my area (yes, I know, some of you hate private property caches but most of you don't live near me so you won't have to worry about it.) We had a road crew worker ask us the other day if we were "treasure hunting." His partner seemed amused that we couldn't find what we were looking for. so I would say the chances of spotting a geocacher in the wild are pretty good!

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One time I was leaving a store parking lot when I saw one of the local cachers pull in. (No cache there, this was a shopping trip) so swung back to talk to him a while.

 

Another time I was in a park full of caches metal detecting when I came across 2 cachers who I only knew from logs in the past.

 

I run into some of the locals at least once or twice a month I would guess.

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I've had it happen 3 times in my relatively short caching career. The first time was on one of my first ten hunts. I was sitting at the hide site logging the cache when I heard several people beating their way through the brush. Their conversation told me they were hunting the cache so I called out that I was logging it. They held position while I rehid, then we chatted.

 

The second time I was walking down a trail unit in hand, rounded a bend and saw a family poking the vegetation. The yellow object in the father's hand made it obvious what they were doing. I said hello and went to find a cache on the other side of the park. We met up later at the parking area.

 

The third time was a much more likely encounter. I was logging a FTF when the other cacher approached.

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My entry in the "What are the Chances" category is this one:

 

I met a cacher in the woods from Illinois who was visiting family in New England. We swapped few stories, he gave me his sig card and we went on our way.

 

Two days later I got an email from that same cacher. He found my sole TB (who had been languishing in his first finder'd hands for a few weeks) sitting in a TBHotel in NH. He grabbed it and dipped it in caches in Vermont and New York on his drive back to Chicago. He finally dropped it into his own TB Luxury Suite with >800 miles on it!

 

About 2 weeks after that, I was on vacation in Rhode Island (about 200 mi from here) and decided to grab a couple random caches near to where we were staying at the beach. I noticed on the cache log that this same guy had logged a find (3 finders ahead of me) on this cache a few days before we actually met in NH (he was making a 6-state swing thru NE).

 

I sent him an email letting him know our paths crossed once again.

 

What are the chances...? :(

Edited by markp99
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Surprisingly, I have had 17 unplanned meetings while geocaching with other cachers that were not associated with an Event Cache over the last few years of caching (see my Profile Page for list). So statistically, that comes in at about 2% of the time I am out caching. I guess if one is frequently visiting newly listed or newer caches, that would tend to increase the expected frequency of encounters.

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We were caching on a local college campus over the Christmas holidays, figuring it would be pretty empty. I was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, putting my GPSr down by my side whenever we encountered someone. We walked past a building just as someone was walking out, and as we passed, he called out, "Finding any good caches today?" Turns out he's the one who's hidden most of the caches on the campus. It was a nice chance encounter.

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I was on a road trip in Colorado. I pulled off the road and was just starting to seach for the cache when I saw a couple approaching. I tried to look like a casual observer of the trees. :(

 

As they walked by, they said "Coordinates are off."

 

:D

 

It turns out they were also on a road trip several hundred miles from their home in California. They had found the cache a little while earlier. With a hint from them, I soon found it and was back on the road towards my destination. :(

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I have had it happen twice.

 

I had found a cache (about the 18th I had found) and was putting everything back in the ammo box when I heard voices, I quickly closed the cache and replaced it. I was hoped that I would get far enough away as to not give away the hiding spot. I had gone about 20 feet before I encountered a couple with there dog. We said hello as we passed (I feeling a bit relived that I did not think they saw me replace it)

 

It was a few days later looking back at my log that I realized they were also caching, If I had been aware I would have stopped to talk and even to watch as they did there search.

 

The other time I was in northern Michigan camping and caching. I had found one and was within feet of my truck when a couple (Different from above) asked if I was geocaching, there son was a geocacher we ended up talking for a good half hour.

 

It has been a year since I have met anyone on the trail, I am about due for another.

 

Jim

Kc8bdr

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Here's a story I wrote once for another forum. It was my first time meeting a fellow geocacher by chance and it was definitely not in town so it got me especially excited.

 

....

 

Like two ships passing in the night so it is when two geocachers cross paths in the twilight, or so it seemed last Saturday just after sunset. I was in Wisconsin for our annual family trip to the apple orchards in SW Wisconsin. I had one opportunity to seek out a cache and chose to do so instead of eating supper. Priorities you know. I hunted down the little "Cedar rest" cache at N 43° 02.240, W 090° 33.138 while it was getting a bit dark. As I cruised along the winding roads I spotted a sign alongside a very narrow road leading to what was a church. Turn after turn and I finally made it to the top of a hill surrounded by fields of corn where I discovered a beautiful little old limestone block church.

 

Then, much to my initial discouragement, in the parking lot was a car with a guy in it. He had just gotten in. My luck, I mused, he was right where I needed to go to get to the graveyard cache. I thought, "Great, he's going to wonder what I'm up to." I soon discovered that he thought, "Great, he's going to wonder what I've been up to."

 

I parked and went over to him and said, "Assuming that you are a member here, I............." I interrupted myself because I saw that he was writing something on a little spiral bound note book pad and thought to myself, "That looks familiar." That looks like what I put into my caches. I asked excitedly, "Are you a geocacher?" to which he responded, "Yes!" We found this chance meeting quite amusing to say the least. Way out in the cornfields of Wisconsin we both ran into another geocacher in the dimming evening light. As he noted, this particular cache hadn't been visited often at all either and it was the only one of six that he could get to. Coincidentally my Magellan just lost satellite reception so I asked my new friend if I could borrow his Etrex and if he would help me in using it. We then cached together and I found the little bottle w/o trouble. What a neat experience that was!

 

Both of us had traveled 100s of miles and were in the area for things other than just geocaching.

 

Tom

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I've had several cacher encounters, but two of note:

 

1) While in Hawaii looking for one at a gorgeous overlook, we were walking down a slope from the overlook when we passed a woman coming upslope. We asked if the trailhead was down below and she said "Yep". I then noticed the camo'ed eTrex and asked if she was caching. "Yep." We wound up tackling 3 more caches with her that day!

 

2) While out driving in town, I spotted someone who appeared to be looking for a stage in one of my multis. It is just off the main drag. I stopped, walked over and asked if he had found it yet. He hadn't, so I gave him a nudge.

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What are the chances that you would be sitting there minding your own business and see a cacher?

Does it count when you place a new cache and hide in wait for the first cacher to show up...and capture it all on video?

 

Loved your videos Pablo. Very well done.

 

The only time I have run into another cacher was on my first real cache. I had already done several virtuals. Was searching for a cache on the university campus when I saw a group of students walking towards me. I sat down on a bench and tried to look like an old college professor, which I am not. I am a young and vibrant college professor. Okay, that's a lie too. I ain't near smart enough to be a college professor. Okay, Okay...I probably looked like a dirty old man. But I digress. As they got nearer I noticed they were intently following small, yellow electronic device which was leading them right to me, past me and to a bike rack right behind me where someone had left a bike lock hanging. Turns out that was the cache and you had to use the coordinates to figure out the combination. Took all 4 of us to solve that one. Still my favorite cache.

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