First Find!

[+pappyhuz]

I know I'll get into trouble, kinda like my old drinking days when I would stop for "one" on my way home. The difference this time is I made a horrible mistake of promising Grammiehuz that I would not go geocaching without her. Well, she works and I sit here trying to keep my word, log into the website and see caches very close to home, so close I could get several while she's gone but I made a pact with her and until I come up with a scheme where she'd never be any wiser, I'll remain faithful.... I hope.

[+FerrisFamilyof5]

Found my first on Jan 2nd. It was a pretty simple find, a tupperware bowl in a shrub. I was thrilled!

I'm at 5 finds now. My first day was 2 for 5... second outing (night caching) we were 3 for 5.

 

I was surprised how much of a charge I got out of finding the first one!

 

I'm wondering how badly this geocaching is going to screw up the things I "should" be doing if I wasn't playing around.

 

Driver Carries Cache

(madmike)

 

I can tell you it will take up some of your time...the DW and I have a "thing" about once a week...She says I'm "obsessed ". WHATEVER! I say it gives you time to study. When ever the boys and I come home from and outing it's always the same comment...It was all nice and quiet until you 3 got home!..

 

Scott

[+FerrisFamilyof5]

I know I'll get into trouble, kinda like my old drinking days when I would stop for "one" on my way home. The difference this time is I made a horrible mistake of promising Grammiehuz that I would not go geocaching without her. Well, she works and I sit here trying to keep my word, log into the website and see caches very close to home, so close I could get several while she's gone but I made a pact with her and until I come up with a scheme where she'd never be any wiser, I'll remain faithful.... I hope.

 

you can create an alias...just be surprised when you go looking for the ones you already found. I do that now with my 2 boys. This way i can get a feel for the effort needed. and i let them look. it's much more fun to watch them and if they get discourged I can point them in the general direction.

 

but you didn't hear this from me!

[Sefrankel]

I'd been interested in doing this for a little while, as well as some of the community mapping projects (i.e. green mapping) that can be combined with GPS, but I just got started last month. I found a couple virtuals, but I got my first physical cache a few days ago while visiting my sister in San Antonio! The thrill of pulling the container out from under the leaves and brush...wow. I think my favorite part is the exploration, and the treasure hunting is almost an excuse to do that. I wound up in a really cool part of San Antonio looking for a virtual that I never would have seen if I hadn't been following someone's coordinates for a place they thought was interesting. Plus you can practice your ninja skills to avoid detection when unearthing the physicals. Good times.

 

-Sam

[+TeamHarrison]

I have had COUNTLESS FTF's RUINED by HUNDREDS of thoughtless cachers logging the cache before me.

 

The nerve of some people...

 

No worries. I'm having a blast and that FFTF WILL happen one day!

[Ritzhenson]

I'm still lookin' or mine too! Sooner or later we will be "That Guy." Mr. FTF.

[Dunetrooper]

Ahh Yes I just got my First cache just a few weeks ago and i couldnt help but to feel Elated! It was a Traditional cache Ammo box with the big green GeoCaching sticker on it. I think i will always remember that cache and the feeling i got from finding it.

I am definatly addicted to this sport and am getting my own geocoins in the mail soon.

Also have yet to get a first to find but soon!

[+ubdylan]

My first was just the other day, as I am a newb. A multi-part virtual. Very nice. My second, and first "real" cache, was the same day later on. I was pretty stoked. My uncle turned me on to this caching madness. I know that I am hopelessly doomed!

[+krisandmel]

My wife and I started 'caching in June, and out of sheer luck, our first find was also the cache's first finding.

(GCWJ1Y)

Got hooked right away, even upgraded GPSr's from the yellow eTrex to the Vista Cx pretty quickly.

I go on alot of motorcycle rides, so the mapping feature is very useful there as well.

 

Anyway, love the sport/hobby/recreation/addiction/what-have-you!

I'm glad to see so many more playing all the time!

-K

[+dnewman633]

This is real fun. I bought my GPS on thursday, found my first cache on friday (a micro (thanks Herb)) and am totally hooked!!! Great new passtime.

[+IFP Studio]

Took the kids to see my cousins in Miami (Davis5 Miami) and when they got home late...I asked "what were you guys doing all afternoon that you would not be home for us in time?" "Geocaching," he replied.

 

Here I am 3 micro finds and 2 micro hides later. Life will never be the same.

 

Took the kids on the first find and they were awe-struck...as was I. The first micro I went for, in the dark I might add, was very well camo'ed. A tiny tin with rocks glued to the top. It blended in so well I almost overlooked it. The lat and lon was right on the money...er uh...cache so to speak!

 

Can't wait to get over my upcoming knee surgery so I can get some more finds...but it does leave me some time to make up some great hides!

 

Justin - IFP Studio

 

"If you can't be good...be good at it!"

[BeachGal]

We found our first 2 caches today!

 

We've been Letterboxing for about 6 months now, and had heard about GCing. I got a GPS for Christmas, so went out today with my dh, 2 boys (2 and 4...they are SO into it! They love the 'treasure') and found both of the ones we were looking for. We even saw some other Cachers, but didn't know it till after we logged in!

 

We are SO hooked, and luckily there are a TON in Virginia Beach!

[FlagFinder]

first time i cached i thought a gps would point you to the exact spot so i was like hugging a tree and telling my dad its this tree i have 1ft but i cant find it wut an idiot i think i was. the thing was 5 feet behind me wut was even worse was it was out in the open

[+FloridaFour]

Our first find was a smaller ammo can in a nice park trail. I had my gps set to car mode, and I thought the trackable name (that was supposed to be in the cache, but wasn't) was the hint. So we thought "take me to the islands" was the hint. Anyway, we walked along the trail with the gps telling me to exit to the nearest road...and finally walked back and forth several (many) times to try and narrow the cache area down. I looked under palmettos and other bushes for about 40 minutes. The kids were getting bored and I was about to give up. Finally I decided to just lift up one palmetto frond that was dead and lying on the ground. AND THERE IT WAS!!!! I never expected it to be buried. We were so excited and I have not had that same thrill since. The best part was that it was out in the woods, no one else around and we felt like we were the only ones in the world who knew about this treasure! My son found a cool Marine Corps helicopter squadron patch, and my daughter took a junk bracelet. I wrote a nice log and went home super-excited~

 

Along the way, we weren't sure if we were going to find the cache and my son said, "well, at least we are out in the park taking a walk". THAT just made my day! Glad he enjoyed it and if you look in my gallery pictures, "cormerant" and "Wild Florida" are from that day's lovely walk!

[G-Caching]

I found it! My first ever! It was a little Micro-Cache placed by Hazzard101. Man...those things are tiny! I left my sig, and cautiously replaced it. I can't wait to find one big enough to leave something in. Peace Y'all, Ritz.

 

My first geocache was one placed by some local boy scouts. It was placed deep inside a bush with very long thorns. When I spotted the cache I just had to go for it - no matter how much I hurt my self

 

I will never forget it that's for sure!

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

Did I come home from work in the Delorean?

[SuMpFiN]

Found my first cache just over a week ago, while on holiday in Spain. Only getting about four hours sleep from the night before as the plane journey was delayed and we took a few wrong turns on the way to the villa, I was really tired. For some reason I took up the offer to go on a walk. I found out what the walk was about and got excited. About 2 hours later after climbing up a very steep hill/mountain I found my first Cache. It was regular sized tupperware box cache and knew that this was something that I was interested in. Then we went on to find quite a few more on the holiday, probably around 7/8/9 all logged under my uncle's name. It really made my holiday something special

 

Then I came back home to England and made an account on the geocaching site. I looked at geocaches near me, and realised there was one in a place very close to my house and school, which I had walked past almost everyday for the past five years on the way to school. Within 24 hours of creating my account, I had found my first cache to be logged under my name, completely unaided by any GPS device. Hopefully I can find a few more, I have been looking around at local geocaches, but can't find another easy one to get without a car or GPS.

 

SuMpFiN

[+patandkat]

Our first was a tricky little micro. GPS kept taking us to a lone post in a park. Looking all over the ground and all around. Finally found the little bugger right there in front of us "in" the post. Really great hobby!

[+MoonCatKDT & Peanut]

I had done a few in my high school days with a friend's family, and really had fun with it. Then, fast forward 5 years and i was parousing applications for my iPhone and i stumbled across the geocaching app. So i downloaded and just kind of looked at it and snooped around at the different ones around.

 

Then, like a week later, we were at the Farmers Market waiting for a friend, and i popped the app on again to wander the geocaches around the market. We were quite close to one so we decided to try it just for the heck of it. Well, I found it quite quickly, it was a micro, and I was extremely happy with myself. That cache holds a soft spot in my heart now it's been a little over a month, and 86 finds later, and i just can't keep control of the new addiction! KDT thinks i should find some sort of addicts anonymous to go to!

[+Stargazer22]

My first find was almost 4 years ago. Amazing how time flies when you are having fun!

I read a lot on the website before trying my first find and went for an ammo can hide in a local park that was only a couple of miles from home. I was excited to think that there were all these hidden items out there that most people just walk right by.

We got to the park and there were a bunch of muggles hanging around where the cache seemed to be located. We decided to take a walk around the park to see if we could wait them out since we didn't want to give the cache away. After about 45 minutes of touring the park, the area cleared out enough for us to attempt the find. The GPSr took us around back of one of the park buildings to a little bushy tree that was planted there. I remember that the unit was showing 1 foot distance to the cache when it was directly over the container. That was one of the very few times in almost 4 years of caching that has happened and it was on our first find!

We opened the ammo can and looked at the trinkets while I was signing the log. When I looked over at SwampyGirl I could tell she was feeling the same way I was, we were both hooked!

So far, I can say that I've never met an ammo can I didn't like!

[+hallycat]

I bought a GPS but pretty much was lost. I loaded a few caches on a trip to the burbs of Boston and then off I went to find my first one. It's still active Pandemic Park

It is probably a really easy cache to find, however I didn't really know how to use the GPS , I think I had it not set to true north and I was all over the place. That and I didn't know about the compass arrow. Anyway, I finally found it by the clue after probably at least a half hour, maybe a full hour.

I was tickled! And there was a travel bug in it called The Key To Good Health which wanted you to get outside and get fresh air and be healthy. I thought it was an omen since I had just had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor a few months earlier!

 

On my way home I stopped here at a Travel Bug Hotel

I was so excited, I was going to trade bugs! Well, I was up and down the path for a good hour and finally gave up. Nice place though heh. I went back about a year later to rectify it on another trip and found it with no problem. No where near where I had ever looked the first time mind you!

 

Subsequently I found out how to set the GPS correctly, and found a few more. The real breakthrough came two months or so later when I went to an event and met some other cachers. I learned more in that day then I had in the previous months muddling through on my own!

 

The Key To Good Health TB didn't fare so well, unfortunately it went missing shortly after I sent it on it's way but my health remains good and I love caching more all the time.

Edited November 19, 2010 by hallycat

[+Chief301]

I had been reading a lot about Geocaching and I thought it sounded like fun, but I didn't have a GPS device. Then I got an iPhone 4 and with a little advice from a buddy of mine (NF1, an experienced Geocacher) I decided to give it a try. My first attempt was a DNF, but the next day I found my first, a magnetic keybox hidden in a bridge railing. I was pretty happy about that one because I found it right away. Then a few days later the owner of the other one saw the DNF I posted and thankfully helped me out with a hint. I went back and found it the next day.

 

That was a few weeks ago and I tried for a couple of others around that time, but I guess I still didn't know what to look for because I kept striking out on some "easy" caches. Plus there aren't a lot of caches in my area, so I sorta gave it a rest for a couple of weeks with only two finds to my credit

 

Then this week, I had occasion to be in Baton Rouge 3 consecutive days. I know there are plenty of caches in downtown BR, so I was determined to grab at least one while I was there, which I did. Then I also noticed that several new caches had been added right around my area, so I went after them with much better success than I had at first...maybe I'm starting to learn what to look for?

 

So after flying solo for a couple of days, I'm starting to get into this, so I asked my kids (19 and 12) if they'd like to make a quick run with me. They were a little skeptical at first, but after the first find of the day they also started getting into it! Plus I got to show them some interesting sights in our local area that they'd never noticed or paid attention to, which I guess is one of the great side benefits of this hobby

 

Now I just need to get my wife into it and we'll be on our way!

[+Packfan12]

My first find was at a church oddly enough it was the church i attend. I did not even use a gps i looked at the description and the hint and went right to it.

[+smashemups]

I signed up to start in 2007. Went out several times and didn't really know how to work GPSr effectively or understand the concept very well. Decided to try again in 2010. I really love it. I went out bu myself and found 1 micro under a bridge and then a magnetic box on a guardrail and was hooked. I have been caching with my son around home and we are psyched about it. Have about 25 finds in 2 weeks with several finds taking a couple tries. I love the thrill of the hunt and the unique hiding locations.

[+kelly&scott]

I had my first FOUR finds yesterday, what a thrill! My bf got me a new HTC EVO for my birthday and we had heard about geocaching, so I found this site and signed up... then we planned a hiking trip down some of our favorite local trails where there seemed to be several. Our first attempt was a DNF, at the trailhead, but about 2 miles in, we found our first and it was so exiting, I barely looked up from my phone the whole rest of the way. We found another one further in, and on our way back to the car, we made a second attempt at the DNF and actually found it!

There are at least 10 within a mile or two from my house, so we found another one last night while making a trip to the grocery store, and I plan on leaving for work an hour early today so we can look for a few more on the way in. I think this is going to be a fun new hobby, can't wait!

[+do not resuscitate]

My brother-in-law and his family (O-Side Grubs) took me with them. It was in a park in the crotch of a tree where you have to reach up and explore with your hand instead of your eyes. It was a hide-a-key screwed onto a piece of tree bark. Ingenious. Hooked from that point on.

[+knowltonGeo]

My first find was a skirt find, size small.

 

It was just a log inside of a small waterproof match case.

 

I recorded the experience:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC0S4TqKkNw

 

After that first find, my son and I were hooked!

 

Congrats on your first find.

[+knowltonGeo]

See what y'all think about this for a signiture item for yours truly...

 

 

Even better if you could make it look like it is "etched" into the Ritz cracker, itself!

 

Edited December 19, 2010 by knowltonGeo

[+Borst68]

My 9 year old daughter made our first find back in March of 2010. It was a cold and rainy western NY day. We searched for 5 caches and struck out of the first four. (Two of them were missing so it wasn't all us.) No luck on the benchmark either. She finally found a film canister in a short rock wall at a nearby park.

[+Manville Possum]

My FTF was a awful experience. A three stage multi challange cache. The final was supposed to have tokens in it, the challange was to collect 23 tokens from 23 different caches in the series for a reward. The CO forgot to leave any tokens in the cache, other users thought that I took them all just to be a jerk and posted their comments that really made me feel bad. I worked real hard for that FTF, I got there at day break on a cold winter morning. That really bummed me out on being FTF ever again.

Edited December 19, 2010 by Manville Possum Hunters

[+TeamMagicParrot]

My first was along a local bike trail, just a few blocks from home. As many other cachers start, I had the app, but I only had the iPod Touch one. What a fool I was! It took me 3 times and sheer luck to find it... when I finally got my GPS is when I was more enticed to continue caching, and has given me like 220 of my 223 caches since June of this year! I got a ton of DNF's when the cacher starts to go through "growing pains" around 25-65 finds, and starts exploring new hides. Don't give up!

[+stinger503]

Our first find was before we even got the GPSr! We used Google Earth to pinpoint the location, it was a micro in the middle of a parking lot up the street from our house. Since I knew there wasn't anything in that parking lot but a big tree, I figured that was where to go. We drove up as it was getting dark and I hopped out and found it in the crook of two branches of the tree! We were so excited, it was like two little kids on Christmas morning!!! And we still get that feeling everytime we find one!

 

I did the same thing, I read up on Geocaching at about 3 AM and was to excited to sleep. Without a GPS I had to write down directions for 3 caches using land markers like creeks and streets. My first cache attempt was off by about 25 ft (a creek was in the way), the 2nd was in a pine tree in a park that had a lot of muggles around so I abandoned it too. The final cache attempt and my first find was a small micro in a tree crotch. I took my time signing the log. What a great feeling. 600 finds since March now.

[mksmith713]

I know how you feel.

My daughter and I went out today for the first time using the app for android my cell phone.

We hadn't a clue what we were doing but we found one small and two micros out of 5 that we looked for.

What a rush it was for both of us.

It wasn't until I got on the forums that I realized how well we really did finding those micros.

One was really really small....about half the size of my pinky finger and that was within a bush out in a wooded area.

She's hooked.....me? Well, reality is setting in....we got lucky.

It's kinda like taking a kid fishing for the first time in a stocked farm pond.

[+WRASTRO]

Our first find was seven years ago today and I could describe it in minute detail but would bore you to tears. We are now on the verge of 2,900 finds (just about one per day average) and still love this game! Found two caches today and hope to find many, many more in the years to come.

[+WRASTRO]

Did I come home from work in the Delorean?

Nope, you just seem to have landed where new and exciting things may be old and boring to you. Time to buy a Volt?

[sukivit]

hi all i cant wait to get out in the new year, just got to get a gps now santa has been but not sure which one i want .

[mksmith713]

Third trip and still catching fish.....

[+MI_CO]

My first find was with my sister, who also never geocached before. It was a seven-stage multi in a cemetery with a really cool puzzle. The cache was an ammo can. This kind of screwed me up though, I thought ALL caches would be that size! I spent a few frustrating months and almost gave up before I learned about cache sizes and that not all caches would be as large. Since I live in an urban area, most of the caches are micros and nanos so you can see my early dilema. That first cache is also my favorite cache (GC1BPXG if you want to take a peek).