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How Did You First Hear About Geocaching?


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In spite of not having a great memory for many things, I CLEARLY recall my first exposure to GC.

 

It was the summer of 2000 and for some reason I had dozed off in my Archie Bunker chair. I awoke in the middle of the night and there was a segment on caching on an ESPN outdoors show.

 

It looked awesome so I punched it up and found there were only a few 100 caches in the world and none in PA.

 

I registered soon after that and put together what would have been the first cache in PA. It sat on the floor of my Pathfinder for many many weeks. Eventually someone else hid the first keystone state one and mine would go on to become one used at a GC event.

 

I wish I has saved the data on how many caches there were back then. Its amazing how this hobby has grown.

 

Sincerely,

PULASKI

Edited by PULASKI
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Never having owned a GPSr, I started researching them and decided on a handheld that I could load with map software to use when travelling along with being able to hit the trails without getting lost. I decided on a Magellan Explorist 400 and it came preloaded with geocaching software, along with referring to geocaching.com in the users manual. I just had to try it out and the family's now ready to go caching whenever we can...

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I first read about GeoCaching in a gold prospecting website, then from a guy at work who told me there were a couple of them near our new house. Then while exploring an old cemetary near our home, we accidentally found a micro in a film cannister. I signed up on geocaching.com and got the weekly notices for months before I ever got our first GPSer on sale, a Magellan 100. Then it was months before I talked my wife into trying to look for a cache. Then just before we did that, we mentioned it to my wife's brother, who just happened to be a pretty experienced paperless geocacher already! He took us out caching in our neighborhood and beyond, and our life has been changed ever since. We just hit 500, as has our mentor. It's been a quick year of caching. We hope to get more into hiding some good ones this year. We have 11 hides out there now.

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Slashdot.org. Actually, I think my geocachin' buddy, Chad, might have seen the article before me. Not sure.

 

I think I got my Geode GPS springboard module for my Handspring Visor Deluxe PDA in late January or very early February of 2001. At any rate, on the 4th of February, 2001, a friend and I had found our first geocache and, on the 10th of February, 2001, we'd placed our first (GC25C - still going). At that point there were 600 geocaches worldwide.

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I collect squished pennies, and own my own penny press. While searching for engravers online, I noticed that a few sites that engrave penny dies also produced geocoin dies. I wondered what the heck that was? Finally after seeing it on several sites, several times, I investigated geocoins, which logically led me to geocaching. I thought it looked interesting. I had heard of it before...even stumbled upon the second leg of a multi while fishing once! But I had never investigated it. This time I popped my zip code in for Caches Closest To and came up with a list. One was named after a park where I, what else, fish in. They had a zoo there when I was little, and it had long ago been torn down. I had no idea before reading this cache page that the remains of the zoo were still there! (Thanks, Urk!) So on a whim, and without a GPSr, I drove out one morning with nothing but the cache page to guide me. It had what I thought was a great hint, until I got there and realized how many of the items suggested in the hint were there! But the cache owner had posted a picture of where to park, so I knew I was in the right place. After a short walk in the park, and a LONG walk down memory lane, I found the cache! I passed an outdoor sporting goods place on the way home, so you KNOW I stopped and picked up a GPSr!

So, thanks Urk, for making that cache with a THAT clue! If I hadn't found that cache that day, I may have lost complete interest on geocaching, and how sad would that be? :)

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I read about it on Yahoo back in 2000 or 2001. The article stated that a new game or sport had evolved using GPS. It sounded interesting, but I didn't get into it until my wife, son, and I went with some friends this past fall geocaching in Indiana. They found their 100th while we were with them. We had a great time and now we have our own GPSr and are hiking into the woods, parks, and cemeteries whenever we can. We found the few we have near where we live, so now we need to make the time to do some traveling.

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I heard about it from a friend with whom I coach wrestling. I stopped by his place to chat about life and wrestling, but the exact second I stepped out of my car he said "hop in the truck we have to go look for something at the park.'' So I went looking around the park while he tried to explain what geocaching was. We couldn't find that cache so he took me to one that he has found before and a week or two later I bought my first GPS.

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I had bought a Magellan 2000 GPSr on eBay several years ago because I was interested in the technology and the auction was selling really cheap!

 

When I first got the GPSr in the mail, I had to struggle to get the unit working. When I started to search online for tech info on the unit, www.geocaching.com was a link in my search results.

 

Once I read the description of a game, I signed-up and tried my first cache.

 

That hooked me on the RASH (Recreation/Addiction/Sport/Hobby). After several caches, I bought a new GPSr and have logged over 155 finds and hidden 10 caches.

 

Now, every weekend and/or holiday is a good excuse to go caching. I have cached on Christmas Day, and recently, I took my mom caching on Mother's Day! When I plan my holidays, caching is first on the list to dictate where I am going!

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Like a few others here, my wife and I also first heard about geocaching from a Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode aired in 2005.

 

But I didn't actually decide it was time to dig in to it until I saw this picture of a lake on Flickr a month or two ago. The caption includes "Found while geocaching..." and it was then that I remembered the L&O:CI episode and figured I needed to really see what this was all about.

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Here's my story. Back in 2004 I was planning a winter trip to the desert and having never visited Joshua Tree National Monument decided to camp there and hike for a few days. While in the planning stage I read an article about a father and son who were hiking there on a regular path and got seperated. It was five days before they found the father (alive thankfully). I decided I wanted something that I could mark the parking spot with and always know the way back.

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I first heard about it when I worked for an internet company out of buffalo Missouri "PIP Internet" and a co-worker mentioned it after I asked him what all he does with his GPS. So he told me the basics and the website so I looked it up got more interested and registered. Its been really good other then I travel and seem to get really busy. I recently upgraded to the Vista Cx and am trying to get use to it. Will be going more now :P

 

I wonder how him and his wife are doing they are really great people :D

 

I know his username was something like jaybird or jbird something with J and Bird :(

Edited by dave1980
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My wife asked me to go with my 8 year old daughter to a brownie event to learn about it. We did that last weekend and she had a blast. We have since gone out as a family and found 2 caches. The kids love it and I'm getting into it since they like it so much. Not sure if they like the hunting or the fact that they can trade an item.

 

Great family sport.

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I got started into geocaching when my highschool started a geocaching club that looked interesting. I had no clue what it was about until after I went to the first meeting. But since then i've been pretty much hooked to it. Since i'm graduating this year, i'll have to go and buy my own gps so that I can keep on caching.

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I was checking out someone's 4 wheel drive page and geocaching was listed in his other interests, with a link to geocaching.com. I checked out the link, went out and found 4 of the easy ones near me with my laptop and GPS mouse along with Streets and Trips, and I've been hooked ever since.

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I am a participnt in the Round Britain Rally, in which you find locatations in mainland Britain using the clues that are set and maps ect, then take a picture to prove you arrived there, also only open to motorbikes and 3 wheelers, while checking out the locatation of 1 of the checkpoints on the Net it mentioned this was a cache site for geocaching so I followed the link and here I am. Only done a few and as soon as it stops raining and Noah gets his dammed boat out the drive I'll be off for more. :)

Edited by micky 2Watches
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I'm into fanlistings, which are pretty much small websites that fans of a subject can have their names added to, almost anything from celebrities to objects to concepts. Aaaanywhoo. I was wandering around the hobbies category last September, and one of them was for Geocaching. I'd never heard of it so I checked it out and it explained what it was all about. I couldn't believe how many were out there and how many were just miles from my house, in places I go all the time :D

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I am a member of an internet board of 100+ women who are mothers of kids born in September, 2003. One of the moms on the board described geocaching and my eyes practically bugged out of my head as I exclaimed, "Why haven't I heard of this before?!" Probably because I was never an avid outdoorsy type (particularly when I lived in Wisconsin 1995-2004) and then had a kid and wasn't exactly looking for new hobbies. But I knew this would be something I would love, because I love hunting for stuff and I do enjoy exploring urban and non-urban areas.

 

So, my dear partner bought me a Garmin for Valentine's Day and I found my first one soon thereafter at one of my favorite little parks and was hooked instantly. It made me almost itchy to think that every time I left the house, I was certainly passing hidden treasure everywhere I went. It helps that I live in one of the cache heavens, where almost every hide is really worthwhile. I can count on one hand the caches that have made me go, "Bleah."

 

My 3-year-old loves it, too. ("Did you sign the log, mommy?" "Is it an ammo can or a tupperware?" "Did you mark it as found?" "Can I hold the GPS?") I try to save most of the big containers for when he and I both go out and I hunt micros when I am on my own. I am also really excited to branch out farther and farther this summer and as he gets older. It has made us more outdoorsy already and I think that's great for a kid.

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It's all my son's fault. :D He bought a GPS and I was kind of kidding him about wasting the money. He didn't say much, but next time he came to visit, he asked my how I'd like to go to the site of the worst train wreck in Nashville's history....well, trains and history were the two key words it took. So we headed down to Nashville, and proceeded to clamber over an old railroad embankment, and I asked him where the site was. He said that in the 'cache' there was a newspaper article about the wreck, and some pictures....all we had to do was find this 'cache' thing.... that became more interesting than the wreck almost. We found it, I read about the wreck, was able to trace out and walk the old roadbed, and I was hooked. Bought my own GPS that night.

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Just having a conversation with someone who noticed the GPS on my bike in a State Park and they told the name of the site and then same thing happened again with some other folks while I was mapping trails in the state park. So I accessed the site and started reading - I couldn't wait for summer and got my first cache in the snow at about thirty defreeze and I was hooked. Still like it better a little warmer. My attraction is the places it takes me and the pictures and exercise rather than the hunt itself. I like the hunt more sometimes than others but grow wery of caches full of just junk. I want good stuff in there - interesting stuff that shows care in the game. Don't care much for the mini's with muggles all around wondering what the weird-o is doing.

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I learned about it thru a freind that i had ridden atv's n snowmobiles with!! i logged on and joined then after i found a few we started to cache together!! (both of us have been in the same cave multiple times and still havent managed to find that one)!! its gotten addicting to both of us!!

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I read a newspaper article in Feb. 07. A local reporter took a crash course in GPSr technology then hit the field in search of a cache. She was unsuccesful in her quest but still enjoyed the hunt. If it was not for that article and a link to GC, I would have never heard of geocaching or been involved in this game-sport. Before I signed up and hit the field, I purchased and read the book , The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching. A pretty good book for newbies. :o

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I read an article about it in the Toronto Sun in mid 2006, I immediately set out to find my first one without a GPS (i used Google Earth the first time), one week later I placed an order for a Garmin Geko 101 and I have been since hooked, after losing the geko I immediatly placed an order for a Explorist 100 and im still caching

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