Anyone Willing to take a Survey?

[+1fairygirl]

I am taking an English Compostion Class this semester and I need to write a research paper. Of course what do I want to write on GeoCaching. My husband and I started geocaching in March 2007. We currently have 137 finds and 8 hides (we are working on placing a new cache series out in the Columbia Gorge).

Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions on geocaching? Would love to hear about everyone's caching stories.

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

[+Nochipra]

I don't mind taking the survey, here ya go.

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching? We saw something about it on tv and we already had a gps so we decided to give it a try and have been hooked ever since.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache? Our first cache was at a little park on the beach here in Hampton Roads, VA. I am a wheelchair user and the terrain where the cache was was a little rough so Chip went to find it while I stayed on the phone with him. He brougt the micro cache to me and we opened it together and signed. It wasn't the best cache in the world but it was fun hunting it down.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? I can't say we have had any bad experiences. Something that made Chip jump when he found a cache was, a cacher who had showed up just before we did had put a motion detector in the cache that went off when you opened the cache. I wasn't with him when he opened it, I was in the car with him on the phone because of the terrain again but he said he jumped a mile when he opened it and it started beeping at him like crazy. Wish I had seen it though, lol.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache? The challenge is fun and the rewarding feeling you get when you find one.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide? We have not hidden any yet but I look forward to doing so, I do enjoy the hunt even though I don't actually get to do the actual hunting alot unless it is accessible.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why? I'm sure Chip would tell you the few we did in Gettysburg, PA because he loves civil war stuff. Althought the beautiful park caches are really nice they are not reall accessible for me. I enjoy the creative urban caches I find (like the ones resembling a part of a light pole, not the LPC's, but the one's people take time to think out and build).

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why? The ones we have not found. We had a cache this past weekend in a park that we could not find. I emailed the cache owner and told them they may want to check it out. Come to find out it was there about 5 ft out of place but still there. Those are the ones that drive you crazy. We also had what I know had to be an LPC that we couldn't find but people after our visit did find. That one drives me crazy too.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event? We have gone to a couple of the local Hampton Roads Geocachers picnics. We were supposed to go the the PA Geocoinfest this past weekend but our van broke down.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story? Each caching adventure is an event in itself. We really don't have any cache finds or dnf's that we consider being the best. They have just been our typical geocaching hunt except maybe the previously mentioned one about Chip getting scared from that motion detector. That was pretty funny at the time

 

There ya go, hope your paper turns out with an A+

[+crwildwood]

Good luck on your class! Sure miss caching in the cooler northwest....

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching? Magazine article about letterboxing. It referenced geocaching.com and since there were no letterboxes in our neighborhood, we went looking for a cache!

 

2. Tell me about your first cache? Took the whole family including geodog Sammy up to the county fairgrounds in Flagstaff and tried to find it. Eventually, hubby found the first stage of a multi in a stump and then we were hooked!

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? Snakes! You know the scene - the cache has to be in a dark "cave" but you don't want to be the one to stick your hand in there! And occasionally the random thought of "why exactly are we crawling around these boulders that have a 1000 foot drop on the side??!"

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache? To discover new places and it's an excellent way to get the kids to hike without having to hear "are we there yet?" every 2 minutes.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide? Gotta say hunt since we don't have any hides yet. Working on it though!

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why? A disabled cache now, but it was called Kelly Canyon Cache - absolutely gorgeous slot canyon area near our house. We had no idea it was there - nothing listed in the hiking books either. We keep coming back to check on the cache and redo the hike - love it! The cache was in a cliff face and was muggled. I volunteered to replace it, but the owner never said ok and it got archived.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why? DNFs! Actually, there's an urban cache near the house that I can't find. Have looked several times and even asked for a clue. Now it may be missing. Hate to write it off as a "could have been....."

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event? Yep! They are a blast!

 

9. Tell me your best caching story? There are too many to tell - great areas to discover, family time, animal sightings, just the drives to some of the cache areas are amazing. Everyone should try it!

[+Rockin Roddy]

Don't be surprised if this gets closed down, I don' tthink surveys are allowed!

 

I love caching, found out about it when I bought my Jeep.

 

In a McDonald's parking lot...not the usual LPC though!

 

Muke Springs...a very expensive trip..

 

Because I love it!

 

Both.

 

Vegas, because it's Vegas! Red Rock Canyon, Desert surrounding!

 

Mule Springs...very expensive trip!

 

Just this weekend for my latest! Probably 15 or so I would guess!

 

Not enough time or energy this morning!

[+nekom]

I am taking an English Compostion Class this semester and I need to write a research paper. Of course what do I want to write on GeoCaching. My husband and I started geocaching in March 2007. We currently have 137 finds and 8 hides (we are working on placing a new cache series out in the Columbia Gorge).

Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions on geocaching? Would love to hear about everyone's caching stories.

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

 

1. I e-mailed a local historian (who also happened to be one of my high school history teachers) about an abandoned railroad tunnel, and he mentioned that a friend of his who was into geocaching had told him it was still there. Hmmm.. Geocaching, eh? And it went from there.

2. `Gateway to the FayetteCong', still active as far as I know. It was on a very steep hillside, found it with my best friend. I think I took a guitar pick and left some rope.

3. Found a whole mess of sensitive documents about a person in the middle of the woods once. Grabbed it and flagged down a police officer and gave it to him, he was about as puzzled as to why it was dumped there as I was. I have no idea if anything ever came of it. I was thankful I didn't find something worse, like his body!

4. To see fascinating places I would never have otherwise known of.

5. Hiding is great fun, but the hunt is always better, since you never know what you'll encounter.

6. It's hard to pick a favorite, really it is. But, if you put a gun to my head and made me say one, `scattered remains' (now archived). An old world wars era DuPont gunpowder mill. Fire hydrants in the middle of the forest. I love old ruins!

7. Really, I can't think of one I hated. Even the one LPC that I found was in a beautiful park I'd never bothered to stop by before.

8. Once, it was a bowling event. Great time.

9. `Granny's Rock', set out with 2 other local cachers on a cold day with a fresh dusting of snow on the ground (not the best of ideas for a cache with a 4 terrain rating!) Ran into another cacher in the field, and then another. Getting to the final was just a slip-sliding adventure on a snowy hillside. Now THAT was an adventure. But we all made it out alive.

[Keystone]

Hello,

 

Your post doesn't state that you received permission from Groundspeak to conduct a survey. So, I am closing your thread. If I am in error, and you did obtain permission, please contact me by PM or e-mail and we will get your thread opened up again. If you have not received permission, the address to write to is contact @ geocaching.com.

[Keystone]

I am unlocking this thread and bumping it up to the top. Thank you to 1fairygirl for writing to Groundspeak today and obtaining permission to run this survey, per the moderators' request.

 

OK everyone, help out this student by responding to this approved survey!

[+Rattlebars]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

 

1. We were starting a snow plowing business and got two GPS units off of eBay. Found lots of references to GeoCaching and this web site. It's been a passion for the whole family ever since!

 

2. Night Eyes Of Niles It was, of course, the dead of winter (see #1 above) and this one was right near home!

 

3. Well, hate to admit it, but I am an avid NightCrawler (see avatar). I love night caching since it adds to the difficulty in many instances. I was on the perimeter of a creepy cemetery one moonless night and I heard the most bizarre scream from the woods just yards away down the hill from me. I'm not easily spooked, but this one got me. I had never heard such a cry from any animal or human. I still don't know what it was.

 

4. I love the hunt and love especially the race to get FTF! I'm fond of caches that get listed in the evening hours since I'm an insomniac. It gets me out of the house in the winter and I've been saving some caches that I know will be hard to find once the ground is covered with snow.

 

5. Both. It's hard to say which, but with 530 finds and only 34 hides, I guess you can say finds. But I don't think many people could maintain 500 hides though some do!

 

6. The Beer Well - which I found with my son. We still talk about it to this day because it has such an interesting history and because it is BEASTLY hard to get to and from. The surroundings and the "equipment" are very unique and the view is nice!

 

7. I don't believe there is such an animal. I even like LPCs!

 

8. Yes. Three. It's nice to put faces & real names to "handles."

 

9. After completing SoC's Pair O' Dice series, I was finally heading to the last and twelfth stage - Almost in a Pair 'o Dice. It was about half a mile from the road along some power lines and I was tempted to drive my Avalanche back to it, but decided to tough it out. It was VERY cold (13ºF). On my way back from the cache, I got a call on my phone. It was my wife. She had just received a call from the police! As I came up over a rise, there was the police car sitting next to my AV. Well, this was about the nicest police encounter I ever had. My wife had explained geocaching as "treasure hunt for adults" to him and I filled in the details, showing him the listings on my Dell Axim PDA and also my GPS. He was so interested that he said he was going to get one of those things the next day. I don't know if he did, but maybe he's reading this post right now!

 

10. PICTURE? How's this one of Team Rattlebars. I'm the youngster in the middle bracketed by son and daughter.

 

 

Good luck! Be sure to let us know how you fared fairygirl!

Edited October 11, 2007 by Rattlebars

[+Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

From a newspaper article about an upcoming event cache that was designed to help beginners learn how to use a gps and learn what to do and not do in Arizona caching.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

Our first cache was one I did alone. It was the event cache in the newspaper article. I was fresh from being in a car wreck 2 days earlier and injured. Mike was working. Because of the car wreck and some emotional trauma from it, I didnt talk to anyone there. But I loved the concept of geocaching. From there, on Mikes first day off, we started finding traditional caches and loved it ever since.

 

Car wreck was not my fault. Girl ran a stop sign. Just felt I had to add that lol.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

Yes. Fortunately not many.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

Its a fun recreational activity we can do together.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

Hunt.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

 

It changes day to day, but I think Sun Valley Surprise is my favorite. When we found it (before we adopted it) it was a rainy arizona spring day. I saw a triple rainbow stretching across the horizon, colors so bright it brought tears to my eyes. I watched it for 10 minutes before reluctantly turning away to find the cache (it was fading by then). Gorgeous.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

 

Waiting for a Date, I got shoved into dried vomit by some pedestrians. Yuck.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

 

Yes, several.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

See number 6. I have never seen such a rainbow before. Arizona may be a desert, but rainbows are commonly seen in any storm. Ive seen many double rainbows but never a triple one. And the brightness of the colors. A once in a lifetime event.

Edited October 10, 2007 by Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking

[+briansnat]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

I read an article about it in the local newspaper

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

It was about a mile from my house. I went out with my step-daughter to find it. Didn't know how to use the GPS at the time, so I was walking around trying to match coordinates. Took quite some time for us to find it.

I took an army insignia and left a pen light. My step-daughter also put in an acorn found near the site (that probably really annoyed the next finders).

 

I signed the log with my full name and a few weeks later the cache owner e-mailed me. It turned out that the cache owner was a former co-worker of my father and brother (all were police officers in the same town).

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

Worst thing I can think of was that I slipped on a wet embankment and impaled my hand on a stump of a reed. Lotsa blood!

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

For the neat places it brings me

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

I like both, but ii do have a lot of hides when compared to my finds

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

 

There were many. One that comes immediately to mind was an cache in an abandoned mine shaft

on the grounds of Thomas Edison's 19th century iron mining complex. The operation was shuttered in the 1890's (Edison lost millions) and only the holes and some ruins remain. It's a fascinating area to explore, and crawling into the narrow mine shaft was a real challenge for a claustrophobe like me.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

 

It was a wet container hidden under some rotting plywood on a litter strewn strip between a highway and

an auto body shop's parking lot. It was disappointing because the cache page write up made it seem like it would be something interesting.

 

8. Have you ever attended a cache event?

 

yes

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

I'll let the logs speak for themselves. Here are three of many..

 

 

One

 

Two

 

Three

[+scavok]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

Some friends of ours came from California here to Colorado and on an Unseasonably warm New Year's day they took us out on just enough to get us hooked.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

It was a magnetic micro under a bridge over a dry creekbed. I didn't know exactly what the point was for the search but then I saw the log with a ton of nicknames on it. All that work just to sign your name, and then it just struck me that the fun is in the search! As we moved on to more creative hides it just got better.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

I've been lucky. There are some horror stories out there, but my worst experiences have been with just plain crappy caches.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

The number one reason is because caches are almost always placed by people who live locally. Geocache hunts have brought me to more absolutely fantastic off-the-map places than anything else ever could.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

I have a cache hide that I think gets up and walks around on its own. There will be a handful of Found logs, then a DNF. I go to check on it and end up hunting for my own hide. I think another cacher is playing a joke or something, but I always laugh. Generally I prefer to hunt, though.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

A lampskirt hide at a toyota dealership in Cheyenne, WY. The 'why' is answered in #9.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

The worst caches are ones that have no point. Some caches have evil disguises, some take you to a cool place, some teach you something about the area's history. But a rush hour drive to a walmart parking lot to fish a film canister out of a juniper bush ranks very low.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

Between school, 2 jobs and the wifey... I need a local event scheduled for 2 am to squeeze it in!

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

One of my favorite caches is part of a series of caches near me called "Toy Yoda". It spreads over almost 100 miles and when one comes out my wife and I hop in the car and drive. The last one was 90 miles away, at 11pm, but we went and it happened to be the only solid 4 hours we have spent together in out hectic lives this month. It sounds cheesy, but I cherish that lampskirt hide because of it.

Edited October 10, 2007 by scavok

[+new_dharma]

I am taking an English Compostion Class this semester and I need to write a research paper. Of course what do I want to write on GeoCaching. My husband and I started geocaching in March 2007. We currently have 137 finds and 8 hides (we are working on placing a new cache series out in the Columbia Gorge).

Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions on geocaching? Would love to hear about everyone's caching stories.Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

checking the Minnesota State Parks web site & it stated they now allowed geocaching...did a Google search (real google, not another search engine) and got to GC.com...that was the beginning of the summer 2007.

2. Tell me about your first cache?

I did a micro...not a great choice for a noob, but I found it...it's on my way to work and not far off the road...it was a key holder on the railing to an underpass...beinging my first (and I found it) it's made most of the ones following it easy.

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

Doing a multi in the Governor Dodge State Park (WI) I was looking at my GPSr and not where I was going (mistake!!!)...a came close (5 feet) to stepping off a cliff (40 foot drop)

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

To get outside...I love outdoor activities and this gets me out w/o the need to travel

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

both...I like the hunt to get ideas for the hides!

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

so far...Governor Dodge State Park. I like the hikes.

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

no one particular...i HATE (yet I find) the crappy micro-spew that has infected many areas...dropping a cache behind a bench in an unkept park isn't a good cache

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

no

9. Tell me your best caching story?

every one that I've done multiple caches in one day is good...it gets me out and gets me active...not a good story

[+Team FIREBOY]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attended a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

1. National Geographic Adventure Mag.

 

2. I fell into a creek and suffered from hypothermia, went back the very next day and found it.

 

3. When a cliff my hubby was standing on taking pictures and the rocks underneath him broke away, he

fell about 40 feet. I was back at the car, had no idea he had fallen. No cell reception. Now we take our

radios so we can keep in touch when the terrain is too hard for me. (He bounced well, just "roadrash" and

bruising on his hips).

 

4. We started as the activity was good rehab for me after getting hit by a semi and having 16 spinal

surgeries to fix me up. Walking is therapeutic. We now cache for the time it allows us to be together and

the awesome places we get to visit.

 

5. Hunt

 

6. Mountain Tragedy. It is a cache in Colo. that is placed at a firefighting plane crash. Hubby is a Airport

Crash Fire Rescue Firefighter. The plane was maintained in the town he was born and raised in.

Sombering.

 

7. A cache in a old discarded McD's drink cup, hidden in other trash. I wanted to C.I.T.O. the cache. We

C.I.T.O ed the surroundings instead.

 

8. Yes, five of them and hosted one recently too.

 

9. Having to return to "Mondo's Blonde Bridge" 4 times even with the owner on the phone giving hints. The

D'oh moment that hit us when we found the cache.

[+Snoogans]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

I was cruising the newly updated Vermilion Valley Resort website at the request of the owner since he knew me as a guest who had been frequenting his establishment before he took ownership.

 

That was in the evening of February 28, 2003.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

The closest cache in my zipcode was Land-O-Lakes.

 

I already owned an ancient Magellan GPS200 and I was hunting my first cache at O' Dark Thirty the next morning (3/1) and I gave up at about noon totally skunked.

 

I went back twice the next day and got it on the second try after finally taking the time to learn how to use my GPS properly. I was just trying to match up the numbers while walking around the first couple of times. I even tried matching up UTM numbers. DOH!

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

The bad experiences turned out to be adventures and the scary experiences all turned into fun.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

I geocache because it's part of my very nature. I keep geocaching because it is a creative outlet and because of other geocachers themselves.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

I'm solidly a hider and a TB mover.

 

I take pride in my hides and I get great returns in the form of nice logs, pictures, watchers, and positive bookmarks on most of my caches.

 

Finding caches is something I like to do on trips and with groups of friends. I rarely cache around home nor do I have the time. There was a cache listed just 300 yards from where I park my car at work and I didn't bother to walk over and get it for over 3 years.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place?Why?

 

I have a few favorites that fit equally;

 

Just about any cache I've done in the Sierras or the White Mountains.... Why? Hey, I live most of the year in the Armpit of the Universe where it's hot, humid, and FLAT! The mountains are home.

 

A sandbar in the Caribbean that is populated by hundreds of tame stingrays.

 

In Nevada: The old abandoned NASA tracking station. Again, on top of a mountain.

An old pet cemetary near Las Vegas. Some industrial ruins outside of Beatty.

 

In N.M.: An old abandoned school bus on an old busted pot farm.

 

In Texas: Just about anything around Austin. Along Village Creek in Lumberton. And an abandoned sawmill near Beaumont.

 

In Florida: The 4wd caches of the Osceola Swamp. After 3 years, that's still my single best day of caching enjoyment

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

 

My worst cache is still one of my fondest geocaching adventures. I learned the lesson to carry MORE water than I need when desert hiking. To make a long story short. I chose the wrong path and got stuck in the shade in near 130 degree heat with very little water. What should have been no more than an hour turned into a 5+ hour ordeal. If I hadn't been right ON the Colorado River, I probably would have died of heat stroke at a cache I DNF'd.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

 

Events are the BEST part of geocaching in my not so humble opinion.

 

I've attended near 100 total in 6 states (Soon to be 7) and I've hosted 22 events in 3 states.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Most of my best caching stories are centered around events and begin something like this: "Me and so-and-so got drunk and....." (mostly for campout events)

 

There was the time the overloaded party boat (of geocachers) I was driving took a wake over the bow and did a dolphin dive. THAT was FUN! At least no one drownded.

 

Canoing down Village Creek with my dog, Cujo, and finding out that I could use him as an outboard motor.

 

The many night expeditions with groups of friends. Old Voth Sawmill, Swamp Lights, Night Mission Doomspore, and Ringtail Peepers were the very best of those.

 

GeoWoodstocks 3 through 5.

 

Getting close to 40 caches in 3 to 5-Star terrain during the GWIII4WD Run with the N.E.F.G.A. Jeep club.

 

Proposing to the Snoogstress after wrapping up the Meet & Greet event for GW4.

 

10. What are some of your favorite geocaching pictures?

 

[+Ambrosia]

Aw, ok. Since Keystone told us to do it , and because 1fairygirl is a local , (and perhaps because I'm a little bit bored) I guess I'll do the survey. As long as I can post a few pictures.

 

How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

Our friends told us about it, and dragged us out to do the 3 caches (at the time) in our area in a fun filled day.

 

 

Tell me about your first cache?

 

"Confluence Cache" It was the one before the picture I posted up above. It was in a nature preserve, and just lovely. We had a nice walk with 2 other families. The cache was by the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers. That one's archived now. But I now own a multi that takes you on the complete loop through the preserve.

 

 

 

Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

I can't really say that I have. The closest is doing caches in the hills at dusk by myself, just knowing that a mountain lion was probably watching me. I guess once, I drove up into the middle of nowhere, by myself, in the dark, and my car have vapor lock. I thought I'd be spending the night there, but I was fortunate and it passed quickly.

 

What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

Because I have to!!! I dunno, I love it, and it's a part of me. My world completely changed after geocaching came into it. It's a sport that incorporates so much into it - solo, group, social, at home, travel, ruggedly outdoors, easy in town, challenging, easy, journaling, statistics, meeting new people in person and online.....the list is endless!

 

Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

I like both. But since I've found many more than I've hidden, I suppose I lean towards hunting.

 

What was your favorite cache place? Why?

 

How am I supposed to choose, after over 1,000 of them?!?

 

I have always said that "extremophile" is the best cache experience I've ever had. I believe that no matter what, it always will be. Here's my log: Linky

 

 

 

What was your worst cache? Why?

 

That's also hard. I haven't been to many "bad" caches. I guess the one(s) that come to my mind whenever I think of the worst cache experience was a trip we took to New York city years ago. We'd never been to Central Park before, and we had a limited amount of time. We took the subway, and took rollerblades and wanted to get through the best spots of the park as quickly as possible. In the past, we'd been able to use geocaching to help take us to great spots while traveling, so thought that would be the case this time. Urgh. After going to a couple very disgusting spots that I wouldn't wish anyone on, we gave up. But by that time we sorta wasted the time and ended up very frustrated. I have a bad image of Central Park now, which may be somewhat justified although I'm sure tainted.

 

Have you ever attended a cache event?

 

I've attended 21 events, 12 of which I helped put on. Different parts of Washington, and one in Tenessee. I love getting together with other cachers.

 

 

Tell me your best caching story?

 

Oh, llama caching, for sure! "Baby Talk" It was a multi, where you go to the first waypoint and find a can of oats. Shake it, and the llama comes running with the coords around her neck to the final cache.

 

I have a bookmark with my cache highlights and a brief description why, although I'm a bit behind on it (I'll try and work on it): Linky

 

 

Edited October 10, 2007 by Ambrosia

[+Ambrosia]

Lol, Snoogans posted a bunch of pictures, too.

 

I've been working on my post all evening, partly because it prompted me to upload a bunch of pictures to a cache log.

Edited October 10, 2007 by Ambrosia

[+wimseyguy]

I am taking an English Compostion Class this semester and I need to write a research paper. Of course what do I want to write on GeoCaching. My husband and I started geocaching in March 2007. We currently have 137 finds and 8 hides (we are working on placing a new cache series out in the Columbia Gorge).

Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions on geocaching? Would love to hear about everyone's caching stories.

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

1. Saw an article in the local newspaper. I lurked for a few months on the website, and then bought a yellow etrex when they went on sale as REI.

2. My first cache was Lake Wheeler Cache It was a pretty standard walk through the woods at the edge of a county park. I own a cache very near to that spot now.

3. Nope, not really. I've had some good/scary moments though.

4. Because it is FUN. I get outside, and away from my responsibilities at home and work. My very smart wife says I do it so I can act like a kid playing out in the woods again.

5. Mostly a seeker. I tend to go in hiding spurts and put a few out at a time when the mood strikes.

6. Really really hard to name just one. Probably the original one in the Roman Forum if we are talking purely about location.

7. Some are less memorable than others. I guess one of those was the worst.

8. Over 50. Events are great. I have hosted a few as well. One was kinda large.

9. Over 2000 cachers attended GeoWoodstock5 here in NC on 5/26/07. They represented 38 states and 8 countries. It was great to see all of those geocachers in one place having a great time. The cache logs and gallery can tell the story better than I can.

I am very proud of this local community and the way everyone pulled together to produce this amazing event. There is also a slide show of the event here.

 

I have other stories, but they require a personal meeting, perhaps at an event, and probably with some good food and beer too.

[+Miragee]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

I heard about it on NPR's (National Public Radio) "All Things Considered." This was in 2003. At the time, I didn't think it was something I would do by myself , so I printed out some cache pages for caches near my house and took them to my neighbor, who had a wife and young child.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

My first cache was in Hollenbeck Canyon, a large open space preserve not far, as the crow flies, from where I live. My log doesn't entirely capture the thrill I experienced that evening as I embarked on the hunt. I waved at the new friends I hadn't even met yet on my way back to my car.

 

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

I enjoy the hikes so much, I don't often think about the dangers . . . except one night when I was attempting to get back to my car, in the dark, without a flashlight, in an area where mountain lions have been spotted. After that, I put a flashlight in my pack, and a headlamp, and another headlamp . . . just in case . . .

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

For the friends I have met, the exercise, the adventures, and the photography opportunities.

 

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

I prefer the hikes, or the drives through the desert during that "season." I really like finding caches outside urban areas, however, it seems that many times I go on a long hike to find another cache, I end up hiding a new cache. I didn't know I would be a hider, but I guess I am one.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

 

I cannot think of just one cache "place" that is my favorite. Many have taken me to mountain peaks, others have taken me to locations I never would have found if not for the Virtual cache there, from which I learned a lot. One even took me to the middle of nowhere. Possibly the most exhilarating cache was Long Valley Peak 4,906', although this one was a close second . . .

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

 

The cache was in a difficult-to-access, dead-end suburban alley in an area where you couldn't tell driveways from narrow streets. Once I found the alley, I found the cache inside an icky, black plastic bag. When I turned around to get out, I picked up a deck screw in my tire and got a flat . . .

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

 

Several, and a couple of weeks ago, I even hosted one . . .

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Well . . . I don't know which ones to pick. Geocaching has literally changed my life, so there are way too many great adventures over the past two and a half years to pick just one. The experiences getting to and finding two caches come to mind. Log and Log

 

I created a Bookmark List of several of my most memorable caches.

 

 

Good luck with your paper.

[+Stargazer22]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

Read about it on the Garmin website when looking to purchase a replacement GPS for our old model.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

Found it in a little park near our home that we didn't know about. It was located in an area not intented for the general public to be so we were a little reluctant to go after it. We had to wait out some muggles and then went in on a commando raid to get it in record time. Luckily the GPSr zeroed out right where the cache was and it was an easy find. We've been finding new places by geocaching ever since.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

Ran into a momma bear and cub once but they were far enough away (150 ft) so it wasn't TOO scary.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

To find new places in combination with exercise.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

Hunt.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

Near some caves in the Withlacoochee Forest. Had no idea there were caves in that part of Florida.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

My first guardrail micro. Near a historic site over 200 years old and it could have supported a decon or ammo can. Micro was wet and hard to get out of where it was hidden in the rail. Lots of traffic by the spot made it uncomfortable to retrieve the cache and almost impossible to do without being observed by several cars at any given time. Waited 20 minutes for a break in the traffic and then gave up and put the cache back where it came from.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

Several. Our first was a CITO and my wife came out of it with a geoname because of it.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

This one where we found an abandoned calf and reunited him with his herd.

 

Then another where we went to a friend's cache (met him at the CITO) in the Tiger Bay State Forest. The cache description page noted there were 3 ways into the cache, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good was a walk down an abandoned brick road in the forest but you had to locate where the road was to go this route. We arrived early in the morning and made 3 different approaches by trails, roads, paths, and just couldn't get within range of the old road. We decided to try The Bad. The Bad was a .57 mile bushwhack through what was probably moderate terrain when the cache was placed. After going about .30 and running into a bunch of downed trees blocking the way, we decided to go back and try The Ugly.

The Ugly was parking on the side of a busy road and bushwhacking through heavy brush and swamp for about .26 miles. It was the most dense underbrush I have ever seen. If you have ever cached in Florida, you may know what I am talking about. We're talking visibility of about 15 feet at best in brush over my head. It was an Epic bushwhack of the most extreme nature and we talk about it all the time. My wife was along every step of the way and even took her own route a time or two on the way to the cache. It's become the bushwhack we compare all others to. What a great feeling of accomplishment that gave us, and quite a bit of confidence in our abilities. Now whenever we have a bit of bushwhacking to do, we just laugh and say, "It can't be as bad as the Ugly".

Edited October 10, 2007 by Stargazer22

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

No.

[+JeremyR]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

I saw someone's GC.com Find/hide stats image in a signature on a completely unrelated forum, clicked it, discovered the nearest was only 1/2 a mile from home and the rest just followed.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

It was a micro, under a bench near my home. As micros go, it was quite a good one (an interesting place to bring non-locals to, clever hide).

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

No, not yet.........

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

It's good for my mental health... Gets me out of the house, exploring the outdoors more than I used to and helps keep depression from catching up with me again. I enjoy the satisfaction of a find after a good hunt, especially if it's a well thought-out multi or puzzle, or a clever and rewarding hide. I also enjoy writing the logs, telling a tale of my experiences, uploading some photos to go with them, etc.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

Until the other day, I'd have said I prefer the hunt but on Sunday, my first cache got it's FTF, which was a really great feeling (especially since they said how much they enjoyed it )

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

I've only done 40 or so in about 5 months but some highlights include Subaru GCZY95 a fairly unique mystery cache, Adventure Time! GCYWMP a short-ish but fun off-trail walk and Scafell Pike and GCG3A7 Scafell Pike, a virtual on top of England's highest mountain. I'm not sure I could pick a favourite, different caches stand out in my mind for different reasons.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

I've visited plenty of 'ordinary' (box under pile-o-sticks) caches and one or two in areas that may have been good at one point but aren't any more through no fault of the setter but I don't think that I've ever found a cache and wished I hadn't bothered. I guess I'll get more cynical about this as time goes on. Ask again in a year and I'll probably run off a list

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

No. Social events are not my scene.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

Tough question....

Aside from placing and getting the first find on my own cache (the stand-out best moment for me so far), probably this one log for Subaru, this one log for Area 51 and this one log for Fibonacci Sequences on Anglezarke are some of the stories I've had to tell so far.

[+Belfrypotters]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

I read a magazine article about it, cut out the article and kept it for about a year before finally buying a GPSr and dragging my husband out for the hunt.

2. Tell me about your first cache?

Our first attempt was a cache in a wooded area. Our GPSr was, unknown to us, set for the wrong map datum, so we were looking in the wrong area. After several trips and much time beating the bushes for a cache that wasn't even close to where we were looking, and thinking "small children can play this game so why are we doing so badly?", we printed a copy of a photo from one of the on-line logs. The photo showed a distinctive looking tree next to a trail, so we wandered all the trails in the park until we finally found the tree in the picture, then found the cache. We eventually found about ten caches the hard way, before learning about the different map datums.

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

No bad experiences, but we did get startled once. It wasn't quite dark when we headed into the woods to look for the cache, so we never thought to take a flashlight, but in the forest it was a lot darker. The cache contained a dozen little animals that made noises when shaken, so when we dumped the contents onto the ground the sudden mooing, meowing and barking made us jump. It also apparently made a grouse nervous, and when the grouse flushed from only a few inches over our heads I nearly had a coronary.

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

We've discovered places close to home that we never would have found otherwise.

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

Hunt, definitely.

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

Our favorites are mostly on top of mountains. We're always pleased that we made it to the top.

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

A wet logbook in a torn ziplock bag, tossed behind a bush in front of some business on the main street of a small town that had lots of other interesting places to put a cache. It's one of the few times I've ever complained about a cache in my log. The owner disabled the cache after several similar complaints, but people still came to find it anyway so she re-enabled it due to popular demand.

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

Only one. We needed to attend an event to meet a requirement for a Quest. I'm not very social, and it was just a meet-and-greet at a restaurant, with too many people and too much noise and too many cranky children.

9. Tell me your best caching story?

We recently hunted for and found an archived cache where the coordinates were off by almost six kilometers (the story is in our logs for Sept 06 and Sept 07). We're pretty pleased with ourselves for actually finding it! We were then given the opportunity to make the cache our own, so we did (Paradise on Electric Avenue).

[+marc_54140]

1. From a friend in Arizona, who loves to browse the internet and find new things.

 

2. Bear Wallow, Sedona Arizona. Four of us with one GPS (which we really did not know how to use) hiked up a trail, and stopped right next to the tree where the cache was.

 

3. No bad or scarry experiences. But there have been times when I wondered why I was driving down this so called road!

 

4. Travel! It is amazing the places you end up at while looking for geocaches.

 

5. At 4800/100 I guess I hunt more. I would hide more but it's hard coming up with places to do so.

 

6. Favorite cache place? Hard to choose from so many. so, a generic type answer. Cemeteries. Caches placed in or at cemeteries have been some of the most interesting. They offer a tremendous sense of tranquility. Beautiful vistas, usually. A wonderful open history book. Time to stop and ponder.

 

7. Do not remember the name, but it was on the western side of the Phoenix metro area. Cache was in a wash, on the far side of a scrub field that was loaded with trash. So was the wash. A literal dump!

 

8. I have attended numerous events in several states.

 

9. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...=y&decrypt=

 

December 28, 2006 by marc_54140

Veni, vidi, sivi. After hitting 3000 the end of April of this year I thought I'd slack off for a while. But then, here I am at 4000! Lots of trips along the way really added up.

 

What a year. And it is all about the numbers - the friends you cache with, those new ones you meet, the miles you pile on the car, the places you go to, and the caches you find.

 

Spent the last couple of weeks bringing my total up, and then picked this special place for the big event. Woke up this morning to blowing snow!

 

The cache owner showed up to offer support, and laugh. He also mentioned he had 911 ready to speed dial on his cell phone. Team Wheezer provided the canoe. Goofy-2 took the photos here. Miata and Astro D (Kat) completed the crew.

 

And a terrified crew at that! Despite being told the canoe was specially designed not to tip, they both were nervous.

 

Got to the island without a mishap, and then could not find the ammo can! Well, I was told it was an ammo can! How many places could it be on this tiny island.

 

10. Photos? Well a few, here and there ..............

[+elmuyloco5]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Good luck with the paper!!!

 

1. You know, I can't honestly remember this part, it was several years ago though. We only recently actually got a GPSr and got started though.

 

2. Funny enough, our very first was one we hid In hindsight, though, not a great container (a sports bottle). I do think it was a nice hide though. We are actually going to go out soon and replace the container.

 

3. One scarry one actually. We were on a trip and caching, it was getting towards dark and we had one last cache to search for on the day. We start heading out and get into the hike a little ways when we start seeing animal bones (not a big deal they are obviously old ones). But then after I pass under a branch and around some brush my wife says 'Uh, honey..... how did you miss this?" I turn around and there on the ground is an entire deer leg, fresh, with all the flesh and meat still on!!!! Now I am looking around kinda worried (we have three kids under the age of 9 at this point!!). So we decide to high tail it out of there. Luckily we didn't become dessert!!!

 

4. Good family fun, and we love the outdoors

 

5. Mostly we hunt, although we have placed a couple, and are thinking of placeing a series of 'snowshoeing' caches for the winter

 

6. It was probably our first cache (the one we hid), since it was at the end of one of our favorite hiking trails. The kids love to go up there because there is a nice tree covered clearing with tons of rocks and downed trees to play around while we take a break before the trip back.

 

7. Our worst cache's were probably the ones I did in TX (nothing personal here, I am from TX actually). I guess due to the humidity it is almost impossible to keep them dry. We were visiting family, and had plans to do a bunch of caches, but by the time we got done with two we gave up. both were soaking wet from nothing more than the humidity I think, as they seemed to be sealed decently, and one was even moldy. back to the drier land of NM for us.

 

8. Yes, we love them. Fun times had by all and you get to meet all of your local cachers. we are attending one this weekend and are placing one of the caches for the event ourselves. A little 'race' at sunset to be the FTF, flashlights being a must!!

 

9. We were working on finding an urban near a museum. The thing was eluding us badly. We looked in the bushes, around doors, under fountains under benches, behind loose bricks. Still nothing, we even had the kids crawl under the benchs and look. What makes it the best story you ask? The whole time (about half an hour) we were be watched intently by two security guards!!!! Come to find out after talking to the owner at a local event, the cache was right under our noses. Oh well.

 

Edited to add one more anecdote:

 

9. (part two) We had a rental car due to ours breaking down. We were on a cahceing trip and following google maps. It ended up taking us down possibly the worst forest road I have ever been on!! Loads of ruts and washout, and extremely rocky. The first time I have ever been four wheeling in 2wheel drive in a MINIVAN The Kia Sedona, though, 4x4'ed like a pro!!!!!!

Edited October 11, 2007 by elmuyloco5

[+1fairygirl]

Hello to All! Thank you so much for participating in my survey. Sorry I havn't been on in the last two days, something seemed to be wrong. I wasn't sure if it was my computer or just the geocaching website. Anyone else having trouble in the Pacific Northwest?

I really appreciate everyones help with my project. I just turned in my first paper and now I can start making a spreadsheet of the responses I have so far. The responses have been really helpful and I think the paper will be fun to write. 1fairygirl

I am taking an English Compostion Class this semester and I need to write a research paper. Of course what do I want to write on GeoCaching. My husband and I started geocaching in March 2007. We currently have 137 finds and 8 hides (we are working on placing a new cache series out in the Columbia Gorge).

Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions on geocaching? Would love to hear about everyone's caching stories.

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

[+Ambrosia]

No problems getting on, here. Glad you were able to get back on, 1fairygirl.

[+rossinator]

OK, here goes: I have been caching since October 2003.

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching? I am a gadget geek, and I bought a Garmin Yellow on ebay just because I thought having a GPS would be cool. After I received it, I did a Google search to find coordinates of local (Syracuse, NY) land marks, and one of the hits was a geocache listing. After reading it, and reading the FAQ, etc I headed out to find one and have been hooked ever since.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache? Cont'd from #1: It was a cache I rode my bike to along the Erie Canal. It was easy enough for a beginner to find, but just hard enough to be enticing. The "hit" I got when I spotted it was a great feeling, and still feel it almost every time I find a cache.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? I took my niece and two nephews (5, 6, and 9) "treasure hunting" in the woods in Central New York near a number of farms. My niece is a special needs kid and gets scared easily. She was a bit frightened by the woods and asking about monsters and wild animals. Just as I assured her that there was nothing to be afraid of, we encountered the biggest German Shepard I have ever seen. He was just standing in the middle of the trail looking at us. Not moving, not wagging his tail, not growling, nothing. We all froze. I told the kids to take a step back while we determined whether or not he was friendly, and the dog stepped forward. All I could imaging was the dog lunging forward and the kids scattering - develop a defense strategy for that! And if he did, what would I tell my sister "I got two of them back OK..."? We repeated the step back and dog step forward another three or four times until we were next to a large tree. I had the kids side step to the tree while I approached the dog. He ended up being very friendly and accompanied us for the rest of the hike, but our initial encounter scared the hell out of me.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache? 1a: exercise, 1b: introduction to new wonderful places.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide? Hunt.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why? Any cache that introduces me to a wonderful new park or view that I never knew existed, especially when it is close to home.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why? It was a cache hidden in a water down spout by the loading dock and dumpster behind a K-Mart in Hershey, PA. All I could think is "why bring someone here - it sucks!"

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event? Yes, attended my first a few weeks ago, and I had a great time. I have had to travel a lot the last couple of years (slows down the geocaching), so I have missed a number of them, so it was a thrill to actually meet geocachers. I have only encountered other cachers once in the field.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story? Probably my answer to #3.

 

I hope your report goes well.

[+Super_Nate]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

Their was a group of people that I know that was doing a geocaching presentation to the church board to ask permission to have a cache hidden there. After a program that I was attending got over I was going to the church to meet my parents and ride home with them. My parents wern't done with what they were doing, so I caught the tail-end of the geocaching presentation. They had the website projected on a screen so that they could provide examples of listings, and I immediately recognized the location of the example cache as a place that I frequent often in the city in which I live. I was amazed that this hobby was going on. Although it wasn't as involved in 2004 when I learned about it as it is now. (and I am mainly refering to my area) The presenters had examples of cache containers, travel bugs, geocoins, (back then finding a geocoin was a rare thing...and it was a USA geocoin) a logbook from an archived cache with names in it, and examples of stuff that is used in caches as trade items. I was amazed.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

The first cache that I found was the same cache that was projected on that screen as the example cache. I just had to go to that location and see if I could find that cache. I didn't own a GPS at the time, so I used my knowledge of the area and the detailed additional hint to find it and another cache at another location nearby. The time period between that first find and when I received my new GPS in the mail was about 2 weeks. I went on a vacation at the end of the month, and my 4th cache was 700 miles from my home so I was not accustomed to the area. So I had to rely on my GPS 100% of the time, which in itself was AMAZING. Finding a cache in another state was a rush and just aided in fueling the fire of my new hobby.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

Yes; The examples range from bugs (the live ones), GPS batteries running out in the middle of a trail that I had never visited before, outraged people for various reasons, (what are you doing sneaking in those bushes, nobody has permission to be here, etc. etc. etc.) a cacher I was with twisted her ankle while hiking for a cache so we had to carry her back to the car and save the cache for another time. Their are quite a few bad/scary times out there, but their are bad days in every good thing.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

Not sure that I would put a #1 reason, but some of the top things that I enjoy about caching would be the friends that I have met...and along with that includes attending geocaching events, I enjoy seeing places in my backyard that I never knew exsisted except for the fact that somebody placed a cache there. I personally enjoy the numbers aspect and competition with other cachers. (though not everybody does it this way, I do and I enjoy it)

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

Though I have many caches hidden, I personally would prefer to hunt for caches.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this question, but if you mean favorite cache find then I cannot answer that question. That is because I have MANY favorite caches. If you want to see the list that I compile with reasons the cache was a favorite then visit my all-time favorite find bookmark list

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

 

Again, I cannot answer this question because of the number of caches that I have found their are quite a number of caches that I simply do not enjoy. Since I do not have a bookmark list for those, and I do not plan to have a bookmark list for those I will say this: My least favorite caches EVER are caches that are described as a "needle in a haystack" and when somebody places a micro in a location that could have better been suitable for a regular/large cache....mainly pointing fingers at micros in the woods.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

 

To date I have attended 28 events, 2 CITO events, and 1 MEGA event!

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Read it for yourself at the cache that made me an international cacher called "sunset travelers" located in the country of Belize.

Edited October 13, 2007 by Super_Nate

[+1fairygirl]

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the survey. I have read some really great stories. I have not had one person yet say they prefer hiding. No one out there likes to hide better than hunting? We had the best thrill after placing our first cache....We saw it had been published during the night and went out caching for the day and on our way home we decided,on a whim, to swing by the newly place cache and low and behold there were two cachers there. They had just laid hands on it and were going to sit on the nearby bench. I am not sure who was more excited us or the FTFrs.

Love to keep hearing all of your stories. I still have about two weeks to run the survey before I actually start my paper. Keep Cachin'!

I am taking an English Compostion Class this semester and I need to write a research paper. Of course what do I want to write on GeoCaching. My husband and I started geocaching in March 2007. We currently have 137 finds and 8 hides (we are working on placing a new cache series out in the Columbia Gorge).

Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions on geocaching? Would love to hear about everyone's caching stories.

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

[+Semper Questio]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

A co-worker mentioned it during a conversation and I made the mistake of asking, "What's that?"

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

Our very first one was a virtual. We picked it simply because we new exactly where and what it was. The second was very nearby. It was a regular cache, a tupperware container, under the skirt of a pioneer woman statue. I got some REAL funny looks from people driving by who saw me with my arm up under her dress!

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

I've been within inches of rattlers, close encounters with scary vagrants, but the worst was when I was cornered in the woods by 2 very huge and very unfriendly dogs. I managed to maneuver my way away from them, changing a .25 mile stroll into a 2.5 mile bushwhacking adventure. That experience has made me think about getting a weapon to take with me when I cache.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

I hate going out for a walk with no goal and I love seeing new and unexpected stuff. Geocaching takes care of both of those things. I have seen and done some really cool stuff (for me) that I never would have if it weren't for Geocaching.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

I've preferred hunting over the past 4 years, but I'm starting to develop more of an interest in hiding. Working on a find streak has started to burn me out on hunting a bit.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

 

My favorite was the Mission 9 ape cache in Washington state. The walk was fun, the views spectacular, and I had a great time with my brother who I only get to see once every couple of years or so. There are several CLOSE seconds, however!

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

 

The worst caches are the ones that take me into trash dumps and homeless camps. I can't, for the life of me, understand why people hide caches in those locations. They are unpleasant to be in and inherently dangerous in many ways.

 

8. Have you ever attended a cache event?

 

A few.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

There are many to choose from for very different reasons. The most recent was when my family went to Washington to visit my brother and his wife. During the trip we, of course, went caching. Our first day we visited the Groundspeak headquarters. On another day we drove down to Oregon and did a really cool virtual in the Timberline Lodge after getting some along the way to Mt. St. Helens and then getting the Original Stash. (It was a long day) Another day we went north and we were in my rented Jeep Commander that had obviously never been of Seattle pavement. We took that monster up a logging road, then turned up into an overgrown forestry service road. We couldn't even see the hood of the Jeep through the overgrowth most of the way! But we pressed on for a good ways and got the cache which was near a roaring waterfall. When we got back out that Jeep was covered in branches and leaves that stayed on for a couple more days until we turned it in that way at SeaTac. The look on the rental check-in dude's face was priceless!

[+Ambrosia]

I have heard several people say that they prefer hiding over finding, so they're out there. I've seen people with lots more hides than finds. It's pretty rare, though.

 

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the survey. I have read some really great stories. I have not had one person yet say they prefer hiding. No one out there likes to hide better than hunting? We had the best thrill after placing our first cache....We saw it had been published during the night and went out caching for the day and on our way home we decided,on a whim, to swing by the newly place cache and low and behold there were two cachers there. They had just laid hands on it and were going to sit on the nearby bench. I am not sure who was more excited us or the FTFrs.

Love to keep hearing all of your stories. I still have about two weeks to run the survey before I actually start my paper. Keep Cachin'!

I am taking an English Compostion Class this semester and I need to write a research paper. Of course what do I want to write on GeoCaching. My husband and I started geocaching in March 2007. We currently have 137 finds and 8 hides (we are working on placing a new cache series out in the Columbia Gorge).

Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions on geocaching? Would love to hear about everyone's caching stories.

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

2. Tell me about your first cache?

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

[+rhelt100]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

 

A coworker introduced me.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

 

My first cache was a 1.5/1.5 at best regular hidden in a small city park. It was an easy hide, but still took awhile because we were new. My kids who were 2 & 4 at the time had as much fun as me, so we went and grabbed another.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

 

Yes. One incident of heat stroke a half mile from my car on the side of a mountain. Two run ins with black bears, one within 30 feet and quite angry.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

 

The thrill of the hunt.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

 

hunt.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

 

 

I have several that are tied for this distinction. They are all beautiful nature scenes out in the middle of nowhere.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

 

 

A tie again. One of them was a micro on the back of a stanky restaurant dumpster. The other was a small hidden behind a shopping center that was not more than 2 inches from a large piece of feces of some unknown animal or person.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

 

 

Yes. Several.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

 

It was late July, a scorching hot and humid day, and I decided to go north to score some finds. One of the caches on my run was a scenic overlook called "City View". The page did not have parking coordinates at that time, just the description of a dead end road with a path. I found a location that met the description and set out to score the find. The path quickly ended and I was faced with a steep uphill hike of around .25 miles. How bad could it be? I thought. It's only .25 miles. So, I started up the hill. It went up, and up, and up. After a vertical ascent of several hundred feet, I was getting mighty thirsty. I reached for my water...and found that it had fallen out of my backpack in the car. I continued on for another 400 feet or so. I was barely over 100 feet from the cache, but still around 50 feet below where it would be. Just then, I started hearing this beautiful music faintly in the distance. I stopped to ponder my situation and immediately fell down and passed out. Heat stroke took me into it's grasp and I was in and out of conciousness for around 15 minutes. When I awoke, I realized I was getting eaten alive laying in the dirt on the side of this hill so I pulled out my bug spray and sprayed down and tried to figure out what the heck was going on. Around this time, my GPS which had been laying on my lap all this time dislodged and tumbled down the hill 30 feet or so into a huge pile of leaves. I attempted to get up and find it while I still kinda knew the general area where it had landed, but I promptly fell back down, slid down the hill aways and fell unconcious again. When I next awoke, I was in quite a predicament...my GPS was gone, I could barely stand up, I had no water...and I was a long way from my car. Nevertheless, the cache was only 125 feet away and there was no way I was giving up after all this. So, after a 15 minute search I located my GPS (I had been laying on it, my slide down the hill put me in the same leaf pile as it was) and attempted to crawl up the last 40 vertical feet to the cache. When I got to the top...there was a lawn chair waiting on me so I collapsed in it and started looking for the cache from my seat. I found it not 5 feet away Long story short, the hike back was much easier as it was all downhill, there was water and air conditioning in my car, and the cache page now has parking coordinates. LOL.

 

 

You can check my log on "City View" for the log that I wrote about 2 hours after this happened. It might be a little different as this is a 1 year old + memory.

 

Thanks to anyone and everyone who will help me explore caching in depth with other players. 1fairygirl

[crawil]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

I was a frequent visitor to the Aximsite.com forums and there were a few folks over there that were using their ppc's to geocache.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

It is just down the street from the house. My wife and I went out at night and it turned out to be a lamppost hide but instead of under the skirt, it was an Altoid tin magnetized to the side about 15 feet up in the air. It took us two visits and we were hooked!

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

I reached into a wall of ivy and grabbed an opossum's tail! I'm not sure who was more scared, him or me! (I know that my wife was laughing harder than I was.) Sticks on the Beach

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

It is an activity that we like to do together as a family.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

By the numbers, hunt. I'm starting to like the hiding side, too.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

Mary E. J. Colter built it - It is a virtual on the rim of Grand Canyon. I don't think I need to explain what that is such a cool place.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

Any 1/1 that I can't find on the first try. It happens more often than I care to admit.

 

8. Have you ever attended a cache event?

Several. One last weekend.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

We took a hike up Mt. Baden-Powell in Southern California with a Boy Scout Troop last fall. I was a new 'cacher and didn't think about checking out the mountain for caches, but on the way up, another adult leader mentioned that there was a cache up on the summit. Once we got to the top, I called my wife using the cell phone and read her the coords from my GPSr and had her search the website. Once she had located the cache, she read me it's coords which were punched into the GPSr. She stayed on the line reading the description and hint. We ended up finding it! Scouting's Highest Honor ~ "Mt. Baden-Powell"

 

10. Pictures!

[+1fairygirl]

I am now trying to narrow down my subject of geocaching. I have alot of good material and not sure which direction or what slant to put on my paper. Does anyone know of School that is doing any studies or research on geocaching? My teacher wants a least one scholarly source for citing in my paper. I havn't found anything yet, but just started that part of my search.

Please keep taking the survey the data is only as good as the responses I get. Thanks to all, 1fairygirl

[+Snoogans]

I am now trying to narrow down my subject of geocaching. I have alot of good material and not sure which direction or what slant to put on my paper. Does anyone know of School that is doing any studies or research on geocaching? My teacher wants a least one scholarly source for citing in my paper. I havn't found anything yet, but just started that part of my search.

Please keep taking the survey the data is only as good as the responses I get. Thanks to all, 1fairygirl

 

There was a guy from Europe doing a study on geocaching at GW3. (A thesis, I think.) Check the early notes on the GW3 page for the guy's name. I met with him briefly. Nice guy.

[+Belfrypotters]

I found several references in peer-reviewed journals, although I didn't read the papers so I don't know how useful they are for your project. Usually I make our students do the work themselves , but I'll give you one to start you off. As a student you probably can access this journal link electronically.

Here's the reference information in case the link doesn't work for you:

GEOCACHING 21st-Century Hide-and-Seek. Authors:Schlatter, Barbara ElWood1 beschla@llstu.edu

Hurd, Amy R.2 arhurd@ilstu.eduSource:JOPERD: The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance; Sep2005, Vol. 76 Issue 7, p28-32, 5p

[+IANNA]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

My Mother who learned about ti from a friend at church

2. Tell me about your first cache?

My first find was in a bush in a part it was micro

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

Nothing I can think of other then my wife tore a muscle in he ankle trying to leave from a cache

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

The thrill of the hunt and it gets me out of the house

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

hunt and a little hiding

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

Anywhere

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

Probably one that was 150 off the coords and had to walk through a swamp to get to it

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

3 of them

9. Tell me your best caching story?

Im not sure have to get back to you that

[+flyingRfarms]

SURE ILL TAKE A SURVEY

 

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

A very good friend of mine (firebird75)

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

march on the henrys fork of the snake river (henrys first cache) snow on the paved trail I didnt have any trade goods but i had a gold dollar!!! my wife thought i was nuts!

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? Slick Stash let me tellya if you are scared in tight dark ICEE spaces this isnt for you!!! luckly firebird 75 was with me and talked me thru kinds scary when you lay on a sheet of ice and put your fee on the ceiling and push you way thru!!

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

OUTDOOR ACTIVITY!!!

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

Both, I LOVE TO HIDE BUT I DONT DO LSC (lamp skirt cache) OR GRC (guard Rail cache), i have 1 MICRO hide most of mine take some skill with a gps, no park and grabs from me!!!

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

look at my finds

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why? a micro hidden in a pinetree in a park full of pine trees

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

NO

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

I went with firebird75 in after deep dark cache. we both left with scrapes bruises and sore backs and still never found the cache!! Infuriating!!! i had seen the cache box a year and a half previous to that but had not started caching yet!! still havenot found it since!!

[nonaeroterraqueous]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

 

Westways magazine

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

 

It was a micro hidden on a fire hydrant. Didn't realize a geocache could be that small. Had to talk it over with a non-geocaching co-worker before I realized what I might be up against.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

 

scary: almost got the car stuck in a rut out in the middle of nowhere.

 

bad: a cluster of urban micros in a busy area eroded my over-all interest rather suddenly.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

 

To discover the world around me.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

 

Hunt. The hide is a bigger thrill, but the tension gets to me.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

 

Reclaimed Treasure of Manny A. Cacher by Miragee (GCXJNY). The view was great. It was a hilltop I never knew I could get to in a mountain range I thought I knew. Muggle-free. Near a path but not on it.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

 

A film cannister hidden in a styrofoam scrap next to a drainage ditch. Disguized as a piece of trash. Didn't like the location. Didn't like the way the cache contributed to the over-all trashiness of the area. Felt that I put more effort into the search than the hider put into hiding it. Between my wife and I it became a cliche for the ultimate bad cache.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

 

Three times.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

 

I'm not the story-telling type.

[+Clue Seeker]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching? A co-worker told me about it one day while we were just sitting around at 37,000'.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache? The next day I signed in to geocaching.com and picked a lame nickname (Clue Seeker) just so I could go find a cache. My first attempt was a DNF. I tried else where with Russian Girl and Russian Pirate and found a real live cache. Shortly there after I returned to my first attempt (without the kids) and made the find.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? Experiencing multiple DNFs in Kansas City. Those Fountain caches will be the death of me.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache? The journey, the adventure, the 1 in 100 cache that makes me say "WOW"

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide? Hunting but that may be changing. Check out "Up in Smoke".

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Oahou, HI Why? Great scenery, great hiking, a great caching community, phenomenal caches, and my wife hung with me for six days with out the kids. My favorite night cache is "Sacred Moonrise and the Tale of the Twisted Kitty". The title may be off just a bit but it's enough for a search.

 

7. What was your worst cache? probably LPC #100 Why? LPC #100

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event? My first was 777@ 7:07:07 in NJ.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story? Several cachers got together in Frederick, MD to knock out a couple of Psycho Urban Caches (PUCs). Before long most of us had completed serveral of Vinny & Sue Team's PUCs. This included wandering deep into the dark, hazardous catacombs beneath Frederick, wading across the raging waters of the Monocacy River, climbing through forests of PI, and taking two photos that made their way to the front page of the GC website!

[+Rontro]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

I bought a GPS for my hiking adventures. I wanted a way to keep track of my trails. While setting up the software I found a reference to geocaching. At first I thought it was some type mapping game. Then I actually looked into it and decided to try it out.

2. Tell me about your first cache?

“GC125W2- William the Conqueror's - The Forbidden Fortress” My first was a micro. I really did not know what that meant and I thought it would be easy. It was not easy. After my second trip to the cache I figured out that you have to read the cache description. On my third trip I figured out that you may have to read the hint. In the end I made the find and a new hobby was born.

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

Not sure you would call it bad. Maybe “Exciting” would be a better term. I am allergic to bees. My geobuddy and I were doing a cache in a highly wooded area. The cache started out in a park. There were signs all over the place which read, “Bee Careful”. We made the cache find without incident, but on the way back my geobuddy found the bee’s nest. He thought it would be funny to stir them up and run. I was quite a bit down the trail when my friend came ZOOOOOOOOOMING past me. It was then I noticed that he was being chased by several hundred bees. (Yes, that is probably a stretch of the true number). In all the years I have known my friend (Probably close to 30 years), I have never outrun him…. EVER….until that day. When we got back to the car there were bees still clinging to his sweat shirt, trying to sting him. I was amazed, not even one bee tried to bother me. I guess they knew I had nothing to do with the incursion.

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

To add some additional incentives to my hiking. Also, it is a great source of exercise during the week.

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

I love the hunt. But, I also like to think of creative cache ideas and locations.

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

I love caching along the Columbia River Gorge. This area has to be one of the most beautiful in the world and I have been around.

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

I don’t have a worst cache, but I will say that I don’t like caches that are located in exposed places. For example: In schoolyards or along streets. I have decided that I am going to pass on those from now on. There is nothing wrong with a cache that is hidden in a park where you have to be stealthy.

8. Have you ever attended a cache event?

Not yet. But I have only been doing this since June 07.

9. Tell me your best caching story?

I don’t have a best. I have had a great amount of fun doing them all. I think my worst caching experience is when I do them alone. I much prefer to cache with my “Geo-Buddies”.

[+Too Tall John]

• How did you first hear about geocaching? There is a geocache where my wife works. She kept seeing people going down into the woods. She asked about it, and that night came home and said "John, have you ever heard of geocaching?" It was all downhill from there...
  
• Tell me about your first cache? My wife and I went hunting for 3 caches in a nearby forest without a GPSr the next day. We found 2 of the three. I had a GPSr soon after.
  
• Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

  June 18 by Too Tall John (272 found): After finding "Queen of Spades" MollyGSP & Me and I continued on the trail for about 15 feet when we came face to face with a bear. Both parties decided the best course of action was to return the way we came. We shall return, as this is a pretty spot. 'Twas an experience we won't soon forget, thanks!
  June 19 by Too Tall John (272 found): Well, I came back. Bumped into my little (or not so little) friend again. This time I was about 200 feet from the cache, not from the car. The bear came charging out of the woods at me this time! It stopped about 10 yards from me & waited for me to make my move. As soon as I heard it coming through the trees I started shouting & waving my hiking stick, letting it know I was there. Once it went a few yards into the woods, I talked to it a bit, then started backing slowly away. I was followed for a while, but he kept about 50 yards distance. Needless to say, I didn't find the cache.
  Logging the DNF this time, it being the 2nd attempt thwarted by a bear...
  June 20 by Too Tall John (272 found): FTF! 3rd time's a charm! I hung my keys from my trekking pole & sang camp songs all the way to the cache, didn't encounter any bear this trip. I also went in the morning rather than the afternoon like I did the past 2 tries. Got close to GZ and found a likely hiding spot that had been torn apart by something big, obviously a bear looking for grubs. Was about to give up, assuming the bear had gotten the last word on my finding the cache when I noticed something that wasn't as it should be. A very nice hide! This spot is beautiful, I recommend it, but also think people should be bear aware when they come. From what I've read, the bear that charged me yesterday may have been protecting food, or thought that I had some. If the former, you may be able to avoid a similar experience with this knowledge:
   
  Turns out I was off the trail when this happened. When your GPS is reading about 500 feet, there'll be a cleared section to the left of the trail, and the GPSr will point straight down it. My encounter was right in the middle of it. Turns out, the trail continues and loops back to the other side of this clearing. Stay with the trail. The clearing could be used as a shortcut, but the trail is only slightly longer, not to mention the footing is pretty rough in the clearing if you're trying to back away from a bear.
   
  Thanks for the cache, this is a series of experiences I will not soon forget!

• What is the #1 reason you geocache? I tell people it is for the exercise. It's more because I enjoy feeling kinda like I'm looking for hidden treasure.
  
• Do you prefer to hunt or hide?I enjoy hunting just as much as I enjoy coming up with hides with a twist.
  
• What was your favorite cache place? Why? An earthcache in Bryce Canyon. It was an amazing spot.
  
• What was your worst cache? Why? There was a cache that had vague instructions, was in a high muggle area, and after I sat down to decode the hint, I found that the hint said "Bring a pencil." How the heck do you think I decoded the hint? I walked away.
  
• Have you ever attened a cache event? One that I helped plan. It was the first meeting of The Granite State Geocachers.
  
• Tell me your best caching story?

  Taken from Hipointer's and Too Tall John's logs for "Giant Falls" (GCZJ2B):
  May 30 by Hipointer and Capiti (2959 found): ...Hipointer and Too Tall John teamed up to see if we could also find this difficulty 5 cache. We got off to a bad start as we branched left a short ways up the Peabody Brook Trail on the wrong trail. The right trail has blue blazes at all junctions. We walked quite awhile before we realized we were on the wrong side of Peabody Brook. We wound up bushwhacking steeply down to the Brook, crossing it, and then bushwhacking steeply up to the correct trail. The trail to the Falls (unmarked) leaves on the left about 0.2 miles from the Falls. We found the large, flat rock and projected the coordinates to the cache. The route to the cache area is very steep, rocky terrain which we thought deserved a 4 or 4.5 difficulty rating. The terrain is the same at the cache coordinates and it was difficult to manuever around. GPS reception is also difficult here under the dense tree cover. We searched the area for over 1 1/2 hours and couldn't come up with the cache. This terrain is much more difficult to search than the terrain at Dream Lake and there are more hiding places. We think the time to look for this cache is late Fall when all the leaves are off the trees and GPS reception is better. This cache may now be the most difficult to find cache in New Hampshire!! We continue to marvel at how LandRocket found this cache at night! Maybe he got a glint from his headlamp. Anyhow, his find just adds to his legendary status among NH geocachers. It is a shame he is no longer with us.
   
  May 30 by Too Tall John (184 found):Well...
   
  This was one we'll remember for a while. Hipointer detailed the hunt pretty well, so I'll let his log speak for both of us. He didn't mention that when we returned to the car, he realized his keys were missing. Realizing that finding them on that slippery slope when we couldn't even find the cache was near to impossible, we gave a call out to Capiti, who lucky for us had remained behind for this one. Wait... did I say we called? That would have required cell service! Of which there wasn't any! We hiked to the nearby dam before we had a reliable signal. With help on the way, we got back to the car, but not before... well, we might have placed a cache... Anyways, it was a beautiful hike, a wonderful day, and good company, so a worthwhile time! Oh... and when we got back to the car? After Capiti yelled at Hipointer, he found a note on his windshield... The neighbors had found his keys on the trail we started up on! All's well that ends well!

Yes, one of my favorite caches was a DNF.

Edited October 31, 2007 by Too Tall John

[Sirrus123]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

My mom told me about it after going on a hike with a family friend that had a GPS

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

I Didn't, there was a geocach about 300 feet from my house that i thought was easy enough to get, i hopped on my bike and missed it the first time, but got it the second and it was so much fun that i'm still doing it.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

Nope

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

Exercise and a mental stimulant.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

Hunting is fun, but there aren't many geocaches in my area, and hiding is expensive and hard, so i do a bit of both

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

Powerrocks, it had me looking in circles until i looked up at the "Limbless Tree" And it just snapped.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

at 12 caches, i don't really have any bad caches

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

No

[je4wdep's wife]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching? Hubby was on a mountain and some cachers came up, he told me about it and I wanted to try it.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache? A micro, LPC, it was a test to see if the GPS was the one we wanted.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? Not really....we have seen wild animals but they stay clear of us.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache? We see places and things we would not have seen just staying on the trials, roads.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide? so far hunt, we have some caches planned to hide next summer.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why? I really enjoyed the caches we found at Animas Forks, Colorado, we saw the town from a perspective we had never seen before.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why? Can't say I have a worst cache yet, except for the one we went hunting and was muggled.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event? Nope, if there is ever one we can get to I am sure we will though.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story? My favorite is the one where I decided to follow the GPS, not the directions in the listing. We did find the cache, but took the hard way up the side of the mountain, after crossing the river 4 or 5 times. The thing it taught me is to look at the directions, and make sure to follow them, but I did get a good cardio workout that day!

[+Skillet68]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

Read a newspaper article about it several years ago and then last year a co-worker was talking about it on a message board.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

It was a simple mulit-cache in a local park in the town I live in. Maybe 5 miles from the house. Posted coords took you to a information sign about the park. Second set of coords to you to a historical marker. Third took you to the cache.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

Have had some scary from the stand point of taking me out of my comfort zone. (Hiking, climbing, repelling)

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

If the wife is with me, it is to go to new and exciting places. If the wife isn't with me, it is to get away from her.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

Hunt. But if I do hide, I like to make sure it is a really great hide.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

Have so many. It changes often. But as of right now...Bradley's Bottom Cache in North Carolina. (Hike/climb/slide/fall down to a waterfall)

 

 

 

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

You might want to expand on this question. Worst in what way? Worst type of hide you've found or hardest to find? I won't comment on the worst type of hide, to each his own, but the one that made me feel the stupidest was Nestled in the pines. I just couldn't find it. Even sat down and had lunch right next to it one time. The owner finally came out and showed it to me.

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

Several. Even hosted a few

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

10/12/2006 Doolittle Cache (GC51E9)

Went to bed last night with 2 goals in mind for today. Goal #1 was to wake up. That should always be your first goal of the day. And it is always nice to start the day off with a completed goal! Goal #2 was to do some caching on Lake Murray. Little did I know that I would complete goal #2 and have a day full of firsts!

Looking at the weather, I figured today would be the last good day for a while. Went and rented a kayak for the day. This is the first time I have ever used a kayak. Hit Lake Murray and was moving along nicely. Got that funny feeling in my stomach for the first time when a wave came over the side of the kayak and soaked me. No big deal, I'm almost to the island. Short time later, got to tread water for 20 minutes for the first time while screaming help to passing boats. Got that sinking feeling for the first time that my GPSr was lost forever. Then got to feel elated when I discovered that it floats! To bad my sunglasses and hat didn't. Got a lift to the island via some very nice and timely fisherman. Thanked them and headed out caching. Found Doolittle Cache in short time and headed over to Island Hopper. Took care of Island Hopper and then quickly discovered that the wind had picked up. For the first time today, I knew I was in a pickle. Spent the next several hours trying to barder my passage off the island with no luck. Finally, around 3:30, I gave in and called for help. The gentlemen from Lexington County were very nice and helpful and for the first time I got to ride in a Police boat. The ride back across the lake went very quickly. In the end, I think a new cache will be born out of this. PS- if anyone sees a UNC Tarheel hat floating, please pick it up.

[+Flo.]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching? I read about it on another blog style website and came to geocaching.com to check it out. Three days later we bought a cheap GPS and found our first cache. We have been hooked since.

2. Tell me about your first cache? We found a cache hidden in a park here in Bonner Springs, KS. Here we are roaming around in the woods with a piece of equipment we aren't quite sure how to use when the thought hit me "who stacks firewood in the middle of the woods" and I went to check it out. It was the coolest feeling finding that first one.

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? I can't say any bad experiences but we did get alittle upset when we got the new GPS and got lost in the woods 50 miles from home and could not figure out how to get the tracks to come up to find our way out.

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache? Its good exercise, we are together as a family doing something we all love to do, and a friend and I have a race going on for the end of year to reach a certain amount of found caches, so there is a little competition involved.

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide? BOTH!! The hunts are great, but everytime I get an email stating someone found my cache, its the same feeling as finding one yourself and you can not wait to read the log they left.

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why? Anywhere in the woods. I like all caches, but my favorites are in the woods. Why? Nature is all around you, and it doesnt get any better than nature.

7. What was your worst cache? Why? We went after this cache a mile in the woods. We walked and walked, finally getting close to it and it said it was in the middle of the lake. No matter what we did or where we walked, knowing that the coords were right because I downloaded them into the GPS, there was no way that the coords were wrong. We looked in several places but never found it. Thought we found a short cut out, that was the wrong idea as it took us twice as long to get out of the woods and I cut my hand on something and had blood everywhere. As far as I am concerned, we will never find that cache.

8. Have you ever attened a cache event? Yes, the MOKAN geocoin event, and will be going to the CITO event at the lake here in Kansas also in November.

9. Tell me your best caching story? Our best caching story....Well, the best one I can think of offhand is not very good as we havent found many, but we went after this multi cache that each multi was its own cache. You had to sign the log then get a letter and a number off each cache. Since we were kinda far from home, I wanted this one and was not leaving without finding it. We were at a playground for about 45 minutes I bet searching all over this playground equipment looking for a micro. Finally, ready to give up I sat down at the picnic table contemplating how I would tell my family I was done looking when I looked up and there it was!!!!! Plain as the nose on my face. How we missed it I will never know. I know we checked that spot 45 times!!! We laugh about it now but none of us were laughing that day.

[FMS Gang]

1. How did you here about geocaching? We were out on a picnic with a group of friends and a forest ranger asked if we had ever heard about it. He gave us the web site and we have been hooked ever since. Thanks PA DCNR.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache. We decidedthat a nice easy one would be appropriate. It was at a memorial to war veterans that we drove by all the time but never stopped at. It was nice to see how many monuments were placed there to recognize and veterans. My 2 and a half year old daughter loves to "treasure hunt".

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? Not yet, we have not been doing it very long.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache? We spend quality family time together. It also gets us out of the house. We are doing it with friends we go camping with so it is one more reason to get together.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide? So far hunting. However we have found a couple places that we are considering for our first hide.

 

6.What is your favorite cache place? why? It was at our very first find. Our daughter's eyes were huge when she discovered her first treasure. The fun we had that one time keeps getting better and better on each discovery.

 

7.What was your worst cache? why?Our worst one is still going on. We have been back several times looking for the same one. We search and search but can't seem to find it. We are taking friends with us the next time.

 

8. Have you ever attended a cache event? Not yet although we hope to very soon.

 

9.Tell me about your best caching story. We set out to find several in the sameday. We were on our second stop and ran into friends of ours. It was really fun to be out with other people. We ended up with nine people all searching together. We had an absolute blast.

 

 

Good luck on your paper.

[+OzGuff]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching? Many students in my daughter's 4th grade class went geocaching while attending a birthday party, and they all raved about how much fun it was. I researched the topic on the Internet and bought a GPS online that night.

2. Tell me about your first cache? The entire family (Dad/Mom/9yo daughter/7yo son) drove a few miles to the closest cache. It was located at a Native American petroglyph site that we had never visited. (And we had lived there for 7 years!) We all counted down as the GPS numbers got closer and closer to zero. I think we all thought that when the GPSr hit zero we would immediately find the cache! After a brief search we found it! The kids traded items and we signed the log. The Native American petroglyphs nearby were also way cool! Tons of fun!!

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching? While driving along a forest service road after finding a few caches I rolled my car. Car totaled. Me perfectly fine. The really bad part was that my wife had not been informed that I was going geocaching. And had I been injured it could have been hours until another car drove by.

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache? I suppose there is a small part of me that is competitive about geocaching and likes to see my numbers (hides and finds) going up. But the larger part is that I like going to cool spots. This means that I tend to like caches that require some expenditure of energy more than simple park-and-grabs. But I search for them all.

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide? Both. Once I had found all of the caches within an hour or two of home I decided to hide caches in hopes that this would lead to others hiding caches that I could find. It didn't work so well but I kept hiding caches.

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why? Mount Beerburrum, Queensland, Australia. The view was amazing! 360 degrees of awesome! And there were ten relatives on the hike too, making it a great experience!

7. What was your worst cache? Why? I have found a number of park-and-grabs hidden near incredibly trashy locations. There appeared to be no rational reason for visiting that spot except to find the cache. Yes -- I like the smiley, but would have preferred that it as hidden in a cool spot.

8. Have you ever attened a cache event? Yes -- many. Great times with great people. (And, sometimes, great food!)

9. Tell me your best caching story? During a work week visit to St Louis I took a taxi to a spot a few miles from the hotel and cached my way back. At night. In the rain. While walking through a city park I was stopped by a park ranger. Who questioned my sanity. And ran my ID. After explaining that the park was closed he directed me to the closest exit. And then asked if I was geocaching. Busted at 11pm in the pouring rain!

[+doodlee00]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

My younger brother is a computer geek and came across it. He took me out to find a couple. I liked it and showed my husband. He is now obsessed.

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

The first cache my brother took me to was in a local cemetery, "Live and Die in Dixie". It was an easy find, but it took me a few minutes to figure it out.

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

A few months after starting caching we went to Palo Dura Canyon for Spring Break. We started out on a hike for a cache a little late in the day. It seemed to go on forever, we didn't have flash lights, and the coyotes were starting to get noisy. I freaked. My husband and 2 older kids rushed on to find the cache without me and the younger kiddo. Our reward was that they traded for a glow stick out of the cache. We made it back to camp just before dark. We learned to keep a flash light in the backpack.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

It is one activity that the entire family can do together. They get to compete over who found what. And I get to take pictures of areas I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

Mostly I navigate and watch.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

The top of Talimena Scenic Drive going from Arkansas to Oklahoma. Every where you could look was breath taking. We even managed to get a FTF on our trip through the area. If the caches hadn't been placed along this area I don't know if we would have went that direction. I'm am so grateful they were there.

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

We drove 1 1/2 hrs out of the way on a trip to find a state sponsored cache. It was well publiced to contain prizes etc. I made the mistake of telling the kids. When we arrived, it had almost nothing in it. We made the most of it. We even left a TB to start out on it's journey. The TB was picked a couple of days later and basically held hostage for 4 months (Maybe that's why I disliked the cache so much... hmmm).

 

8. Have you ever attended a cache event?

No, but the rest of the family has.

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

We were night caching with another family through a local park. The cache was a puzzle cache, and the trail went through a woody area. We searched and searched. Some of us went back to the cars whiel the others searched on. They finally figured out that we had walked the trail backwards. If we had went the right way we would have seen reflectors to guide us a whole lot faster and less chance of me getting the poison ivy that drove me nuts later

[me_chris]

1. How did you first hear about geocaching?

Have always been interested in GPS navigation, and bought my first (extremely crappy) GPSr (A GPS plugin adapter for a Handspring Visor PDA) and was looking for ways to use it and stumbled on this site through a google search... I got hooked on geocaching, and now use a Magellan Explorist 500, but only after first buying a Garmin Geko, then upgrading to a Foretrex 201 (which I still use as my backup), then upgrading to an Explorist 400 which I used until it died a horrible death while caching (busted screen), then finally upgrading to an Explorist 500. Not I am in the process of buying an old Explorist 100 so that I can harvest the screen out of it to fix my Explorist 400 and use THAT as my backup instead of the ForeTrex 201.

(Long answer.. Sorry)

 

2. Tell me about your first cache?

My first cache was Happy Rock which I found with my PDA-Plugin setup which was only accurate down to about 50 feet. I later adopted that cache and it became the first cache I found, AND the first cache I owned... Sortof an I'm my own grandpa" type of thing....

 

3. Have you had any bad/scary experiences caching?

Had to abandon a search once after getting caught up in a FIELD of stinging nettles while wearing shorts... Then had to walk back out of the field to get to my bike.

 

4. What is the #1 reason you geocache?

It combines the 3 things I love doing the most: Hiking, Photography, and playing with gadgets.

 

5. Do you prefer to hunt or hide?

I love the hunt! But hiding is fun too - although I try to only hide "worthy" caches so my hide count isnt very high.

 

6. What was your favorite cache place? Why?

Not sure if I have a favorite yet... only 30 found...

 

7. What was your worst cache? Why?

So far, the nettles one... don't even really remember the name of it come to think of it - I never did find it...

 

8. Have you ever attened a cache event?

Not yet - but I would like to if there is ever one in my area :-)

 

9. Tell me your best caching story?

I would have to say that it was my first cache - just the thrill of looking for something that is hidden right under peoples noses but nobody knows about it - and the feeling of joining a somewhat "secret society" was great! :-)

 

Hope this helps... I would really enjoy reading the paper once it's finished... if you wouldn't mind emailing it...

irchriscdk @ yahoo.com :-)