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What were your first thoughts when you heard of Geocaching?

patty556

By patty556
in General geocaching topics

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admo1972

+admo1972

Posted
Posted

When a buddy of mine wanted to take me out caching, I almost didn't go. My first thoughts was that we were going to have to dig up the cache. Once we found the cache (after over an hour of criss crossing the land, unable to find where to actually go, as we neglected to notice the included parking coordinates), there was a TB in it. I then thought that the tb had some kind of transmitter in it that is tracked. Of course, that was just cooky talk. Then, when I saw how many caches were close to my home and work, I had my GPS within a week.

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la-in-ark

+la-in-ark

Posted
Posted

For me, about a year ago I heard a piece on NPR about geocaching on the way to work. I thought it sounded fun and as I had just moved to Arkansas the year before -- I thought it would be a fun way to get out and explore more of my new home. When I got to work I looked up this site and the nearby caches, went to Amazon to order a gpsr and was caching a few days later! :laughing:

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caver53

+caver53

Posted
Posted

We stopped by the bro in law's house one night. He was talkin about something like treasure hunting, a GPSr, and the internet. I got excited. We ran out to the book store and got a book on geocaching. The next day we bought our first unit and away we went. Several units later, PDA's, new laptop.....nawwww we're not hooked.

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TroutBum1

+TroutBum1

Posted
Posted

My son told me about Geocaching 3 or 4 years ago. My first reaction was " that is just about the stupidest thing I have ever heard of, besides, it will cut into my fishing time".

Then, this spring, when I found a cache by accident, contacted the owner because it needed moved due to some construction work in the area, and learned more, I was hooked.

Maybe kids know more than we give them credit for.

 

Troutbum1

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WebChimp

+WebChimp

Posted
Posted

Hmmmm.............

 

I was sort of ambushed into doing this.

 

We were on a history research trip and the driver said "Hey, while we're out this way, let's look for this geocache."

 

He handed me a stack of paper, I read the history of the destination, got all excited, and then we ended up at the end of a dead end gravel road, looking around the base of a cedar tree. Found a match container with a scrap of paper inside.

 

I'm not sure WHAT I thought. It was probably along the lines of......

 

"Cool, this sounds like a great destination!", followed by....

 

"A match container? We drove 20 miles to sign a paper in a match container?".

 

The first impression must have stuck.

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scuba dude

+scuba dude

Posted
Posted

Wow, I must be the odd-ball here. I first heard of geocaching when started. At the time I spent most of my free time doing actual treasure hunting. When I heard about it, I thought, "How stupid. They tell you right where to look. What would be the fun of finding something you don't actually keep?"

 

Of course, now I don't have the time to go afer the treasures I used to hunt. One day a link to geocaching was listed on a scuba forum thread. I decided to go see if any were around me.

 

The rest is history as they say. I guess "the hunt" is still the same as before, but there's so much more to hunt for. And I especially like the ones that lead you to little known historic or scenic spots.

 

SD

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Oil Can

Oil Can

Posted
Posted

I was doing some research on which GPS to buy. I didnt want to just rush out and get a GPS for this vacation i was going on. I kept coming across the word Geocaching In the discription/options. So i did a search and it brought me to this site. I thought it sounded cool and that i would be able to get more use out of this GPS after the vacation. I dont travel much, just around town so it seemed like a waste to spend all that money for a week long trip out west.

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boda

+boda

Posted
Posted

A nephew told us he would like to geocache a little when he came out to visit us. I looked it up on Google and got the GC.com website. I thought, "What a bunch of dorks." I couldn't see the purpose.

 

When he got here, he took us to 6 caches that took us to places in our area that we didn't know existed, or told us things we didn't know about the area. It began to dawn on me:

 

OMG, I'm a dork!

 

But, at least I'm a happy dork.

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TeacherTrekker

+TeacherTrekker

Posted
Posted

 

I first heard of this from my teaching assistant. She and her husband are really into it. I have always been amazed by technology and electronic gizmos...so I had my eye on a GPS from the "get go" but I could never justify buying one. Black Friday made it possible for me to get my feet wet. We got a nice car unit and I fell in love. I spent lots of time in my Jeep fooling with it before I even knew much about geocaching. I have since decided to return the one we bought and get a good handheld for double duty. I am waiting anxiously for it to arrive! My husband asked me who I was and what I had done with his wife....he doesnt yet understand my complete obsession. I cant wait to get started caching!!!! I sure hope he gets into it to...but if not...I am hooked anyway. My 17 yr old son seems interested...Yeah!

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meralgia

+meralgia

Posted
Posted (edited)

(I'm looking back at my brother's emails) Mar 2007: "Here's a possible adventure if you're going to be out in the wilderness that my boss mentioned: geocaching. It does require one piece of technology though: GPS. Basically you get coordinates to something hidden and you have to go out in the wilderness and find it."

 

Great--I really don't need another gadget--especially one that costs over $200. :wub: But wait--an ADVENTURE, you say?! :) Hmmm. Stick to the topic at hand. We need to find a camping spot for the end of June; where should we go?

 

Another email came through, "Sometimes items are tracked - someone from another state visits and replaces the knick knack with another one and you track the knickknack across the country or globe."

 

Right. That's nice. So at which park should we CAMP? Focus, hon!! :)

 

More emails: "geocaching... blah blah. geocaching, geocaching, blah, camping, blah. geocaching!"

 

We eventually figured out where to camp, and at the end of June he took my son with him on a geocaching side trip. Unfortunately, I missed out on those introductory trips because I was stuck back at camp. My brother was _supposed_ to drive straight down and set up camp with my father (but hijacked dad along the way to geocache.) You see, my father isn't the adventuring type unless it's HIS adventure. :D He refuses, to this day, to do anything that involves the "G" word.

 

My brother returned from these trips with my son and everyone was basically jumping up and down about how much fun they had. Needless to say, when we returned to civilization, I checked out the website, bought a used GPS on craigslist, and have been off an running since July. :) The rest, as they say...

Edited by meralgia
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Pepper

+Pepper

Posted
Posted

Well May of 01 a buddy of mine xsintrik offered me his GPS to help me on my navagation to CA, at the same time he told me about geocaching. My first thought was COOL...oh bummer no money for a unit. :santa: Less than a year later we finally had the money so we made a trip to fry's in the bayarea bought a unit and maps and did our first cache, I have not stopped since. LOVE IT!

 

Pepper

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Shop99er

+Shop99er

Posted
Posted

My brother told me about it. He had been in it for a little while, and thogut (dunno why) that I would be interested.

 

My first thought was "He's nuts".

 

Well, TTUMS and I talked about it, and went to the website and looked around.

 

About a week later, we went and bought a GPS, and promptly got skunked on our first try.

 

My second thought was "Oh yeah...this is fun..."

 

Out first cache find was on the beach about 600 feet from our house. It was an area that we went to a lot, and had no clue about this thing/game.

 

Now, my usual thought pattern goes something like..."LET'S GO!!"

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mizdeeds

+mizdeeds

Posted
Posted

My daughter first told me about geocaching in May of 2005. We were going on a Mediterranean cruise and she said "we can go geocaching in Italy!" I went to the web site and read all I could about it and thought "OMG this sounds SO FUN!!". I even bought some TB tags and made a travel bug to drop in Italy too.

 

Unfortunately we didn't get to do ANY caching then, and I'd forgotten about it until the daughter came for a visit at Thanksgiving and brought her friend's GPSr. There were 2 caches within half a mile of home and we went to look for them. We must have spent an hour out there searching, but came up empty handed. That night I ordered my own GPSr online and when it came a week later I went back and found those caches (500' from where the borrowed GPSr said they were!).

 

All I could think was "all the time I wasted since MAY!!!!" :rolleyes:

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WashoeZephyr

WashoeZephyr

Posted
Posted

Love all the stories! :rolleyes:

 

I actually heard about a while ago (2002ish). Some friends of my parents were talking about it. I thought it sounded pretty cool, but at the time GPSr's were a bit more spendy and I couldn't really justify buying a GPS, since we don't travel that much.

Then in early 2006, I was on another forum that had absolutely nothing to do with geocaching, one of the frequent posters was always going on about how they would discover all of this cool stuff in thier hometown that they didn't know existed via geocaching. At the time my husband was on the road all the time and I was becoming a huge couch potato! So I went online found a Magellan 210, went onto GC.com and was blown away at how many local caches we had! (That first cache find is still the biggest rush.) It was on a street that I actually used to work on, in front of a candy factory that I never knew existed! I used to drive by this thing every day and never really slowed down to take a look. Since that day a year and half ago, we've been going non stop! I've seen more of the area I live in and the state in the last year than I have the other 39ish years I've been here!

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kyoteh

+kyoteh

Posted
Posted

I was talking to a friend about getting a GPS since I do a lot of off roading. He told me about this thing called geocaching that I could do if I had one as well and told me a bit about it. I got home and checked it out and decided it could be a good way to learn how to use the thing once I got it.

 

Initially I went out and got one cache and spent the offroading learning how to use the thing. Then the next year I did a few more and then the following year I had everything figured out and was getting the hang of going out. I then introduced some local friends and, well, we cache just about every weekend now! :ph34r: Of course I'm in heaven when I can wheel to get a cache! :ph34r:

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n0wae

n0wae

Posted
Posted

My story is a strange one... One of my hobbies was mapping jeep roads for myself and my jeep club. (And still is today) I bought my first GPS in 1992 when it went on sale for $1,350 (List price for the Garmin 100 was $1,795 at that time!) Hardly anyone knew what a GPS was back then.

 

After the GPS prices dropped and selective availability ended I remember my wife showing me a newspaper article about Geocaching. I read it and pretty much dismissed the idea as being silly. How could finding a box hidden in the woods be fun? :ph34r:

 

The years went by and at a Saturday breakfast with my Amateur Radio friends another Ham talked about finding a Geocache and that it was kinda fun. (It's all his fault!) So I thought I'd go find one myself with my newer GPS II unit.... :ph34r::DI found it!!! B)B) It's been all downhill from there! My only regret is not being a Charter member so I could have enjoyed the addiction from the start.

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Laserman

+Laserman

Posted
Posted

The year is 1992, I'm working for the USFS and get the nod to use the new GPS unit to map out timber sale boundries. Become immediatly enchanted with the technology, even if the sats were only available a few hours a day. Wish I could have my own device.

 

Flash forward to 2001, listening to the radio I hear about this thing called 'where's george'. A site that lets you see where 'your' money goes. So I start entering all my ones into the system, then getting deeper I start reading the forums at WG. People were speaking of this thing called geocaching, it has some thing to do with GPS. I immediatly look up the site geocaching site and without hesitating create an account.

 

After some reading and realizing what it was all about, my thought procces was:

 

this will be most excellent!!

Where is that envelope with the $100 bill my boss gave me last week (great timing, thanks Steve)

Now where do I get a GPS, a search of adds revealed etrex yellow on sale for $95 at Joe's

Is Joe's still open? Yes!!

Upon getting home realized that I'd have to explain this to my wife who was out of town at the time.

 

I'm glad she puts up with her geeky, impulsive husband.

 

BTW, I don't do WG any more.

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