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What do you like about caching?


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As I scroll through the forums, I realize that most of them are about something about caching that makes someone unhappy. It seems a lot of us are looking to cause controversy in the forums for no real good reason. We all have to get very critical about other people (who are also human) and what they say. We even judge them on their own opinions of this very "open-minded" game.

 

With that said, I want to start a thread where people post only things about caching that makes them happy! The things they like. No matter what anyone else says, no one is allowed to criticize them. If this starts happening, I'm going to ask that the thread be closed because I want it to be a "happy-times" thread.

 

Each person should list two or three things about caching that makes them happy or that they like. It can be ANYTHING under the sun!

 

I'll start: I like caching because I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I get from finding every single cache I look for. I don't care if it's an ammo can which is a 2 mile hike up a steep hill or a micro under a lamp post at Wal-Mart. I get very excited about finding a cache, no matter the size or locations. And, I don't do it for the numbers. I enjoy the hunt and the "kill." I enjoy knowing something is located somewhere that only other cachers and maybe a few property owners and managers know about. (In general, I get excited about caching and caches and never going to the same place twice . . . Unless I get a DNF!)

 

Now, those of you who have good things to say: ADD-ON!

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I don't want to take the easy way out but I have to say ditto to what everyone else has said.

 

I like micros because they teach patience.

I like regular caches for the walk/hike.

I like the people I have met.

 

I cache with my oldest daughter sometimes and that is priceless

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I used to like the feeling of belonging to a secret society, of sorts, and that the things you look for can be found by anybody in the world who had the right coordinates loaded in their GPSr. It is still a thrill to find a cache, especially in a remote location. I still love that I am taken to places that I would have NEVER have gone to unless I was searching for that particular cache. The location doesn’t have to be the Grand Canyon every time, but just some obscure and interesting place that I wouldn’t have had a reason to visit before I became a cacher. I like driving through several small towns in a cache run, getting a couple of caches in each town, and witnessing those portions of each particular town that I would never have gone to see unless I was caching.

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I mostly cache with my kids, so the time together is the best part of it. We've found parks, forests, playgrounds, trails, etc. that we never would've known about. And they've been able to experience real nature, which is in short supply for some kids these days. Just the other day, we found a cache next to a pond. The ground near the cache was teeming with tiny frogs. What a great treat for the kids! They were in absolute love with all those tiny hoppers. Those are the kinds of memories I want my kids to have of their childhood. . . the ones of being outside, being active, and enjoying nature.

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I just recently got into this activity/hobby/addiction as a means to (pardon the over-used phrase) spend some quality time with my 9 year old son. He's at that perfect age right now where he loves to look for "buried treasure", and this is about as close as we'll ever get to becoming "Captain Hook", so that's the main reason for my dive into geocaching.

 

I'll echo the sentiments of ElephantMama as well and say that I enjoy getting my son (and myself) out of the house to get some excercise (he doesn't even realize he's doing it!!), enjoy nature, and see parts of our hometown and state that we might otherwise have never discovered. My son is at that age where all he and his friends ever want to do is sit around each other's houses, playing video games and watching cable TV all day...even when it's a day like today (cloudless skies and temps right around 75 degrees)!! I keep telling him, when I was a kid, I'd run out of the house right after breakfast to play ball with my friends, and my mom wouldn't see me until lunchtime. Then after lunch, I'd be back out the door and wouldn't come home until dinnertime. Not the kids of today though...too much techy stuff to occupy their time.

 

I'm a history buff as well, so I'm finding out very quickly that I enjoy all of the cemetary caches we've found so far. As I pass one grave after another in search of that elusive cache container, I'll gaze that the different headstones and try to imagine what the lives of those different folks were like. Did they serve in the military? How many kids did they have? What kind of work did they do? All of those things I probably wouldn't even think about if I weren't standing there right at that very moment.

 

I've got to confess too that I just enjoy the excitement of the find, like the OP mentioned, I kinda get a thrill out of knowing something that very few others know about, like where a cache is hidden. I also enjoy meeting up with other cachers out in the field, like I did today. Completely by accident, I bumped into a group of other cachers, and we all hung around for a few minutes just trading stories and whatnot...it was a blast.

 

So there...that should give you a good doorway into my mindset.

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...cause controversy in the forums for no real good reason...

 

I enjoy a good debate in the forums. Good debate is different than a forum pissing match. Learning from one debate I've tweaked a rule of thumb because the opposition has a good point.

 

That said I always did like finding trails to take my rig on, and look forward to having a rig reliable enough to do that again in the future. Caches motivated me to find those trails.

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Caching is way up on my "fun stuff to do" list for a lot of reasons. In no real order....

 

I'm curious about almost anything. Caching makes me look at maps, play with a cool techno doodad and find new places - intersting places.

 

My husband likes to take pictures of wildlife - birds and such. Caching gets us out to places that nearly always have birds and we've gotten some great shots - and flat missed a few too. (Like the mountain lion that ran across the road in front of us Friday night...)

 

If I think I'm too old, too tired and too sore to crawl another half a mile up a rock-filled trail, knowing a cache is "up there somewhere" is enough to get me up that hill.

 

The "quality time" idea is huge. We get out somewhere in a trail, get a few miles behind us and whatever problem from work just gets left behind. It's just Waylon and I out there and we act like little kids. Bliss.

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I think what I like the most is just getting outside. Outside in the woods is my favrite place to be. I have never found a cache or hunted for a cache I didn't like. Seeing wildlife is great and cool cache containers are great. New places are great. I love meeting new cachers. I just like it all.

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I enjoy the quality time with the family.

Getting off the couch.

New places.

Going outside the "comfort zone" to find certain caches.

The fresh air, the wildlife, the people you meet.

The thrill of the hunt.

The smile on my kids faces when they make "the find" and watching them push the limits for what they will do.

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I used to like the feeling of belonging to a secret society, of sorts, and that the things you look for can be found by anybody in the world who had the right coordinates loaded in their GPSr. It is still a thrill to find a cache, especially in a remote location. I still love that I am taken to places that I would have NEVER have gone to unless I was searching for that particular cache. The location doesn’t have to be the Grand Canyon every time, but just some obscure and interesting place that I wouldn’t have had a reason to visit before I became a cacher. I like driving through several small towns in a cache run, getting a couple of caches in each town, and witnessing those portions of each particular town that I would never have gone to see unless I was caching.

Couldn't have said it better! :D I absolutely LOVE being in small towns that I've driven through for years and never used to stop. If you're ever on Hwy 95 between Reno and Las Vegas... for the average muggle it is a long boring 7 hour stretch of desert. (for many years I looked at it that way) Thanks to GC.com, we've discovered that there is so much to see along that route it's rediculous! It makes the drive oh so much better!

And the friends I've made along the way have been a pretty cool addition!

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I used to like the feeling of belonging to a secret society, of sorts, and that the things you look for can be found by anybody in the world who had the right coordinates loaded in their GPSr. It is still a thrill to find a cache, especially in a remote location. I still love that I am taken to places that I would have NEVER have gone to unless I was searching for that particular cache. The location doesn’t have to be the Grand Canyon every time, but just some obscure and interesting place that I wouldn’t have had a reason to visit before I became a cacher. I like driving through several small towns in a cache run, getting a couple of caches in each town, and witnessing those portions of each particular town that I would never have gone to see unless I was caching.

Couldn't have said it better! ;) I absolutely LOVE being in small towns that I've driven through for years and never used to stop. If you're ever on Hwy 95 between Reno and Las Vegas... for the average muggle it is a long boring 7 hour stretch of desert. (for many years I looked at it that way) Thanks to GC.com, we've discovered that there is so much to see along that route it's rediculous! It makes the drive oh so much better!

And the friends I've made along the way have been a pretty cool addition!

That 7 hour drive takes 12+ hours now. Perhaps an overnight in Tonopah so you can get all them cool caches.
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