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Mbomber33

By Mbomber33,
in General geocaching topics

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Mbomber33

+Mbomber33

Posted
Posted

I was up late one night and flipping threw the channels. I came across some kind of documentary on something called "Geocaching".

I don't remember what channel or even if it was a full hour or a half hour show. I do remember thinking "what a cheesy sport. How fun could that be? walk through the woods to find something with junk in it!".

I watched till the end of the show and thought it was dumb but went to check out the website anyway.

I joined the website and bookmarked it.

About a month later I came across it in my favorites and checked it out again. I was amazed at how many were in my area. I decided to go find the closest one to my house to see what it was about.

I was hooked after the 1st one.

 

what's your story? how did you 1st learn about geocaching

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slukster

+slukster

Posted
Posted

I had bought a Garmin car GPS for my wife for her birthday and while searching the Garmin website for downloads for it, I came across geocaching. My first 3 caches were found using the 250w and then I started reading the forums and decided I just had to get a handheld GPS. I now use a combination of both GPS' when caching.

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

This question comes up about every 6 months or so. Maybe more. No offense, but it does. :rolleyes: But I'll answer, like I almost always do. I was looking up some useless municipal information on the website epodunk.com, and it had a link for "search for geocaches near this municipality". I'd actually stumbled on geocaching.com a few months earlier, but this was the 2nd time, so I figured I'd better check it out.

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Sagefox

+Sagefox

Posted
Posted

My brother and I each heard about geocaching on the same weekend back in November of 2001. My wife and I were flying back to California from Seattle and read about this game in Alaska Air Magazine during our Alaska flight home. I don't recall how my brother stumbled on it.

 

We both had gps receivers prior to finding out about this game but our lives changed that weekend. My brother and his wife (Wienerdog) at one point became tied (with their best caching friends lucyandrickie) for second in number of finds in Washington State at 4000 finds and Team Sagefox became Mendocino County, California's only 1000 find cachers. Not that the numbers are a big deal but it represents the considerable amount of fun we have had with this game over the years.

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biscuits&gravy

+biscuits&gravy

Posted
Posted (edited)

This question comes up about every 6 months or so. Maybe more. No offense, but it does.

 

It's always interesting to people who have been members for less than 6 months...like us.

I found out about it at a Weight Watchers Meeting. We were tossing around ideas on how to make exercise fun and someone told us about Geocaching. I looked it up and decided to give it a try - we wish we had more time to do it!

Edited by biscuits&gravy
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coopsnazzy

coopsnazzy

Posted
Posted

A co-worker of mine and I were chit-chatting on the way out one day. I asked her what she was doing that weekend and she answered that she was going "cashing". Thinking maybe she was onto something lucrative, I asked her to explain, and she pointed me to the website. Turns out there was a cache just a short walk from the house. I took a stroll and now I'm hooked. I don't have many finds yet, but I'm saving my nickels for a "real" GPS unit and then I'll really be off to the races. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but my children really love it.

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hukilaulau

+hukilaulau

Posted
Posted

when I first moved to long island 5 years ago I did a lot of hiking as I have all over the country since i was 13 years old. Out in the Pine Barrens there are a lot of fire roads and unmarked trails. From time to time i would call my wife around dusk and say, "Don't worry YET, but I'm not really sure where I am." She bought me a GPS (Magellan 200) for my birthday hoping that I'd stop calling her. As an afterthought she bought me the book, "Geocaching for Dummies." Nearly 1800 caches later I still forget to waypoint my truck sometimes but I don't dare call her anymore until I'm out of the woods on my way home...

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xshooter

+xshooter

Posted
Posted

In mid 2007 I bought a Garmin 2610 for my Goldwing, I figured that it was much easier than trying to hang onto a map while going down the road. A friend of mine at the gun club asked if I had heard about geocaching. Checked into it and went after a gaurdrail cache while on a bike ride about 15 miles from home. Ordered a handheld the next day and as they say the rest is history.

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

This question comes up about every 6 months or so. Maybe more. No offense, but it does.

 

It's always interesting to people who have been members for less than 6 months...like us.

 

I knew I'd get that reaction from at least one person! Hey, someone has to be the bad guy, and say "oh no, not this one again". :ph34r: Thanks for all the answers though, I always enjoy reading them.

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mfamilee

+mfamilee

Posted
Posted

We are a family who enjoys taking drives on the rural back roads and stopping at interesting locations. One day we happened to stop on a rural country bridge and while there we accidently discovered a magnetized cache. We went home, checked geocaching out on the net, bought a gps and have been hooked ever since!

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CapeDoc

+CapeDoc

Posted
Posted (edited)

"One day we happened to stop on a rural country bridge and while there we accidently discovered a magnetized cache"

 

Hey, so those little information sheets we all dutifully put in our caches do sometimes work!

 

I was on the toilet when I found out about geocaching.

 

Wildlife magazine. Checked out the site only to find I was surrounded by caches. Went out the next day and found one across the road from where I work. Glad for the experiences I wouldn't have had , mountains I wouldn't have climbed, history lessons I wouldn't have learnt, and people I wouldn't have met since then!

Edited by CapeDoc
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Chilln'

+Chilln'

Posted
Posted

We get a magazine from Jeep. It had an article about geocaching using jeeps. I thought that it sounded cool but I didn't own a gps. We do a fair amount of camping and on one such trip friends of ours asked us to go caching. The whole family had a blast. For X-mass I got a gps and did my first cache the next day.

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Coyote's Girl

+Coyote's Girl

Posted
Posted

I'd heard about it ages ago. Stumbled across some books at work, looked at gps prices, and decided to wait for gps units to come down in price. They just went up. So, I decided to try my luck using googlemaps and my intuition. I've been pretty lucky so far, but there's a few caches in a local nature park that are giving me trouble. I managed to find a great sale on a handheld GPS, and it should be here soon. It's been super fun, and only promises to get more fun as we wander out further and I'm not tromping through the woods 9 months pregnant. It'll be something me and #1 son can do together without the baby. Here's the rub, tho: My father was a programmer for the US Air Force, he worked on the program that made GPS possible. His partucular job was to keep track of airplanes, where they were and where they should have been. If he hadn't passed away all those years ago, we'd probably have 2 or 3 gps sitting about collecting dust.

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Kohavis

+Kohavis

Posted
Posted

This past July my sister, who lives in another state, sent me an e-mail and mentioned her new hobby - geocaching. I had never heard of it. She got her daughter involved too.

 

I checked out the website, was mildly interested, but thought I would wait until she visited in August, go with her on a few finds, and decide then if it was something I wanted to pursue enough to buy a GPSr.

 

One find was all it took :ph34r:

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XGrunt

+XGrunt

Posted
Posted

I had gotten a yellow etrex as a Christmas present because I did alot of hiking. Well being a "map and compass" type of guy I didn't even use it the first year. Then when I finally started playing around with it, I wanted to check the website for updates and came across a little side advertisement about geocaching. I started to read about it and was a little intrigued about it all. While reading a "pop up" ad :) that said "find geocaches near you." I put in my zip code and was surprised to find that there was a cache directly across the street from my office! It was a Sunday morning and about an hour later my daughter said "What are we going to do today?" Well we went caching and managed to find 2 or 3 that day and I was hooked!

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nameless301

+nameless301

Posted
Posted

My dad found out about it from something, not sure where, but he started dragging me along and being a young teenager was like what the hell am I doing up at 8 on the weekends, but actually enjoyed it, but didn't realize it for about 5 years until I was mature enough and realized how fun it was, finally bought a GPS and started on my own with my girlfriend who also loves it.

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JohnMac56

+JohnMac56

Posted
Posted

I got a Garmin GPSMap60CSx and hadn't really used it much for anything other than tracks when I was out hiking in the backcountry. One night I was looking through all my tracks on it and flipping through all the different menus and saw a geocaching mode. After checking out the geocaching info on the Garmin website I went to GC.com and punched up my zip code and found that there were caches all over town. I signed up that night and have been caching since. That was back in Dec '07, I am now approaching 1000 finds in only ten months. I still haven't figured out if it is an addiction or just an obsession...

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Dj Storm

Dj Storm

Posted
Posted

By what I read in this topic:

- About half of the cachers were told about geocaching by someone (or told to check out geocaching), taken out caching by a friend, or heard about it on TV/radio.

- About half of them found out while searching for something else on the net (or just lurking around), or by reading an article on a magazine/newspaper.

- A very few (lucky) ones found out by accidentally finding a geocache.

 

I'm in the second category, found out by following a link, while searching for a GPSr to buy.

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EJKorvette

EJKorvette

Posted
Posted

I read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Can't say I've found any treasures as large as the one in that book, but I'm having a blast looking.

 

I read that book. Gotta love an author who can mention ILL (Inter-Library Loan) and SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) in the same sentence.

 

But I don't remember geocaching from that book. Could you refresh my memory?

 

Thanks,

 

EJKorvette mka Evan

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aniyn

aniyn

Posted
Posted (edited)

I don't remember how or exactly when I learned about geocaching. I was a geek in high school, so it probably came up when one of my friends had a gps. But I have a nagging suspicion that I knew about it before then even. I think I tried to go caching back in 06 with a friend, but it was winter and we didn't come close. When I finally bought my gps in 07 I bought it for mountain biking, but I also bought it under the justification that I could start geocaching as well. I was already well familiar with it.

 

Edit: Hey, wait just a minute.... I just remembered that the first geocache I actually did was at my girlfriends family reunion back in july of 2005. But I don't think it was ever listed.

Edited by aniyn
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murphyz

+murphyz

Posted
Posted

Bought an iPhone a couple of weeks ago and whilst searching the Apps on iTunes came across a link to Geocaching.com. I was hooked from day one on finding my first cache. That was last Sunday. Tomorrow I will be hunting for my seventh cache.

 

Similar here; was bored and browsing for new apps on the iPhone when I came across the lite version of the geocaching.com app. That was a Sunday, the following day I went out and did a couple of the ones that it showed in the free version of the app. I was hooked; bought the app, became a member here and - today celebrated 36 caches in the first two weeks.

 

I finally leave the house on a weekend now too ;)

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dad&casey

+dad&casey

Posted
Posted

I was looking for something fun to do with my 11 yo son after baseball season. A 4WD truck forum I visit had a post about geocaching and that seemed perfect. Bought a GPSr the next weekend and went on our first hunt. I only see Casey every other weekend, but I have been solo caching nearly every day since. Hooked!

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MFLyons

+MFLyons

Posted
Posted

I was searching the web for bicycling trails in my local area (Polk county, FL) when I found http://www.friendsoftheparks.net/TrekTenAgain2009.html They had great information on some trails, but also for each trail they had directions for finding their geocache with or without a GPSr.

This Saturday they are having their wrap up for this year's set of 15 caches, and, I assume, announcement of the next set.

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work71

+work71

Posted
Posted (edited)

Back in December of 2005 I attended a naturalist's convention in West Virginia. I went to a presentation on geocaching in WV parks. I had never heard of it before. They offered GPSr units for guests to check out and find the caches on the park. I thought that would be a great idea for my park, Lake Cumberland State Resort Park. I knew I didn't have a budget for the units, but I might be able to put some caches out and have an event weekend. Little did I know that it would be so successful with the help of GEOCKY members. During the second year of my event, I met my future wife. She got hooked immediately and helped with every event after that. We hunt as many caches as possible when we have time. If you are in KY during Earth Day Weekend, check out our yearly event. Here was this year's. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...a7-fad06600ef92

Edited by work71
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bradly22

bradly22

Posted
Posted

A friend of mine was introduced to it by another friend of his. He then began telling me about it and I thought it was the dumbest thing i've ever heard of. Well a year or so later me and him moved in together as roomates and he was about to go caching and asked if I wanted to go. I was very bored so I said sure I'll go for the ride. He talked me into helping him find one and I found it and from that day forward, it's all I think about, I wish I had listened to him when he first told me about it. And now I wish I had the funds and availibility to do it a lot more, but I do do it as much as possible. My friend upgraded GPS'r's and gave me his old one and now everytime I leave the house if there's one within 20 miles that I haven't gotten yet, I can't hold back. I'm only up to 66 finds now, but that number will grow rapidly next weekend because I'm going to Florence Alabama where there are tons of them and I'm going to try to do 75 in that one day, wish me luck!!!!

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ccatmoore

+ccatmoore

Posted
Posted

I had heard of it before, but I don't remember where, and never followed up on it. Went to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife's Wildlife Expo and saw a booth for it. They took us around and hunted for caches at the expo. We found it a great way to spend family time together. I think we each have our own reasons for hunting.

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Bossmyers

+Bossmyers

Posted
Posted

Well, the way I got started geocaching is an odd kind of way I suppose. I was recently divorced and I had met this handsome brown-eyed man who worked at one of the state parks close by. The first year of our relationship he kept talking about this event he was doing on Earth Day Weekend at his park. He would try to explain about it, but was never real clear. I just could not fully understand what he was talking about.

 

He was a bit reluctant to let me come to his first event, ( that male macho thing) but by the second year he was over the "meet my friend" jitters and was willing to let me come to his event.

 

He hooked me up with a few couples that had been to his very first event and they were veteran cachers , not to mention just absolutely wonderful people. They took me under their wing that day and introduced me to caching. They were as excited about teaching me as they were about hunting the caches.

 

Being a teacher of 20+ years I loved the idea of using my brain for fun, especially since I do have a very competitive nature any way. The thrill of the hunt took me back to my childhood years when we played similar games but without technology to help us. I was hooked immediately.

 

The next year we worked together on his event at the park and we decided to change it up from just simple hides in very traditional styles and places to complex caches hidden in some very original ways. I like to think I have a creative side to me so I was thinking of creative ways to formulate unique caches for the participants all that winter. When spring came we started getting caches into place for the event. We put out about 45 quality caches and had a great event. The feedback was fabulous, the event was a great success. We have since earned a devious reputation in the caching arena.

 

On October 4, 2008 we were married and now we are the dynamic duo of caching in our area. In April during his last geocache event we had a record number of participants and hid over 60+ mind bending geocaches which took us about 4 weeks of planning and working until dark after I would get home from school. We put numerous hours of work in plus a lot of heart and soul. Together we worked to put on a first class event and the results are evidence that everyone had a great time.

 

The feedback we get from participants helps us plan better events and create better caches. If we stop in a hobby store or craft store, my husband will look at me and say...I know what your thinking... and he is usually correct, cache ideas!

 

This will be our 4th event together in 2010 and we plan to make this event even better than the last. Yes, I am still looking for unique ways to hide and also clever containers. If you take a notion to join us In April 2010, one thing we guarantee is that you will not leave bored or unchallenged. Plus, you will meet some of the nicest people that we are fortunate to call friends.

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bradly22

bradly22

Posted
Posted

Well, the way I got started geocaching is an odd kind of way I suppose. I was recently divorced and I had met this handsome brown-eyed man who worked at one of the state parks close by. The first year of our relationship he kept talking about this event he was doing on Earth Day Weekend at his park. He would try to explain about it, but was never real clear. I just could not fully understand what he was talking about.

 

He was a bit reluctant to let me come to his first event, ( that male macho thing) but by the second year he was over the "meet my friend" jitters and was willing to let me come to his event.

 

He hooked me up with a few couples that had been to his very first event and they were veteran cachers , not to mention just absolutely wonderful people. They took me under their wing that day and introduced me to caching. They were as excited about teaching me as they were about hunting the caches.

 

Being a teacher of 20+ years I loved the idea of using my brain for fun, especially since I do have a very competitive nature any way. The thrill of the hunt took me back to my childhood years when we played similar games but without technology to help us. I was hooked immediately.

 

The next year we worked together on his event at the park and we decided to change it up from just simple hides in very traditional styles and places to complex caches hidden in some very original ways. I like to think I have a creative side to me so I was thinking of creative ways to formulate unique caches for the participants all that winter. When spring came we started getting caches into place for the event. We put out about 45 quality caches and had a great event. The feedback was fabulous, the event was a great success. We have since earned a devious reputation in the caching arena.

 

On October 4, 2008 we were married and now we are the dynamic duo of caching in our area. In April during his last geocache event we had a record number of participants and hid over 60+ mind bending geocaches which took us about 4 weeks of planning and working until dark after I would get home from school. We put numerous hours of work in plus a lot of heart and soul. Together we worked to put on a first class event and the results are evidence that everyone had a great time.

 

The feedback we get from participants helps us plan better events and create better caches. If we stop in a hobby store or craft store, my husband will look at me and say...I know what your thinking... and he is usually correct, cache ideas!

 

This will be our 4th event together in 2010 and we plan to make this event even better than the last. Yes, I am still looking for unique ways to hide and also clever containers. If you take a notion to join us In April 2010, one thing we guarantee is that you will not leave bored or unchallenged. Plus, you will meet some of the nicest people that we are fortunate to call friends.

 

Where does this event take place?

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okie-wan

+okie-wan

Posted
Posted

I found geocaching the easy way.........I bought my wife a metal detector! Huh?

She always wanted one and her birthday was close. I ordered it and that same afternoon she broke her ankle. While recuperating I was haunting a medal detecting forum to learn more about them. A lady posted a thread on an off-topic subject: "Anyone Geocaching?" I clicked on it and........poof! Here I am.

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greende

+greende

Posted
Posted

I went to work for an Orthopedic Oncologist in 2001 who had gotten in on the sport in the early days. He hiked the Adirondacks and traveled the world to Ortho meetings and looked for caches then. He told me about this new game and showed me this website. I borrowed an old Garmin 12 gps from my son-in-law (it still works) and looked for the closest cache to my home. I since have a mapping Vista HCx and try to get out when we are camping. It has been an enjoyable time.

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