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***MY FIRST TIME*** COINTEST


opalsns

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My first cache attracted police attention!! And netted my first owned geocoin!

 

I'm a naturalist who loves hiking and navigating road trips with delorme maps (no trip complete without at least one gravel road for the jeep). My husband bought me my best Christmas present ever last year - a GPS to help us find and not get lost in cool out of the way places. I discovered geocaching.com from the gpsr website. Geocaching was the perfect marriage of (nearly) EVERYTHING I love to do.

 

Our first adventure was the next day when my husband's kids were visiting and could join us. There was a geocache just a few miles from our home and we let my husband's son (David) drive with his learners permit 'cause he could take some back roads and there was an easy pull off from the main road to the cache.

 

All 4 of us started out looking - this was along a fence and a field and we had the clue in our heads and one gps. I didn't get the map zoomed in properly so we were off the location a bit. As we all searched I realized how to zoom in and homed in on GZ by myself. I ducked into the underbush and Found the Cache!! but - when I popped my head out with it there was a cop with the rest of the group!!!!

 

I stashed the cache and walked casually back to where they were. My husband was trying to explain that we were not broken down, we were just geocaching. I got close to his son David and whispered 'I found it!' as if you couldn't read it on my face or hear my heart beating wildly.

 

Once the officer left we got the cache and found inside a 2007 New Years GeoCoin. When I logged the coin it said it wanted to make it home by 2008 so I emailed the owner to see if we could arrange a quick trip (as it was less than a week to the new year) - the owner let me keep it!! How could you not get hooked!

 

Now I often take my dog out with me and have introduced many friends to the adventure and met many cool people who are geocachers.

 

Thank you everyone for sharing your firsts.

 

Oh and Today a new log appeared for one of my caches - it was from a 'virgin' cacher's first find !!

Oh the joyous adventure they are embarking on.

 

Sandra of SandyDuff

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Well..well..well...Our first time caching? It seems long ago,but it was just last October. One of us had mentioned caching a few times...but we never seemed to be in the right place to start it up. We decided one weekend to borrow a GPS and give it a try.

That weekend happened to be while we were visiting family. We got on the computer...researched, narrowed our search and picked a cache. We had no idea what we were looking for. What was the size of container?? What color it might be? Had it been found reciently? and all of the other questions that we readily ask ourselves now.

The cache was at a park, down a path it seemed. We arrived at the park...parked the car and then started to get ready for the small hike. That in itself is a feat, as we are new parents for the second time. Our 2nd little one was only 3 months old...got them squared away in a chest carrier. Packed some water and headed out.

The path was gorgeous! All the fall colors of the leaves. The temperature was perfect. No bugs. No wind. Complete calm. Even our baby remained asleep for the hike. We were able to just enjoy the surroundings and each others company. It was a great stroll in the woods.

We came to the cache coords and quickly figured out where it was hidden. We were delighted! We traded items and placed it back in it's hiding place. We were so proud of ourselves. We were hooked right then and there.

We look forward to returning to that cache in the future....just for the walk in the woods.

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The company I work for (which should remain nameless but they are very much into the outdoors and are based here in Maine) has outdoor discovery days every year where employees learn about various outdoor activities. Geocaching has been one of the activities for the last couple of years. I first attended the presentation a couple of years ago. It was a short little session where they hid something on site and gave us all simple yellow etrexs. (The early ones that don't even hook up to the PC if I remember right). I had been wanting to try it more ever since and this year I begged and pleaded with my wife to buy a GPSmap60 that we saw at a decent price.

 

I have found it to be an awesome family activity.

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My son took an elective at his elementary school and I thought it had something to do with geology and rock hunting from the flyer he brought home. But after he started describing it to me (finding toys in the woods with a machine?) I looked it up and found geocaching.com. I bought him a GPS that Christmas and we have been caching ever since.

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okay, our geocaching started out with me going out with my best friend on his birthday. Every year we go out on the desert to go hunting/exploring for the day. So this particular year we were out and he said we had to go find a cache (what ever that is). So we walked a couple miles than into a lava flow, loosing skin along the way, if you have ever been in central Oregon lava your DNA will be there also. We found an old bucket down in the rocks full of junk big deal. The next year while hunting with my wife and son they misunderstood the perfect directions i gave them. A few hours and 6 miles later i finally found them again, off to sportsman's warehouse we went. with the Garmin rino's in hand back to the woods we went. After having the 17 year old son teach us how to use this electronic thingamajig. hunting over now what do we do with this size able investment. Wife says what is that your friend does? Now just over a year later and over 760 caches logged we plan every trip around caching!!!

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I saw a newspaper article in the Detroit Free Press about geocaching where the reporter followed two caching teams in a park very close to my house to find the cache. He described the whole adventure and it sounded really cool so I thought I really wanted to try it. I did my research and bought an inexpensive gpsr in case I didn't like it and after it arrived I was ready to go. The closest cache to my house was actually a puzzle cache. I thought I had it figured out but I asked my son for advice. He told me one thing I had forgotten and off I went. Found it very quickly but it wasn't a usual cache as it was in a library. I was hooked though. Awhile ago the owner decided to adopt out the cache and I quickly volunteered to take it over. Now I own the first cache I ever found! How cool is that!

 

On a sad note though. The caches the teams showed the reporter ended up being pulled. The person who placed them had the park manager's verbal permission for them. However he left and another person took over that job. The new park manager didn't know they were there until he saw the newspaper article and then demanded they be pulled.

 

edited for some very stupid spelling mistakes

Edited by LadyBee4T
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my neice and her husband had mentioned that they had a great summer geocaching. I didn't know what it was and really didn't think anything of it. Then one day I was reading one of my magazines and there was a short article about geocaching and what it was etc. Well i thought what a great thing to do with my kids this summer so off to the sporting goods store to look at gps's. I went with the cheapest gps the etrex(and it worked great I might add) signed on to geocaching.com and researched, researched, researched and off to our first cache we go! taking my kids by myself through forests and not caring about bugs or ticks or beasts of any sort and only thinking about finding the cache, well I bacame addicted after that. got my husband into it a little and friends and have a small geocoin collection going. Boy it does get expensive though. I usually buy 2 coins, one to release and one to put in my collection. Got the colorado gps for Christmas. I have to say I really like my new hobby!

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The hubby and I have a friend that's into geocaching. I trailed behind on a few hide and seeks. This seemed like such a good activity to do as a family. Serendipty came calling and co-worker of my husbands lent him a Lowrance GPS. As soon as he got home GPS in hand, he created his first trial hide. The kids and I were challenged to go find the prize and that got us all hooked!

 

is it uncool to quote yourself?

 

I'm redoing this reply because I really think my passion for geocaching ... why it clicks now as an adult stems from my childhood love of the game "hide and seek". As a kid ...ok in the 60's... long before technology or GPS' ... we had to hunt for our lunch. My Auntie Elva frequently had all 18 cousins visiting her 22 acre woods / farm at the same time. With 18 kids underfoot she invented some mighty fun ways to keep us amused and out of her hair. We made the lunch ... she packed the bag and picked 2 of the 18 to go hide the lunch. Elva gave the hiders a 20 minute head start and then we were off ~ running around those woods trying to find our lunch. A hot drippy tomato sandwich was the prize ...slim pickings for the last kid to show up!

 

I thought I should bring my two cents over from the "what got you into geocaching" thread ... what fun!

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Wow,

First let me say Thank You all for such great stories that everybody seemed to enjoy and making my first Cointest a success.

And now for the winner...........

 

The winner is ...... # 28 Caching Ninjas

 

 

Congratulations.

 

Opalsns

Edited by opalsns
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My son took an elective at his elementary school and I thought it had something to do with geology and rock hunting from the flyer he brought home. But after he started describing it to me (finding toys in the woods with a machine?) I looked it up and found geocaching.com. I bought him a GPS that Christmas and we have been caching ever since.

Wow. That is some high-tech school your son goes to!

 

On another note, maybe ImaMystic's aunt was the first one to "create" geocaching!

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Wow,

First let me say Thank You all for such great stories that everybody seemed to enjoy and making my first Cointest a success.

And now for the winner...........

 

The winner is ...... # 28 Caching Ninjas

 

 

Congratulations.

 

Opalsns

 

Congrats Caching Ninjas :ph34r::lol: and thanks Opalsns for the cointest :)

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We won? How cool is that! Thank you so much!

Want to thank everyone for the kind words and of course Opalsns for the cointest.

 

At first we thought the best part of geocaching was the "hunt and and find". It didn't take long to realize that the best part of geocaching is the people you meet along the way. Having only started a few weeks ago, we have made so many new friends online, in the field and at our first geocaching event on New Years day. And being newbies, we have had so many questions and found everyone extremely helpful and just plain "nice". Geocaching has been a very positive and healthy part of our new year.

 

It's a great hobby and we feel very fortunate to be part of the geocaching community.

 

Thanks again!

Caching Ninjas

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We were on our way home from vacation (summer 2007) and I was reading a magazine called 'In Touch' (by Charles Stanley). It had an article about family fun. It was about Geocaching. I had no idea what it was but if it was a way to have quality family time I was there! I read it and when I got home I logged on to the Geocaching website and found caches in my town. I didn't own a GPS but I REALLY REALLY wanted to do a cache! I read about one right near the center of town. Read ALL the logs and told the family we can do this! So off we headed to town and from the clues in the logs we reached our destination on foot! This wasn't a hard cache but I had a sense of accomplishment finding this one without a GPS. It only took a week before I had my own GPS and a new addiction! Thanks! :)

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We were on our way home from vacation (summer 2007) and I was reading a magazine called 'In Touch' (by Charles Stanley). It had an article about family fun. It was about Geocaching. I had no idea what it was but if it was a way to have quality family time I was there! I read it and when I got home I logged on to the Geocaching website and found caches in my town. I didn't own a GPS but I REALLY REALLY wanted to do a cache! I read about one right near the center of town. Read ALL the logs and told the family we can do this! So off we headed to town and from the clues in the logs we reached our destination on foot! This wasn't a hard cache but I had a sense of accomplishment finding this one without a GPS. It only took a week before I had my own GPS and a new addiction! Thanks! :)

WELCOME!!! :huh:

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This would be a full time job if I didn't watch out! lol That laundry would NEVER get done!

 

Do you mean laundry is suppose to come before caching - I never heard that. Maybe that's why my kids are wearing the same clothes every day. Lol.

 

Caching Ninjas CONGRATULATIONS on winning. This has been a fun cointest to follow. SO MANY STORIES - all with the same outcome - ADICTION.

Edited by luckycharmer
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I had always wanted to try geocaching since I saw it on some news show. The satelites hold a special place in my heart, as my father was one of the programmers on them (the original ones). I couldn't afford a GPSr, and the idea went to the back of my head where it rattled around until my half-birthday last year. I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and bored out of my skull. I decided I was gonna give it a shot with or without a gpsr. So I found the website, and searched from my address. Lo and behold, there was a cache I could walk to even in my bloated state. I looked at the map, looked at the google map, and headed across the street to the park. From there it was just a matter of looking and asking myself where would I put it? And it was there, right where I'd have put it. And I was hooked.

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"Our introduction to geocaching"

I was visiting a friend one day when she mentioned that a friend of hers that we had met on a couple of occasions was coming down for the week to stay, I said what on earth will he do when you are at work?!

She then replies Geocaching I say whats that? the reply was treasure hunting! hmm well my brain went into overtime and couldnt wait to find out more.

So when I got home I googled geocaching and read all about it. This is for me 100% signed up there and then, didnt have a clue what I was doing but I was going to be in it.

We found a cache just down the road from us about 1/2 mile and off we went (we didn't have a gps so we used our tom tom) Hubby wasn't very enthusiastic as he doesn't (or didn't) like using his legs (four wheels were much better and easier). Anyway needless to say we never found the cache (a micro didn't know what they were and yes we still HATE micros!). So we gave up on caching for about three months until we met Andrew (the friend of the friend) again and he showed us his gps we had a play in the car park, Bill (my other half) then went out and bought one now he has a new gadget that he just couldn't put down. Off we went to find the cache and after some considerable time we actually found it, well we were in seventh heaven, amazed that we had found something so small a film pot in a log in a very brambly field, rushed home and logged it and we had our first ever cache. We were hooked and the rest is history. :huh:

Sue

p.s. he doesn't mind using his legs now, but the car is still useful! :)

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