What got you into Geocaching?

[+lil'hobo]

Over the holidays I had lots of relatives in town and the subject of hobbies came up and I told them about my newest, Geocaching. After explaining what it is (it's interesting how many people never heard of it) they asked how I got into it. Well, I found about it on accident, I was searching for an owners manual for my old Garmin GPS 12 on Garmin's website and I stumbled upon the term geocaching. After some investigation I wound up on Geocaching.com, created an account, found my first cache, and was hooked.

 

So, how did all of you get get started in caching?

[+Vater_Araignee]

In a nut shell...

I literally stumbled on a geocache wile waystashing and filed the term way back in my skull. After new waystashes became to hard to come by the term jumped back to the for front. I found my first few caches using just maps a compass and math until I decided on which GPSr to get.

[+SkellyCA]

Someone told me about it; it sounded like a fun way to get excersize and walk dog; I tried it, loved it

[+bubby23]

I was on the jeep website and noticed a link to geocaching. I had never heard the term before and clicked the link to see what it was. That was almost 4 years and 600 caches ago.

[+Ralfcoder]

I had heard of it someplace years ago, but never got into it at that time. In 2004, My brother-in-law bought a Garmin GPS for hunting and fishing, but he had trouble figuring out how to use it. He gave it to me to play with so that I could learn how to use it and show him how. I remembered the geocaching topic, looked up a cache near my office, and walked there on my lunch hour. It was a virtual, so there was no log, no trading trinkets, etc. But decided to try a few more, and got hooked.

[+GroveBird]

I was at a picnic at my Grandma's house and my uncle had his GPS with him. I asked about it and he told me about geocaching. We found five that day, and a week later I had my own gps and was out on my own. I have more finds than him now. lol

[+whartonia]

I think I read about geocaching in a parenting magazine. I thought it was cool, but didn't think much about it after that. Now I have a couple of friends are into it. Last year I bought my first GPSr.

[+Proud Soccer Mom]

A couple friends were doing it and it got me interested.

 

My husband had a co-worker that he tagged along with.

 

We realised we both liked geocaching after 2 years of being together. It hadn't ever come up.

[+ImaMystic]

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!

 

Cheers to more happy caching!

Edited January 7, 2009 by ImaMystic

[+Star*Hopper]

My ladyfriend. Darn her soul.

 

"I fell in-n-n-nnn....to the burnin' ring of fire,

I went down down down, and I can't get up!"

~*

[+StarBrand]

Sounds repetitive but.....

 

I was updating the Firmware in my Garmin unit and saw the term Geocaching on thier website. My first thought was that no caches would be anywhere close to me (late 2001). Turns out there were 5 within 100 miles and 1 only 1 mile away. 1 Hour later I was bobbing about like a drunken bee trying to match up the coordinates from the website.

[+ImaMystic]

I know this isn't part of the thread ...my first reply was the wrong size and only one of the pics came thru and then on the "edit" ... I lost all the pics ... newbie learning here ...so forgive my little mess ...

Edited January 7, 2009 by ImaMystic

[+mfamilee]

We came to learn about geocaching by accidently finding a cache!

 

We love taking long, country drives and we had stopped on an old bridge to skip some stones. All of a sudden hubby says, "what's this?" We open the little plastic container which was magnetized to the bridge, and find a paper full of names & dates and also a little info sheet on geocaching. We ran out and bought a gps and have been hooked ever since!

[+cacheninja]

Four years ago I was researching affordable GPS units to help me get to my honeymoon destination. During the process I discovered several articles and reviews that mentioned geocaching. A week later I was searching up a storm trying to locate local caches!

[+boda]

My wife's brother and nephew came out from Maine to visit. Her nephew said he would like to geocache a little while they were here. "Gee-Oh what?????" He gave us the web address for GC.com and, after looking, I thought that it was kind of dumb.

 

When they got here, we went to 3 caches on one day, and three more the next. I was amazed. He took us to locations in the area we never knew existed; and to spots with which we were familiar, but now saw in a whole new way.

 

We still look at geocaching as a learning experience.

[+Walkworthy & Wife]

[snip]

So, how did all of you get get started in caching?

My daughter and son-in-law came home for a visit while he was on leave. He is in the Army stationed at Ft. Bragg. He brought with him two Garmin hand held GPS's. He started telling me about Geocaching and he loaded some caches into the GPS's and we took off searching. At first I wasn't so sure if I would like it or not. But after 10 finds I started getting into it. My son-in-law had to report back for duty, so he loaned me one of his GPSrs. I took my wife out and she liked it. So, we splurged and bought ourselves newer model Garmin HC's and have been caching since then.

[+yawppy]

I am a military brat. Have always enjoyed travel, technology,and outdoor activity. That was untill I was discharged (honorably) from the service myself.

 

Went to college and found myself quite busy, working, and school projects. Much of my free time was spent in front of those T.V's, with a PS1, controller in hand, or a mouse.

 

So after I graduated, I had met my current Wife, My plan was to head back to CO, or TX. But found myself trapped here in RI. I never really took the time to explore, sort of fel into the grind of couch tater.

 

Till one trip this pasrt summer, to visit my dad in CA. We ended up on an awesome road trip, ending with Yosemite. The outdoor bug awoke. Got back to RI, whole summer off, and was watching TV, and was watching a tech toy show, seen these folks out locating geocaches.

 

I had a car GPS'r, logged in and went for a couple nearby as evry1 else, next thing I know I am purchasing a CO 400t for a pretty penny. But 225 and still caching, and it is a blast!

 

Best of all have re-caonnected to the outdoors, and have learned of so many new areas, as well as a cople new friends,

Happy Cachin

[+Mredria]

When I was working at Michael's someone came in and after being in the store for 2 or 3 eternities they, they came to my register with a very unique stamp. I commented that it was very interesting and was probably the last one we had. They said they hoped so because they were going to use it for letterboxing. Of course I was like, Letterboxing? What's that? So they explained it to me and I read the wiki about it on my sidekick during lunch. While reading that I also read about geocaching. Geocaching sounded much more my style, but I didn't have a GPS enabled phone and whatnot and I was very busy then so I filed it away in my mind.

Several months and a G1 later, I found a pawprint stamp in my room and though, Oh! I have a GPS phone. I bet I could go adventuring. I typed Geocaching into Google and found out there was a cache within walking distance (walking distance to me is less than a thousand feet) of my house. So I IM'd my brother and was like, Dude, we should Geocache and he was like "Dude, I can dig it."

So now I guess we're doing it.

[JusticeTrackers]

We came upon the addiction while reading one of the kids books series called "The Boxcar Children" to our two boys and geocaching was brought up in one of the books as an activity the charters in the book did. We thought it sounded neat and then my 8yr old looked it up on line and we have been hooked since then.

 

have had GPSr in cars, boats and cycles since 2001, but had never heard about the hobby until this past year.

[+Zor]

Ok, interesting story...

 

Me and my ex-wife were split up for about 6 months or so. We didn't talk, it was kind of a messy situation. Regardless, I had heard that she was doing this thing called geocaching with her new boyfriend. I looked it up online and it actually sounded really cool and definitely something I would be interested in doing. But, I didn't want to just jump on the bandwagon since she had started as well. Seems kind of silly now, but that's how it was. That was around 2003 sometime.

 

In October of 2007, I looked it up again and thought that maybe I should give it a try. I called a friend of mine who was really into caching and told him I was interested. Boxing Day came along (Dec. 26 here in Canada) and out we went for a few hours. Found about 6 or 7 caches that day including some regulars, micros, and a nano. I had a blast. Bought a GPS a week later, and was out on my own shortly thereafter.

 

616 finds, and 55 hides later, I'm loving it!

[+Sparticus06]

Back in 2006 I bought a GPS for ATving. Used it to map out my trials I ride and where I ride. In Oct. hunting seasons begin and I was bored. Saw the word Geocache in the GPS lots of times and then saw it in our local forums. Found out what it is about and have been hooked ever since.

[+elephantmama]

I wanted something fun and inexpensive to do with my kids 2 summers ago, so I did some research on frugal living forums and discovered letterboxing. We found the few in our area pretty quickly. We enjoyed it so much that I kept researching and discovered geocaching. I borrowed my dad's spare GPSr to see if we could figure it out easily. After the first hunt, we were all completely hooked.

[+spotter/g]

One of my dearest friends, Jody, is an avid hiker. I guess once on a hike she stumbled upon a geocache. She told me about it. It took her a while to convince me to check it out. (She must have looked into it) After the second time she told me about it, and said 'I bet you will like this' I checked it out.

That was almost 6 years ago. I even got to find a couple of caches with her.

[Skippermark]

I got into caching for the pension plan.

 

I read about it in a magazine and being geeky and having a GPS, I thought it would be neat to try. It was a blast going through the woods and actually finding it.

[+cachensfun]

Well our uncle Michigan cacheman ran accost geocaching the same way as the person who started this subject. He was so nice as to tell my brothers and I all about his new hobby and brought us on the FIRST hunt. Well we got hooked now we have three caches of are own YYYYYEEEEE HHHHAAAAAWWWWW we love geocaching.

[+Bad_CRC]

saw a story about a bomb squad blowing up some "georgash" thing and thought it sounded fun.

 

bought a GPS the next day.

[geekseek]

Ok, interesting story...

 

Me and my ex-wife were split up for about 6 months or so. We didn't talk, it was kind of a messy situation. Regardless, I had heard that she was doing this thing called geocaching with her new boyfriend. I looked it up online and it actually sounded really cool and definitely something I would be interested in doing. But, I didn't want to just jump on the bandwagon since she had started as well. Seems kind of silly now, but that's how it was. That was around 2003 sometime.

 

In October of 2007, I looked it up again and thought that maybe I should give it a try. I called a friend of mine who was really into caching and told him I was interested. Boxing Day came along (Dec. 26 here in Canada) and out we went for a few hours. Found about 6 or 7 caches that day including some regulars, micros, and a nano. I had a blast. Bought a GPS a week later, and was out on my own shortly thereafter.

 

616 finds, and 55 hides later, I'm loving it!

 

I can't help it - I must be the hopeless romantic type - I was waiting for the reconnection and rekindling of your love when she hid one that you found and the trinkets inside were memorabilia of your life together...geez...i better go to Blockbuster before they close and pick up Bridges Over Maddision County or something!!

[+StephInSC]

My husband and I are both geeks, and I first learned about geocaching while reading a blog written by another geek. He would often talk about his hiking trips, and one day mentioned hiding a geocache. This was in 2003. I looked into it then, told DH I thought we'd like it, but we didn't pursue it. Every once in a while I'd come across a reference to geocaching. Finally in November 2005 I saw the light. We bought a Garmin that night, and headed out the next day.

 

I love the combination of technology and nature. I especially love that we get outside more, hike more, and see more of this beautiful earth than we ever would have seen otherwise.

 

We go at it in fits and starts, and right now I'm in the midst of a "fit" - it's all I want to do and all I can talk about.

[+opalsns]

Just a little FYI ....

 

I have a cointest that has been going on all week and ends tonight.

It's called ..

***MY FIRST TIME*** cointest.

You may want to enter.

Opalsns

[+the pooks]

My wife bought me an Explorist for my birthday. I browsed the menus to see what functions there were and found one called "geocaching" so I googled the word. I downloaded caches for an area we we going to for the weekend and found our 1st four caches without any listings or notes.

[+lil'hobo]

Well, this is cool. I am enjoying all the stories. It seems many geocachers stumble into this game on accident. And then it becomes an addiction!

 

Thanks for sharing and keep 'em coming.

[+RobDJr]

I knew about geocaching and owned a GPSr for a few years before I actually got into it. Thing was, I didn't use the GPSr often, and I didn't have much confidence in it (or my ability to use it, the two seem interchangeable). Eventually, I got tired of feeling surprised every time the GPSr actually brought me to a place I wanted to go. And if I ever found myself in a situation where I absolutely had to depend on it, I didn't want to find myself hoping and praying.

 

So one winter afternoon I was thinking about that, and the word 'geocaching' came bubbling up to the surface of my mind. I decided to give it a try, it seemed a good way to practice and get some experience. I never imagined I'd enjoy it half as much as I do...

[+ImaMystic]

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!

Edited January 9, 2009 by ImaMystic

[+chrisnic]

I have always been an active hiker. In the spring of 06 I was hiking with my dog when I ran into a man way out in the woods with his two-three year old daughter. He shared with me what they were doing. I loved the concept of Geocaching immediately. I love technology and gadgets and I get to combine them with my love of hiking. I went home and logged onto Geocaching.com and bought a GPSr the next day. I found my 1st cache that same day. Have been addicted ever since

Edited January 9, 2009 by chrisnic2

[+Parabola]

Oh this guy I work with.

 

He went out looking for an island cache in the middle of winter while we where working out of town. He couldn't find it but his story about it all, made me wonder. So the next night I tagged along and we found that cache.

[DarthJustice]

I found out about geocaching last year. I think I had heard the term 'geocaching' before, but I didn't know what it was or anything. I believe I must have passed over the word somewhere online, but didn't take the time to find out what it was.

 

Late last year, a friend came by my house one day. While we were hanging out, he happened to mention geocaching and that some of his friends had been doing it. He told me to come to this very site, which I did.

 

That's how I came to be a part of the caching community. Short and sweet lol.

[+scuba dude]

When my unit was put onto alert for possible deployment a couple years ago, I told my wife that one thing I wanted to have with me in Iraq was a GPS. She bought me one for that next Christmas. She asked if I had ever heard of geocaching. I thought it sounded kinda stupid, but while sitting at home one day I was bored and decided to look into it. I was shocked to see caches listed in my town. Rest is history.

 

At least if the wife ever complains about me running around for geocaches, I can blame it all on here! LOL

[+xshooter]

I bought a Garmin 2610 to mount on my Gold Wing. One day I was at the gun club showing it to a friend and he asked if I had heard about geocaching and proceeded to tell me about it. Shortly after that I looked up the site, signed up, and looked for a cache that I could ride to on the wing. I rode to it, parked the wing and started snooping around the gaurdrail until I found the cache. Went home and ordered a GPSr and the rest is history.

[+TampaDude]

Getting a BlackBerry Curve with GPS.

 

Actually, I heard about Geocaching years ago, but never got into it. The BlackBerry changed all that. Google Maps FTW.

Edited January 11, 2009 by TampaDude

[kurrajong kid]

I got told about it by a mate but i thought I'm not going to buy a GPS just for a game and it doesn't even sound fun. But then i got a GPS for christmas ffor bushwalking and thought geocaching would help me get used to using it and now im hooked even though ive only found 2( I can't drive so it limits where i can go)

[+The Irish Man]

I was introduced to the hobby by a friend, went out and found a few caches and was hooked.

[+budISwiser]

I too was drawn into caching while updating a recently purchased Garmin GPS for riding. A buddy of mine ( who is also now into caching on this site) and I spend a great deal of time riding our motorcycles all over.

 

Of course neither of us could wait til we went riding so we have already found many of the close ones to our homes.

 

Being my first post, I would like to add how much I have enjoyed the geocaching site as well as the forums here. So many nice and helpful people enjoying a great sport. I look forward to many more great convos here as well as the many adventures I am sure we will have while hunting.

[Vencislago]

I was googling for things to do with my GPSr (hacks, updates, new features) and found the term "geocaching". Went to geocaching.com and register. Then found so caches around Lisbon and one in Madrid

 

Every time I go to a diferent place, I try to find some caches

[+KJcachers]

I got diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and was looking for a way to burn some calories and get some exercise. I hate the treadmill! My wife came home from work talking about this hobby one of her co-workers was involved in. I took a look at GC.com and we decided to give it a try. We liked the idea of hikes in the wood and parks and still do! Too bad we have so many 1/1 finds on our list but at least we aren't sitting in front of the TV all weekend!

[+KD7MXI]

my gps and boredom back in 2002 got me into the game

[+jmd65]

I took up the sport to get out of the house. I'm retired and was going stir-crazy around the house. I'd known what geocaching was for some time, and it sounded like just what I needed to get outdoors and get some exercise and have some fun.

 

I was right.

[K-9Patrol]

A couple months ago, while browsing wikipedia, I stumbled upon the geocaching page. Another link later and I wound up here. I quickly made an account. Within two weeks I used the hints and topo maps to find my first cache. It was in an area that I frequently put my K-9 on break while on duty. I found a few others using the same method. I mentioned wanting to buy a handheld GPS to a co-worker. He gave me two units that he used in Iraq and hasn't touched since. I've always enjoyed being in the woods. Southern WV is big on hunting and fishing. I don't do either, so this gave me a great reason to be outdoors. Thought I could use the exercise as well. I always wanted to be an archeologist and wound up as a cop. So this satisfies the "Indiana Jones" in me. My son is 16 months old. I look forward to having him join me in the game when he's old enough to understand it. So that's my story.

Edited January 14, 2009 by K-9Patrol

[+mdplayers]

I'd heard about the sport/activity somewhere in the past and just filed it away until I saw that the Girl Scout Volunteer training camp that I attend annually was offering a class about Geocaching. I borrowed an old Magellan GPSr from my hubby and took the class. I found all of the caches placed by the instructor and came home so excited about the sport/activity that I ordered my GPSr online that night and started my membership at GC.com. The next evening Hubby, son, and I headed out for our fist find using the old GPSr.

[+jackrock]

I had heard of geocaching and I like gadgets. I used a hiking trip to justify (to myself) the purchase of a GPS. I further justified it (to myself) by deciding that geocaching would be a great thing to do in between hiking so that gadget would be getting use. As it turned out, I was hooked. Of course, it's not that hard for me to talk myself into a fun gadget.

[GPS-Hermit]

I bought a GPS because so many trails systems had maps that were wrong and I had been walking all over the place to get back to the start. It made me mad and got me really tired. I depended on them to keep me straight. Big mistake! I learned about GC from someone at a State Park while talking about my GPS and how neat it was.

 

I figured it would help me get good at using it. Then I noticed each and everyone was in a interesting new place. I got hooked pretty quick and even started in March with 30 defreeze weather. I spent more and more time coming back to the cache areas to explore the trails. Then I learned to bushwack and got into the map programs on the computer (Delorme TOPO). Now more hooked.

 

Today interesting locations are drowned out by Lame efforts and I have to work harder to find a good. I love to go on a trail and try guess when I have gone a mile - them look at the GPS and see how close I am. I still am under guessing. I have gotten a ton of great Photos and never had a bad animal encounter.