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Hobbies that have a natural connection with Geocaching


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Howdy, all! I was at the holiday dinner for our Ham Radio club last weekend, and the discussion turned to Geocaching, for several of us who are active hams are also cachers.

 

And then the discussion turned to other hobbies that seem to have a natural connection to Geocaching, and why. I thought this might make a fun and interesting discussion.

 

Ham Radio, of course, because most cachers and hams just can't have enough electronic gadgets.

 

Outdoorsy folks...campers, hikers, cyclists, etc, because, it's just another excuse to get outdoors.

 

Gamers....we seem to have a LOT of serious gamers, at least here in Indiana, who are active cachers, and it stands to reason they're usually the first ones to find a newly published puzzle cache.

 

Thoughts?

 

Oh...and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Fabulous Festivus to everyone!

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What do you mean by "gamers"? Video gamers? not sure where the tie in is there.

 

 

I'm talking more about board gamers. Indianapolis has a HUGE (or so I'm told) board gaming community. These folks play terribly complicated board, card, and dice games, things I've never heard of. But we have a lot of them that are regular cachers around here!

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For me, it's biking and hiking. If "gaming" is table games, I've learned to play Mexican Train (dominos) since arriving in Texas. For those who like 5-star difficulty caches, I'd say they would be into scuba diving, kayaking, and tree-climbing. Re "gaming," that's a euphamism by the gambling industry for gambling. Perhaps geocachers are gamblers in another sense. :D

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I had my first GPS receiver for boating; then I got into a Marine Reporting Program (MAREP) here in Canada similar to Cooperative Charting with the United States Power Squadrons in the United States; which progressed to true hydrographical surveys. Always interesting to combine hobbies. Of course those above lead towards Benchmarking, etc; or just plain old back road exploring which can lead to caches being found and vice versa. Geocaching, a wonderful hobby or sport; and also great for those who spend time on the road.

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I am a Hash House Harrier which involve running off road so where possible I try to look for a cache along the trail. I also play backgammon and the first cacher I met, on a FTF quest, also played so now we play backgammon online where we can use the game chat box to talk about our recent finds (or lack of lol).

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What do you mean by "gamers"? Video gamers? not sure where the tie in is there.

 

Video Gamer here, ironically from Indiana (Fort Wayne), for me I love the treasure hunting games (oblivion, fable, fall out) and the fact there are so many side quests in these games that let you run all over the country side finding small treasure to help you along your journey. Sound familiar :D lets me get off my butt and still play a game, addiction in it's purest.

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Gowalla and FourSquare are free iPhone apps that have a lot in common with Waymarking. Foursquare is also on Android and there is a currently limited Android Gowalla app. In particular, Gowalla gives you virtual items that you can trade at other locations, so it also reminds me a lot of caching. I have become rather hooked on Gowalla, which I was first introduced to by a person at Groundspeak. :D

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interesting...just had a flashback...when I was a kid one of my friends dad was a big CB radio buff,we used

to go with him on what I "think" they called radar hunts.Someone would hide somewhere and transmit and

the others would try and find him using his signal strenght in cars with mobile units.....I just remember it

being fun.I wonder if a GPS could be incorporated into that as well somehow.....just a thought I had just now....

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Lots of things!

Tramping/hiking/walking - with or without canine companions.

Wildlife/Bird watching or photographing - I guess also plants and fungi photography

In fact any outdoors photography!!

Cycling - street, park or mountain

Any kind of all terrain vehicle hobbies whether it be bikes, trucks, ATVs

Camping - tenting or mobile homes

History & geneology

Gemstone hunting

Fishing, hunting

Horse-riding

Boating - motor boats or kayaking/canoeing/rafting

Rock climbing

Many kinds of computer/technology type interests

Mapping, orienteering, navigation type activities kind folk who are into developing Open Source maps

 

And I personally think Postcrossing goes pretty well too for developing a knowledge of and interest in the world around us!!

 

I'm sure there are more.

 

Annie

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Before we were geocachers, we biked, snowshoed, x-c skiied and canoed (one of us also kayaks). All of these pursuits have meshed nicely with the kinds of caches we most enjoy hunting. Also, one of us has long been a birder and nature photographer.

 

I will say...the only photos I've managed to get of wolves or a fox were taken while out geocaching. Believe me, I'd tried in the days BC!

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Interesting that people have mentioned video games. When we first started caching, I remarked how similar it was to the video games I played, but it took place in real life instead. For instance, in Grand Theft Auto, I would print out maps of the city that indicated where certain items were located. To collect all of the items, I would go to those locations, and search and low until I found each one, which were often in obscure, out of the way places. A lot of games allow for completists to look for, hunt, and find items to be collected. Caching, for me, was a literal translation of this exploration and hunting. I got to explore the real world, instead of some dorky, digital realm. Much more satisfying!

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I'm into Search and Rescue... caching is good practise for the Hide and Seek portions of that...

 

Also helps out when looking for cachers that weren't quite as skillful / lucky as they thought. :rolleyes:

 

You can include most of the already mentioned things as well...

 

Doug

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Historical Re-enactor.

 

I'm into Civil War and have camped with other period re-enactors. I told one that I got into geocaching and they told me about a few times they went into the woods for fire wood and have found caches. Now that I cache, I also search an area on line to see what caches are around. One village in Ohio had a whole series around the canal locks and dams...found 6 in an evening walk around town!

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I did alot of Orienteering before this. When preparing for a run, I try to put together a series of caches that present different routing choices for me when I am in the field, simulating Orienteering decision making processes.

 

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I'll second orienteering. There are lots of Orienteers that also do some geocaching. I know of 5 or more just in our local club. For data on Orienteering I'd go with these links over the wilkipedia version.

 

http://www.orienteering.org/i3/index.php?/iof2006

http://www.us.orienteering.org/

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CJ and I both hunt and fish.

When seasons/time allow and we're headin' to a game lands or waterway, we like to take gear along.

We not only get to have a fun time caching, but may have something for dinner later :rolleyes:

Also, if we happen to find a hotspot for fish/game, we can mark it on the gpsr for another time.

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My somewhat dormant hobby, collecting miniatures, might fit in. I enjoy the part about moving a small object from one cache to the next and recording where I left it in the online log. The dollhouse miniatures I collected are the kind for age 12+. I did set up a Christmas scene with a few of them this year. Maybe I'll go over my collection and choose a few for swag (if that is the proper word, I'm a newbie.) I'm happily retired but my ideal job would be designing theatrical sets.

 

The dollhouse miniature hobby has several cross-overs: setting up train sets and jewelry making are ones I've seen. Someone mentioned any hobby involving hot glueing, yeah!

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I was talking to a geocacher about getting into orienteering a few weeks ago and he introduced me to geocaching and I've been mad on it since - have told everyone I know about it. I'm pretty good with directions & maps - my friend and I do quite well at the local orienteering events.

I also love visiting cemeteries and am the genealogist of my generation in my family.

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Wow, this is a great thread.

 

It seems like I have been preparing for geocaching my whole life. I've always been a hiker, both on and off trail. I used to do what I called "stream waddling" where I'd wade in a stream to cool off in the summer then try and find my way back to the rest of my family at the picnic site. This was "dead reckoning" type of orienteering, but I didn't know that. Then I got into more aggressive hiking, and then formal orienteering with map and compass. Somewhere in there I took up biking, camping, and paddling. And fishing. So, I guess getting away from everyone else has been a constant.

 

My wife and I also enjoy going to wineries. I live in a county in Virginia that has 24 wineries in it. I've noticed on the listing that there are some sites that sound familiar, and I think are on wineries. It would be great if we could combine cache finds with some winery visits with tastings.

 

There's an island in the Potomac River near my home that has a zillion caches listed on it. It's a large enough island to have formerly been inhabited, but is now abandoned and used only once in a while by river campers, so it's a perfect caching spot. Legal, accessible, tricky to get to, etc. Only problem is the possibility of being washed out by periodic flooding.

 

Anyway. Great thread!

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It was raining, and Dad had hip-replacement surgery in November, but we still managed to go caching for an hour or so on Christmas day in Port Colborne ON (Niagara Region of southern Ontario for those from away). We snagged 3 caches before calling it a day.

 

Caching is a fun way to spend a Christmas.

 

edit: replied to wrong thread - sorry for the off-topicness of this.

Edited by debaere
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I'm one of those complicated board games and dice kind of girls :rolleyes: Geocaching is a real life quest to uncover treasure and solve puzzles while using stealth :D

 

Love tools and gadgets and maps and crafts and making things and fixing things :D So many sister hobbies for geocaching out there but geocaching has it all! ;)

 

I would be in heaven if I were a bird/animal watcher type - because geocaching takes me off trail so often, and me and whoever I'm with are concentrating and therefore being fairly quiet, I have seen an insane amount of animals since I started geocaching a couple of months ago.

Edited by Opalblade
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