Bumping into other Geocachers while looking.

[+William.Banfield]

I have been out caching and seen another cacher coming in another direction. Did not think to stop and say anything though. How did i know they were cachers. They were on a small circular walk with gps's. One had a PDA in their hands whilst the others asking 'what's the clue'!

[+Radnord]

There is no set protocol; just smile and say hello. There might be people who want you to hold back while they search for the cache, but I have never met them. Everyone that I’ve ever met welcomes the additional eyes and enjoys the camaraderie of conversing with fellow geocachers. There is no right of eminent domain that says one person has the exclusive right to search an area before anyone else. It’s always good manners to ask, but I would be shocked if anyone made such a request of me. Every cacher I have ever met while on the hunt was happy to have the company and cheerful to be able to place a face with those all-too-familiar names that they see in the logs.

Edited January 23, 2010 by Radnord

[sillywabbit]

I only have 17 finds, but have run into other cachers twice. The first time was along the river Thames footpath. We saw somebody trying not to look like they were being suspect ( and failing ) and another person with a GPS unit so I went up and asked if they were Geocachers :-)

 

The other time was just last week when I was rooting around in muddy thickets while my GF and geodoggy looked on. A little away were a group of five who I just thought were chatting until they aproached my GF and asked if we were doing what they were doing? What she asked? Geocaching said he! We all searched together, but couldn't find the cache.

 

It's cool when you bump into others doing the same thing. I look forward to other encounters.

[+Bear and Ragged]

In 4 1/2 years caching, 651 caches 5 times to bump in to 6 other cachers. (2 cache together a lot!)

[ad5smith]

It will happen especially if you are looking for new caches

Walk up to them tell them, this is private property and you are calling the cops.

Then pull out your gps and pretend to dial

 

 

i love it, i got to try that, wow too funny

[MochiMom]

I was fortunate to bump into the president of the local association while on the FIRST hunt ever for a cache, which also happened to be a FTF. My caching partner and I were searching while he and another nice lady walked up and we started chatting to them. After not being able to find it, he called the cache owner, who he happened to know. Cache owner turned up to enjoy watching us search for his newly hidden cache, and it turned into a great welcome experience into caching. And we got a FTF to boot since the other cachers only had a few minutes before they had to leave.

[+currykev]

Do what I do.

 

HIDE!!!

 

I've heard that they're slightly weird.

Edited January 24, 2010 by currykev

[+Too Tall John]

Two in one day.

 

My son and I decided to try for and FTF before breakfast, and before we were 1/2 mile from the cache I knew the little black car I was following was a fellow cacher. When we both pulled into a parking lot I was all excited to meet another local cacher, but he tried to dart out of his car before us but I still managed to catch him long enough to say, "well, should we find it together?" He replied abruptly, "it's already been found" and then literally sprinted off. Since my son is only 5, we had no choice but to let him go on ahead and beat us to being STF.

 

So later that day, we decided to go for an afternoon FTF, and low and behold, we run into our local FTF champ (who was FTF to the earlier one we tried for, incidentally) so I finally got to meet him. While signing STF on that one another cacher who is a friend and fellow member of our church came up. We all stood around and chewed the fat awhile, and it turns out that the other folks have also had less-than-cordial run-ins with the competitive couple in the little black car.

 

I was kind of bummed to find out that a fairly active caching team in my area is... well... less than cordial. Isn't this supposed to be fun?

When it gets to that lever of competetion, I won't compete.

 

I don't know who the couple in the little black car are but I hope the don't chase FTFs on the East side. ~LOL~

As far as I can tell, on the East side we are all in great company of chasers. None have been anything other than friendly

Competition?

 

Caching in Portland, Maine with another cacher, we bumped into two other pairs of two cachers, and were following another couple, but never bumped into them.

 

Two of the cachers we'd already met, do they count?

[+mountainman38]

I'm a noob, and this may have been answered before but I wonder if it would make for some good stories.

 

Have you bumped into another Geocacher while searching for a cache? If you notice that someone is looking, what do you do? Do you walk up and join them or do you hang back and let them finish?

 

It hasn't happened to me yet, but I look forward to it.

 

The only cacher I've met so far while out looking for a cache was one I met while searching for a cache I'd adopted. I had my two kids with me (2 and 4), so I was going pretty slowly.

 

He ended up finding the cache first, so the only cache I've logged that I didn't actually find myself is the only one I own!

[+JBnW]

We had a fun FTF chase last night:

 

GC23AGF

[+czajapawel]

At one cache in Germany (Bayern) one day I saw 5 teams going around in the woods with the GPS in the hand. That was a croud! Of course we all looked at each other, smiled and said 'good luck'.

 

That was a multicache with many stages (I don't remember now but around 10). So we've catched a team which was in front of us. At every stage we had to wait somewhere not looking where are there. When we saw they're gone we went to the place. At the end we were searching for a cache with them. They helped us once and we also helped them.

 

It was really nice to see that so many people at once can search for the cache.

[+Opalblade]

In my three months of caching I've bumped into three other cachers, and all in the past few wks.

 

The first one was the cache owner who was going for a walk with his family. My friend and I had been the ones to alert him that it had been muggled, and we were the first to find his new container.

 

The second time we were rushing for a FTF but met the STF heading back to his car. Sadly, we had the potential to have been FTF because we were the first ones to get to the park but had a series of events occur that delayed us (a huge creek got in our way and we had to repark, I dropped my iPhone and we had to go back for it, etc).

 

The third time I was on my third attempt at a cache. A guy went walking by holding something electronic and I was checking it out hoping it was a GPSr. Then I realized the guy had noticed I had been staring so I turned away again and he said, "Are you geocaching?". Woohoo I was so happy He'd found it and pointed me at a spot I'd checked twice before (but not thoroughly enough). It was a cache you had to feel for, but couldn't see.

[+Right Wing Wacko]

Pack heat! If they go for the FTF before you, take them out!

[+a-body]

In 8 years and a bit over 1000 caches - I've run into another cacher at ground zero no more than 10 times. So it is rare.

One word: Nebraska.

 

 

(just teasing, of course. I know that you get up into the well populated state of South Dakota every now and again)

 

I'm closing in on 1000 finds also, and I have run into no more than 5 cachers while out searching. I am not in Nebraska, Minnesota

[+mountainman38]

Pack heat! If they go for the FTF before you, take them out!

 

I don't find comments like this amusing, even when intended in jest.

 

Owning/carrying a gun is a serious responsibility, and in my opinion making jokes about using the power one holds to hurt an innocent is never appropriate.

[+G_Fours]

Pack heat! If they go for the FTF before you, take them out!

 

I don't find comments like this amusing, even when intended in jest.

 

Owning/carrying a gun is a serious responsibility, and in my opinion making jokes about using the power one holds to hurt an innocent is never appropriate.

 

I don't think it was a joke, the post was clearly made by a Right Wing Wacko.