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How do you feel about meeting other cachers near gz?


YooperSnowman

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I've never encountered other cachers on my way, or at, gz. I know I will some day. How do you deal with the situation? Do you ask to join in on the hunt with them? Do you invite them to join you in the search? Do you back off and wait until they are finished? Is it disappointing to meet someone looking for the same GC? I would appreciate your wise counsel. Thanks.

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The official NJ greeting was detailed in a post by briansnat long ago:

 

I believe the standard we agreed on was when meeting another geocacher, one was to yell "Ho, are ye a geocacher?" and the correct response is "Yay I am".

 

Upon the confirmation, the two then approach each other, put their left hand on the other person's right shoulder, standing arm's length and dance around in a circle while skipping and singing (very loudly) "Geocachers are we! Runy muny mee! Yaba daba baba. He, he, he!". At least that's the way we do it in New Jersey.

 

In other parts of the country most people just wave their GPS and say "found it yet?"

Do not wave anything else and say "looking for something?" :unsure:

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I was walking back to my truck in a dog park the other day from a cache. I looked up to notice a guy walking his dog coming in my direction. He had a hat on just like mine with a GC.com patch on it. I pointed to my hat when we were a few feet away and stopped and talking for a good while. He wasn't caching that day, he had already found all the caches in the park but it was cool to meet someone "in the wild" that is a geocacher.

 

I've met several cachers while hunting. Like others have said. I introduce myself and we start looking. I've come away with a few good caching friends that way.

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Of course, we've got a little higher cacher-density than you do in the U.P., but I've run into a lot of other cachers while caching. I still cache sometimes with several that I first met while caching. It has always been a very positive experience. Sometimes we will both have some of the same caches on our list, and so we'll go look for them together.

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I'm still in my first year of caching, and I've had probably 5 or 6 encounters on the trail with other cachers. Two of those were near GZ. After the first hesitation ("are they or aren't they?") each meeting has been quite friendly. On both occasions we teamed up to find the cache we were both heading for.

 

I once crossed paths with a family who were looking for their very first cache. It was a 3-stage multi, and I caught up with them again near GZ. That time I hung back in the woods out of sight to let their young kids make the find on their own.

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Besides the locals that i run into on FTF hunts.There is one cacher that lives about a hr away from me in another town.That in the last yr i have run into atleast 5 times in other cities and even crossed pathes in a different state 800 miles away.We always have a good laugh everytime we run into each other as thats the only time we see each other is when we're out geocaching.

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I think its fun and very cool to meet others at a cache. Often they are people passing through the area (we are a bit of a tourist/holiday destination), but now and then there are regulars. Usually whenever I see anyone around GZ I'll palm my GPSr until I'm certain who they are and then introduce myself, compare notes and wish well, or on at least one occasion, continue caching along with them.

 

The absolute most weird was a cache which hadn't been logged as found for about 2 months and myself and two other cachers touring through the area meet at the cache at precisely the same time.

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It depends.

 

On a FTF mission - first priority is to prominently display the shotgun and loudly announce my intentions..... :unsure:

 

Otherwise - I just say hi - do you mind if I join in the search. Nobody has said "no" yet.

 

I just pretend I'm a mushroom. They usually go away after a while.

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It depends.

On a FTF mission - first priority is to prominently display the shotgun and loudly announce my intentions..... :unsure:

Otherwise - I just say hi - do you mind if I join in the search. Nobody has said "no" yet.

I just pretend I'm a mushroom. They usually go away after a while.
I pick mushrooms. They're yummy.
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It depends.

On a FTF mission - first priority is to prominently display the shotgun and loudly announce my intentions..... :unsure:

Otherwise - I just say hi - do you mind if I join in the search. Nobody has said "no" yet.

I just pretend I'm a mushroom. They usually go away after a while.
I pick mushrooms. They're yummy.

i have been told mushrooms make for some good tea.

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My husband and I have met quite a few caches "in the field" and love it. It's always fun to connect the names in the logs with real people. We see people most ofter at FTF attempts, and often appreciate the group effort. We always say hello and introduce ourselves and have some great conversations because of it.

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In our neck of the woods, the accepted response to meeting a cacher near GZ falls into two situations:

 

Situation #1, anytime the cache has already been found: Spot the dead giveaway GPSr, yell "Found it yet?", proceed to hunt together and joyously trade geocacher names and stories. Note: concern about muggles falls in direct proportion to the number of fellow geocachers.

 

Situation #2, on an FTF hunt: Spot the dead giveaway GPSr and bolt like a bat outta heck towards your best guess for where the cache is. Trade the pleasantries later.

 

:unsure:

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In our (so far) brief geocaching career, have met perhaps a dozen other cachers at or near GZ.

 

Most memorable was on a FTF run for a whole series of caches. Had already grabbed four of seven, when leaving #4, another cacher rounded the bend, stuck out his hand and said "I'm ********, you must be Gitchee-Gummee. Man, I have been 10 minutes behind you the whole route". We laughed and talked quite a while, checking each others "stripes" (was a lot of brush-busting involved).

As he was there early for the same reason, we told him which ones we had not done yet, and suggested he rush while we backtracked to get one we had missed. Met three others on the same series, later.

 

That was a FUN day. An "event" in its' own right! :unsure:

 

EDIT: yoopersnowman, you may even know him!

Edited by Gitchee-Gummee
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In our neck of the woods, the accepted response to meeting a cacher near GZ falls into two situations:

 

Situation #1, anytime the cache has already been found: Spot the dead giveaway GPSr, yell "Found it yet?", proceed to hunt together and joyously trade geocacher names and stories. Note: concern about muggles falls in direct proportion to the number of fellow geocachers.

 

Situation #2, on an FTF hunt: Spot the dead giveaway GPSr and bolt like a bat outta heck towards your best guess for where the cache is. Trade the pleasantries later.

 

:D

 

In reference to Situation #2... That is the circumstances that occurred the first time I ever met geocacher.

Me and my daughter had less than 25 finds when we went to try and find our first FTF near our home. We had been looking for over 45 mins when this group of 3 cachers showed up. I tried to strike up conversation with them but they would have nothing to do with me it seemed at the time. They had their noses to the ground looking and all over the place talking among themselves. I thought "Man these people aren't very friendly. Geocachers must be jerks!" Well after the find, 100 off post co-ords, we all introduced ourselves and have become friends. But I let ya what.. they are noting but business until the job is done. :unsure:

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From reading logs and my own personal experiences, whether it's a FTF or not, my impression is that geocachers here in the Austin area almost always join forces to find caches together. I love bumping into other geocachers :unsure: It's happened five , oh wait no, six times so far in my few months of caching. I'm starting to lose count already.

 

My most recent one was when I went after five new caches. I bumped into two cachers who had already found a few and hadn't found two (a third cacher had already gone home). They joined me in looking for one of their two DNF's. We had no luck. One of the cachers had been there four times - once alone, then another cacher joined them, then another cacher joined them, then after one left the remaining two looked with me. Then after they left two more cachers came and I watched them look for the earlier cachers' first DNF, and then joined them in looking for the second DNF. Turns out they hadn't been put out yet, woops :D But was a lot of fun nonetheless, and the other three caches WERE there :o

Edited by Opalblade
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If I were to stumble upon other geocachers it would be cuz they are werewolves or vampires who can't sleep. Or they might be going for a FTF.

 

With 80% or more of my caches being found between 10PM and 4AM, it's not easy to bump into others, though not impossible.

 

Bittsen, I've been doing more caching at night as I recently started working graves. Lunch breaks at 1 am and getting off shift at 0600 make for some muggle free urban hunting.

 

I off during most of the week though, so I also head out with my little ones frequently as well. I've met a few cachers at or near GZ, always a pleasant experiance. We're a friendly bunch, mostly...

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If I were to stumble upon other geocachers it would be cuz they are werewolves or vampires who can't sleep. Or they might be going for a FTF.

 

With 80% or more of my caches being found between 10PM and 4AM, it's not easy to bump into others, though not impossible.

Bittsen, I've been doing more caching at night as I recently started working graves. Lunch breaks at 1 am and getting off shift at 0600 make for some muggle free urban hunting.

 

Urban hunting at night isn't too bad if you have a good flashlight and can be quiet. Night caching in the woods is a little different experience. I'm not afraid of muggles as much as I am those nocturnal hunters, like bobcats or bears.

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If I were to stumble upon other geocachers it would be cuz they are werewolves or vampires who can't sleep. Or they might be going for a FTF.

 

With 80% or more of my caches being found between 10PM and 4AM, it's not easy to bump into others, though not impossible.

Bittsen, I've been doing more caching at night as I recently started working graves. Lunch breaks at 1 am and getting off shift at 0600 make for some muggle free urban hunting.

 

Urban hunting at night isn't too bad if you have a good flashlight and can be quiet. Night caching in the woods is a little different experience. I'm not afraid of muggles as much as I am those nocturnal hunters, like bobcats or bears.

 

Ya, we have those here too. Haven't done many forest caches at night, but I'll get there.

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Urban hunting at night isn't too bad if you have a good flashlight and can be quiet. Night caching in the woods is a little different experience. I'm not afraid of muggles as much as I am those nocturnal hunters, like bobcats or bears.

Ya, we have those here too. Haven't done many forest caches at night, but I'll get there.

I'm sure you will love it.

Look into a 3W(minimum) LED flashlight. They help a LOT.

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If I were to stumble upon other geocachers it would be cuz they are werewolves or vampires who can't sleep. Or they might be going for a FTF.

 

With 80% or more of my caches being found between 10PM and 4AM, it's not easy to bump into others, though not impossible.

 

If you lived in my area or I in yours we'd probably bump in to eachother a lot. :rolleyes:

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We're a friendly bunch, mostly...

And we're also thinking "good, not another muggle I've to conceal my activity from!" :rolleyes:

 

My daughters and I just started caching and I told them about muggles and how we tryto keep the cache site hidden. Last weekend everytime a car or dog walker would come by my youngest would throw herself behind a bush to hide. She is such a wacky kid :-), lotsa fun to be around!

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I generally kick them in the shin and push them down. :)

 

lol just kidding ....

 

I have met a few cachers while searching and it's usually a grin exchange and a hardy "Didja find it?". I don't mind running into other cachers, but if I see someone already searching I will hang back unless they notice me, and then it's all grins :lol:

 

It's those darned muggles that I don't like to see at GZ.

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I get a thrill out of meeting other cachers, especially at GZ. They have actually helped me out significantly. Once I shared a co-FTF on a cache that I was having trouble finding. Once I got scooped by literal seconds on an FTF, but the competition was so much fun on a blistering cold Christmas day. Once another cacher drove by and saw me chopping down brush and was able to re-direct me and save me a lot of labor, not to mention give me his phone number for later help. Once I was in Alabama looking for a cache and had given up until I saw a truck drive by with a hot-air balloon basket draped with a huge TB. He was late for the balloon event, so I directed him to the best parking, and he gave me inspiration to keep looking. We shared that find together. Once I hooked up with some other local cachers at a GZ, from where we decided to do some nightcaches that separately we would not have done. And just yesterday, I met some others cachers I had not had the opportunity of meeting, plus got some tips on several other area caches.

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I've had this happen a few times and we usually end up looking for the cache together. The last time this happens, it wasn't just running into one cacher at the cache, but 4 cachers all running into each other! Totally random that we were all out and about and hit the same cache at the same time.... but we were all happy that we were there together. The extra eyes really paid off, as we had all been to this cache at least 3 times and missed it!

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When we first started caching we would make an extra effort to NOT run into other cachers. We would hide our GPSr when passing people on the trail and if we saw others hunting where we needed to be we would simply pass by and come back later once they had left. We thought of caching as a clandestine activity to be kept secret. :(

 

Now we'll just walk right up and say "Looks like your looking for the same thing we are!" and dive right into the search with them.

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Besides the locals that i run into on FTF hunts.There is one cacher that lives about a hr away from me in another town.That in the last yr i have run into atleast 5 times in other cities and even crossed pathes in a different state 800 miles away.We always have a good laugh everytime we run into each other as thats the only time we see each other is when we're out geocaching.

 

:P Maybe you should exchange phone numbers. Sounds like the two of you are like minded in caching.

 

I haven't run into anyone yet, but think it would be fun. :(

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I'm very new and have been wondering how do you ask if you see somebody near GZ. Last week, as I was hiking up a very steep hill with GZ at the top of the hill out of sight, I met somebody coming down said hill. I so wanted to ask if he was a cacher, but didn't know what to say. Since he would have already found the cache and was on his way down if he was a cacher there was no "taletells" like a him holding a GPS

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We've been caching about a month and a half, and have 3 run-ins. One was at GZ on our first 3+ cache. The second was at/in front of our IGA (that cacher is a LEO in our town. :D ) and the third was yesterday. We had DNF'd a cache in town, and moved to another. While working the puzzle cache in town, we saw a minivan parked near GZ of the one we DNF'd. I told the wife to pull over there, and we chatted for a few, and wished them luck. We both logged DNF's so I didn't feel too bad about us missing it. :blink:

 

Later!

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Been at it since september, so far I haven't for sure ran into anyone, but at one cache in a park a girl walking with her mom saw me with my GPSr in my hand. She then smiled real big, got her moms attention, and didnt point at me, but made sure mom noticed me too. From her reaction I have a feeling they were probably cachers too, but as far as i was from where the nearest cache ACTUALLY was, I'm pretty sure they werent hunting at the time.

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