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Found my first caches!

LPinTheD

By LPinTheD
in How do I...?

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LPinTheD

+LPinTheD

Posted
Posted

On my first attempt, I went out on Monday... on my own, total noob, clueless... and had my little guys w/me. I wound up with a "DNF", two disappointed little boys, and me thinking that either something was wrong w/my GPS (there wasn't) or it was just me (it was).

 

My sister is a caching "pro", so I called her up and went out with her yesterday. She taught me some "tricks" - like what I should be looking for and other useful tips - and I wound up with three smileys :) I found one that I didn't find on Monday - I had been practically right on top of it that day, but never thought to look in the spot where the cache was located because of my inexperience. Apparently it helps to go out w/a seasoned geocacher your first time, lucky me to have one in the family!

 

Loved being outside in the beautiful spring weather and doing something fun while getting exercise. I used to tease my sis about geocaching... honestly, I didn't "get" it - why would someone hike thru the woods to find a container and maybe some little toy? Then I decided that instead of knocking it, I would try it. Now I "get" it... :D

 

Laurie

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2lablovers

+2lablovers

Posted
Posted

On my first attempt, I went out on Monday... on my own, total noob, clueless... and had my little guys w/me. I wound up with a "DNF", two disappointed little boys, and me thinking that either something was wrong w/my GPS (there wasn't) or it was just me (it was).

 

My sister is a caching "pro", so I called her up and went out with her yesterday. She taught me some "tricks" - like what I should be looking for and other useful tips - and I wound up with three smileys :) I found one that I didn't find on Monday - I had been practically right on top of it that day, but never thought to look in the spot where the cache was located because of my inexperience. Apparently it helps to go out w/a seasoned geocacher your first time, lucky me to have one in the family!

 

Loved being outside in the beautiful spring weather and doing something fun while getting exercise. I used to tease my sis about geocaching... honestly, I didn't "get" it - why would someone hike thru the woods to find a container and maybe some little toy? Then I decided that instead of knocking it, I would try it. Now I "get" it... :D

 

Laurie

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LPinTheD

+LPinTheD

Posted
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Posted

Hi -

 

I am a newbie also. My husband and I have found 3 and love it. How old are your children? I can't wait to take some of my grandchildren with us.

 

2lablovers

 

My boys are 10yrs and 7yrs old... perfect age for it, I think - they love the idea of a "treasure hunt". Great way to spend time and bond with them :)

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Gitchee-Gummee

+Gitchee-Gummee

Posted
Posted

Congrats. Good thinking, to call your "pro" sister.

 

Why not cache with us. My wife says I need a nurse along! The trip a while ago, had a friend veterinarian along. Put her to good use after smashing my thumb (yes, that is a different story)! I just hope that you don't carry Mickey Mouse bandages in your pack! :):D

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LPinTheD

+LPinTheD

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Congrats. Good thinking, to call your "pro" sister.

 

Why not cache with us. My wife says I need a nurse along! The trip a while ago, had a friend veterinarian along. Put her to good use after smashing my thumb (yes, that is a different story)! I just hope that you don't carry Mickey Mouse bandages in your pack! :):D

 

LOL... nope, I carry SpongeBob :)

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Gitchee-Gummee

+Gitchee-Gummee

Posted
Posted

Congrats. Good thinking, to call your "pro" sister.

 

Why not cache with us. My wife says I need a nurse along! The trip a while ago, had a friend veterinarian along. Put her to good use after smashing my thumb (yes, that is a different story)! I just hope that you don't carry Mickey Mouse bandages in your pack! :):D

 

LOL... nope, I carry SpongeBob :blink:

Better than Mickey Mouse, bandages! :)

She will however, cross "da bridge" to do some geocaching and rockhounding. :D

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roziecakes

+roziecakes

Posted
Posted

Congratulations!! I'm glad you had fun. It really helps to have a more experienced cacher along for your first finds I think. That's how we got into the game. Our friend dragonlvr42 took us out caching for our first three finds, and I think it really helped us. Have fun!!

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popokiiti

+popokiiti

Posted
Posted

Welcome to the fun and the forums you newbies! It won't be long before you are welcoming others also. To all of you, congratulations on your first finds! As far as the little people go - find a cache or two on your own, then return with them and give them the "warmer, colder, hotter" hints. Remember their attention span isn't quite so long as that of us "grown-ups." :)

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Intemperance Society

+Intemperance Society

Posted
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Welcome to the fun and the forums you newbies! It won't be long before you are welcoming others also. To all of you, congratulations on your first finds! As far as the little people go - find a cache or two on your own, then return with them and give them the "warmer, colder, hotter" hints. Remember their attention span isn't quite so long as that of us "grown-ups." :)

 

I found a fun way to get a couple of younger kids (4 and 6) started on understanding geocaching at a family/friend BBQ last week. I took a big ol' orange, hid it on the property, marked a waypoint and then passed the GPS over to kids. Simply told them to follow the arrow while trying to get the number on the screen (distance to cache) as low as they could. After understanding the concept that they have to sometimes walk around things to be able to follow the compass direction, they were finding the orange every time.

 

Granted I spent a lot of the evening trying to find good places to hide an orange, but it was a lot of fun to see them locate it. It was almost like magic to them.

 

I was amazed how well they worked together... taking turns holding the GPS, and walking deliberately and carefully, trying to get as close to GZ as possible, and then running back to their parents after every find yelling, 'We found it again!!' This also got the parents really interested.

 

New geocachers born!

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The Chaos Crew

+The Chaos Crew

Posted
Posted

My boys are 10yrs and 7yrs old... perfect age for it, I think - they love the idea of a "treasure hunt". Great way to spend time and bond with them :)

 

yes, that's a great age - our boys are now 7 and 11 and loving caching more this year than ever

 

It used to be a struggle to get them to go out for a walk, but now they’ll walk any distance in any weather if there’s the promise of some Tupperware at the end :)

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MikeyG.

+MikeyG.

Posted
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Newb here as well. Just started 2 weeks ago after getting our GPS. I took my youngest son out on our first seek and he really enjoyed it.

 

And just this last weekend I included geocaching while out with our small Cub Scout den, and their Dads, when they were earning their hiking and map & compass belt loops. It made the hike enjoyable for them and they looked forward to each seek and find.

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PinkFox5

+PinkFox5

Posted
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I'm new to the game too. We didn't have a seasoned pro with us, just our trusty iPhone. Yes, yes... I know the iPhone isn't nearly as cool or as good as the GPSs you all have, but we have gotten 8/9 so far and the on we're missing is a microcache.

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GoddessoftheForest

GoddessoftheForest

Posted
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Hi everyone! I've had my membership for a good month and bought the Geocaching app for my iphone around the same time, but never got my butt out there in the sunshine and looked for a cache. I did finally go out to the ones near my house but couldn't find any of them and got rather disheartened. Today, after doing some yardwork at my mom's I decided why not stop at the one closest to my house and try just one more time. This time, I adjusted the app on my phone to where the map would rotate whenever I did so I could be sure I was headed in the right direction (for all iphone users, I found this much more helpful and a lot easier than switching back and forth between the compass and the map!). I went to almost the same exact spot I had the last time, and lo and behold, there it was! It was a microcache (hidden in a 35mm film canister), but I still had a smile on my face when I went back to the car. Something tells me I will enjoy geocaching now that I've realized you've got to look around quite a bit. :ph34r: Good luck to everyone!

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Silfron Mandotheneset

+Silfron Mandotheneset

Posted
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Yup, there's quite a lot of looking that has to happen. I usually start with "If I was going to hide something here, where would I put it?"

 

And don't get too disheartened by the DNFs, sometimes the cache just really isn't there! We had one cache we looked for 4 different times and didn't find (and it was a pretty easy Dif/Ter, so we were feeling a bit stupid) turns out everytime we went to look it wasn't there.

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g_o_caching

g_o_caching

Posted
Posted

Congratulations. When I found my first one, yesterday lol, I thought "Hey, I can do this! Its better than watching TV or being on the internet." I don't know anyone around here that geo's so I am taking my time figuring it out. I only have the GPS for my car to use but it gets you to the right area. Keep finding them and let us know what tricks you learned.

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Merlin-K

+Merlin-K

Posted
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A lot of it is coming down to thinking like a Geocacher. The more you find then the more you will find as you start to recognise the spots that are likely.

 

My first microcache took me about 4 hours over three attempts. I was sure I was in the right place. But I hadn't realised firstly just how small a geocache could be and secondly that the little blighters could be magnetic. I had been leaning on the fencing post where it was hidden all along! The next micro was easier because I knew to look underneath things that were metal.

 

Finding caches comes down to good equipment, a good eye, and a good brain. All of which can be improved on by practice. I find the iPhone GPS isn't quite accurate enough, but it allows me to identify nearby caches when I stop on a long drive or find myself after a meeting with an hour to spare. Then I can dig out the Garmin and home in on the cache.

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