How close?

[+Intemperance Society]

This topic may possibly be old, but I'm new and want to know...

 

I just discovered geocaching a couple of weeks ago by randomly clicking on one of HeadHardHat's videos on Youtube. With minimal searching I came to Geocaching.com and with very low expectations I punched in my postal code to seek a cache. I was literally floored by the amount of caches in my area, the closest being 290 meters away.

 

My question is, if you can recall, how far away was the closest cache to you when you first discovered geocaching?

 

Was it kilometers/miles away? A decent hike? A short walk? Could you chuck a rock and hit the general vicinity? Could you walk out your front door and poke it with a very long stick?

 

290 meters for me (951 feet).

 

How about you?

[+The Leprechauns]

There's a nature center across the road from the entrance to my townhouse community. When I discovered Geocaching.com in 2002, my daughter and I were very excited to see the Bonnie Blink cache was in the woods next to the nature center's parking lot. We walked up the road .3 miles and hunted for it, without a GPS. It took us nearly an hour!

 

I moved to that townhouse in 1987 and never once bothered to walk around the nature center's trails until that exciting day in June 2002. Now I have visited every park within easy driving distance, thanks to geocaching.

 

4500 cache finds later, I still often wonder if we would have gotten "hooked" if there hadn't been an easy, full-size cache within walking distance of our house.

[+MuddyBottoms]

When I first started a year ago I had probably 15-20 caches within 5 miles of my house...the closest being .5 miles away. Now that some more cachers have popped up, including ourselves, there are probably 45-50 caches within 5 miles, and the closest .2 miles away.

Edited May 11, 2010 by MuddyBottoms

[+The Jester]

When I started, the nearest cache was miles away (I don't recall which one closest, but they were scatted pretty thin). The first cache I found was on a 5 mile, 1200 foot gain hike (I was using it for training, so it was a natural).

[+Vater_Araignee]

Found my first geocache in 01 or 02 in Annarbor after I spent a couple hours looking for some waystashes. I sat on a park bench, my wife asked "Whats that?" pointing under the bench. I pulled out a finger lock, pawed around in it, found a description. Put my handle in (BlaX3.14der) it with an explanation of how I found it and never thought about it again. Well not until 08 but that's another story.

[+redsox_mark]

The closest to my home was (and still is) 404 feet.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

The closest to my home was (and still is) 404 feet.

 

The first cache I found (which I adopted and thus now own) is about 1 mile from my house. There were a few a bit closer, one about .25 mile from home. Now the closest is 197', one I placed myself in the park across the street.

[+Harry Dolphin]

When I started, the nearest cache was 1.9 miles away. But, the first one I went looking for (and found) was a 2/3.5 19 miles away. That one got me hooked!

[+Wooden Cyclist]

When I started there were 170 within five miles of my house, the closest was one mile. A little more than a year later the total hasn't changed much, but the closes is .1 miles away.

[+briansnat]

When I first started geocaching the nearest cache was 1.3 miles (2.09 kilometers) from my house. That cache is still in existence, but today is 15th nearest cache. Closest now is .2 miles (322 meters).

[+Isonzo Karst]

Early 2003, there were 2 each tad over 5 miles as the crow flies, and another about 12 miles north.

The 2 close caches were in the state Forest. The cache 12 miles north in a county park. I was familiar with the area.

 

We found 2 on our first day. One in the forest, and the county park hide. Both were regular trading caches, both still active.

 

I was extremely fortunate in an unusual way - ie, I looked at the closest cache, knew where it was, and that I wasn't interested in going there. In an old mine pit that had been turned over to ATV and motorized dirt bikes - the cache was between the campground and the restrooms.

 

My good fortune was in immediately deciding that the closest cache was not somewhere I wanted to go.

 

Because of that, I never became a Radius Slave - someone who feels that they MUST find all caches within x miles of home. I think that Radius slaves are not so common now, but many cachers used to be subject to this problem - MUST clear zone of X miles around house.

 

That MUST FIND mentality created a lot of unhappiness over being "forced" to hunt caches of type or style that the Radius Slave didn't enjoy.

[+roziecakes]

When we first started caching we lived in Denver, and there are literally THOUSANDS within 10 miles of where we lived. The closest one to our apartment was about 500 feet.

 

Where we live now the closest cache was a mile away, and since we've been trying to up the cache population in Junction City (there were three caches in town when we moved here), the closest one is about 100 feet from our door

 

The closest cache we haven't found though is about 7-ish miles away from us, and I will get it as soon as I get a boat or a raft. (That's the next item on my wishlist!)

[+wimseyguy]

Eight years ago the nearest cache was in a large municipal park I had only visited for a picnic and volleyball about 2 miles away. I have hiked every inch of that park now, as I own a cache very near that old archived first find, as well as a very tough multi that takes you all around the varied terrain.

 

Before I started geocaching, a walk in the woods was usually down the right side of the fairway looking for a sliced drive.

[+RIclimber]

When I started caching in 02, there was 3 caches within 10 miles. There was only 53 caches in the state!

[+Monkeybrad]

My nearest and first cache found back in 2003 was 18 miles, as the crow flies. My how things have changed.

[+rob3k]

The closest was about 1/3 of a mile from my door when I started. I would walk or bike to a few closeby caches nearly every day when I started. Miss having a lot of close ones to do.

[daveindeal]

the nearest and first cache that i found was: Red phone box #7 - sholden and was 1.3 miles.

 

i found out about geocaching at work on a frugal forum and signed up to be nosy and found the closest cache to my house and decided to have a look at a cache on the way home from work that night.

 

then for the rest of the week i planned my route home to find another - i found 9 in my first week every one on my way home from work.

 

since then in my area there are now 2509 within 50 miles from my house 10 under 1 mile with the closest at 10 feet from my front door (its mine and in my front garden)

Edited May 11, 2010 by daveindeal

[+BlueDeuce]

8.5 miles.

 

Now the closest is 6.4 miles.

Edited May 11, 2010 by BlueDeuce

[+FancoverFive]

My nearest was 0.7 miles away from my house. Since then I've placed my own only 0.3 miles away.

[+DragonsWest]

When I was first introduced... I'd guess five miles. There were three caches in The Forest of Nisene Marks (Aptos, CA) And a few scattered between downtown Santa Cruz and parks to the North and West of where I live.

 

Now there are caches within 500ft, one of which is mine.

[+StarBrand]

When I first discovered Geocaching - there were 5 within 100 miles of here. The nearest one was just a over 1 mile away or I probably would not of tried it out for a long while.

 

Now there are about 1500 within 100 miles.

[+atmospherium]

The first cache I found was also the closest to home...just under 1 mile. That one has been active since 2003, and I think it's also the oldest cache within 12 miles or so. I have placed two caches that are technically closer to home, but they require a longer walk from further away.

[+roziecakes]

I just thought I'd check to see how many caches are within 50 miles of where we live, and there are 3776. Holy crap!

[+NYPaddleCacher]

 

Because of that, I never became a Radius Slave - someone who feels that they MUST find all caches within x miles of home. I think that Radius slaves are not so common now, but many cachers used to be subject to this problem - MUST clear zone of X miles around house.

 

That MUST FIND mentality created a lot of unhappiness over being "forced" to hunt caches of type or style that the Radius Slave didn't enjoy.

 

I find the use of the term "Radius Slave" insulting. "Slave" doesn't exactly have a positive connotation.

 

Sometimes it's no so much a "MUST FIND" mentality as it is a "If I want to find *any* caches, nearby caches are the only option". In my area, over the course of about four months there were only 3-4 new caches placed within 20 miles from where I live. Since I work full time and have higher priority familial obligations that pretty much eliminates caching during the week as there just isn't enough time for me to do a 40 mile round trip to a cache, so the only option is search for the few remaining caches I haven't found within a 20 mile radius. I "occasionally" get more time on the weekends but even that has been much more limiting.

 

If I had thousands of caches within a 10 mile radius I could search for (as someone recently mentioned in another thread) I could choose which caches I could find given only a short amount of time available but I, and I suspect most geocachers that have spent a year or two living in a cache sparse area, don't have that luxury.

[+CanadaKate]

Less than a kilometre but it was muggled before I could find it.

 

It's fun to get friends to plug in their postal codes and see how surprised they are, just as I was, that there are caches so close to home.

[+DragonsWest]

I just thought I'd check to see how many caches are within 50 miles of where we live, and there are 3776. Holy crap!

 

Every time I try that distance I get:

Segmentation fault (core dumped)

$

[+ihorn]

The closest one to me right now is like 300 to 400 feet away. Its a little PNG LPS. I would like it to be moved so I can place on at my apartment. Maybe one day I will get around to asking the CO to move it.

[+DragonflyTotem]

It was less than 500 feet from me. I was teaching a class at my office and there was someone in the class who kept disappearing during lunch. He told me he was geocaching and what it was. I found the web site, signed up and then a couple of days later started using my iphone to find nearby caches and discovered that one had been placed across the parking lot a couple of days earlier. Ironically I went to try another one first that was .4 miles away placed by the same CO, and the same kind of container as I was familiar with that site and thought it would be a nice first one to find. After eventually finding that one I then went to the one across the parking lot.

[+Chrysalides]

I found one 1/4 mile from my house and another right outside my office.

[+birder428]

We just started last August, and went to find the one 2.8 miles from home. It was an ammo container on a nice streamside trail that I never knew existed. Very cool - and that's what got us hooked. The closest one ~ 2.6 miles from home ~ is a hide a key in a guard rail near a scout camp. Right now the closest one that we haven't found is 6.4 miles away, and in the middle of the Hudson River. Have to work on getting a boat out to that island!

[Mr.Yuck]

The August 2003 placement that was closest to my house when I started is .7 miles away, and is still active. There's a catch though, It's about 3-4 miles by vehicle, as it's across the County line, seperated from me by a large creek. It was actually my 7th find, apparently.

 

That was an abnormality though, caches were much fewer and far between then. Now I have 4 closer ones, the closest being .37 miles away, and that involves about 1 mile driving, due to a different smaller creek in between it and me.

 

No one has hid a micro in the free street corner newspaper box 250 feet from my property line. Yet, that is. And if they do, I will ignore it.

[+mertat]

The closest one to me and my first find was an Unknown cache so the distance is approximate: 1.7 miles.

 

Now the closest is .7 miles.

[+Chokecherry]

The closest one to me is virtually right behind my house. I could probably spit on it if I tried. Explains some of the vandalism I've had over the years and being convinced I saw people searching around in the brush. I didn't know anything was there until I started playing.

[+BOA3532]

Funny how you made this thread yesterday. Yesterday I finally had a chance to get the cache that was .3 miles from my apt. Everytime I logged on the site and checked on caches that one would pop up first. It's along a busy road, which is the reason why it took me so long to grab it.

[Bolivar Bill]

.9 miles, but I pass within 100 yards of the spot several times a day. I got a GPS for hiking last fall and saw this "geocaching" thing mentioned while getting to know the Garmin. I went to geocaching.com and saw the cache location and decided to give it a go. Not too easy, not too hard, just right to make it interesting. I have since learned that the CO is known for "evil" hides, if I had gone to one of them first, that would probably have been the end of my interest. The wife went along soon after and enjoys the game too, because of all the nice hikes we have found while chasing tupperware.

[+CanDMan47]

The closest to me was and is 7/10 of a mile. I found it 2 weeks after I started.

[+Mosaic55]

4 years ago the closest to my house was 2.1 miles away. That wasn't the first cache I found however. I dragged a friend along and we found one near her house first. Now there are 20 active within 2.1 miles of my house.

 

Now, there's 1047 active within 10 miles of my house.

[+GreenShrubs]

I can see GZ from my front door to the closest cache from me. About 500 feet away. Funny thing is, I had 2-3 DNF's on that cache before I finally found it. I was getting a tad angry about a cache being just feet away from home and not being able to find it!

[+Intemperance Society]

It's really neat to see how caches in certain areas have exploded in numbers over the years. I'd love to know how many were in my area a few years back. Obviously this makes it a lot easier to get new people into the sport.

 

If I had seen that the closest cache was a few km's away, or if they were few and far between, I doubt I would have shelled out the money on a GPS to get started.

[+Intemperance Society]

 

I was extremely fortunate in an unusual way - ie, I looked at the closest cache, knew where it was, and that I wasn't interested in going there. In an old mine pit that had been turned over to ATV and motorized dirt bikes - the cache was between the campground and the restrooms.

 

My good fortune was in immediately deciding that the closest cache was not somewhere I wanted to go.

 

 

I actually didn't go for the closest first either, I hit the 21st closest which is a monument hide. I knew where it was and I knew that it got very little traffic. (GCXPE2). I figured that if things went poorly and I was going to be walking around in circles for a while, at least I could do it in relative peace. It was only a 1/1 and took no time to find, but the experience was relaxing and comfortable enough that I was instantly hooked.

[+Intemperance Society]

I just thought I'd check to see how many caches are within 50 miles of where we live, and there are 3776. Holy crap!

 

Now, there's 1047 active within 10 miles of my house.

 

Holy! Them's alot o' caches!

 

Stats for my area:

 

705 / 50km

 

277 / 25km

 

94 / 10km

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I just thought I'd check to see how many caches are within 50 miles of where we live, and there are 3776. Holy crap!

 

Now, there's 1047 active within 10 miles of my house.

 

Holy! Them's alot o' caches!

 

Stats for my area:

 

705 / 50km

 

277 / 25km

 

94 / 10km

 

There are 207 active caches within 10 miles of my house. There are only 9 of them that I haven't found or do not own myself. All of them were placed in the last month or so.

[+debaere]

My first cache was about 10kms away from the hotel I was staying at. The second one was 30kms and in a different country.

 

As you can tell I was travelling at the time. It took me until find 10 to grab the close ones to my house

[hoosier guy]

My first was about .3 miles away. Found it from the description as I didn't have a GPSr then.

[+redsox_mark]

I just thought I'd check to see how many caches are within 50 miles of where we live, and there are 3776. Holy crap!

 

Now, there's 1047 active within 10 miles of my house.

 

Holy! Them's alot o' caches!

 

Stats for my area:

 

705 / 50km

 

277 / 25km

 

94 / 10km

 

There are 207 active caches within 10 miles of my house. There are only 9 of them that I haven't found or do not own myself. All of them were placed in the last month or so.

 

There are 767 within 10 miles of my home - 581 of which I have NOT found! So still a lot of local ones to do. (I have 551 total finds).