My 100th post! Who helped make you the cacher you are today?

[+KBLAST]

This is my 100th post to the forums! A long time ago when I first started posting to the forums, I saw someone mention something about how you don't want your 100th post to be lame, so way back then I started planning for today. I know that this is not an epic milestone and 100 posts is something some of you accomplish overnight, but I wanted to have some fun with this, and I hope you do to!

 

First of all, N 39° 55.650' W 082° 47.393'. If you are anywhere near me, enjoy! For you have solved the "Milestone Makers" puzzle cache! FTF prize of $1.00 to celebrate 100 posts (I know, big spender, right?! ) 100 posts, 100 pennies, you get the idea.

 

Second, I want to use this post to honor the people who helped bring us here. This is the list of people who I honor on my cache page:

* FiveDependOnGod: For getting us started into geocaching - clear back in SD!

* fhetter532: For doing so many caches with me and for doing enough caches to make my numbers look a little more sane.

* mitoh: A great friend who we helped get started and who has helped me keep the main things the main things.

* drainhook: For his great tree climbs - he's pushed our family to "heights" we would never have reached otherwise!

* harsan and lttldude9: Great cachers who have become great friends and, while logging notes and DNFs on their epic caches, horrible enemies.

* alfamonkey, Team MidwestHaunters, and Dos-Boot: For their combinations of terrain and difficulty - I love that there are others out there who likes the same kinds of crazy things I like!

* Team JNLE4, kelinore, Daerius and LEGO Cacher: Great FTF hounds who have, at various times, given me awesome FTF competition and friendship.

* So many others who have done so much to make this game so much more fun!!! If I named you all and what you have meant to me, the description would be WAY longer than 500 characters!

 

I also want to make special mention in this forum of people who have influenced and helped me here in the forums:

* narcissa, baloo&bd, knowschad, tozainamboku, dfx, briansnat, and thedeadpirate: For being so helpful in the forums. I don't always agree with you, and you don't always agree with each other, but I have found your information and your attitudes (for the most part) good for geocaching and good for the forums. You have at various times shown the ability to agree to disagree, compassion to people who are new to posting, and an ability to look beyond your own preferences or local preferences to a more global view of geocaching. I only hope I can do the same.

* larryc43230: A local cacher I appreciate who I see showing up in the forums from time to time. A great guy in real life, and a great asset to the forums.

* keystone: I know - there are already lots of tributes to this man, but they are deserved. All of our reviewers deserve all of the kudos they get, but I feel that we're particularly lucky to have such a knowledgeable reviewer for our local area. Not all of my local friends will agree with my opinion, but I truly appreciate the effort he puts into our area, the forums, and so much of geocaching.

 

OK - I think I have accomplished this NOT being a lame 100th post. Please feel free to honor anyone who has made a difference to you personally, and who has contributed to you become the geocacher you have become!!!

[+Ecylram]

Your post isn't lame. Who made me the cacher I am today? (i.e. who's to blame) I'd say it's an amalgam of many, many cachers. Any list I put together will be incomplete, but here are those that come to mind:

 

Online cachers (agree or disagree, they wrote something that made me think):

• Knowschad
• Tozainamboku
• Clan Riffster
• ColdGears
• GeoGeeBee
• mtn-man
• Keystone
• Zoltig
• NYPaddleCacher
• Harry Dolphin
• Briansnat
• And many more

Local cachers:

• Daschpeeg - Inventive story lines, creative caches, & great logs.
• Grassenhopper - A variety of challenging (& frustrating) hides.
• Maddiemoof - Learned even a LPC can be creative and well made.
• Green Cat & Snuggly Kitten - Interesting and unique cache series.
• Edwards654 - One of the first cachers I met. He volunteered lots of advice.
• HoboHank - Learned how to read Hobo and find some challenging hides.
• CF Bear - Really made me expand what to look for.
• Trianguluum - Expanded my idea of what a container could be. To put it mildly.
• Raddad637 - Shows you can mix up your P&G styles & has one of the most creative caches in Colorado.
• Sandhillers - Nice couple, some evil hides. (In a good way.)
• (redacted) - Taught me how NOT to treat cachers when a DNF is logged.
• (numerous) - Taught me that I don't want to be a CO with a bunch of Film Canister hides
• (numerous) - Taught me what make bad containers
• (redacted) - Taught me that some old-time 'name' cachers don't maintain their caches.
• Imusttravel2000 & Mondo - Taught me it is possible to maintain a lot of caches, if I want.
• (redacted) - Taught me the problems with using bad coordinates.
• And many more.

Edited to repair some really poorly made sentences. (Again.)

Edited February 17, 2011 by Ecylram

[+Snoogans]

Your post isn't lame. Who made me the cacher I am today? (i.e. who's to blame) I'd say it's an amalgam of many, many cachers. Any list I put together will be incomplete, but here are those that come to mind:

 

Online cachers (agree or disagree, they wrote something that made me think):

• Knowschad
• Tozainamboku
• Clan Riffster
• ColdGears
• GeoGeeBee
• mtn-man
• Keystone
• Zoltig
• NYPaddleCacher
• Harry Dolphin
• Briansnat
• And many more

Local cachers:

• Daschpeeg - Inventive story lines, creative caches, & great logs.
• Grassenhopper - A variety of challenging (& frustrating) hides.
• Maddiemoof - Learned even a LPC can be creative and well made.
• Green Cat & Snuggly Kitten - Interesting and unique cache series.
• Edwards654 - One of the first cachers I met. He volunteer lots of advice.
• HoboHank - Learned how to read Hobo and find some challenging hides.
• CF Bear - Really made me expand what to look for.
• Trianguluum - Expanded my idea of what a container could be. To put it mildly.
• Raddad637 - Shows you can mix up your P&G styles & has one of the most creative caches in Colorado.
• Sandhillers - Nice couple, some evil hides. (In a good way.)
• (redacted) - Taught me how NOT to treat cachers when a DNF is logged.
• (numerous) - Taught me that I don't want to be a CO with a bunch of Film Canister hides
• (numerous) - Taught me what make back containers
• (redacted) - Taught me that some old-time 'name' cachers don't maintain their caches.
• Imusttravel2000 & Mondo - Taught me it is possible to maintain a lot of caches, if I want.
• (redacted) - Taught me the problems with using bad coordinates.
• And many more.

 

I like that response format for this topic....

 

Me:

 

All of you here on this forum (especially those who disagree with me) and other local forums I have read posts from or interacted with in open forum or by email.

 

Local:

My wife who I met while helping plan GW4 and my son who was the result.

 

All the cachers I meet and interact with at events locally and around the country.

 

Honorable mention:

 

Terratrekkers for dragging me into the event scene at the first Texas Challenge in 2003. I had privately sworn NOT to get involved with "internet people."

 

UsMorrows & 9Key who turned all the Texas cachers into a huge family that lasted through the grass roots stages of geocaching. Sadly, it has become a bit Balkanized but still friendly for the most part.

 

JoGPS for consistantly creating the greatest gatherings of cachers on the planet and without whom I may have not met my wife.

 

Jeremy - Brian - Elias for creating such a positive creative, social, and physical outlet for the multitudes who enjoy caching.

Edited February 17, 2011 by Snoogans

[+briansnat]

I'd have to say the cachers who came before me like Skully & Mulder, Cache Ninja, Team Magster and The Artful Dodger, whose caches I found early in my early days and who I modeled my hides after. Unfortunately Skully & Mulder passed away and none of the rest are still active geocachers.

[+StarBrand]

Online cacher's that influenced me (whether through agreement, disagreement or just provacitive thoughts):

• Briansnat
  
• Mopar
  
• Snoogans
  
• RenegadeKnight
  
• Knowschad
  
• Keystone
  
• carleenp
  
• ambrosia
  
• Jeremy
  
• Toz
  
• Blue Duece
  
• a cast of thousands more
  

 

Locals

• mudblood squad
  
• palser
  
• wellhungfish
  
• a few others that have come and gone
  

[7rxc]

Being that there haven't been all that many cachers around here when I started... I've been influenced by many already mentioned in previous posts here... I WILL say that I am very much in debt to all the cache HIDERS out there, the good, the bad and the ugly, without their efforts I would not be a cacher at all. In return to all of these influencers, I try to help back, and will continue to do so... only because I see that as the way the game survives and improves.

 

Doug 7rxc

[+Harry Dolphin]

I blame briansnat! (And, of course, Skully & Muldur et al, and treequest.) Their constant examples of a good cache hide in a great location! They make me work hard! (My puzzles you'll have to blame on someone else (my brother), but they're still good hides in great locations!) It's hard to live up to those exemplars! And my QC Department who insists that the coords have to be as good as possible.

[+webscouter.]

dadgum, I never make this list!!!!

[+Snoogans]

dadgum, I never make this list!!!!

 

Yea you did------>

 

All the cachers I meet and interact with at events locally and around the country.

[+StarBrand]

dadgum, I never make this list!!!!

.....cast of thousands dude!!

[+Chief301]

I really owe my start to NF1, who is the chief of the volunteer fire department next door to mine. Although I had heard of Geocaching before, he is the first person I actually knew of locally who was doing it, and he gave me some initial advice on how to get started. Thanks for the new obsession, chief!

 

Pistash, a local cacher who I haven't met yet but hope to meet in person at an event someday. I live in a really rural area so caches are sometimes few and far between...he has many of the local hides that made it easy for me to get started hunting and gain some experience in areas that I'm already familiar with. He also has been very responsive with hints and advice when I DNF'd a couple of his hides when I was first starting out. Thanks!

 

Finally, just thanks to everyone on the Groundspeak forums! I've learned so much about some of the finer points, tips and tricks of caching from reading these forums. Everyone is so helpful and friendly here, there's a real sense of community and lots of really experienced voices to learn from. Thanks again!

[+kwcahart]

Me. I made me the catcher I am now.

[TheCacheSeeker]

Me. I made me the catcher I am now.

[+simpjkee]

my mom

[+gsmX2]

Darb for being the first person to introduce me to geocaching and for also local hiking caches

BigRock95 took me from casual caching to addictive caching

All the members of the OVC who have taught me, "It's about the friendship"

 

Thanks to all those who hide.

[+The Leprechauns]

* keystone: I know - there are already lots of tributes to this man, but they are deserved. All of our reviewers deserve all of the kudos they get, but I feel that we're particularly lucky to have such a knowledgeable reviewer for our local area. Not all of my local friends will agree with my opinion, but I truly appreciate the effort he puts into our area, the forums, and so much of geocaching.

The reviewer probably made the OP say this as a condition to getting his cache published.

 

As for me, the geocachers who contributed to my way of thinking as a new geocacher in 2002 included:

 

Moun10Bike, for his geocaching ethics.

 

Markwell, for his spirit of helpfulness and knowledge of every detail of the game and its history.

 

Mtn-Man, an early long distance friend from ClayJar's chatroom, who first got me thinking about the idea of traveling far and wide, using geocaches to show me the cool places that the locals know about.

 

BruceS, whose forum posts in 2002 taught me how to plan an efficient geocaching roadtrip instead of printing off a few cache pages in an area close to home. BruceS was one of the first geocachers to be falsely accused in the forums of faking their numbers ("it's not possible to find 50 caches in one day"). His classy example helped me in 2004 when my one day record hit the forums ("it's not possible to find 240 caches in one day").

 

Locally, I am indebted to three geocachers/teams: Tangent and the GeoPoet, who had seeded my home area with lots of fun caches to find when I started; Puppyman, the first geocacher to invite my daughter and me for a day of geocaching; and a now-banned geocacher whose early hides provided a great example of challenging hikes to nice locations with good writeups.

[+W7WT]

I blame no one but myself!!

[+slukster]

I would say a prolific cache hider in my area Sue&Barry has had the most influence on my cache hides. Their caches are always well thought out, usually very humorous and fun to find. I have used many of their cache hides as inspiration for my hides.

[cache_ninja]

I'd have to say the cachers who came before me like Skully & Mulder, Cache Ninja, Team Magster and The Artful Dodger, whose caches I found early in my early days and who I modeled my hides after. Unfortunately Skully & Mulder passed away and none of the rest are still active geocachers.

 

aw

 

fInD c4[hes s0metiMes M3 d0. l0g h3r3. n0t. aL4s..

[+popokiiti]

It started with a radio chat show, and if my info is correct, the cachers were Mr Landsharkz and ickster.

They started us on this addiction...the first GPS was bought within the week.

Many local cachers - I'm sure I will forget someone, but here goes - cache crop, Landsharkz (Mr & Mrs), ickster and mimi, Amandazon, kc12345, AnnieMaroo, astromut, Bleuet and Thinkerbell (and offspring), The Draglings, jrav, CASM, cachepiratz and The L'il Pirate ( evil hiders, these two [] ), The GeoHackers, The Happy Trackers, MossTroopers, the VLH Team for getting us out on some backroads, Sheesh and Duncan01 for keeping the Pacific Marine Circle Route up and running and last but not least Popoki Nui, navigator extraordinaire and caching partner. All have played their part in this journey of ours.

Big thanks to the reviewers who have worked like stink to get the area's Hide-and-Go (HAG) caches published - mtn-man, Wizard of Ooze, and Scootch.

I have learned a lot from you folks here too - cachers are such neat people!

[+OldLog]

The funny part is the person that got me interested does not actively participate. But I love the past time. For me being retired it gives me something to do and a reason to get out of the house and try and stay alive and interested in something.