So...what do you win?

[+dorqie]

Whenever I tell a non-caching friend what in heck I'm doing with my spare time, they never understand why I enjoy geocaching. The conversation usually goes like this...

Friend "So what did you do with your weekend?"

Me "I went geocaching on/at/with insert location here"

Friend (looking confused) "What's that?"

Me "It's a game we play with handheld GPSr's, where we find hidden containers who's gps co-ordinates have been posted online."

Friend (looking glazed over) "So...what do you win?"

Me "...nothing... we do it for the fun of finding the cache, and it takes us to new places we otherwise wouldn't have seen."

Friend "Is there money in the cache?"

Me (changes subject)

 

This happens to me nearly every time. Only once has a friend of mine shown any interest in geocaching. (I know, I need cooler friends)

How do you explain to people what we "get" out of geocaching?

Edited June 27, 2011 by dorqie

[+Fjordi]

I get many of those comments as well.

Usually people don't ask me, if it is about money or some other reward, but they don't understand, why it needs a cache to get people / children / me out in the nature and to other cities.

They think, that should be possible as well without a cache, when you are really interested in hiking or sightseeing.

 

I explain them, that for example for children it is an incentive to go on a "treasure hunt" and find caches with nice toys inside (which doesn't happen so often anymore...).

 

But I think it is hard to explain the feeling of geocaching to Muggles. If friends ask me about it, I ask them to join me on a small caching trip and once they have experienced caching, they can decide for themselves if they like it or not.

I try to explain, that geocaching is a more or less secret activity we all can do. No matter how old we are or which interests we have.

There are cache locations for every one. It gets people out into nature again, takes you to places you might have never vistited, because you simply didn't know they existed (still happens very often to me - even when those places ar not far from my home) and you can share it with people all over the world.

 

I simply like the feeling, that I am the member of a huge group of people, who all share the same interests.

[+Keelmann And Cici]

I stay away from the term "game" because most people expect a winner and loser. I describe it as a high tech scavenger hunt (not exact, but it gets people thinking along the right line, in my opinion), that's a great, low-cost outdoor activity. It's great for family and friends to do together, and gets you out to see places you may not have seen before.

 

At that point, if they're interested, and many have been, I go into specifics of what's hidden, and how, and I usually talk about some of the specific places I've been as a result in the area. Several have picked it up as a result.

 

I mention loot in the cache only in passing, and downplay it, as for me, it's really not very important. I try to put decent things in caches, but I've never pulled anything out to keep.

[+JL_HSTRE]

I call it a "GPS scavenger hunt".

 

If someone doesn't understand the appeal in a "game" without a "prize" they may be too competitive to enjoy geocaching.

 

The "prizes" I've gotten are in the form of experiences: being taken to places I would have never otherwise had a reason to go, and lots of good photos to go along with them.

[+Bear and Ragged]

I call it a "GPS scavenger hunt".

 

If someone doesn't understand the appeal in a "game" without a "prize" they may be too competitive to enjoy geocaching.

 

The "prizes" I've gotten are in the form of experiences: being taken to places I would have never otherwise had a reason to go, and lots of good photos to go along with them.

Geocaching recently had a spot on a UK tv programme.

The presenter summed up Geocaching with "It's not just in the treasure at the end of the journey, it's the treasures along the way."

[+ventura_kids]

The other day I was playing tennis.

I was in a little square of cement with a fence around it.

It was the same little square I had been in a thousand times before.

The scenery never changes.

The view never changes.

I just hit the ball over the net, again and again.

Why do I continue to play tennis?

 

Today I went geocaching instead.

[+PokerLuck]

When people get like that when I try to explain what geocaching is, I ask, "What did you get from sitting in front of the TV all weekend?"

 

I agree that with folks like that, it's pretty much impossible to explain it adequately. They just don't have the same values that we do.

[+sixsix210]

I was trying to explain to my boss what it is I'm doing on my time off, and she asked me this very question. My answer? "Time with my wife". She gets it now. lol.

[+Coldgears]

I agree with all the previous answers. It's about taking you to new places. That's why I do so much geocaching away from home. I'll take day-trips to places that are anywhere from 20 miles to 120 miles (Can't go much further then that or you'd need a hotel).

[+GroveBird]

I say some people do it to see how many they can find and sometimes compete with others. Some do it as a part of hiking and outdoor adventures. I've gotten a few people hooked.

[+hzoi]

I agree with all the previous answers. It's about taking you to new places.

 

To pee on? (kidding, kidding)

 

I tried explaining caching to two of the guys I worked with when I first started, they had the same sort of reaction. Then they started giving me crap about it, so I stopped bringing it up.

 

Fast forward three years, it came up the other day when I was talking about visiting some obscure place and the guys I worked with asked what the heck I was doing there. "Geocaching," I said, and the response was, "Oh, cool!" So the word has spread a bit, it seems.

 

(That, and the folks I work with now are a bit less "too cool for school" than the folks I worked with three years ago.)

[+NeverSummer]

I usually start explaining it with WHERE I went. If it was for a hike or to a cool park/location/etc, I describe that first. The cache is secondary to the experience, especially when talking to a muggle. Most don't "get" it, and it makes more sense to meet them on the level they are used to: places.

 

From there I can tell them what I did at/in/around those places and how I never would have been there if it weren't for the ACTIVITY of geocaching. If it weren't for the caches, I often wouldn't find the places.

 

As for the urban micros and light pole caches, I leave those stories out, unless there is a funny story about muggles watching or getting arrested for trespass or something.

 

Some folks will never "get" it, so I like to start in a way they will "get" before describing geocaching to them.

[+BaylorGrad]

This might be a bit controversial to say... But I hate telling people that I geocache. I only get positive feedback about 1 in 10 times, and so generally I just don't mention it at all.

[+dorqie]

The only time I have ever had positive feedback geocaching was when my boyfriend and I were camping with a bunch of his friends in the middle of nowhere, when he and I jumped on our atv's and said "back in a few hours" a couple of the guys asked where we were going, and my boyfriend pointed up a nearby mountain. Of course the response was "Why?" and then we had to tell them.

Instead of calling us nerds, or asking why we bother doing it, an enthusiastic look came over their faces and they asked "Can we come too?"

I almost fell off my quad, but they came, we let them hold our GPSr's and they had a blast.

[+kapawayna]

When i went out today for the first time and my friends asked me what i did and told them, i got the same results as most of you did by the sound of it. One of them had come across a cache before looked at it opened it then put it back where he found it confused but respectful of what it was. Now myself i am a very competitive person to the stage that i made it to playing pool as an amateur pool player. So for me it's a nice way to get out do things and be able to switch off without the pressure of competition.

[AZcachemeister]

'What did you win?'

'I don't know yet, the game isn't over.'

 

If they think you have to 'win something' to have fun...then they'll never understand.

[+Dgwphotos]

Gee, I thought it was about enduring fame and fortune?

[+sidekeck]

1. a healthier heart

2. lower blood pressure

3. lower weight & bmi

 

I'm not driving my car all over doing LPC after LPC. I'm hiking and mountain biking. It's a win-win-win.

[+SuperRat]

My response would be this:

"You win multiple things. From this list, I will tell you three.

1. The excitement of finding a cache.

2. The excitement of opening a cache.

3. The excitement of placing a cache and watching people become excited by it.

The rest are for you to find out yourself."

 

It is a short and simple answer, yet it explains the reason why many of us cache and place caches.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Tell them that what you 'win' is the pleasure of discovery, that it's a game with no cost, no competition, no winning, no losing, just plain fun. Few people 'get it' but that's okay too.

[+dorqie]

'What did you win?'

'I don't know yet, the game isn't over.'

 

If they think you have to 'win something' to have fun...then they'll never understand.

I am so very tired... I looked all over your post for the facebook-esq "like" button.... /fail

consider this my "like"

[AZcachemeister]

'What did you win?'

'I don't know yet, the game isn't over.'

 

If they think you have to 'win something' to have fun...then they'll never understand.

I am so very tired... I looked all over your post for the facebook-esq "like" button.... /fail

consider this my "like"

 

T/Y

[+DragonsWest]

I get exercise, I go interesting places, I meet great people and I have fun.

 

I'm winning far more than Charlie Sheen.

[+dorqie]

I get exercise, I go interesting places, I meet great people and I have fun.

 

I'm winning far more than Charlie Sheen.

Are you bi-polar? I'm bi-caching.

[+ventura_kids]

Actually.... we have won a Magellan sport trac color gps , a fleece jacket, a couple of hats, a coffee cup, many cache containers, a flashlight, and even a pack of batteries.

We have donated just as much stuff at events.

So...if you are all about winning..... perhaps events are going to be your 'thing'.

[+Thrak]

I've won:

 

Good times with my wife

Good times with my neighbor

Good times yaking with other cachers

Good times alone

MY LIFE BACK - I was an addicted Internet gamer (Dark Age of Camelot) for 3.5 years and when I discovered geocaching I went outside and never gamed again

 

I really don't see geocaching as a game - I call it a hobby.

 

Geocaching isn't for everybody and I'm sooooooooooooooooo very glad that's true.

[+Ambrosia]

I don't think I've ever had a negative reaction when telling someone about geocaching. At the very least, I get polite responses, but mostly I get responses like, "that's pretty cool", or more interested questions about caching in general. I don't know if it's where I live (although I've told people in other parts of the country and the world), or how I present it.

[+SuperRat]

I get exercise, I go interesting places, I meet great people and I have fun.

 

I'm winning far more than Charlie Sheen.

Are you bi-polar? I'm bi-caching.

As Charlie Sheen would say, "WINNING!"

[+sduck]

Hold on a second. You guys are doing this for... free?

 

You guys are nuts. I get paid well to do this! How else would I afford the platinum membership? You guys just aren't looking around in the cache containers well enough.

[+GrateBear]

I win--satisfaction, seeing new places, having interesting hikes, the fun of finding a real tough one. And on and on

[adrew91]

I'd just tell them you went treasure hunting over the weekend and leave it at that. That way you dont have to describe what geochaching is all the time to your friends. (or mabye even sum it all up in two words)