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Ten years of geocaching!

TheAlabamaRambler
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TheAlabamaRambler

+TheAlabamaRambler

Posted
Posted (edited)

In another thread I was prompted to look at how long I have been geocaching - ten years today!

 

I joined on August 16 2003 but I found my first cache three days before that.

 

What a fun decade it has been!

 

I mostly quit posting finds online some years ago so I have no idea how many caches I have found, 2762 logged, but I can tell you that I enjoyed every one of them!

 

I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of geocachers, of attending events large and small across this country, of discovering thousands of places and things in twenty-six states and three countries, and the people of geocaching have been a delight and blessing.

 

Who else among us has been geocaching for ten years or more?

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

In another thread I was prompted to look at how long I have been geocaching - ten years today!

 

I joined on August 16 2003 but I found my first cache three days before that.

 

What a fun decade it has been!

 

I mostly quit posting finds online some years ago so I have no idea how many caches I have found, 2762 logged, but I can tell you that I enjoyed every one of them!

 

I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of geocachers, of attending events large and small across this country, of discovering thousands of places and things in twenty-six states and three countries, and the people of geocaching have been a delight and blessing.

 

Who else among us has been geocaching for ten years or more?

 

Since you posted 3 days early, can I post 6 days early? :lol: If my memory serves me correctly, I first visited the website about 10 days before I joined, and "researched" Geocaching before joining the night I found my first cache, and I do remember going out for it about 7:00 at night for it. Congratulations to you, and I suppose soon to myself.

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Harry Dolphin

+Harry Dolphin

Posted
Posted

Sorry. Just over nine years here, Guess I'm still a newbie. Ask me again next July.

27 states. 6 Canadian provinces. Yes. We took a geocaching trip to pick up Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

With any luck, heading to my brother's wedding next month near Seattle. Should get WA, BC and OR.

I've had a great deal of fun in the nine years that geocaching has taken over from my previous distance hiking (Hey! I'm a senior citizen now!)

My major complaint is quantity over quality. But I've discovered many great spots! Another nice walk in Mill Creek Park in Secaucus. Puffin Park in Teaneck. Thanks geocachers, for showing me these great places to visit! I hope I've done as well with my hides.

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Packanack

+Packanack

Posted
Posted

First logged find June 03, joined Dec. 2012, and it was six months before someone told me I was supposed to log on line. I seriously thought the whole object was to take me to great spots in the woods. Some wonderful friendships. some great caches, Harry Dolphin and Andy Bear make some great local puzzles to keep the grey matter in shape. Recently someone asked me to reprise the sunrise hikes I used to run...more than 100 group hikes over 700 participants at one time or another. It is a great game .

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TheAlabamaRambler

+TheAlabamaRambler

Posted
  • Author
Posted

In another thread I was prompted to look at how long I have been geocaching - ten years today!

 

I joined on August 16 2003 but I found my first cache three days before that.

 

What a fun decade it has been!

 

I mostly quit posting finds online some years ago so I have no idea how many caches I have found, 2762 logged, but I can tell you that I enjoyed every one of them!

 

I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of geocachers, of attending events large and small across this country, of discovering thousands of places and things in twenty-six states and three countries, and the people of geocaching have been a delight and blessing.

 

Who else among us has been geocaching for ten years or more?

 

Since you posted 3 days early, can I post 6 days early? :lol: If my memory serves me correctly, I first visited the website about 10 days before I joined, and "researched" Geocaching before joining the night I found my first cache, and I do remember going out for it about 7:00 at night for it. Congratulations to you, and I suppose soon to myself.

I wasn't early - I found my first cache 8/13/03 and joined geoaching.com on 8/16/03, so I achieved ten years of geocaching 8/13/13 and ten years of geocaching.com membership 8/16/13. :D

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

In another thread I was prompted to look at how long I have been geocaching - ten years today!

 

I joined on August 16 2003 but I found my first cache three days before that.

 

What a fun decade it has been!

 

I mostly quit posting finds online some years ago so I have no idea how many caches I have found, 2762 logged, but I can tell you that I enjoyed every one of them!

 

I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of geocachers, of attending events large and small across this country, of discovering thousands of places and things in twenty-six states and three countries, and the people of geocaching have been a delight and blessing.

 

Who else among us has been geocaching for ten years or more?

 

Since you posted 3 days early, can I post 6 days early? :lol: If my memory serves me correctly, I first visited the website about 10 days before I joined, and "researched" Geocaching before joining the night I found my first cache, and I do remember going out for it about 7:00 at night for it. Congratulations to you, and I suppose soon to myself.

I wasn't early - I found my first cache 8/13/03 and joined geoaching.com on 8/16/03, so I achieved ten years of geocaching 8/13/13 and ten years of geocaching.com membership 8/16/13. :D

 

I caught that, I was just trying to justify myself, who joined 6 days after you, posting 6 days early. Except it's only 5 days now. :P

 

Newbie

 

what a bunch of newbies :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Growth has been explosive, and now probably exponential in nature. The 7,860,000th account was created this week. Meaning TAR, with a member id of 151,211 (and me 6 days later) have been around longer than more than 98% of accounts. B)

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NanCycle

+NanCycle

Posted
Posted

I hit my 10 year anniversary back in January. That's my join date tho- I didn't find my first cache until 3 months later (no GPS). TAR: your join date is my birthday. :)

 

It's my birthday, too.

 

I went on my first geocaching outing on 9/9/03, though I didn't join until 10/10/04.

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briansnat

+briansnat

Posted
Posted

My 12 year anniversary will be next month. As far as I can tell I'm the 2nd oldest (in terms of start date) still active cacher in New Jersey. Most others who began before me have left the sport or moved to another state.

 

I've had so much fun and met so many wonderful people, but what I want to know is how those years went so quickly.

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The Leprechauns

+The Leprechauns

Posted
Posted

I've also got 11 years under my belt - I joined just before Maingray.

 

The best statistic? All the people I've met. I have gone geocaching with six of the people who have posted so far to this thread, including the OP. I met Moun10Bike in September 2003 and look forward to seeing him again tomorrow. I saw Corps of Discovery at Midwest Geobash two weekends ago. I met BrianSnat at the Geocacher of the Year Awards several times, narrowly losing to him in each case.

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SwineFlew

+SwineFlew

Posted
Posted (edited)

Any stats on how many 10+ year active accounts on gc.com? It would be interesting to know. Anyone have a percentage guesstimate?

I keep a large database of most of the archived caches and all the active caches (over 53K caches) in Oregon and I will say that a good share dont cache anymore or very rarely. Most seem to drop off around 2008ish. I always wonder why they drop off. I can only guess a few thing, some major happen to their family, burn out, or didnt like where GS was heading.

 

One person might have that stats you are looking for, the guy that own project-gc.com. Email him and ask him if he can get that stats.

Edited by SwineFlew
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gpsblake

+gpsblake

Posted
Posted

Member number #100,891 here. And yet people who only started 3 months ago often have more caches then I have found. Things I have noticed that have changed.

 

1) GPS equipment - ten years ago, you didn't have paperless caching and mapping was very primitive on units, Heck 8mb of memory was a selling point for GPS units. Oh, and no USB port.

2) Cache finds: Having a career total of 1,000 was just outstanding back then and would take traveling to several states to get. Now, you can get 1,000 in a day on a power trail. Many counties alone have multiple 1,000s of caches.

3) Written logs were often in paragraphs. Today it's only the sig and that's it.

4) No smart phones for geocaching

5) No open source mapping, you paid and paid dearly for the mapping you got.

6) Magellan was perhaps the biggest GPS maker over Garmin or equal.

7) LPC's were at the time "oh, that's a unique way to place a cache". Now it's, "are you kidding me, another #####?"

8) loc files were more common then gpx files

 

And one thing that hasn't changed.

 

Premium membership is the same price now as it was ten years ago. Kudos to Groundspeak

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4wheelin_fool

4wheelin_fool

Posted
Posted (edited)

I started caching during the summer of 01, twelve years ago. At that time I just signed my actual name in the logbook. I remember trying it in late 2000 with a yellow etrex and getting frustrated without getting any satellite signals so I returned it. The next year I bought an eMap which seemed to work better and found a few. Eventually I signed up with a username.

Edited by 4wheelin_fool
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wimseyguy

+wimseyguy

Posted
Posted

Welcome to the club. I passed the 11 year mark last week. By far the best part has been meeting and getting to know some very interesting people including the OP and several other posters in this thread. A close second has been some of the amazing places that caches have taken me that I probably wouldn't otherwise visit if there wasn't a cache there. Hmm, maybe I should start a thread on that?

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L0ne.R

+L0ne.R

Posted
Posted

1) GPS equipment - ten years ago, you didn't have paperless caching and mapping was very primitive on units, Heck 8mb of memory was a selling point for GPS units. Oh, and no USB port.

 

Our first GPS was a Garmin V. We loved that GPS - so versatile, easy to use and quite accurate. Did a great job under dense cover.

Garmin_GPS_Vpic2.jpg

 

3) Written logs were often in paragraphs. Today it's only the sig and that's it.

 

94b1eec5-d847-4212-83c1-d7af1efb6463.jpg

 

7) LPC's were at the time "oh, that's a unique way to place a cache". Now it's, "are you kidding me, another #####?"

Our first LPC find was in May 2002. For an LPC it was the best well-rounded LPC experience we've ever had. If planted today it would still be quite good, although it would take us seconds to find rather then about 5 minutes. It was at the Camp X location (World War II, espionage, Ian Fleming, James Bond cool stuff) with a great view of the lake. Tricky find (for the time), historical, and scenic. Since then I can't recall an LPC find being anywhere but a business parking lot.

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briansnat

+briansnat

Posted
Posted

I started caching during the summer of 01, twelve years ago. At that time I just signed my actual name in the logbook. I remember trying it in late 2000 with a yellow etrex and getting frustrated without getting any satellite signals so I returned it. The next year I bought an eMap which seemed to work better and found a few. Eventually I signed up with a username.

 

Well THAT knocks me down to 3rd oldest in NJ.

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4wheelin_fool

4wheelin_fool

Posted
Posted

I started caching during the summer of 01, twelve years ago. At that time I just signed my actual name in the logbook. I remember trying it in late 2000 with a yellow etrex and getting frustrated without getting any satellite signals so I returned it. The next year I bought an eMap which seemed to work better and found a few. Eventually I signed up with a username.

 

Well THAT knocks me down to 3rd oldest in NJ.

 

Not really, I'm only 45. You still are on top. :D

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Mudfrog

+Mudfrog

Posted
Posted

1) GPS equipment - ten years ago, you didn't have paperless caching and mapping was very primitive on units, Heck 8mb of memory was a selling point for GPS units. Oh, and no USB port.

 

Our first GPS was a Garmin V. We loved that GPS - so versatile, easy to use and quite accurate. Did a great job under dense cover.

Garmin_GPS_Vpic2.jpg

 

3) Written logs were often in paragraphs. Today it's only the sig and that's it.

 

94b1eec5-d847-4212-83c1-d7af1efb6463.jpg

 

7) LPC's were at the time "oh, that's a unique way to place a cache". Now it's, "are you kidding me, another #####?"

Our first LPC find was in May 2002. For an LPC it was the best well-rounded LPC experience we've ever had. If planted today it would still be quite good, although it would take us seconds to find rather then about 5 minutes. It was at the Camp X location (World War II, espionage, Ian Fleming, James Bond cool stuff) with a great view of the lake. Tricky find (for the time), historical, and scenic. Since then I can't recall an LPC find being anywhere but a business parking lot.

 

WOW,, the Garmin V was the top of the line unit many of us strived to obtain. Mine was a Garmin 40 which worked ok for finding caches. That is, once you arrived to ground zero. The slightest amount of tree cover caused it to lose signal quickly and because it didn't have any mapping on it, we made a ton of wrong turns during the course of using it.

 

159383097_garmin-handheld-gps-40-personal-navigator.jpg

 

It was nice seeing a regular sized logbook with more than just signatures and dates in the majority of caches. I actually came close to DNFing the first LPC that we came across. Gonna catch some flack saying this but i thought it was a pretty cool hide when i found it. :o

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fizzymagic

+fizzymagic

Posted
Posted

Any stats on how many 10+ year active accounts on gc.com? It would be interesting to know. Anyone have a percentage guesstimate?

 

Actually, it is easy to figure out the upper limit. Find somebody who joined ten years ago and get their account number, and then compare it to the most recent account numbers.

 

Of course, most of the people caching that long ago are no longer active. I am account number 40 thousand something, and new accounts seem to have numbers around 7,550,000 so I am in the oldest 0.5% of caching accounts. Of course, a lot of new caching accounts aren't active either, but I would guess that 10-year cachers are less than 1% of all active cachers.

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El Diablo

+El Diablo

Posted
Posted

I hit my 12th year a few days ago as far as creating an account but on a break now for a bit... pursuing other interests.

 

When I was active you were a legend! I think a lot of the old timers take breaks. Me more by a forced break. I miss the old days of a hike to find a cache. I would have a hard time doing park and grab right now but

I still miss the old days of caching. Whole other thread though.

 

El Diablo

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Sagefox

+Sagefox

Posted
Posted

Eleven years nine months, active pretty much straight through and enjoying every day of it.

 

Garmin eMap handled our first four years very nicely then we switched to the Map60 workhorses. Man those geeps did the job nicely. Then came the gpx reading units and life is good!

 

Still loving it!

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