The power of geocaching

[+briansnat]

Sometimes geocaching is dismissed a silly game, even by us geocachers. But it can have a positive impact on lives. The Alabama Rambler's story has been told by him a number of times and I'm sure there are many stories, though not quite as dramatic as TARs, that are similar.

 

Yesterday I received the following log on a Youtube video of mine.

 

"My husband and I recently discovered caching. Our kids are in the "I don't want to hang out with my parents" phase. This is the one thing they will do with us. It's brought us so much closer. I'd like to thank the whole geo caching community for giving me back my children."

 

It serves as a reminder that this seemingly frivolous business of hiding Lock n Locks, film canisters, etc. can mean a great deal to someone out there.

Edited August 18, 2013 by briansnat

[+terrkan78]

Very nice!

 

And power indeed! The lure of GZ has the power to keep propelling my tired feet uphill, when I would have otherwise called it quits hours ago.

[+dprovan]

Sometimes geocaching is dismissed a silly game, even by us geocachers.

Any game or hobby can be seen as silly by anyone that wants. Personally, I think driving a cart around in order to hit a little white ball into a hole in the ground is one of the sillier hobbies ever invented.

 

Someone limiting their geocaching to park&grabs might be almost as silly as a golfer, but most geocachers I've run into are geocaching while doing other things, such as hiking or biking or even just sightseeing. So to call geocaching silly, you'd have to consider hiking and biking and sightseeing equally silly. And that's just silly.

 

So I think we can dismiss the silly claim even before we bother to start listing the joys and advantages.

[+Alkhalikoi]

I don't mind calling geocaching silly. It's a facially absurd thing to do. But -- to me -- that's its charm. I do this ridiculous thing and, in pursuing it, I can't begin to point to all its benefits: I have two kids, 9 and 5.5 who are reasonably competent hikers, I have new friends, I'm no doubt 20 pounds off from my pre-caching peak, I've seen trails and parks I doubt I'd ever seen. I hiked to the top of a mountain in Korea because I didn't not want to get some caches overseas. It's all for the best. All of it. But it's still a bit silly.

[+Mudfrog]

Geocaching is a great hobby that can add quite a bit to our lives. It's one of those hobbies that can appeal to people for different reasons. For some, it gives them something to do with Family. It sometimes brings people to discover new places. It sometimes brings challenges, both physically and mentally, that are fun to conquer. And it brings people with a similar interest together. I can only imagine how many new long time friendships have been made through this hobby of ours.

 

The silliness that i see usually comes about when people take the hobby too serious.

[+Stewlana]

My husband and I took up geocaching after reading an article that was in our local "Free Press" fish wrap. The author happens to be the high school english teacher and his wife is with the post office. I wondered what the heck geocaching was, so I looked it up. We were looking for something to do besides sit on our rear ends on the couch. Since we both quit drinking (6 months sober as of 8/16!) we needed something to do. This sounded interesting, so we researched it and decided to give it a try. This was in June.

 

We are now premium members and to date we have 77 finds and have 13 hides! We are totally hooked and loving it. Our daughter at home (a sophmore) thinks it is stupid, and honestly any time she has came with us for a quick find, we DON'T find it mainly because she is waiting impatiently in the car wanting to go home and see her boyfriend or gal pals. So she just stays home, we run out and cache and everyone is happy. Our oldest daughter is interested, but doesn't want to join us, she thinks it needs to be a "Mom & Dad" thing, but she is always on the look out for a cool hiding spot for us to place one.

 

I have told anyone that would listen to me how much fun this "silly" game/hobby is. I know of several families that have started caching because of my rambling! LOL

 

I could care less what "muggles" think. We love the adventure and are very happy that reading a little article has led to a super fun thing to pass our time with!

 

stewlana

[+Dogmeat*]

I know a lot of people who call it "stupid" and "silly" and people who just say "I don't get it". You're looking too deeply into it. It's as stupid, silly, and as little to get as it is to sit in a house and watch TV all day. A few people called it dumb, but would be with me and I'd say "Stop here for a minute". I'd get out of the car and look for a cache and soon enough they'd be out with me searching. "Lets go get another!"

 

It's easy to get people hooked. It's just a fun thing to do to pass the time. To each their own, but a lot of people need to get their priorities straight if they're mocking people for a hobby.

[+Understandblue]

I think all things that people are passionate about can have that transformational effect on people. That's why when I was an HR director I never hired anyone who couldn't name off a few hobbies that consumed them - they never made good employees. People who think other people's hobbies are silly just haven't found their own passion yet.

 

This is a story about a very prolific local geocacher that I think is a really cool example of what you mean. You never know what is going to reach a person - if it's an ammo can, so be it.

 

Edited August 19, 2013 by Understandblue

[+BlueDeuce]

Sometimes geocaching is dismissed a silly game, even by us geocachers. But it can have a positive impact on lives. The Alabama Rambler's story has been told by him a number of times and I'm sure there are many stories, though not quite as dramatic as TARs, that are similar.

 

Yesterday I received the following log on a Youtube video of mine.

 

"My husband and I recently discovered caching. Our kids are in the "I don't want to hang out with my parents" phase. This is the one thing they will do with us. It's brought us so much closer. I'd like to thank the whole geo caching community for giving me back my children."

 

It serves as a reminder that this seemingly frivolous business of hiding Lock n Locks, film canisters, etc. can mean a great deal to someone out there.

 

When I meet up with old friends or relatives they'll say, "Hey! are you still doing that...uhmm...thing?"

 

"Geocaching? Yeah, I pretty much touch on it everyday."

 

It's what I like to do.

 

BD

Edited August 19, 2013 by BlueDeuce

[Alvater]

Walking my dog turned a lot more interesting when I began caching. I had discovered this hobby before I got Alva but I did not start then. I was too shy, thinking I should be some way more adventurous or something to be a cacher. I found one, never signed it. Then I took a dog and lived my life. Dogs and training them is my real passion.

 

Then Alva's bad hips were discovered in a routine X-ray examination. I screen my dogs because I want to contribute in breeding healthier dogs by providing information at least about my own pets and so happened with Alva too. We quitted agility and other jumpy dog sports. Yet I wanted to do something with her and I was not happy with just dull walks and some self-made trick-training.

 

I remembered geocaching. It would offer us destinations where to walk and it would also fit to my personality as I like to solve crosswords and little puzzles. I registered an username and since then I've enriched my walks with caches. I've tried to train Alva to find them but I am not very good at it. Not at all, I almost ruined it. Anyways, now some of our walks are not just walks, they are treasure hunts. It also means that I have not found so many and most of my finds are near my home.