New cacher, how did you get started

[+WarNinjas]

I was on my sisters houseboat and everyone had been drinking the night before. Somehow I woke up before everyone else so was just looking threw apps on my cell phone. I found a app about geocaching and it had a great description of what it was about. Once everyone woke up I was telling my daughter (PinkNinja) about it and she was really interested. Then my sister heard the conversation and said she had a friend who was into it but it was to dangerous. She is a cop. She said people could lure you into places and rob you or worse. I checked the area around the lake but there were no caches to be found. It was not the geocaching app. So once my daughter and I got home we looked into it and found there was some near our house on that app. We went out and finally found a really cool one...well about 5. We were hooked and luckily quickly learned about the real Geocaching site.

Funny thing was all the caches on that app were from one CO. Once we finally hid our first cache he was the FTF! We became great friends after that as well. We have been hooked on it after that. I think we let a couple of days go and then heard about the streak. That was over 2 years ago and have found at least one cache every day after. Now we have even gone back to that lake and found some as there are actually many there.

[+wmpastor]

The precursor to the start of my geocaching activities was rather rough; I only discovered geocaching after resisting a close family member. I bought a GPS from a local electronics store, showed it to him, and he immediately turned Luddite and berated me for wasting my money on a gadget that, IHO, I did not really need. It ended up briefly degenerating into a shouting match as he tried to pressure me to return the GPS and get my money back, but I still kept the unit. A couple of days later, I was out looking for my first find, getting out and exercising as a result.

Did he change his mind after you showed him all of the neat FTF prizes and swag swaps you got?!

[+Elby20]

I was looking for things to do on a holiday to Wales, UK and found there was a geocaching introduction meet near where I was staying. Nobody else who was on the holiday with me was interested but after a bit of googling a found the geocache of the month was right where I was staying. It was on an island which you can only walk to at low tide. The island was of a bit more interest to my partner so at low tide we went out to explore the island. Whilst he climbed around looking for caves, I tried to use the compass app on my iPhone to hone in on the co-ords of the cache I had written down. I think luck must have been on my side because after going all the way round the island I finally located the cache - much to the surprise of my partner.

 

After that, I downloaded the app to my phone and found around 50 caches using my phone before I bought a GPS. My partner enjoys walking so now if I can find a good loop of caches that's where we go walking!

[swiftden]

Bumped into a group of grey nomads while out and about and they were out looking for caches. Had a chat and then later that day i registered. That was yesterday. I have found 5 since. hoping to take my 5 year old son out and about on a "treasure hunt" told him about it and he is excited

[rugbyskier]

Did not know a single thing about geocaching until I visited friends in Christchurch, New Zealand last week. My friends have two sons aged 11 and 9 and they were asking their parents if they could go and find caches when we went for a drive to the beach and to have a look at the post-earthquake reconstruction in the city centre. I then took my friends out to dinner and we all went on a hunt for a couple of caches near the restaurant. They showed me the smartphone app and I did a search near my home in Canberra to find that there's a cache behind my back fence!

 

Now that I'm back home in Australia I have downloaded the app and will do my first hunt, for the one in the reserve behind my home.

 

I'm going skiing in Canada for Christmas and see that there's a number of caches dotted around the runs of the resort I'm going to.

[+Kidnap]

I love reading everybody great stories, so here is mine. I was chatting to a friend about some caves Ive heard about in a conservation park near where she grew up. She had never heard about these caves before. We were at the gym at the time and starting talking about the caves with another friend who worked there. He went onto the geocaching site and seeing that there is a cache right outside the entrance he gave us the exact co-ordinates. We were super intrigued about this geocaching and I even created an account but unfortunately never caught on.

Fast forward a year later and I saw a friend in south africa mention a geocaching find on facebook, I went online again eager to get started. My husband was not quite sold on the idea. I found there were 2 caches hidden in the park down the road where we take our dog for a walk, so one day i took her out and made the find. I was hooked! I took hubby out one day and he found it and got so hooked after that. We love going for long caching walks in parks around town its so good for our staffy and it tires her out. everybody wins!

[+FiveEyes]

Right around the start of a new year, one year, I felt like I wanted to do something new. I had heard about geocaching before, but this time when I came across a mention of geocaching again in something I was reading, it held my interest. I went to this website and started reading about it more, and the website aroused my interest. I went and bought a GPS and started finding geocaches...the first ones I found were in a cemetery. That was when they still allowed cemetery plants. I geocached for a year, then went on a tangent to letterboxing for a while, now I do both, but more geocaching, because it takes me on longer walks and doesn't involve the need for as much planning and papers to keep track of.

[Msugnim]

Howdy all. I just got started with geocaching as a way to add a different element to my running routine. I typically run trails, sometimes roads, and I thought this could be a fun thing to do while running. And although I've just gotten started, and have only found 2 caches so far, I can tell this is going to be a lot of fun. Geocaching adds some relaxation to my running routine, gives me something else to think about, and makes me less focused on my pace or any discomfort. This morning, I headed out for a quick 6 mile run in the freezing rain which typically would have been something I dreaded to do in such weather. Today, however, I was focused on running and geocaching at the same time, and although I came home soaked and cold, I had an absolute blast!

 

I've scoped out the local map, and there are a lot of geocaches in my area on trails that I regularly run--some super challenging routes, and some easy ones as well. I don't know how much luck I might have in fining caches, but I figure that with most things in life, it's the journey not the destination that makes it all worth while.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Msugnim

[+Tassie_Boy]

Few years ago now myself and my girlfriend decided to pack up and travel the country, sort of troop where we had a start date and a place we were headed to first and see how we went with the rest.

 

All was fine for the few months, then we moved on to the next stop, Albany Wa. Her grandparents live there so they were our back up if things didn't work out and thank God they were there. Work was scarce because all the grey nomads and backpackers were landing in town due to cross being wiped out on the east coast and the House sits we were relying on for accommodation came to almost nothing. Or relationship was suffering.

 

I'd looked at geocaching in the past but never got into it due to not having any gear and for some reason remembered about it while out on one of my many long walks cooling off. Got back Home, looked up the website and thought it was a great idea, even talked the gf into it, she loves puzzles.

 

Picking up geocaching and having an outlet helped us through that very rough time. Even though I do most of the caching in this house now we still plan caching days out on the rate occasions we both have a day off and love it just as much as we ever did.

[nasreenroomaney]

Hello, I'm new to this and I would like to know if I find a cache do I need to replace it?

[^up]

Ran into a guy at a job site in northern Virginia who thought I was a geocacher. He saw my GPS and asked. I didn't know what he was talking about at first. After telling me, I thought I'd check it out. Once I did check it out and went out with him to find a few (and found a few driving to and from Florida) and found I like the idea of hiding more than finding. Plus the gf isn't much into it so I don't spent a lot of time searching.

[+DoverRamCachers]

I'm new here and to the world of Geocaching. I picked up a brochure at a local brewery, that talked about finding geocaches all over my state. I really had no idea what that meant but I looked it up and really thought it was a cool hobby. I didn't realize how expansive it was and now I'm hooked. I logged 9 caches on my first day, which I thought was pretty good. I'm four days in and have 18 total caches.

[+mluostari]

I broke my collarbone skateboarding, so I couldn't ride my bike or skateboard, and it happened to be summertime...bummer. I was super bored and trying to find something I could do outside while I was recovering from surgery. I heard about geocaching a number of years ago, thought it sounded really cool, but was intimidated by it because I thought I would have to buy an expensive, complicated hand held unit. So I looked into it, downloaded the smartphone app and off I went. within a matter of hours I had found 8 or 9 caches and in the first few days I was headed to places I've never been in the city I've lived in for almost a decade. Turns out the small city I live in isn't as small as I thought. Since then I've acquired a dedicated GPS and found almost 200 caches.