Biggest splurge geocaching?

[+mrsbluemacs]

What was your biggest or most expensive splurge geocaching? Equipment?(not including your GPSr) Travel to new geocaching locations?

Mine: bi-focal sunglasses. Now I don't have to juggle the cheap readers with the regular sunglasses.

Edited August 31, 2013 by mrsbluemacs

[+ngrrfan]

What was your biggest or most expensive splurge geocaching? Equipment?(not including your GPSr) Travel to new geocaching locations?

Mine: bi-focal sunglasses. Now I don't have to juggle the cheap readers with the regular sunglasses.

Try $6,000 for a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I like heading into the mountains and along the back roads.

[+ipodguy]

For me it's a tie between climbing gear and a two day excursion to visit Chernobyl and Pripyat to find an Earthcache while we're visiting Ukraine.

[+redcenterdazza]

just a couple hundred bucks on containers and such. Also fuel. In central Australia we don't have lots of caches so I have to drive a long way and at over 6 bucks a gallon that is an expensive hobby

[+SirDonB]

other than my vehicle payment... fuel so far has been my biggest cost to the game. Coming up will be a geocaching dedicated bag and some supplies to keep in it.

[+SirDonB]

ok, just ordered about $50 worth of stuff... 2 items for my walking stick, some cache container stickers, and a trackable sticker for my vehicle... this is now my biggest splurge.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Well, we were in Maine last year, visiting my sister, and attending the First International EarthCache Mega-Event. And said: Hmm... Trip of a Life Time! I've always wanted to visit PEI, NS and Newfoundland! (And color in the maps!!!) And off we went. Four of us. We rode my sister's car from Maine, to New Brunswick, across the bridge to PEI ($44.50 east-bound toll. Who ever came up with that price?!?) And on into Halifax. West Air flight from Halifax to St John's. Think it was three nights in St John's. We did find 29 caches in Newfoundland and Labrador. Seven in Nova Scotia, and four on PEI. (We had been to NB before.) That ran us about $1000 each. (Including rental car in Newfoundland.) We had a great time! Found the oldest cache in Canada (in Nova Scotia).

Would we have done it if we were not Geocaching, and coloring in maps? Probably not.

My caching partner would love to go to Hawaii, and three's a cache near Honolulu that would fit out Jasmer Challenge needs. So, we may flap off there next year!

[+briansnat]

Biggest non GPS expenditure specifically for geocaching? Probably the time I ordered 2 dozen ammo boxes. That ran about $100 with shipping.

 

 

BTW the getting started forum is for new geocachers with questions. Moving to a more appropriate forum.

[+wmpastor]

What was your biggest or most expensive splurge geocaching? Equipment?(not including your GPSr) Travel to new geocaching locations?

Mine: bi-focal sunglasses. Now I don't have to juggle the cheap readers with the regular sunglasses.

Try $6,000 for a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I like heading into the mountains and along the back roads.

Try (x) $100, 000 for a house to be near prime caches.

[+Fridge01]

Car repairs. It's been in the shop more than normal, probably because of stop-n-go driving and caching on bad roads. I just needed a new starter, that's what happens when you start the car an extra 10,000 times.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I wouldn't really consider a car (or home) purchase to be a geocaching splurge as they're used for purposes other than geocaching. I've arranged travel itineraries such that I had an overnight stay in a hotel in a country in which I've not yet found a cache but even in those cases I did it as an opportunity to spend some time someplace that I'd never been before as much as an opportunity to do some geocaching.

 

 

[+Viajero Perdido]

I flew to Nicaragua specifically to find one particular cache, a well-aged potential FTF. (No, I couldn't find it.). I built a little vacation around it, of course, but I probably wouldn't have gotten around to visiting the country if not for the cache.

 

It was pricey because I had to rebook the ticket after stuff happened back home, but at least on the ground, Nicaragua is quite inexpensive. At the town closest to the cache, I splurged on the best hotel room I could find. It was $30, and overpriced at that. My room might've had the only shower stall in the hotel; I caught the landlady using it.

 

Left the country with my tail between my legs, with only a Virtual to show for it.

 

So GC.com gets the bill for roughly a couple of grand, including internal flights and boats, hotels and whatnot, not including the vacationy bits I tacked onto each end on the touristy side of the country. (They haven't paid.)

[+JL_HSTRE]

Probably fuel. Last year I spent 8 days making a big loop through north Florida and got about 75-80 Finds. Of course, it wasn't a pure caching trip. While I did stuff like a cache in each county and got caches in the CCC series, I also visited 20 state parks, a national park, and several museums plus I took a caverns tour. So I might not have made that trip if not for geocaching, but I didn't spend the whole time caching.

[+The_Incredibles_]

Gas.

 

Oh right, also we took the whole family to Seattle. Probably $1000.

[+wimseyguy]

Probably my trip to Seattle followed by an Alaskan cruise. Sure we did do a few other things besides find caches like visiting the awesome Museum of Glass in Tacoma, and the EMP music & sci-fi museum in Seattle. And we found some great places to eat, but we always do.

 

But the main purpose of the Seattle leg was to attend the Block Party. And while we did find a few caches along the way in AK on and off the ship, we wouldn't have planned the trip if we weren't flying out to go to the BP and then take the cruise. I suppose dropping $200 for a one day rental at Skagway to drive into the Yukon in order to log some Canadian caches might have been a splurge too?

 

First Class R/T transcontinental airfare: $0 we had enough miles to cover this.

Weekend in Seattle: $750

Cruise to AK: $3500

Extras off the ship $1000

Memories of a lifetime: priceless. Especially the 90 flight around Mt. McKinley

 

We can't wait to return to AK for another trip. But we'll probably skip the Block Party/cruise this time.

[+The VanDucks]

My favorite geocaching "extra" ; really nice hiking poles (one for each of us). We had been using cheap ones from Walmart which would never stay in adjustment. The new "LEKI Sierra Antishock" ones, which we ordered online, were about $70 each at the time; they are now about $90 each, but well worth every penny. We use them not only for scrambling up and down hills, but also for poking into logs, raking away leaves, or dipping into streams; they are lightweight, very adjustable (I'm 5'4" and my husband is 6') and always stay tightly adjusted with the spring tension mechanisms inside.

[+Lieblweb]

Geocaching extras? Other than gas....

 

Bike rack.....and accessories

2 kayaks, kayak racks, kayak accessories

Poison Ivy soaps, cremes, wipes, doc visits

 

I don't count our 'vacations' as geocaching expenses. We plan our vacations to visit PLACES and we geocache while we are there. Anytime we go on vacation or make trips, geocaching is always a part (but not the whole) of it.

Edited September 9, 2013 by Lieblweb

[Clan Riffster]

I've purchased big ticket items since I started playing this hobby, such as a KLR-650 dual sport motorcycle, a couple trucks, and a few kayaks, but I would likely have bought those anyway, were I still a muggle. I did buy a CamelBak and a Maxpedition Pack, just for caching. And I've bought a butt load of ammo cans and swag. Snake boots. Waterproof camera. I guess, other than my GPS devices, this has been a fairly inexpensive hobby for me.

[Ranger Fox]

Fuel, airfare, rental cars, and hotel accommodations several times a year, plus equipment (expensive REI clothes are included) as the want or need arises. I estimate all that adds up to $10K/year, but I've never dared figure it out. (The only reason I ever make a trip or take days off work is for geocaching.) Some of my cache placements are expensive, too, with them costing me up to $100 in quality materials to place a single cache. I've been trying to cut back since 2011, too, because it costs me $25 to make the 140 mile roudtrip commute to work every day. Carpooling has been a help.

 

Ever since 2008, I've had a cost per cache metric I apply to determine if a trip is worthwhile, though I make exceptions for specific events and this drives up the cost of geocaching in particular. In my early days, if I could get away with $2/cache, I was fine with the trip. These days, I try to aim for $0.50/cache. There's no telling how much I've spent on caching, but I think an average of $1.75/cache might give you a low end figure. In my home area, I estimate I spend $4 each weekday in fuel to continue my streak (yes, there are closer caches, but that's not conducive to streak maintenance).

 

I really should stop caching. Just think about all the money I could put into retirement or paying for a home. But I just can't satisfy my desire for traveling any other way.

[Ranger Fox]

I did buy a CamelBak and a Maxpedition Pack, just for caching.

CamelBaks on cachers just look too geeky to me. (I'm just messing with you, though that is the reason I haven't been interested in one.)

 

But talk about that does remind me of one cacher. It rubs me the wrong way when he invites me over for supper and, at the dining room table, he drinks out of the CamelBak instead of a glass. I just can't get over how rude or uncultured that looks.

 

Another "splurge", if you can call it that, by some cachers is a hospital bill. This does not apply to me, but I have heard of some cachers being injured. Someone in western NC fell from a cliff some time before 2006. She broke several of her bones and people, once they found where she was after she hadn't returned, had to rescue her.

[Clan Riffster]

I did buy a CamelBak and a Maxpedition Pack, just for caching.

CamelBaks on cachers just look too geeky to me.

I'm a fashion challenged, old, fat, crippled, balding guy with a smelly hat.

I do geeky very well.

[+JohnCNA]

....CamelBaks on cachers just look too geeky to me.  (I'm just messing with you, though that is the reason I haven't been interested in one.) But talk about that does remind me of one cacher.  It rubs me the wrong way when he invites me over for supper and, at the dining room table, he drinks out of the CamelBak instead of a glass.....

Are you speaking of the CamelBak backpacks with the internal water bladder and drinking tube, or a CamelBak branded water bottle? A water bottle at the dinner table would be a little strange. A backpack/water bladder with drinking tube is indeed very strange. Edited September 10, 2013 by JohnCNA

[+terratin]

Traveling to countries I've not been at yet for the stats? Check!

Buying a more expensive bike after the old one was stolen for more caching fun? Check!

Traveling to the APE cache? Hmm.. not yet, but I'm sure it will happen.

 

Mrs. terratin

[+Ben0w]

Three things come in mind as pure geocaching related expenses:

 

1. Premium Membership with Groundspeak for 30 EUR. No non-geocaching use for it.

 

2. Buying a telescopic ladder for ~200 EUR. Up to now I use it just for geocaching - only once I tried to locate a football in a hedge but DNF'd, so this single non-geocaching attempt doesn't count. I have several static ladders available for such profane things.

 

3. Some months ago I bought a GPS unit just for GCing (~200 EUR), so far I see no use for it in any other hobby or duty of mine.

 

All other things I bought for geocaching, I use for other things, too. This includes my smartphone. Meanwhile I need it a lot for speaking to other people over long distances, but initially I bought it with mostly mobile geocaching in mind (until my not-so-smart phone broke).

 

However, I wouldn't have spent so much for expenses on several outdoor tours. Simply wouldn't have done them as much without GCing. Including a vacation trip this year: we went to Cyprus, because there were much more caches than on a much nearer and cheaper island. Really, that was the main reason to spend 10 times the money, the other trip would have costed but was worth it's price - again not just for GCing, so it doesn't really qualify for the list above.

[+redsox_mark]

No big splurges for me. Geocaching specific purchases include a modest GPS (Garmin Legend HCx), cache containers and swag, and a few trackables, and premium membership.

 

Then there is extra expense on fuel; I don't keep track of when I'm making a special geo-trip vs. when I am fitting in with travel I need to do anyway.

 

My hiking boots last less long than they would otherwise as I'm walking much more. But hopefully that is making me healthier.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Although it wasn't the case for me since I already own three of them, one of the most common splurges that I've seen is the purchase of a kayak to be used to go after paddle caches. Of course, even if someone stops geocaching they'd still be able to use the kayak.

 

 

 

[+Ma & Pa]

Hotel and restaurants and fuel for all our geocaching trips. One of our vehicles now must be a 4 wheel drive

 

If we have to go somewhere, we always add days or weeks to the trip. Here are some examples

 

At the end of August it took us 6 days to drive 800 miles to Ottawa. After a few days there we left for Florida with a planned itinerary of 8 days to get there.

 

We have a new years cruise planned with the family leaving from Houston. We will arrive there 3 days before the cruise so we can cache. After the cruise we are renting a car for 7 days of caching and picking up some more souvenir states before flying home.

 

PAul