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How and Why?


Bravo_Kilo

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Hello 

This is my 1st time posting :)

 

Im just curious about how people got into Geocaching and why do you stick with this hobby?

 

I know i seems like i am stating the obvious, but i have found that my reasons  for sticking with this great hobby has changed over time. 

My how, i cant remember how exactly i got into Geocaching. 

 

I know i was looking for a new hobby, and because this was outdoors it encouraged me to get out of the house more. I also love that it leads me to places that i wouldn't have usually ever been too.
I like that this hobby suits all types of people, the introverted (like me) and the people that go searching in groups. 

 

Its a great hobby that i am still learning so much about

 

:)

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I bought a GPS because I was going to Ecuador and I wanted to stand on the equator and mark 0 degrees N/S.  After I returned home I wondered what I would do with my expensive toy.  I heard about geocaching and gave it a try.  After a couple tries I contacted a geocacher that had found the one I was looking for and he pointed me in the right direction.

 

For me it is the right combination of tech toys, getting outside, travel, and discovery.  After 20 years I am still enjoying it.

 

Northernmost - Iceland

Southernmost - Argentina

Highest - Pikes Peak

Lowest - Dead Sea

Farthest from home - Kenya

East/West - Japan/Hawaii

 

Most recent accomplishment - Contiguous counties Atlantic to Pacific

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Everyone will have a different reason. To tell the truth not sure how I ran into geocaching, but found one not real far from home,  pretty old then and archived soon afterward. Then my brother from Florida who did some Geocaching came up for Christmas and for interest took some nephews and nieces out geocaching. I went with them and got a bit more interested. I started finding more and then decided that since my brother and both his sons were cachers with certain numbers to their credit I would try to cache up. (B)

 

Being retired sure helps, I have not checked their total lately but I believe my total are maybe three times their combined total.

 

Everyone has their own perspective and aim, some only go for certain types so caches, some set the goals as most FTF, others try to get as many in one area as they can. I try to get more, the last year and a half have been rough on me so caching took a lower precedence. But I still try, last evening got my #1450.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Jayeffel
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On 8/29/2022 at 6:30 AM, Bravo_Kilo said:

Im just curious about how people got into Geocaching and why do you stick with this hobby?

 

Still dating, I took the other 2/3rds to a spot in game lands (where I've been since a kid) for the rhododendron bloom and got lost.

After a severe storm, the area was completely different. 

Embarrassed, figured I was gonna have to do something or this gal will never trust me again.  :laughing:

I heard about GPSrs and thought it would be convenient to have.  In the packaging there was a pamphlet about geocaching and thought we'd give it a try "just to get used to how the thing works".

Turned out our first "cache" was a Virtual of a famous blonde bombshell's grave, and we knew where it was.  The GPSr took us right to it.

Hooked, we cached a lot when starting, the other 2/3rds becoming a FTF monster.  I went for hikes, unique areas, and awesome views.

I still cache off n on, the other 2/3rds burned out being a beta-tester for newbs not reading guidelines, and doesn't for now.

I skip the nondescript caches placed "because they can", going for hides that keep me playing the way that interests me.

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My mother in law got into caching and wanted help with a mystery cache. Actually searching for physical caches seemed a bit silly to me, so for a few years I only went caching to accompany her.

 

A few years later a colleague and I started chatting, he was doing some local find streak challenge and I sort of got suckered into finding caches on my own and then starting the streak I’m still on. The main reason I keep going is that caching is a nice side game for cycling. (I like to ride stupid long distances but I have no interest in structured training so I don’t mind the extra stops.) FTF hunting appeals to my competitive side and it provides an enjoyable social aspect to the hobby, that I can’t really find in events. 

 

 

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While living in Tamworth in the late 1980s /  early 90s, I joined the local bushwalking club which was also informally affiliated with the Armidale orienteering club, so I ended up doing a fair bit of orienteering and really enjoyed it. For most of my life I'd also been taking part in amateur radio hidden transmitter direction-finding competitions, mostly at the annual fields days in Urunga and Port Macquarie, so in 2013 when I read an article in an outdoors magazine about geocaching, it looked like something that would combine both those interests as well as being always available and not just confined to specific events. I signed up to the website, saw there was a cache in a park near home and, using just the satellite image and hint, made my first find.

 

The local electronics store at the time had a special price on the Garmin 62S so I bought one of those and started trying out some of the other caches around the area. One that particularly struck a chord, Muddys Heights (GC44X7B), a terrain-4 rock scramble up to a scenic vantage point, was my fourth find and, in hindsight, sparked my interest in the many higher terrain caches I've found and hidden.

 

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Over the years, caching has taken me to many amazing places and introduced me to a bunch of great friends. I retired from work in 2016 and it's since become my main recreational activity, although these days with very few new local caches being published, that's mostly doing routine checks on my 44 active hides, coming up with some new ones and doing occasional trips away (often with a small group) to make a few more finds. My best caching days might only result in one smiley (or sometimes even none) but have been great outdoor experiences that have left lasting memories.

 

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Edited by barefootjeff
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Wow! Thanks all for replying to my post. 

 

All very valid reasons :) I went to my first Cache event over the weekend and i still have so much to learn about this hobby. Most of the caches i have found are the traditional caches, but i would like to have a go at some multis. Im finding the puzzle ones pretty difficult, so i need to work on that. 

I like the earth caches too. 

 

Its such a good little community 

 

 

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I was working in an outdoor equipment shop that sold GPS units and whilst receiving training on them the person training me mentioned geocaching. I looked it up online and liked the idea.

 

I stick with it because it's a hobby that I can play differently depending on my mood and situation. I can find caches on local journeys or whilst on holiday far away, I can go for a gentle stroll or a strenuous hike or climb, I can cache alone or with others, I can find quick easy caches or spend hours solving mystery caches etc etc.

 

Because of this I can almost always fit caching around whatever I am doing.

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I bought my first iphone, 3GS, in 2009, and asked people what apps I should get. Someone suggested geocaching, I got it, and a couple of weeks later on a weekend vacation I found the first cache.  In the first year I finished a california-style fizzy challenge with an extreme adventure, and that set the bar for experiences the hobby could provide. Naturally, it stuck :) Now I'm sharing adventures and experiences through videos and other content and helping to promote the fantastic versatile hobby to the current internet generations. :cool: :grin:

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On 8/29/2022 at 6:30 AM, Bravo_Kilo said:

because this was outdoors it encouraged me to get out of the house more. I also love that it leads me to places that i wouldn't have usually ever been too.

 

This sums up my feelings nicely.

 

However, the hobby has changed over the decade I've been in it, and overall not for the better, IMO. Popularity and accessibility have caused a drift from quality towards quantity, and from predominantly hiking in parks and wilderness towards more urban/suburban hides and roadside PnGs. The real outdoor enthusiasts aren't being replaced at the rate in which they're aging out.

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Just gotta keep hiding those "outdoorsy" types, and somehow encourage more "outdoorsy" people to discover and take up the hobby.

To note, some regions/communities will have different makeups than others, both in people and geocaches.  BC for instances has loads of outdoorsy caches and beautiful sights. Ontario has a huge variety of hides spanning rural roads to rivers and lakes and urban parking lots... so, depends where you look on the map :P

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On 9/7/2022 at 1:21 PM, JL_HSTRE said:

 

This sums up my feelings nicely.

 

However, the hobby has changed over the decade I've been in it, and overall not for the better, IMO. Popularity and accessibility have caused a drift from quality towards quantity, and from predominantly hiking in parks and wilderness towards more urban/suburban hides and roadside PnGs. The real outdoor enthusiasts aren't being replaced at the rate in which they're aging out.

Back when I started many cachers were hikers or boaters and already had a GPSr, the remote outdoorsy caches are still out there, it's just that urban caches have increased in number as caching becomes more accessible and the demand has been there for other types of hides.

The great thing is everyone can still play the game their own way and choose to concentrate on the type of caches they like.

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On 9/8/2022 at 12:14 AM, thebruce0 said:

Just gotta keep hiding those "outdoorsy" types, and somehow encourage more "outdoorsy" people to discover and take up the hobby.

To note, some regions/communities will have different makeups than others, both in people and geocaches.  BC for instances has loads of outdoorsy caches and beautiful sights. Ontario has a huge variety of hides spanning rural roads to rivers and lakes and urban parking lots... so, depends where you look on the map :P

That's one of the many things I like about caching, noticing the difference in hide styles, types of caches etc when visiting different regions or countries. :) Hopefully one day I'll get to visit Canada and experience some of those caches for myself.

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Bonding with my sons, making new friends, exploring our country (and yours). I do like the sense of responsibility it helps foster with my kids in maintaining their caches. When I look back through my photo library, I see mostly great times geocaching. I can't see myself ever wanting to stop, and hope my sons continue with me.

Geocaching has introduced us into kayaking, camping, bushwalking, tree climbing and abseiling.

In my work I see a lot of behaviourally challenged kids/teens, I've never seen one who was doing badly due to spending too much time in the bush with his/her Dad.....

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My brother (Wienerdog) and I each discovered geocaching on the same weekend back in November 2001 and it was a big hit for us and our wives and a few select pre-cache era friends.  Most people we know could care less about it or don't see any value in it.  But...    some of us really get into it and for me the intensity and enjoyment have never waned.

 

As others have said it is a combination of tech, being outdoors and "the hunt" that is appealing.  For me it's:

 

The planning:   at the computer 

The hunt:  in the field

Reading and writing log entries

 

I'm not a big challenge cache fan but I do love the DeLorme and county challenges. 

 

I love posting progress maps on our profile page that show where we have concentrated searches.  My goals of turning county colors to the next level of number of finds kept us traveling a lot in the earlier years.   I like seeing all the counties we've covered in the western states and completely filling in a state.

 

 

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