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How did you know Geocaching?


garri

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In my case i know geocaching while i was navigating in the Magellan's home Page and i saw that they were promoting a treasure hunt using the GPS units, immediately I love the idea but I was disappointed when I saw that only took place in USA icon_frown.gif. So when i read that this activity is also called Geocaching I write this keyword in Google and i saw this Geocaching worldwide web. In less than 24 h a friend and me we hunt our first cache.

 

Here everybody hasn't heard nothing about geocaching but when i talk about it to my friends they love it.

 

I know that a lot of cachers bought the GPS unit after discover geocaching, and others reading about this activity in the news.

 

How was your experience?

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A guy came into the company and wrote on the big white board a brief description of geocaching and the website name. That was all it took for me.

 

"When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pu**y." - General(ret) Tommy Franks

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I have no clue. Read about it somewhere and put it at the back of my mind for a long time. Then one day sitting at the comptuer it all popped back in and I figured that if there was something called geocaching there would probably be a geocaching.com site. There was. I looked up my first cache, "Initial Point" went out the next day with the family without a GPS or map and got skunked. We were hooked.

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Read about it in the Cleveland Metroparks newsletter where they were talking about the caches they had placed. Went out the first time and as we were driving by the intended path on our way to the parking lot we saw another guy walking in and my wife said something to the effect "There can't be another one out here as weird as you." Well, needless to say he was another new cacher. We were skunked the first time out but were hooked!

 

That same fellow has gone out and found about 5 times the number of caches as we have in the following 18 months!

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I read an article in the newspaper. Went out and found our first cache the next day without a GPS. Bought my GPS the day after that. That was only 2 1/2 months ago. 115 caches found / 15 caches hidden / 12 pounds lost.

 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Because now I am Lost.

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I was reading the Yellowstone National Parks boards while planning our family vacation to the area this past summer. One of the posters mentioned finding a virtual cache in the park (marked nail on a foot-bridge). His hiking partner knew about geocaching and told him about it. I thought it sounded interesting so I checked out the website and was promptly hooked.

 

------------------------------------------------------------

I am Lothar, King of the Hill people. I have many tales to tell....

 

24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not. - Stephen Wright

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A couple years ago, I heard about it in passing from a guy involved in Boy Scouts in my area. It sounded cool, but I lost track of the idea somewhere. In May, the local UTAG group was on the news. They invited the weather-lady from the local news to a backyard BBQ, and I remembered it then. Somehow, I tucked the idea away again. In June, I went to Yellowstone. I wanted to get a GPSr for the trip, but didn't, and the trip convinced me to get one. I got my unit early July, and remembered geocaching shortly after getting it, and have been hooked ever since.

 

"I'm 35 Years old, I am divorced, and I live in van down by the river!" - Matt Foley

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quote:
Originally posted by solohiker:

My GPS is older than geocaching.


 

So is mine.

 

I found geocaching.com in a link from the Vermilion Valley Resort website. (The owner is a friend/geominion of mine.) I was out looking for a cache the next day. It took 2 days and 3 trips to find that cache. I have been hooked ever since.

 

Snicon_razz.gificon_razz.gifgans

texasgeocaching_sm.gif Sacred cows make the best hamburger....Mark Twain.

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Bought a GPS for hiking purposes. Did internet search looking for ways to fiddle with it (bad habit, broken more toys this way) and came across geocaching.com.

 

Strange thing is, the caches themselves are just an excuse to get me out into the (relative) wild... The caches are just icing on the cake.. icon_wink.gif

 

I've also found (but not yet done) so many local trails it blows my mind... Great fun!

 

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16x16_smiley-mad.gif Don't hurt me. I'm new here.

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The e-mail that got me started.

 

Date :

Fri, 22 Nov 2002 22:10:39 EST

 

Click here: Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site

 

Hi Marty,

This is a new gaming alot of folks are doing now with a GPS. I haven't done it but it seems like it would be fun.

I hope to call you tomorrow or Sunday.

Love you both

Mom

 

schweikr.gif

 

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with the fools he must come in contact with every day.

Ernest Hemingway

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Because I was after buying one, I was reading people's experiences with small Canon digital cameras and it lead me to this guy's account of his 3 month stay in Antarctica. He mentioned leaving a Geocache there, I hadn't heard of the term before so did a Google search.......

 

Dogastus.

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Buenos, garri! I learned about geocaching from my oldest daughter who, at the time, was a student at Penn State University. She had found caches on campus and in the local area. She discovered that there was a cache about five miles away from our home. We found it in April 2003, without a GPSr. I have since found five more without a GPS unit, and twelve more with the unit I received for my birthday last month. She is now in Dublin, Ireland. I still look for caches here in Pennsylvania, USA.

 

PeachyPA

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I caught some fool trying to bury an ammo can in my front yard one evening about two years ago. I confronted him, then clubbed him over the head with his own shovel. While searching the body for a wallet and other valuables, I pulled a curious little printout from his jacket pocket. It described an interesting game of hide and seek using technology.

 

Needless to say, I was intrigued by the new pastime, having been a GPS user for many years. After I finished burying the fool in my front yard, I went out the next morning and hid the ammo box properly, on public land, with permission of the land owner, without burying. It was of course immediately approved, and it's been there ever since.

icon_wink.gif

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Curt and Jenny Borchardt, the owners of the Trail's End Inn B&B in Keene Valley, NY, told us about it. We already had one GPS and Mr. Og bought a second when we got back. We went out on BrianSnat's Turkey on Rye cache, didn't find it, and then went for Team Ekitt10's In A Trunk On The River the following day.

 

____________________________

- Team Og Rof A Klaw

All who wander are not lost.

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After finding a snake under our front door-step I decided I needed to educate my two little guys on which snakes indiginous to Georgia are poisonous. I did a search on the web to try to find photos and came across an article about the Georgia Geocachers Association having a snake expert at their monthly meeting. I was curious, never having heard the term geocacher before, and did a Google on the word geocaching, which, of course, led me here.

 

It sounded fun, so I borrowed a GPSr from my brother and was off!

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Originally posted by team travel pig:

heard it on national public radio's morning edition. ordered a gps the next day.

/QUOTE]

 

Ditto, went to the GC website when I got to work that morning after hearing the Morning Edition spot. My GPSr was ordered about two weeks later.

 

Bob ~

Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese...

Isn't the best way to save face to keep the lower part shut?...Stephen Wright

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It was on someone's profile but it was either on where's george, or on pogo.com. Needless to say, did a google search and found the site. We were intrigued, but didn't do anything right away. About a month later we returned to the site, checked into it some more, and started shopping for a GPSr and here we are.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bob - can ya beer me now?

Sandy - bite me

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My wife bought me an E-Trex Vista for Christmas in 2001. After she bought it, she saw an item on the news about Geocaching. After giving the GPS to me, she mentioned, in passing, that she saw something on the news about a game called Geocaching that uses GPS. She was actually able to give me a fairly good description of the concept just from having seen the news item. From her description I immediately grasped the idea, and was interested. I googled "Geocache" which brought me here. I found my first cache on Dec 29/01 and hid my first one on New Years day/02.

 

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me. geol4.JPG

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Visiting relatives in NJ this summer. When getting ready to go to the beach he asked one of his daughters where the geocaching bag was. Asked what geocaching was, and tried it upon return to Canada with a borrowed GPS. That was about 1.5 months ago, still have the GPS (you'll get it back soon - if you can find me :-) loving it!

 

Scott

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I was introduced to it by a father that was in my cub scout den. I looked at this site and was hooked immediately. I got my GPSr for fathers day. Even though I have located 4 caches. I check the site daily and read the posts. I always look forward to looking for caches. My wife thinks I am nuts but likes the idea.

 

DiverMan

 

Dive Down, Dive Deep

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I was in the process of familiarizing myself with a newly acquired E-Trex Legend when a very well done article on geocaching appeared in the Palm Beach Post. It was a major production with lots of color photos and interviews with local cachers. Logged on to this site and found a cache listed in a local park nearby. Took the Legend out and found it. I'm hooked and so are several of my tech oriented friends.

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A long-time friend from a message board I frequent made a post about her family getting a pretty new Vista and trying out this GeoCaching thing. Found the site, browsed a bit. Knew it was something I needed to do.

 

A day or two later, sitting on a cliff face with Puppy watching the sunset and discussing, I brought it up, and he happened to know what it was already. We decided we should acquire a GPS and give it a go.

 

We of course tried about 7 that week before we got the GPS. Managed to find 2 of them, and *still* haven't found one of those first tries. We'll get it sooner or later icon_wink.gif

 

A great serial killer once said, "Beauty is only skin deep. Trust me, I've looked..."

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A Muy Bueno Amigo!

A very good friend!

Geocahing is the same in all languages Adios Amigos

 

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS

*GEOTRYAGAIN*

TAKE PRIDE IN AMERICA

http://www.doi.gov/news/front_current.html

1803-2003

"LOUSIANA PURCHASE"

http://www.lapurchase.org

"LEWIS AND CLARK EXPADITION"

http://lewisclark.geog.missouri.edu/index

 

Arkansas Missouri Geocachrs Association

http://www.ARK-MOGeocachersAssociatoin@msnusers.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ark-Mo-Geocachers

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In the summer of 2002, I had to go to Fort Hood for annual training with my National Guard unit. I'm in a mechanized infantry unit, meaning, we are still infantry soldiers, but we have tracked vehicles... more specifically, the Bradley tank (M2 IFV/CFV). Well, there are Bradley crews, and there are dismount soldiers. The crew consists of a driver, a gunner, and a "BC" or Bradley Commander. The dismounts are the infantry soldiers who ride in the Bradley until enemy troops are encountered, then the dismounts get off and go fight.

 

I was a dismount soldier. I think the Bradley is a piece of crap, and I'd never want to be "stuck" on one in combat. The thing is, our unit was going to be mobilized. We didn't know what kind of mission we were getting, so the main focus of the battalion was to get all of the Bradley crews qualified. This meant catering to their every needs regarding going to the range.

 

The dismounts were dumped off in the woods, and pretty much left to fend for themselves. I was in that group. About 300 meters from where we were camped was the battalion area. We'd go there sometimes for supplies and see the battalion staff sipping on gatorades and eating chips while all we got was water and MREs. There was plenty in the battalion area, but those guys wouldn't share at all.

 

Anyone who has spent any time at Ft. Hood in the summer will tell you it's miserably hot. We didn't even have tents to sleep in.

 

A few days in to AT (annual training), we were doing a land navigation training. One of the corporals in my unit had recently come off active duty, and was telling us about the "pluggers" that the regular Army uses.

 

The next day, we got a ride to South Fort Hood where the active duty section is to make a PX run. The PX is like a military Wal-Mart where soldiers can buy stuff at Wal-Mart prices, but don't have to pay sales tax. I was browsing in the electronics section, and saw the Garmin eTrex normal retail for $119, but was on sale for $99. I snatched it. When the duece and a half (big army truck) dropped us off back at the Battalion area, I marked another company's supply tent as a waypoint. We walked back to our camping area, and I got a couple of lower enlisted guys together and we formulated a plan.

 

Because of the ethics of "reappropriating" property, we couldn't let our platoon sgt in on our scheme. That night, we (me and the two privates) slept in shifts until 3am. We followed the GPS back to the battalion area with night vision goggles and no flashlights to avoid detection. We commandeered two coolers full of gatorade, a tarp that is used to cover a Bradley, some 550 cord (parachute cord commonly used as rope by military personnel), and some other goodies. We followed the tracks back to our campsite, and when everyone woke up at 5am, all that stuff was magically there. The platoon sgt was smart enough to only ask what all was there instead of where it came from.

 

Later that day, we made a large tent with the tarp, and we had gatorade, chips, cookies, and other "pogie bait". We would make a run every four days or so to restock, and found that they had posted a guard. Fortunately, the noise from the generators drowned out any noise we made, and the guard not having night vision couldn't see us. Going there, we were within 15 feet of the guard, and he never knew we walked by him.

 

Please allow me to explain something. Battalion funds were used to buy all of that stuff. The Battalion leaders wanted to "make sure there was plenty for the Bradley crews", and that's why they didn't give us dismounts any. There's a difference between theft and reappropriation.

 

Before I knew about geocaching, I found one of the biggest caches there have ever been.

 

Took: a bunch of stuff to make our training more tolerable

Left: nothing except humiliated guards

 

I found out about geocaching on Radi0chik's website who I met when I became a ham radio operator.

 

-=Jerry A. Goodson=- W5BFF aka hydrashok407 smile.gif KoolAid Drinker smile.gif

texasgeocaching_sm.gif

"Real peace is not just the absence of conflict, it's the presence of justice" - http://www.hydrashok.com

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I purchased a Eagle Explorer in 98' strictly for hunting which I only used once a year. A guy at work wanted to get a GPSr so we were comparing different units on line and stumbled on geocaching. That morning after night shift we found a cache close by and we were both hooked. We both bought the e-trex legend and I use my new GPSr more already than all the years I had my old one. Whoooo! Waa!

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