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Degree Of Geocaching Recognition


WalruZ

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Posted

So, you meet someone new in the great circus of life. Talk turns to what you like to do for fun. You say "GeoCaching". What is the likelyhood (in your opinion - that's what this is about) that said person has heard of GeoCaching, expressed as a percentage?

 

For me, it's been almost nil - 2% at best. How is it this obsession is such a well-kept secret?

Posted (edited)

Believe or not I'm talking to more and more people that have heard of geocaching. Actually when you say geocaching most still don't know what it is, but when I say "you use a GPS to find a hidden package...etc..." then a light bulb goes on and they're like "Oh yea, I did hear about that." I just wrote in one of my logs that I met a guy walking his dog and instead of making him wonder what the heck I was doing in the woods, I decided to tell him about it. As soon as I said geocaching he knew what I was talking about. I also ran into a police officer, (actually he was like what the hell are you doing coming out of the woods?) As soon as I started explaining he said he had heard of it and asked to check out my GPS. I say in about a year you'll be hard pressed to find someone that hasn't heard of geocaching. Mark my words in a year or so most of America will know about it and there will be several pay site dedicated to the sport. You'll see ads for the sites in magazines and on TV. Leave it to America to completely commercialize it, reality TV shows, celebrity endorsements, special gear marketed for geocaching. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are already 2 books in the making how long before there's a movie? Wow, I just freaked myself out by how much I just wrote about this. Maybe I should start working on a screenplay. Oops, that's right someone has already written a treatment for a geocaching movie. It's so bad I'm embarrassed for the guy. But it won't be long before someone comes up with a good script.

 

Oh, yea. You wanted a percentage: about 20% + -

Edited by JMBella
Posted

Hmmm.. I don't think I've ever met anyone in the general public who knew about geocaching. Several people I've met have commented about having some notion of caching.

 

The closest I've ever come is when just a couple days after a geocaching get-together, I had two classes with a guy I'd just met there. Had we not met at the get-together, who knows how (or if) we would have made the geocaching connection.

 

Jamie

Posted

I only know of one person at work who knows about geocaching. We were talking about GPSr's at work and he asks if I do that treasure hunting thing. I say yes. He says it sounds stupid and a dumb use for a GPSr. So I tell him how I use it for hiking and caching is just a bonus while out there. Next I ask what other reasons a Storeroom Manager uses his GPSr for considering he said he doesn't like to hike (and working 60+ hrs how much driving can one do?), he walked away silently. I have talked to others about it but mainly get the usual smile and, "Oh that sounds like fun." comments. A couple have said they would like to come along but have been "too busy" when offered.

Posted

When I started I figured not many people would know but it turns out several hadeard of it. Then again I work in IT. In the general pubic I would say maybe 10 - 15 % are aware of it and maybe 5 % really know what it is.

Posted

I avoid people like the plague when caching. When it comes to muggles I just don't find them except when I'm doing something really stupid like wading out of 3' of snow in tennis shoes and a T shirt, or heading off into the woods with a young girl in the middle of nowhere on a snowy day where people just don't go. The girl was Aurora Jade my daughter who was helping me place a cache The muggle who 'busted' me didn't know that and boy did I have some explaining to do. He was not going to just 'go away' until he was satisfied there wasn't an Amber alert out on her. So out of my two encounters it was zero %.

 

In casual conversation though that's another story. The numbers are rising. It's now hard to find someone who hasn't heard it in passing even if they can't recall what exactly geocaching is.

 

On the trail I'm more likely to meet another cacher. I'm up to about 12 in 550 caches.

Posted

New Guy: Hey, whats that?

 

Me: Oh, thats a GPS. We use it for Geocaching.

 

New Guy: G.O. cash thing?

 

Me: Yea, like a scavnger hunt only we use Long and Lat coords to find containers of toys and trinkets.

 

New Guy: Oh, yea. Guy I know does that, he is kinda wierd. (New guy realizes he is standing in front of another "wierd one".)

 

New Guy: I gotta go.

 

I'd say 5 % have heard something about it.

Posted (edited)

I figure about 25% of the people I mention geocaching to know about it. Especially with the recent segment on it on Northwest Backroads (local outdoor TV show) and coverage in The Olympian (Olympia newspaper).

 

Don't get too many "that sounds dumb" mostly get "sounds interesting I guess" but quite a few that sounds really funs. I currently have 2 friends and an uncle that are waiting for me to take them out. Just need to find the time and the weather to take them out!

 

Edit to add: Make that 3 friends. Forgot about a friend last night finding out about it and saying "that sounds really fun". I'll have to take him out sometime! :lol:

Edited by gaviidae
Posted

I would say about 5% of the people I meet have heard about Geacaching and about 1% have tried it.

 

A guy from work saw my name in a cache and e-mailed me to see if I was that guy from work. I was.

Posted

On Friday my neighbor had a surveyor stop to see about finding his corner markers. So I went to talk to him about when the surveyor was going to do his survey as I wanted to log the coordinates and record them on the two that border my property for future reference, when the brush takes over again. He had heard of geocaching and wanted to look at my gpsr.

Posted
He had heard of geocaching and wanted to look at my gpsr.

My mom told me never to show my GPSr to anyone :D

Seriously, in mid 2003 I found that 0% of anyone I had regular contact with knew anything about geocaching. Few folks even knew what GPS is, except that it must have something to do with space travel navigation. But, in recent weeks, I've found that about 5% +/- seem to understand the basic concept of geocaching, even if they don't understand the technical applications of the GPSr. I suspect it's the media exposure of the sport that's responsible for getting the word out. But I don't do a hard sell on anyone to join in on the fun. If they're not intrinsically interested I figure they're probably not cut out for this sort of thing. If they don't parcicipate, it means more caches for me. Ain't it a beautiful thing... :D

Posted

After 9 months, today, I finally told someone about geocaching that already knew of it. He has the site bookmarked, but has never been out to find one. I offered to take him cachin for an intro to the sport.

 

He gave me a bunch of cool containers for caches too.

 

Sn :D:D gans

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