How Did You Get Started Geocaching?

[+Northern Trekker]

I had a GPS for a while before geocaching got started (when the signals were "fuzzy" ), but did not learn about geocaching until about a year ago when I heard about it while looking at some information at WWW.WHERSGEORGE.com

 

From there I came to geocaching and found it to be more fun and more challenging (less time in front of the computer and more time outside).

 

I still log/stamp bills, but I have made it a habbit to leave them in caches now,. tucked into the log book .

 

So how did you find out about this hobby?

 

Northern Trekker

North Pole, Alaska

[+Sloopy]

I heard about it on another message board I visit. It sounded like so much fun, I almost went out and bought a GPS unit right then and there. Instead I made myself wait a few days and read up on it a little more before jumping into it. I haven't regretted it so far!

[+Halden]

Was introduced to GPS and then to caching by my father. Seemed like a good reason to get my butt outside.

[+IVxIV]

I also alread had a GPSr for years, yes back in the "grey days" of SA lol. I bought it partially for my hobby of ATV'ing and offroad motorcycling. It's kinda nice to find the truck at the end of the trail riding day hehe.

 

Then just last fall a fellow geocacher, Kismet, introduced me to this exciting hobby/sport and I was actually shocked (& frustrated lol) I hadn't found out about Geocaching much earlier because I'm also a bit of a PC geek

 

Now I'm hooked big time! If it wasn't for all the snow outside I'd be seeking out caches right now! Thanks for the intro Kismet

[Howling/Pepper Chef]

Just because of a litle snow should not stop you from geocaching. Get outside and enjoy this time of year!! No bugs.

any way,I was introduced to geocaching from a guy that I off road with. What a blast. I would be out caching today but I am playing nursemaid to my wife and son who have gotten the influeance(s/p) virus.

[+garri]

Here we have a Markwell.

[+team walkingsticks]

There was an article about geocaching in our local paper about six months ago. My wife had read it and mentioned it to me. It sounded cool but I never did read the article. About a week later, I saw Geocaching featured on The Travel Channel. I thought it looked like a lot of fun and I remembered the article from the paper...so I borrowed a GPS and was instantly hooked. I've since bought a Garmin Legend and cache as much as possible, even in the snow!

[Clown Knife]

I read about it in the newspaper back in June of 2000. I finally bought a MeriPlat in October of 2002. I've been geocaching ever since.

 

This is my 100th post! Woo hoo!

Edited December 20, 2003 by Clown Knife

[+Tiwica]

I was reading one of the state (MI) Kayaking discussion boards and someone posted a link to geocaching.com. I had an eTrex for about a year to use to mark my favorite paddling destinations. When I read about caching, I thought it sounded great. I found a cache near me that I knew I could find. I had misplaced my GPSr so I went out the next day and found it without my GPSr. I was hooked. I was so into it that I didn't want to wait to find my eTrex, so I went and bought another one. Then my other eTrex surfaced and I gave it to my 21 y.o. son who enjoys caching as much as I do, but he's not interested in logging his finds. He just likes to go out with me. It's all in the journey and the find for us.

[+Brian - Team A.I.]

I saw a segment on our local FOX station about it and literally ran out the door 10 minutes later after my wife told me the story was on. The first cache was located <1 hr later.

[+ironman114]

well I found a gpsr on the road in N. Cal. while on vacation in 1997. Put it back together and it worked! Didn't know a thing about them but figured how to turn it on. Had not much use for it then so I gave it to my dad to help guide helicopters in to logs in areas where they were only thinning trees thru the standing timber. Then a month ago while researching prices for a rhino I came across geocaching.com. I became hooked and called my dad who was away from home 1200 miles away and asked where my gpsr was ans went to his house and repossessed it! I've been having fun since then.

[+rusty_tlc]

I was researching GPS units for use off roading, hiking , traveling, fishing, etc. I hit the Geocaching.com site and was hooked before I even bought a unit. Geocaching fits so well with most of the other activities I enjoy anyway, it is perfect.

[+El Diablo]

I read an article about a guy that had rented a car with a GPS in it that tracked his speed. In that article was a link to GPS units. In that there was a link to the uses of a GPS unit, and from there to Geocaching.com. My wife loves to hike, I need a reason. Here we are.

 

El Diablo

[+Team BlackZ]

I also had a GPS for about 2 years before learning about Geocaching. Read an article in the local newspaper and then went to the website. Been hooked ever since.

[SBPhishy]

I heard about it on some outdoor channel a while back. (i guess TV is good for something!) I thought it sounded cool at the time, but didnt give it much more thought, and then forgot about it. A few weeks ago, i remembered about it, and searched on the web. I ordered a GPSr that night, and its been great since! I told my friend about it 2 days ago, and we went out hunting for stuff. He is hooked now, and just ordered a MeriPlat.

[+KYtrex]

I first became interested in using GPS to map out trails while riding my ATV. I got one for Christmas a couple of years ago and was searching the net for tips & tricks when I kept seeing the term ''geocaching''. It's kind of funny, because at first I kept saying I don't want to geocache, I just want to learn how to better use my GPSr. I didn't even know what geocaching was. After a couple of days, I decided to check out this ''geocaching'' thing, and the rest is history.

[+Fritz_Monroe]

Well, I just bought a Sony Mavica digital camera. I did a search looking for some information on the unique ways people use them. Found a guy's site that sounded interesting, but when I got there, it was gone. In it's place was a "Look at my new hobby" page. Read it and it linked to geoccaching.com. I was hooked. It did take about a month of research to find which GPSr I wanted, but I'm going strong now.

 

F_M

[+KiltCacher]

My first intro to GPS units was about 10 years ago, when I first met my wife. My father-in-law works for the Forest Service as a Surveyor, and frequently uses a seriously high end model. From what I remember, he can get within INCHES for accuracy. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. I use to go out and find benchmarks too. Then a couple years ago I heard about caching, and now I was finally able to afford a unit of my own. Now I'm a cache machine!

[+Intarsiac]

I bought a GPSr as a navigation tool for kayaking. The warranty registration for the unit included a survey that asked what the unit was going to be used for and "geocaching" was one of the choices. I "Google searched" on this term I had never heard of, hit this site, and found my first cache and benchmark a few days later. I've even been able to combine the two hobbies by finding and photographing a benchmark (HV5013) embedded in a boulder along a river bank while seated in the kayak.

Edited December 21, 2003 by Intarsiac

[+GEO.JOE]

I first heard of geocaching about a year ago on the travel channel top 10 treasure hunts. While on an October kayak trip me and a buddy of mine had seen the write up on the Garmin RINOs in Backpacker magazine and decided to get a pair to use on our outdoor adventures. The day my RINO arrived I did a search for geocaching thinking this would be a nice way to learn to use my new GPS. Tomorrow I will be taking my buddy out on his first cache hunt. This hobby goes along with many of the other outdoor activities I enjoy doing and it has given me and my wife excuses to get out more on the weekends.

 

Happy Caching.

 

GEO.JOE

[+FarSideX]

Got a GPSr for golf use (my excuse to me for getting yet another gadget) Stopped using it and it sat unused for awhile. Someone brought up geocaching on a irc channel and I've been hooked ever since. No golf membership this year for me, I'll green fee. Gives me more time to cache!

[LogJam00]

I have one of those "Page-A-Day" Calendars, which gives a cool website to look at each day. Just this month was a page about Geocaching.com. I had never heard of this activity until this calendar. I only have a handful of finds so far, but we all have to start somewhere, right?

 

Kind Regards,

Mike

[+Insp Gadget]

I was asking questions on the GPS Newsgroup and there was a post about Geocaching. UNfortunately there were no caches in my Province, but I hid one that day and someone found it a few days later! I now have 150 finds and almost 140 hidden caches under my belt!

 

And I think I'm hooked. I got the Geocaching symbol tattoed on my shoulder....

[+instep_guy]

As part of my job I teach teachers how to integrate new technology into their classrooms. While looking for educational websites relatiing to using the GPSr in the classroom I wandered into gc.com and it looked like a fun way to get out of the office and increase my tech awareness.

[+Jeff24]

I got a GPS when I bought my boat so I could always find my way back from fishing. When I wasn,t fishing I wondered what else would the GPS be good for. I found a site that was about what you can do with a GPS, one listing being the GEOCACHE site.Another interesting use listed was to attach it to your wife car to see where she goes when she leaves the house. I decided to try geocaching and now I am really addicted. Besides I don't think I really want to know where she goes, kinda like that song (wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then) Anyway geocashing is a blast and thats how I got started.

PS Another interesting thing to do with your GPS is attached to your outside dogs collar and see where he goes at night.

[bcrockcrawler]

I was researching GPS units for use off roading, hiking , traveling, fishing, etc. I hit the Geocaching.com site and was hooked before I even bought a unit.

That pretty much echo's my experience. I knew about it for a few months and there were no caches in my area, so I sat tight untill June '02, borrowed a GPS and gave it a shot. Now we're at 198 caches and we own 2 GPS's.

[+Mule Ears]

Years ago I worked for the US Army Electronic Proving Ground, which tests electronic equipment used by the Army. One of the gadgets we tested was an large-ammo-box-sized gizmo called a "GPS." Not all of the eventual constellation of satellites was in orbit yet, so testing was difficult to say the least.

 

Fast-forward to Spring 2003: I was reading the site gizmodo.com (reviews of brand-new gadgets) and saw a review of a pocket-sized GPS receiver, which was pronounced as "wonderful for Geocaching." In finding out what the heck Geocaching was, I also found a new hobby.

[+Johnnie Stalkers]

This article in the local paper was where I first read about the sport. Never could get it out of my head. after 6 months I caved in and bought a GPSr. Good times...

[The King Kachers]

I found out about it from a metal detecting forum. I was reading a post one day and noticed the guy put a link at the bottom of his post, so I clicked on it and read about it. I bookmarked the website and a little time passed before I borrowed a friends GPSr and found my first cache. It was on then! Call it hooked, addicted, obsession or whatever, I love it. Just don't get enough time to do it. I bought my own GPSr at the end of September 2003. Found my first Benchmark today too. Not quite as exciting, but I think it's gonna be more challenging. I love taking my wife and my 5 yr. old son with me too. Wife isn't as crazy about as me, but she likes it ok.

[+AslCacher]

I saw a show on tv about it and thought it sounded like fun. The next day I went online to find out about ??? I forgot what it was called. After a little searching I found the Geocaching site and from there found that they were having an informational meeting that weekend. I went to the meeting and decided I would like to get involved with this. I ordered my first GPS and have been out every chance I get. I love it.

[+JoesBar]

I read an article in the newspaper last January. It refered to this website. I have always enjoyed exploring, so this was perfect. Shortly thereafter I found a Magellan SporTrak Map with software at Sam's Club for a great price and a rebate! I'm now hooked!

[+bons]

Team Outing. (50+ people)

 

A team member who is into geopcaching managed to scrounge up a dozen or so GPS units, waypointed 10 cool locations, most of them where he had been led to by geocaching, and sent us out in groups of 4-5 to enjoy the afternoon.

 

10 virtuals in one afternoon, and I got paid for the pleasure.

 

A week later I had a GPS and an account on geocaching.com

[+GeoCraig]

I did a web search for sites relating to GPS. I either brought one or was going to buy one and I wanted to get acquainted with the resources on the web. I found gc.com and off I went.

[+xenophon10k]

How did I first hear about Geocaching?

 

Wil Wheaton Dot Net

[AC Student]

I bought my Geko 201 to use hiking. It has with four built in games, which are supposed to be fun and good for learning to use the unit. I found the games to be lame. I still needed a way - preferably a fun way - to learn to use my new GPSr. Geocaching was mentioned in the Geko manual, but no specific website was mentioned. I guessed that geocaching.com would be a good place to start. While trying out the games at a park near my office I had set a waypoint next to a statue. I typed the coords in to check for nearby caches, was surprised to find that the statue is a virtual cache! I walked back to the park and got the information to log the virtual, walked on to find another virtual and a physical cache at a nearby historic cemetery, and have been hooked ever since.

[+RudyN]

I Ordered a Magellan Gold for use while bicycling and was just looking in the Dogpile Search Engine for GPS information and ran across the Geo Cache Web Site. I was able to find one Cache without a GPS (Lucky I Guess) The GPS hasn't arrived yet, but I do have a Magellan 2000 that I will use in the mean time. Having a lot of fun. Will be doing a lot more soon

 

Rudy

[+icecoolputer]

While away on holidays last summer in North Bay, Ontario Canada, I went with friends to go geocaching. I was reluctant to go out in the woods without my compass and map, but they had the GPS, so we went. White Owl, his wife and the dogs. Totally awesome people by the way!!

 

We headed out the highway and were quickly near the cache. Parked by the side of the trail going into the woods, and had another 300 feet to go. We walked along the trail, then went in about 30-40 feet in the medium brush and there it was.

 

I was not the one who found it, and I could not even remember quite where it was, so I am not logging it even if I was there. LNTN, and that was when I decided to get into it. 6 months later, <ok I was a little slow to get started> I have a GPS and some places to go!

 

Thanks to Capital Pete for his awesome assistance and advice. I may not have bought a GPS at the store he works at, <he was the go between for my buying a used unit>, but he can be sure that I will be back to upgrade eventually!!!

 

If I had not spent so much time beating this computer into submission this morning and most of the afternoon, I would have been out caching!!!

 

Woo HOO!! Tomorrow is another day to go caching!!!

[+TeamK-9]

Several years ago, I had actually taken an orienteering course at the local audibon society, and they had talked about geocaching in brief really because one person didn't have a normal compass only an electronic one. I thought it seemed really cool, but all the things I had heard about caching so far were all about how they were these big adventures with lots of hard work and I had seen stuff on tv that caching is absolutely like. But I guess, I thought it was just a rich mans sport cause I thought it was hard to find them and I didn't know how reasonably priced GPSrs had become...

 

Anyway, just a few months ago, I had asked a friend what she had done over the summer and she said she went geocaching. A different friend who was with us didn't know what it was so we both sort of explained it (me trying to sound smart, even though I knew very little about it.)

 

So, just out of curiousity, I googled "geocaching" and came up with this site, and have been lurking ever since, trying the occasional find without a GPSr, never being very successful. Anyway, I've always wanted to get into the sport for real, and now with my brand new GPSr that I got for christmas, I'm hoping to start in a few days...

[+Alacrity]

Saw an article on Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/) and thought it sounded like a neat idea. Soon after I bought a GPSr and had an excuse to get outside, get some exercise and enjoy the puzzles and challenge too.

[+Mastifflover]

Some friends from work told me about it and had to try it. Thought it would be a great way for me and my Mastiff to get some excersize. Now I am hooked, don't know who likes it more Hannibal or me. My avatar is Hannibal.

[+BalkanSabranje]

Searched on the internet for information on a GPSr I wanted to buy for sailing. Stumbled over navicache first, then changed to gc.

 

BalkanSabranje

[+pater47]

I work for the State Dept. of Health, and a couple of years ago our state office sent me a Garmin 12XL to plat out wastewater problems in the area. And in typical state government fashion, they sent it to me with no instructions. I went to Garmin's website to find out how to turn the blasted thing on, and saw a link to something called ''geocaching''. I read up on it a little and thought, ''nobody actually does this!'', and hid the Little Brown Bottle right outside my office just to prove it. It's still there with over 60 logged finds.

[+briansnat]

I saw a review of GPSr's in Backpacker magazine and thought, ''who would want one of those?'' It doesn't do anything you can't do with a compass and map. I didn't even bother reading it. A few weeks later I read an article about geocaching in a local newspaper and thought that it sounded like a lot of fun. Next thing I knew was that I was going through my stack of old magazines looking for that Backpacker review. I ordered my GPS the next day.

Edited December 25, 2003 by briansnat

[+JIJeffreys]

I'm a professional surveyor with NC DOT, and have been using GPS for years. I had considered collection photos of benchmarks as a hobby. I use them all the time and like to search for them even on my off time. A couple of months ago one of my crew came back from a GPS session telling me that a guy had come by looking for the mark that he was occupying with our static GPS equipment. He explained benchmark hunting and gave him the web address of geocaching.com. I checked it out and thought "Hey, this is right up my alley." Also, just by coincidence, we had been working out of another units site, and one of the guys there had a spare handheld GPSr that he wanted to sell, so I bought it and away I went ! I'm farther along with benchmarks than caches, but like them both. Just to be fair, I'm not logging any visits to benchmarks from before I heard about the web site, only ones since then.

[+DeerChaser & Company]

I was researching GPS units for use off roading, hiking , traveling, fishing, etc. I hit the Geocaching.com site and was hooked before I even bought a unit. Geocaching fits so well with most of the other activities I enjoy anyway, it is perfect.

Same here, doing a search for a GPSr

[+Snoogans]

I already posted this in a different forum, but it belongs on this thread too:

 

On a personal level I have ALWAYS been a cacher. I was putting “treasures” in a box under my bed when I was in preschool.

 

When I got a bit older I was really into the idea of hidden things and buried treasure. I drew treasure maps endlessly and was wayyy into Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts.

 

A bit older and I had a “Secret Stash.” A bit older than that and I had another “Secret Stash” etc. None of my stashes was ever found. I was THAT “good.”

 

So I grow up and get out on my own and the need for secrecy diminished, but I still had all this G.A. (Geocaching Aptitude)

 

I started hiking in the Sierras whenever I could afford to go home.

 

I hid my first cache in 1989. It was/is just some useful junk in a waterproof metal first aid box. (I always had an attraction to a good container.) It had/has: A lighter, some pictures, some change, an old pocket knife, a mini maglight, some other stuff, you know, things I could use. I hid it in a place that I like to go and hang out and think. (Yes, ala Alvin York for the obligatory obscure reference.) It’s still there as are about a dozen other caches. One wilderness cache is just a nice Arkansas whetstone and an extra jar of Pautski’s Green, (Salmon eggs.) which I replace with a fresh one every year.

 

I was a geocacher and I just didn’t know it until a happened upon the link at the Vermilion Valley Resort website on 2/28/03.

 

I already had a GPS and there was a cache listed less than a mile from my house as the crow flies, so I was after it the next day. I got SKUNKED! I went again the next day. SKUNKED AGAIN! I had spotted a geocacher on that second trip, (Lvispelvis) but I didn’t want to be shown where the cache was, so I waited until he got outta sight and I never saw that dude again that day. Almost two hours later and I had decided that geocaching wasn’t any fun and I wasn’t going to do it anymore. (Actually I was a bit more colorful in my thinking about the activity.) I went home to watch Jeff Gordon blow away the competition at whichever track he had won on countless times before.

 

So I’m sittin there and it’s just eating me that I couldn’t find that (expletive deleted) CACHE. I had a friend read me the new log from Lvispelvis over the phone and I was OUT THE DOOR. I was pretty sure that Gordon could win the race without me watching.

 

When I turned on my GPS this time I decided to look at some of the other features other than just the numbers. Hey, what’s this “goto” thingy? OOOooooooOOOooo, an arrow pointing thataway. 10 minutes later a true geocacher was born.

 

Sn gans

[gilbertf]

because i got lost all the time. i see my girlfriend every two days or so, and she lives about 25 km from my house. and very often when i came back to home the road is closed and i have to find a way to my house. so i bought a gps so i could always get back to home without spending 2 or 3 hours around, lost

 

i learned about geocaching while i was checking garmin's website to see which etrex unit i would buy and when i bought the etrex i also bought the bicycle part so i could run around with my bicycle and the gps. well that's mainly how i do geocaching

[cutsandbruises]

I heard about geocaching from a guy at work who also works for the Park District. He just happened to mention that he went to Disney World on vacation and found a travel bug. A travel bug... what's that I asked and the rest is history. I was so excited when I got home my husband had thought I had lost my mind. I spent three weeks researching this new thing call Geocaching online and happend to find Geocaching.com that way. I finally decided on the Garmin extrex legend. I have never looked back. What other hobby can you do everyday of your life even when your away from home. ( Well probably a few). I am hooked hooked hooked.

For christmas I got a digital camera and I'm off to start doing locationless caches as well traditionals.

Stop the insanity!!! NEVER!!!

[Cachengrab]

i learned about geocaching while i was checking garmin's website to see which etrex unit i would buy and when i bought the etrex i also bought the bicycle part so i could run around with my bicycle and the gps. well that's mainly how i do geocaching

 

Well I was at the Garmin site as well for an update on my RINO and saw this funny link. I think it was one of the best choices I made that day by hitting the link.

[+Gram&Gramps]

A friend from Florida introduced us this past summer. We learned more about it when we all attended a family camp in central WI, and we decided to try it with the youth camp we volunteer at. This Fall and Winter, several of us from camp have learned more about this fun sport. We now plan weekends around our GPS's, look for cache listings if we are traveling someplace, etc. This summer, several different groups of kids from various week-long youth camps will participate in finding existing caches, will hide new ones for future camps, etc. And we will still plan some of our weekends around our GPS's!