+The Mattina Family Seekers Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 I happened upon geocaching.com actually searching the internet for some mapping tools as my college wants me to learn Arcview GIS and teach it. I was intrigued by the idea of "treasure" troves being hidden out and about and people given coordinates or clues to fidning them, mostly using their handheld GPS', Naturally I roped my family into this new hobby and we set out on our first hunt last Sunday March 7, 2004. We got the coords and off we went with our 3 children in tow. Here is the log: OUR FIRST FIND! This was a lot of fun finding in spite of the decent cool weather turning to sleet/cold mix the second we reached the coords. Our GPS (Garmnin eTrex) didn't like this area and kept changing the coords on us...we perservered though and were rewarded with our first find ever. The kids (Joshua 9, Collin 8, and Victoria 5) were especially proud to have found their first "treasure" on this hunt. We took the Zebra, toy monster truck and a wallet. We left a sealed Paul Pope CD (www.paulpopeonline.com), some "Judge Mattina" info cards, and a better pen. Thanks for making our first find a memorable one! The Mattina Family Geocachers! http://www.buffalonet.com/mattinafamily.html Whomever thought this up deserves a medal; What an incredible way to spend OUTDOORS and TOGETHER! The thought of getting the kids out and away from the TV and computer games was great. The added bonus was some much needed and appreciated excercise and a closeness to natural that we normally would not have had opportunity, nor gumption to experience. We are most definately hooked...even after being soaked and chilled to the bone and almost giving up on this first hunt. Slogging the mile or so through the woods back to the car having wet feet, coats, head, hands, everything...the kids and my wife and I were STILL SMLING at the sense of accomplishment and shared camaraderie and closeness this hobby has given us. We have taken to calling ourselves THE MATTINA FAMILY GEOCACHERS and are going to be hiding caches of our own and sending out some TB's, adding a Geocaching page to our family website, and are looking forward to spending most weekends enjoying this hobby, the great outdoors, and each other. Thank You Geocachers everywhere for the hunts we have yet to experience! Dylan, Susan, Joshua, Collin, and Victoria Mattina North Boston, New York, USA Quote Link to comment
+tirediron Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Congrats, and welcome. Quote Link to comment
+carleenp Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Glad you are enjoying it! Welcome aboard! Quote Link to comment
DiverMan Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Way to go. But be careful, It's addicting Quote Link to comment
+GPSKitty Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Hi and welcome to the club! I'm new at this too, less than ten finds. But it is a great way to get off the couch and out the door. I'm single and cache alone so far, but I can still appreciate the fact that it serves as a vehicle to get the family together for an activity. I'm glad your family likes it too and I hope you all have many more fun filled caches ahead of you. GPSKitty Quote Link to comment
+Imajika Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Welcome to the addiction! Quote Link to comment
+Mastifflover Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Congratulations on your first find and welcome to the addiction. Quote Link to comment
+instep_guy Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Congrats and hope you have a load of fun as a family! Quote Link to comment
+Scoobie10 Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Greetings! Welcome to our ranks, and congratulations on your first find! Wishing you many finds in the future. Need some beginners tips? Click the link in my sig. Quote Link to comment
+Semper Securus Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 Way to go Mattina Family ! Welcome to a great sport that I'm sure will bring you and your family much fun and adventure.... You'll never look at a park or the woods the same way again Quote Link to comment
+Wacka Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 We took the Zebra, toy monster truck and a wallet. We left a sealed Paul Pope CD (www.paulpopeonline.com), some "Judge Mattina" info cards, and a better pen. Thanks for making our first find a memorable one! The Mattina Family Geocachers! http://www.buffalonet.com/mattinafamily.html Dylan, Susan, Joshua, Collin, and Victoria Mattina North Boston, New York, USA You'l love this hobby. Are you related to the judge? I remember he spoke at my Honor Society induction in High School many moons ago (before he was gray!). I'm on the west coast, but was back in WNY for Christmas and did a few caches. If you are up in Cheektowaga and have a little more experience, try to do the A -=(Geo)=- Tribute cache (GCGJ8Q) near the airport. I was the last one to find it. It was a lot of fun. I did it on New Years Day and it took me a couple of hours. It is all flat land, but do it when it is dry. There was a lot of standing water on the trails. Quote Link to comment
+SBPhishy Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 Yup. Welcome. Geocaching is awesome. I am hiking so much more than ever now. 4.5 miles a couple days ago to find 2 caches, and 4 today to find 1. It's been great. Except for the poison oak. Have fun! Quote Link to comment
uperdooper Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 the only thing i have noticed when new is trying to do all the caches in your area as quickly as possible. then you have to drive farther and farther to do caches. unless you live in a cache dense area, you will be using a lot of gas and at the prices now it gets expensive. i try to do around 2 a week. that way they aren't depleted as fast. Quote Link to comment
+SBPhishy Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 I wish I had your self control uperdooper. I am not stuck hiking far, and driving farther to find caches. I have done all the ones in my area, and I definitely didnt space them out to only 2 a week. Maybe 2 a day... Quote Link to comment
cutsandbruises Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 Congrats... I have only found 13 caches so far but I'm loving it!!! Quote Link to comment
+Pyewacket Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 Congrats on your find, and welcome to Geocaching! I'm new myself, but am so enthusiastic that, in my 21 days of caching, I have: Found 8 traditional caches Found one VERY fun multi-cache Met an alligator face to face (or too close for comfort, anyway) Visited two virtual caches Logged a locationless cache Learned a lot of history about the surrounding locale Helped to make my corner of the world a cleaner place (CITO) Logged one DNF, but will soon revisit the site of my misadventure Chatted with some wonderful people who have quickly become friends Discovered new areas of the town in which I live Realized that getting out of the house is a better remedy for lupus than staying home and throwing a pity party It's wonderful to have an activity in which to be enthusiastic again; it helps to fill the longing for the hiking I used to do years ago. As others have told you already, you're gonna get hooked...if you're not already. Quote Link to comment
+BASSETSLAVE Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 (edited) Welcome To The Wonderful World Of Geocaching. CONGRATS on your first find . Be Safe. Good Caching. Hope To Meet You On The Trail OneDay Soon. Edited March 11, 2004 by BASSETSLAVE Quote Link to comment
+eddthejailer Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 welcome to the fun.and its true you wil never look at a hollow tree the same again.lol Quote Link to comment
+rover-r-us Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 congrats and be safe Quote Link to comment
+PeachyPA Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 Welcome, from a former western NYer (North Buffalo) now living in small town USA! This is a great activity to do with the family; I can sometimes talk two of my kids into walking around the woods with me, hubby, too. He's a Buffalo boy, too. PeachyPA Punxsutawney, PA Quote Link to comment
myskatevi Posted March 14, 2004 Share Posted March 14, 2004 (edited) I have to add my congrats to the originator(s) of this thread and add that I went out this morning on my first geocache and had a ball! Found it...using a new Holux GPS with my Ipaq 2215. Took a digital camera with me and grabbed a shot which I added to my log report. The cache is: All Is West From Here located in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. I can't wait to do another one... or set one up myself. This is a great sport! Edited March 14, 2004 by myskatevi Quote Link to comment
+The Mattina Family Seekers Posted March 22, 2004 Author Share Posted March 22, 2004 We took the Zebra, toy monster truck and a wallet. We left a sealed Paul Pope CD (www.paulpopeonline.com), some "Judge Mattina" info cards, and a better pen. Thanks for making our first find a memorable one! The Mattina Family Geocachers! http://www.buffalonet.com/mattinafamily.html Dylan, Susan, Joshua, Collin, and Victoria Mattina North Boston, New York, USA You'l love this hobby. Are you related to the judge? I remember he spoke at my Honor Society induction in High School many moons ago (before he was gray!). I'm on the west coast, but was back in WNY for Christmas and did a few caches. If you are up in Cheektowaga and have a little more experience, try to do the A -=(Geo)=- Tribute cache (GCGJ8Q) near the airport. I was the last one to find it. It was a lot of fun. I did it on New Years Day and it took me a couple of hours. It is all flat land, but do it when it is dry. There was a lot of standing water on the trails. Thanks for the many good wishes on our first find! We have two more under out belts now and are looking forward to many, many more when the weather breaks! Questions and answers: Yes, we are related to Judge Mattina, he is my father and recently retired after 40 years on the bench! We are considering making our first hide a tribute to him and may fill it with all kinds of "Legal" type stuff. Newbie question: What is a "Virtual Cache"??? Newbie Question #2: Are Travel Bugs just for putting into a cache you hide or can you take them places and put them in caches you find??? We are heading to the desert southwest in 2 weeks on holiday and want to possibly placed some bugs in the area and see if they find their way back to Western NY. Dylan, Susan, Joshua, Collin, and Victoria Mattina North Boston, New York, USA Quote Link to comment
+Wacka Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Questions: Newbie question: What is a "Virtual Cache"??? Newbie Question #2: Are Travel Bugs just for putting into a cache you hide or can you take them places and put them in caches you find??? Dylan, Susan, Joshua, Collin, and Victoria Mattina North Boston, New York, USA Answers: #1 From the Powers That Be (can be found by clicking an icon on the cash listings): Virtual Cache A virtual cache is a cache that exists in a form of a location. Depending on the cache "hider," a virtual cache could be to answer a question about a location, an interesting spot, a task, etc. The reward for these caches is the location itself and sharing information about your visit. Because of the nature of these geocaches, you must actually visit the location and acquire the coordinates there before you can post. In addition, although many locations are interesting, a virtual cache should be out of the ordinary enough to warrant logging a visit. Usually they are cool places that you could not place a cache at all. They usually require you to e-mail the owner with some info to log it. One I found was ORD Layover, located in O'Hare Airport in Chicago. You have to send the gate number closest to the coords to the cache owner to get the OK to log. Recently it has been very difficult to get a virtual approved and they are being used as waypoints in multis. #2 TBs can be placed in a cache you place or in any one you want to. I see from your profile you have the tags but no item or task associated with it yet. For your trip get some thing to attach the tags to. Also before you place them, take a picture of the item but be sure to NOT show the number on the tag in the picture. This lets people cheat and log it anyplace. This has happened and people find their TB traveling thousands of miles while actually sitting in one cache. Another good tip is to print a small sheet with the TB's goal on it, laminate it, and attach it to the chain with the tags. I have not taken TBs from caches because I didn't know their goals and didn't want to hamper them. Having the goal with it helps a lot. There is a couple in my area that have a "First Aid Station" for TBs where they attach the goal sheets to TBs they come across. The goal can be specific (ex: visit Niagara Falls) or general (ex:visit farms). Glad to see you are having fun! You'll see places that you didn't know existed in your area. Quote Link to comment
+Mr. Map & Night Person Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Congratulations on your first family find! It really is a good hobby, isn't it? Enjoy! Secret Agents MM & NP Quote Link to comment
+strikeforce1 Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Welcome, Mattina Family to our family of geocaching. Congradulations on your first ( 2nd & 3rd ) find(s). Here are other links you can check out as well, (state) http://www.ny-geocaching.org/ (world wide) http://my.navicache.com/ PS: watch the http://www.ny-geocaching.org/ for local events in WNY. Hope to cache up with you sooner or later. Strikeforce1 Quote Link to comment
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