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My First Find!

The Mattina Family Seekers
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The Mattina Family Seekers

+The Mattina Family Seekers

Posted
Posted

:rolleyes:

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 :bad:

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GPSKitty

+GPSKitty

Posted
Posted

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

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Wacka

+Wacka

Posted
Posted

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 :unsure:

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.

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uperdooper

uperdooper

Posted
Posted

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.

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Pyewacket

+Pyewacket

Posted
Posted

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. :unsure:

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PeachyPA

+PeachyPA

Posted
Posted

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

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myskatevi

myskatevi

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have to add my congrats to the originator(s) of this thread :P 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! B)B)

Edited by myskatevi
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The Mattina Family Seekers

+The Mattina Family Seekers

Posted
  • Author
Posted

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 :D

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

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Wacka

+Wacka

Posted
Posted
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.

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