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Who/what Introduced You To Geocaching?


Apollo Bob

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Stumbled acroos geocaching whilst researching a sat nav/speed camera solution for my car. One of the websites I was looking at http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk had a geocaching area which sells TB's stickers etc.

Intrigued I spent some time on these forums before taking the plunge and ordering a 60CS which arrived yesterday. First geocaching adventure scheduled for this weekend with my partner and dog. I can't wait. :lostsignal:

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A woman I loved so well mentioned it first time over the phone - casually - and got surprised that as intelligent and sporty as I am I had never heard about it. She explained it to me and knowing what she was like I was pretty sure it has something to do with serious boozing meanwhile or afterwards and was not totally convinced just yet.

 

As it happens and after all too many unnecessary excuses I still not yet have bought My First Gps or looked for any caches but since I think about it pretty much every day I consider myself being hooked already... I guess I am afraid I get too hooked in it and deliberately try to delay starting it.. :lostsignal:

 

And as I consider myself a completely romantic person I have already dreamed about meeting Her at a cache somewhere... Hidden Love? :unsure:

 

The coming winter suggests that I will start this next spring but then fellows, be aware...!

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The coming winter suggests that I will start this next spring but then fellows, be aware...!

Winter might slow you down, but it never really prevents caching, so better start checking the GPS models already. :lostsignal: If I can deduce anything about your whereabouts from your username, I'd say there will be plenty 'winterproof' caches where you live. :unsure:

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My oldest offspring was a senior at Penn State when she came home at Easter break and said she wanted to find the geocache nearest home. My husband, my sister, our youngest son and she went out that Saturday with no GPSr and tried to find it, to no avail. I joined them the next day for the hunt. After trekking down two roads to nowhere, we found the correct road, still with no GPSr. The clue made finding the container easy. I was hooked! When I took my daughter back to campus, we stopped in one town along the way and found a virtual and then two more on campus! Then I found two more nearby here at home! I've always loved geography and maps, and this all contributed to my extreme interest in geocaching. After the first six finds without a GPS unit, I borrowed one from one of my other kids' friends, and we found six more. Then my husband, considering that it would contribute to our enjoyment of walking in the woods, etc., bought me a little yellow eTrex for my birthday a year ago. I now have 80 finds from Maine to North Carolina, and just placed my first cache (adopted from a cacher who no longer gets to the area to service it). And my daughter who introduced me to geocaching? She's now a graduate student in Ireland and still caches when she can. Cache on!

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Wow, loads of answers.

 

I caught the end of an article about geocaching on the TV, on Daily Planet or something. Next day I did a search on geocaching and found this website. Outdoors and gadgets. Easy sell to my wife. The following day I bought my Legend and I have been hooked ever since.

 

The only problem I have is that a couple of days before I discoveresd geocaching I sold my "never used for 2 years" PDA to a friend. I had to buy another one off ebay to do paperless. We haven't looked back since.

 

exploring, gadgets, exercise = fun

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We have traveled and camped for several years. Two or three summers ago we were looking for a campground outside a large city and got turned around and lost.(One of the FEW times we totally got lost). I had heard of a GPS receiver. I started researching receivers on the internet and a Google turned up this site. Sounded like fun, there is a virtual in the plaza in front of the building where I work and another virtual accross the street, and a benchmark in the side of the courthouse building next door. I got a GPS on sale because of the mention of a good buy on this forum. We now travel, camp and geocache while on vacation.

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I hear it on NPR! National Public Radio - Morning Edition in the Spring of 2003

moi aussi...'tho i think it was an earlier version on atc

I heard an interview with Jeremy in February, 2001 on the Todd Mundt Show, a program from Michigan Public Radio carried on many NPR stations.

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My wife heard about it from somebody on one of the other message boards she frequents. We went out and tried to find our first cache without a GPSr, but we didn't know the difference between the datums, and were quite a bit off.

 

She bought the GPSr, she registered with the site, she chose the username, and now doesn't want much to do with the whole thing. And it's really too late to change this user name. . .

 

The locals all know who I am, partially because of the name, and partially because I tend to write rather lengthy logs compared to most.

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Well it all started with a broken speedometer, I had an older Lincoln Towncar that the speedometer broke on, well it was cheaper to buy a Gps and put it on a cell phone holder and use it as a speedometer then it was to repair the speedometer, so I used the gps in the car for three years, then one day we were going to a park we had never been to before to a Civil War Reenactment so I looked up the web page for the park to get directions, and on the web page it said the park had 4 Geocaches hidden there, so I did a web search for GeoCaching and the rest is history,

now I have a PDA a new Garmin 60C and hope to have 150 finds by the end of the year,

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My family just started recently. I have owned an eTrex Legend for a couple of years--I like gadgets and there are few gadgets out there with a higher coolness-to-cost ratio than a GPSr. Initially I think I rationalized it as a tool to avoid getting lost or to find alternate ways between work and home when the highway's jammed. :blink: Anyway, my mom sent me an article about geocaching from the hometown paper. She wanted to know had I ever heard of such a thing? A few weeks later, we got on a plane to visit her and I brought my eTrex. With nothing better to do one night, I got on the web on my Treo (yep, another gadget) and looked up geocaching.com. I was hooked! I found a couple of local caches, stored them in memory and announced the next morning we'd go out geocaching as a family. Mom, sis, wife, two boys (4 and 1), and me packed into the car and headed out in search of N42 04.487 W87 56.648 "Where's the Hill?" We drove ~ 4 km, parked, and found the cache in about 20 minutes. Nothing special, except a light went on in my head: my wife and kids seemed to have fun, we were outdoors, and I was actually putting my 2 year old investment to good use. A winning combination! I've taken the boys out the last few weekends to find easy local caches--so much easier on my conscience than sitting in front of the TV...

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This is my first reply to a forum topic, and although its been there a while, the question intrigued me. Officially I was introduced through an e-mail from The geography Teachers of South Australia, who suggested (rightly) that this would be an excellent activity for students. I now have a number follwing it avidly. A bonus I did not expect was that the school bought the G.P.S., allows me the use of the department net and even credits me with training and development time for both on-line time and field work associated with the course.

Unofficially, it's what I have been looking for since my father, about 45 years ago, set us treasure hunts that might have started with a verbal clue at the dinner table or a note from a pirate slipped into the letter box. I have had great pleasure introducing both geocaching and the old form of treasure hunting to my great nieces and nephews in recent times.

Lastly, after over 50 years with no sign of health problems I was whipped 400 kilometres from home, for a triple bypass operation this year. Geocaching has allowed me to combine the pleasure of net based interaction with a lot of walking. Hence my handle "Mr Walker" which is also a tribute to one of my favourite comic characters.

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I saw a piece on HGTV about getting your family into the outdoors while using a GPS. My husband already had a GPS becuase he is an avid hunter and fisherman. I quickly logged onto the site and began printing caches in my area. I was instantly hooked the summer of 2002.

 

Since then I have 2 of my sisters and their families currently caching. AND have opened a web based store to help other get out and start caching. A great gift idea with Christmas just around the corner. A pack that includes all the item you would need to get out and cache the day you heard about it! Check it out!

 

www.geocachestore.com

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Bought a new GPS for my birthday because the compass in my truck went out. (I have a good sense of direction but will use any excuse to buy a new toy.) The next week, I took it to Arizona with me. On the flight home I was playing with my new Legend on the plane when a stewardess asked me if I had ever done any geocaching. I told her I had only vaguely heard of it. That was the end of our conversation. That night is when I found this website and the rest is history. :blink:

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I first learned of GeoCaching from Knights of the Dinner Table. JollyBGood, who publishes Knights of the Dinner Table, mentioned the hobby in some of his editorials in 2001 or 2002.

 

I finally joined when I got my Magellan in June 2003. I just wish I could make more time for caching.

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After looking at several Metal Detectors for several months I had just purchased a Bounty Hunter Land Ranger. My son-in-law asked me “Now that you have a new metal detector are you going to go geocaching?” I of course said what most people say “What is geocaching?” He replied “Go to www.geocaching.com.” which I did. I found a few caches listed that were close to me. Knowing the location good enough, I found my first cache without a GPS/r. I then went back home and borrowed a gps/r from a friend that said he had found no use for the toy. After locating 3 more caches the next day I was hooked. Since then I have added more gps/rs and related accessories to my collection and have visited places with my family that I would have probably never went to without being involved in the sport. I have had the pleasure of meeting several geocahers. Most tell me they feel the same way about going places.

I have both Magellan Platinum and a Magellan Color. Also a Garmin 76S (that I hardly ever use). I do enjoy this sport and it is less costly than some things I have done for relaxation. I still have the Metal Detector but use my GPS things lots more. I have even used the Metal Detector to help find the cache in heavy grass cover.

B)

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I read an article in the local newpaper back in October. It caught my attention right away. I like the outdoors, I need the exercise, I love puzzles and mysteries, I love maps, and I like gadgets - I thought: it's a sport tailor made for me!! I went to a local store that specializes in outdoor activites like hiking, hunting, fishing and camping to check out GPS units. I was the only woman shopping in the gun dept., so it was a little hard to get the attention of a clerk, but I did and eventually decided on a Megellan SporTrak Color. Since my birthday was coming up, I called my kids and told them I wanted gift certificates from the hunting and camping store, which probably left them puzzled, but they obliged. I'm only up to cache #13, but I think I have the grandkids hooked! B) Thekanc

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This seems like a good place for my first post here.

 

I've known about geocaching for a couple of years, but my first attempt a while back (using a poor quality Rand McNally snap-on GPS for my Palm IIIx) was a disaster, so I got distracted with other pursuits.

 

Some good friends have been casually trying to get us to go out - paging muddyshoes and shazrolane, white courtesy phone - and our calendars finally jibed this last weekend.

 

Muddyshoes and his lady (whose gc name I forget, alas) came over to our place, we pile into their car, and off we go to the eastern side of Orange County. As we pass near Shaz's house, we give her a call and she's on board to meet us at the park.

 

We meet up near the Y at the park, get our provisions and away-team duties straightened out, and head north over Flood Control Dam #3 to the woods on the north side of the river in the hunt for RAPTOR1.

 

Hurricanes have made foresty geocaching more of a challenge, it seems. The trail was relatively clear, but there were sufficient forks for us to meander a bit, taking in the horizontal landscaping that Charley & Co. provided months ago. A quick photo shoot by a retention pond, some recon by the team leader (defined as the person with the fanciest GPS) and we were on our way again.

 

A note to the ladies: don't wear open-toed, heeled sandals when geocaching anywhere that isn't poured concrete.

 

We got to the vicinity of the cache and they pushed me in the direction of it. I found it pretty quickly, and brought the goodie-box back for inspection.

 

Whoever put the rusty fish-hook in there was just being mean. We logged, took an Austin Powers travelbug-and-story figure, left whatever we could find in our pocketses, returned the cache and trumped back to the cars.

 

We did two other, easier caches that day, and by Monday morning I told Santa I wanted a Garmin 60C, and logged our finds along with a story for the AP hitchhiker:

 

Pinned beneath a clump of hurricane-damaged pines, Austin saw his rowdy life flash before his eyes. Yeah, baybee. What a groovy way to check out.

 

But wait: what's that, he hears? People in the distance, arguing about the right path to take? There is hope after all!

 

A few minutes later, he feels the pines move, he becomes unpinned and thanks the five hardy souls who ventured into the forest in search of adventure, of excitement.

 

Then he got stuffed into one guy's pocket.

 

The adventure continues.

 

I'm chuffed. We're out of the house not staring at the tube; getting exercise; having fun with friends; solving puzzles; cleaning up the environment one path at a time; going places we haven't seen; sharing trinkets with absolute strangers. The planet is our gameboard.

 

What's not to like?

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I had a new Pocket PC and wanted some navigation software and a BlueTooth GPS to use for travelling (find hotels, restaraunts, businesses, etc.) -- All on-road travel. When researching the hardware and software options I came across the term "geocaching" and skipped over it. Later I did a google search on the term (yes, I'm one of those types who DOES look up stuff in the dictionary). Ironically, this was the day after I took my family to see the movie National Treasure. How could I resist?

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In October I saw a commercial for the new movie National Treasure, and it looked cool.

I have allways loved treasure hunting and such, so I logged onto the movie website to see what it was about.

 

There was a link for "real treasure hunting". I clicked it and there was a link to both letterboxing, and geocaching.com.

 

I checked out letterboxing first, but as soon as I clicked the geocaching link I was hooked, I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever heard of and immediately started searching for caches to look for when I got a GPSr.

 

I found my first cache in November.

 

I am still pretty new with 19 finds, but I love it!!!

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having used a gps for ham radio applications. mainly aprs, I was looking for something else to do with it that would be more active. I was surfing around on the web one day and came upon the degree confluence project. www.confluence.org. there was a confluence point close to where I was living at the time so i decided to try it. which led indirectly to geocaching and i have been hooked ever since. I dont have a lot of finds under my belt yet , but im working on it and enjoying it immensly. it's nice to get out and about and enjoy mother nature at the same time. if you would like to learn more about aprs go to www.arrl.org and search for aprs if you would like to see were i live follow this link and in the upper right corner of the page type in kb4put then click the button.

http://www.phrozen-neon.com/alarc/aprs.php

Edited by rbezell
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Actually my hubbie started this madness..lol. He "dragged" me along on a couple and I wasn't impressed. As he continued to enjoy and talk about his adventures in caching....well....my curiosity was piqued. I went out again and found I had a blast. Now I'm "dragging " him out and begging to get that new cache. We currently have to drive an hour to hour and half to cache. We have exhausted all the caches near our home...bummer. Hmmm think I could talk the hubby into moving to a cache rich enviroment....hmmm?!?!?!?!?!

Edited by lucy92979
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Seems a good place to introduce myself :D I work on a military installation and there is a geocache located on the post. Our commander was concerned about safety, liabilities, etc. So, as with most small tasks they get delegated, then delegated again. Somehow it reached my inbox and I checked it out. We already had a gps that my husband insisted upon buying a couple of years ago, that had been siting in a drawer, so we checked it out. Needless to say we've been hooked ever since :D

 

Crystal of Trekin Triad

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I've wanted to hike the beautiful mountains and rivers nearby for years, but couldn't interest my husband. Nov. 2004 I read about geocaching in the Parade magazine and WOW I got a thrill! Told my husband I wanted a GPS for Christmas & THAT peaked his interest. Males sure do like technology. Well, he bought the Garmin Etrex Legend for me & we can't wait to go out New Year's day & find the first cache. How surprising to discover there are 52 in a 20 mile radius of our home!

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I learned about Geocaching from my brother, camdawg, and decided I wanted a GPSr for Christmas back around Thanksgiving. Guess what, I got it! Got a legend for Christmas last weekend and found 2 of 6 caches the day after. Can't wait for this next long weekend to go again. Camdawg has an awesome multi not too far away that I can't wait to hunt.

I had no idea that there would be so many great hunts so close by. I got in the area of a virtual last Sunday, didn't find the plaque as required, but there was this view that I had no idea was just a few miles from my house. I will go back to finish the hunt and claim the prize, but you can bet I will be back there from time to time just for the view.

I could say more about what I saw and learned that day, but maybe on another topic.

Thanks Camdawg and RC and CB!

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In November I was waiting patiently for my boyfriend to be done with browsing the brand new R.E.I in Rancho Cucamonga. Sitting on the table were 3 Geocaching/GPS books. We're both in the GIS industry, we both were Geography majors, we're both map geeks. We make maps. We buy maps. We love maps. And we've had the GIS koolaid in how important it is for social and environmental reasons. I love puzzles and challenges and when tasked get super competitive. He loves hiking and used to do the Scout stuff with his son when he was younger. He's tried to get me to go Orienteering, but haven't just done it. We've talked about needing a new hobby. He wants to jump out of planes more, I don't have that deathwish. :D He's going to trade in the Liberty for a real Jeep next year...so many planets are coming in line here...

 

Then along came that book on this thing called "Geocaching"...hmmm... so interesting, it has GEO and what do they mean by CACHE, gotta figure this out...bought the book. He dug out an old ammo box he has from his Army days. Bought him (us) the Garmin GPSMAP 76CS for xmas and off we were on xmas day finding our first caches out in the desert. We have challenged ourselves to get out and go hiking around California for 2005 and this is the ultimate gift -- he jokes I have adult ADD so this is the perfect way to get me focused on a challenge. And as competitive as I am <sigh> he found the first cache. Dang it! :D

 

But, we're already hooked -- I have 765 caches within a 20 mile radius and a bunch out in Palm Springs already uploaded into the GPSr...now if only this rain will stop. :D

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My uncle of Team Trout first mentioned Geocaching to me. He lives in another state and said there were cache's practially behind my house. When he came to visit we went caching. I was hooked but it took a while for me to get started. I convienced my husband that we needed a GPS to take out on our boat while fishing. Needless to say that he bought one right away and he never gets to use it.

 

My uncle also spawned two other cachers, my cousins Team Zardozobe & R'oolar Trout. :D

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i've had a gps since '98 (a garmin 12xl) for going 4wheeling and found geocaching.com in '02 but really did'nt start really caching until Jeep came out with the yellow jeep travel bug. once i started looking for them i got hooked. matter a fact i just got home after finding a jeep tonight in the dark. batteries dying in both gps and flashlight. i take my princess all the time and yesterday took my nieces now there hooked too...

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crossover from my accidentally stumbling onto a letterboxing cache, going home and researching and finding out about this. long lapse of laziness, followed by recent christmas present to self! and so now i'm back outdoors.

i think i've found my new favorite quote - along the lines of "i use multi million dollar military satellite technology to find hidden tupperware in the woods.. what do YOU do for fun?" (credit to whomever this comes from around here, can't find it now.)

;)

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My mother bought me a yellow etrex for Christmas and told me that she wanted to start geocaching with me. I had heard it mentioned by a co-worker before, but I never had given it a lot of thought. As soon as I got that gps in my hand I jumped on the internet and started surfing like a mad woman! I even went out and bought a book on using a gps. I guess my mother was smart enough to know that if it was something that combined being in the outdoors with some cool technology I would get hooked! My partner and I are going out to look for our first caches this coming weekend.

 

Amy ;)

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My wife bought me a GPSr for Christmas at the suggestion of my teenage son. His thinking was we all three enjoy technology and we didn't have a GPSr. Relatives had been finding caches here(Memphis) and in Birmingham so we knew about the basic ideas. One of my fellow teachers is an accomplished GCer with many finds and several hides.

 

Horibble weather (ice and temps in the teens) delayed our first attempts until two days ago. We are on Christmas break so we had plenty of time. Printed out the descriptions of three within a mile of our house and found those in about two hours time and we were hooked.

 

I've figured out the GPSr and my son and wife are great at finding well hidden caches once we get there. Our second adventure found us going over rough and wet terrain and we loved it. Found 4 out of 4.

 

Great family time for all three of us, together, outdoors, enjoying the hunt.

 

Can't wait to talk to my friend at work and go with him some time. Plus he has been very creative in his hides! I look forward to his mentoring our first cache that we create.

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:wacko: I heard about the sport at college, just a couple of months before i was about to graduate & get married. the whole geocaching thing went on hold for me for a few years until we actually got a gps (garmin 12 that a friend gave us after he upgraded. I think it was a little off - OK, a lot). now almost a year later, we got a REAL gps (magellan color) & we cant wait for the snow to melt & warm up soon!!!

 

In the meantime, i will be logging so many virtuals & locationless, it's not going to be funny :unsure:

 

welcome back springtime :cry: = welcome back geocaching :ph34r: !

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Here's our story and we're sticking to it - a couple of years ago HeBird got a spiffy new camera. His favorite subject is nature. SheBird always wants to know "where are we going?" That isn't a major concern for HeBird, but it caused some stress. SheBird read the Parade article and decided "hey, this will give us somewhere to go!" He wasn't that interested, but subscribes to SWMBO. Four finds so far (since November) and Little Bird now is hooked too. Just wait for springtime!

 

Thanks for the great FAMILY FRIENDLY sport.

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I was looking for a way to get outside more, with the whole family. We just spend way too much time in front of the TV and video games. Not so much in the summer, but here in Canda, summer is only a few months.

 

I started looking around at sites about hiking in my area, and map reading and compass use. During one of my Google searches, I hit the geocaching website, and I was hooked. A perfect blend of my love of high tech toys and the outdoors. So 6 months later, I finally got a GPS for xmas, and we have gone out almost everday since..... :D

 

Soon as I get a few more finds under my belt, I'm going to hide a cache...... already have a great spot picked out. So, yeah, I'm hooked. :D

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I got interested in Geocaching by first getting interested in GPS. At the time I was doing a lot of off-road mountain biking and thought the idea of having a GPSr with me was a good one. Then I found geocaching and do more of it than mountain biking anymore. I love that I can cache with my family, small children included. We have a great time. I recently got my brother, luv2trvl, interested and as he stated earlier in this topic he has begun to cache. I hope he went after one of my hides this New Year's weekend. Thanks to all involved for a great family friendly adventure game.

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I have friends who were doing this and my son went along a couple of times. Sounded intriguing and I kept meaning to go as well. Work and other things kept getting in the way, when lo and behold....under the Christmas tree is this Sportrak thingie?? So I did my due diligence, very excited about finding my first cache...and a NEW one has been placed just yesterday near me with a Travel Bug in it! So...back to the site to see what the heck a travel bug is....and off we go.

 

So we all have question marks over our heads when the coordinates lead us to what appears to be the inside of someone's house.

 

Get home...Dad put in the wrong coordinates :D

 

Anyway it was still very fun and it's dark now so tomorrow we shall be successful.

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kenneth, that's why I always print out the cache page and take it with me. That way I can check the coordinates in my GPSr to make sure they lead me where the hider intended. Some people use PDAs to record their info; I find printing the cache page (without logs, near the top of the page) is easy for me. Welcome to the sport, it is fun, believe me!

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I've had a GPS for a while now for fishing and hiking. A while ago (year and a half or so) I was bored at work and read an article in the paper that there was going to be a treasure hunt happening in the area I lived put on by Magellan and there were some great prizes. I told my wife and she wanted to play too as we both love puzzles and games. We ended up being FTF in the treasure hunt they had and had a great time as a family (5 yr. old daughter went too).

We havn't really done any geocaching since then as we were moving and busy with things. Now we are started again and are excited to get into it (again). :o

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My sister told me about it two years ago. I checked out sites to see if there were any caches in the area, and was delighted to find quite a number. I kept trying to justify the money, then last winter I was snowshoeing with my daughter and girlfriend, and we got a little turned around, nothing serious or dangerous, but enough of a justification for me to purchase a unit. Then I got a cash gift from my office for Christmas this year and I made a B-Line to REI. I found my first cache the next day. I hope to GC for a long time. I thought it would be something to give me an excuse to get outside, now I'm chomping at the bit for some of the snow to melt so I can get back out there.

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