Who/what Introduced You To Geocaching?

[+JMBella]

I read an article in the local paper. I was immediately intrigued by the activity and punched in my zipcode right after reading the article. With no GPS and nothing but the cache name and the hint, me and my wife ran out for our first hunt. The name of the cache was Gazebo. I drove to the nearest gazebo I knew of and looked for about 10 minutes. Then my wife remembered something else in the description and we both realized we weren't even in the right town! We drove 5 minutes up the road to what we knew was the correct spot and found the cache after several minutes. I still remember how I couldn't believe that this thing was actually there. The next day we went to another, much larger park and tried the same technique. Picture walking around a 200 acre park looking for a "6 foot tall tree stump". We purchased a GPS the next day.

[cuff&stuff]

bought a sportrac map, bought gps for dummies, had a chapter on geocaching, checked out geocaching.com and the rest will be history in a minute.

[trekmom]

I have always loved playing games especially scavenger hunts. Geo caching is the ultimate scavenger hunt. I was on a trip with volunteer 4-H leaders in Oct. I found my first cache and I was hooked. I just got my own gps for Christmas and have introduced it to my husband, son and his girlfriend. We spent all day New Years hunting. Great stress reliever for busy parents.

[whizkidz]

We read about it in an Australia internet magazine .... NETGUIDE.

 

It also fits our new year resolution to do more adventuring together.

 

Cheers

 

SF

[+The Neverlanders]

My husband noticed it on someones My eBay page and googled it. He had a GPS for hunting and decided to check it out. The hole family is hooked now.

[briancm]

I bought a GPS for helping me navigate when I'm out in the boonies photographing. Garmin had a link to geocaching on its web page, and then, lo and behold, I had another hobby!

[Toast & Figs]

First came across a story on it while working at the Cleveland Metroparks back in 2002. Interested then, but never got a chance to get started. (I know what you're thinking: "You worked for the park district and couldn't find a chance to start????" Don't ask...) When I came across it again just recently, the fire under my proverbial rear-end was lit, I bought the GPSr with Christmas money I didn't expect to get, lured my fiance and brother to join me, and got our first 5 finds ( ) and a DNF ( ) this past Sunday. I will be out again this weekend, come heck or high snow.

 

It is an intriguing game. I showed my brother the web site as a means of explaining what caching actually is, and after 15 minutes of intent reading and searching our zip code, he sat up stark-straight at the computer and shouted, "I want to go find things...NOW!"

 

I think we are hooked indeed.

[Black Mage]

Our neighboor Ken (driveunuts) introduced me to the hobby a year-and-a-half-ish ago. He has sinse stopped caching, but I carry on.

[Cacher Short]

Like yourself I too heard about Geocaching through someone but let it pass by. This peson or persons was my neighbors Xterraman and Rondivoo. Another thing that we have in common is that I am also from Texas but just North of you. I also have family that live in the same area as you that really got me hooked on this amazing adventure. They are Nav Jumper and Cacheous Clay. I was extremly shocked that this has been going on for like 5 years now. I GUESS!?! and that people have been putting these 'caches' out everywhere and a lot being by my house and the parks that I have been going to since I was a little kid. At first I was not to sure ofit but then I finally came to "The other side" whhich would be the "Geocaching side"!

 

Since I have been Geocaching {about a month and a half} I have met a fellow geocacher Bradzone and have been on amazing adventures and have learned a ton of information about Texas' past from the virtuals that I have done.

 

Thanks for the stories from others and I hope that y'all will like mine.

[mrs_hydrogeologist]

I got involved with it through my fiance. He mentioned it to me around the 10th of December 2004. He'd read an article in his hometown newspaper and mentioned it to me in passing. Something that we could do together and get some exercise at the same time. I immediately went to the website and got hooked and the next thing I knew, all I was talking about was geocaching. I am not even sure he was really into it as much as I was. But he humored me, and we dragged out his old, work GPS, printed off 12 or so caches in his hometown area and got started the week of Christmas. Now we plan our weekends, being sure that we include some cache hunting. I even mentioned it to a friend at work and now she and her husband are all excited and are about to start it up.

 

What I really look forward to is taking my dad out next month. I mentioned it to him, and he's been out on the website for a year, looking, but has never cached. We are going to take him out in Feburary when we are visiting for his 60th birthday and see if we can get him as hooked as we are!!

 

By the way, if you are in Houston TX, look us up.... we go by Mr_and_Mrs_Hydrogeologist!! (Yeah, we are not married, yet, but we might as well be!!).

 

[SilverLynx]

I was looking for a way to update the firmware for my Magellan Gold without using the PC cable (could never get that dang thing to work, found a way around it in the Magellan FAQ 2.0) As I was searching, I stumbled on to this site. I was immediately intrigued. I made my first find with my children on a trip to western NY, and we were hooked, had my wife with me for the second one, and she was hooked. And the rest is history.

[+Hobbies Anonymous]

My other half and I frequently fish on our Pontoon boat and we occassionally take road trips and we like to explore new backwaters looking for that honey spot to fish. I had decided to get him a GPS for Christmas and had decided on a hand held so it could easily move from boat to car. I decided on a Magellan model because of the ability to use SD cards and joined a Meridian Yahoo group to read and learn which model before buying. I had never heard of Geocaching, but my other half is one who loves to treasure hunt with his metal detector and who spends hours with map programs before any trip. I asked a few questions on the group and one response was from Leatherman who suggested I check out this site so I did. My original intention was to purchase him a useful tool and hoped he would like it, little did I know that there was a sport that was designed just for him. He is one of those people with a mind that just HAS to figure out how everything works which makes him a wonderful mechanic and diagnostician, he can literally fix anything that has moving parts. It was two days after Christmas before he was out hunting his first cache. We live in southeast TN and are having a wonderful warm spell, the crappie and other panfish are biting like pirhanas and we are out fishing off the bank (the water is down and putting the pontoon boat in is a real pain) every afternoon and there are several caches very near our fishing spot so he goes hunting for them for a while and then meets me to fish. Once the fish go back to sleep I will be joining him caching.

We are planning on attending the get together in Chattanooga for those new to the sport to see what we can learn and to meet local cachers.

 

Claudia

[5Sent]

I first heard about GC last summer… there was an article in a local paper the same week a friend mentioned it to me! He told me the basics, and that weekend we were out caching. Found a couple, but never logged onto the site. I love the puzzle/scavenger hunt aspect of it. As Cpendlay said about her other half, I HAVE to figure out how everything works (Yeah, it’s a good thing I have REALLY patient friends...and mechanics!), so it's great to move the body, and occupy the mind.

 

Anyway, the friend who started me travels a lot, and takes his GPS with him, so there was no adventuring on my own. Finally, I asked for and received my very own eTrex Legend for Christmas. As it is, I’m just ITCHING to be out looking… Now, if it would only stop raining, snowing, icing, oh, and flooding, I’d be set!

 

I AM learning a lot on the site and forums though. However, I’m also coming up with a list of more questions!! A double edged sword if I’ve ever seen one!

 

I read this earlier on GeoSar’s info… “I use Mulit-Billion dollar Military satelites to find Tupperware, hidden in the woods.” I had to laugh… makes us sound like a bunch of kids with big toys….oh…wait…..

 

Thanks for all the help so far!!

Nicole

[+Chasseur]

I learned about geocaching from a co-worker and carpool mate (Mr Lost) who learned about it from another co-worker and carpool mate (JamieZ). I needed something which would be interesting and get my rotund self away from the computer.

[+Papa Bill]

I had asked for a Garmin Legend for Christmas, because I run APRS in conjunction with my ham radio hobby. A buddy at work told me about him and his girlfriend geocaching while on vacation. So I started nosing around and found this site.

 

My granddaugther went with me on the first find and we had a blast. Now we are planning our own caches and figuring out where to go next.

[miki_dog]

I was researching the Garmin foretrex 201 (which I asked for and got for Christmas) when I ran across the Geocashing website. Looked like fun, and an excuse for getting out with my dog. A little more adventure than walking around the hood. I've used GPS on my boat for years, but wanted the Foretrex for it's super small size for hiking, biking, and skiing. And what better than to play with it while geocaching in the mean time?