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Geocaching: How It All Started For You?!


TrailGators

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Thought it would be fun to share stories about Geocaching started for you!

 

My story:

It was Christmas of 2002 and I opened a small gift. "What could it be?!" A few seconds later: "It's a GPS!" Thinking to myself as I was smiling: "What will I do with this?" Anyhow, later that day I got on the Internet and started Googling. I typed in "fun things to do with a GPS" and hit enter. After browsing for a bit I ran into Geocaching. I was instantly interested! Then I noticed that there were a few caches a few miles from my house! So I rounded up a couple of my kids and we drove out there to check it out. The area was awesome I had no idea there were cool mountain trails this close to home! Anyhow we hiked up the first trail and I found my first cache and........... :(

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I bought a canoe from a guy on Ebay. I met him at a small lake about halfway in between our houses to pick up the canoe. He was going to do some geocaching after the exchange and started telling me about it. He told me about the geocaching.com web page. I checked it out a few days later and then it was just a matter of time before I got my GPSr (also on Ebay!).

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I like to check out who wins the Webbie Awards every year. When I saw the site, I was hooked before I went out on my first geocache! I went out to Walmart and got myself a cheap GPSr--and invited around eight of my girlfriends to come try it out in the woods at midnight. We got lost, and bushwhacked for hours--not knowing what we were doing--but by 3 am we had found our first cache and at least four of us were goners for the game. One of them bought my GPSr right off me that night, and I upgraded the next day.

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I read an article in our local paper about geocaching, looked up this wonderful website, got my GPSr about 12 months ago and have been hooked on it since.

 

What makes it so great is the fact that it takes you to places you would have never seen if it weren't for that cache at the end of the trail.

 

Roadway57

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I bought one of the first Garmin 45. I thought it was amazing. It worked fairly well with an external antenna mounted inside of our fiberglass top RV. I plotted out routes using aeronautical charts to get the coordinates. I have two Sony Mavica cameras and visit the Mavica forum website. The founder and webmaster of the site mentioned a new use of a camera was to take pictures while geocaching. I looked it up and found a cache only about a mile from my home. This was in the summer of 2001. Grabbed the Garmin 45 and strapped it to my scooter and headed out. When the needle pointed at right angles to the cache, I headed into the forest. Hadn't gone 10 feet when the patch antenna lost contact. Went out that night and bought a MAP 330 and found the cache. Several GPSs later, I now have over 700 finds. Not bad for a old man approaching 80. Dick, W7WT

Edited by W7WT
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I was actually attending an orienteering seminar by the local audubon society a few years ago, when someone mentioned it. I was interested, but I knew GPS only from what I had seen on TV, and the way I figured it, it was probably a very expensive game, and that if it wasn't expensive, there probably weren't any caches nearby.

 

And then August 2003, a friend had told me how she had spent her summer geocaching, I of course had heard of it, and I was slightly intrigued. I got online and did some quick research, and found the site, I was definately intrigued. I then went to work saving up for a GPS, but by the time I had the money for even an entry level unit, it was about a month and a half till christmas, and so my parents told me that maybe it would be a good christmas present.

 

After that, I lost interest, until christmas came, and I found a shiny new GPS in one of the boxes with my name on it. I've been caching ever since...

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I found out about geocaching from a program on TECHTV a couple of years ago. I thought it was pretty neat and did a search here. At the time I didn't have a GPSr and kind of dismissed it. One day a co-worker bought a GPS from E-Bay (Garmin III+) for his trips and for a different hobby (trainspotting). I commented about Geocaching in passing. Later he looked into the hobby and then we decided to look for the closest cache to work. So a group of 3 people set out to look for the cache and we found it. From there he and I were hooked (the third guy was amused but didn't take interest). A couple of weeks later, I bought my own GPSr (Magellean Meridian).

 

Adam Pierson

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I bought my Garmin eTrex Legend in June 2003. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it except that I knew it'd be cool for navigating while driving. I was looking thru the icons that you can assign to a landmark and I saw "geocache" and I knew I had heard that word before....(still don't know from where.) I was interested enough to put the term in a search engine and a day later I was out looking for my first cache on a hot, humid day during my lunch break with one of my co-workers in tow. We didn't find it that day and it took me 3 trips to locate it but I've been hooked ever since. :(

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I heard about it through NewMedia.com (magazine/e-zine) in October 2000. I was instantly interested, but couldn't afford a GPSr at the time. I had just started my own business and was working all the time. And kinda forgot about it.

 

I receintly put my business on the back burner and started living life again. One of the things that I had been wanting to try was geocaching. So shopped around and bought a GPSr and started hunting with my wife and kids. My daughter really enjoys it and I'm totally hooked!

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What makes it so great is the fact that it takes you to places you would have never seen if it weren't for that cache at the end of the trail.

I totally agree! When you go to a place that you have been to, most of the coolest spots have geocaches! So Geocaching is like a free tourguide! It's that "wow" factor that keeps me going! :(

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My son-in-law told me about this great activity, going out and looking for treasures. I have been hooked ever since. That was in June of 2003 AND CacheClown are in a friendly race as to who has the most loged. I have hooked two sons since. One could not spend the money to get a unit so I gave him mine. Great reason to upgrade. Cache on.

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I had heard about gc several times, including a few months ago on Tennessee Crossroads. Couldn't really afford a GPSr, always something more important to buy, but I finally got one a few weeks ago. We were trick-or-treating at the mall and when we got to Radio Shack my hubby goes "c'mon lets go inside" and he walks over, and asks the guys about GPS and they showed us the only two they had. One was way too expensive and the other was the Geko 101-which I got!!

 

I got it mainly to find old lost cemeteries for the Historical Society in our county, but once I got home and started playing around with it, I recalled the game and quickly did a search for it! I found my first cache just a few days later!!

 

And yes I am now hooked, as well as wanting to find benchmarks too. :(

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Ah yes...I remember it as if it were only yesterday. Mostly because it was last Saturday. :(

 

My dad finds this little ad in a paper about a week and a half ago, telling a little about geocaching, and giving this website's address. He brings it to me, and I'm not really excited about it, cause I know nothing about it. Later that evening I take the ad out of my pocket, and discover this website, and I haven't looked back since. I registered immediately, and stayed up half the night reading all about it, and asking questions on here. Within a couple days I had my GPS, and went out with my brother on our first 4 caches this last weekend. Thank God for that little ad in whatever paper it was! I only wish I had known about this before.

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I have my employer to thank for my addiction. (I wonder if I can get workman's comp for this, or at least disability leave to give me more time to cache)

The company I work for gives out service awards to it's employees who reach milestone dates. 5, 10, 15, 20 etc. In May of this year I hit the 15 year mark, and one of my choices of service award was a Sportrak Map GPSr.

 

My thought process was Wow, what a cool gadget/toy, I WANT! I figured that I could use it when I was biking or X-country skiing or roller-blading to track my path, and speed, and just generally play around.

 

After I placed my order, I was getting antsy about getting it, so i decided to go to the Magellan web site and poke around. After I finished reading the manual, I looked around some more and found a link that said "GPS Adventures" Then I saw Geocaching Adventures and clicked on it. I was floored. I had no idea that anything like this existed. Who would have thought, treasure hunting and gadgets all rolled into one. I knew that this would be for me.

 

Well, I got that Sportrak Map and i haven't looked back. I've got a number of finds under my belt, several GPS's (Garmin & Magellan), PDA's and misc gear, and I've been having loads of fun and getting some exercise to boot.

 

Can you name another hobby where you get to hike in the woods carrying more electronics and computing gear than it took to land on the moon? I can't, but if there is, I want in.

 

I even introduced my parents and sister and nephews to Geocaching when i visited them in September. My parents are now as Gung-Ho as I am.

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I originally bought my little eTrex (yellow) for backpacking in the central California Sierra mountains. Then, one day a fellow backpacker mentioned geocaching. "What's that?", I asked. And you know what happened next.

 

I haven't been as active as I'd like to be ..... too many other projects like ham radio (KD7S) backpacking and bicycle touring ..... but since becoming a premium member I've come to appreciate the usefulness of Pocket Queries and my new Sony Clie PDA. Watch my numbers grow.

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I had bought a pocket pc PDA. I went to the store and bought a pocket pc magazine to help me with my PDA and they had an article about geocaching in it. I thought it might be fun but actually forgot about it for another six months or so. I was rereading the magazine and came back across the article and decided to look it up on the internet. I saw where there were three closeby caches in the local park and went and found them with my family. I've been hooked every since.

 

LSUFan

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We found a local park we had never seen before and was interested in it, so I googled it and saw a geocaching cache page, and was like "what in the world is this??" and the rest is history. Borrowed a GPSr and was and about searching. Eventually had to give it back, and we waited almost a year to start doing it again.

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In August my in-laws came for a visit. While here, my father-in-law asked us if we had ever heard of Geocaching. We hadn't so he told us about it knowing we liked to hike and camp and do other outdoor stuff. Then he told us there were some caches nearby and handed us his Garmin E-trex Vista and said "That's yours now." He had thought about keeping it as a spare when he upgraded to the C60, but thought we would have more fun with it. [:lol:] So off we trekked to our first geocache. Only a half-mile walk according to the webpage (Sure it was but the trail climbed over 900 feet in that half-mile! [:(] ). We have been hooked ever since and are doing our best to catch up to him in number of finds. He is out in Michigan and we are in PA so we don't get to cache together, but we sure watch each other's accounts! Hopefully we will get out there this summer to try some caching in MI.

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Mrs GrizzFlyer and I are into ATVing, and we decided to go to the Wayne National Forest in SE Ohio for some ATVing fun. Unbeknowst to us, we picked out the toughest, most remote section of the forest. Got lost for several hours. Well, she called it lost, I called it temporarily bewildered. Not a good feeling, whatever it was. It was at that time I swore to never get lost in there again, and bought a MeriGold. It was about a month later that I got into geocaching, since I already had the equipment. Now, almost 900 caching finds later, I'm still using that MeriGold.

 

Whenever I go ATVing in a remote area, I now know exactly where I'm lost at.... :(

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Newspaper article in the Times winter of 2002. I was immediately hooked...now I had a way to use my gps all the time...not just for hiking and off trail stuff.

 

My first cache was Tie Mill...a true classic. Box in the middle of woods after a nice hike. Took me two tries to get things right. I videotaped both attempts (first was Valentine's day and the other on the 28th). I'm thinking of making this into a travelling video cd for others to enjoy. I'll have to bleep over couple of times as I got overly excited when I foudn the tupperware.

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I've had a GPSr for several years that I used for trips and in my work but I had never heard of geocaching until last October. That's when my wife and I traveled to the Smokey Mountains and rode our motorcycle across the infamous Deals Gap, better Know as the "Dragons Tail". See http://www.tailofthedragon.com

 

After we returned, I was looking at the Dragons Tail web site and read that there are two geocaches along the route. Have never heard of a geocache before, I followed their link to geocaching.com and was hooked immediately.

Edited by KnifeMaker
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My husband bought himself a Garmin 120 for Christmas - and thanked me for getting him exactly what he wanted. He wanted it for the radio feature for hunting with his buddies.

 

Shortly after I read an article in Via magazine, put out by AAA, about geocaching. I showed him the article - and he said "there can't be any around here". A few weeks later when he finally got around to checking - he put in our zip - and several came up - the first one he looked at was called "Burned Tree". When he looked at the cache he couldn't believe it... long story - short: the cache is on my brother in laws farm. The cache page is full of theories about how the tree got to its current state. The truth about the tree is that he was burning the edge of the field as he has done many times before, and for some reason this time the old dead tree caught fire. He called the fire department and told them that what was going on - and that every thing was under control - just to let them know in case someone else called in the suspicious smoke. Well, about as quick as he was off the phone a fire crew capable of dousing a forest fire was there. He was humiliated! He still hasn't lived that one down. Needless to say we had to let him know that his tree was famous on a much bigger level! The cache now has permission to be there, and we've been caching every since.

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This is a good topic that comes and goes. With all the recent positive press, this thread should probably be pinned. :(

 

Here's what I posted on a previous thread:

 

I have to make at least one trip a year to this quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem way up in the High Sierras. The local establishment had recently changed ownership and I wanted to see what they had done with the website. The rest is history.

 

Vermilion Valley Resort

 

I also noticed that most of the 4 digit posters haven't posted to this thread so here's another much older one to read.

Edited by Snoogans
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I've been spending more and more time outdoors, canoeing, hiking, cycling and thought that perhaps I should get a GPS so I didn't get lost in the fog or something.

 

While researching the various GPSr's, I stumbled upon this website. I thought this would fit in to my other activities perfectly.

 

So :huh: I am now anxiously awaiting the arrival of a Meridian Gold.

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I've been a GPSr user for a long time, using it for off-road navigation and to assist with wildlife management.

 

Someone told me about the confluence project web site, which I visited and saw the link to geocaching.

 

The name was intriguing, the game/sport looked like a darn good use for a GPSr, went to go find one - SUCCESS, went to go place one - great fun .......... add one more addict to the geocaching fraternity!!!!! :huh:

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I found the site some time ago and told my brother about it. Last Christmas he got a GPS and we went hunting in Myrtle Beach over new years. I created my account right after that be didn't start actively caching until May 1st of this year when we took a cruise to Bermuda. Donna and I try to get out caching at least one day per week now.

 

Zack

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I got mine for kayaking rivers, to figure out where we left the van. Found Geo site and tried it. The boys had a great time also. We have found so many nice parks that we never been too. Now my other half loves her gps. We cache when we travel, great way to see new places. The boys are pretty good at finding the caches. They spend more time checking out the plants that are in the woods tho.

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It was July 4th, 2004. I was stuck at work with nothing to do. I was browsing the Hotwheels messageboards, and in the off topic section a member was showing off his new travel bug that he wanted to visit die-cast shows. Another member posted a link to geocaching.com. I checked out the site and found out there were caches close to here. This sounded interesting so a coworker and myself went out at lunchtime and found one at a local park. It was a keyhider under a fence. We found it using the clue provided. A week later I bought a GPSr and have been having fun ever since....

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I was reading Wil Wheaton's web log and he mentioned not finding this geocache. I clicked on the link and had a look at the site. Found our 1st two caches without a GPS then we did one where the GPS was definitely needed.

Saw a course with a GPS if you passed sent the wife on the course got the GPS and started doing proper caching in MArch this year. Now done 103.

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I was at home one night alone just taking it easy. I was watching the Travel channel, checking out that Samantha Brown on "Great Hotels". I took a little power nap and awoke to see a show "The Best Of". I cant remember the #1 best but I remember the geocaching segment of the show.I instantly got up and did some searching on the web. I was hooked Immeditaly. I didnt buy my gps untill 3 months later, But I became a member that night. I paid my money to help out with such a great sport. I soon started working a second job and had no time to play. Then I found my self on e-bay looking for a good GPSr. Then about two days later a Garmin E-Trex was on there for $50 and just minutes left. So I bid on it and won. After reciving it I barely had it out of the package and out the door to find my first. I was kinda let down by the lack of caches in my area, So I put out one out just a few days. It was approved almost within a few hours. And found within a few days. At one time I had as many hides as finds. People started comming from as far as 100 miles away. I knew then I could share something with others that was worth it for a change. I still dont have many finds But i have several in my local and still enjoy it. Every once and a while I will have an interested party put out a cache, and more likely than not I am the FTF. I am still promoting it here and sure it will go. WOODY33 42501 :huh:

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As long as we're markwelling older threads...

 

My daughter and I noted the gross inaccuracy of a particular trail map we were using due largely in part to mother nature, and trail maintenance. We found the location and direction of the trail varied a more than just a lot. Yes, I do know how to read and triangulate map positions. Ever try doing that in the dark? Also, the one thing I really hated, was the uncertainty of do I carry on with the hike or setup an excursion camp and wait out the night? How close was I really to base camp?

 

I decided then, it would be nice to have a GPS to keep our bearings on the camp. And, the right GPS, I surmised, would show me a map location of where my camp is in relationship to where I am at thus helping me to find my way back more quickly or make the judgement call of setting up a trail camp and wait out the night with confidence that I made the right decision. With the decision to buy one, I realized I would need to know I can trust the gadget in my hand to get me out of trouble and not into it

 

I discovered Geocaching during my search for more information on how to use GPS receivers What better way to learn how to use it than GEOCaching?

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I alway wondered about Hydnckr and the Grizz. :huh:

 

Last December a friend in Texas emailed me about how wonderful geocaching is. It just might be my answer. You see, The Woman likes to go for drives. Occasionally these drives have a destination. She expects me to ride shotgun. Just wandering drives me nuts. Maybe it's a guy thing but this getting into the car and driving out to nowhere is like going shopping. I don't do shopping very well, either. (Tractor Supply is different.) If we're going for a coat we don't need to look at shoes. Get the coat. Go home. Get confortable. Seems reasonable to me.

 

So this geocaching thing comes along and I think, "She likes to go for drives. She likes to go for walks. I could get a new toy and nudge her in the right direction." Sounds good in theory doesn't it?

 

Before we even talked about ordering a GPS we went out to find the one closest to home. It's in a local park. Ha, I know that park. I got topo. Piece of cake. Only we couldn't find it. It wasn't right where it was supposed to be. It was in the woods next to right where it was supposed to be. I lost all sence of direction in the woods. The Woman had words for me.

 

We went back days later and this time I even took a compass. We started a reasonable search sweep. Just as we got to the end of the area we saw four suspicious people bushwacking the area. They were suspicious because, unlike us, they appeared to know what they were doing. It was SerentyNow and Searching for Fraggle Rock. What great embassadors for geocaching!

 

I couldn't have planned it better. They were friendly and answered a gazillion questions and The Woman was hooked. I left convinced that I could have found the cache on the next sweep. What a joke.

 

The GPS arrived around the first of 2004 and we have been caching ever since. We still go on aimless drives. I still ride shotgun. But now we take a geopack. We've also met some awesome people.

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a friend told me about it, I think HE heard a story about it on NPR. I went to the website, got intrigued, bought an Etrex legend that same week. Don't have time right now to cache as much as I'd like, but I'm still having a lot of fun doing it, when I can! :D

heard the story on npr and i said, "gotta do it!" :huh:

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I was on the Talk Like a Pirate Day site reading about how some people had spent the day. Bumbling Billy mentioned that he was going to be placing a pirate themed cache in the Sonora Desert. He gave the GC.COM website and I immediately hit it. Bam! Hooked at that point. Didn't have a GPSr at the time, but I noticed that there were dozens realy close to my house. I immediately used the internet to my advantage and found several caches without the use of a GPSr. :D

 

After my first find, I was even more hooked. :P

 

I have since found several caches without the use of a GPSr. Then my wife bought me one. I cannot wait to leave for work each morning now. I try to grab one or two on the way in each day. :huh: I am looking forward to some trips that I will be making soon - strickly for the caches outside my local area.

 

Thanks For The Thread.

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I've had an yellow Etrex for several years and used it for walking and general navigation purposes. I subscribe to Country Walking magazine and there was a mention in one of the columns in the mag about geocaching, so we thought we'd 'give it a go'. The kids got hooked and pinched the little yellow, :D, forcing me into going out and buying myself a nice shiny new Vista C :huh: .

Richard and Family

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Had heard about an interesting waterfall in the area with a name that was not on any map (Mystery Falls). Googled it and came across a geocache hidden there - at the time one of very few in the area. Seemed intriguing and I had to find that falls so bought a GPSr, went and found the falls and the cache and then got hooked. Problem was that there were hardly any other caches in the area so started hiding some, doing some locationless, taking the GPSr on trips. From then on it was all downhill :P . Longer trips, events, more hides and I'm still hooked.

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Started out fairly typically: I asked for, and received, a GPSr for Hanukkah last year,

then had to figure out what to do with it. Found the geocaching.com Web site and created an account. Took the GPSr to Disneyworld and found my first cache. Nothing happened after that for about four months until I was asked to write an article about geocaching for the newspaper where I work. Heading into the field with an experienced geocacher, and chatting with a couple of others via phone and e-mail, ignited my interest.

 

We don't get out as much as we like (the purpose of our weekend outings is

hiking/walking/exercise primarily, although now we check to see what caches are hidden along the way). Our current focus is to find all 41 of the caches within 10 miles of home. (Got 9 of 'em so far). Also, took the GPS on trips to Canada, Boston and Hollywood. Slowly, our tally of "finds" is increasing.

Edited by The Old Bet Brigade
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I first read about geocaching in newspaper on May 2002 and got already interested, but forgot about it until my local newspaper published another article about it last September or October of the same year. I checked if there was any caches where I live, and since there was, I looked for one without a GPSr. After finding it I just had to order a GPSr from the USA and here I am now. :P

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I read an article about it in my local newspaper. I think it was in late August of 2001. I thought, hey this sounds like another fun way to enjoy the outdoors. I was already an avid hiker and backpacker and looked at geocaching as a new twist to those activities. I jotted down the website and excitedly went home and logged on and read more about it. Then I eagerly sent the URL to my friends and family members who also enjoy the outdoors and was surprised by their total lack of interest. My wife's reaction was something like "That's nice honey, can you take out the garbage?"

 

Undaunted, I researched and purchased a GPS (eTrex Legend) within a couple of weeks (I had heard of them, but previously had no interest whatsoever in them) and the day it arrived I checked for caches near my house and discovered one barely a mile away. In retrospect this was surprising, because there weren't many caches back then. I headed right out and found it. Took a while because I didn't know how to use the GPS and wandered around trying to match coordinates to the ones on the page. It took a half dozen more finds before I discovered the navigation and map screens :P .

Edited by briansnat
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