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:d How Did You Get Learn About Geocaching?


CacheKestrel

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Hello everyone,

 

I just wanted to drop a note because I might run into you along the trail. Being new to GeoCaching I have been trying to learn as much as I can. This past November I received a Lowrance iFINDER PRO for my birthday. I requested this GPSr mainly because I wanted to learn about GeoCaching. I find myself hiking along the trails in New Jersey a lot, and thought that GeoCaching would add to my adventure.

 

My introduction to GeoCaching started when I discovered (with the help of a friend) a small camouflaged film canister hidden in a log. When I opened this container it had some bizarre number code on a piece of paper. It read something like N 12° 34.567 W 12° 34.567 and I asked my friend what it was. He explained that it was the longitude and latitude for a GeoCache location. He seemed secretive about the whole thing and simply said that I should search the internet for GeoCaching. “I do not what to spoil it for you” he said. We both placed the container back where we found it and went on our way.

 

That night I searched the internet and read all about GeoCaching. I very much enjoyed hiking and computers so it seemed only natural to want to give it a try. After consulting with my friend and researching a suitable GPSr for GeoCaching I decided on the iFINDER PRO. When I finally got the GPSr I gave it a try. It was lots of fun. Before you know it I got mapping software, started “lurking” these fourms and became a Premium Membership to Geocaching.com so that I can download eBook files to my PDA. Yes I went straight into paperless caching!

 

As you can tell I have already found a few caches but the numbers are not as important to me as the location. I will often do some extra hiking in the area that I am visiting just to enjoy. Please tell us about how you got started with GeoCaching.

 

Thanks,

 

- CacheKestrel

Edited by CacheKestrel
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I learned about Geocaching last spring from a segment on NPR. I went to the website and printed out the information for some nearby caches and gave those pages to a neighbor. I thought it would be a great activity for him, his wife, and their little girl.

 

I didn't think it was something I would get interested in . . . :D

 

Well, when I saw a friend's GPSr last December, I started coveting it. So, I bought myself a Garmin eTrex Vista for Christmas. I finally got out to find my first one January 17 and I've found 20 so far. :D

 

If I had known how much fun this was . . . even going it alone . . . I would have gotten my GPSr months ago. ;)

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Cool GPSr, that's the one I started with! Nice to see others using it.

 

I basically 'heard' about it and knew I had to check it out for myself. I came online, did a search, and saw some nearby caches. I knew I had to get involved! So I got my iFinder, and off I went. After two tries I found my first cache...and I haven't stopped since.

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Ya Know, I was sitting in front of my computer one day just looking over the new products on Garmin's site and I think I click on the "What is Geocaching" link.

 

I have an eTrex yellow from when they first came out that I use to use for camping and fishing, before I had a family. I pull the GPS out and dusted it off, replaced the batteries and asked the wife if she wanted to give it a try.

 

Since then we get out more on weekends and my daughters get to find treasures. :o which is very fun for them.

 

Planning my first five star urban cache right now. Man, is it going to be tough. I just hope it proves to stump the regular cachers in the area.

 

mrking

Edited by mrking
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While sitting in the middle of the desert on the Iraqi border, I found that I had Internet access and nothing to do. So, I really started surfing the forums on Where's George.com. A bunch of people there kept writing about geocaching. Being nosey, I checked it out. I found out that I had seen a 60 minutes peice on this years ago and thought it sounded interesting back then. I didn't have any extra cash though to buy a GPS so it stayed with the sounds interesting and maybe some day when I win the lottery. But while sitting in that desert without much to do, I was really checking out the site. My NCOIC asked what I was looking at and I shared. Would you believe that we spent months trying to find a GPS in country that we could borrow to cache and no one had one! There are two relatively "safe" caches in Kuwait that we thought we would try to find. And we thought we could set one up near where we were for as long as we were there. And we thought we could teach the rest of our little group about this. Alas, it was not meant to be. After coming home, I shared this with my husband. We went out immediately without a GPS and couldn't find the cache. Not to be defeated, my husband went to the nearest store that sold GPSs and bought one. Now, I never travel without it. From the thought someday to today...... Boy, am I glad GPS prices are more reasonable than they were when they first came out!

 

Terri

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An Orthopedic surgeon I work for told me about it. My son-in-law is a surveyor and outdoor enthusiast and wanted a GPSr for christmas. I bought him an old Garmin (315 I think) and borrowed it back from him to find my first cache. I then got an E-Trex Legend of my own. I am not a fanatic cacher but like to go out on occasion. Happy caching :o

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I saw a small headline in the local paper one day along the lines of "Treasure Hunt Goes High Tech". Well, always wanting to be a pirate, I knew treasure hunting would be cool. That was on a Wednesday. By Friday night, I had a GPS, and that Saturday I was signing the log on my first geocache...been hooked ever since!

Edited by Pork King
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I found out about Geocaching from a message board I visit from time-to-time. Someone posted a question asking who did it, and someone posted before I could asking about it. I followed the links provided, and was hooked. I convinced the wife a few days later that the purchase of a GPSr would be a good thing, and the rest is history.

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That is easy, My best friends ex-boyfriend had took her out for a few spots a couple of months ago. I kind of forgot about it and was online one night when I for someodd reson remembered. That was a couple of weeks ago. Just bought a Garmin Legend and we will be out this weekend. Hopefully we wil find something :tired: We did some letterboxes last weekend as sort of a trial run and my kids loved it even though it was kind of cold. Can't wait til this weekend! :rolleyes:

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I was at an 7-year-old's birthday party and one of the dads was late because he was out with his older kid. He said his mother-in-law just bought the older kid this "game" and they were out in the snow searching for a box with their new GPSr. He started telling me about it and i thought the kids i watch would LOVE it, so i went to the website. Then i bought MYSELF a GPSr because i became obsessed with the idea. Someday, i will introduce the kids to it, but for now i'm figuring out without them!

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About 5 years ago I ended up with a basic GPS from a surplus auction, can't even remember which brand, and I fiddled with it, and kinda didn't really get into figuring out how to use it. So I sold it on ebay.

This winter I thought about getting another GPS after seeing the map display on one in a Cabelas catalog. Then someone posted a message about geocaching over at a techie forum I frequent. So I ordered an early Christmas present, and decided that I would try out finding some geocaches as a way to learn how to use the thing. Now I am kinda into it, and have added NG Topo, GPX SOnar to my PPC, and paid for the premium membership. SO I guess I have become a geocacher.

 

My original intent for getting a GPS was for hiking and exploring, and finding places that I see on maps, but have worried about getting lost in. I hope geocaching doesn't consume me and distract from doing that. LOL

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My original intent for getting a GPS was for hiking and exploring, and finding places that I see on maps, but have worried about getting lost in. I hope geocaching doesn't consume me and distract from doing that. LOL

Well, you can place new caches at all those nifty caches and kill two birds with one stone. :blink:

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There's a public park near me that used to be for 4WD and dirt bikes. It was closed to motorized vehicles and now it's used extensively by mtn bikers, horses, hikers, etc. There's lots of well developed trails in the park and a great website. I was checking the maps on the website one day and noticed the link for geocaching...curiosity took me from there to www.geocaching.com. There are about a dozen caches hidden in the park...my son and I are going to try to do them all in a day this Spring. By the way, the name of the park is Haw Ridge and it's just outside Oak Ridge, TN.

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Read about it in a [newspaper, magazine, ?] article two, three years about. Heard about it on NPS some time ago. Probably ecountered it in one form or another 4-5 times in the last few years.

 

But the reason I bought my GPS was just to log my backpacking and hikes. Then while on the Magellan site I saw a geocaching link and the rest is history.

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My wife came home from a candle party and told me she knew what she wanted to get me for Fathers Day (which was still a month away). She wanted to tell me but I wouldn't let her. She finally talked me into it and she said she wanted to get me a GPS. I said, "Ok!" She hadn't told me why but I just thought it'd be cool. She kind of explained GeoCaching to me and I was intrigued. We decided that we'd go out and get a GPSr and then between then and Fathers Day we'd learn how to use it. We'd then go out on Fathers Day and do some caching. We went out a couple days later and bought a Etrex Legend. The following day she and I found our first 3 caches. We took the kids out a couple days later and found 5 with them! We've been hooked ever since.

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I was in PA (live in GA) for some company training and was talking to one of our field service engineers from Germany. He couldn't go to dinner becasue he had to work on his hobby. I was nosy and asked, he told me about it and I thought it sounded cool and like a good excuse to get a GPSr. He took me to find a cache and I thought this would be great for the family since we like to hike. I introduced it to my kids (9 and 11) and they enjoyed it (Told a co-worked about and now his family geocaches also). We don't go much with all their sports and other activities but I have several already booked and details in my PDA ready for our next trip.

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I learned about Geocaching while searching the 'net for reviews and opinions on the latest Garmin products. I use a Garmin GPS 48 on my boats and wanted to buy a new GPSr with basic maping for cross country trips. Curiosity led me to this site and within a few minutes I was hooked. This was about a week ago and I haven't looked for a cache yet, partally because my wife has some difficulty walking and we still have snow on the ground. But I have my "first five" list with coordinates in my new Vista and I'm ready to go..... of course, it's starting to snow and the predictionis are for 5-10" Arg!

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I learned about geocaching at an HR conference last year. A colleague of mine was MIA during the lunch on the first day, and when I ran into him at lunch on the second day of the conference I asked him where he was. He sheepishly said he had gone geocaching during the lunch break on the previous day. He then launched into the explanation to which I knew that my husband would find intriguing. We went to Best Buy that weekend, bought a GPS, cursed at it since we couldn't quite figure it out at first. But within 24 hours of that purchase we found our first cache. I must say, the rush of finding that first cache really hooked us and reeled us in. And the rest, shall we say is history. Our goal is to get to 100 before the end of March 2005.

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I started reading about selective availability going away, back in 2000. Came across geocaching in early Jan 2001. I found 4 caches and logged one, before getting wrapped up in other things. Back then, I had to drive 40 minutes to find a cache. Now that I have tons of caches and a girlfriend who has fun doing it, I'm back at it. Probably still the lowest caches found number for a user ID as low as mine. :)

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Well, in the fall of '01 my son, who lives in AZ, came to visit, and he showed me this GPS thing that he had. I said something like "oh, that's neat, but what can you do with it?" He said he uses it to look for hidden ammo boxes. I asked why. He said, "because." I said, "oh, well, have fun, but I'm not interested." About six weeks later he was visiting again, and asked me if I'd like to go see the site of a big train wreck. I immediately said yes and was out in the car before he was. Heck, I'd drive 100 miles out of my way for trains..... well, on the way, he happened to mention that there was one of these cache things there, too, and that inside it was a copy of the newspaper article about the train wreck, and some other stuff related to it. I said it sounded interesting, but did that mean we had to find the darn thing before we could find out about the wreck? He laughed wickedly and said, "but of course." Well, by then we were halfway to Nashville, so why not.

 

We got to Nashville and his GPS got us to a place where it was about a half mile walk to the cache. So we started out...next thing you know, some golf course security guy came zooming up and told us we couldn't walk across the golf course. I didn't understand this, and I asked him why....didn't the golfers walk on the grass? We went around with this rather slow witted individual, trying to get him to see the logic that people other than golfers could walk on the grass..it was a public golf course, and taxpayers paid for it. Finally gave up, and he drove off across the grass on his little golf cart (I guess that floated above the grass or something)....anyway, we decided to find a different way in. We ended up parking at a hospital parking lot, climbing over a wall, fording a creek, bushwacking to a point where we could stand on the old abandonded railroad embankment and look out over the golf course. After about a half hour search, we found the cache...it was loaded with neat stuff, and had copies of the info on the train wreck, including pictures of how the area looked at the time. I loved it...I really like trains and I really like history. We made our way out of there, and as we got our feet wet the second time, I asked him three questions: Are there any more of these around here? Can we go do it? How much is a GPS?

 

The rest, as they say, is history.

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I found out about GeoCaching from a computer friend in TX. She sent me the website. I kept looking over the site and reading. I was getting cabin fever and decided I needed something to get me out of the house. A person I work with has a GPS and I asked if he could bring it in. Well looking at it I said to myself. I think I read that with the insturction book. I kept floating around the website and reading all the comments for the caches. I decieded to take the plung. My huband and I went to Radio Radioshack to check to see what they had for GPSs. we had no idea where to go (of course I did not come to the forurm first} I got the Germin Gekgo 101 and it was cheap. I bought it and said well if we dont like it we didnt spend much.

 

The next day we went out and found 3 caches. I have gone caching for the last 3 weeks. I am having fun. I have taken a co-worker and her boyfriend and my sister this pass weekend. My husband has gone with me the rest of the time except for the one time I went shopping and to my GPS to find a cache before I went shopping. My cabin Blues are going away. I look forward to the weekend to go caching. I have other people looking forward to going. Another co-worker got her husband a GPS he has not used it. She wants me to go with her and a friend to try it out. I told her to let me know and I will tag along.

 

And as the saying goes the rest is history :):)

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I've been caching for... almost a week now. I first heard about geocaching

from a Jeep ad, years ago. Never occured to me to do it though, starving

college students look for food, they don't buy a GPSr.

 

My brother's a caver, has been for years. A friend of his is a caver, and

a geocacher (if you find a cache 200' underground, you'll know who's to

blame, I guess). He got into geocaching with his friend, and he got me

pretty enthused when he was talking about it, so he sent me a GPS for

my birthday. Since then, I've been out caching all over.

 

My first day messing with the GPSr, I accidentally programmed in a point that

was several numbers off from the one I was trying to enter. It was just an

Arbitrary Point.

 

This summer, I plan to get some serious caching done, maybe catch up

with my brother, he's only 90 caches ahead of me now. Then again, he's

only been caching a month longer than me, too. At this rate, he'll be 400

ahead of me by then.

 

This post reads so well, I'm gonna make it my biography. ;)

Thanks for giving me something to put there. ;)

Edited by mwenechanga
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My friend told me about it after he logged his first cache and joined me when I went to find it. Back when I started there weren’t too many caches and I was always logging on geocaching.com to search for new cache listings. Most of the caches back then in my area were vacation caches and if the game had the same rules as today, I would have had to drive many miles to find new caches.

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I found out about it in an Artical written in a local magazine by a friend of mine. I had a GPSr and soon went out to find the one closest to my house in Japan. With My wife navigating from the GPSr, and me driving we went on a wild adventure. I've been hooked eversince, My wife sayes she is going to find me a "Geocaching Anonymous" group.

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I heard about geocaching in years past but never really looked into it. Just a few weeks ago I read a pdf on geocaching that another employee at my company had posted on our for sale/to buy database. I immediately forwarded it to my wife knowing she would just dig the idea and before I made it home that night I had picked up a GPS and we had a great weekend finding caches.

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I was "browsing" a singles web site and saw a profile that caught my attention. She listed geocaching as something she recently got into. I had no clue, so I looked it up. Next day Amazon.com was sending me a Garmin V. I'm hooked and I owe that gal a debt of gratitude.

 

Like so many things in life... I got into it because of a girl.

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Someone I worked with had gone hiking in NV and mentioned doing some "geocaching" assuming everyone else knew what he was talking about I didn't ask. I did however go look it up online and thought it would be interesting. A few months later I mentioned it to my boyfriend as something we should look into further but we always thought about it in the middle of the woods hiking and never remembered to look it up again. One night we were sitting around and I thought about it and came to this site, we talked about it a little bit and now our GPS should be here today! Hopefully it will stay nice enough so we can get out this weekend, we're both addicted already and neither of us have done anything. :ph34r:

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My husband got into it when geocaching was still very new, he had found the site by accident. As there were no caches in our area yet and we were still pretty new to all of it wait until there was one near by and then we went and found it, snice then we have been off and on cachers as we tend to be able to go to only kid friendly caches. He had is own account, but we now have just a family account, and our kids love hunting for treasure.

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A GPSr is a gadget, and I like gadgets, so I bought one with no real clue what to do with it. I thought it would come in handy while traveling, or biking, etc.

 

Saw this strange word "geocaching" in the owner's manual and thought "what the heck does that mean?" Googled it, and it brought me to this web site. After figuring out what this was about, and seeing that there was a cache hidden only .2 miles away from where I work, I set out at lunchtime to find it. As it turns out it was a crappy lamppost micro, but I thought it was really clever, and was instantly hooked.

 

That's my story and I'm ..........

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I had heard about it some time ago and knew you needed a GPS but never looked into it because I did not have one.

I do a lot of hiking and finially decided to get a GPS in Feb. So I have read up on GC and decided to give it a try. I like hunting for the caches when out hiking. I usually pick a few to look for in a park that they all look like they can be hiked to and try to find them. 2 Weeks ago I had a nice 6 mile hike and found 4 caches.

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