Etiquette when seeing other Geocachers?

[CurmudgeonlyGal]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr. Big:

Interesting sociological note: some of you have mentioned that most folks say "hi." Out here on the Left Coast, my on-the-trail ratio is about 50-50.

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While still on the Left Coast, just up the road a couple of states, I seem to have far better luck than you. I am hard pressed to think of a single time I've said 'hi', or waved (to ORV riders) that I've not received a response in kind.

 

That said, I'm definitely NOT an imposing figure so I wonder if that has much to do with it (or if everyone in the Valley there is just rude! Lived there... was happy to flee!)

 

Really, I think you should try the goat entrails and see just how your results may vary.

[BassoonPilot]

Etiquette when seeing other Geocachers?

 

Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes. They could be revenuers.

[Rapparee]

When I read through this thread my first thought was that living in the Southern USA (I am not even from the USA), I find that in general, most people here will smile at you or greet you even if you merely make eye contact.

 

I mentioned this "friendly" factoid to my wife, who is a full blooded GRITS (Girl Raised In The South). She looked at me charmingly and said "Hun, that's because they think there's a chance you might be related to them."

 

Well, you can't say they don't have an excellent sense of humour "down south" either.

 

And the "southern" cachers I have met while out hunting are are all of the above... friendly, gracious, entertaining, and usually quite at home with wry country wit.

[+westumbledonit]

Some of the posts are great. We have run into a couple of Geocachers and just said hello. We were just getting to the final of a multi-cache in Port Angeles, WA when we looked over the bank and saw a geocacher at the final. Well, it was "pcakes" the owner making a check.

 

Had a good conversation and parted ways. One suggestion on how to AVOID other cachers. Stop working and do most of your hunting during the week!!! Works for us!!!!!

 

[This message was edited by beardedbosn&juju on October 09, 2003 at 04:09 PM.]

[+TeamELRAY]

quote:

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Originally posted by Poppa Duck: Another time I found a pair of newbies just staring at the area of a cache's hiding place. I said Hi and asked if they were looking for XXXX (insert cache name here). When they said yes they knew I had made them and we had a rather pleasant conversation.

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And that was us who (whom?) Poppa Duck "made" as geocachers. Being new to the sport, we very much enjoyed meeting such a helpful fellow geocacher. Gives one a sense of belonging to a community of nice people. So I would say, definitely say hello and look at it as an opportunity to make new friends!

[+Cat'N'Geo]

We've run into 3 cachers since we started in June, 2 had just found their first, the other had several caches we had enjoyed finding (Hiya Eswau!).

 

I guess we scared off the other 2. Ooopsy.

 

They say this universe is bound to blow,

I say we crank up the Calypso Control!

~Jimmy Buffett

 

~Someday I Will~

[+jeepjohn]

If the other cachers have not found the cache, I prefer to say "Hello." and walk on down the trail to let them finish their find to return when they have moved on.

 

Then when I return and find the cache, I log in, replace the cache and my dog and I pee on it so no one else will mess with it!

[Team Lizzzard]

Most of the cachers we met, we knew already who they are from pictures they posted with other cache logs. Since we were pretty new to the hobby and they couldn't recognize us, we greeted them with their nicknames rightaway... Three of those caches were multis and we met them at the final stage, so we started searching for the stash together.

Once we met a couple in the field while we were signing the log book. Since we were sitting down quite a few meters away from the actual hide, we suggested they should enjoy the scenic view a hundred meters away and we would inform them as soon as we would have finished rehiding the cache...

[+GEO CHIMP]

OK, right coast cacher here...I was thoroughly way off course on a virtual in Manassas Battlefield, and ended up on the grounds of NoVA Comm. College nearby. (Note, dead reckoning is great for Orienteering, but a BIG waste of time in Geocaching...chant the manta: READ the MAPS, FOLLOW the trails...) A maintenance guy was just pulling into work there, and I asked him if he knew the trails nearby, and if he knew the quickest way back to the Battlefield. Heck, he offered (and I took) a ride back to my car. Nice guy, but a little paranoid. As I was explaining Geocaching, he wanted to know if this whole thing was set up by the manufacturers of GPS's. He said that that would be another ploy by them to sell more of them. I said no, but since have seen Magellan doing this.

 

OR, once I greet other folks on trails, ask 'em if they're Geocaching, and start explaining what it is if they're ignorant, some have thought I've been trying to sell them something. What a culture we live in, w/ SPAM, Telemarketers, etc. All I do is tell/show 'em how much fun and good exercise (brain and body) this activity can provide. I can't blame them for being paranoid, in today's society: crime, miscreants, etc. I try to keep a TB on me too, to show them how fascinating it can be too.

 

Wearing Geocaching hats/pins/patches doesn't hurt too, as they are recognizable to other cachers, and official-looking to uninitiated.

 

Cache on my Brothers and Sisters....

[+RainDog]

My wife met a geocacher while he was looking at a virtual I had set up at the county courthouse. The building dates back to the late 1800's. We was wandering around with a GPSr and she asked hi if he was caching. She told him that I had set up the cache. We later met one who came out of his vacation cabin when he spied a disreputable looking character emerge from a car and start looking around on his land. His son had set up the cache and he happened to be there when we were hunting it. I was using old sheets and he was nice enough to give me a sheet to a cache he had hidden nearby, but I was unaware of. Both were nice people.

 

How do the Angels get to sleep when the Devil leaves his porch light on?

[+Squrl]

Haven't ran into anyone yet