vb:literal>

Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 36

Thread: How did geocaching start for YOU?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Rockland Me
    Posts
    440

    Smile How did geocaching start for YOU?

    I have another hobby that has actually published a book regarding how people got started on this hobby. It may be interesting to start a thread on how we got hooked on the geocaching bug and who was responsible.
    Here goes....I was was writing to my friend that is involved in my other hobby, and she mentioned that she was going to be away for a bit with her brother, geocaching. Of course, not having a clue what she was talking about, she had to give the the low down on what she did, and the fact that her brother ( Funnynose) has cached all over the world. So, thanks to my friend Circles from Bath, I hunted up an old GPS, called a friend, to hiked up and find our first cache on Beech Hill. Four of us went. We were so excited we could hardly stand it. So, thanks to Circles, I have met some of you great people and have seen places all over the state and out of the country that I never would have been to. Isn't that the best part of this hobby?? I then sent out my first cache Skiing with the chicks, and Mapachi found it, and said it was his first FTF. That was a bit ago...... Cache on...please continue your story....

  2. #2

    Default How...

    I blame DrWhoGrl for getting me started. She was temp working for the company I work for and as I was getting to know some of the people and expressed my interest for outdoors, she mentioned geocaching. I had heard of orienteering and thought it was kind of similar until I looked at the site. Well, after looking, I had to try it so I went out that week and bought an Etrex Legend as it was the lowest grade GPS I could find at the time. I went out by myself the first time as I had no idea what I was doing and wanted to kind of self teach and avoid embarassment if I didn't find the cache. My first was the Cascade Cache in Bangor and I was hooked from there. Since then, kids slowed me down but I am finding more and more time here and there to sneak away lately. Thanks Wendy for the introduction and a couple of fun trips.
    There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and ‘mental illness'. ---Dave Barry

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Bangor, ME
    Posts
    6,343

    Default

    I was lucky when I started caching as I was already proficient with my GPS. I had bought the Yellow Etrex back when it first came out and soon was extracting coordinates from early 1900's maps and searching out the foundations of the buildings on those maps. I also was an avid ATV'er at the time and mapped out hundreds of miles of roads and trails off the Stud Mill Rd. and the Chick Hill/Clifton area. It was one day when I was searching for maps online that I discovered Geocaching. I read through nearly the entire gc.com forums before I even looked for any caches. At that time those forums weren't a lot bigger than ours here! I thought of a few spots that would be neat to hide one and a few days later someone hid one a mile from my house, and the rest is history. I still use the Yellow Etrex, by the way - it's like a Timex!
    DNFTT! DNFTT! DNFTT!

    "The funniest thing about this particular signature is that by the time you realize it doesn't say anything it's to late to stop reading it..."

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Solon, Maine
    Posts
    5,965

    Default

    In the summer of 2003, RULost2? and I were vacationing in northern Ontario, and heard an hour long broadcast on CBC Radio about geocaching. It sounded fascinating, so we checked it out after we got back. We've been hooked ever since! LOL!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Boothbay, Maine
    Posts
    166

    Default

    I had heard about geocaching awhile ago maybe from a new story? and thought to myself "that would be a fun thing to do", but then forgot about it for awhile. About a year and a half ago, my co-leader in Girl Scouts mentioned she was going geocaching and it reminded me that I wanted to try it. I was looking on the Girl Scout web site (for something else) and there was a link to an article about geocaching in western Maine. I clicked it and then a few clicks later I was on the geocaching.com site. I put in my zip code and WOW there were so many right near me. I went out that day and (unsuccessfully) searched for a cache. I had no idea how to use the GPS and didn't know how to plug in the coords so I was moving around slowly trying to get the coords to match with the posted coords. Nice huh? We went back the next day with my husband who showed me how to plug in the coords and found the cache right off. I was hooked right away and have forced my hobby on my children who come with me without too much resistance. lol

    My only problem now is that we've found the caches near our house and now we need to drive to get to ones we haven't found. I need more time off! lol

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Boothbay, Maine
    Posts
    166

    Default

    sorry, I meant a NEWS story

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Unity, Maine
    Posts
    3,874

    Default

    I was out on the ATV on the Sunrise Trail (a rather large ATV trail of 600+ miles near the Airline) and despite the fact that I had a DeLorme map and there were some trail signs my buddy and I ended up getting hopelessly lost . . . although we were fortunate as we met up with some folks near Chick Hill who had sandwiches and snacks (we had none as we were hoping to eat at Nicatous Lodge) but no gas (of which we had plenty) . . . and so right then and there we shared some gas for food . . . and at that point I realized if you don't know where you are, even having a really good map is not very useful which prompted my search for a GPSr.

    Being me I always tend to research things to the Nth degree and in doing so I concluded that clearly the Magellan was the better GPSr (well at least it was for me and my needs ) and I learned about geocaching which seemed rather interesting . . . plus it gave me another excuse . . . I mean reason . . . to purchase a GPSr.

    So, I ended up buying the Magellan originally for the ATV, but honestly I do a lot more geocaching than ATVing these days . . . although I do try to balance it out somewhat.

    My first cache was The Cornfield Cache in Albion. It's archived now . . . I'm not even sure if the folks that hid it are still caching. I do know that it was pretty neat as it gave a description of the country fair that used to be held at that location . . . I also know I must have looked ridiculous as I didn't know about the "go to" feature and compass and so I was trying to line up the numbers of the cache description to the numbers shown on the GPSr which meant a whole lot of back and forth walking and side stepping.

    As a side note, many years later I ran into some cachers out in Attroll's neck of the woods . . . I thought they looked familiar and they mentioned that I looked familiar -- later on we figured out why . . . they were the ATVers my buddy and I had met on the Sunrise Trail who had almost run out of gas.
    "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."

    "Death is only one of many ways to die."

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Orlando, Florida
    Posts
    285

    Default

    We actually heard about geocaching several times before finally trying it out.

    Last summer Ben and I went to Prince Edward Island for a long weekend of lighthouse hunting (we're obsessed with lighthouses). Our B&B hostess was the sweetest woman and she called me after I made my reservation to find out what we're interested in. When we got to her B&B she had a packet waiting for us - a map of the island, pamphlets for things I mentioned enjoying, pamphlets for things she thought we'd enjoy, etc. She sat us down at the kitchen table and went over the map with us... she gave us the important information like where to get the cheapest ice cream, best sea food, the best bars, etc. One of the things she thought we may enjoy was Geocaching. She described it briefly but we ended up having so much to do that weekend that we didn't have time to look in to it.

    At about the same time a friend started a usergroup in Florida for something completely unrelated. I subscribed to the group's blog so I could keep up with what they are doing. One day he blogged about having gone geocaching with a guy in the group. He included pictures and it reminded me of our B&B hostess, so I looked it up. I skimmed the gc.com site but since Ben hadn't seemed too enthused when our B&B hostess told us about it I didn't think to mention trying it out.

    Then in April Ben and I joined a bookclub. Everyone went around the group introducing themselves and someone mentioned geocaching as one of his hobbies. When we were driving home Ben was all excited and really wanted to try it out. I reminded him out of B&B hostess but he has absolutely no recollection... he insists that if he'd known about geocaching a year ago we'd have done it, lol. We went caching the following weekend and have cached most weekends since then

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Richmond
    Posts
    410

    Default For me it all began when.......

    My DW had me watching an episode of CSI back in 03'. They showed a lady running through the woods w/a GPSr. She dug up a plastic box and left her signature item. So I looked up geocaching and loved the idea. I started w/two Rinos we used for outdoorsy stuff. I downloaded loc files for areas we'd travel to and the family didn't seem into it. I finally got them out on the UMA trails to find our first ones. I watched the months go by as they didn't seem all that interested. We went w/friends and took friends. Geocaching is something I'm passionate about. DW assists as she employs her passion to put all my memories into scrapbook form.
    I'm just nuts about geocaching!!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    America
    Posts
    2,578

    Default

    A beautiful woman in a very skimpy bikini asked me to help her find something.



    We were at the beach and the woman I was going out with at the time and her daughter had looked for a cache and could not find it. The daughters friend had told her about it and the cache was close to were I lived. The next day we got together, looked at the website, read logs and descriptions and down the road we went. A lot of people were having trouble finding this one as it was very well hidden, but in plain sight.

    After a few minutes I came up with the cache and was hooked.
    I have no enemies, but I'm intensely disliked by my friends.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •