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Now, I'm quite new to Geocaching, and, having bought myself a Magellan 110 a few weeks back, instantly realized it wasn't good enough and started reading-up on more sophisticated devices, cos I'm a Gen-X lad and like my gadgets to be complicated. I didn't buy either GPSr for caching primarily, but for an upcoming, long-overdue escape into the bush: a bug-out by choice, if you will.

 

I've thus far only found 2 caches, and it came as no surprise to me that both caches were filled with junk, I expect this of course, since nobody wants to add Granpas 24-carat gold heirloom watch to a public cache. I got a free month premium (like many users starting-out), from the Magellan I initially bought, and only realized the other day Groundspeak are the GCaching.com forums, and that I just needed to login using the same account.

 

I've looked around and replied to a few posts, and clicking on a few profiles I've found many of the cachers are 60+ or thereabouts, and thought, "that's a bit straaaange. That someone that age would be out searching for caches filled with Broken McDonalds toys. Surely they'd rather be out on their boats, wearing their hideous brightly coloured tropical shirts, and sipping pina coladas in some bar in Florida or something?

 

Why would older people want to spend their time hunting little plastic containers full of kids toys?

 

Oh, also, I was wondering whether there are any caches that contain anything worth opening the cache to find?

 

I understand that even if the caches only contain junk, the draw to find them IS rewarded when you find a cache, because you get to strike it off the list, and log it as found. Just wondering the ratio of junk-caches to ones that contain actual valuables of some kond.

Edited by Psychaesthetic
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I'm 71. It's all about the hunt, an activity that gets me out of doors, out of town, out of state. It is not at all about the junk in the caches. Most of the time, now, I don't even bother adding toys or whatever to the depleted swag. I don't like boats, I don't like pina coladas and I can wear my outlandish clothes while caching.

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I figured as much.

 

It's certainly better for your health than Dr Phil, so yeah alright I got it :)

 

Reason I asked if there are any caches of value, *is* because I've opened two only, and both made me just want to wash my hands afterwards. Wash my hands, I'll clarify, because they're painted with nasty camo paint than seems to stick to your skin. I personally find it a good reason to change the route I would usually take when walking the dog. Since there's a cache to head for, she gets a different, new walk, and I get to log the, as found.

 

I've added two both caches, on both occasions i hqve added a small snap-lock baggie with vegetable seeds, since i figure the cache's waterproof, and seeds are of great practical use. Also, being an avid gardener, I have around 150 varieties of heirloom seeds I've collected, so I can easily chuck a few seeds in a cache.

 

That's three reason to take the gps and go find a cache, but i don't know that simply goijg alone and logging it would be motivation enough, so once i move from here, and no longer have a dog to walk, I don't know.

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....Reason I asked if there are any caches of value, *is* because I've opened two only, and both made me just want to wash my hands afterwards. Wash my hands, I'll clarify, because they're painted with nasty camo paint than seems to stick to your skin....

 

 

Maybe you are overdue to watch or rewatch all seasons of the TV series "Monk". It could save your sanity. ;)

 

Yes, of course, many cache containers are cool.

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I am 66, and don't care about the toys in the cache. But I often leave a couple toys in a cache that is getting empty, so the kids that find it might get a "treasure".

 

I just like having something to get me out of the house and get some exercise. This has been a very fun way to do that for me.

 

Some caches are fun to poke through to see what people have left in them, but rarely is there anything in the cache that I would want. Just finding the thing, and signing the log does it for me.

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Ingenious.... in your overwhelming desire to be intelligent, you just led the rats, squirrels or other vermin to the cache by adding food to it. You don't really believe that they actually remember where they buried the nuts, do you? They can smell them!

Simply Outstanding.

 

Forget you're dose of Fibre-PLUS yesterday?

 

And on the topic of faux intelligence, you *do* realize the seeds are in a snaplok, *inside* a waterproof container? Right? .. You truly believe, than in the middle of suburbia, a rat will even waste it's time climbing to chew through a thick plastic box - assuming it can smell it through all the layers - when there's resturant garbage bins, discarded food, and a plethora of other, higher calorie, food sources?

 

Way to make yourself look foolish Bro! ;)

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Ingenious.... in your overwhelming desire to be intelligent, you just led the rats, squirrels or other vermin to the cache by adding food to it. You don't really believe that they actually remember where they buried the nuts, do you? They can smell them!

Simply Outstanding.

 

Forget you're dose of Fibre-PLUS yesterday?

 

And on the topic of faux intelligence, you *do* realize the seeds are in a snaplok, *inside* a waterproof container? Right? .. You truly believe, than in the middle of suburbia, a rat will even waste it's time climbing to chew through a thick plastic box - assuming it can smell it through all the layers - when there's resturant garbage bins, discarded food, and a plethora of other, higher calorie, food sources?

 

Way to make yourself look foolish Bro! ;)

I would guess most geocachers don't even know the value of thos heirloom seeds or what to do with them. :laughing: I geocache for my health, and I would enjoy those heirloom seeds. :ph34r:

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Hunt a regular-size cache that requires a 5+ mile hike. Out away from town. Assuming the container is nice and water tight (like an ammo can), the stuff inside a cache like that is apt to be infinitely better in quality and quantity. Intriguing even. (Not intriguing enough to make it worth hiking 5+ miles just for the swag, but better than anything located in a city, primarily because it's found so seldom.)

 

In my opinion, swag = the sprinkles on top of a cupcake...extraneous (and not super tasty). Finding the cache = the frosting (good frosting, the homemade kind with cream cheese). The hike = the cupcake itself (absolutely essential, edible plain, but better with good frosting). :D

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My wife and I hiked over a mile for five caches today. Why, because we enjoy each others company and have for over 50 years of marriage. We also love the outdoors and the exercise we get. We get to see interesting things and new places. Things and places that we would never have seen but for caching. A sunken volcano 4 miles off the island of Maui or the top of a dead 10,000 foot volcano on the same island. Pipe Stone Minnesota, where native Americans have mined the Catlanite that they use to make pipes from. They have mined it here for centuries. Yeah we get the lamp post skirt caches but we also get the neat caches like the Jurassic park cache in Wisconsin. At age 71 we have a lot of life left to live and a lot to see and enjoy.

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Ingenious.... in your overwhelming desire to be intelligent, you just led the rats, squirrels or other vermin to the cache by adding food to it. You don't really believe that they actually remember where they buried the nuts, do you? They can smell them!

Simply Outstanding.

 

Forget you're dose of Fibre-PLUS yesterday?

 

And on the topic of faux intelligence, you *do* realize the seeds are in a snaplok, *inside* a waterproof container? Right? .. You truly believe, than in the middle of suburbia, a rat will even waste it's time climbing to chew through a thick plastic box - assuming it can smell it through all the layers - when there's resturant garbage bins, discarded food, and a plethora of other, higher calorie, food sources?

 

Way to make yourself look foolish Bro! ;)

I would guess most geocachers don't even know the value of thos heirloom seeds or what to do with them. :laughing: I geocache for my health, and I would enjoy those heirloom seeds. :ph34r:

 

I know hey! :)

 

I've built-up my seed collection over a few seasons now, and keep them locked inside heavy-duty snaplocks, inside airtight glass-jars, *inside* a fully insulated esky, all to max-out their shelf life because I just love seeds: The knowledge that - at any given time - I can plant the little suckers and end up with 100% organic, fresh food, well I just love it :)

 

I started with standard Hortico seeds, then quickly found they don't have to tell you whether they're Genetically modified, and that large seed copanies even go as far as creating sterile seeds, so they don't re-seed for you. Once I found that out - several years ago now - I made a point of only shopping for Certified Organic, Open-pollinated Heirloom seeds, so as well as the produce meant to be produced by the plant, each season I get a fresh batch of seeds later on. Sometimes a couple of dozen, sometimes a whole cup. Just depends in the spp of plant.

 

I also switched to Cert. Organic fertilizers last season, so only use organic kelp/seaweed and compost tea: Faster, easier and it keeps the soil conditioned for the next season. Oh I also use worms and their castings.

 

But the seeds, I was thinking of printing up a sheet or two of Geocache tags, with my username and a line or two to write the species. I could then make-up a few little baggies before going out looking for caches and just pop a random packet in when I find one.

 

We (the Mynxy she-wolf and I) went out 2 hours ago looking for a half dozen caches in my area, and didn't find *one cahce*. Man, talk about futile. It's school holidays too, so there's 10x the usual number of people driving around etc, so I look for a few minutes, but then move on when passersby start looking at me like I'm going to break into a house and rob someone or something.

 

The first two - and only two *cough* where pretty easy to find, so I figured I'd get at least 5-6 ticked-off today. but nup. The Oregon 650 performed really well though, in spite of my giving up too fast. I'd set proximity alarms for each cache for 10m and 5m, but like I said with so many "Muggles" around it's hard to stay there lifting rocks and looking over fences etc,.

 

Tomorrow's Saturday too, so it'll probably be even more public-packed then.

 

Oh well :D The dog got a great new walk out of it so she's happy. :)

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Why do older people cache? I don't feel old when I'm doing it.

 

f427f535-12b9-49fc-acd4-bfabbdfe3e7c.jpg

Crux move on a Terrain 4, steeper than it looks.

 

Yeah the photo alone provides ample justification for doing it :) I'm planning a sojourn into the Blue Mountains at the moment, and plan to go mid-winter, and I'm mainly doing it to log photos like that :)

 

Good stuff :)

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Hunt a regular-size cache that requires a 5+ mile hike. Out away from town. Assuming the container is nice and water tight (like an ammo can), the stuff inside a cache like that is apt to be infinitely better in quality and quantity. Intriguing even. (Not intriguing enough to make it worth hiking 5+ miles just for the swag, but better than anything located in a city, primarily because it's found so seldom.)

 

In my opinion, swag = the sprinkles on top of a cupcake...extraneous (and not super tasty). Finding the cache = the frosting (good frosting, the homemade kind with cream cheese). The hike = the cupcake itself (absolutely essential, edible plain, but better with good frosting). :D

 

Yeah Swag is the word for the two I've found so far, but only having two loggd is pretty sad, so I'm feeling compelled to seek-out the local ones just to get a more respectable cache-log going :) Doubt-digits would be a start ;)

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My wife and I hiked over a mile for five caches today. Why, because we enjoy each others company and have for over 50 years of marriage. We also love the outdoors and the exercise we get. We get to see interesting things and new places. Things and places that we would never have seen but for caching. A sunken volcano 4 miles off the island of Maui or the top of a dead 10,000 foot volcano on the same island. Pipe Stone Minnesota, where native Americans have mined the Catlanite that they use to make pipes from. They have mined it here for centuries. Yeah we get the lamp post skirt caches but we also get the neat caches like the Jurassic park cache in Wisconsin. At age 71 we have a lot of life left to live and a lot to see and enjoy.

 

*thumbs-up*

 

I sure didn't mind it. The dog was occasionally bored with my standing and slow-walking around the spot looking for the cache, but yeah it's better than doing the usual "walk-round-the-block" we normally do :)

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Why would older people want to spend their time hunting little plastic containers full of kids toys?

Most people that have been geocaching for any length of time don't care about kids toys, which is one reasons more and more caches are too small to hold anything but the log. To the serious hobbyists, the log is what's important.

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Why would older people want to spend their time hunting little plastic containers full of kids toys?

Most people that have been geocaching for any length of time don't care about kids toys, which is one reasons more and more caches are too small to hold anything but the log. To the serious hobbyists, the log is what's important.

 

Yeah I get it :)

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Why do older people cache? I don't feel old when I'm doing it.

 

f427f535-12b9-49fc-acd4-bfabbdfe3e7c.jpg

Crux move on a Terrain 4, steeper than it looks.

 

Yeah the photo alone provides ample justification for doing it :) I'm planning a sojourn into the Blue Mountains at the moment, and plan to go mid-winter, and I'm mainly doing it to log photos like that :)

 

Good stuff :)

I think that may be key - try and get some caches away from civilization. Go to some bigger parks, etc. so you don't feel as watched. The more you have cached, the more comfortable you will feel. You'll have fun caching in the Blue Mountains. :)

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Why would older people want to spend their time hunting little plastic containers full of kids toys?
I enjoy geocaching for a number of reasons, but the kids toys and other trade items aren't on the list. I do trade for personal signature items left by other geocachers, but they generally aren't of much monetary value, and they aren't really a reason why I geocache.

 

Oh, also, I was wondering whether there are any caches that contain anything worth opening the cache to find?
I've found a couple geocaches that had trade items of significant value. For example, one had a cell phone, complete with charger and other accessories. But the rule is "trade up, trade even, or don't trade", and I wouldn't expect many people to bring anything valuable enough to trade for such items.
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Why do older cachers play? To show the younger technology dependent generation how to find caches.

It's all about opening your eyes and looking around, taking in the views and experience the things that today's gen X kids miss by becoming engrossed in screens and not developing the skills required to find the prize.

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Ingenious.... in your overwhelming desire to be intelligent, you just led the rats, squirrels or other vermin to the cache by adding food to it. You don't really believe that they actually remember where they buried the nuts, do you? They can smell them!

Simply Outstanding.

 

Forget you're dose of Fibre-PLUS yesterday?

 

And on the topic of faux intelligence, you *do* realize the seeds are in a snaplok, *inside* a waterproof container? Right? .. You truly believe, than in the middle of suburbia, a rat will even waste it's time climbing to chew through a thick plastic box - assuming it can smell it through all the layers - when there's resturant garbage bins, discarded food, and a plethora of other, higher calorie, food sources?

 

Way to make yourself look foolish Bro! ;)

Speaking of intelligence I'll translate your first sentence. "Forget you're dose of Fibre-PLUS yesterday?" = Forget you are dose of Fibre-PLUS yesterday?

 

If you want to play on the forums come down off your high horse.

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I've only been at this a relatively brief time as well, and I'm not quite in my 60s (though it's something to which I aspire <_< ), but I have found that the geocachers I have met seem to be more focused than the general population on the things that really matter in life. They seem to be less deluded by the mass-market notions that you have to run the rat race to have meaning in your life; that more is always better; that sparkly and loud are more valuable than green and peaceful; that getting is better than giving. To me, geocaching seems to even provide a delightful bit of perversity in so diligently seeking something of little monetary value, almost as a metaphor for rejecting the world's definition of "value" in favor of a wiser, more individual-derived vision of what's truly meaningful.

 

Because the ability to discern true value is a life lesson. it's not surprising to me that those among us with more experience in life are drawn to this, perhaps in greater proportion than those of us who have less experience. Less experience than, for instance, the experience required to know how to post in an online forum without stereotyping and potentially offending many of the forum's readers. On the other hand, though, I'd say the OP's deep interest in heirloom seeds (which I know little about, but find fascinating) and ability to hear the call of nature may be good indicators that the OP may already be oriented in the right direction, whether that direction ultimately includes geocaching or not.

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I've only been at this a relatively brief time as well, and I'm not quite in my 60s (though it's something to which I aspire <_< ), but I have found that the geocachers I have met seem to be more focused than the general population on the things that really matter in life. They seem to be less deluded by the mass-market notions that you have to run the rat race to have meaning in your life; that more is always better; that sparkly and loud are more valuable than green and peaceful; that getting is better than giving. To me, geocaching seems to even provide a delightful bit of perversity in so diligently seeking something of little monetary value, almost as a metaphor for rejecting the world's definition of "value" in favor of a wiser, more individual-derived vision of what's truly meaningful.

 

Because the ability to discern true value is a life lesson. it's not surprising to me that those among us with more experience in life are drawn to this, perhaps in greater proportion than those of us who have less experience. Less experience than, for instance, the experience required to know how to post in an online forum without stereotyping and potentially offending many of the forum's readers. On the other hand, though, I'd say the OP's deep interest in heirloom seeds (which I know little about, but find fascinating) and ability to hear the call of nature may be good indicators that the OP may already be oriented in the right direction, whether that direction ultimately includes geocaching or not.

 

To be honest I was feeling mildly-trolly when I asked the question, but then found it hard to continue in a trollish vein, when the responses sounded nice, and genuine :)

 

Yeah seeds are great :) Plants are great generally, the more you learn, the less work you need to do and there's nothing like a sandwich made with fresh-off-the-plant lettuce and still-warm-from-the-sun tomatoes :) I even learnt how to make exceptionally good mayonaise this year to go with it! Autumn's here now though, so the season for fresh and salady is over :(

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I've only been at this a relatively brief time as well, and I'm not quite in my 60s (though it's something to which I aspire <_< ), but I have found that the geocachers I have met seem to be more focused than the general population on the things that really matter in life. They seem to be less deluded by the mass-market notions that you have to run the rat race to have meaning in your life; that more is always better; that sparkly and loud are more valuable than green and peaceful; that getting is better than giving. To me, geocaching seems to even provide a delightful bit of perversity in so diligently seeking something of little monetary value, almost as a metaphor for rejecting the world's definition of "value" in favor of a wiser, more individual-derived vision of what's truly meaningful.

 

Because the ability to discern true value is a life lesson. it's not surprising to me that those among us with more experience in life are drawn to this, perhaps in greater proportion than those of us who have less experience. Less experience than, for instance, the experience required to know how to post in an online forum without stereotyping and potentially offending many of the forum's readers. On the other hand, though, I'd say the OP's deep interest in heirloom seeds (which I know little about, but find fascinating) and ability to hear the call of nature may be good indicators that the OP may already be oriented in the right direction, whether that direction ultimately includes geocaching or not.

 

To be honest I was feeling mildly-trolly when I asked the question, but then found it hard to continue in a trollish vein, when the responses sounded nice, and genuine :)

 

Yeah seeds are great :) Plants are great generally, the more you learn, the less work you need to do and there's nothing like a sandwich made with fresh-off-the-plant lettuce and still-warm-from-the-sun tomatoes :) I even learnt how to make exceptionally good mayonaise this year to go with it! Autumn's here now though, so the season for fresh and salady is over :(

 

While I'm here, I took the new 650 out for a spin today, but had to go out a second time to take geo-tagged pics while walking right, because I setup my site to let me upload GPX tracks straight to wordpress, and the geo-photos are easy as uploading a gallery then using the id# in the map code.

 

Check it out: Afternoon dog walk - tracklog

 

Edit: I wanna go for a decent length walk tomorrow somewhere scenic so I can take the time to take the pics tthis time and have a decent-sized tracklog to upload! I only took a pic at each corner in this sample-walk, but they were all taken with the Oregon 650's camera, set to 8mb.

 

I'll set the track logging to "More often" or "Most often" too, since the track GPX itself is so tiny anyway. That little dog walk was only 1 or 2 kbs if I recall correctly, and the photos go to the ext mem/sdcard so they have plenty of room.

 

Like Garmin and Wordpress were meant to go together ;)

Edited by Psychaesthetic
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Ingenious.... in your overwhelming desire to be intelligent, you just led the rats, squirrels or other vermin to the cache by adding food to it. You don't really believe that they actually remember where they buried the nuts, do you? They can smell them!

Simply Outstanding.

 

Forget you're dose of Fibre-PLUS yesterday?

 

And on the topic of faux intelligence, you *do* realize the seeds are in a snaplok, *inside* a waterproof container? Right? .. You truly believe, than in the middle of suburbia, a rat will even waste it's time climbing to chew through a thick plastic box - assuming it can smell it through all the layers - when there's resturant garbage bins, discarded food, and a plethora of other, higher calorie, food sources?

 

Way to make yourself look foolish Bro! ;)

Right back at ya. After finding over 5K caches, I've seen many that have been chewed thru by various critters. Yes, thru thick plastic, thin plastic and even metal containers. Maybe when you've found a lot more caches you'll realize that even the best containers are only water-resistant, not truely waterproof. Also, the smell sense of animals is upwards of 10,000 time as sensitive as ours.

 

Maybe, as you grow older (i.e.. experienced - in life and geocaching) you won't dismiss the voice of experience quite so quickly.

 

On Topic: I started caching to "play" with the tech toy I had (I've had GPSr's since before caching started), to explore this world finding places I wasn't aware of, and because it's fun! BTW, I became double untrustworthy a couple of months ago.

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Not all caches are filled with kids toys. Some have adult oriented items like tools and outdoors related items, but I doubt many people over 10 actually geocache for what's in the cache.

 

For me its about the cool places it brings me, often places I may have never otherwise discovered.

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I've looked around and replied to a few posts, and clicking on a few profiles I've found many of the cachers are 60+ or thereabouts, and thought, "that's a bit straaaange.

When geocaching started is was primarly adopted by the the active middle aged-middle class because they had the time to explore and the finantial stability to afford the high priced GPSr units. Fast forward 14 years and many are now in their 50-60's and still going strong.

 

Geocaching has many low cost entries into the activity now and with the bloom in urban caching (not just parks) it is much more acessible now.

 

Why would older people want to spend their time hunting little plastic containers full of kids toys?

This article explains some of the motivations of cachers, http://wing.comp.nus...1177-ohara.pdf.

 

Motivations for Caching

Social Walking

One of the primary motivations for doing a geocache was because it created an opportunity to get out and walk. In this respect it is important to think about the activity not simply as a destination or a find. Rather, an integral part of the experience is the getting there. An important question then is why people simply didn’t just go on a walk. What is significant is how caching was used by people to give a walk a sense of purpose. This sense of purpose helped motivate participants to walk and engage in physical activity and without which they would be less inclined to go.

Discovering and Exploring Places

A key motivation underlying participation was its use as away of discovering new places to go. In this respect, it was not so much the finding of a cache that was primary motivation but where it led to as a consequence of doing this treasure hunt.

Collecting

As an activity, geocaching was more than just the sum of the individual caching experiences. For many of the participants, there was a “collecting” ethos that was a

significant part of the experience. The geocaching web sitekeeps a record of all the different caches a particular cacheror caching team have done. Their “collection” of cache finds as a whole was a demonstrable record of what they have achieved. Building this up was an important and ongoing driver for continued participation. Participants mentioned that they would not want to give this up visible sense of achievement. In this respect we cannot look for motivational and behavioural factors simply within the context of an isolated geocache experience. The significance and meaning of the next cache is dependent upon the context of what they have already collected andachieved.

 

Profile and statistics

Part of the value of these collecting practices within geocaching comes from being immersed within the social context of the geocaching community. As discussed in thesocial psychology literature on collecting, a person’s collection becomes bound up with doing identity work [15].Consequently, there was value not simply in these collecting achievements per se but how they came to be represented to others. With this in mind, it is important to consider the ways this was enabled through the on-line environment and how this inextricably tied the location-based experience with accompanying on-line behaviour.

Challenge: individual and social aspects

For many participants, one of the key driving factors for ongoing participation was that geocaching provided a number of sources of challenge.

“I mean it’s a terrific challenge to be able to find it. I suppose that is it – it’s a challenge. I don’t like to be beaten. The longest we have spent looking is about an hour and a half and I don’t like to give up until I have found it.”

 

This is in line with the claims made in [18] about the location-based technologies providing value not simply by making it easy to get information at the right place and time but also by making it difficult. As we can see from the above quote, there was a sense that participants did not want to be beaten and will spend what on the face of it seems

rather an irrational amount of time trying to locate the cache. But this gives a sense of the commitment to the challenge and level of motivation. Others spoke of how they would

reluctantly give up on a particular occasion, but would often revisit the site again in an attempt to try again.

 

For the Puzzle Caches there was also the additional challenge of solving problems to discover the particular coordinates for the cache. What was significant about these puzzles was they required a large amount of time investment to solve them and much of this work occurs away from the cache site. Because of this distribution of the experience away from the actual cache location, participants would sometimes email the cache owners to confirm that they had correctly solved the puzzle before embarking on a long journey to actually find the cache. This extension of the experience beyond the cache site was also an important part of how people maintained participation in the activity even when not convenient to be out and about.

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Why do older people cache? I don't feel old when I'm doing it.

 

 

This.

 

I always get a chuckle what a young person uses age as an insult. At some point they're going to realize getting old is their future.

 

My very smart and pretty wife's explanation is: we cache so that we act like little kids playing in the woods all over again. We can jump creeks, climb trees and hills. I'm going for a bike ride with my geo-pals on Sunday; tomorrow is hike in the woods with the dog day.

 

I'm only 50-something, I'm not really old yet. ;)

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Not all caches are filled with kids toys. Some have adult oriented items like tools and outdoors related items, but I doubt many people over 10 actually geocache for what's in the cache.

 

For me its about the cool places it brings me, often places I may have never otherwise discovered.

 

+1. I'm 67 and enjoy the game as much as I did 11 years ago......found 65 today and they were all in the forest. I like nothing better than traveling across the U.S. and caching as I go.

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Why do older cachers play? To show the younger technology dependent generation how to find caches.

It's all about opening your eyes and looking around, taking in the views and experience the things that today's gen X kids miss by becoming engrossed in screens and not developing the skills required to find the prize.

:D +1

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I haven't read all the responses.... but wait....

 

How old are you???

 

When you get older.....aka OLD, Over-the-hill, Senile, Senior.... You'll understand. It's NOT about the contents of the cache (or the container). It's all about the trip & hunt.

 

You've only found 2 caches??????????????? Oh heck...you're just starting. You have NO CLUE what the hobby is about yet!!

Cache on!!

Edited by Lieblweb
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I haven't read all the responses.... but wait....

 

How old are you???

 

When you get older.....aka OLD, Over-the-hill, Senile, Senior.... You'll understand. It's NOT about the contents of the cache (or the container). It's all about the trip & hunt.

 

You've only found 2 caches??????????????? Oh heck...you're just starting. You have NO CLUE what the hobby is about yet!!

Cache on!!

 

I've just had my 40th Birthday, so, I suppose I'm headed down the other side of the metaphorical hill-of-life, but not quite old yet :)

 

I know how quick it rips by though, and I remember scoffing at my grandmother about getting old one day, "silly old woman that's so far away, it's never gunna happen!" But Grandma was right, a decade slips by in a bink!

 

Anyway, i have gone out looking for more caches but didn't find any of em. It's hard to know how many are just really well hidden, and how many have been ripped off or taken. They *are* suburban caches, after all.

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It's hard to know how many are just really well hidden, and how many have been ripped off or taken. They *are* suburban caches, after all.

 

Reading the recent logs can provide valuable information; if there are recent finds and no/few DNF it is probably there, but if the latest logs are all DNF's and there haven't been many DNFs in the past, It is probably gone.

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I haven't read all the responses.... but wait....

 

How old are you???

 

When you get older.....aka OLD, Over-the-hill, Senile, Senior.... You'll understand. It's NOT about the contents of the cache (or the container). It's all about the trip & hunt.

 

You've only found 2 caches??????????????? Oh heck...you're just starting. You have NO CLUE what the hobby is about yet!!

Cache on!!

 

I've just had my 40th Birthday, so, I suppose I'm headed down the other side of the metaphorical hill-of-life, but not quite old yet :)

 

I know how quick it rips by though, and I remember scoffing at my grandmother about getting old one day, "silly old woman that's so far away, it's never gunna happen!" But Grandma was right, a decade slips by in a bink!

 

Anyway, i have gone out looking for more caches but didn't find any of em. It's hard to know how many are just really well hidden, and how many have been ripped off or taken. They *are* suburban caches, after all.

I'm older than you, but I'm still not what I consider old. I did not get in this shape that I'm in from falling off a tricycle either. :( Today I found two ammo can caches, and that was the best part of the cache. It was dry and had a clean log book. My family and I hiked two miles to reach the cache, and thinking about your thread here, I left a toy from a kids meal in one of the ammo cans. :lol: Yes, it is all about the adventure, not the crappy geocaches. :)

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It's hard to know how many are just really well hidden, and how many have been ripped off or taken. They *are* suburban caches, after all.

 

Reading the recent logs can provide valuable information; if there are recent finds and no/few DNF it is probably there, but if the latest logs are all DNF's and there haven't been many DNFs in the past, It is probably gone.

 

Yeah I took the dog for a 4-5km round walk looking for half a dozen or so caches, and of them, I reakon about half weren't there, whilst half I just didn't look hard enough for. Most of the log entries have a recent CNF logged, but only one for most, though several CNFs for one or two of those.

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I guess I could ask the original post question is reverse?

1. Why is a young guy out chasing plastic containers in the woods?

2. Geocaching seems tame compared to some activities that he should be physically able to tackle.

3. The question is biased by his opinion of what "older" people should be doing!

4. The query is a bit rude and insulting.

So, what is a young guy doing chasing plastic instead of .....?

Edited by Peoria Bill
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Why would older people want to spend their time hunting little plastic containers full of kids toys?

 

I will answer. I don't care for swag, haven't for ten years. However, I like geocaching because of the following

 

1) Brings me to places I would elsewise never know existed.

2) The challenge of finding geocaches.

3) Just something to do to pass time (micros under lamp post etc)

4) Just one I have started, filling county maps.

5) The stats...

6) The social aspect, attending CITO's and meeting new friends.

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I guess I could ask the original post question is reverse?

1. Why is a young guy out chasing plastic containers in the woods?

2. Geocaching seems tame compared to some activities that he should be physically able to tackle.

3. The question is biased by his opinion of what "older" people should be doing!

4. The query is a bit rude and insulting.

So, what is a young guy doing chasing plastic instead of .....?

 

I got the GPS for an upcoming solo camping & bushwalking sojourn in the Blue Mountains, so I don't end up lost, thirsty and dead :anibad:

 

I've got paper 25K topos of the main areas I'll be going along with a good quality compass, but to have all the 25K scale maps of the mountains would mean me carrying a phone-books worth of maps. Since I already have 25kg of tent, poles, sleeping bag, portable stove, solar chargers and 12V batteries in my pack to carry as well as other bits and pieces, an extra kilo of maps is something I'd rather avoid. :D

 

The curiosity about Geocaching arose because it's all over the box of every handheld GPSr and thus, impossible to remain ignorant of. I didn't go buy a GPS thinking, "Oh yeah i can go find some boxes now! Woo," but since it's integrated into every GPS, figured I'd have a bash while i'm out walking the dog, and if it's interesting enough, maybe do it as a side-activity while I'm out there in the woods B)

Edited by Psychaesthetic
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