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What is the etiquette for encountering cachers?


GBandBob

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I didn't think I should just walk up and say 'hey, are you Geocachers?'
I've done that a few times, although I find that the words "geocache" and (especially) "cache" tend to be misunderstood by non-geocachers. Other times I whether they're looking for "Ramos" (or whatever the particular geocache's name is). Other times I say "Hi" and just keep walking past them to the next cache location. If I know them, then I just say "Hi" and ask if they want to search together, and if so, if they want to give everyone a chance to spot it before anyone gives away its location to the others.

 

It depends on the situation.

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I was out today looking for some caches, and I found a group of people at one of the cache sites that looked like they were looking for it as well. What is the etiquette in a situation like this? I didn't think I should just walk up and say 'hey, are you Geocachers?'

 

I'm not aware of any etiquette rules, but for me, I would *love* to meet other geocachers out there in the wild!! Thought I might have spotted somebody else looking once or twice, but after a few seconds of observation I realized they were muggles after all. :-( If I saw someone who was clearly looking for a cache, I would almost certainly go up to them and introduce myself, and I would hope others would with me, too! But that's just me - I'm not sure if everyone would like that.

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If it's obvious that they are geocachers then I walk up and introduce myself and ask if they mind if I help in the search. I've never been turned down and have met a few people in this manner who have become good friends. If by chance, they do prefer to search without your assistance, then step aside and let them find the cache on their own.

 

I also learned that in certain parks, don't ask "Are you looking for what I'm looking for?" You may get an unwelcome response.

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As a moderator I am obligated to point out that briansnat's answer to this question seems to have "evolved" over the years.

 

I believe the standard we agreed on was when meeting another geocacher, one was to yell "Ho, are ye a geocacher?" and the correct response is "Yay I am".

 

Upon the confirmation, the two then approach each other, put their left hand on the other person's right shoulder, standing arm's length and dance around in a circle while skipping and singing (very loudly) "Geocachers are we! Runy muny mee! Yaba daba baba. He, he, he!". At least that's the way we do it in New Jersey.

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I didn't think I should just walk up and say 'hey, are you Geocachers?'

Yes. you should. There's no downside. If they aren't geocachers, they'll say, "huh?", and you just explain geocaching to them and, unless they seem hostile, you go on to say "there's one around here, so I thought you were looking for it." Geocaching isn't a secret or a crime.

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Twice in the last 18 months Gill & I have been indoors, once in a hotel and once on a cruise ship, when we were approached by folk with their mobile phone displaying our profile picture. We had logged finds nearby and mentioned where we were staying and an impromptu event suddenly materialised.

 

We are always happy to meet fellow cachers.

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I guess my only concern was asking if someone's a geocacher, when they aren't, which might lead to the cache being smuggled. I'm probably being too paranoid, though.

Once you're close enough, both the presence of handheld GPS receiver(s) and the associated commentary will surely be enough to know. Hold your own out where it can be seen and you may get the response before you can even get out the question.

 

Funny story on Majorca -- three couples, one single, and my own merry band of six all walking down a beach from different angles and approaching the same site on a huge seawall. Was pretty obvious why we were all there -- we weren't all staring down at lumpy looking cell phones!

 

Try as we might (and we all tried mightily), we couldn't turn that little bugger up in that big wall (turns out it was MIA), but we had a fine time trying and talking about caching in our respective countries.

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A couple times...a bit awkward for me, but it's usually pretty obvious when people are heading to or looking for a cache, so I usually will say something like "bet I know where you're headed!" or something equally inane.

 

Only once did I ever get a weird remark when I was out looking for a cache. I was in a park, not wandering in the trees or anything. Some random guy walked by and said "see anything interesting?". I honestly didn't know what to think. I wasn't sure if he thought I was a creeper, cruiser or cacher...so I just sort of shrugged it off and went on my merry way (and of course found the cache).

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I guess my only concern was asking if someone's a geocacher, when they aren't, which might lead to the cache being smuggled. I'm probably being too paranoid, though.

Once you're close enough, both the presence of handheld GPS receiver(s) and the associated commentary will surely be enough to know. Hold your own out where it can be seen and you may get the response before you can even get out the question.

 

You'd think so. So did I. Some years ago I arrived at a cache site and encountered a couple holding a GPS and a sheet of paper (this was when most cachers still printed out cache pages on paper). They were looking at the GPS, the paper and the surroundings with a confused look. So I walked up with my GPS in hand and said something like "Good to encounter fellow geocachers". They looked at me as if I had three heads and said "I have no idea what you are talking about". It turns out they were following a hike on the printed sheet of paper and were lost and were trying to figure out how to use their new GPS.

 

Of course the odds of that happening are pretty darn small.

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"Mama, how many people are mixed up in this thing?" ??

"We don't tell 'em anything. We tell 'em to hit the road or we'll beat their brains in!"

 

Not the best way to handle potential fellow geocachers. :)

 

(That was when they were standing under the "Big W" wondering what to do next. They've found the cache coordinates. But what about muggles. Same situation, except GCs can't be buried.)

Edited by MountainWoods
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On 1/24/2016 at 3:26 AM, briansnat said:

I also learned that in certain parks, don't ask "Are you looking for what I'm looking for?" You may get an unwelcome response.

Gosh, I never thought of that before! In fact, "Are you looking for what I'm looking for?" is actually my most common phrase when encountering others. ?

Luckily, I never was offered something deviant but I guess it depends on the sort of park either.

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13 hours ago, TX-Tracker said:
On 1/24/2016 at 3:26 AM, briansnat said:

I also learned that in certain parks, don't ask "Are you looking for what I'm looking for?" You may get an unwelcome response.

Gosh, I never thought of that before! In fact, "Are you looking for what I'm looking for?" is actually my most common phrase when encountering others. ?

Luckily, I never was offered something deviant but I guess it depends on the sort of park either.

 

You can add "rest stops" to the category of potential pickle parks where word choice is important.

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