How you Started

[hp14570]

I'm doing a project on Geocaching. My twin introduced me to it, so now I was just wondering how everyone else here got interested in caching? I'm pretty new to it: I've only found five so far, but it's really addicting! If anyone just wants to give me tips, information about how/why they wanted to start geocaching, etc. that would be awesome!! Thanks guys!

[+T.D.M.22]

Heard about it when it started and found a couple. Then one day trying to figure it what I wanted for my birthday I decided on a GPS and was caching since.

[+popokiiti]

Popoki Nui heard a couple of cachers being interviewed on local radio....bought a GPS, and we were off! Turns out I work with the wife of one of those interviewed. This was a few years back now.

[+nly1972]

I had thought about it for years. Then one night we were at a group dinner and the couple we happened to be sat next to were geocachers and told us all about it. I was so excited I went home that night and signed up!! That was a year ago this June 1. I absolutely love it!!

[+FiveEyes]

I read about it, and did an online search and found this website, and signed up. Went and bought a GPSr and began --- found my first geocaches in a cemetery...ironic as now they aren't allowed to be planted in cemeteries without permission.

[+FiveEyes]

I read about it, and did an online search and found this website, and signed up. Went and bought a GPSr and began --- found my first geocaches in a cemetery...ironic as now they aren't allowed to be planted in cemeteries without permission.

[+Richie D]

Hi guys.

My friend introduced me to geocaching, and I'm absolutely addicted I'm based im New Romney england. I have been completing all of the caches in the new Romney area. But there is one that is driving me a little insane 😃. The name of the cache is `a short tour of romney`. Its my first multi cache, and I'm using my iPhone as my GPS device. Any hints would be most appreciated 😆 I'm determined to get thisnone .

 

Thanks guys

 

Rich

[+K13]

I got started when I stumbled across an ammo can in a wooded area outside a cemetery out in the countryside. I had to answer a call from nature so I went into the woods a bit. I would have saturated the ammo can, if I had not been more observant.

[bombebomb]

I forget now, I think I was either googling my garmin GPS, or reading reviews or something. Anyhow the words geocache kept popping up, I googled and found Groundspeak. I ended up getting their emails for two years and removed myself from the list. I tried to find a single cache years ago and came out empty so I gave up and blamed the automobile gps for poor tracking.

 

Not entirely sure why but I decided to check out the geocache site again a few days ago, found an app (the "intro" app, and the other one) for better or worse. Noticed a cache was 2000 feet from me so I went on the hunt. So it took me several years but I finally found my first cache lol.

[Duragan]

A friend of a friend introduced me to it many years ago. We went out into the Yellowknife wilderness and found some caches, but it was really the hiking and socializing that made me love it. I made an account way back then and forgot about it when I moved away not long after. I am looking to get back into it and have made some plans here in St. John's with some friends I have made in school. There are plenty of caches and sure to be some good memories to be made. This was my first one: http://coord.info/GCTWCP .

Edited May 21, 2014 by Duragan

[+Ma & Pa]

Wife (MA) thought it was a great idea so she went out with our daughter and grandsons (Jake & Ben) on December 31, 2003. Son-in-law and I thought it was kind of a dumb thing to do on a cold New Years Eve, so we stayed home and had beer. So I missed our first find but went out with them on January 2 2004 and have been going out since.

[+Pork King]

I've always liked getting out in the woods and stuff. I read a write-up about geocaching in a local paper. I went out that week and bought a GPS (Garmin eTrex yellow) and tried it with a friend. I was hooked!

[+sarahmcmur]

My brother in law was geocaching and I couldn't understand it at all when it was explained to me. When he was visiting from the UK, the whole family were going for a hike (to find geocaches) and I went along for the walk. When we found a geocache, I thought 'this is amazing'. I still don't know why I thought that because that first cache was nothing spectacular. It was like someone flicked a switch in me and I was addicted!!

[+briansnat]

I read an article about it in the newspaper and thought it sounded like the coolest thing. There are these little treasures hidden in the woods (they were all in the woods back then, urban caching had yet to take off) that nobody but a select few know about? Wow! Within weeks after reading the article I bought a GPS and had my first find and hide. Of course it was a different geocaching world back then. There were so few caches that a new cache would draw people from nearby states to hunt it. There were maybe 50 active geocachers in the entire state of NJ when I started.

[+Sprookjesbos]

For me the first time Geocaching has been 10/11 years ago. I went with my parents, my dad handling the GPS, and I still remember it clearly. Somehow I never picked it up as an adult. I suffer from social anxiety and because of that have issues going outside. Because I really wanted to do some form of exercise and because I love nature, but have trouble going for a walk without a goal, the idea of picking up Geocaching came to mind. I found my first cache today and it was incredibly fun. Can't wait to do the next!

[+camelli25]

I heard about geocaching years ago but I was to busy with other things and forgot. Then I moved to the US and here I have some friends that do it. They introduced me to it last week - finally. I think it is fun to do. It keeps me active while I chase after my 1 year old. And best of it - I can bring him along on the walks or do some P&G's while he's asleep in the car. After finding the first one I knew I was addicted to it. :-)

[Ranger Fox]

I read an article on Slashdot in 2001 or 2002 that described someone finding a box under a vehicle bridge. The person called the police who then blew the box up. The article mentioned geocaching. I thought the concept was interesting. I then went on to read the next article. I forgot all about it after that.

 

In spring 2006, I was at a friend's house. I had long since graduated the Master's program. I had a job and just finished my work running a convention. I wanted something to do. I wanted to hike, camp, explore, and just travel to places. For some reason, I remembered something about a GPS hunt. (I do not know if I recalled the word or not.) Since my friend was doing laundry, I grabbed his laptop and looked up the activity. It still seemed interesting. I decided that I would give it a try if there were a few dozen caches in the area, perhaps even just a dozen. There were a little more than a hundred. The next week, I had a GPS receiver and invited a woman I was interested in to come with me. The activity stuck and that was the last time I saw or talked to the woman. (Well, she was already taken and she just wasn't interested in doing things with me.)

 

I got into geocaching in a big way, eventually bringing the hatred and/or jealousy of the established area cachers down on me in the process. I have faced tons of abuse and rejection over the years just because my find rate exceeded that of everyone in the area--and I was good at what I did. I hate when people try to control others, so I don't give them the satisfaction of my looking for another hobby. However, I have slowed down somewhat because a good deal of my time is now spent supporting the worldwide community, giving something back.

 

Caching is my only social outlet and the only reason I have for getting on an airplane and visiting somewhere else. I'd be hard-pressed to find another activity. That and I'm now so deeply rooted in my community activities that it'll take a while before I can be free again.

[+cdisanto09]

My start was a mixture of things. I had gotten a Fitbit to track my daily steps and fitness goals and came across the hobby on a message board as an interesting type of exercise. At the same time I was looking for a hobby for my young boys (7yo and 3yo) and I to do to get them outside and away from the TVs and iDevices. Downloaded the free app and we were off and running. It is great quality time with my boys and can be an add-on activity with everything that we do. Go to the mall (quick search), go grocery shopping (quick search), go visit cousins out of state (quick search). The boys now make sure we have our hiking sticks and geo-bag no matter where we go. Always be prepared right?

[+Trucker Lee]

Was recovering from back surgery and Googling some trucking sites when "GeoTruckers.com" kept popping up. Investigated that, then Geocaching itself and thought it might be a good way to get some exercise when on the road. GeoTruckers has seen demise with the passing of it's founder, but several of the members are still hanging around in caching.

[+kasms]

my wife metioned it to me she thought it would be a good idea to get us out of the house and do something with our kids. I downloaded the intro app last year found one 200 ft from the house we took the kids and we were hooked. next day bought the offical app and premium memebership. we have been doing less then a year. started last August since then 25 finds. 5 diff states. we like how we can add on an adventure to whatever we are currently doing.

[+Methras]

A friend of mine introduced it to me, and I realized I could use my phone as a GPS... And after my first cache I was hooked.

[+spirothebudgie]

I tried a few years ago with a phone, but could never make it work. Then my dad bought a GPS unit for the Rottnest channel swim but never used it

So then we worked it out and found the first local ones around our area!

[+Leo+3]

I got started by randomly finding one in our local park. I read the flyer and signed up. We have 112 caches to this day and I love it!

[+sasqwatches]

I heard about it years ago, I had a large gift card to use up at a big box sports store and justified buying a gps for mainly hunting and fishing and some geocaching BUT (there it is) it does way more cachin than hunting or fishing. I still hunt and fish as much as I used to , but cachin gets a very very large chunk of our free time. 595 finds and a year and a half later we are still at it and quitting anytime soon.

Edited June 2, 2014 by sasqwatches

[randadell]

I read a magazine article about letter boxing. Looking more into letter boxing lead me to read about geocaching. There are far more geocaches near me then letter boxes. 4 years ago I made my first find, but having two small kids distracted me from persuing the hobby. Now my kids are 8 and 10 and it's been so fun to cache with them. We plan on making our 10th find tomorrow.

[+Sussex Seagull]

I read about geocaching in an online article and thought I'd give it a go.

 

I found a cache on my first attempt and that was it! Hooked. I love the outdoors anyway, being lucky to live near the South Downs in Sussex, UK, so this was a natural progression I guess.

 

I have also started creating caches.

[+Ethankwolfe]

It just sort of hit me one day. It was something I'd heard of, but never even looked into. Then one day it comes up in conversation with some friends and I'm like, "Hey. We've got four people in a car right now. Let's get a GeoCache." Within minutes, I had an app on my phone and a nearby cache stored in local data.

 

My first three or so searches were busts. Mostly because I was new, but also because it was cold and I didn't know to check the previous logs to make sure everything was in its place. I found my first two caches with my 13-year-old brother, and then just sort of kept going!

 

It's probably the healthiest, cheapest, most legal, and most satisfying hobby I've ever held for this long.

[+eightwednesday]

My husband had heard about people doing it out in the American Southwest. Funny story, he brought this up right before we went on a trip to California, Nevada, and Arizona. Amidst the desert road trip, we stopped in at a Fry's Electronics in Las Vegas, bought a Garmin GPS, and found our first cache in Kingman, Arizona (an LPC) the very next day. We met our first geocachers that day as well, an older couple who helped us find a trickier cache in Oatman, Arizona. We had a blast stopping every hour or so in the desert trying to find caches I'd manually punched in from the GC website. By the time we made it back to my dad's place in Costa Mesa, California we were hooked!

[+WRASTRO]

I met my wife to be in 1979. Married her in 1980. She gave me a GPS for Christmas 2003 because she thought I might have fun with this new game. She was right.

[+QuiltinNana]

Papa and I had some friends that had started caching in 2010 with other friends of theirs. They told us once or twice that they thought we would enjoy it. Then one night we went to dinner with them, my daughter and granddaughter and after dinner, they took us to our first cache. It was a multi. They showed us the first part, then how to enter the 2nd parts coordinates into the GPS they had. Off to the second location we went where we found the actual cache. After making up names, we signed the cache, went back to our house where they showed us how to enter the log. We went back out the next day to do another multi. This one had 15 steps where you collect a bit of data at each step. We had a great time. Now we were good and truly hooked. Daughter and I went out the next week and bought a different car GPS because we couldn't enter coordinates in the one we had. We still that Nuvi 1450 for getting to the cache area, then use a Etrex Venture HC to find the actual cache.

Our friends have since moved to OK from PA and I think they are still about 300 or so caches found. Papa and I are soon to get our 1500th on our cruise in Alaska. We do geocaching on every trip we take. Sometimes it's the point of the trip, sometimes it's an added bonus.

[+joshua863]

I would always go on walking trails at state parks here in Florida. On some of the trail maps I would always see "geocaching" under the activities. I never really paid it any attention, I looked it up one time, but didn't look that much into it. About a month ago after visiting all of the state parks close by many and many times, I figured maybe geocaching could add some new excitement and take me to hidden spots at the places I like to go. It sure did! I was shocked at all of the caches hidden in some of the places I visit on a weekly basis. I love this hobby!

[+Team Dredd]

Being in Law Enforcement I am obviously a bit curious when I see people who just sort of "stand out". I saw a couple lingering around a sign at a boat ramp and saw them put something down by the base of a sign in the middle of the day as I was pulling into the area on patrol. They were older and waved at me as they got back into their car and drove away. I saw no reason to stop them to see what they were doing because their behavior really didn't arouse much suspicion, but it did arouse my curiosity some. I got out and walked to see what they were doing and found a film canister at the edge of one of the rocks that was displaced a bit. I opened it up and read my first cache note explaining geocaching. When I was off duty I went to the website and created an account (JudgeDredd). After I took my wife along caching a few times she also became addicted and we changed the account to "Team Dredd". The rest is history.

 

On a side note as I started talking about it to my fellow officers I discovered quite a few of them already knew about it due to responding to reports of suspicious persons or suspicious containers. I couldn't believe I have been doing this for 20 years and never heard of geocaching prior to last year. I actually put an intel brief together to educatethe officers in my department about caching so when they respond to suspicious person calls and someone tells them they are cachers they will understand.

[+J Grouchy]

Honestly, I think I somehow "stumbled upon" the c:geo app in the Google Play store (or maybe back then it was the Android Market) and downloaded it. I opened it once but didn't know what it was supposed to be about and so the app just sat unused on my phone for maybe two years. Then I upgraded my phone and went into my apps in my Google profile and reinstalled a bunch of what I had on the other phone, including c:geo. Maybe two weeks later I was sitting in a Chipotle near where I work playing on my phone and decided to open the app. Looking at the live map, I noticed there was a cache maybe a few hundred feet from where I was sitting.

 

When I finished eating I still had a few minutes before I had to get back to the office, so I walked over and checked around the exterior staircase, not really knowing what I was looking for...but knowing it would probably look out of place. I spent maybe ten minutes kind of eyeing everything, and I kept passing my gaze over this electrical junction box that appeared to be mounted onto the steel part of the landing just above eye level. We've all seen it before...they'll often do this when running lights to landscaping and such...but something seemed...off about it. It took me a moment to realize that there didn't appear to be any conduit going to or from the box and on the other side of the steel beam there were no holes or bolts that might indicate a method of attaching. I hesitantly pushed it and the whole thing moved. I kind of laughed and when I pulled it off there was a small plastic container inside. It was the coolest thing I'd seen in a long time. I knew then that I was hooked.

 

I quickly discovered just how many there were in places I frequented and it was so cool to discover this whole secret game going on around me...even right outside my office window. It took me the better part of a year to almost exhaust all the caches within a mile radius of home and work and this little pastime still keeps me taking little excursions at lunchtime or detours on the way to or from work. It's tough with work and family (who, sadly, do not really seem at all interested in participating), but I find time here and there to do it and always enjoy even the lowliest of PNG caches.

[+Team Dredd]

It's tough with work and family (who, sadly, do not really seem at all interested in participating),

 

Family are on-board but the coworkers not being interested AT ALL makes me wonder what is wrong with them sometimes! ha ha

Edited July 9, 2014 by Team Dredd

[+Sealand Rovers]

I wanted to find a hobby that was fairly "unusual" while still being fun and getting outside. Geocaching was there!

 

Decided to try my luck finding a really easy cache. Took me 3 attempts of looking around (No GPS as wanted to find a few before shelling out money) before something just clicked. And there it was.

 

I must admit thinking for a while there that this was just a big hoax but indeed it was there, and I have been going ever since

[Silverdragons]

We heard about it back in the ZDTV (a tech show that was on television)days. It looked interesting and something we could do as a family. This was back in 2002 and we are still doing it today!

[+Trotter17]

I was in college back in 2004 and somehow stumbled across letterboxing. It sounded interesting to me and I decided to give it a try. My fiancee and I found a few letterboxes at some local parks, but we kind of realized we'd have to drive a good bit to find anymore. As I was checking letterboxing forums in early 2005 I stumbled across geocaching and found Groundspeak. Initially I knew the places in my hometown well enough that I could search without needing a GPS. My family got involved and I bought a GPS. Unfortunately, after my wife and I got married we kind of got more into disc golf, moved to NC, and forgot about caching. Just recently, though, we've been looking for ways to get out of the house every night with our 10 month old daughter. We took a group of kids and adults from our church to find a geocache and now we're hooked again!

[+NancyCache]

My sister in Washington State has talked about Geocaching since 2007. I never really understood what was so interesting about it. Fastforward to 2013, my husband and I were planning a weekend getaway in Northern Wisconsin. I read about geocaching in a tourist book and looked at the map on geocaching.com and realized there were quite a few near the hotel we were going to be staying at. So, we both downloaded the free apps on our phones and gave it a try. I'll never forget how crazy it was to just walk on a path and try to figure out how to get to GZ. It probably took us 15-20 minutes to figure out. When we finally found GZ, I did a little happy dance. I was hooked and went home and downloaded the full app and paid for a premium membership. Over the July 4th weekend, the same sister and her family were visiting Wisconsin and we (and our husbands) went geocaching together for the first time. It was fun to finally share this fun hobby with her and tell her that I now understand why she loves it so much! It is fun to get out and see the beautiful country we live in (haven't ventured outside of the US, yet) and I have a lot of fun memories from my trips out whether with family, friends or alone.

[TwiceLoved]

My best friend got hooked through the scouts and then she draged me with her one day. Now we cach together as often as we can. Even my 75 year old mother joins us now and then.