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How Do You Explain What Geocaching Is?


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Geocaching is many things:

 

It's a sport, a game an adventure; it's a casual pursuit, a consuming passion or something in between; it's high-energy, it's sublime relaxation; it's physical, it's cerebral; it's cold, wet and heavy clothing; it's sunshine, short sleeves and sweat. It's all of these things and more. But mostly it's just plain fun.

Edited by Seesthewind and Lavamama
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I just drag people along and grunt. It's so much easier than explaing how you hide tupperware, and use a GPS to walk to right where it's hidden and then explaining how that's fun.

 

I've evne had people say "Wow! This is funner than it sounds" because it is.

 

In your description you need more blood, bug bites, mud and bruises along with a feeling of having had a lot of fun and earned every one of those bruises and scrapes.

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Alas, you fellers are missing me point. I was trying to "wax poetic" about the essential joys and pleasures of Geocaching rather than the technicalities. Except for the pure techies and "number ho" types, it's for these simple joys and pleasures that we have a passion for cachin.

 

Renegade Knight has got it right though. Most of the uninitiated can't understand how what we do is fun until they experience it first hand. Then they usually find that it's a lot more funner than it sounded from our rabidly enthusiastic "arm chair" explanations.

 

Also, RK, I completely agree with you about [the essential joys and pleasures] of the blood, bug bites, mud and bruises. What fun would it be if it didn't hurt a little now and then? :o

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treasure hunting for adults.

you get one of two reactions. they either look at you like you're mad or they still have the ability to enjoy themselves and then you've got them.

 

take them out to hunt for a good one or ten! if you need to persuade them then it's probably not going to be worth the effort. everyone i've introduced have agreed almost immediatley. insanity loves company. <_<

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treasure hunting for adults.

you get one of two reactions. they either look at you like you're mad or they still have the ability to enjoy themselves and then you've got them.

I got so sick of the "you must be kidding" looks that I now resort to "We're going hiking" rather than "We're going Geocaching." I got frustrated too many times trying to explain how the GPS works, why people hide these things, how we know where they are, etc, etc that I decided it was easier to only tell part of the truth. That may not make me the best ambassador, but now that I am in I want to make sure the club remains exclusive. <_<

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I had an nice old lady come up to me and asked me what I was doing while I was searching for a stage on a multi. I said I was a geocacher, a game that has a gps go find containers of different sizes and types. I said there were also many different ways on playing the game and how you can trade items when you find the cache. She smiled and told me to go on with my search and she watched me find the stage.

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I prefer 'a high tech game of hide & seek, with the world as our playground'. Short, sweet and describes what we do to a T.

I also think the "High Tech Hide-n-Seek" is the best way to describe Geocaching.

My favorite description is "it's a high-tech Easter-egg hunt, except you put the eggs back where you found them!"

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I guess I'm a bit suprised that it would be at all problematic to explain to anyone. Everyone that I've talked to about it either knows someone that knows someone that is into it or seems to think it sounds like a neat/fun reason to get out and be active.

 

Then again I live in Arkansas, the Natural State, and most people here seem to understand that any reason whatsoever is more than enough to go out into nature. Actually, I would think that sort of understanding is pretty universal among we primates. Are there actually people that can't understand the idea of walking about among the trees or other unknown just for its own sake? Geocaching, as a way of encouraging that sort of natural adventurism, doesn't seem that hard to convey.

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I had a public speaking class a last semester. My "informative" speech was on Geocaching. I had 5 minutes to give a brief history and describe the activity.

 

I volunteered to give the first speech of the day. That way I could come in really early and setup. I attached a magnets to the bottom of a bunch of 35mm film canisters. I shoved a pack of gummi savers into the container and put a home-made geocaching sticker on each of them. I got into class before everyone arrived placed each container under their desk. Since I went first they didn't have a chance to fidget and find the cache. At the end of the speech I told them that there were many caches all around and if they look under their desks, they'd find one of thier own.

 

My presentation didn't go as well as I would have liked, but my ending was the one everyone remembered. when I got up to give my second speech a few weeks later, the class was checking under their desks for some more candy.

 

I thought about posting the speech day as an event for people in the class to log, but I figured that probably wouldn't fly over very well with TPTB.

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Then again I live in Arkansas, the Natural State, and most people here seem to understand that any reason whatsoever is more than enough to go out into nature.

 

The Natural State. So THAT's what they call it! Last time I drove through Little Rock, bored and scanning the radio for anything to keep me awake, I was greeted with a station identifying itself as "Home of the Queer Frontier!"

 

I about fell outa the car! For some reason Arkansas was the LAST state in which I would have expected to find that station!

 

Surely if the people will accept that they'll accept geocaching readily enough!

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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I think Renegade Knight is right, it's too frustrating :lol: trying to explain how it could possibly be fun or safe for that matter to wander around staring at a little peice of hand held looking for something someone you don't know hid and all that's in it is a bunch of trinkets with no monotary value (although on a side note, I found a Canadian 5 dollar bill the other day in a cache, it was totaly cool) only to leave something of equal value in it's place and sign a little book. I think from now on, I'll just ask them if they've got a half hour free and take them to a cache that i've already found and play like I've never been there and let them find it, so they can see how fun it is. :D Yeah that sounds like a plan.

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That's funny!

 

If I ever do that, I'll make sure to NOT take someone to the cache I did yesterday.

 

Sure, it had a difficulty rating of 3 and a terrain rating of 4, but I didn't expect to have to negotiate a huge patch of densely-growing mustard plants that were taller than I am. Sheesh! What was I thinking?

 

Oh yeah, that's right . . . there was a cache waiting for me . . . :lol:

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Say codswallop,

 

Why isn't bowling a sport?

 

(New off-topic topic:  Is bowling a sport?)

 

eagle_fly3_cld_md_wht.gif

Because I said so.

 

[Codswallop stamps his wittle foot, which increases the logic of his argument.] ;)

 

The same may be said of golf. Actually, GCing is even more like golf, because it is a game that involves a lot of walking.

 

But unlike GCing, golf is incredibly stupid. ;)

 

Which makes it more like bowling. :D

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But unlike GCing, golf is incredibly stupid. Which makes it more like bowling.

 

This geocacher is a rather poor but fairly serious golfer who thinks that golf is the best and most difficult game on the planet. Also, I was a regional professional and scratch league bowler for many years before nerve damage to my bowling hand took me out of the game. I have a very high regard for the SPORT of bowling - even in its once a week, beer guzzling, socializing, heck with the score form. Accordingly, I don't agree with or appreciate your low opinions of these SPORTS. However, I'll defend, to the death, your right to express them - somewhere else ;);)

 

eagle_fly3_cld_md_wht.gif

Edited by Seesthewind and Lavamama
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