What's Your Story?

I first heard about geocaching from my uncle in early 2002. He would talk about using a website to get sets of coordinates he could enter into his GPS, and following them to find a container of trinkets hidden in the woods. Of course to me this all meant nothing, and I felt like he was talking over my head most of the time. That is until he began journaling his finds on his own website.

Once I began reading his tales of hunting "treasure" on the trails of the area I grew up in and seeing all the wonderful photographs from his hikes, I was interested. Very interested. (See: http://home.epix.net/~burnside/geocache/index.htm ) Of course it took a few years for me to actually go out and find my first cache, which was in April 2004.

My husband found out about Geocaching from a car rally friend. He told me about it and I started doing research. We bought a GPS and decided this would be something fun to do with the grandchildren. We made several discoveries and even found a Travel Bug. Our GPS quit working for a while so we didn't go on any adventures. We have the GPS fixed now, but haven't gotten back in to hunting. Maybe when things slow down here a little and we get back our own personal life we can start searching again.

I heard about geocaching for the first time from a friend. He said you go out and find little matchbox cars and silly puddy and stuff like that. I thought, why would anybody want to do that??? The following year, my dad got cancer and I did nothing but take care of him for about 9 months. Then my mother-in-law died and a few months later my father-in-law died. Rough year! I fell into a bit of depression with all of that. One beautiful summer day, I was sitting on the couch and I remember looking out the window. I thought to myself, I wish I could find something to do outside... something that would get me out walking and enjoying the world again.... and later that day, Evening Magazine did a piece on geocaching, and I thought -- that's it! It wasn't until my dad was done with chemo that I had the time to start caching. The first one I tried was one of Pepper's caches, and I was instantly hooked. :)

These stories are great! Can't wait until the others answer.

My kids were getting to an age where they didn't want to hang out with mom anymore. One day I realized that I had built my life around what they wanted and needed. I really had no life of my own without them! I was watching Law & Order one night, and there was a little side story about Geocaching that was interesting, so I went to the web site and was hooked. Within a week, I bought a Garmin Geko. I found my first 100 caches with that. Since then I've gotten a Garmin 60C, and love that. I don't know how I ever cached without it.

Since I've been caching, I've made so many friends from all over the world! So my boys don't want to hang with me anymore - oh, well, I got a lot of people to hang with now. I'm leaving those boys in the dust! LOL - Now they are complaining that I'm never home!

LMAO @ "I'm leaving those boys in the dust" Too funny Joni.

Sheesh, my reason for wanting to geocache (to take pictures) seems so lame now, lol!

No reason to start caching is lame! LOL - and I'm enjoying yours and Thorny's pictures!

I got interested in the gps when a friend of mine show me his while we were bicyling.
I had seen them before from boating friends but didn't think I would have a need for one.
The one my biking friend showed me had maps. That was a great tool. We could follow
side streets thru the towns with out getting lost or turned around. I got one the next week.
I show it to my baby brother, and he got one shortly after. He found geocaching while looking
on the internet for gps information. I didn't give that a second thought at the time.
He decided to hide his first cache in a month or two and ask if I wanted to go with them.
The rest is history.
Johnnie.

August, 2001. I read the weekend edition of the USA Today newspsper and there was an article about Geocaching. I went to the website and was hooked. Bought a Yellow eTrex the next weekend and have been caching ever since. Convinced SWMBO to go with me on our first hunt to Dukes Creek Falls. She is somewhat disabled and we didn't know what we were getting into. She made it 1 mile in to the cache alright, but thought we were going to have to airlift her out. We had to stop many times and it was dark when we got back to the van. She has never done one like that with me again. Every so often she will hunt a skirtlifter. I like the mountain caches much better than the urban caches.
phat.bak

I read about geocaching in the paper a couple of times. Each of those times I thought it sounded like a lot of fun. I told my husband we should get my son a GPSR for Christmas. But he really thought it was a bad investment if the kid didn't like it. So, I said "well, then maybe, I would like one" (Hint to husbands when the wife says this it is a HINT!)
Didn't get it for Christmas and didn't get one for Mothers Day. Finally took things into my own hands and bought for my Birthday.
One year and 3 gpsr's later, I am still in love.
I hate to say it but my husband was right, my son HATES it. He has been quoted as saying "I don't want to go with Mom, I never know if she is really going to the store, or a geocache." But, I have loved it every since the day I scratched my arm up on barbed wire finding my first cache. My legs are beat up from briars and Poison Ivy, I have gotten stung in the face by a wasp, had more encounters with fire ants than I care it admit to. And I loved every second of it
For most of my married life I have been taking care of children and meeting everybody's needs. Now, I have my own thing, and they are all still shell shocked.
I have made great friends that I will cherish forever. People who just know, that going through Arizona to California and not stopping in Nevada for a cache is just inconceivable. It might even be a geocaching sin!

I first heard about geocaching from my uncle and his family, "The Moops". He had begun geocaching with a friend of his from work. I was in the middle of a nasty divorce, and I had to be out of the house. His family went out all the time, and I joined them on as many trips as I could. I couldn't get over following this little electronic needle into a hugely overgrown forest, and grabbing this nifty little bucket of goodies.

At first, I was the GPSr holder, only pointing the area to The Moops, and then watching them fight it out for about two months. I created an account the night before a local CITO event, following a failed midnight FTF attempt. I cached all the way home from there, creating my addiction to the habit. The FTF was still claimed the next day (by the Moops actually), and I was off to pickup trash with a new group of friends. The monthly meet and eat events expanded my group of friends, and encouraged me to continue caching with reckless abandon.

Now, with geocoins, the caching world shrinks down again. I've met people from all over the world through trading, and it's an incredible group. Now I just need to move to an area with good terrain for caching. After all, Northwest Ohio is truly flat, I promise.

I don't geocache but would like to sometime. I had never heard of it before until I started reading your articles and looking at your pictures here on Gather.

Hi, found the first one.!

Marianne,
I have been chosing a couple people each day this week to comment on their older stuff as a Christmas gift. Today I am choosing you.

Merry Christmas my dear Friend.

I had never even heard of geocashing until I met you on gather. I must admit that the more I hear about it the more I think I would like it. I love to hike so that is a plus. LOL