Where did you find your 1^st geocache and what was your reaction?

Gathered together by WalkingAdventure & written by our members

sandlanders: After researching geocaching seemingly forever, we ordered a GPS receiver, and when it came in the mail, we hand-entered coordinates for a few caches, then went out to Roche-A-Cri State Park to see what we could find. We walked down a trail, and when the numbers quit going down and the little arrow pointed into the woods, we followed. We found the plastic container under a log, then jumped up and down with cries of “This works! This works! This is soooo much fun!” That was over seven years ago, and a cache find still has that effect on us.

Walkingadventure: My first found cache was June 14, 2005 in Neenah. It was a traditional and we had no idea what we were doing or even how to really use the GPS. My log:” A valuable lesson was learned by the kids on how to lock onto a coordinate. It was great. This will be a great sport!”

comkelp: I first learned about Geocaching in ’06 and gave it a couple tries without success. Fast forward……8/18/10 Walleye fishing was slow while out on Lake Holcombe, my brother was playing with his new smart phone and found there was a cache on a nearby island. Goat Island – GC1Y3W8 We reeled in our lines and had a go at it. Soon after landing my boat we had my first ever cache in hand. I’ve been “hooked” ever since.

Mootma: Lake of the Clouds in Michigan. It was on a High Adventure trip with the Boy Scouts and the first time I ever used a GPS. I loved it and ever since I have dragged everyone I could along with me geocaching.

Jmcquilter. The first cache was near home at the canoe launch in Ontario, Wi. The cache was fun but it took three generations to find it. Being out , doing an activity with my daughter and granddaughter was the best part of caching. Since finding that cache I have found many more but the friends I have made have been the best part of caching.

uws22 – I managed to get into geocaching by accident… I heard from a rugby teammate and fellow teacher about wreckage of a WWII bomber in the mountains east of Yuma, AZ. and decided I would love to climb up to see it. After searching the internet and newspapers in the area, I couldn’t find a location on the map, until I came across the coordinates on geocaching.com. At the same time, I happened to win a few dollars in the Super Bowl pool, so decided to purchase a GPSr so I could make the journey to the bomber. It took me two attempts to find the starting point, but i finally made it 2000 feet up to the wreckage and to the top for my very first cache… then went back to the website and discovered some easier caches closer to home.

Viking VForce- my kids came to me in the Stoughton dog park, “Hey, look what we found!” Had no idea what it was. Little did we know, some 840-more (with GPS) later, all the places, people & adventures there would be. (Thank you all!)

Tonij17 “”OMG!The first one I found was unintentional and we never even opened the ammo can. It was January 1 2012 at Bohn Lake in Wisconsin. Spent the new years at my cabin outside Coloma, WI and went hiking on the Ice Age Trail and just came upon it. We discussed what it might be and someone suggested it might be a cache. We chose not to open it. In March I went on vacation in Gilbert, AZ and thought back to that day and finally took the time to look up geocaching. The next day I found my first geocache and since then hats to pass up an opportunity and since went back to Bohn Lake and got one big smiley!”

labrat_wr : 3/30/2006 My first cache was located along a nature trail behind a neighborhood park. I had no idea there was a trail there and probably still wouldn’t have it not been for geocaching. This cache was hidden on 9/24/2002 and I was fortunately to be able to adopt this cache from the original owner on 8/30/2011. Part of my log on the find “Wow, what a great sport this is. This is my first cache found, ever. New to this but am instantly hooked!!”

Northern Lightz– our cousin “Jerry’s Dad” had been caching so we decided to tag along. It was nothing special just a park and grab pill bottle on the side of the road until an older gentleman came from across the street. He was the cache owner’s father. The cache was placed before the cache owner left for the army, so his father would always have new visitors and never be lonely. After spending at least 30 minutes talking with the father we were hooked. What other hobby can bring you to something so special?

Kbraband: My first find was Beverly, a cache in the Chicago burbs. A short time later I hid Wisconsin’s oldest geocache.

Bill Van Faasen: See the Osprey near cocoa Beach, FL. Bison tube hidden under Spanish moss in a Florida wildlefe/nature preserve. 30 minute of perseverance. Glory at the success. Kept telling myself it wants to be found….

Hack1of2: Our first find was in June 2010 in a guardrail close to home. We thought it was SO INCREDIBLE to find a cache with only GPS coordinates and a smartphone for guidance. A week later we bought a Garmin GPS receiver because we knew this was a fun activity that we were regularly going to do together. Our very first log stated “My very first find, very cool! I hope to find lots more and figure out all these links and symbols (I’m a newbie)!”

drhaas: Our family from North Carolina came for a visit and kept putting a GPS in Steve’s hand and telling him to find caches in McGilvary Bottoms. He really didn’t like it, but he eventually got hooked. The rest is history.

ZaErrrrka: — Our first find was in Jan 2013 and was 1/4 mile away from my boyfriend’s (Zach Goulder) college apartment. It was a sub-zero day yet he insisted we go search for a hidden “box” down the road. I literally thought he was insane. Who would just hide something of theirs and put it on the Internet for others to find? He was praying that it was there or he knew I’d never geocache again. When we got to GZ I refused to look for it, defiantly and half frozen. He went off to look for it with my iPhone 4. Shortly thereafter, he popped up with a large metal contraption that we could not figure out how to open. It was an ammo can! After that, we were hooked and have found 500+ and hidden 9 of our own!

Loony Lori: My first geocache was the Shoe Tree in Barnes, Wisconsin. I was shocked and surprised all at the same time that people would actually do this and hide things out in the world to find, I was hooked.

Mary Sheets: Was walking in Gov. Dodge Park and never expected to find one. It was film tube. We signed it, leaving our names and date…We were both shocked and geeked at this.

silyngufy: My first find was Stop & Cache – Behind The Fountain. I started in July 2005 after my husband gave me a GPS for my birthday. He said it would satisfy my two passions-hiking and geeky gadgets. How right he was. This was an easy cache to find less than 5 miles from my house. Once I found it, I was hooked. Still hiking and still love geeky gadgets.

Karen Sydow: I live in Michigan; but my first WI find was years ago near Ashland. A visitor’s/traveler center on our way west.

raslas :We found our 1st cache http://coord.info/GLR0C5Y on Christmas day in 2006 with the whole family. While we were looking our daughter, (moejr), said I found a tackle box but no ammo box! We have made many caching memories and friends since that time.

ProfessorLeisure. My first cache was found on 11/16/2002 with the family: GC6FA0 Geocache. It was chilly out that day but we got everybody up and out. It felt like a great accomplishment to find the cache. Kids were excited (not very usual) to look over the contents and take a pick of items! The yellow squishy ball was a favorite. Steve and I had recently returned from business in Malaysia and so we dropped some coins from our travels in the cache. Computer power was nothing like it is today and I recall logging (or just getting on the site) as complicated (Logged as Experience). I thought it was great to find an outdoor activity that the family with a wide age range could all enjoy! And so we did!

The Day the Dogs Were Arrested & Went to Jail

Written by  Rawevil

When we were approached about writing an article for the WGA newsletter our first thought was, “who, us?” And being so close to the holidays of course ours minds drifted off into a parody of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” with visions of geocaches dancing in our heads. So many topics and so much to say, how do we narrow it down and focus on one thing or experience? Well, here’s one geocaching experience we will never forget.

For whatever reason, while caching, we have a tendency to attract dogs. Whether it’s a dog being walked by its owner, a dog from a neighboring yard that just wants to say hi, or strays. In the Fall of 2013, while we were just starting our caching adventures, we experienced WI-pattymel’s Lost Arrows and Dry Turkeys. We took a certain affinity to these cache hides and set out on the Northwest Trail in Ripon. We were looking forward to adding to our D/T grid because there were a few on this trail. While walking the trail, we approached an area that intersected with a major road. After waiting for the traffic to clear, we hustled to the other side just in time to meet a jogger and his two dogs, a silver and gold lab, headed the opposite direction. We were a little concerned that he didn’t have his dogs on leashes while crossing the road. We exchanged pleasantries with the jogger only to have the dogs turn around and follow us. After getting the jogger’s attention we learned that those weren’t his dogs and they had been jogging with him for the past few miles. We tried calling the number on one of the dog’s collars only to be disappointed with a disconnected number. So we continued on our way down the trail with our newly adopted trail guests.

When we arrived at “Dry Turkey Northwest Trail” (GC35AWV) the dogs were getting underfoot and wouldn’t allow us to search without needing head and belly rubs. What to do? After giving the two cache busters some water, we took another look at their collars and found the phone number for the Ripon Veterinary Clinic. It was after hours on a Saturday so we had to leave a message. We were also hoping that our new geo-pooches lived somewhere near the trail and would wagon train their way back home. No luck today however.

As we neared the next intersection with no caches to be found since attempting the Dry Turkey, our phone rang and showed an unidentified number from the area. It was the after hours call center from the vet’s office. We explained our situation and they too tried to contact the owners to no avail. We asked what we were supposed to do with the dogs and the person told us that we should take them home and bring them in on Monday. What?!? Our car was full of trick-or-treat candy and not suitable to transport two strange dogs from Ripon to Oshkosh. Now what do we do? Don’t get us wrong, they were great dogs and we would love to have such faithful companions. So we did the only thing left we could, we called the Ripon Police Department. However, since we were in the town of Ripon and not the city of Ripon there was nothing they could do either.

In desperation, one of us stayed with the dogs and the other started going to houses on the nearby road but there was no one home. We made our way back to the trail crossing and while shaking our heads we noticed a man walking his poodle heading our way. At the same time we heard a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction. It was a police cruiser and a police SUV headed right towards us with lights flashing. Hooray, relief was on its way!

Well, needless to say, the dogs were arrested and jailed. CHARGE: Illegally Adopting Geocachers. But just in the nick of time before the sentence was handed down, Officer Trevor Hanke of the Ripon Police Department arrived and posted their bail so he could release them into their rightful owner’s custody.

Now, back to that Dry Turkey we were trying to find earlier . . .

Games Within The Game by Goldie Diggers

I am sure everybody has heard someone say how Geocaching is whatever you want it to be. That is so true. You can geocache just to get outside and enjoy nature. You can do it to get exercise.  You can do it for the challenges of piling up numbers of finds. You can do it for the adventure. You can do it for the puzzle solving challenges. One the biggest part of geocaching for many people is the social aspect. The list goes on and on.  Some people call geocaching a hobby and some call it a sport. In order for something to be a sport there has to be a competition aspect involved.
In 2008 I attended my first “Geocaching Event”. It was the Cache Bash in West Bend. It was fun to meet people who I only knew by team name.  My son Josh and I challenged ourselves to find all 50 of the caches that were hidden for the event.  The following year at the 2nd Annual Cache Bash there was an unofficial “game within the game” as several of us competed
“unofficially” against each other to find all the caches and return to Regner Park and turn in our stamped card before anyone else. This continued the next year as well, with some trash talking ahead of time and a friendly a fun competition ensued.  When we received a few complaints about “racing” during the Cache Bash, somebody said to me; “If you want to compete, have your own event” That is where the seeds were planted for me to start thinking of how I could host some type of competitive geocaching event.
In January of 2012 youngins3 placed a cache called “Survivor SE Wisconsin”. This was the first competition-style event in SE Wisconsin. I was eager to participate and became one of the 12 players in the game. The experience was very fun and through it I met more people and more good friends. A secondary group of non-participants formed know as Team Sabotage, only added to the fun. Team Sabotage put out a series of decoy caches which led to an impromptu event/gathering of all of the players at a local restaurant. There were lots of fun meetings at guard rails in the dark.  One particular night I searched for a cache with Hack 1 of 2 well into the night, involving some friendly police officers.
Participating in the Survivor game was the final push I needed and I teamed with Dr Dolittle to put together a summer-long event called “The Amazing Race”.  Teams formed and signed up for a day to run the gauntlet of  30 or so caches which began at Dr Dolittle’s house  and ended at mine, a 5-mile-long course.  Each team was timed and rules included penalties for calling for a hint. Many new friendships were formed from The Amazing Race and many adventures are still talked about today.
Even though it was a competition it was the fun that really mattered in the end.  We held a final event to crown the winners in both the biking and hiking categories.  The winners actually completed the course in 105 degree temperatures. Many others experienced the hot weather as well as thunderstorms.
Perhaps the funnest competition type event I have attended is the “Road Rally” in Waukesha. This was an event dreamed up by “Chevyole and Wifeyole”. Instead of being stretched over several months; this was a one day event.  Once again I got to establish some great friendships as I formed a team called “Gone in 60 Seconds” with Dr Dolittle, Bushwacking Queen and Waggintails. We had such a blast that day final caches and completing tasks. This competition was actually a geocaching/scavenger hunt hybrid. The fun began right from the start as strategies included, laying in the road to block competitors from leaving. One of the things we could do was eat some spicy wings at Buffalo Wild Wings.  We did the hottest ones and ate them in record time!
This past summer Chevyole and Wifeyole hosted the 2nd annual Road Rally. The competition was fierce, but fun. Our team reunited as “The Dukes of Hazzard”, complete with costumes! We even had a decked out “General Lee” with horn sound effects.  At one point I was running on a trail, dressed as Boss Hogg, holding on my white hat as, Justin (Mrs. Waggintails) dressed as Daisy Duke, complete with high heels was running next to me. We passed several joggers who looked a little shocked and are probably still talking about that weird sight. To top things off “Daisy” made the FTF after going through head high grass in high heels!
Everyone had a blast again and lots of stories of adventures including falling into a swamp!  Our team vowed to have a good strategy after the first Road rally in which we all began shouting instructions in the first minute and we missed the first cache, all part of the fun and memories of competitive geocaching.  I can honestly say I have made some of my best friendships because of these competitive events.

This past August was the 7th Annual Cache Bash in West Bend. I came up with an idea for something that was a game within the game, within the game.  7 people dressed up as “Where’s Waldo” characters roamed the West Bend area during the Bash. Geocachers attending the 2 day event were given a card with the characters on it. When they spotted a Waldo character they could get their card stamped for lottery tickets. It turned out to be a very popular game with the participants and another version may be utilized at the 2015 Bash.
In November of 2014 the latest competitive event has begun in SE Wisconsin. I am hosting the “Geo-Hunger Games”. I have learned a lot from previous competitive events and hope to make this one the funnest yet.  People can get into a lottery by finding signup caches. Only 12 teams will be in the games, with 2 people on each team. This competition will different than the past ones, as part of the competition will involve hiding caches in addition to finding. Each month from May 2015 through September 2015 will be a new challenge for the teams. Everything will conclude with a scavenger hunt type finale in October.

If you haven’t ever been in one of these competitive type geocaching events, I would highly recommend it.  It may start as a want to compete but just as geocaching as whole does, it becomes so much more.