We haven’t actually listened to music on the iPod while caching, but since our Palm conked out, we’ve been using GSAK to load the notes on it. That’s been working well-no fumbling with the little stylus. We’re considering an iPod Touch in the near future.

I’m with Braidbeard. We love music, but when we’re outdoors, we want to hear nature. I’m especially attuned to birdsong, always hoping to get a better look at certain birds, or even….adding a new one to my life list.

As a matter of fact, my iPod is loaded with nothing but the Stokes tapes to bird calls of Eastern North America. I’ll have it along if we’re out and I want to review something I hear for identification purposes. I’m a pretty good birder by ear, but it’s always good to practice!

I only listen to music in the car never on the trail. I love the quiet of nature and the sound of my footsteps.

I don’t like to listen while caching. If I did, I might not hear the “Stop, or I’ll shoot!”. Kidding. I like to hear what’s going on around me.

Same for me out on the trail. The great outdoors and all of the sounds of life, even just the wind whistling through the pines (or sometimes cattails in my case 😉 ), are all part of the special experience of being out there. Late yesterday it was owls hooting, one of them very close by, at a new higher terrain local park hide, last week it was the sounds of migrating cedar waxwings and other species returning to and beyond our area, early last month the “spring is here” serenade of red wing blackbirds and the raucous call of Sandhill Cranes returning to one of our favorite stomping grounds on the Wiouwash Trail that is a traditional first week in March sojourn for our family to the great marshland along the trail, and, for us and those like T&B and others, the distinctive pounding of a pileated woodpecker, similar but uniquely deeper than other woodpeckers, followed by an uncommon close sighting of that awesome bird a while back in late winter while doing some new caches up at Bubolz Nature Center in Appleton. Some of the special serene joys of caching.

I like to listen to geocaching podcasts while caching…

But I reserve these for urban environments.

I like the “silence” of being in the woods too much to ruin it with headphones.