Candidate question: longevity

[BeccaDay]

Hello candidates and thank you for your willingness to serve on the WGA Board.  Serving on the BOD can be a lot of work (although don’t worry, there are lots of great things about it too) and you might feel your enthusiasm lessening if you aren’t passionate about geocaching.  Could you please tell us how geocaching has enhanced your life?  Do you see this as a long-term hobby?

Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien

[Jen920]

Geocaching has led our family to places we wouldn’t have otherwise have found. Early in our geocaching tale, we took the canoe along on a vacation just so we could get to an island in a lake we didn’t realize was there until looking at the geocaching map. We had a great time exploring and was just the start of using geocaching to help us plan out vacations. Even the kids, who sometimes take a bit of convincing to go out geocaching have figured it out. Assigned them to plan a day trip to Milwaukee last summer and sorting a list of geocaches in the area by favorite points was one of the tools they used – and found black cat alley (which none of us knew about before) and the safe house (which the parents had known about, but kids got to discover) which were among the highlights of the day. It’s also an extra reason to get out and get some exercise, especially during our Wisconsin winters. Even if it’s not always a long hike, geocaching gets me outdoors and moving more often than I otherwise would have. Through events, it’s also helped meet people that I’d likely never had met and gotten to know. I enjoy the variety of backgrounds and personalities that get into geocaching. You never know who you’ll meet at the next event.

I do plan on this continuing to be a hobby for a long time. How active may vary month to month, especially as the ones closest to home are found, but it’s always just an app away to see if there is a geocache nearby when on your next traveling adventure.

The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board

[CarrieO]

Geocaching gave me a chance to stay active during a time when there were no other activities happening. It allowed me the chance to meet people I wouldn’t have otherwise met and to share in a hobby with friends I already had. It gave me another opportunity to share an activity with my young grandson and to teach him skills related to finding a geocache. Anyone who’s watched a preschooler try to find a geocache will know what I mean when EVERY bench you pass has to be looked under, or EVERY fire hydrant you pass has to be thoroughly inspected, because there was that ONE time you found a cache there together. I wouldn’t trade that for anything!

I do see geocaching as a long term hobby. I can put as much or as little effort into it as I’d like and find enjoyment from it either way. I’m a shoulder season cacher as I prefer the cool, leafless, bugless days of spring and fall for caching. I’m not in an area where there are a lot of winter friendlies or easy P&G caches, so I tend to back off in the winter and haven’t been terribly active since Thanksgiving; however, I do try to make it to an event if possible, or grab a cache if I’m in a bigger nearby city like Duluth or Superior or Rice Lake for the day. Everyone caches their own cache!

[comkelp]

I’ve experienced so many awesome places I would never had if not for Geocaching. As a matter of fact, this Thursday I’m headed to Albuquerque with my son and two great guys I’ve met since starting Geocaching. The idea is to (for my third time) experience the history of Route 66. I treasure the bonding I gain as I travel with friends.

Since my start in Geocaching, the only time I stepped back was when I was taking care of my terminally ill wife.  I’m now back into Geocaching 100% and look to find ways to keep this game going full steam ahead.  In the past year, I played an instrumental role with the spring picnic at Brunet State Park, hosted an event, and have another set for this January 28th, which I plan on doing monthly.

Jeff Grosvold

[AuntieNae]

With my 20th Geo-Anniversary coming up on February 18, 2023, it is pretty safe to say that geocaching has become “ingrained” in my life.  When I have conferences to attend, I definitely also plan to find geocaches in the area.  Do I plan vacations around geocaching road trips, most definitely.  When I was working, did I spend lunch hours finding geocaches within driving distance, why of course.  

 

Geocaching has made me so much more aware of the places and spaces that I probably would have never known about.  A great example was way back when I started and was in Charleston SC – one of our first finds was a virtual that took us to a grave stone with the pirate skull and cross bones on it.  It is still a memory I have today.  

 

The Lincoln Highway Adventure Lab Series has been a more recent “vacation” travel plan, as my friend ~Lucy and I have now completed the segments between Omaha NE to East Liverpool Ohio in several trips. With the “nearest” starting point for us now being 8 hours either direction , we are strategizing how we might be able to finish.

 

Geocaching has “enhanced” my life by people, places and things.  The many people I have met and friends I now have.  The places based upon the places geocaching has brought me to.  The things being what I have seen, experienced, found as a geocache, discovered as a location, etc.

 

Being on the WGA Board, it is important to know upfront that you do need to be at the events and helping out which can hamper your geocaching.  If I am able to, I have gone a day earlier or stayed a day after so I could find geocaches.  I find enjoyment in meeting people so this has been just fine for me.

[jacquendoncody]

My husband and I are a Geocaching team. This has led us to places we would have never visited and to meet people, some in our own small community, that we would never have come in contact with. It was the receptionist at my Acupuncture appointment that first told me about this wonderful adventure.  I was very intrigued so I went to Geocaching.com and researched everything I could.  I told my husband and we were immediately hooked after we found our first cache about 1 mile from our house.  We camp during the summer and usually had nothing going on after camping season ended.  Geocaching has enhanced our life “year round”! I am semi retired and Don drives over-the-road.  His life on the road is much better since Geocaching.  Now, when he is at a rest area or truck stop he searches for caches instead of just sitting in the semi.  I travel with him sometimes and we have a blast.  We got started a little later in life with this adventure but definitely see us caching as long as the bodies allow us to do so.

We just completed our first Adventure Lab with the Yellowstone Trail Series and we loved doing this.  We are planning to do more in the northwest section of the state because there are quite a few small towns with interesting stories to tell.

[chronicallytiredmom]

Geocaching has enhanced my life in a lot of ways. One is getting out of my comfort of my own bubble and getting out and exploring the outdoors around me. It also has given me the opportunity to meet so many people and to form friendships. I have made most of my friends through this game. I have been geocaching since 2013 and although I may not get to go as often as I would like I don’t ever think of stopping short of death. 😆

Chronicallytiredmom

[Author]

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