How did you get Started?

[neonride93]

I was thinking the other day about how much time and money I have spent ( wasted if you ask my wife ) and this thing called Geocaching. Who do I have to blame??

My story is simple. I was working third shift and my boss kept talking about the neat things her husband was running into while doing this new hobby. After hearing her talk about it for a couple days I sat her down and questioned her for like an hour on it, and the next morning I found a used GPS on craigslist. This just sounded like so much fun, I knew I would like it. So without even trying it, I bought a GPS ( only 80 bucks, I am now on my third unit in a year 🙂 ). about 15 months later and 1500 caches I say it was good choice 🙂

Bosses Husband = geobuddy Rj_Mckenzie

Now how did you get started!

[The Happy Hodag!]

I actually signed up on GC.com back in ’04, but don’t let my sign up date fool you. I had actually heard about GeoCaching way back then through Where’s George, which is a dollar bill tracking website, when there was a big bruhaha going on over in Minnesota with a user who was using phony Where’s George dollars as travel bugs. That user has since been banned from Where’s George because of that incident (among other WG related offenses at the time), but I believe he’s still active on GC. Anywho, that whole thing eventually brought me into this little hobby of ours.

-The Happy Hodag!

The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.

Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.

[Mister Greenthumb]

Our daughter’s family with our 3 grand kids had been geocaching for about 2 years and took us for a walk on the Bugline to do a couple of caches. It was March of 2006 and I wasn’t very impressed with this first outing. We only found 28 caches that year and I didn’t even log them until the end of the year. Then I had a life changing experience in the form of chest pains and ended up having a heart procedure done in December of that same year. In January of 2007 the weather was great. No snow and 45 degrees. We went for a rehab walk on the Bugline of course and walked 4 miles and found 8 caches. The rest is history. We’ll be finding #3000 in June and our hide total is in the 170’s. We’ve been to over 40 events and now our life is still grand kids and geocaching.

[HeliDood]

My friend Eric (Team Mulligan) first introduced me to the sport in 2004. He used to tell me all about it, but since I lived 1200 miles away (I lived in Connecticut at the time), Eric and I never got the chance to go geocaching together.

Back out east, though.. I learned that my friend Andrew (another submariner on my boat) was an avid Geocacher. This was in 2005.
Andrew and I searched out a couple hundred finds together, although he had over a thousand to his name. I was pretty much a tag-along helper kinda guy. Not too serious into the sport.
Together, we found caches in CT, RI, MA, NH and ME.

I didn’t get my own Geocaching account until way later, and even then I only logged a handful of finds that I found with my friend Andrew.

My old account is long lost. I forgot my user name, and even the email address I used to create the account. There was no chance of recovering it.

In November of 2009 (I forgot what I was doing at the time), but I got bored. I was flipping through the TV channels and couldn’t find anything to watch. I thought, “I know, I’ll go geocaching!”.

So I went onto GC.com, created an account, and seeked out a handful of caches in the area.

Thats my story.

[-cheeto-]

My mother in law gave me a GPS and a local newspaper article on geocaching for my birthday in 2007. A couple days later I went on a business trip to Atlanta and took my GPS with me. When I got to the hotel I jumped on the internet and looked up the info for the nearest caches. There were a couple on the trail in a park right behind where I was training and a few by my hotel. I learned on my own and persistence paid off. Those first caches in Georgia got me hooked on geocaching. I even found a caching with kids geocoin there and brought it back with me not knowing what exactly it was and learned later and placed it in another cache while caching with my kids.

My first hide was a puzzle cache hidden about a month after I started. 😉

[Vegas Gamblers]

Well, in May of 2006 I had back surgery (fusion) and my doctor told me to get out and walk. I saw this thing on Fox6 in Milwaukee, with Vince Condella. It was about finding things with a GPS. The rest is history. Three years and three GPS units later we are close to 700 caches. We don’t have all the time to cache, but we get out when we can.

[BigJim]

A few years ago I went to an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for a member of Seecrew. The crew had a multi along the trail that he had reestablished for his Eagle service project. Another Scout, BrotherRon, took me out and showed me how it was done. It sort of sat on the back burner for a couple of years, but then for some reason I decided to pull out my old Magellan that had been gathering dust in the closet, put in some fresh batteries, and go see what I could find.

All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.

[Braid Beards Gang]

I got turned around bow hunting just over three years ago. My hunting “buddies” making fun of me caused my wife to panic, so I bought a cheap magellan explorist 100 to find my way to and from the car. I like VG saw the local weatherman, Vince Condella, talk about this hobby. We found our first cache a little more then 3 years ago, as of today we are at 1,210. It gives me an excuse to get my daughters outside and spend some time with them.

[Todd300]

I read a newspaper article about geocaching. I already had a pocket PC and knew it was compatible with a bluetooth GPS receiver mainly for road navigation. I thought it would work for geocaching as well, so I did some research on geocaching software, downloaded some demos and shareware, ordered the bluetooth GPSr cheap on clearance for $30 and gave it a try.

Later I upgraded to an actual GPSr, my Garmin Venture HC.

My area does not have many caches (maybe about 60 some caches in a 10 mile radius from my home coords), so I often have to travel to geocache. But I enjoy it each time out.

[lone_gunman]

Back in 2001 a show TechTV called The Screensavers did a bit about this new game. Dad found it online and we went searching for our first cache. Ended up in the middle of this field (turned out to be about a half mile off) because one of us had entered a digit wrong. We went back and found it almost a year later. GC3ADE

[sipafz]

Being members of the Riveredge Nature Center in Ozaukee County we get a monthly news letter. My wife says that they are having a free family intro to geocaching and ask if I would like to go. At the time I was doing something like changing the oil, cutting the grass or something important. I think my reply was along the lines of “Are you kidding me? Like I have time for that.” Of course she then played the “kid card” and found myself at the nature center the following weekend. After some instruction we were out finding some temporary caches that were hidden on the grounds by the staff. My six year old daughter caught on real quick and really enjoyed finding the treasure boxes. A day later I was asking my brother to borrow his GPS that he uses for hunting and fishing. We went looking for our first cache on September 27th 2009 and DNF’ed the first attempt. We did find a few others and were hooked ever since. During the last 8 months we have found 429 with 21 being FTF’s and hidden 41 of our own. The ironic thing is that Mom was the one to expose us to the hobby and still shows no interest. That ok because it’s a great way to spend quality time with my daughter. As for that elusive first attempt, well we finial found that bugger recently as our 404 find. It only took about ten trips and five hours of looking. Someday we wont be newbies anymore.

Jack

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

A peanut butter jar, and Vince Condella. 😀

[koolma_k]

I saw a bit on Fox 6 Milwaukee, caching with Condella about a year or so ago. I researched it a bit and I was interested but couldn’t validate the cost of a gps on something I wasn’t sure we would do regularly. Later in 2009 after seeing some info on the West Bend Cache Bash I decided I would give it a shot, I signed up for the 2010 Bash in Novemeber 2009 (#244, I get a goodie bag!!) and put a Handheld GPS on my Xmas list. I must have been naughty as I didn’t get a GPS :(. My store closed in Jan. and I was with out a job and had plenty of time and I didn’t want to become a couch potatoe. So in Feb. I saw a used gps on craiglist and took the plunge. On Valentines day I took my son out and we made our first find GC1FW6T, we hit a few that day, my son even found a Fallen Heros Geocoin and we both fell in love with the sport. I have introduced several of my kids friends, my BF, and a few people I had worked with to the sport… we have alot of fun converting the muggles!! Now, 4 short months later, we have met some great people through caching, we have almost 250 finds, 1 placement, 9 adoptions and some great experiences that we will remember for the rest of our lives and we are looking forward to many, many more!!!

[jerrys dad]

My father in law went to Virginia to visit his brother. When he came back he told the family about this adventure he had with his brother. A few years later I got a plain old etrex for Christmas from my mother (she was able to get a deal at Wally world.) I remembered the story and the next day we loaded Jerry into the truck and away we went. We found about 70 or so on and off for the next year. Then my car accedent where I was laid up for 6 months. I started getting an itch to get out but didn’t have a ton of money. Since I already had the GPSR I decided to give it another try. I amdefinatly more into it than Jerrys Mom but the whole family will go searching. I even got my cousin and her husband hooked last Memorial Day Weekend.

[glorkar]

I can’t recall where I first heard about it, but I started doing it last year. A coworker of mine had mentioned it and asked if I wanted to tag along. I didn’t really have anything else to do, so I agreed. It was a lot of fun. I actually ended up borrowing one of his older GPS units for about a month before I realized I was going to keep caching and bought it off of him.

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