How has caching changed your life?

[Ray]

[kbraband]

I can’t say that I have given up any activities because of geocaching. Nor have I become more physically active than I was pre-geocaching. I still do lots of outdoor activities including biking, hiking, x-c skiing, downhill skiing, paddling, boating, camping, and rock climbing. Geocaching has made me aware of many, many more hiking areas than I would have otherwise discovered. I used to depend on county and state park guidebooks that listed trails for hiking and cross-country skiing. I still do, but hunting geocaches is a lot more fun — and usually less congested –than “traditional” hiking. The biggest and best change for me is that geocaching has given me a new circle of friends that I would not have met otherwise.

[EnergySaver]

It’s not really changed our lives enough to stop us from doing things we use to do … it’s gotten us out of the house more than when we were not really doing anything (ie. less TV now) … so for us it has increased our level of physical activity a bit. We always like walking in parks, but now we walking in different parks, instead of the 2 or 3 we knew about … actually the biggest change is now the kids don’t want to walk in the parks closest to us because “there’s nothing to find there” (other than our own caches for the most part), so I guess now we go for walks with a purpose/goal, but for us it’s just as much about enjoying the walk/view/park as find the cache at the end of the line. We don’t have big numbers of finds, we’ve slowed down a lot from when we started in April. For me personally, I enjoyed “day dreaming” about that perfect/cool hide that I could place for others to find … it’s not come to me, some day it will. In the mean time, I’m putting all my creative juices into planning the geo-event that we’re doing on 4/30/05 with Ecorangers.

[This message has been edited by EnergySaver (edited 12-03-2004).]

[brkster]

I used to look forward to the warmer months so I could play my 60 or so rounds of golf per season, but since discovering geocaching…I can live without golf, no problem at all. Also, I could’ve never pictured myself hiking off a trail into thicker brush/thorns unless I had a real good reason to. Now I do. Plus the mileage I’ve put on my car has nearly tripled in the last year from the previous year. A trip from Racine to, let’s say New Berlin, seemed like a big journey, but now it’s a hop step and a jump away.

[LightningBugs Mum]

When I first read this topic, I was going to say something about it taking away time from my housework, but then I realized I’ve always had excuses to avoid it. Geocaching is just the most recent one.

Let’s see….

I’ve never owned blaze orange anything before. Now I can’t be without it as I find us heading to wildlife refuges and other wild areas to cache this time of year.

Every place I go, I wonder if a cache could be placed there.

Yes, that milage thing is a factor. I now think nothing of spending half a day driving a couple counties over for a FTF or a handful of smilies.

And I have a new friend (hint: she is into dogs) and met lots of great people (you know who you are!).

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Team LightningBugs
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“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
~ Sarah Williams

[This message has been edited by LightningBugs Mum (edited 12-05-2004).]

[This message has been edited by LightningBugs Mum (edited 12-05-2004).]

[greyhounder]

I spend more time when out looking at places and their potential for hides. I take time to enjoy things that I see and wonder if it’s something I could share with others.

I’m not as obsessive about rearranging my furniture in my house or do odd things to the landscaping (not as much, although I still have to rearrange the furniture on a regular basis).

My free weekends are no longer days to lounge around — I am out geocaching!

I seem to be sleeping better too — after a good day of hiking.

And I’m really working on my social skills!! Being sort of quiet & shy, meeting all you wonderful people have really made me feel welcome!

Bec

[Ms. WISearcher]

I would have to say that geocaching has changed my life a bit…I never thought I would be involved with local agencies before…I have learned to go outside of my comfort zone a bit and take those types of risks.

Most importantly I have gained many “life-long” (I am hoping) friendships. There are several people out there that I am indelibly connected with and wouldn’t have met them if we hadn’t geocached.

We also have found areas (in our own back yard even) that we wouldn’t had known about without geocaching. One of the greatest days of our honeymoon was because of geocaching (no, I am not talking about “that”)taking us to an AMAZING location in which we were able to swim with tropical fish, bike on an old highway that was taken over by the forest, and jumpin goff of a big bridge with the locals…we wouldn’t have ever experienced things such as this if not for geocaching…

although I do miss the days of not getting out of my pjs sitting at the kitchen table with a blanket wrapped around me, drinking hot cocoa, and putting a puzzle together…now there are just way too many places to go and hikes to be had…

[Ootek]

Geocaching provides the perfect way for me to decompress. When I’m hunting a cache, I’m completely immersed in the experience and forget about everything else, especially my work. I come home feeling physically and mentally rejuvenated

[Timberline Echoes]

Geocaching has enhanced many of our already existing hobbies. Since 1992 we have spent most of our summers camping in tents, spending as much time as possible in the woods, hiking and exploring. Our goal was to spend at least a week in every WI State Park. Then our kids became teenagers, with jobs and we could not go very far from home. We started biking more seriously, until this past year when we started geocaching. We definitely biked less this year.
I have always enjoyed taking pictures of nature, geocaching has enhanced that, as we have taken pictures at every cache we have found, except 2 or 3 when it was pouring rain. We have seen some beautiful places that were great to photograph too.
We are hoping to get some caches via snowshoe this winter, which is one of our favorite activities.
We have added a lot of miles on our vehicle that is for sure.
The only thing I can think of that we really “gave up” this year was my share of the family Packer tickets. We decided we would rather geocache. A weekend of geocaching is less expensive than going to a Packer game, and more fun, in our opinion. My brother doesn’t understand, but he is happy to have all of the tickets.

[OuttaHand]

It brought me back to LIFE!!!

Well — at least it brught more joy to my already-existing life; let’s put it that way.

I used to be real involved in motorsports. Just about anything that had an engine: Cars, trucks, snowmobiles, etc. Working on them and driving them consumed most of my free time.
Then came the brain tumor that took much of my eyesight. Nasty little bugger left me legally blind and the state figures I probably shouldn’t drive any more. (could I really be any worse than some of the drivers out there?!?) So it was time to either curl up and do nothing, or find something different to do.
That’s when the boss at my then-new job introduced me to this. Since then, my wife and I have gotten out to nature MUCH more. We’ve discovered a lot of really great places that are right here in our “back yard”. We now visit parks, forests, etc. that we’ve driven within 1/4 mile of and not known of before.
So geocaching became a new hobby that allows me to participate WITH my wife — not INSTEAD of her. It allows us to get out for some fresh air and excercise that was all too lacking before.

[rpaske]

quote:

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Originally posted by OuttaHand:
It brought me back to LIFE!!!

Well — at least it brught more joy to my already-existing life; let’s put it that way.

I used to be real involved in motorsports. Just about anything that had an engine: Cars, trucks, snowmobiles, etc. Working on them and driving them consumed most of my free time.
Then came the brain tumor that took much of my eyesight. Nasty little bugger left me legally blind and the state figures I probably shouldn’t drive any more. (could I really be any worse than some of the drivers out there?!?) So it was time to either curl up and do nothing, or find something different to do.
That’s when the boss at my then-new job introduced me to this. Since then, my wife and I have gotten out to nature MUCH more. We’ve discovered a lot of really great places that are right here in our “back yard”. We now visit parks, forests, etc. that we’ve driven within 1/4 mile of and not known of before.
So geocaching became a new hobby that allows me to participate WITH my wife — not INSTEAD of her. It allows us to get out for some fresh air and excercise that was all too lacking before.

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WOW! I am really humbled to be with a group like this!

[Author]

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