Good press = Good cachers?

[arkhiker]

I just found out today that there was a basic, but very good, article explaining geocaching (and letterboxing) in Sunday's Ark DemGaz. It was in the "Taking it Outside" section.
They didn't go into any great detail, but they did do a good job of giving the basic idea of what geocaching is and how it is done.

This got me thinking. I was told about caching by a good friend who heard about it from another person. I have told numerous people about the sport and had some show real interest in what we do. However, I don't know of anyone who read an article, heard about it on the news, or some other noninterpersonal interaction, and is now an avid cacher.

I'm curious to know, how did you other cachers get involved in this hobby (aka addiction)? Did you read about it and decide that this was for you?

[OldRiverRunner]

I first learned about geocaching from a TV show on either the Discovery Channel or The Learning Channel. It was called something like, "The Top 10 Treasures". The show was basically about famous lost treasures, such as Blackbeard's Treasure or The Lost Dutchman Mine. However, the show did include, as one of the "treasures", a short explanation of geocaching, which it called modern day treasure hunting, and showed some folks in the woods looking for and finding a hidden cache. It intrigued me, so I looked up the website and the rest is history! -- ORR

[Gaddiel]

I first found out about geocaching while "surfing" one day. I believe it was BookCrossing.com where I first read about geocaching. I either Googled or Dogpiled the term and found the GC.com site.

From there, I found out about the Arkansas Yahoo! group that LongDogs had set up and started talking to some local cachers.

Wayne

[paris1time]

On May 1st, 2006 the lodge at Mount Magazine State Park opened. My wife (ddkds) and I live in nearby Paris. One day a month or so before the lodge was to open I was looking at the Mt. Magazine State Park web site and reviewing the things to do there. I saw a link for something that I had NEVER heard of before called "geocaching".

I clicked on the link that took me to a page with a very brief description that also had a link for www.geocaching.com. I clicked on the link and read all about it. I instantly became very interested.

My wife and I started trying to eat right and become more healthy as we both begin to approach 40 and had began doing some walking as well as watching what we eat. To date we have both lost approximately 40 pounds each.

Geocaching appeared to me like a great sport to get involved in that would also get us out into the great outdoors more and would also put us doing something together. We really never had the same interests or hobbies. My wife liked the idea and also read up about geocaching on the gc.com web site.

We bought a GPS (Garmin etrex Legend) soon after and now are paperless also. We are hooked.

My wife and I are even closer and better friends all because of geocaching and having fun with it TOGETHER.

We were basically "couch potatoes" a year ago, but now geocaching has out on the go. We enjoy hitting the in town caches and also love to go hike the trails and see the scenic beauty and find those caches as well.

Thanks geocaching!

[5beavers]

I got a gps for christmas in 2004. When talking about it a friend at work he told me about geocaching, even though he did not go caching. I was looking for something to do with my new gps when I remebered geocaching, did I think that was a silly name for something. Did a search and found the offical website and there was a cache within a few miles Wild n wooly in Wooly Hollow State Park. Not know how to use my gps other tan changing screens and saving a mark. After walking all over the park we finally got to the right location, DNF this made me determined to find something now! made a trip to Burns Park to find the Biggest cache in the area, hopefully the easier to find. We were able to locate this cache and the kids loved it. Now we were hooked. We just wish we could do it more

[BACKPACKNJACK]

Just A truncated excerpt from my, junk I've saved to post to my own website......someday:
"I bought a GPS in OCT 1999, before they were way cool and back when no one knew anything about them, and you could stand in one spot and log many miles.
I went online, curious about the math or geometry involved in this technology and read a middle eastern (as best I recall) mathematician convinced he could greatly improve the accuracy even though the signals were scrambled back then but Garmin refused to share their EPE formula with him, saying it was patented.
After reading they had stopped scrambling the signal I was trying to find his research about GPS accuracy to see what he had accomplished by now and found a mention about Geocaching. Now, the thought of being able to find my deer-stand or truck wasn't as interesting as being able to find even a fruit jar dropped anywhere on the planet so without having an account or ID I went and found some caches. They were few and far
in between but I approached caching in about the same manner as my first adventures on the Internet and I tried everything,.../... a regular cache.../..actually sign a log.../.., find a virtual and send../.., etc. I almost decided not to play anymore because.../..I've never regretted my decision to continue."

[TheAlabamaRambler]

I bought mine to steal fishin' holes!

I have fished Lay Lake in central Alabama since we bought property there in 1962, but in recent years the Kimberly-Clark paper mill upstream has polluted the river so badly the state has prohibited eating the fish.

So, I needed new fishin' grounds.

Now, you can fish a new lake for years searchin' for the good fishin' holes, or you can hire an expert local guide.

Not having any desire to fish where the fish ain't, I started hiring guides to local lakes and to the parts of the Gulf accessible to me.

Wherever the guide stopped to fish, whappo, it was marked and mine!

Then guides learned about GPS. Now you'll get your GPS (and/or yourself) thrown overboard and/or the trip cancelled forthwith if a guide catches you marking his hole. In fact most guides now prohibit GPSrs from even being brought onboard. Knowing the 'secret' places to fish is, after all, their livelyhood.

So I had this contraption, its original purpose likely to get me wet (guides take their holes real serious!) and went lookin' on the internet for what to do with it.

I found geocaching.com and the rest, as they say, is history!

There is a concurrent backstory that was happening at the time: geocaching truly saved my life, but that's not nearly as interesting!