The Randomness of Former Strangers

[dlevans]

I'm still relatively new to the game, but I have had a few experiences of racing for the FTF and being pleasantly surprised to meet up with other cachers seeking the same prize. I would love to vicariously share in some of your unplanned experiences of meeting up with fellow cachers on the game trail.

Just a few days ago, my daughter and I took off after a cache by us6keys in Conway for FTF and were searching for about 20 minutes (I am too cheap to buy a real gps unit, and my phone's gps hates the trees) and having a great time trekking through the woods. We saw a few deer, and after a while Rosemary (5 years old) says, "Hey daddy, there's another deer! But hes a lot bigger, and hes wearing an orange shirt!" Turns out that deer was captaincooder with his son! After a nice chat we sought off and eventually captaincooder's son found the cache. Was a very pleasant time!

[geofinder24]

I had my first encounter with a fellow cacher yesterday. I was going for SCCC-Collegeville, hoping (but not expecting) for an FTF since it hadn't been logged as such at the time. I got to the cache site and realized I didn't have the coords in my GPSr and my phone wasn't acting right with all the trees in the way. As I was entering those in, a truck was coming down the driveway to to the cemetery. Since there was nothing else down here, I was pretty sure what he was here for. I got done entering the coords as he was getting out of his truck. He walked up and introduced himself as Emtplatt13. If I wasn't a cacher I might've thought he was from some other planet with that name! It took me a second to realize he was using his geocaching name. We went in search for the cache and I ended up beating him to it. No, we weren't co-FTF's. :( Scottyw beat us to it by about an hour. I would've gotten the FTF if I had went for it earlier, but after the rain I was afraid it was going to be too muddy to get back there. We were co-STF's though!!! After signing the log we talked for a few minutes then went on to other caches. I enjoyed swapping caching stories with a fellow cacher!