Things I learned while geocaching on my own

[LittleMissSunshine]

I love geocaching. I usually go with my husband, sometimes with a friend. But I had yesterday as a 'free' day off work, and since I pay for 5-day-a-week childcare I packed the kids up and sent them to the dayhome, my husband went to work, and I went out into the world with a bunch of new coordinates loaded on my GPS. It was my first time ever geocaching solo, and I learned a few things along the way:

1) It's a lot harder to do alone. It helps to have a spotter for 'muggles'.

2) Consider your wardrobe. Don't wear a pink jacket. You don't blend in. You will draw attention to yourself.

3) If you don't adhere to the previous two points, you'll have a police officer wanting to have a chat with you. Hopefully you will end up with one who knows what the heck you are talking about, and who will laugh at you for your poor choice of wardrobe and lack of a spotter. But who will then duck under the tree to help you find the damn thing that was eluding you.

 

You know, it's not a fun day off until the cops show up.

[Elastigirl]

Hilarious! I've never gone alone. Obax (fellow assassin) does all the time I'm afraid I would never find anything.. So fun that the cop helped you look.

 

One time when geocaching with hubby he ducked under some bushes to look while I spotted. There were some people came by and I said so, but he didn't hear me. So he popped out of the bushes just as people were coming by, that earned some weird looks. Another time we were both squatting down looking in some bushes, and some horseback riders rode by on the trail. We were hidden so we were just going to be quiet. But the horses started getting spooked, because they could see us, but the people couldn't. So we said "hello" to let them know we were there. More funny looks  

[CombatBoot]

You know, it's not a fun day off until the cops show up.

 

Truer words have never been spoken 

[LittleMissSunshine]

Elastigirl, that's hilarious! That reminds me of a cache I found with my husband, it was under a set of stairs in a park. We got spotted by an elderly couple despite our best efforts not to, and I'm pretty sure they thought we were just a pair of teenagers up to no good. There were disapproving glares and tsk-tsks

[Jittersthe.Clown]

As long as you're not breaking any laws, I say go and get those weird looks.  I would go a lot and not really care how it looked.  I did have an uncomfortable encounter when tracking through the woods and came upon a young couple having a quiet roll in the brush.  They were pretty well hidden and quiet, until I jumped over a large branch and startled all of us with my presence.  Good times...

 

I think I need to get out searching again.  

[Earlsdottir]

Hee!  I sometimes take the other member of my household along, but far more often head out with just my GPS and pen for company.  I've had to explain what I was doing a couple of times, but never to the cops!  I feel like that's a rite of passage that I'm missing, but on the other hand, I'm not sure I want to pass it...

[Frost of the Gloaming]

never a cop, but we did have a park ranger point out exactly what we were looking for lol

[67alecto]

I had an insurance agent come out of their office and tell me "it's in the tree"

[Gobnait]

I've been wanting to geocache solo.  It was a very long time since that couple took me to a few caches, though I did accidentally find one a few years ago.

 

Ursual Vernon (the one who drew the Pear) once had a blog post where she had to stay in a store because a geocacher accidentally set off a bomb scare.

[Shortkaik]

Man, I need to do more caching!  I have not really had any funny encounters.  My husband is like Jitters, 'who cares if anyone sees us?'  In fact, he WANTS people to ask questions so he can get more people interested.  I, on the other hand, prefer to be a bit more subtle.  

 

The best story we have is that we searched for a cache for a while and then gave up and started walking away - only to be chased down by a little kid (about 8) who had hid the cache with his parents and was watching us search from the window.  He brought us back to GZ and played hot or cold with us until we found it.  Too cute!

[Elastigirl]

Man, I need to do more caching!  I have not really had any funny encounters.  My husband is like Jitters, 'who cares if anyone sees us?'  In fact, he WANTS people to ask questions so he can get more people interested.  I, on the other hand, prefer to be a bit more subtle.  

 

The best story we have is that we searched for a cache for a while and then gave up and started walking away - only to be chased down by a little kid (about 8) who had hid the cache with his parents and was watching us search from the window.  He brought us back to GZ and played hot or cold with us until we found it.  Too cute!

That is a great story.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

My little brother breifly got into it. Wifey is always wanting to take up hiking, maybe I'll surprise her with a day of trying out caching. There's a small wooded state park right near us that probably has at least a dozen caches in it.

[obax]

As EG mentioned, I do indeed cache alone semi-regularly, but I generally have more fun with a companion or two (though I've recently learned that there is such a thing as too many people). Me, my sister and brother make a good team (me and my sister especially, since she will reach into dark holes that I won't, and I will climb up/over things that she won't). My sister also has a lot more determination than I do, when I go solo I get a lot more DNFs than I do with my sister along.

 

Sadly, I've never had to explain myself to a cop (there's a small part of me that actually wants to be stopped by a cop, since it'd probably be a good story, assuming I don't get arrested), but we do get our fair share of weird looks (I did read a story in the log for one cache in my home town that's hidden in some bushes in a park that previous finders were accused of looking for drugs. When my sister and I looked for that cache, no one in the neighbourhood seemed to care).

 

My favourite was when my brother and I were both about 25 feet up a spruce tree, discussing how much further up we thought we had to go and the best path to get there without falling as a guy walked by below. The guy was thoroughly confused trying to figure out where our voices were coming from, and we just kept talking as if being most of the way up a giant tree was the most natural thing in the world.