Geocaching and getting started.

Good morning everyone.  This week's fun fact is all about total caches found.  Ever wonder who has the most?  That would be a retired couple from Reno, Nevada by the name of Alamogul with 178,828 finds.  They've completed their fizzy grid an incredible 42 times.  At least 6 times they have logged 4,000+ found caches in a single month.

How did we all become geocachers?  How did we here about this crazy/interesting hobby?  Do you remember your very first find?

I don't remember exactly when I heard about geocaching.  I'm going to guess it was sometime between 2004 and 2006.  It had come up in a discussion forum on another tracking site that I was participating in at the time.  For that one, you track paper currency by logging the serial number into a website, writing the website URL on the currency and go out and spend that currency.  Hopefully whoever comes across that piece of currency will log the serial number into the website and you'll see where that currency has traveled.  One of the rules was natural transactions.  American $1 bills were being left in geocaches with the website marked on them.  The creator of the money tracking site frowned on this activity as it was not a natural transaction.  

Fast forward to 2013.  I'm working shift work and from time to time, I would walk my boys to school.  One of the dads I would talk to at the school yard would tell me of his latest adventures into geocaching, the containers he'd find, and where he had been.  This sounded very interesting.  I had this dad on my FB friend list so I would see some pics of his adventures.  I asked my boys if they wanted to do this geocaching thing.  Neither of them seemed too interested.  They are even more less interested in geocaching today.  My daily streak killed the fun for them.

In early August of that year, I was on a family outing with my boys, my then wife, her sister and daughter plus then wife's best friend and two kids.  We were at a historical fort just outside of the city.  We split apart into groups, me and the boys (four of us in total) and the girls.  As me and the boys explored the various structures, I spotted what looked like someone's lunch container on a ledge.  I saw it but didn't check it out immediately.  After being in there for a few minutes, curiosity got the better of me and had to check out the sandwich container.  Not sure why I would want to see someone's half eaten lunch.  It wasn't anyone's half eaten lunch.  It was a geocache.  'Hey! I heard of this!'  I found a geocache by total accident.  I knew enough to sign the log book and to not take anything if I didn't have anything to replace it with.  It was a good thing I was carrying the camera.

I contacted the dad that I talked to in the school grounds and asked what to do.  He guided me in the right direction.  I created my account but coming up with an interesting geocaching name had me stumped.  I'm lousy when it comes to creating funny/interesting secret identities.  Even today as I scroll through geocaching names, I find some that are funny/imaginative and I think "why couldn't I come up with a name like that?".  LOL  I finally settled on the name 'mister music'.  I always have music playing, be it a radio, a cd, i-pod, or You Tube.  Plus, I use to be a former mobile DJ, playing taped music at weddings and banquets.  So now I have a 'secret identity' and I'm logging my very first find.  My very first find was the final to a multi-stage cache.  I've never gone back to do all the stages properly.

Looking at the geocaching map, I saw two more within walking distance of my house.  They were in a park/museum grounds.  I remember meeting that dad in the park and he had mentioned there was two caches there.  He also pointed to the North indicating that one of them was in that direction from where we stood.  So off I went with my oldest, no GPSr or phone app.  Just good ol' determination, looked at Google maps before heading out, and the word of that dad.  I found the one beside the museum but we couldn't find the other.  My first DNF.  Looking at the Geocaching map,  it was telling me that the cache was to the West of where I stood with that dad, not North.  Why would he send me on a wild goose chase?  As I look back on our conversations, he gave me false information a few times about locations of geocaches.  I would soon learn that geocaches come in all shapes and sizes.  It took me about five attempts before I finally found that one in the park.  A hollowed out bolt on a stop sign.  Not the type of geocache a newbie should be looking for.  

That dad was my go-to person when I ran into problems or had questions.  I remember him posting a picture of his 1,000th find.  I had only 5 at the time and made the comment that I only had 995 to go to catch up.  I saw this dad as a geocaching expert.  A serious geocacher.  Since that day in 2013, he has found 552 caches.  By comparison, I have found 4,315 in that same amount of time.  Yes, I'm a bit of a stats junkie and a more serious geocacher than he was.  I normally don't compare my stats to anyone else's stats, but this was different.  The student has passed the teacher.  I now find myself in a role of 'teacher' and I'm more than willing to help anyone that asks.  Sharing the knowledge.  I want others to experience and have the same amount of joy from this hobby of ours.  I'm a big believer that there should be more "intro to geocaching" type events/workshops/classes.  "Knowledge is the movement from darkness to light."  I saw that on a sign outside of a school.  LOL.

Since then I bought my own GPSr.  Nothing extravagant.  A Magellan eXplorist from Canadian Tire.  It served me well and still does from time to time.  I have the Geocaching app on my phone and I admit, I rely on that far too much.  I have found myself in places where there's no cell service.  Hard to imagine that there are 'dead zones' for cell service in this day and age.  Getting a little bit off topic, I was caching in Southern Manitoba, not far from the American border, finding the 3rd oldest active cache, 'Washed Road Cache' GC10F1.  Found it, signed, replaced and checked out the area before leaving.  That's when I noticed my phone provider was now AT&T instead of MTS.  What the???  A text message from MTS soon followed saying "Happy travels.  Your roaming rates are..."  But I haven't left the province!!  I have been back in that area and I made sure I had my GPSr with me.  I was never charged extra for that day.

I have also changed my geocaching identity since then.  When I joined Instagram, I tried to use my geocaching name 'mister music' but somebody out there on Instagram has that as their name.  The nerve of some people.  LOL.  Now I'm put in that spot again of coming up with a creative name.  That's where 'Geocacher Ken' was born.  I would soon transfer that name over to geocaching and do the name change.  This allows me to sign logs with a simple GK.

So that's how I got started on this crazy journey that has taken me to 4 Provinces, 3 States, a daily streak of 1,010 days, numerous roadside attractions, and animal encounters.  That's it for this week.  As my oldest boy, Duesenberg 2002 says, 'Peace Out'.  Have fun, be safe, and remember, geocaching is meant to be fun.  Enjoy.  :)