My Own Starter Story

This article was originally published on Cache Up NB. It has been mirrored here for archive purposes only.

I had been thinking about it for many months. When I booked the flight to Seattle I sort of did it on a whim and never really gave it much thought. But as time grew closer, I knew that it was going to be a reality very soon. Before I knew it, I was landing in Seattle, waiting in line for a rental car, and realizing that for someone who hadn’t been doing this for very long, I was about to have a few days of intense caching experiences.

Literally, within hours, I was standing in the middle of a group of people at suite 300 on 34th street in Seattle. You’d never know what the place was from the outdoors. Most folks would walk by the building on the sidewalk and never give the place a second chance. But every Friday, a group of geocachers are invited to come inside and go up to the third floor and see where it all happens.

A few of the lackey’s came out to talk to the group. They gave us the lowdown on the history of the place and handed the log book to us so we could all sign it. Fortunately that day they were also giving away free geocoins to anyone who was there so I counted myself pretty lucky for picking that one day to show up.

Given that there wasn’t much where I was, I dug through the giant treasure chest which had the world’s largest geocoin and grabbed a few of my own. I had split my own trackables into three separate “buckets” and one of them was for this specific treasure chest. Dropped off all my bugs and coins, and then became quite fascinated by the large TV screen just above me.

It showed Google Earth but with a twist. Instead of just showing random places on the Earth, it changed every minute or so. It was logs. Live logs coming in from random cache locations all over the world. Whether it be from Germany, Florida, Canada, or anywhere, the log would come in, the globe would spin, and you’d see the text from the log and know that at that exact moment, someone somewhere was logging their experience of geocaching on the official site. Was it their first find or were they seasoned? The sheer size and grandeur of the hobby I had taken on became very apparent as I stood there watching it.

I smiled, grabbed my stuff, and headed back downstairs to start my caching run. The real fun was about to begin now that I was all done at Groundspeak’s HQ, home of geocaching.com.

I got started into geocaching at the very end of 2007. FunkyNassau, a cacher from Moncton, NB, had been caching a long time. Although not the earliest cacher in New Brunswick, definitely one that helped spread the hobby around, and bring a lot more awareness about the sport to folks in this region. We were friends back in high school and would see each other from time to time since then. I had emailed him one day and asked him about geocaching and if he could show me what it was all about.

I was itching to find a new hobby that would keep me busy. I actually had heard of geocaching through my ex-wife several years prior but had decided not to really get into it for fear of running into her “out there”. After enough time had passed, I finally got over my foolish behavior and hit Funky up for the lowdown on all things caching.

It was Boxing Day in 2007 and Funky decided to take me on a roadtrip to Hampton, NB and we’d pick up caches along the way. While we drove, he gave me the lowdown on what caching was all about, how to use his GPS, and as we started to pick up caches here and there, I started to get the idea of what it was all about.

Our first stop was a fire hydrant near an old grocery store in Riverview, NB. We looked and looked and looked but came up empty. It wasn’t exactly the best way to be introduced to the sport of caching, but the next stops we made were much more successful. A couple of micro’s, including a former lipstick holder, and a tobacco can with my first travel bug, all made the list of caches we found that day. I even managed to find a few of them without his help, including one that was a magnetic container on the inside of a bell in Hampton.

Pretty much every container we uncovered was just a regular geocache. Nothing too fancy in the camo department, but still, all decent caches. I thought it was kind of a neat hobby and wanted to try and get in on it myself.

By the time we got back to Moncton, I was pretty sure I was going to go out and buy a GPS to start doing this myself. We stopped for one other cache which was located literally up the street from my house. A fake rock hidden under a set of steps was my first introduction to the world camo’d caches. I would never have known that a fake rock would have been used, but Funky’s son grabbed it right away and amazed me at how easy it was for him to find it. I was definitely hooked now.

The next day, I went out to a Walmart and bought myself a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx GPS. This was the same one FunkyNassau had and I had learned a bit about how to use it on my little outing with him. I loaded my very first cache onto it and headed out to a ball field near my house. It was winter time, and the wife wanted to come with me so she got bundled up, put my three month old son in some warm clothes, strapped him into his stroller, and off we went. It didn’t take me long to find that first cache and the thrill of being able to find it all by myself was enough to convince me that this was a hobby I was going to enjoy.

Here I am seven years later and I have found that geocaching has become a lot more than just some casual hobby that I learned about from a friend. Instead, I’ve found that it’s become a major part of my life. Not only do I find myself actively out caching , I’ve become entrenched in the geocaching community within my area. From hosting and participating in a multitude of different geocaching events, to launching Cache Up NB, to making good friends, it’s become something larger to me. Geocaching is no longer just a hobby. It’s part of my life.

Prior to this, I would have had no reason to go to Seattle and hike up one of the mountains there. I probably would never have visited the Dobson Trail. I wouldn’t have seen the best view of the Hollywood sign in LA. I wouldn’t have appeared on The Amazing Race Canada. When I look back at all of the things that have happened to me since I started with this hobby, it’s actually quite amazing to see how much of my life is connected to such a silly thing as finding tupperware in the woods.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.