Scuba

[Travler]

I just was curious how many TM owners are scuba divers on this forum.

[Bill]

No scuba divers? I'm surprised. I used to dive many years ago, and enjoyed it.

So. Any geocachers?

Bill

Mary and I scuba. Mostly in connection with Carribean sailing charters although there are a number of lakes and quarries in Illinois which offer decent diving during the summer. - Camp2Canoe

Whenever I can

Bill, could you explain to people the fasination with geocaching? I have a GPS and tried it a could times, but did not see the big deal is. We have a single guy at work and that is about all he does each weekend.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Doug W.

Bill, could you explain to people the fasination with geocaching? I have a GPS and tried it a could times, but did not see the big deal is. We have a single guy at work and that is about all he does each weekend.

Doug -

I’ve wondered how to respond to this. Rather than getting elaborate or pedantic, maybe I’ll just say this.

Some people enjoy fishing. There are easy places to fish, and hard places to fish. There are casual fishermen and fanatical fishermen. I’ve tried it, and I don’t understand the lure of fishing. No amount of “explaining” will ever make it fun for me.

Some people enjoy golf. Same comments apply. No amount of explaining will ever make me a fan of golf.

Some people enjoy geocaching. Again, same comments apply.

My wife and I are a bit more than casual geocachers, but certainly not fanatics. We enjoy it because it gets us off our duffs and outdoors, and gets us to some beautiful places that we didn't know existed. And good caches present an interesting puzzle, which appeals to us.

Some cache locations are easy to get to, and are called “drive-by caches”. Not much fun in our estimation, but easy, and they keep your score up. If this is what you experienced, you were probably bored to death. But some cache locations are much more difficult to get to. Our toughest (and most fun) required a 10-mile hike through mountainous desert near Dragoon, Arizona.

Once you have reached the location, you still have to find the cache. Some of the hiding schemes are trivially simple – “I just walked up and there it was, staring at me!” But some are much more clever and difficult to find. The “clever” people tend to be in friendly competition, which we find fun.

Different people are turned on by different things, and I don’t always understand it. For example, we had a couple of old friends over on Saturday. The day before, the guy had been hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He was scrambling over granite boulders above the treeline, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, the wind came up, the rain started, he was soaked and freezing – and he was having a ball! On Saturday we took him geocaching on the Maine coast. We were scrambling over granite boulders of a jetty jutting out into the Atlantic, dressed in shorts and T-shirts, the wind came up and the rain started, we were soaked and freezing – and he was whining about what a stupid sport this was. (Didn’t find the cache, by the way.)

So I don't always get it, but that's my best shot at an answer.

Bill

My wife and I both dive. We dive quite frequently. We recently loaded two 120 cf tanks (Nitrox 42%) in the back of our TV and pulled the TM to Refugio Beach, CA. We stayed a few days and did an interesting beach dive while we were there. Fun trip!

Bill,
I quess I am being obtuse, but I still don't get the geocaching. It sounds as if someone hides something and then people (teams) etc use GPS to find it? If so who are the hiders and who are the seekers?
Help me out here.
Dan

[fcatwo]

I can see how geocaching could become addictive but we managed to slip the noose. We had friends from Calif spend a couple of days with us last year and we helped them find 5-6 sites. He was an old hand at it so it went quite smoothly until we visited a site during a rain storm on their last afternoon. We couldn't find the thing and it really bothered me. My friend was able to coach an extra clue from the owner and that clue was that it was a small cache.

I went back on a dry day and found it by chance. To give you an idea of how intrigueing it can be; the cache was a 1/2" round by 3/4" long silver cylinder with a magnet on one end and was attached to the end of a 1/2" bolt on a piece of equipment - unless you looked closely it looked like that bolt was just a little longer than the others. I found it when I happened to put my hand on it and it moved.

Devoted geocache people live in a different world, much like bird watchers. Some have found several hundred of the things and will go to their graves lusting for more.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by fishpondwest

Bill,
I still don't get the geocaching. It sounds as if someone hides something and then people (teams) etc use GPS to find it? If so who are the hiders and who are the seekers?

Dan

Dan -

Anybody is anybody. For example, my wife and I have found about 150 caches over the past year, and have hidden 3.

The whole thing is co-ordinated on a website called www.geocaching.com, and it is free (although, much like this TMO website, you can get more info by subscribing for a nominal fee). There are rules on where caches can and cannot be hidden, and your cache location (your "hide") has to be reviewed before it will be published on the web site. But the rules are pretty reasonable. No hides on private property without the consent of the owner, no hides in a location that requires you to park on an Interstate highway, no hides within 1/4 mile of another hide - these are typical of the rules you will encounter.

Bill