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My First!

Tue, Aug 18, 2009

My First

New to the hobby of Geocaching?  Well, at some point we all were and I still am.

My first cache was a joke, a disaster, a learning curve, a huge frustration but most of all, it was a huge satisfaction.

It all started when I started to take notice of these odd posts my nephew kept sending me on Twitter.  Found (loads of gibberish) cache.  I decided to have a look at what it was all about and logged onto Geocaching.com thinking that this was an American pastime, my nephew lives in the US and I live in the UK.

After entering my post code, I was amazed to see hundreds of caches within a few miles of where I live.  I was even more surprised to find that a local park, just over half a mile from where I live has one.  Reading further I was excited to see I could download some software onto my phone for free to help me find the cache.  The afternoon was sunny, my phone was charged up so off we set to find it.

I reached the park and loaded up the software on my phone and within a couple of minutes I was on my way, following the arrow to my first cache.  On arrival at the co-ordinates I was gutted to find nothing.  I am not sure what I expected but a plaque at a crossroads of the path in the park certainly wasn't it.  Disappointed, I set off home thinking what a waste of time it had been, apart from it being a lovely park and the rest of the family and the dogs had enjoyed a walk in the sunshine instead of sitting in front of the TV.

Back on the computer, I decided to read all the information for the cache.  It turned out to be a multi part cache and that the plaque I had found was in fact what I was looking for.  It held clues to the next co-ordinates and so on until I would have all the information to fill in the blanks for the actual location of the cache itself.

Next day at work, I kept looking at the printout waiting for the time to finish work and, on my bike, I was going back to the park to finish the job.  I went straight to the plaque and worked out the clues.  From that I went to another part of the park and gained the next set.  Full of anticipation, I finally had all the numbers I needed and punched them into my phone.  After walking a few feet, the arrow swung round and pointed in the direction of my goal and I was on the final leg.  After ten minutes, I was stood behind a brick built clubhouse with the arrow swinging back and forth, I must be close.  Re reading the clues, I found that the only hint was that it was magnetic.  I checked the drainpipes on the clubhouse but they were plastic so where was it?  Leaning on a fence I felt the rising disappointment of failure coming again.  I just didn't know where to look.  

Defeated, I dropped my bike against the fence while I shut down my phone.  The bike clanged against the fence.  The METAL fence.

With new found vigour I searched the fence for something stuck to it.  Minutes later, I reached under the bottom rail and felt a small tubular shape that moved.  Pulling it  away, I had in my hand a green screw top tube with a green sticker declaring this was an 'Official Geocache'.  

I had found my first, it was an amazing feeling and although later finds have always been exciting, it is that first one that I will remember the most.  So if you are still searching for your first, keep going you will not regret it, or the rest.  

Happy caching.

By Paddygt

Paddygt

My name is Graham Thompson and I am on Geocaching.com as Paddygt.  I am a recent convert to geocaching.  I enjoy walking, reading,cycling and photography.  All of these combine together and Geocaching is a pleasurable extension of them all.  I live in Peterborough Cambridgeshire in the UK with my partner, Kate, who has spotted the odd cache before I did, our two kids and two Labrador dogs.

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Comments(1):

  1. Reminds me of one near my house

    Although not a multi cache, There is a micro cache near my house, about 3 blocks. A small little square on the corner used for the farmers market and small community concerts. There are some sponsorship blocks in the pavement that you are to use to find the general direction of the cache. I spent almost an hour looking for the cache and determined that the cache was no longer there. Looking at the logs online a couple days later showed that it was found right after me. Twice more I looked for the cache, both times empty. I took my wife the forth and final time giving her the clues she walked around and after about five minutes she went over to the bench and sat down. Thinking that she had lost interest I continued to look. This was very frustrating I have found several previous. I finally found it on the metal post connected to the stage. After signing the log and ready to leave, I collected my wife who had a funny smile on her face. "Glad you found it?", she asked. "Four times the charm and almost three hours of total looking time." "Too bad it only took me one trip." Then she turned to leave for home. I was speechless.

    Sunday, January 31, 2010 Kevin