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Pa's Caching Tales

Caching way of life

PA

Caching is more than just getting out of the house and it is more than hiking with a purpose

Geocaching has got me out of the house on many many occasions. It has brought me onto trails and footpaths, in town and in the countryside and in the wilderness, It has brought me to interesting places in four countries, and many states and provinces. It has brought me on many adventures close to home and far away. It has drawn me to PEI for short vacations in the fall and spring. It has shown me bike paths in Quebec, castles in Ireland, and pubs in UK. When I get restless, Ma loads the suitcases and the gps and we leave for a few days of caching in nearby provinces and cities. When we head out on a hiking trip to the USA, we make sure to load up the gps.

But caching has also kept me busy at home too.

I read intersting logs and stories on GC.com, and on caching forums like this. I keep up to date on other cachers activities and adventures. I share caching stories online with others. I have slowly learned html to prepare my cache pages. I plan cache series and scout out hiding locations online. I spend time creating and testing my logic puzzles. Ma and I solve puzzles near home and for places we plan on visiting. We plan caching trips and and work on pocket queries. Ma has become quite adept at working with GSAK. When we go on hiking trips, we spend time at home, scouting out caches nearby and on the way.

Caching has a social aspect as well.

We have made many good friends locally and often go out caching with our caching friends. We attend many local events where we get to chat with caching friends. We have attended many events and made many friends and shared adventures and meals with cachers, in Nova Scotia, all over NB, and many parts of QC, and in the Ottawa area. We have invited cachers into our home every year at our Ice Walk event.

4 thoughts on “Caching way of life”

  • I’ve often been asked if caching is a hobby, or a game, or a sport. I respond that it’s a way of life. Nice to see that I’m not the only one who feels this way!

  • It certainly brought a lot to me, and us; although Di is not a whole lot into it as I am. She has no patience for random micros or urban caches. She likes the events and the long hikes for a couple of caches, but she is certainly not into power caching or power trails (to her a cache within 5km of the other would be considered power caching).

    To me there are two major things that come to my mind when I think about what caching gave us. Geocaching brought us to places that we would have never ever discovered other wise and more importantly it made us meet wonderful people. We made all kinds of good friends and created friendships that will last and get stronger.

    Today while serving supper I told Di: “I did not go caching with Rev today, I miss him. I was to go out with both him and Zonker but had to work and get this root canal treatment over with. That sucks. I wanted to go in the woods with those two crazy guys!’’ She replied: “ What the hell is with you three guys anyway, going in the woods all day and now you miss them?’’ We both had the biggest laugh about this!

    Because of geocaching we made some stop while on vacation or even just on a random weekends that made us discover the nicest places around. Among tons the ones that pop up in my mind right now is GC12D66, GCVD8W or GC1C4BQ, but there are some many more!

    So yes, although I also like to nag a bit about everything, I just LOVE geocaching, the cachers, the caches, THE LOGS…and of course this site. I am an addict, perhaps an opinionated addict who plays his own game, but an addict anyway.

  • I started by saying caching is not hiking with a purpose. Last fall I wrote something here trying to show that caching is an adventure.

    If you say caching is hiking with a purpose, then it implies that caching motivates you to go out on the trails, However, caching gets you out walking in places you wouldnt even try to go if it wasnt for caching. For example we were out a few weeks ago on a cold rainy day with Belladan walking nearly 4 hours on an atv trail that was more of a swamp and we contoured large lakes, went through wet grass, through mud etc. Certainly not somewhere we would go hiking.

    Here is a link to my previous post which is more proof that caching is a way of life.

    https://www.cacheupnb.com/archives/1523

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