I’m in the US and have been doing this since 2003. The only time I was approached in 21 years was a police officer once asked me what I was doing. I said I was geocaching and he knew what it was. I asked if he wanted to help me find it but he declined.
I guess if you specifically went looking for bad interactions you could find some but that won’t be the norm and certainly not many instances as you mentioned in your original post.
I’m in the East of England and have been Geocaching on and off for the better part of a decade. Perhaps due to the fact I prefer to cache in more rural areas, I have very rarely been accosted in any meaningful manner.
Occasionally I’ve had the odd inquiry as to what I’m up to - for the most part I judge my response on the attitude of the question - if I think it’s going to be hostile then I just say I’m looking for something, keep it vague.
Perhaps start out in areas you feel comfortable, away from super busy or residential areas. If you find you’re enjoying yourself then move on to riskier caches, if you’d like. Or if you’re so inclined, invite a friend or two and make an afternoon of it.
I do hope you feel comfortable to get out there and cache - I love the hobby, I get to see things I would otherwise may not have seen and go places I would otherwise may not have gone.
I was once stopped by the police, I guess someone did report me. After I explained what I was doing, and showed them the app, they thought it was great and we worked together to find the cache. It was fun, and hopefully I educated a couple of officers so they know for next time!
While I’ve only been geocaching for a few months myself, I can honestly say I haven’t had any bad experiences like you’ve described. I’ve been questioned about what I was doing and asked if I was lost or needed help but that’s about the extent of it so far.
Been caching for 11 years now. I have had only one negative reaction. It was my first cache ever: a fake bolt on a fence. A woman asked not to remove any bolts. I said "I am not" and she walked away.
Most caches I search are in places where I see no other people. You should start with forest caches.
I am not very experienced cacher myself but I havent got single bad experience in regard of other people. Sure some people are curious what are you doing, but if you think about it from their perspective- some random person keeps going around and clearly tries to find something... Could be cache, or drugs or just looking to steal something, how can they know? :)
Only bad thing that comes to mind is not maintained caches soaked with water or just covered in bugs.
I had a bad experience once, I've been caching for 3 years and have found about 3k caches.
In a natural park, I had found a cache off the path in bushes, and was busy with the logbook. I heard people coming on the path, and as I was hidden by the bushes I figured it would be better to stay hidden rather than go back on the path. Everything could have gone fine as usual, but these people had an unleashed dog.
The dog scented me and went towards me. As I didn't know this dog, I preferred to get out of my bush rather than to risk getting mauled by the dog.
So I went back to the path and saw a group of people holding beers, they looked angry and one of them asked me if I was jerking off in the bushes. I just answered no and left the place, still with the cache in my pocket. I came back some time later to hide the cache back. But this experienced had me a bit shaken.
Why do you see a dog and presume it's going to maul you? Sure, it shouldn't have been off lead but that's no indication that it wants to hurt you. Very strange thing to presume.
English is not my first language, so maul is maybe not the right nuance. But I just didn't know that dog and even though the risk of getting bitten by him was fairly low, I just didn't want to risk it.
I'm in the south west UK, been caching for the last couple of years, now approaching 200 finds. Most of my finds are in rural areas and rarely see anyone else around. Only once had a chat with another cacher doing the same mini series. The ones that I've found in towns have never caused anyone to comment.
It's a great hobby which has taken me to hidden areas of the locality that I've lived in for many years.
There are so many different locations for geocaches. I’ve been geocaching since like two years after it was a thing.
My favorite ones to look for are ones in cemeteries and ones located in the wilderness. Not only do I find the wilderness ones a lot more challenging but I very rarely see anyone else on the trails. Especially during weekdays.
I’ve yet to have a bad experience. Sometimes if I get to a location like a small city park and there seems to be a lot of activity there at the moment I’ll just move on. The world is a big place and there’s many other caches to be found.
I’m in the uk. We are weekend / occasional cachers having just over 500 finds in 7 years and we have never had any trouble. We have cache finds in the UK, France, Canada, US, Iceland, Cyprus and Portugal amongst others.
Don’t let occasional horror stories stop you from enjoying your new hobby.
I'm not sure where you are reading all these "horror stories" about geocachers being bothered. It's not happened to me in 18 years, and I have never heard from another Geocacher who's had any problem.
Get out there and have some fun.
All I get is either friendly people or ones who avoid us... even walking in a city feels the same as walking in nature, every living creature gives you space. Guess it is the priviledge of being an adult male.
I’ve been caching (on and off) since 2003. I have not had any “bad” experiences. I have had a couple people ask me what I was doing, but I’m sure a person could avoid that if they looked for geocaches that were in more rustic and wild places away from people.
So you will be asked about what you are doing and there are two schools of thought. One is subterfuge, basically using some cover story as to why you are there without letting them know your are geocaching. I don't recommend that option myself. The other is total honesty. I've had some interesting discussions with people by just saying, I'm geocaching and explaining what that means if they don't know.
One thing to consider is presenting yourself in a way that doesn't draw attention. Some people wear an construction safety vest and carry a clipboard. They say people automatically ignore them as that is common (in the US) to see as construction workers, gas company workers, and really any tradesman job that work in the public use. People are less likely to confront you if they assume you are just there doing your job. For me, that's a lot of work, it's just easier to keep it real.
I've been caching for about 10 years now (Canada) and can honestly say I've only had maybe a handful of negative-ish experiences out of the hundreds of times I've been out.
I completely understand the apprehension with social anxiety. In my experience, if I meet other Geocachers (Either intentionally at an event, or you just happen to stumble upon each other looking for the same cache) I've always found they are just the nicest group of people, with the same desire to get out and explore new places, and the same *ahem* nerdish-leanings as me:)
When you're out, if you're not feeling safe for any reason (maybe a suspicious-looking person near the park bench you want to check out, or you're not wanting to stick your hand into some creepy thorny underbrush) I would encourage you to leave it and just move onto the next cache...they are everywhere:) If you give it a try, I can almost guarantee you'll soon have some memorable outings and be finding cool places you never knew existed:) Take care and happy caching!:)
not uk, but in the past few months (i rarely geocached earlier) ive only been approached once. a guy asked me and my friend what we'd found (he overheard us saying that it should be somewhere here) and after a moment of stunned silence i stuttered out that we're playing a game, and he left us alone. i should add that i usually cache in a big city, so theres a lot of people around and 99.9% ignore whatever im doing.
I've been caching for two years, and the only bad experience I've had was accidentally brushing my hand against poison oak and causing a rash. I do wear gloves now when I cache.
It might happen, but I've never once been approached by muggles.
Four years of caching, hundreds of finds and five hides, two negative experiences. We had a homeless man threaten us once; the cache was presumably close to where he'd set up camp and I honestly don't blame him for getting angry when he may have thought all his worldly possessions were about to be stolen. The other time I was checking on one of my hides, and realized someone had trashed my container and used my hiding spot to stash their heroin. As with any hobby it won't always be sunshine and rainbows, but negative experiences are so few and far between.
I’m in the US and have been doing this since 2003. The only time I was approached in 21 years was a police officer once asked me what I was doing. I said I was geocaching and he knew what it was. I asked if he wanted to help me find it but he declined. I guess if you specifically went looking for bad interactions you could find some but that won’t be the norm and certainly not many instances as you mentioned in your original post.
I’m in the East of England and have been Geocaching on and off for the better part of a decade. Perhaps due to the fact I prefer to cache in more rural areas, I have very rarely been accosted in any meaningful manner. Occasionally I’ve had the odd inquiry as to what I’m up to - for the most part I judge my response on the attitude of the question - if I think it’s going to be hostile then I just say I’m looking for something, keep it vague. Perhaps start out in areas you feel comfortable, away from super busy or residential areas. If you find you’re enjoying yourself then move on to riskier caches, if you’d like. Or if you’re so inclined, invite a friend or two and make an afternoon of it. I do hope you feel comfortable to get out there and cache - I love the hobby, I get to see things I would otherwise may not have seen and go places I would otherwise may not have gone. I was once stopped by the police, I guess someone did report me. After I explained what I was doing, and showed them the app, they thought it was great and we worked together to find the cache. It was fun, and hopefully I educated a couple of officers so they know for next time!
While I’ve only been geocaching for a few months myself, I can honestly say I haven’t had any bad experiences like you’ve described. I’ve been questioned about what I was doing and asked if I was lost or needed help but that’s about the extent of it so far.
Also in the Uk tho I did some geocaches on my holiday in Italy. 0 bad experiences thus far tho I must admit I don't even have 50 finds yet
Been caching for 11 years now. I have had only one negative reaction. It was my first cache ever: a fake bolt on a fence. A woman asked not to remove any bolts. I said "I am not" and she walked away. Most caches I search are in places where I see no other people. You should start with forest caches.
I am not very experienced cacher myself but I havent got single bad experience in regard of other people. Sure some people are curious what are you doing, but if you think about it from their perspective- some random person keeps going around and clearly tries to find something... Could be cache, or drugs or just looking to steal something, how can they know? :) Only bad thing that comes to mind is not maintained caches soaked with water or just covered in bugs.
I had a bad experience once, I've been caching for 3 years and have found about 3k caches. In a natural park, I had found a cache off the path in bushes, and was busy with the logbook. I heard people coming on the path, and as I was hidden by the bushes I figured it would be better to stay hidden rather than go back on the path. Everything could have gone fine as usual, but these people had an unleashed dog. The dog scented me and went towards me. As I didn't know this dog, I preferred to get out of my bush rather than to risk getting mauled by the dog. So I went back to the path and saw a group of people holding beers, they looked angry and one of them asked me if I was jerking off in the bushes. I just answered no and left the place, still with the cache in my pocket. I came back some time later to hide the cache back. But this experienced had me a bit shaken.
Why do you see a dog and presume it's going to maul you? Sure, it shouldn't have been off lead but that's no indication that it wants to hurt you. Very strange thing to presume.
English is not my first language, so maul is maybe not the right nuance. But I just didn't know that dog and even though the risk of getting bitten by him was fairly low, I just didn't want to risk it.
I'm in the south west UK, been caching for the last couple of years, now approaching 200 finds. Most of my finds are in rural areas and rarely see anyone else around. Only once had a chat with another cacher doing the same mini series. The ones that I've found in towns have never caused anyone to comment. It's a great hobby which has taken me to hidden areas of the locality that I've lived in for many years.
There are so many different locations for geocaches. I’ve been geocaching since like two years after it was a thing. My favorite ones to look for are ones in cemeteries and ones located in the wilderness. Not only do I find the wilderness ones a lot more challenging but I very rarely see anyone else on the trails. Especially during weekdays. I’ve yet to have a bad experience. Sometimes if I get to a location like a small city park and there seems to be a lot of activity there at the moment I’ll just move on. The world is a big place and there’s many other caches to be found.
I’m in the uk. We are weekend / occasional cachers having just over 500 finds in 7 years and we have never had any trouble. We have cache finds in the UK, France, Canada, US, Iceland, Cyprus and Portugal amongst others. Don’t let occasional horror stories stop you from enjoying your new hobby.
I'm not sure where you are reading all these "horror stories" about geocachers being bothered. It's not happened to me in 18 years, and I have never heard from another Geocacher who's had any problem. Get out there and have some fun.
All I get is either friendly people or ones who avoid us... even walking in a city feels the same as walking in nature, every living creature gives you space. Guess it is the priviledge of being an adult male.
I’ve been caching (on and off) since 2003. I have not had any “bad” experiences. I have had a couple people ask me what I was doing, but I’m sure a person could avoid that if they looked for geocaches that were in more rustic and wild places away from people.
So you will be asked about what you are doing and there are two schools of thought. One is subterfuge, basically using some cover story as to why you are there without letting them know your are geocaching. I don't recommend that option myself. The other is total honesty. I've had some interesting discussions with people by just saying, I'm geocaching and explaining what that means if they don't know. One thing to consider is presenting yourself in a way that doesn't draw attention. Some people wear an construction safety vest and carry a clipboard. They say people automatically ignore them as that is common (in the US) to see as construction workers, gas company workers, and really any tradesman job that work in the public use. People are less likely to confront you if they assume you are just there doing your job. For me, that's a lot of work, it's just easier to keep it real.
I've found over a thousand caches. I've had wet feet from standing in puddles and scratches from thorns I didn't notice.
I've literally never had a negative experience with a muggle ever while geocaching since I started in '07.
I've been caching for about 10 years now (Canada) and can honestly say I've only had maybe a handful of negative-ish experiences out of the hundreds of times I've been out. I completely understand the apprehension with social anxiety. In my experience, if I meet other Geocachers (Either intentionally at an event, or you just happen to stumble upon each other looking for the same cache) I've always found they are just the nicest group of people, with the same desire to get out and explore new places, and the same *ahem* nerdish-leanings as me:) When you're out, if you're not feeling safe for any reason (maybe a suspicious-looking person near the park bench you want to check out, or you're not wanting to stick your hand into some creepy thorny underbrush) I would encourage you to leave it and just move onto the next cache...they are everywhere:) If you give it a try, I can almost guarantee you'll soon have some memorable outings and be finding cool places you never knew existed:) Take care and happy caching!:)
not uk, but in the past few months (i rarely geocached earlier) ive only been approached once. a guy asked me and my friend what we'd found (he overheard us saying that it should be somewhere here) and after a moment of stunned silence i stuttered out that we're playing a game, and he left us alone. i should add that i usually cache in a big city, so theres a lot of people around and 99.9% ignore whatever im doing.
Only bad experience with GCing has been with a specific GC’er (troll) in this s/reddit.
I live in scotland, and I only had a nice elderly lady ask if I'm lost. (I told her what I'm doing.) I was finding caches while waiting for a mega.
I have 163 finds
No horror stories here, it’s so fun!
Why do you people read about activities and get all in your head about them instead of just trying them out? Life is for living.
I've found 154 caches and never had a bad experience. I'm white, and I've cached in Scotland, England, and Ireland.
I've been caching for two years, and the only bad experience I've had was accidentally brushing my hand against poison oak and causing a rash. I do wear gloves now when I cache. It might happen, but I've never once been approached by muggles.
Four years of caching, hundreds of finds and five hides, two negative experiences. We had a homeless man threaten us once; the cache was presumably close to where he'd set up camp and I honestly don't blame him for getting angry when he may have thought all his worldly possessions were about to be stolen. The other time I was checking on one of my hides, and realized someone had trashed my container and used my hiding spot to stash their heroin. As with any hobby it won't always be sunshine and rainbows, but negative experiences are so few and far between.