My Geocaching Story: Meeting Ben

I’ve been geocaching since July 2010 and I became addicted instantly.  I’ve always enjoyed traveling, learning about new places, history, geography and this hobby has definitely enhanced every aspect of my said interests.  It gave me a reason to be outside more than just the occasional hike or walk in the park.  It has allowed me to go to places I never thought I would ever go to. I've been to 10 states, Route 66, Area 51 and various local landmarks and hotspots.  I live in a small rural Pacific Northwest town and have seen just about ever square inch of the area (and beyond) because of geocaching.

Every adventure needs a caching buddy right?  Of course!  I’ve always wanted someone I could go geocaching with; plus it is safer in numbers.  I spent most of my “newbie” experiences by myself learning as much as I could about the game.  As I became more educated about finding them, hiding them, using a GPS, making queries, cache machines and events, it was time to find someone to create memories with.  After a few years I considered myself a seasoned geocacher.

My area was really hard to find someone my age to geocache with.  Everyone was married with kids, retired military, people who had no interest in the hobby, etc.  Since this is the technology age, I decided to try my luck with online dating.  One night while I was searching the interest geocaching, a few profiles popped up near and far.  I looked at them all.  I engaged in a few conversations about geocaching but none really went anywhere and sort of just trailed off.  One of those profiles was interested but they lived on the east coast and I knew that would never happen.  A couple of months to a year went by and I was looking again just for fun.  I noticed a profile that really stood out.  He enjoyed geocaching, sports, outdoors, was around my age, lived locally but I didn’t respond because I didn’t think they would be interested in me.  The next day I received this message, “I think I found myself a geocaching buddy!”

I was beyond excited.  I could not wait to meet him in person.

We started texting and tried to figure out when we should meet and where.  About a week later, we met at one of the local parks.  I showed up wearing my geocaching gear…sweatshirt, cargo pants, hiking boots and he showed up wearing the exact some thing.  I swear this wasn’t planned.  We introduced ourselves, shared a little bit about our lives and went right into geocaching.  I had already found the ones inside the park so I had him find them.  Instead of it being awkwardly uncomfortable when meeting new people for the first time, we actually got along great and I enjoyed his company.  We also engaged in another hobby of ours after we found all the caches in the park, our love of disc golf.  It was a 9-hole course and I managed to throw my disc over the fence into the neighborhood’s yard.  I was mortified.  He just laughed.  We ended up getting it back after I used him as a ladder to get up and over the fence to retrieve the disc.  We still joke about it to this day.

We started dating about a week later after several conversations and geocaching adventures here and there.  It was so great to be able to share the experiences with him.

Six months later we did the exact same thing we did when we first met.  That park will always be a special place in both of our lives.  We will continue to frequent that park as long as we live in the area.  We plan on spending our future together.

I wouldn’t have found him without geocaching.

"Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look."  -Jodi Picoult

Valerie Larson (cougarcach24)

Rainier, Washington