How can you find fellow cachers to share your experiences?Last issue we examined how to spread the word about geocaching and other GPSr activities in your area. This month we'll knock it down a bit and talk about things a tad closer to home.

You've found a couple of caches and are getting pretty good at this game. You've begun thinking of the world in terms of waypoints and coordinates and can't walk through the kitchenware department at the store without planning a new cache placement. Now you're going into work and trying to explain to the crew why you need a two-hour lunch on Friday to track down that new cache.

How can you find fellow cachers to share your experiences?

You can get on the various forums and chat rooms and type until your fingers bleed. You can go to events and wing-n-beer fests and sit around with others who already have the bug. You can travel around in the same circles or you can help make the circle bigger.

Finding new caching partners can be as easy as looking around the room.

Family members, coworkers, roommates, cousins left over from the New Year's party... all can be potential fellow cachers. Somewhere in your circle lies a possible cohort to help navigate, flail through the bushes and turn over rocks. You just need to ask around.

I will only cache with the living. Beyond that requirement I'm pretty flexible.Step One: Determine what you need in a cache partner. I have a very vital quality I look for in a cache partner: Respiration.

I will only cache with the living. Beyond that requirement I'm pretty flexible. You may want to narrow things down a bit. Physical abilities and limitations, sense of humor, hygiene are good areas for compatibility. What kind of caches do you like and can your potential partner reach them without a call to Search and Rescue? Would you like to walk the trail with your weird uncle who spends way too much time reading beer can labels? Could you drive an hour with the windows rolled up with him/her?

Don't let the physical requirements lead you to believe that you need to find someone who was born into Gore-TeX diapers and has a Euell Gibbons tattoo. The huge variety of caches these days has opened up the sport for many who could never rappel down the Matterhorn. Grandma may have a few things to teach YOU about the nooks and crannies where things could be hidden.

Step Two: Determine what you don't want in a cache partner. If your potential partner is over the age of 15 and has been seen using a "Hello Kitty" book bag around the office ... If there has ever been a Post Office poster ... If your potential partner starts a job interview with the phrase, "Beer me!" ... Well, you get the idea.

Step Three: Go Caching! Try to pick some caches within your partner's abilities. Warm up with a surprising micro nearby, The shock at discovering a cache within a mile of home is a real eye-opener to a newbie and helps demonstrate how widespread the sport has become. Grab a few easy ones that won't involve rock climbing, scuba diving or the like. A pleasant stroll through a local park or two with a nice swag trade at the end is a lot of fun for the first few visits. Let your new partner carry the GPSr and make the find. Perhaps you could wrap things up at that lamppost micro conveniently located near a nice restaurant.

Your new partner may find the sport is not for him/her. The mosquitoes, mud, muggles, mire, muck and miles may be too much. That's fine. Then again, you may be getting a call the next Saturday morning at some outrageous hour. Good luck.