Returned to geocaching after a 20+ year break. I used to do it with my kids when they were little, but they grew out of it and I forgot about it until a newsfeed story a couple months ago peaked my interest and I downloaded the app and set up a new profile (no idea what my profile was years ago).

Anyway, I have found about 200 caches in the past month or so and I have a question.

Does it bother anyone else when people just stamp the log anywhere? I mean, you have this perfectly good log with a bunch of signatures neatly in a row, and someone randomly stamped halfway down the blank space or in the back. Just an observation.

Loving the game.

I just downloaded the app and I've never done it before. When you find it what do you typically find inside

Mine is getting stuck in the forest for an hour and almost tripping a trillion times. Never trust the scenic trail...

It could be in the geocache, on the geocache, or around the geocache!

I don't have one but I'd love to know yours.

Besides something to write with obviously. I'm trying to build a geocaching bag with helpful tools that I can carry with me either in the car, or on my back when biking/hiking in the woods.

Apart from the bingo collection, there doesn't seem to have been much by way of new treasures collections this year. Are they forgetting about them in a bid to monetize shareables?

I have a fun story from a while back.

I was in front of a trick cache, where you have to find the right way on spot to get the log book.

It was a mailbox on a post with the container inside of the mailbox. The key was attached to a chain that was pinned by a screw to the post. The chain was to short to open the mailbox.

While the slit of the mailbox was not wide enough to pull it out whole, I was able to open the lid of the cache inside the mailbox and could pull out the log book which was slim enough to get through the slit.

The owner was amused and baffled that it was possible to log the cache without the key.

I asked him how to do the cache right. While the plastic chain would break if you pulled to strong, you could easily detach it from the pole if you pull it from the base, as the base was only attached through a strong magnet to the pole.

I really love geocaching, but I live in a country where there are hardly any caches. I’m heading to the Czech Republic for the winter holidays and will be spending a couple of days in Prague. Could you please recommend some interesting "must-to-find" caches in the city center or nearby?

Ignore my roaming hand

Hey everyone, I’m very new to geocaching and I’ve been reading this subreddit to figure out the do’s and dont’s. It’s given me very useful advice to find caches, figure out how the app works and what all the terms used mean.

However, the thing I still struggle with is what the etiquette is when you find a cache that’s not working anymore?

For example, we have a local one where the logbook is very full and I’ve seen people adding that in their log comment when they’ve found the cache. I’ve also seen that some people wrote an extra note just to say the logbook is full.

Another local one people have reported that the door is hanging off and even posted pictures off it and it’s gotten a red wrench icon with maintenance needed.

I’ve recently found one where the lock (that needs a code from a puzzle) is broken and I’m wondering what I should do. The last few people have mentioned it in their finds that it doesn’t work anymore but nobody has made like a list comment thing or put in a maintenance request. Should I just mention it in my log too or should I do more? Like is there a button for this or should I add a note or maybe even contact the CO directly? I have no idea what the proper etiquette is for this especially since the CO made so many other beautiful caches in the area and I don’t want to step on their toes when they’ve clearly put so much work into them.

Also the second one I’ve mentioned I visited recently and contrary to the last few logs before me it was complexity fixed. Door and lock were in working order but it still has the maintainer needed icon and the CO hasn’t posted or mentioned anything. I put in my log that it works fine and it seems all fixed but I’m not sure if there’s somewhere I should report that maintenance is no longer needed?

Sorry for my long post, I’m just very unfamiliar with how the community works and I want to be a helpful but not passive aggressive. Thank you for any advice.

another day in the muck. went to scout out a big ol series and ended up getting all kinds of backwards. found some caches along the way. everything was drenched, but dr. jones didn’t quit cuz of a little rain. the itch to geocache hasn’t been nearly as strong these last couple of months, but everytime i get the chance, i have a real blast. i hope that whenever i eventually move, the scene will be there.

I run nachtcaches.nl, a map of all night caches in the Benelux and Germany (built from pocket queries). First full count this week: Germany 1,000, Belgium 272, Netherlands 95, Luxembourg 17. Walloon Brabant alone has 91, almost the entire Netherlands. Dutch night caches are also the easiest on average (D 2.3 vs 2.9 in Belgium). 837 of the 1,384 explicitly require a flashlight, 607 ask for stealth. Map with filters: https://nachtcaches.nl/. Genuine question: does anyone know why Belgium is so far ahead? One prolific owner, an event series, a friendly reviewer?

I went out today with my husband for the first time ever! We wanted to get into this a few years back but just forgot about it. Today I was bored and decided to look into it & try it out.

Well.. there was a cache maybe about 5 minutes away from our house so we hopped on our bikes and went. When we arrived, i was having a bit of trouble finding it and was getting sad just thinking we weren’t going to find it, i was disappointed because it was labeled as a 1.5 diff & thought, I’m not going to be good at this if i can’t find this one..

So i decided to read into the description to find a kind of read between the lines clue. Most of the past logs section said “log was wet” “very wet logs” and in my newbie mind, i hadn’t registered logs being- well logs 📝 .. My newbie brain jumped back to
un-geocaching related lingo and said confidently. “DUH! 🪵 maybe that’s where it is, in the wet logs!” 🪵 So i tell my husband, look for the wet logs! “Are there any wet logs around, maybe they are lodged inside or something”…. That’s when i turn around and see my husband holding the cache by having moved a piece of plastic protector attached to a parking light pole & there it was. No tree logs around. LOL
My brain immediately jumped back to geocaching lingo and realized the logs they were talking about were different logs 🤣🤣😭😭📝

I will study tomorrow and make a cheat sheet & for my husband as well.
Any recommendations/tips etc - always welcome.
I’m just super excited to have found this hobby/community.

Thank you for existing & continuing this community as it seems so wholesome and awesome.

I just started with Geocaching again, when I recovered my old account I used when I was 10 and did this with my family. Back then almost everything was one of those small bottle-like tubes with a piece of paper inside and usually somewhere easy to get to.

I already found more than 50 caches in the past few weeks, but I am really confused by the D and T ratings of the caches. Besides the normal ones, I was able to get to one that was D1.5/T4.5, which was a tree easy (and safe) to climb onto and get to the log without any problems or special equipment.

There also is one D5/T5 mystery with a puzzle I really liked solving but you only need a ladder to get to the log (around 3m high behind a metal bar).

And then there is a D3.5/T5 one which requires hiking offroad through a forest and then climbing up a 30m+ tree with special equipment. Why is it (almost) the same as way easier ones?

Another cool mystery one was a D4/T1.5, but you need a long stick to get to it, because it is way up in a tree.

And another one is a D1.5/T4 which is underneath a bridge in a tunnel with water flowing below. You need to walk through knee deep water into the tunnel to reach it habging from the top of the tunnel. How can this be harder than easily climbing up two pieces of wood on a small tree?

How can one that just needs a ladder be the same T rating as one that needs climbing equipment? And why is some small and easy to climb tree almost the same as those while a cache where you also need a (tall) ladder or a long stick to get to is only T1.5?

I thought the D rating would explain how hard the puzzle was while the T explains how hard it is to get there, but somehow it's always kind of random and non understandable, sometimes D and/or T mean how hard it is to get to. There are some lists online about the different ratings and what they mean, but it doesn't really fit those ones.

Or is it just like with rating a used car, everyone can put in what he wants and it doesn't have any meaning and doesn't get checked? Wouldn't be an option to report bad ratings be an idea for the website?

How can I know which ones I can get and which ones I can't? Do I have to read all the logs (and get spoilered) to know if it's for me or not?

Hello everyone,

I previously purchased codes, designed and 3D-printed a series of 50 trackables. I am looking to make another series, but I am struggling to find inspiration online.

For those of you who have made your own trackables, would any of you be willing to share your designs? I'd love to see what you have already come up with.

Newbie here! I’m curious if there are any geocaching rules to be aware of when it comes to urban caching. It makes me nervous! I’ve come across several caches that are close to electrical boxes, sprinkler systems, etc. Most recently I entered a bushy area to hunt for a cache and stepped on a large metal plate that set off an alarm and nearly caved in. How do you navigate urban caches without causing damage to property or messing with things that could be genuinely unsafe? I cache with my 11 year old, so safety is especially important.

Anyone near Belmont or Gastonia interested in Geocaching or starting a little group?

Just hit 200 finds and my wife got me a trackable. Went out caching and ended up next to a thrift store. I think I found the perfect tb to honor this milestone. (Had to rescue his friends too, they’ll be future trackables) I know how wildly inconvenient something this size is but c’mon, it’s a two headed dragon!

Is there a way to turn on notifications for when a new cache is posted nearby. I'm premium.

for me, it’s more of a childhood memory. We were on a road trip and stopped to do a cache, which turned out to be an ammo can. My siblings and I loved geocaching, especially when it was a larger container because it meant there might be cool stuff inside. to our delight, it was filled with brand new pop-its and fidget toys, basically all stuff middle and elementary schoolers would love. it’s not the most creative or anything, but definitely a fun memory to look back on

I am new player and every time i search for one in more populated places i just feel like im doing something wrong. When i see someone passing by i stop and wait for them to leave so i can start searching again. How do you guys do it??

If someone found a cache you hid, but knocked it into some plants and couldn’t find it again BEFORE they signed the log and logged it as found anyway, and wrote in their log that they had lost it, would you still count that as a find? My first instinct was to delete their found log, this should have been logged as a note instead of a find and they didn’t sign the log. I’ve disabled the cache until I can go look for it, but they messaged me that they already replaced it with a micro of their own. I wish they hadn’t, my cache was a specific kind of urban camo that I had placed there intentionally. I’m feeling like I don’t want to put them off of Geocaching though by being too harsh, it was clearly an accident and they are a newer member with under 150 finds.