A Beginner's Guide to Geocaching in Tri-Cities

Geocaching is a fun hobby enjoyed all over the world. It's a great activity for families, groups and clubs -- and even by yourself! What is geocaching? It's basically a treasure hunt guided by GPS, which is easily done by an app found on the website below.

The "treasure chest" is called a cache. Inside the cache there will be a notebook or paper, where you write down the date you visited and your geocaching name. There will also be a little collection of small items such as little toys or coins.

Once you find the cache and sign the log, you can choose to leave something behind in exchange for something in the cache, or you can just sign the log.

Some caches contain travel bugs, which are logged on the geocaching website and their journey can be tracked as they travel from cache to cache. There are different sizes of caches, small, medium and large, which usually are in plastic containers, coffee cans, and a multitude of other storage devices.

There's also a very tiny type of cache, called a micro cache. These are the hardest to find, as they are often hidden in a very small place and some aren't much bigger than your pinky finger. These just have a paper log inside to sign and date, and most take quite a bit of patience to find.

Once you get the hang of geocaching, why not create and hide your own? The geocaching website, (see link at the end), is where you will not only find all of the caches in your area, and everywhere else, they also have a store where you can purchase containers, travel bugs, tokens, and lots of other stuff!

Or you could just use a common household container instead, which is what most caches are made of.

When you're out looking for other caches, most likely you will see lots of good hiding places for one, which not only makes it easier for you to find a place to hide your cache, it also gives people another cache to find while they're looking for one nearby. Or, you could find a place completely free of other caches to make the find a bit harder for others.

To start your geocaching, below is a list of helpful tips.

1
Keep Little Things Around
To make things easier, keep a little bag of things like coins, little toys, that bottle of bubbles you got at a wedding, in your car. That way if there's something cool like a travel bug in the cache, you can put something in its place.
2
Download The App
If you have a smartphone, download the app off the geocaching website or off the app store. From the app, you can not only use it to find caches, you can let the owner know you found it by clicking the "Found It!" button. Also, you can leave comments from the app. It will give you that option after every find.
3
Know the Lingo
Knowing what all the words mean help a lot. When you find the cache, it's called a "find." Another common thing is "TFTF," which means "thanks for the find." It's a great thing to comment after you find the cache, thanking the owner for placing it.
4
Participate In Events
There are a lot of different geocaching events, and one of the most popular events is the annual Tri-Cities Geocoin Challenge. This is a fun annual event, complete with prizes.
5
Meet Other Geocachers!
Meeting other geocachers is a great way to make more friends, and it's great to have people to go hunting with! And if you are all competitive, it might be fun to hold little competitions on your own to see how many caches each person can find.