Video Home » Introduction to Geocaching Video

<p> <p>Hi, I'm Steve and I'm an instructor with the REI Outdoor School. Today, we've been searching for a geocache. We're very close right now, according to my GPS. So, I'm going to go and find it and I'm going to show you some of the etiquette and rules that go with finding a geocache. Okay. I found the geocache. It's hidden away in an area just off trail where passerbys who aren't involved in geocaching won't see it, won't be bothered by it.</p> <p>It's hidden in a way that doesn't disturb the environment. I have an area that I can look for it, stand without doing any harm to the surrounding terrain. The geocache itself is camouflaged to blend in with the surroundings. Again, this makes it less likely to alarm people who aren't involved with geocaching and it fits in with the area.</p> <p>I'm going to bring it away from the hiding area so I can go ahead and look at it without exposing the hiding spot to anyone who's not involved in the game. When finding a geocache, it's considered good etiquette to go ahead and sign your name in the log to tell people that you found the geocache.</p> <p>This just says you were there, gives the owner a record who's been there and later on you should go online to the website and indicate in a log on the site that you found it as well. This leaves a permanent record so the entire world knows what's going on with that cache. Inside the cache, we'll find all sorts of unusual objects. These kind of items are the thing that appeals to kids when they're geocashing. It lends itself more towards broken McDonald's toys than anything of great value. But, to a six-year-old, this is treasure out in the woods.</p> <p>The etiquette with a geocache is that if you take something out of the cache, you're going to put something back in of equal or greater value. You want to leave the cache better than you found it.</p> <p>In addition to trade items like toys in the geocache, there may be an item called a travel bug. A travel bug is different from a trade item in that you don't trade for it, but you are permitted to take it as long as you agree to put it in another cache somewhere else. You then log the travel bug number online and this would tell the owner that it's moved and they can trace it's travels around the world.</p> <p>Travel bugs can travel thousands and thousands miles around the world giving the owner a virtual experience of these places that it visits. Once I've finished with the trades, I'll pack everything back in very carefully. I'll seal the cache the same way that I found it, and it's very important then to put the cache back exactly as I found it.</p> <p>I don't want to try and hide it in a way that's better or more complicated than when it started. That might change the nature of the hide into a way that was not expected. Now that the cache has found, I can log my find and go spend some more time in the park and see what else is out there.</p> </p>