GeoJargon: Speaking the lingo, the Geocaching Jargon

Like any sport or pastime, geocaching has its own language. Because the sport is so new, the jargon is still evolving, but here are some terms to be familiar with so when you talk to other people about geocaching, you sound like a pro.

• Archived: Caches that no longer exist but still appear in a Web site database for historical purposes. A cache can be archived because it has been stolen, is no longer maintained, or does not abide by the guidelines for where caches should be placed.
• Cache machine: A preplanned event in a local area, where geocachers look for caches. The event can last hours or days. This is a marathonendurance session of geocaching, where you try to find as many caches as you can in a set amount of time. The event is named after a dedicated geocacher. BruceS, a true cache machine, found 28 caches in 24 hours, totaling 86 finds in 5 days.
• DNF: Did Not Find (as in, did not find the cache). It happens to everyone. If you didn’t find the cache, try again on another day.
• FTF: First To Find. This means bragging rights that you were the first person to find a newly placed cache.
• GPSR/GPSr: GPS receiver. Many people drop the R and just call a GPS receiver a GPS.
• Hitchhiker: An object that moves from cache to cache. A hitchhiker is marked with some instructions, telling the finding geocacher to take it and place it in another cache.
• McToys: Cheap trinkets left in a cache, like the toys that appear in fastfood kids’ meals. There are better things to leave in caches.
•  Muggles: People you encounter on the trail who aren’t geocachers; from the Harry Potter stories.
• Neocacher: An inexperienced or newbie geocacher.
• Signature item: Something unique that a particular geocacher always places in a cache that he or she finds.
• Spoiler: Information that might give away the location of a cache.
• Swag: Goodies that you find in a cache; from the marketing term swag (or schwag) used to describe the promotional trash and trinkets (tchotchkes) handed out at trade shows.
• TNLN: Took Nothing, Left Nothing. Just what it sounds like. Also, TNLNSL, which means that the geocacher signed the cache log.

The force is strong with this one

A Star Wars Darth Vader action figure, Travel Bug, started his travels in an Arkansas geocache in February, 2002. By the time he was returned to his owner nine months later, he had journeyed 17,534.64 miles, including tagging along on aerial missions in Afghanistan, pub-hopping in England, and working on his tan in Florida. At last report, Darth was getting some R&R in Texas.

Lost cache but now found

In more cases than not, after looking around for a while, behold! You find an old, olive-drab ammo can tucked behind some rocks. Congratulations, you found your first geocache! Now what?
 Savor the moment. There’s definitely a sense of accomplishment when you find a cache and a little bit of childlike wonder as you open up the container to see what types of treasures are inside.

• Sign the logbook. Write down the date, a few sentences about your experiences finding the cache, what you took and/or added, and your geocaching alias. Some people who are really into geocaching have custom business cards or stickers made up for placing in the cache log.
• Read the logbook. It’s fun to read about other cachers’ adventures and when they discovered the cache.
  
• Exxchange treasures. If you take something from the cache, leave something. If you forgot your goodies, just sign the logbook. Quite a few geocachers are more into the hunt for the cache than for the loot inside.
• Trading up means leaving something in the cache that’s better than what you take. There’s always been a considerable amount of discussion in the geocaching community about how caches start out with cool stuff but soon end up filled with junk (broken toys, beat-up golf balls, cheap party favors, and so on). Some geocachers even take it upon themselves to remove anything from a cache that doesn’t meet their personal quality bar. If you can, trade up to make the finds more interesting for everyone.
• Cover your tracks. Seal the cache container up and put it back where you found it, making sure that it’s hidden just as well as it was before you found it.
• Go home. Use the track-back feature of your GPS receiver to follow your exact path back to your car. Better yet, activate the waypoint that you set for your car (but see some different sights by taking a new route back to where you started).
•  Share your experiences. When you get back to your computer (if you’re a member of Geocaching.com), log your find on the Web site so the whole world knows you found the cache. Go to the cache description page and click the Log Your Visit link at the top of the page. (This is completely optional. Some geocachers prefer operating under a low profile, keeping their discoveries and adventures to themselves.)
• Do it again (and again, and . . .). After you have your first cache find under your belt, you’re ready to venture out into the brave new world of geocaching and find even more caches. As your experience with a GPS receiver grows and your skills in navigation and cache finding improve, you’ll likely want to start challenging yourself more by going after caches that are more difficult to find and reach.

What to do when you going in circles?

This will happen: You find the general cache location, but after a couple of hours of wandering around in circles, you still can’t find the cache container. You’ve double-checked the coordinates, the satellite coverage is good, and you’re starting to get a bit frustrated. Take a deep breath. Here’s what to do. You can always resort to using a hint. Most cache description pages have a short hint, but you have to work for it because it’s encoded.
The reason for the spy stuff is so the hint doesn’t spoil the fun for another cacher who doesn’t want to use the hint as part of his search. Fortunately, the hint is encoded with a simple substitution code (for example, A = M, B = N, C = O, and so on), so you don’t need to work for the NSA to be able to break it. The decoding key is on the right side of the page, and it’s pretty easy to figure it out by hand. One of the more challenging types of caches to find is a microcache. Instead of using large containers, smaller ones — like small pill bottles, 35mm film canisters, or magnetic hide-a-keys — are used that only hold a piece of paper that serves as the log. These caches are typically in urban areas and can be cleverly hidden to avoid detection by nongeocachers passing by.
In addition to the hint, you can also look through the logged visit comments that other people have posted who have already found the cache. Although most geocachers try to avoid including spoilers (way-too-obvious hints or commentary) into their comments, sometimes enough information leaks through that can help you narrow your search. How you go about finding the cache is up to you. Some purists will use only the coordinates and basic description of the cache, never using the hints or the comments. Other cachers decrypt the hint and read all the comments before they head out the door on a search. It’s up to you. There’s no shame in a DNF (Did Not Find); it happens to everyone. Go back to the cache location another day and try again.
Geocaching is supposed to be fun, so don’t take it too hard if you can’t locate a cache. Consider bringing someone else with you next time: Two heads are better than one, and a different set of eyes might find something you overlooked. Don’t be shy about logging a DNF for the cache at the Geocaching.com site. If a cache owner hasn’t visited the site in a while, a number of logged DNFs could mean that the cache has been moved or stolen by someone. Unfortunately, cache vandalism and thievery happen: For example, the cache you were looking for might have been stolen, and the database hasn’t been updated yet.

Geocaching stats

Just like any sport, geocaching has statistics (stats). In this case, stats refer to the number of caches that you’ve found and hidden. When you sign up for a free or premium account at Geocaching.com, you can log the caches you’ve found as well as add caches that you’ve hidden to the site’s extensive database. The Web site tracks the finds and hides for you and displays them on a user profile page. Other members can check out your stats, and the number of caches that you’ve found appears next to your alias when you log your comments about a cache you’ve visited. Some geocachers are competitive and are in to racking up as many cache finds as possible. Others are more blasé about the whole numbers thing and could care less. Like so many other aspects of geocaching, it’s up to you how you want to play the game.

Few Things To Do To To Help Improve Your Odds Of Finding The GPS Cache

As you start looking around, you can do a few things to help improve your odds of finding the cache:

• Find out the maximum distance to the cache. Check the Estimated Position Error (EPE) to see how accurate your GPS receiver currently is, based on the satellite coverage. Remember: The bigger the number, the less accuracy. This helps you roughly determine how large your search area is. For example, if the EPE is 20 feet, your search area is a circle with a 40-foot diameter, with the center at the closest location that you can get to the cache waypoint.
• Follow a magnetic compass. When you’re within 30 feet of the waypoint and your GPS receiver is showing a consistent bearing to the cache (tree cover and poor satellite coverage can cause the distance and direction numbers to jump around), use a magnetic compass to guide yourself to the cache. As you slow down, unless your receiver has an electronic compass, the direction that your receiver shows to the waypoint becomes less precise, and you can easily veer off-course. Handheld magnetic compasses or electronic compasses built into the GPS unit don’t rely on satellite signals, and won’t have this problem.
• Think about the container. Knowing what kind of container the cache is stored in can be a big help in identifying and eliminating possible hiding spots. Sometimes the cache description lists the container type (ammo can, plastic ware, bucket, or whatever), which can narrow your search based on the container size and shape. For example, you shouldn’t be looking for an ammo can in a three-inch-wide crack in a rock.
• Think about the terrain. Look at the surrounding environment to get a general idea of where a cache might be hidden. What natural (or manmade) features make a good hiding place? Remember, unlike pirate booty hiding, geocaching has a rule against burying cache containers, so you shouldn’t be burrowing holes like a gopher.
• Split up the work. If you’re geocaching with other folks, assign areas for people to check. Although you don’t need to precisely measure and gridoff squares, divvying up an area to search is faster and more efficient than randomly wandering around.
• Think like a cache hider. If you were going to hide a cache, where would you hide it? Sometimes trusting your intuition can be more effective than trying to apply logic. After you check the ordinary places, start looking in the unordinary spots.

There’s an old safety saying in wildland firefighting that goes, “Look up, look down, look all around.” The same advice applies to geocaching, which is an excellent way to improve your overall awareness and observation skills.

How to find GPS cache?

After you select a cache you want to search for, the next step is finding it. This might be a little bit more challenging than you think. Remember that your GPS receiver will only get you within 10–30 feet of the cache location — perhaps even farther away if you have poor satellite coverage or the cache hider’s coordinates are a little off. After your GPS unit gets you to the general vicinity of the cache, start using your eyes and your brain, which at times might be more reliable than your GPS receiver. Sometimes a series of caches are located close together, usually separated by at least a tenth of a mile. Because you’re already in the neighborhood, consider trying to find several instead of going for just a single cache. Check out the link on the cache description page that displays all the nearby caches and how far away they are from each other.
Finding a cache boils down to following these general steps:

1. Enter the cache coordinates in your GPS receiver as a waypoint and then add a name for the waypoint on your GPS receiver. The methodology for entering waypoints differs from model to model. Check your user manual for specific instructions about how to enter and name a waypoint on your GPS model. You can use the six-character waypoint name on the cache description Web page for the name of the waypoint. Double-check that you’ve entered the correct coordinates. Many caches haven’t been found on the first try because of an typo in the coordinates in a GPS unit. If you have an account on Geocaching.com, you can download the cache waypoint to your computer from a link on the cache description page and then upload the waypoint directly to your GPS receiver. Doing so helps to eliminate errors caused by typos in GPS coordinates.
2. Print a copy of the cache description Web page so you can bring all the information you need to find the cache with you. If your printer is out of ink or you’re being frugal, scribble down the coordinates and any other information that you think might be useful in locating the cache.
3. Gather your equipment, including your GPS receiver, map, compass, food, water, and other essential items mentioned in this chapter.
4. Head out to the cache’s starting point. Drive or bike as close to the cache as you can get. Sometimes the cache descriptions give you exact instructions, like at which parking lot or trailhead to start from. The more challenging caches give you only the coordinates, and it’s up to you to decide where you’ll start from and how you’ll get there. One of the pleasures of geocaching is it’s usually not a timed event (although a few timed competitions are starting to crop up), and you can take as long as you want to reach the cache site, stopping to smell the roses and enjoy interesting sights.
5. Turn on your GPS receiver and get a satellite lock. Hopefully! If not, you brought that map and compass, right?
6. Save a waypoint for your starting point. Getting back to your car can sometimes be a challenge after finding a cache, and saving a waypoint with your car’s location can make life much easier (and get you home in time for dinner). Your GPS manual contains details for setting a waypoint for your particular model.
7. Double-check to make sure that you have the coordinates, cache description, hints, and the rest of your geocaching equipment in your possession. (Keeping it all together in a backpack is convenient.) From personal experience, I can tell you it’s never any fun arriving at the cache and remembering that I left vital clues in the cache description that’s now a couple of miles away in the car.
8. Activate the cache’s waypoint. Activating a waypoint tells the receiver to calculate the distance and direction from your current spot to the waypoint’s location. Your GPS unit will let you know how far away the cache is and what direction you need to head to get there. (This often is as simple as pressing a button on the GPS receiver and selecting the waypoint you want to go to.)
9. Follow the direction arrow, road map display, or compass ring on your GPS receiver toward the cache. A local map can come in handy as you move toward the cache because you can use it to figure out what the terrain is like and whether any rivers, cliffs, or mountains lie between you and the cache. Don’t feel compelled to always head in the direction your GPS unit tells you to go. It might make more sense to walk around a pile of rocks or downed trees than to go over the top of them. After you get around an obstacle, you can check your receiver again to get on the right course. Watch your step! As you head toward the cache, don’t get so caught up in staring at your GPS receiver that you fall off a cliff or trip over a tree root. And watch the scenery, too. Sometimes the journey is the reward.
10. When your receiver says you’re within 30 feet or so of the cache, move around and find the place that reports the closest distance to the cache.

Begin your search at that spot. This is where the real fun starts. You now shift from relying on technology to using your powers of observation and common sense. A cache could be inside a cave, tucked in a tree hollow, hiding behind a rock outcropping, or concealed under a pile of brush. Some caches are easy to find, and others are devilishly difficult.