Six things for a Geocacher to do During Lockdown

Well this sucks. Lockdown. Covid. Social distancing. At the time of writing my geocaching habits have been interrupted for around ten months. No events, the cancelation of megas, 3 holidays gone… For the first time since October 2006, I went for a whole month without finding a single cache. My Community Celebration event is on hold and I’ve only used the new awning for my van once. Now, I know that this is a small price to pay in order to ensure that we control the spread of this awful virus, safe lives and protect the NHS, so I’m trying to turn this situation into a positive one.

In fact, despite everything, 2020 was my best caching year ever, statistically! I found more caches last year than in any other year since I began in 2006 by some distance. I found 100 caches in a day on one occasion, something I’d never done before. In the weeks after the restrictions were first lifted, I really went for it. Trips with my friends The Amasons, Sponge_3 and Pennyrose123, a few local walks each week and a big trip most weekends with Rainbow Kel. It was all going really well. I sailed past 9000 caches in total, and set my sights on achieving 10,000 before the end of the year.

But it was not to be. The virus mutated and spread, and we ended up back in lockdown until the new vaccines could turn the tables. Everything, including geocaching, returned to a crashing halt, with local exercise walks our only hope of a find. Now what? How could I scratch that itch now? What could I do to stay active within the wonderful world of geocaching? Then, slowly, a plan evolved in my mind. There were things to do! There was a way to keep busy! Happy days would be here again, and here’s what I did.

1. Plan a Trip

Planning geocaching trips is one of of my favourite things to do. I like to look for an area or a city where I’d like to go geocaching, and start to prepare for a visit. I might choose an area I’ve never been to before, or perhaps to return to a place I’ve already enjoyed. Maybe I have lots of puzzles solved in that area, or there are some particularly popular caches or series there. Sometimes I might look for virtual caches which I’ve not found (I love virtuals too!) or Adventure Labs (ditto!). I’ll then start to look for somewhere to stay; usually this will be a campsite or, if it’s a city I’m visiting, perhaps a hostel, an Air BnB or even a friend who lives close by. Sometimes I might be looking at a road trip, staying one night in a different place along a route.

Once I know what I want to do and where I want to stay, the planning begins in earnest. I start to put together a spreadsheet, breaking the target caches into groups and daily expeditions. Onto the spreadsheet goes the GC code, a hyperlink to the cache page and also the name of the cache. I then have columns which indicate the reason why I want to find that particular cache. Maybe it’s because of the number of favourite points; perhaps I need it to complete a challenge such as my Jasmer or DT grid; perhaps I’ve never found a cache in that county before, or maybe it’s just because its a virtual cache!

For a road trip, I might then work out a route, generate a Pocket Query along that route, and break the list up into what I might achieve on each day. Google Maps would help me measure the distance along each section of the route so that I don’t plan too much for a single day. I then start to think about whether to hold an event cache at some point during my trip. This might be a pub meet, or a flashmob, or maybe I’ll list the event at a campsite and see who wants to join me.

I usually do at least one road trip over a long weekend every year, and a few city breaks too. However, because of lockdown and social distancing, I seem to have a backlog of planned trips with no idea when they might actually take place! I have one for north Norfolk, for example, another for East Yorkshire, and there’s always one for a trip to London. Frustrating though it is not to be able to embark upon these trips, I still get an enormous amount of satisfaction from planning them and having them ‘in the bank’ ready for when the adventures can begin again!

2. Stay in Touch

When I started geocaching it was, for me at least, a largely solitary pastime. (See The Five People I Met in Geocaching) More recently, however, Geocaching, and Geocaching events in particular, have been a significant feature of the game and of my social life. Many of my closest friends are people I know through Geocaching and I socialise with them even if we’re not searching for tupperware together. I know people in other towns, counties and cities whom I’ve met at events, including my own. Through social media I’m even in contact with cachers in other countries, such as my friend Angela in Hong Kong, and others whom I’ve never met, and I keep in contact with podcasters across the world. I miss meeting my friends. I miss rocking up at a pub, not knowing who’ll be there, but sure that we’ll have a great chat about some new development in the game, the caches we’ve found – or not found- over the past few weeks and perhaps swapping puzzle hints and trackables. I miss the bustle of a Mega event.

However, as I’ve discovered during lockdown, it’s still possible to keep in touch with my geo-friends, even when we can’t meet at official events. Local walks, when allowed, can be shared with a friend and maybe we’ll pass by a couple of caches too! A year ago, most of us had never heard of Zoom or Teams but now barely a day goes by without some sort of online video call, often involving other geocachers. This weekend I’m holding the second of a casual series of ‘virtual events’. There’s no smiley for it, no addition to my find tally, but it’ll be a spot of fun in an otherwise dreary week. I’m a member of a number of Facebook and WhatsApp groups, all providing me with more interaction with like-minded players, not to mention the occasional piece of gossip! Twitter is another place I sometimes go to, to see what others have been doing or to engage in Twitter Events such as the UK Geocaching Hour on a Tuesday evening.

In short, there are a number of ways you can keep in touch with friends during lockdown, maybe make a few more or just cross paths with a stranger.

3. Puzzle it Out

When Geocaching began, puzzles caches, or mystery caches, were few and far between and they often included a clear method for solving them; they would almost tell you the method before presenting you with the actual puzzle! Nowadays things can get much more difficult. Working out what and where the puzzle is can take far more time than actually solving it. Over the years I’ve become better at this aspect of the game. Where once I stared blankly at the cache page, unable to see anything to tackle, I now know a few tricks, places to look, keys to press. I also know who to ask for help. Not help getting the answer, but help in learning the method. I’ve learned to enjoy the challenge of working out the secrets of a puzzle and feel pride when I use my experience of one cache to solve another.

But puzzles have changed in other ways too. There are large numbers of more simple puzzles, such as online jigsaw puzzles hosted on Jigidi , many of these placed as part of one of the UK’s many national series, such as Church Micros, Village Halls, or maybe one from the SideTracked series. I’ve begun to find these quite therapeutic of an evening. I’ve developed a way of approaching them, an efficiency, leading to my now having a list of several hundred solved puzzles across the UK, in fact across the world, just waiting for me to go and find them!

This something I’ll be doing much more of during this lockdown- solving puzzles, learning new methods, lengthening that list and looking forward to that time in the (hopefully) near future when I can head out there and finish the job!

4. Get Creative

It perhaps goes without saying that planning your next cache hide – or series – is something that we can all do during lockdown. The time I’ve not spent caching I’ve instead been able to use in other ways, and this includes planning a few new hides, mapping out some possible series routes and creating puzzles of my own. Rainbow Kel and I are in discussion about a combination of all of these. Some quirky hides, gadget caches, sneaky puzzles etc. We’re working up a theme and I’ve even started buying a few containers.

I have lists on my phone of possible containers, ideas for puzzles and a couple of locations to investigate once we’re able to travel further afield. Like my road trip plans, some of these probably won’t come to fruition, but half the fun is in the planning! When this is all over, and the thronged masses of frustrated cachers dust off their boots and charge up their GPSrs, they’re going to want some new caches to find, not just film pots with damp logs which have lain unloved for six months or more!

If you’re lacking inspiration, have a wander through social media. There’s some great images on Instragram such as this collection and I highly recommend my own Clever Caches group on Facebook! A quick Twitter search using tags such as #caches #geocaches will also throw up some inpiration for you. If not, have a look at caches which have been recently published to see what’s trending these days. Those fake snail caches are SO pre-lockdown!

Whatever you do, make sure you’re ready to hit the ground running when the Professor gives the word!

5. Make Resolutions

It’s the right time of the year to make resolutions, of course, and why not include Geocaching in that list! I always make a list of things I want to achieve in the year ahead. This might include completing a particular series, meeting the requirements for a challenge cache or reaching a certain number of finds. This year I’m hoping to visit Scotland’s First, the oldest surviving cache in the UK. (That will mean that I’ll have acheieved as much of the Jasmer Challenge as I can without travelling overseas.) Mind you, that’s been on my list for the last 4 years!

Some of my 2020 targets were not even close to being achieved. Some of these will roll over into this year, especially those which I only missed because of lockdown. For example, I was on course to reach 10,000 finds by the end of the year but the ‘stay at home’ order put paid to that, sadly. Some of the targets were, frankly, unachieveable and so I’ve just removed them. After all, this is meant to be fun, right?

I’m also planning to try and throw a few random Acts of Kindness out there- help with changing logs on other people’s caches, helping them to tidy up their profiles with my basic HTML knowledge, helping trackables with their missions, asking a new cacher if they want to join me on a hunt…

My list of targets and resolutions is always a ‘work in progress’ thing and I’m often tweaking it throughout the year. My 2021 effort is very much in its infancy, and who knows what might be possible this year anyway? But don’t forget the golden rule of ‘to do’ lists: always begin by including something you’ve already done!

6. Learn Something New!

And finally- use this time to learn something about this wonderful game that you’ve never considered before. Maybe it’s just taking the time to explore features of your Geocaching app or GPSr that you’ve ignored. Perhaps you’ve always avoided mystery/puzzle caches. I know many people who started to look at puzzles but were put off because the first one they looked at was ridiclously difficult. Use the filters to find a low difficulty puzzle; learn to to walk before you can run! But there is also plenty of help out there. There’s number of Facebook puzzle groups where you can pick up hints. Look for a cache that’s been solved by someone you know and who might help you with further clues if you need them. Most puzzle cache owners are very pleased to help if you’re stuck; just send them a message through the message centre.

Another idea is to learn a bit of basic HTML coding so that you can post images, souveniers and other content to your profile for other cachers to admire. There’s actually a new WYSIWYG editor there now to make it even easier for you. I’ve really enjoyed learning to do this and I always look out for the home-made badges that owners make available for finders and attendees.

Maybe you’ve only placed a really simple cache before. Why not have a go at something else, such as a multi cache or a simple puzzle. If you’re feeling really brave you might even want to try your hand at developing a Wherigo cache- there’s never enough of those around! Don’t be afraid- just have a go, and don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it- and that includes from me!

It won’t be long now. We’ve all done our best to help defeat this terrible virus and to keep each other’s spirits up. We’ve braved the worst and we’re almost on the home straight. But in the meantime there’s plenty that you can be getting on with and I can’t wait to see you all again, you beautiful people!

Cache on!

Six More Things!

• Print spare log sheets
• Replace those old rechargeable batteries
• Tidy out your caching bag
• Gather up any coins or trackables you’ve been holding
• Waterproof your boots
• Listen to The Podcache Show!