126 Things Every Geocacher Must Do – Updated 3/5/15

Awesome Geocaching posted a list of things a geocacher must do and asked readers to post their scores. Let’s see how I do, shall we?

1. Log a multi cache. My first mult was GC2D757.
2. Become FTF.
3. Hide your own cache.
4. Log your 100th find. My 100th find was North Electric Trail #2: – Cabbage Patch.
5. Buy geocaching stuff online. Some day I intend to place a cache so I’ve bought a couple of caches online. I’ve also bought travel bugs and pathtags.
6. Think “this would make an excellent hiding spot” on your way to work or school. Right now, there’s a lovely park across the street from my husband’s job which doesn’t have a cache. I’ve already named the cache to be placed there (Bird Bath). There are also two spots in my neighborhood I’ve been eying for a couple of years.
7. Geocache on your vacation, to the horror of the rest of the family. It’s even worse when I force them to geocache with me.
8. Cache abroad.
9. Participate in an event. I have participated in several events but my favorites are the CITO’s. I hosted my first event which was also the first time I geocached.
   
10. Listen to a podcast about geocaching.
11. Upgrade to a new GPS. My husband bought me an iPhone 4si for Christmas. Groundspeak’s Geocaching app was my first download.
12. Download GSAK.
13. Go geocaching in a group. The very first time I geocached, it was in a group.
14. Log a mystery. The first time I geocached, I found “Joe Who? A Bonus Cache.”
    
15. Cache in the dark. I did it! I did it! I cached at night with a flashlight for 12/12/12.
16. Phone a friend to get help finding a cache. I tried this but he didn’t answer. Thanks, Scrudder. 😦
17. Get lost. Always, always, always mark where you park your car when you’re geocaching in a state park. 🙂
18. Log a traditional. My first traditional cache was provided by the state of Texas, TxGCC Cedar Hill SP.
    
19. Organize an event. None of my events have been posted on Groundspeak but I have hosted three events for Discovery Educators Network.
20. Walk the birds’ path even if it’s not the most suitable one.
21. Use a flashlight while searching for a cache. I did it! I used a flashlight to find a cache after sunset.
22. Move a TB or a coin. Sparkle Dirt was my first travel bug to move.
23. Buy and send your own TB or coin. My first geocoin, DEN Geocoin 2011, hasn’t moved. 😦
24. Have a pre-packed geocaching bag. I’ve had a geobag since my first day.
25. Randomly meet another geocacher. I’ve met some mighty nice people while out geocaching but I meet the most geocachers at a cache during an event.
26. Drop your GPS in the water.
27. Log the wrong date online. Today, 9/17/12, I discovered an error in my logging. I logged the same log twice while leaving another find off my finds. I went in and corrected it but had the wrong date.
28. Miss your favorite TV show to log a cache.
29. Log a DNF. No one likes to admit DNFs but I recently cleared a DNF.
    
30. Drive on a private road.
31. Visit http://www.awesomegeocaching.com.
32. Google “geocaching” out of boredom.
33. Say or think “only one more cache.” Sweetieheart gets tired before I do. He also gives up more easily than I. I find myself saying “only one more cache” more often than I like.
34. Have a dream about geocaching.
35. Register in a local or national geocaching organization. I’m a member of SWAG (SouthWest Arlington Geocachers).
    
36. Have your photo taken while up in a tree.
37. Geocache in a metropolis.  I’m not sure but I’m choosing to interpret this as urban geocaching.
38. Buy a lock n’ lock container.
39. Hope for an update/new feature on geocaching.com (or other similar website).
40. Log a webcam cache.
41. Brag about a geocaching achievement. Isn’t that what this blog is all about? 🙂
42. Get weird looks from muggles. I’m really not all that good at hiding my geocaching activities from muggles but I get the strangest looks from my husband.
    
43. Get stopped by the police.
44. Have a special music playlist for geocaching trips.
45. Stare for ages at a physical map. I find myself staring at the map on my phone for way too long, trying to figure out where I’m going.
46. Do something physical you would otherwise never have done. I would have never, ever, ever stuck my hand into any place where there might could possibly be a lizard if it weren’t for geocaching. (I won’t even think about the snake-infested places I have visited in the name of geocaching.)
47. Pick up trash while geocaching (CITO). I fell in love with CITOs in Plano.
48. Stand right next to a cache without seeing it. Happens all the time. 😦
49. Park where you shouldn’t park.. Sometimes inadvertantly… sometimes not so much.
50. Log an earth cache.
51. Film a geocaching adventure with a video camera.
52. Have the phone number of another geocacher in your cell phone.
53. Upload a photo to geocaching.com.
54. Search online for a cache of a specific difficulty.
55. Become surprised when darkness falls. This happened to me today when clouds covered the sun when we weren’t due for rain today.
56. Try to place a cache that gets denied by a reviewer.
57. Blog about geocaching.  Duh!
58. Ask a newbie question about geocaching on a forum. I asked about teachers and geocaching.
59. Write a cache description in a foreign language.
60. Explain geocaching to a muggle. I’ve explained geocaching to more than one former muggles. 😉
61. Download something related to geocaching. I’ve downloaded PDF files for geocaching logs.
62. Become wet during a search.
63. Write the wrong date in a physical log. I’m rotten with dates. Although I couldn’t prove it, I have no doubt I’ve written the wrong date.
64. Read about geocaching in a newspaper or magazine. I first read about geocaching in the early 2000s in Texas Highways magazine. Although I was interested, I couldn’t afford a $500 GPS unit because my husband had just been laid off.
65. Log your 1000th cache.
66. Think “what the heck am I doing here?”
67. Accept a challenge related to geocaching.
68. Become FTF for the 10th time.
69. Log DNF three times in a row.
70. Participate in a CITO-event. My first CITO event was in Plano. I’m hooked on CITOs!
71. Wish that your GPS device was better. Or at least had better reception!
72. Find something really fun in a geocache. My favorite find has been a state park trading card. I’ve also found a coupon for free ice cream.
73. Have a bad GPS reception. The Garmin doesn’t like cities and the iPhone doesn’t care for trees.
    
74. Run out of batteries at an unsuitable moment. The Garmin uses four batteries at a time. I’ve paid 7-11 big bucks so I could continue geocaching.
75. Wish that you could be out geocaching, when you’re stuck with something else. I was in training today. I would have gladly traded training for geocaching.
76. Log a cache that would not be possible to take without the help of someone else. Sweetieheart jumped a fence so we could find Tombstone, the oldest cache in Texas.
77. Bring a friend for a geocaching trip. A friend was unable to find a room for a geocaching event so I picked her up and allowed her to stay in my room. That counts, right?
78. Trade up a cache, meaning to leave something of greater value than what you take.
79. Log a cache in a cache bomb.
80. Log all caches in a cache bomb.
81. Criticize a fellow geocacher.
82. Log at least 10 caches in a day.
83. Attempt a 5/5.
84. Complain that people don’t put the cache back at its original location.
85. Not put a cache back at its original location.
86. Complain about bad coordinates.
87. Pretend to tie your shoes to avoid muggles.
88. Tell a friend about geocaching. <–How Sweetieheart got dragged into geocaching.
89. Fix a damaged cache that belongs to someone else. Last summer, we discovered a cache had been placed at the Kroger’s two blocks from our home. The cache had already been muggled when we arrived. We replaced the cache with an empty container we had with us. That Friday, we gave the broken cache to the owner at an event we attended.
90. Become thrilled about an e-mail from geocaching.com. I have a travel bug which brings new joy when it’s discovered and sent on its way.
91. Applaud another geocacher. I was there when Sweetieheart logged his 100th find and when GramaKitty logged her 1000th.
92. Be annoyed by all the trash in caches and then place something useless yourself.
93. Lose your GPS.
94. Geocache together with children. We had three children in tow (ages 10-14) during the last Discovery Educator Network event.
95. Take a break of over a month. Right now (7/18/13), my statistics show that I have never, ever, ever cached in November.
    
96. Tease someone who can’t find a cache that you have already found. I teach newbies.
    
97. Forget to log a cache online. I logged it on my phone but I forgot to send it. I’m fairly sure this counts.
98. Log a cache in a cave.
99. Log a letterbox cache. I’m fairly sure that this refers to hybrid letterboxes but I found my first one last week.
100. Run out in your jammies in the freezing cold to get a first-to-find! Contributed by a commenter
101. Become acquainted with poison ivy/oak while geocaching. A recent photo of the legs of a geocaching friend on Facebook brought this one to mind.
102. Attend an art show related to geocaching. Whodathunk that geocaching would inspire art? Boy, was I wrong!
103. Cache out an area Sweetieheart and I found all the caches in Ponder, TX – all two of them!
104. Host an event! Sweetieheart and I hosted 31 Days of August: Raspa!
105. Get poison ivy from a geocaching adventure.
106. Personalize your swag.
107. Go on a geocaching road trip.
108. Pick up a trackable.
109. Forget you have a trackable. I found a couple in my purse when I switched from my school purse to my summer purse.
110. Drop off a trackable.
111. Drop off a trackable without logging it so no one will figure out exactly how long you’ve had it.
112. Participate in a geocaching flashmob.
113. Attend a geocaching social event. My first event was with Arlington’s SWAG group; it would be two more years before SWAG officially existed as a group. I was still at less than 50 finds.
114. Host a geocaching social event. I hosted my first event before I’d even logged my first find. A newbie geocacher does what she must to learn the game.
115. Attend a geocaching mega-event. I attended Texas’ Geocaching Challenge.
116. Attend GeoWoodstock.
117. Participate in a CITO. My first Cache-In/Trash-Out was in Plano. I hadn’t yet logged 100 finds.
118. Create an earthcache.
119. Discover a something new while geocaching.
120. Read a book about geocaching.
121. Take a kid geocaching.
122. Complete a geotrail.
123. Complete a WhereIGo.
124. Log a geoache-letterbox combo.
125. Pretend to visit a grave while hunting for a cemetery cache.
126. Complete everything on this list.