Geocache types, one at a time

Why the type matters before anything else

Two listings can be a hundred metres apart and require completely different preparation. One is a container behind a wall; the other cannot be attempted at all until you have solved something at home. The icon is the warning.

The types below are the ones you will actually meet. Names and availability vary slightly between listing services. This is the common shape rather than any one service’s exact catalogue.

The container types

Traditional. A container at the posted coordinates. The original form, still the majority, and the right place to start. Difficulty and terrain ratings tell you roughly what to expect.

Multi-cache. Several stages. The posted coordinates lead to a first location where you gather information: a number on a plaque, a count of something, a set of coordinates written down, which leads to the next, and eventually to a container. The walk is the puzzle. The failure mode is a missing intermediate stage, which strands you.

Mystery or puzzle cache. The posted coordinates are a placeholder, usually somewhere convenient rather than where the cache is. You solve something first, and the solution gives you the real coordinates. This is the type most worth checking for a solution checker before you invest an evening.

Letterbox hybrid. A crossover with letterboxing, an older hobby based on stamps and written directions rather than coordinates. A letterbox hybrid usually contains a stamp and may be found by following instructions instead of, or as well as, coordinates.

The types with no container

These exist because some places are worth visiting and should not have objects hidden in them: protected sites, fragile geology, places where a container would be found and removed within a week.

Earthcache. You visit a geological feature and answer questions about what you can observe there. There is nothing to find and nothing to sign; the evidence is your answers. Earthcaches are often the most educational listings on any service.

Virtual. You visit a location and provide evidence of having been — historically a photograph, more recently an answer to a question. Very few new ones are published.

Webcam. You get yourself captured by a public webcam. A charming type that has aged badly as public webcams have disappeared.

The event types

Event cache. A published gathering of cachers at a time and place. You log attendance rather than a find. Events are where most people discover that the local community exists at all.

CITO. Cache In Trash Out: an event organised around clearing litter from an area. It is the hobby’s standing answer to the reasonable objection that people tramping into woodland might leave it worse than they found it.

The type that needs equipment

Wherigo. Built around an interactive cartridge that responds to your location as you move through a place. It can produce genuinely memorable experiences and it requires specific software support, which has always kept it a minority type.

That pattern is worth noticing, because it repeats: every addition to the hobby that requires a particular purchase or a particular device stays small, no matter how good the idea is. The beacons page in the gear section covers another instance of exactly the same thing.

Difficulty and terrain

Every listing carries two ratings from one to five. Difficulty is how hard the cache is to find once you are standing in the right place. Terrain is how hard it is to get there.

They are set by the owner and they are estimates, not measurements. A terrain five means specialist equipment: climbing gear, a boat, diving. A difficulty five means you may search correctly for an hour and leave without it.

Read them together with the recent logs. Ratings describe the owner’s intention; the logs describe what actually happens to people.

Attributes: the part of the listing people skip

Alongside the type, most listings carry a row of small icons describing the cache. They are easy to scroll past and they answer questions the type cannot.

They cover access, whether parking is available, whether the route is wheelchair or pushchair friendly, whether dogs are permitted. They cover conditions, whether the site is available at night, whether it is seasonal, whether it needs wading or climbing. And they cover requirements, whether special equipment is needed, whether the cache takes more than an hour, whether it is suitable for children.

Two of them are worth checking every time. Special equipment is the difference between a walk and a wasted trip. Seasonal access explains a great many DNFs logged in the wrong month by people who never looked.

Attributes are set by the owner and are not verified, so they are a claim rather than a guarantee. They are still the densest piece of information on the page and the one most consistently ignored.

Choosing what to attempt today

The type tells you what kind of task it is. Combined with two or three other fields it tells you whether it is the right task for this afternoon.

Read the size. A micro in woodland is a different search from a regular in the same place, and the size field is the most reliable predictor of how long you will stand there.

Read the recent logs before the description. Four finds this month is the strongest evidence available that the container exists. A run of DNFs is the strongest evidence that it does not, whatever the difficulty rating says.

Match the type to the time you have. A traditional is a stop on a walk. A multi is an afternoon. A mystery is an evening at home and then a separate trip.

Most disappointing caching days are not caused by bad caches. They are caused by attempting a type that needed preparation nobody did.