Carrying water while geocaching: How much and how to carry it
I got asked the question:
What’s the best way to carry water while geocaching. A Camelbak seems like overkill!
~ Roger
Great question, Roger!
You might not know this but I spent about 10 years volunteering for Yavapai County Search & Rescue. One thing that was common was that people didn’t carry nearly enough water!
While geocachers probably AREN’T hiking 10, 12, 15 miles in a single stretch water is something that you should always have plenty of.

Jess carries a TON of water with her all the time!
It’s important as well to know your personal water needs. My friend Jess needs about double the water I do. On a recent 10-mile day hike, she carried SEVEN LITERS! But she knew she needed it! I’m typically good with 3.
And don’t forget to take weather and activity into account as well. If it’s hot you’ll want more water. If you’re exerting (up and down hills) you’ll want more.
Here are my top tips:
Must-Have Geocaching Tool Kit
Most cachers have a geocaching “kit” that they take with them on the hunt. It was born of the “I really could have used a _________ on this find” reasoning that always seems to strike.
My “kit” not only includes my writing stick of choice (blue ball-point pen) and my trusty camera but also a few choice items that make retrieving caches much more user-friendly.
7 years ago • advice • Tags: tools