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.

  1. Walking stick. This is a must for Arizona where all manner of creatures (usually that bite, sting, are poisonous or all three!) like to live around caches. So a walking stick is perfect for jamming into a likely crevasse or flipping over rocks.
  2. Gloves. My garden gloves do double duty in my caching kit. This is nice when I’ve got my fingernails painted a la filming for The Outdoor Princess Productions. Or when locating the cache requires me to move plants with thorns.
  3. Small mirror. I finally got tired of sticking my head under cattle guards looking for micros! Now, I just angle the mirror under so I can see BEFORE I stick my head into anything!
  4. Needle nose pliers. For when you can SEE the cache, but you can’t get your fingers in there! Pliers are tough and portable!
  5. Forceps. Yep, I carry BOTH. Sometimes the pliers are too big to extract the log sheet from a nano. And the forceps can be too delicate for leveraging a good-sized cache container out of the hiding spot.
  6. Flashlight. Sometimes shining a light into a likely spot will show the cache reflecting back at you. And sometimes it shows the eyes of whatever critter is living in the hole!
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None of these tools are heavy or too large so it’s not a problem carting them on geocaching hikes. And you know when you leave an item at the car is when you REALLY want it at the cache!

Readers Weigh In:

  • What must-have tools are in your caching kit?