Geocaching gear: What do you bring for geocaching?

Have you ever wondered what do you need for geocaching? Which geocaching gear do other geocachers carry? You probably already use your phone for navigation and pen for signing logs. But there are many other pieces of geocaching equipment that geocachers use, from common ones like tweezers to unexpected ones like magnetic probes. Check out this list and find out what other geocaching essentials, or often called “geocaching tools of the trade”, can help you in your next geocaching adventure.

Flashlight

The flashlight is an extremely useful part of geocaching gear when you try to reach for a geocache in dark bushes or holes, or when you go geocaching during the night. It’s also great if a flashlight has the ability to regulate the strength of light strobe to avoid light blinding you.

Also, if you go geocaching at night, flashlights need to have a long-lasting battery and be durable. Consider getting the ultimate flashlight Fenix Lighting PD36R. It has everything you need in a geocaching flashlight: regulation of a light strobe strength, long-lasting battery, being lightweight, waterproof, and dustproof.

Tweezers

You can use tweezers to pull logs out of a small or nano geocache. This is one of the more important parts of geocaching gear that you’ll surely need. It’s best to use tweezers with pointy ends, which will make fetching logs even easier. A good example of high-quality tweezers with pointy ends is these.

Swiss Army Knife

They are very useful for geocachers because it’s like carrying a mini geocaching kit with you. The best for geocaching would be the Swiss Army Hiker Knife, as it has all tools necessary for geocaching, and even opening a few bottles – tweezers, a mini-saw, different blades, bottle openers, a screwdriver, and more.

Gloves

You can use gloves to protect your hands when searching for geocache through prickles, thorns, dust, mud, shrubs, and wetness. You can use these work gloves, as they will protect your hands and keep them dry as you search for a geocache.

Magnetic probe

The magnetic probe is used as a geocaching extraction tool for retrieving nanos and metal geocaches. It’s best to choose a telescopic one so that it can extend far away to reach geocaches. It is also magnetic so metal caches will stick to it. You would be ok with getting this one as it also has a light, so it can be useful when a cache is in a dark place. It says that it fetches 20lbs objects without breaking, but it’s better not to test that. It should be found for reaching most geocaches though.

Telescoping inspection mirror

The telescoping mirror is useful when you have to retrieve a difficult geocache, but it’s stuck in some far-away hole, and you need a plan to reach it. It’s also a useful part of the geocaching toolkit when looking for caches stuck underneath a bench or similar and you don’t want to bend. A good inspection mirror would look like this as it has a telescoping handle that extends, a mirror that rotates to all angles so you can adjust it for better viewing. Lots of telescopic mirrors have lights, but it’s better to get the one without it as those only blind you in the eyes all the time.

Endoscope Camera

An endoscope camera is a camera on a bendable, long, semi-rigid wire and is used for inspection of hard-to-reach places like pipes, walls, and machinery. It’s also useful for geocaching when a cache is stuck in a hard-to-reach and dark place. You should get the wireless one like this. Bend the wire to reach the geocache. Then use the camera and light on it to see on your phone where the camera is pointing. The camera is connected to your phone with WiFi, so it’s easy to connect to it.

Duct Tape

Tape for taping things — Tape is useful for repairing your gear or geocaches when geocaching | Photo by **Ksenia Chernaya** from **Pexels**

Duct Tape is always useful to carry on nature trips. It’s useful for fixing stuff that breaks in the wilderness like shoes, clothes, backpacks, and other equipment. It’s also useful for repairing broken geocaches. Make sure to buy duct tape like this, as they are strong enough to adhere to the material. This is one of more versatile pieces of geocaching gear to posses.

Wire

The wire is also one of the DIY geocaching tools that geocachers often carry. It’s useful for hanging geocaches, fetching difficult logs, and other times when you just have to improvise to solve a problem. It’s always good to carry a length of bendable wire like these.

String

The string is useful when you have to hang a geocache, or when some of your equipment tears down. Then you need a string to hold it together as a temporary fix. String like this is another useful geocaching tool to have.

Water bottle

When geocaching it’s always clever for you to carry a water bottle, as you often get thirsty. There have been many recommendations for the Hydro Flask water bottle. It has great insulation for both hot and cold drinks. It also has the ability to prevent condensation from forming on the bottle, which prevents the bottle from getting wet in your backpack.

Insect Repellant

Mosquito biting someones skin — Geocaching makes you vulnerable to ticks, mosquitos, and other insects | Photo by **icon0.com** from **Pexels**

As you go geocaching, you will encounter ticks, mosquitoes, and other bugs on your way. There is a trick from experienced nature enthusiasts to deter insects – spray the clothes you plan to wear the night before with Sawyer Permethrin Insect Repellent. Then also use Deet Insect Repellent on your skin when geocaching also. The combination of those two will ensure insect-free geocaching.

First Aid Kit

You can also carry an emergency kit with essentials needed for a disaster or emergency packed in a neat bag. You should get a specialized kit for the outdoors like Mountain Series Backpacker Medical Kit. This kit is specially made for adventurers because everything can be found quickly – all supplies are grouped in injury-specific pockets. Everything inside is also packed neatly inside, so the emergency kit can easily fit into your backpack along with your other geocaching gear. It also contains a manual for common injuries for hikers and people who spend lots of time outdoors.

Hat

Hat on a shelf — The hat is always useful when geocaching to protect you from the sun | Photo by **Artem Beliaikin** from **Pexels**

When geocaching a lot, it’s often great to carry a hat that fits nicely and has sun protection. You can even find hats like this one that withstand both sun and rain. They also protect your neck.

Wireless Headphones

Woman wearing headphones — Wireless Headphones are the best choice for listening to music while geocaching | Photo by **Blue Bird** from **Pexels**

If you really want to listen to music when geocaching, it’s best to get wireless headphones. They may be more expensive than traditional ones, but it’s worth it to not have to deal with wires. And you can also place your phone in the backpack wherever you want.

You can get sports headphones like Jaybird X3 Wireless Headphones. These have specialized buds that stay in your ear all the time, a long-lasting battery for a full day of music listening, and also a great sound quality for that price.

If you don’t want to wear headphones in your ears, you can even get bone conduction wireless headphones like AFTERSHOKZ Bone Conduction Headphones. These deliver sound through your cheekbones and leave your ears open. This enables your to have situational awareness while still hearing music. They may not have the sound quality of traditional headphones, but situational awareness may be worth it.

Extra Logs

When you go geocaching, you will often want to put new logs in the geocache. Maybe logs have run out of paper, or maybe they got wet from moisture or rain. In that case, put new logs inside. You can carry normal paper to replace logs, or even carry a waterproof notebook. This is one of the geocaching essentials of what you should bring geocaching, as you’ll often encounter geocaches that need maintenance. And often, you would have wished you have improved the geocache.

Swag

Marbles — It’s useful to carry small trinkets to use as swag when geocaching | Photo by **Anthony** from **Pexels**

Swag are small toys, keychains, and other trinkets found in a geocache. You may open a geocache and find some swag in it. You can take the swag item if you can replace it with one of equal or greater value. For that reason, you can carry some trinkets with you and use them as swag.

Handheld GPS

GPS map — For navigation, some geocachers use handheld GPS devices instead of phones

Many geocachers like to carry handheld GPS devices to navigate to the geocache. The best GPS device for geocachers today is considered Garmin GPSMAP 66sr. It’s the best because of the best display, best connectivity providing high accuracy even in worst terrain, long-lasting battery, durable build, and being waterproof. This model is costly, but it’s the price for best in the market. For the cheaper GPS, Garmin eTrex 10 is the best budget GPS on the market. It provides only breadcrumb navigation, so basically only a line of movement towards your waypoints and not a full map. But this is expected for a budget GPS. It also has great accuracy for a GPS of this price.

Portable Charger

Two phones charging — A portable charger is useful to charge your phone if you use it for geocaching the whole day | Photo by **Steve Johnson** from **Pexels**

Geocachers look at their phones when navigating towards a geocache. This can drain the phone’s battery very fast if geocaching the entire day. The phone screen turned on uses the most power on your smartphone. That’s why carrying a portable charger is having one of the more useful geocaching devices. You can also use a portable charger to charge your other devices if you go on trips like multiple-day hikes. One of the best portable chargers is Anker PowerCore III Elite. It has a huge capacity of 25,600mAh so it can even charge laptops besides the smartphone, has fast charge and quick charge ability, and has both USB and USB-C ports.

Pen

Hand holding a pen and writing on paper — The pen is a basic piece of geocaching equipment | Photo by **Kindel Media** from **Pexels**

Pen, along with phone or handheld GPS/some other navigation device, is a piece of basic geocaching equipment. You need it to sign logs after finding a geocache. Some geocachers like to buy a special pen with a permanent link so that they can sign logs even if they’re moist. They get special pens like Rite in the Rain All-Weather Pen that can write on wet paper.

Sunscreen

If you go outside and spend the whole day geocaching, especially during summer, it’s good to apply sunscreen. Apply sunscreen 30 minutes before going outside, and then reapply every 2 hours. You may want to consider even getting a specialized sunscreen like Thinksport SPF 50+ Mineral Sunscreen for active users as geocachers walk a lot. This sunscreen has a high SPF of 50+. It has passed Whole Foods Premium Care Requirements of not containing biologically harmful chemicals, so it’s safe for even the most sensitive skin. It’s also FDA-certified for having water resistance of big 80 minutes before reapplying, which means it will withstand even the heaviest sweating.