The most common question experienced geocachers are asked when they try to explain what geocaching is to people who have never heard of the game is:
Who hides this stuff?
It is both an easy and ambiguous question to answer:
Everyone.
This is the world’s most cooperative game, played in multiple languages and countries around the globe. Did you know there are four caches in Nuuk, Greenland? Because of the give and take between hiders and seekers, of traders and loggers, it is up to every individual geocacher to be responsible for the continuation of the game.
How does this look?
Cache owners must be responsible for maintenance on their caches. Keeping tabs on when their cache has been last found, paying attention to notes from fellow cachers regarding first aid needed on their containers and ‘grandfathering’ their caches for another responsible geocacher to adopt are all great ways to ensure geocaching remains fun for the seekers.
Cache seekers must be responsible for finding the cache without raising the curiosity of nearby muggles, re-hiding the cache exactly where they found it and with the appropriate amount of camouflage. Seekers are asked to trade up or trade even if exchanging items within the cache. Also, responsible geocachers move along travel bugs, trackables and geocoins in a timely manner by recording their code in the online log.
Although this sounds like a lot of accountability, most geocaching is done on a common sense basis. With a little foresight and a heaping dose of mutual respect, the game of geocaching can be fun for the next person and the next and the next…
Carpe cache!
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