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Summertime is here, so there’s no better time to get outside and have some wheelchair adventures than by getting into the popular sport of Geocaching. Geocaching is a great way to get outdoors, discover new places, and play high-tech hide-and-seek. Whether you’re a paraplegic in a sporty off-road wheelchair, or an adventurous quadriplegic rocking a powerchair, you can find accessible geocaches all over the world. If you’ve never been Geocaching before, then get ready to have some fun. Check out our guide.

What is geocaching?

The cache is typically an old army-style ammo box or some type of tupperware container, and will sometimes contain small trinkets like playing cards or plastic toys. Most importantly there will also be a log book so any geocachers who find the cache can log their details.

Once someone has created a cache and placed it somewhere and record the co-ordinates with their GPS. Then they go online to Geocaching.com, post the longitude/latitude coordinates of the hidden treasure and any clues or hints to help people looking for it, if necessary. 

Once the details of the cache have been posted Geocaching.com people take note of the co-ordinates (or download them into their GPS or Sat-Nav), and head out to try and find the cache.  Proper Geocaching etiquette dictates that upon finding a given cache, you:

Sign the log book contained in the cache, including your name or handle, the date, and where you’re from. This can be interesting, as the log books will often show people from all corners of the globe having visited a particular cache.

Take an item out of the cache (whatever looks appealing to you), and add something to the cache to compensate for what you took.

Replace the cache back to its hiding spot.

Place a comment on Geocaching.com to say you found the cache, thanking the person who placed it and confirming that it’s still in place for other people to find.

What’s fun about that you say? Plenty — Geocaching is a great way to discover new areas/trails/hikes that you wouldn’t have otherwise found, and is a fun mix of technology, outdoor activity, and orienteering. Where’s the challenge in finding something when you have the coordinates? Well, it’s more difficult than it sounds. Even a really good consumer GPS is only accurate to within 5-20 feet. If we told you something is hidden somewhere inside a room, it can still be difficult to find. The GPS gets you close to the cache, but you still have to hunt around for it (people will frequently post hints in the Geocaching.com post that will help you find the cache) — seriously, it can be tougher and more rewarding than you think!

What equipment do I need?

Pretty much all you need is some kind of GPS (if you want to kick it old school then just use a map and compass) so you can be guided to the area of the geocache. The good news is that there are so many options available. Stand-alone GPS units are cheaper than ever before, many cellphones and PDA’s can run GPS software, you can even use a car navigation Sat-Nav too (although not all caches will be accessible by vehicle, so if you can take the unit out of the vehicle things should be easier). The cheapest, smallest and most basic GPS devices, like the wrist mounted Garmin forerunner will simply show an arrow pointing in the direction you need to travel and how far away you are from the cache. More advanced GPS units like the Garmin Etrex can display detailed maps of the area showing the location of both you and the cache along with the simple directional arrow leading you towards the geocache. The more accurate and larger GPS units with full color displays can display detailed topgraphical maps displaying your exact position in relation to the cache. You can use many phones, PDAs and vehicle sat-nav’s for geocaching too, as long as the device has the ability to navigate to a set of co-ordinates rather than just a street address. Although these devices may not be quite as accurate as a dedicated GPS unit. Other than a GPS, you should take along a pen (to sign the log-book) and a camera to take a picture of the cache once you have found it, plus maybe a small trinket to place in the cache for the next person who finds it.

Sounds fun, so how do I get started?

Okay, you’ve got a GPS and you want to get started, what next?

1. Head over to Geocaching.com (links at the bottom of the page) and search for Geocaches in your area (you’ll need to create an account, but it’s free).

2. Find a cache you’re interested in that’s close to you and check it’s star ratings for difficulty and terrain. The more stars for terrain, the more likely the cache isn’t wheelchair accessible, for your first cache make sure you choose a cache with a one star rating.

3. Once you have decided on a cache, make a note of it’s unique waypoint number. This will be a mixture of letters and numbers, like GCTBX7, and be displayed in the top right hand corner of the page.

4. (optional) Go to Handicaching.com, click on “Find A Rating” and search to see if anyone has made an accessibility review for the cache. Not all caches have been reviewed on Handicaching, so dont get upset if there isn’t a result, most one star rated caches should be easily wheelchair accessible.

For a detailed review of Handicaching.com, read here.

5. Once you are happy and have decided which cache you want to hunt down it’s time to get the co-ordinates onto your GPS. The easiest way to do this is to simply create a new waypoint, calling it whatever you want, and manually input the coordinates. 

Depending on the make and model of your GPS the method for inputing coordinates will be different, but fairly straight forward so check your user manual if you have problems. You can also just connect your GPS to you computer and download the coordinates directly onto the device. This is an easy way to add lots of waypoints at once and choose in which order you hunt them down, again different makes of GPS will have different software so check the manual or makers website.

6. Once the geocache coordinates are loaded on, then you’re ready to head out on your first adventure, yay. Simply set your GPS to lead you to the geocache waypoint and get hunting.

Dont expect the GPS to magically lead you directly to the cache and point it out to you. The GPS will point you in the right direction, literally, and tell you how far away you are but you will still have to hunt around a little to find the cache. Some caches are extremely difficult to find, some are so small and hard to find that some people never find them. Caches in urban area’s especially have to be particularly well hidden to stop passers-by finding and disturbing them, possibly even destroying or moving the cache.

7. Once you find the cache, sign the logbook, take something and replace it with something of yours and replace the cache as you found it. Then when you get home, log into geocaching.com to let people know the cache is still active and update your list of found caches. Make sure you go to Handicaching.com too and give an accessibility review of the trail to the cache, especially if there wasn’t one before, so others can get in on the fun too. 

 

That’s pretty much it for the basics, there’s a lot more to geocaching, like tiny micro caches that can be infuriatingly hard to find, or travel bugs. A Travel Bug is a trackable item that moves from cache to cache, picking up stories along the way.

So what are you waiting for, grab your GPS and hit the trails. Geocaching is loads of fun and a great way to get outside and explore a little. Let us know if you place a cache and make sure to post your photo’s to the official pushingthelimits wheelchair adventures Flickr Group and you might get featured in out best of the week.

Handicaching.com

GPS Geocaching.com

eTrex Vista HCX / GPS     Get Your Bearings and Be First To The Cache! The Vista HCx, with it’s full color screen, has a built-in electronic compass that provides precise bearing information even while you’re standing still, and its barometric altimeter tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude and location. You can automatically download waypoints and co-ordinates from Geocaching.com before you head out the door. Navigate easily to many locations at the touch of a button. www.altrec.com