Your Gear

[+noplacespecial]

lets see....

 

due to my current medical issues:

painkillers, just in case

lotion, chapstick and water - my medication is making me VERY dehydrated.

 

wallet with money and id, just in case

gps (obviously) and manual

camera

cell phone

swag

keyring, which includes small swiss army knife.

bug spray

sunblock (I NEED IT!!)

pen/pencil/marker

notebook - i have no pda, nor a working printer, so i jot down the necessary clues.

 

i now need a flashlight - i used to have a mini one on my keychain, but sometime in the last few days the bulb apparently fell out of it. i also need to invest in a decent backpack, as i'm currently using an old purse that really gets in the way when bending over. and seeing what others have listed has made me realize that i should really have some tweezers stronger than the plastic ones in my swiss army knife. id also like to invest in a telescoping mirror.

Edited September 6, 2007 by noplacespecial

[+popeye_tim]

Hemostats

 

What are the hemostats for?

 

 

People use them for many things. You may be familiar with them from one of those other uses.

 

Yeah, 'one of those other uses' made them quite popular when I was in college. LOL

 

Yeah... they're really useful for clamping spurting blood vessels closed when you reach in to a dark split in a rock and find the sharp edges with the inside of your forearm...

[+OverTheEdge]

Much of the time I am "urban geocaching" so we set out with our PDA and a couple of GPSr. I always carry water and a couple of power bars... along with a few other things that you will find in this thread. However, twice I have left my bag in the car - with my famous last words "it's only a quarter mile away..."

 

 

One time I managed to NOT mark the locaiton of the car, and three hours, several miles later - we did manage to find our way back to the car.

[+mothramom]

I take:

lg ziploc bag with all local printouts, just in case

lg ziploc bag with swag

compass

extra grocery bags for CITO

sm ziploc of munchies, eg. granola bars, clif bars, raisins (kids are always hungry, and once the lure of the cache is done, how do I get them back to the car?!?)

pocket knife

matches and lighter

water

whistlebug spray and wipes (one spray has SPF 15)

pens

first aid kit

kleenex

anti bac wipes

perm marker

GPSr

Cellphone

[+anakerose]

In my pack I have:

- several pens

- extra logs

- compact mirror (on a hinge so you can look under things)

- flashlight

- extra batteries

- sunscreen

- GPS & PDA

- CITO bags (we find lots of beer cans)

- box of our signature stickers

- hand sanitizer

- trade items of various value levels

- basic first aid kit (like wipes and bandaids)

- paper & a lighter for the forest caches (just in case!)

- extra camera card (we forgot ours once!)

- roll of ziploc bags (in case someone's log bag is ripped)

- compass

- swiss army knife

- water bottle

- nuts & energy bars

- geocaching lanyard

- notpad to write down what caches we did, what TB's or GC's we picked up and other info.

 

it's not in my pack all the time, but when we're doing the forest caches, I always grab a stick to poke around and lift things (ie pine needles & rocks). Haven't had it happen yet right at a cache, but I nearly stepped on a rattlesnake once on our way out from a cache.

Edited September 9, 2007 by anakerose

[+TXPathfinder]

I have added a step ladder to my backpack due to recent caches that were way beyond my reach.

[+czadd]

Ran into a fellow geocacher while on vacation and noticed he carries gloves with him. It seemed like overkill at the time, but a few days later I found a cache that was soaking wet and smelled like poo . I couldn't get the smell off of my hands for the rest of the day.

 

Now I bring gloves: plastic disposable ones for potentially icky situations and cheap leather ones for digging around in dirty spots. I suppose they might qualify as a good addition to the first aid kit I keep telling myself to buy, too.

[linkguider]

What is a SWAG kit??

[+olie0923]

Hmmm, reading this made me realize I don't really take anything with us (wife, kids, and I). About the only thing I take is a knife and make sure I have some water. Ahhh, now I wonder. That sneaky wife of mine normally has a backpack with her..........I wonder.

 

The only other thing I make sure I grab is a good stick when we get to whatever site we are walking. A good stick will keep those trail wide spider webs out of your face.

[3 schools of thought]

Well, we have learnt by trial and error, and we are still learning!

 

When we first started out all we took was the GPS and some print-outs.

 

Now, the first thing our kids do is sort themselves out with a hefty stick - good for poking about in holes, ground testing and nettle swiping.

 

Now we take:

 

GPS

Print-outs

camera (for victory shots; and of course for any amazing views along the way, but mostly for victory shots!)

wet wipes

plasters

torch

batteries

mobile phone

water

picnic lunch if planning to be out caching all day.

swaps

pen

 

But we are still learning...no doubt we will discover more things we need!!

[gallet]

Steripen, paper topo map, and compass

[+OldLog]

Many years ago in tech school we referred to a Swag as a Scientific wild a__ Guess.

[ljay]

LOL, first i have to say thank you for the entertainment.

my kit is growing, i am known to cache with a gps and a camera. Nothing Else.

Gettting serious now so i have purchased a small camel Pack (2 Litre type) and it currently has

 

gps

camera

current geo coins.

Leather gloves for those nasty holes i don't want to put my hands in

Small Tupperware with trades

larger tupperware with first aid kit

spare carriers for CITO

spare ziplock bags for repairs.

Currently 2 new cache boxes ready for placement

(one as a fix for a local cache who's owner is away and i've agreed to help the other waiting on insperation for my first hide)

Water proofs, walking poles, extra layers torch ect all live in the car and come out depending on weather.

 

Cannot understand these little mirrors your carrying, i'm not shy about getting down and sticking my A_ _ in the air...

 

Have Fun

[+mouseful]

I pretty much what others carry but I also carry a concealed firearm. It is strictly for protection. I can lawfully carry one as it's related to my job. One time, an individual who appeared under the influence confronted me. He became annoying until I showed him my badge. He left.

Edited September 22, 2007 by mouseful

[billandI]

P.S. Speaking of newbies, does anyone know if there is a forum to introduce yourself to the geocaching community, i.e. make local geocaching friends, etc.? I can't find one.

Thanks!

 

That would be nice. I am new as well. The only way I could find any locals was to put my zip code in and look at the profiles to see who was from around. Felt like a lurker, but didn't know how else to find the info I needed.

 

I am in a REALLY small town and it wasn't easy.

 

Great idea btw.

BillandI

[+JEDI-6]

I pretty much what others carry but I also carry a concealed firearm. It is strictly for protection. I can lawfully carry one as it's related to my job. One time, an individual who appeared under the influence confronted me. He became annoying until I showed him my badge. He left.

 

Couldn't agree more, mouseful.

 

I've gotten some really great ideas from this thread (like hemostats). When I began reading the thread I was thinking to myself "these people carry a lot of stuff just to go walk in the woods for an hour."

 

As I pondered more it struck me that "we" (Army) usually carry three days worth of supplies no matter how long we PLAN on being out.

 

Better to have and not need, than to need and not have. So long as you can handle the weight.

[+The CAD's]

D

Edited September 27, 2007 by The CAD's

[+CoalBranchKid]

<madly takes notes on all the good ideas...>

 

whew! I'm gonna need a bigger bag!

 

thanks for all the ideas gang!

[+Wild Thing 73]

Why would you want to know....You don't cache.....

[theblackspot]

if i'm going to an area near a river or creek i bring some sandals for walking across the water in.

Edited September 27, 2007 by theblackspot

[+Kinetix]

As we don't go on any big hikes yet as we have a wee one we wouldn't want to drag on long excursions (I think you'd have to be crazy, or crazily prepared), we mostly do urban-type caching so far. We've only been at it for 9 months now.

 

What we usually carry are:

 

- water

- GPS

- laptop or pda

- compass

- pens

- travel bugs or coins

- camera

- batteries

- occasional swag

- maybe a snack

 

And since we don't venture too far from the car, the car supplies are:

 

- hand sanitizer

- first aid kit

 

But there's a few things I keep thinking "I have to put together for caching", those are:

 

- garbage bag & gloves, since some people are so keen on destroying every space they can with garbage

- lots of ziplock sandwich bags, since so many caches seem to use them and they're often in not great shape

- little log books, to help those when theirs are full

 

I really gotta do the CITO thing more... I'm always thinking about that when I venture off in to some little wooded area and there's crap all over the place.

[+jaceharv]

Anybody have knee pads in thir kits? I could have used some today

[+jaceharv]

sorry'bout the double post. Anybody have knee pads in thir kits? I could have used some today

Edited October 7, 2007 by jaceharv

[Lucky McLooker]

So far I carry a large Camel Back bag that has two compartments plus the water container area. I carry the obvious water. A Bucktool, a pen, a pencil, swag, a silva compass, binoculars, wallet(credit cards, cash), vehicle keys, 4 extra double A Energizer batteries, a blaze orange hat, blaze orange vest, Sherlock Walking stick, digital camera with extra batteries, cache paperwork, comfy slouch hat, sun screen, Raybans or safety glasses, lens cleaners.

 

Plan on adding: 2space blankets, whistle, first aid kit, bug spray, mirror on stick, 100 ft. 550 cord, handsanitizer wipes, matches, fire starter blocks, space pen, small 22LR caliber semi-auto pistol.

[+Skytracker]

Anybody have knee pads in thir kits? I could have used some today

 

Why, was the cache in your bank manager's office?

[+new_dharma]

SWAG = Stuff We All Get

SWAG=Sh!#y Worthless a** Gift

SWAG=Samples, WearAbles, and Gifts

SWAG