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What to put in my bag?


cterral

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I have been caching for just over a month and have decided it is time for me to put together a bag that has all the necessities for caching. What do you keep in you bag. Please don't say firearms because I don't carry them. What are some of the most useful things you keep in your bag other than your Palm or GPS device? I live in NE Oklahoma, if that helps.

Thanks!

Edited by cterral
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I have been caching for just over a month and have decided it is time for me to put together a bag that has all the necessities for caching. What do you keep in you bag. Please don't say firearms because I don't carry them. What are some of the most useful things you keep in your bag other than your Palm or GPS device?

Thanks!

 

Pen, pencil, a little swag, a track-able, maybe some small sheets of paper.

 

Never carry a firearm in a bag, its to easy for someone to grab carry your firearm on your person.

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I have been caching for just over a month and have decided it is time for me to put together a bag that has all the necessities for caching. What do you keep in you bag. Please don't say firearms because I don't carry them. What are some of the most useful things you keep in your bag other than your Palm or GPS device?

Thanks!

It depends, where do you live and what kind of enviroment do you cache in?

See I live in the Four Corners region of the US, 3 quarts of water is needed for a day hike. But when I cache in Washington state I don't carry more then a quart of water.

 

I carry the Swag bag, notes, the GPS, a small first aid kit, my allergen free snacks, 3 quarts of water and a book (the gun stays in the car most of the time). My Geocaching partner carries a full size first aid kit, 3 quarts of koolaid, bouldering gear, a knife, snacks, a huge coat, a survival kit and the maps.

We both have camelbacks, mine is a small one for a child (I'm short what can I say) and she has a day pack one.

We should probably carry pepper spray for the bears but, well we don't.

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Let's see:

 

-water of course, both for the dog and myself.

-Doggie poo bags cause MacKenzie is with me most all the time I'm caching.

-Emergency cache clean up supplies - a couple of those blue disposable rags, extra zip locks in different sizes and plastic shopping bags to put trash in.

- A zip loc with a wide assortment of emergency logs - to replace really soggy ones or full logs. I carry everything from nano logs to the zine emergency logs to a couple of the small spiral notepads.

- A bag of assorted swag to beef up caches that need them. I rarely trade for anything but if I come across a cache that needs a good cleanup and swag upgrade I'll do so.

- Camera

- A roll of lightweight wire and a roll of camo tape so I can repair a cache or hanger if needed.

- Ziploc of golf pencils. I bought a box of them at the office supply place and keep some on hand in the cache bag.

 

I've met most of the cachers in the area and we all tend to look after each others' caches out here.

 

Because the vast majority of my caching trips involve hiking on trails I also carry an emergency whistle, water purification tablets, water container, matches and a small first aid kit. I hope I never need them but if I ever fall and can't get out back to my van easily, I can survive an overnighter. Most of the trails are used by ATV'rs on a regular basis but Murphy's law is such that they'll have gone home for the night when I need them most.

 

Which reminds me, I need to add a good knife and one of those space blankets to the emergency kit.

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I'm a newbie but so far these have helped me...

 

zip ties of varying sizes & colors

Swiss army knife with pliers

fine-tip colored Sharpies (for damp logs)

bug repellent (in my car but swipes are good too)

bags to pack out trash

rubber gloves (had to use once)

WATER!

bandana

extra reading glasses with Transitions lenses

swag bag

mace (seriously)

small flashlight (mini-Mag-light or small LED light)

 

my gps is my phone...which is also my camera. I recommend to everyone they bring a camera. if you don't find the cache, you can still enjoy the experience. since I'm still REALLY new at this & lately have had a pretty crappy streak, I suggest you bring a friend with a sense of humor & adventure that DOESN'T need glasses...but what do I know? happy hunting! B)

 

note that my hunts have all been in-city. haven't ranged that far yet.

Edited by j robin
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In a fanny pack I carry:

 

3 or 4 pens

Knife

Forceps

Ziploc bags - 3 different sizes

Batteries

Small swag

Signature pieces

Spare logs - nano, small, regular

First Aid - supplies

 

In the geomobile I have a backpack. I carry a lot of supplies in it. If we go on longer hikes I carry it with us. It includes:

 

Magnets

Wire

Velcro

Duct Tape - Camo & Black

Air Horn

Batteries

Swag

Toilet Paper

Bag of Spare Logs

Dozen Pens

Cache Containers - 2 regular and 2 micro

Scissors

Tweezers

Needle Nose pliers

String

First Aid Supplies - band-aids, gauze pads, tape, tube of antibiotic cream

Ivy Block - poison Ivy and Oak prevention

Technu - if the Ivy Block didn't work

Insect Repellent with DEET

Cortisone Cream

Small bottle of disinfectant gel

Sunscreen

Energy Bars

Sugar tablets - for low blood sugar

 

I will attach 1 - 3 quarts of water to my belt depending on the distance I plan to hike.

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getting a little off topic here, aren't we? I understand including the gun, although I won't carry mine out caching, even if alone. too many variables. I used to take a small .38 with me when biking in the boonies alone (especially near the US/Mexico border). many times was glad I had it, tho never used it. too old for that now. take a man now instead. scary biker looking man. works great. less weight in my bag too.

 

yesterday I wish I had heavy gloves & pruners with me. have many deep battlescars now from the trail that really wasn't a trail...but that's another story.

Edited by j robin
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I've used the wasp spray several times. Most of my caches are in the country, and I don't want some little kid to run up to a cache and find a hornets nest so I spray all of them I find. I guess there are some places you can't even carry that with you legally. Too bad, so sad, freedoms lost are seldom regained. I am proud to live in America, and proud to be a Texan. I just wish we could be our own country again.

Edited by kwhart
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Right now I have:

 

Water

Granola bars

Swag

spare batteries

home made first aid kit

ID incase they find my body next spring when the snow thaws (firearms licence)

garbage bags (for CITO, and urban stealth via CITO)

contacts solution

pencil

Geocaching broacher (laminated from geocaching university web site)

emergency log book

lots of beaners attached to my backpack straps

compase (Not for finding North, I know that; for finding burried benchmarks)

flat screw dirver (for finding burried benchmarks)

 

Edit to add: bug spray with lots of DEET

and gloves

Edit again to add: How is it that a Getting Started question on what do you bring has turned into a firearms debate? Shouldn't that stuff be in the main forum, or off topic forum?

Edited by Andronicus
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Welcome to Geocaching cterral!

 

I always have my old leather gloves. Very useful for those spruce tree hides, or climbing a hill when the only nearby bushes are rosebushes (why does this always happen) or searching around and under logs and bushes.

 

Once my husband carried our metal detector 1 kilometre through the snow for a micro in the woods!

 

Thanks goodness, we had our geodog, CharlieDog, who as usual led right to the cache. All that training with milkbones in ammo cans does work!

 

Enjoy your Geocaching Adventures!

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This is actually a supplemental to my main survival bag (BOB) and I use this for caches involving hikes into deep woods or longer hikes: Items marked with * are only for urban setting caches.

  • *GPS-enabled smartphone (Motorola Droid) (note: my partner usually carries their IPhone and a backup Garmin)
  • *tweezers
  • *multiple pens, pencils, and a few sharpies
  • full-size first aid kit including a tactical turniquet and a sting/bite care kit, quickclot/survival gear
  • snacks and at least one MRE
  • water in a CamelBak
  • multiple knives and a multi-tool
  • an extra pair of clothes (had to use already as I stepped in a nicely hidden swamp puddle)
  • extra shoes/boots
  • compass & maps (if needed)
  • biodegradeable toilet paper
  • plastic bags/trash bags
  • *hand sanitizer/camping soap
  • ziplock bags (various sizes)
  • *cache repair kit (in development)
  • *bug spray (highest % of DEET or Permethrin) & hydrocortizone spray (soon to have bear spray)
  • entrenching tool
  • machete
  • camo & regular duct tape
  • rope & parachord
  • multiple flashlights & batteries & lightsticks
  • *notebook
  • matches & a few lighters
  • space blanket
  • mirror
  • *poncho
  • *two-way radios (if out with others)
  • *sunglasses
  • At least one of my wilderness survival guide
  • .40SW Smith & Wesson M&P Full Size with 1 extra magazine :rolleyes: (open carry of course here in Wisconsin :laughing: )
  • *Swag

NOTE: if you go without a gun take at least a can of pepper spray.

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cterral are most of your caches in the wilderness/rural or in the city?

 

I have done some of both. Where I live I have hiked through waist high weeds and brush and then one mile away there was one on the sidewalk. So I guess I am looking for the all purpose bag for city and woods.

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My bag is gaining items with experience. Scissors, string and sticky tape are useful if you find a cache in need of a bit of repair. Gloves are essential to protect your hands in those awful places. Scissors also for trimming back nettles! Anthistamine cream for stings. And if you set out for a cache and dash on a nice day do make sure you have a waterproof as I returned twice like a drowned rat! My latest aquisition is a mirror on an extendable handle found in 99c stores...pound stores in UK. Usefull for looking behind fences.

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You should at least carry some pepper spray if you can legally do so. Never know what kind of persons you will run into both on the street or wilderness.

Personally I carry I firearm, and I dont understand why you are grateful for not living i the USA

 

Well if you are allowed to carry a gun, doesn't it mean the person you might run into is allowed to as well? Yikes! No wonder you guys in America all need to run around armed. :blink:

 

I carry bug spray (as well as pens, tweezers, swag etc) And sunscreen in the summer. And I make a lot of noise in case of bears. Quite an interesting contrast!

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My bag is gaining items with experience. Scissors, string and sticky tape are useful if you find a cache in need of a bit of repair. Gloves are essential to protect your hands in those awful places. Scissors also for trimming back nettles! Anthistamine cream for stings. And if you set out for a cache and dash on a nice day do make sure you have a waterproof as I returned twice like a drowned rat! My latest aquisition is a mirror on an extendable handle found in 99c stores...pound stores in UK. Usefull for looking behind fences.

 

the mirror is an EXCELLENT idea. use them when working on cars. wish I'd thought about it before. thanks! :)

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Well if you are allowed to carry a gun, doesn't it mean the person you might run into is allowed to as well? Yikes! No wonder you guys in America all need to run around armed. :)

It's not the ones that are legally allowed to carry that is problem. :D Statistically, legal carriers are the most law abiding group you'll find and far more likely to help someone else in need.

 

For most people who legally carry in the US it's not that its regularly needed, as it's not. It's more akin to 'insurance'. You have it in case you might need it someday (just as you would with fire or home insurance).

 

I can certainly see why this might seem alarming to those in other cultures, but its really not like what is seen in Hollywood movies.

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What I take in my bag

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several types of pens (sharpies don't write on the 'write in the rain' paper well)

Pocket Mirror (buy at the dollar store, good for looking under benches)

Tylenol (I hate getting a headache when we're on a long caching run)

Hand sanitizer (You don't always have access to soap in outhouses),

Kleenex (for bathroom breaks or to clean yourself off)

Tweezers/pin , bandaids, polysporin (a staple in my bag now, I got a really bad splinter once and all I had to get it out was a box cutter...which I don't recommend!)

sunblock, spf 15 chapstick (I used a small travel size shampoo bottle to put sunscreen in. Chapstick is to protect your lips, I've burned mine before!)

Handful of trade items (I have stuff that's worth about a dollar each)

Our caching stickers in a box (I made a personalized caching sticker for both LordEd and myself)

a mini tripod (got it from the dollar store for $1.25Cdn, great for doing earthcaches or getting photos of the group when there's no one around to take the photo for you)

extra batteries (ALWAYS take extra batteries!, We use rechargables and it saves us money)

camera (I always have a camera with us)

small pad of paper to keep track of caches (if you go on a multiple cache day, we do that a lot)

GPS (a no brainer)

 

What we leave in the car if we're not going far from it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* snacks (we use protein bars to tide us over till we have a meal)

* water

* hat

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At a bare minimum, whenever we cache we carry a small notebook ( http://www.moleskineus.com/plainpocket.html ) with a two-pen Quiver pen-holder on it ( http://quiverglobal.com/ )

 

The most important thing about this pen/notebook combo is we always know for sure that we have a pen in our pocket when we go through the brush or up a tree to sign the log!

 

We like the two-pen quiver so we can color-code our notes in the field regarding cache condition, solving puzzles and multis, etc. It fits great into our pocket even with the two pens attached.

 

Note: That pen-holder also fits a lot of similar notebooks that don't cost as much as the Moleskine brand. Check out the Quiver website for size ranges that it fits.

 

When we are on the longer hunts we carry a more complete kit in our backpack- extra batteries for our Garmin Colorado, hand sanitizer, napkins (for TP), and a multi-tool with needle-nosed pliers for removing caches from tight spots (and more often removing logs from tight containers). As a courtesy to the owners of the caches we carry extra plastic bags to replace ones fouled by use or weather. We always carry a few key SWAG items in case we find something we want to trade for.

 

We keep these items in a spare lock-and-lock, in case we need to replace a defective cache container.

 

Make room for waters and geosnacks for the trail.

 

Finally - we always carry gloves and hydrocortisone for those evil caches in evergreen trees.

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Myself i am carring an assult pack... has a 3 liter water bladder in it and 2 decent sized pockts also has a lot of webbing to attach items to it.. I ziptie the case from my binoculars there and a couple old cell phone cases for easy access items.

 

I cary a maglight AA sized

a half dozen pens LOL

A notebook Small journal sort

A few empty ziplocks JIC

compass...Learned to navigate with one so an ace in the hole that doesnt take batteries

hunting knife againas a jic

Spare batteries for the gps

Various levels of swag so I can be prepared to trade equal or up for anything i find

a baggie full of cereal (human dog food IMO) ;)

a baggie of beaf jerky

A couple pairs of laytex gloves

an insect sting kit

basic first aid supplies...band aids etc

and a pair of mechanics gloves

Clipped inside I have a photo id card in case they find my half eaten body someplace

 

All in all my pack runs about 12-15 pounds so its a good fitness aid.

 

Cell phone is on my hip and a backup knife tucked for easy access since most of the caches around my area are in the woods or on game lands

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Well if you are allowed to carry a gun, doesn't it mean the person you might run into is allowed to as well? Yikes! No wonder you guys in America all need to run around armed. :D

It's not the ones that are legally allowed to carry that is problem. :) Statistically, legal carriers are the most law abiding group you'll find and far more likely to help someone else in need.

 

For most people who legally carry in the US it's not that its regularly needed, as it's not. It's more akin to 'insurance'. You have it in case you might need it someday (just as you would with fire or home insurance).

 

I can certainly see why this might seem alarming to those in other cultures, but its really not like what is seen in Hollywood movies.

 

Just had to reply here to thank Ecyl for taking the time to respond politely on the off-topic topic of carrying a gun. I'm an American who has lived overseas for 8+ years. I support the right of people to carry a gun. I would certainly carry one in certain rural areas in the US. However, I do NOT support some of the comments effectively stating that if you aren't an American, or living in America, you somehow don't understand "freedom" or whatever. Someone posted that she's glad she doesn't have to worry about carrying a gun. Plain and simple. It's not a terrible sentiment to have.

 

Hey, if you want to know my contentious opinion: I'm ALSO glad I don't cache in America. why? Because y'all got poison ivy over there. :D

 

(and it's a lie- I'll cache next time I'm in the US. But man I'm not looking forward to having that around.)

 

As for things to carry in a bag?

 

-tweezers

-flashlight/ torch

-water

-swag

-TBs if I have them

-pen/pencil

-spare ziploc bags

-spare paper

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LethanderMorninglory, "Clipped inside I have a photo id card in case they find my half eaten body someplace"

 

 

This absolutely cracked me up! Having hiked many places and wondered if my "find" might be a bear den or a hungry wolf instead of the cache, I might consider this idea. :P I will add to that I do always leave emergency information on a note in my vehicle, and the coordinates for my family just in case!

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