recomendations for essential Tools for a Well-Equipped Geocaching TOTT Bag

[+hamsterdude10]

I'm currently in the process of assembling my very own Tools of the Trade (TOTT) bag, which I want to make as practical, well-equipped, and versatile as possible for all my future geocaching adventures, whether they involve easy urban finds or more challenging outdoor searches. Since I want to be fully prepared for any cache I come across, I’m looking for suggestions on what kinds of tools, gadgets, or useful accessories I should include in my kit to help with retrieving caches, solving puzzles, maintaining geocaches, or even just improving my overall geocaching experience. If anyone has recommendations based on personal experience or must-have items they never go caching without, I’d love to hear them!

[+GeoElmo6000]

Bring a pen, and a backup pen, and maybe a pencil as a second backup.

[+kunarion]

18 minutes ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

Bring a pen, and a backup pen, and maybe a pencil as a second backup.

 

If it's my cache, another trick is to open the container, because there are at least a couple of pencils in there, and likely several working pens.

[+kunarion]

57 minutes ago, hamsterdude10 said:

I'm currently in the process of assembling my very own Tools of the Trade (TOTT) bag, which I want to make as practical, well-equipped, and versatile as possible for all my future geocaching adventures, whether they involve easy urban finds or more challenging outdoor searches. Since I want to be fully prepared for any cache I come across, I’m looking for suggestions on what kinds of tools, gadgets, or useful accessories I should include in my kit to help with retrieving caches, solving puzzles, maintaining geocaches, or even just improving my overall geocaching experience. If anyone has recommendations based on personal experience or must-have items they never go caching without, I’d love to hear them!

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/168829-what-items-do-you-keep-in-you-cache-bag/#comment-2973390

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/294596-show-us-your-tott/#comment-5026605

 

I have pointy tweezers and hemostats for pulling log sheets out of Micros, and an aluminum hiking stick to poke around for containers.  Other than a Sharpie or other pen, that's what I use most as a TOTT.  But I also carry hand wipes, and a small bottle of DEET.  I have various things such as a mirror, magnets, duct tape, but they don't get much use.  To save room, some things stay in the car til I need them.  I do have O-rings, and several sizes of log books/sheets that fit my caches, but I bring all that in a separate bag specifically to fix up my caches.

 

Edited May 14 by kunarion

[+barefootjeff]

I started off in 2013 with just a GPSr, then there were some water-access caches I wanted to do so I bought a kayak. When I started doing some fairly remote caches, I bought a PLB as a precaution (one I thankfully haven't had to use). Then came some elevated caches I wasn't comfortable climbing to reach so I bought a telescopic ladder. Some of my friends started placing tree-fishing caches so I acquired a pole for those, but lately the climbing and tree-fishing hides have been getting higher so I've just bought a longer pole and a taller ladder. Oh, and when the time came to buy a new car in 2017, I traded my Toyota Corolla in on a RAV4 so I could get to those caches on mountain roads out of reach of the Corolla. Some might say this game is addictive...

 

Other more mundane stuff in my kit includes some rope to use as a hand line or to tie the ladder off, a grabbing tool for those caches just out of reach (and handy for CITOs), magnets in various sizes for caches that need those, a head lamp and a UV torch. I also keep a first aid kit, some snake bite bandages, a magnetic compass and insect/leech repellent in my caching backpack.

[+Smitherington]

There are a couple scenarios for me.  1. Parking near the cache.   2. Hiking a trail to find one or more caches.

 

If I can park near the cache it all stays in the vehicle and I can walk back for anything I need.

 

If I am hiking I take my walking stick and a small backpack.

 

In the vehicle - grabbers, duct tape, extra walking sticks, step ladder, tool box, wire, string, SWAG, replacement containers, bug spray, first aid kit, etc.

 

In the backpack - tweezers, log sheets, pencils, small swag, bandaids, baggies, scissors to cut log sheets for micros and nanos, water, whistle, markers, etc.

 

I also now carry Benadryl (or equivalent) after getting stung out on the trail.

 

I don't do the tall ladder, and I don't have a collapsible pole.  I leave those caches for those who carry such gear.  It is an ongoing refinement and addition process and you will find the things that work for you.  You will be completely prepared and then find you need one more thing.

[+Goldenwattle]

Extendable rod with a magnet on the end. This can fish a metal cache out of a pipe, and the magnet also has been good for some Earthcaches where you need to see if some sand/rock can be attracted to a magnet. Re Earthcaches, a measure of some sort too, such as a tape measure.

[+cerberus1]

9 hours ago, hamsterdude10 said:

 If anyone has recommendations based on personal experience or must-have items they never go caching without, I’d love to hear them!

 

If I know I can't see the truck, I take water...

Pen, pencil, Sharpie, 1st aid kit, and a GPSr.   I don't do cache n dashes or below 2 in terrain anymore and found the need for 'gadgets' is almost nil.

Reading cache pages helps decide what to take.  Most times I also have a tiny notepad, spare batteries, and that's it.

Other times it might be a 50+ pound pack with rope, carabiners and ascenders/descenders.  Look at D/T and read the cache page.  

 

[+paleolith]

On 5/14/2025 at 7:24 AM, GeoElmo6000 said:

maybe a pencil

 

Definitely a pencil, for Rite-in-the-Rain logs..................................

[+Smitherington]

Actually the pens I use are the pressurized pens designed for use in space. They do a decent job on wet logs. I don’t take a pencil.

[+dimwit61]

Magnets and duct tape. 

 

I don't know how many times I have come across a bridge, gate, box made out of some faux-metal which only looks magnetic. Magnets are the fast of sorting where a magnetic micro might be. 

Duct tape is the geocachers friend. I carry red, silver black and white rolls as they work wonders for doing bodge repairs.  

[+edexter]

Aside from the small tools mentioned above, I find what I most commonly need are supplies to repair/replace the contents of the crummy cache container (non-waterproof) :  pencils and waterproof logs so I can sign in and a hiking stck for balance in rough terrain and swamp walking.  Bandaids, bug spray and sunscreen are also useful, but the most useful of all is a cellphone with a Cachly app and preloaded maps of where you are.  No cell signal required.  The GPS is now the backup.

[+geodarts]

A stamp for letterbox hybrids, although I now have a small sized stamp with the logo of my avatar that can be carried around my neck, I don’t know how long it will last.  A hiking stick (these days 2) might also be a TOTT
 

I have a hard time with most tools, trying to not lose a pen is hard enough.  My wife will sometimes have something that she has used to extract logs I might mangle beyond recognition.  But one of my peeves are caches that just say a TOTT is needed.  I’m not psychic.

 

In various situations I have brought a pole with a hook when kayak caching.  One time tine I was using it and my noncaching wife leaned over to get the cache that had fallen, capsizing her kayak.  Don’t let that happen to you.
 

I brought the pole with me to do a tree climbing cache that was way beyond my abilities and got a lot of stares when I emerged back to the trail with it. As far as I know, two of us got the cache and we both used poles.

 

I once used a portable ladder, although I got it to see one particular petroglyph.  Soon after we got to the panel, a Native American elder arrived with his pupil. I still had the ladder in the Jeep hidden, well under a bunch of things and a tinted window, but I overheard the elder complaining about people who even come to that site with ladders.  Then he boosted his pupil to the top of the boulder.  I visited a nearby panel and returned after he had left the immediate area. My wife was not going to boost me so I made sure the coast was clear before using my ladder.

Back in the day, a cache owner once brought a small cherry picker to an event so the rest of us could get a cache, but I never invested in one.  Another time a cacher brought a fishing pole so others could get a cache dangling above the most slimy mud imaginable.

I have seen caches that require things like a hammer, channel locks or a screwdriver.  Most of them are on my to do list to finish someday or not.

 

 

Edited June 4 by geodarts

[+_Calypso_]

I carry several pens with me; around here, you often need a waterproof marker. I also carry a small magnet on an extendable pole, a mirror and a notebook/some papers. Mosquito repellent and a biteaway. Water! I cache on foot and by public transport; anything that doesn't fit in my backpack has to stay at home.

[+brekkcaching123]

Carry several pens, duct tape and magnets, extra logsheets, containers, bug spray (if you do a lot of caches in the woods) and WATER. For drinking, and sometimes caches need water.

[+justintim1999]

Other than the typical water and writing implement I do carry a pair of tweezers.    Good for getting logs out of micros and removing ticks from my dog.

 

I do have two prepared bags.  One if for caching and the other is for cache maintenance. 

[+Doctorvapor]

I stared Geocaching back in the early 2000s.  I took a lot of time off and just started back again. (And I'm having a great time.)  When I leave the house to go out geocaching, I have pens and swag to use at the cache, but I also have:

1. An aluminum walking stick. ( a regular stick works too.)  I used this to support myself on uneven ground, I swing it up and down to clear spider webs and vines full of thorns, and  I swing it back and forth in high weeds and grass to chase snakes away.

2. Water !!  I used to carry water bottles in my backpack, I recently bought a "Hydration Backpack" that has a 3 liter water bladder contained within the backpack which I access with a tube connected to the water bladder.  (It's cool, but not needed, but please bring water with you)

3. I also have a collection of tools that I've found very helpful.  Have you ever found a cache located in a place where you don't want to stick your hand?  These tools help.  It has 2 telescoping mirrors, a large and small telescoping magnetic pick-up tools, and a telescoping flashlight.  I know it sounds dumb, but I can't tell you how often I uses these tools.  I can inspect hollow trees before I stick my hand in there.  These can be found on Amazon.

Edited June 7 by Doctorvapor