Saturday, August 19th, the world celebrates International Geocaching Day. Many veteran geocachers use this day to find and swap souvenirs, track and log caches or attend the many designated geocaching events, but for beginners, it’s also a great day to try it out for the first time. Get started with geocaching by checking out our handy beginners guide below. You’ll be ready to Cache em’ all on International Geocaching Day! What exactly is “geocaching”? Geocaching takes the idea of a treasure hunt to a whole new level. Players use GPS-enabled devices, such as mobile phones or a GPS device, to guide themselves to a designated set of coordinates to help them find the geocache hidden at that location. The coordinates act as the “x” that marks the spot where the treasure is hidden. Where can you find “geocaches”? Geocaches are dispersed all over the world, and there are over a dozen “cache types” to be found, such as ones hidden in containers (traditional geocache), event caches that guide participants to the location of an event, mystery or puzzle caches where you must solve a puzzle first to determine the GPS coordinates, and many others. The rules are simple 1. Do not move the caches – they must be put back exactly where they were found 2. If you take something from a geocache you must leave something of equal or greater value 3. Write your name in the logbook of the cache 4. Log your experience online at www.geocaching.com to keep track of your geocaching adventures. BRMB has our very own GeoTour to help you find new treasures! We’ve planted some exclusive BRMB geocoin stickers in our tour caches. There are 20 caches located throughout the 6 regions of BC and the BRMB geocaches are hidden along popular hiking trails and recreation sites. Geocaches are found on the trail, on the road or on the water. Collect 3 BRMB stickers to win the coveted BRMB regional geocoin. If you collect six custom regional geocoin stickers from a total of 20 caches throughout the 6 regions of BC – you will receive our custom BRMB 20th Anniversary Geocoin! Cache em’ all with the BRMB Geotour STEP 1: Get the Coordinates Enter the coordinates into your GPS or use the GPX file, Sent to My GPS or Send to My Phone functions to enter the Longitude and Latitude of the cache. STEP 2: Collect as many BRMB caches as you can! The hidden containers will be clearly marked as Backroad Mapbooks caches by different coloured stickers (Green = “On the Trail”, Red = “On the Road”, Blue = “On the Water”). Don’t forget to take a sticker from each container, swap some swag, log your name and re-hide the cache! STEP 3: Download the Sticker Collection Page To be eligible for the BRMB Regional Geocoin, you must collect all 3 stickers from the caches in the region. Stickers can be placed on the sticker collection page and sent in to our office to receive the BRMB regional geocoin. Download the sticker page HERE. STEP 4: CHALLENGE! If you collect all six custom regional geocoins (total of 20 caches) you will receive our custom BRMB 20th Anniversary Geocoin. Whether you’re just starting out as a beginner, or you’ve been an avid geocacher for years, Saturday August 19th is a great day to get caught up in the fun of geocaching. Find new adventures, new treasures and a whole lot of fun on International Geocaching Day! Click HERE to find more about our BRMB GeoTour and get some handy hints to where the caches are located or review geocaching rules HERE.
