We went geocaching this weekend. A long hike to a geocache in the mountains that hadn’t been found in nearly a year. It was a beautiful location, and the snap-lock container was in perfect condition on the outside—but the inside was another story. The cache contained two empty chewing tobacco tins, some candy, ibuprofen tablets, a business card, and a few other small items.
The “other small items” were things you’d expect in a treasure hunt—a fun keychain, a small mirror, and a plastic horse. But when we picked up the keychain, we found it covered in blue goo. The culprit was the candy, which had melted and leaked out of its wrapper. Candy might seem like a fun thing to leave in a cache, but food and other scented items are poor trade items. They degrade over time, can ruin the contents of the cache, and attract animals.
The tobacco tins and pills aren’t exactly exciting finds either. Geocaching is a family-friendly activity, and the items you place in a cache should reflect that. If you were a six-year-old geocacher, would you want ibuprofen in exchange for your toy? Think about items that make sense for an all-ages audience. Remember: what you leave in a cache should be of equal or greater value than what you take.
Here are some examples of fun trade items: small toys, patches, pins, or something that represents who you are (a signature item).