5 Ways to Make Winter Geocaching Work
Tomorrow, it is supposed to snow. This is when winter geocaching takes an ugly turn. Suddenly, all of those geocaches not marked as “winter friendly” become abundantly clear. Pet Peeve: If it isn’t winter friendly, let us know. There’s this handy icon you can select when submitting your geocache.
I was looking at my overall stats the other day. One thing became clear. We don’t geocache much in the winter. We barely log a cache between November and April. I want to change that. Here’s how I intend to do it.
Time for virtuals and earth caches
These caches are so worth the effort. More often than not, they take you to a new place, even if it is in your hometown. You learn something. You log a cache–and you don’t always have to try to walk through two feet of snow.
Give stealth-only caches a try
Okay, my disdain for stealth-only caches has been well covered on this blog. Yet, these are the places that are typically kept up in the winter. They are also places that you probably won’t encounter snowmobiles. During the winter, the traffic will be down, so it’s a good time to snag a few of these.
Place your own cache
Do your fellow geocachers a favor–place caches that are winter friendly. The setting will give you everything you need to know about how easy it is to grab.
Go for those 5-terrain caches
A lot of 5-terrain caches around me are on on islands. We boat, so most don’t pose a problem. During the winter, you can get a good workout in and grab a cache at a time when there are probably not a lot of muggles around. Don’t forget your snowshoes though. A snow-covered lake has just as much snow as a windswept field–even more.
Duh, winter geocaches!
It’s easy enough to filter caches for those that are winter friendly. Don’t complain about not being able to get to a cache. Focus your efforts on those that the geocacher has been kind enough to identify as winter friendly. You’ll save yourself so much aggravation. It’s one thing to score a DNF. It’s another thing to freeze your a** off in the process.
Winter geocaching doesn’t have to be a break from getting out there. You just have to change your plan-of-attack and grab a different sort of geocache.
