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@ chad
2025-06-16 00:37:57Greetings! If you're reading this, you might be asking yourself "how do I start hiding things?", or maybe you're asking something more akin to...
What is a geocache? What is Treasures?!
Geocaches
Excellent question, dear reader! Geocaching is a hobby that has been around since at least the 2000's, with its roots in the even older hobby of letterboxing. In short, geocaching is a type of real world 'treasure hunt', in which 'caches' are hidden for others to find. These caches may range from a small container with a log entry book, multiple caches with coordinates to the next location leading to a destination, or even something hidden behind an elaborate puzzle or riddle.
Traditional geocaches are typically containers hidden from prying eyes - usually off a park, hiking, or natural trail of some sort. The intent and fun of geocaching is to find these hidden caches, log your success in finding them (either digitally or through a log book), and perhaps even trading trinkets between yourself and the cache's container.
Treasures
Treasures is a decentralized geocaching application, which acts as a client-side interface for displaying user-submitted geocache listings to nostr relays. In short, users submit geocache listings (kind 37515 events) to the relays and Treasures acts as a software on your device to display these items.
If you're new to nostr, I'd suggest reading through this guide for a proper introduction to the topic.
Okay okay, how do I start hiding stuff?
Ah, the exciting part! At this stage, the two most important items are creating the geocache and finding a proper place to hide it.
Creating a geocache
There isn't too much to creating the geocache itself, but some small considerations are required.
Sizing
Geocaches typically come in the following sizes: * Micro - The size of a film roll canister or smaller. * Small - The size of a sandwich container or bento box. * Regular - The size of a shoebox, roughly. * Large - An ammo box, treasure chest, small cooler, or similar.
For starting out, I would suggest a small container to keep things simple.
Container material
Geocaches can exist in many forms, ranging from a small tube, a fake rock, a snap-lid box, or even a literal treasure chest. However, in most cases, you are looking for a container that can weather the elements. Something that can survive a bit of wilderness, especially external moisture.
For a container, I would suggest anything that has a snap or 'locking' seal, as well as some type of rubber o-ring seal on the lid.
Your local stores may vary, but here are few examples of containers that would meet this criteria: * MTM Survivor Dry Box with O-Ring Seal * Cabela's Ammo Can Field Box * Snapware Plastic Food Storage Containers * Target Twist & Store Food Storage Containers
All of these items (with the exception of the last, which uses a twist seal) matches the above criteria. They also share another important criteria - green, muted, and translucent coloring.
Container color
You're hiding something, likely within nature or near it, so blending into the environment is a key variable here. Try to find containers that are a natural green or brown, or even simply translucent. Avoid colors that would contrast against the environment, such as bright pastels, neons, primary colors, and so on.
Container contents
So now you've selected your container; it's durable and will be very hard to find, but... what do you put in it?
The log entry
A geocache's contents, at minimum, should include a log entry book (or paper) so that the finder can record their record of being there.
Treasures includes an additional item you can place within your geocache - a scannable QR code:
This optional QR code, if scanned, allows you to post a verified log entry. This allows the finder to provide a simple cryptographic proof of being at the cache location. Verified logs have a neat 'verified' badge next to the entry:
A finder can still post a normal log entry, of course. They just won't have the cool, shiny badge next to it.
Other trinkets
A log entry is often more than enough to satisfy the conditions of a successful geocache treasure hunt, but you are also welcome to include additional items and prizes for the finder to enjoy.
Geocache contents can also include cool memorabilia, coins, trading cards, badges, toys, or any other item that might make for a good trade. In this scenario, the finder is encouraged to trade an existing item within the cache with something that they treasure as well, something that would be an awesome find for the next person.
For example, one of the coolest things I found in a geocache was a foil trading card:
Now that you have an idea of how to build a cache, let's move on to the other important half - where to hide it.
Hiding a Geocache
Most of the fun in a geocache is the act of finding it, and finding a great hiding location is an crucial part of building that experience.
Difficulty and Terrain
The complexity of finding a geocache is scored on a 1-5 scale by difficulty (D) and terrain (T); these are the mental and physical obstacles to finding the cache. These challenges can range from walking up to a location and immediately finding the cache, to requiring some tricky puzzle solving, or potentially having to physically travel a great distance and through potentially-hazardous terrain to find the geocache's location.
For this guide, we will focus on hiding a simple geocache with a difficulty and terrain rating of 1-2. The location may require some walking and potential cleverness to find the geocache.
Picking a good location
The basics
A "good location" is likely subjective, but for this guide, it means "a mostly-accessible area in a forested park or trail that doesn't receive a ton of foot traffic".
You will want to find somewhere that is not dangerous or difficult to reach, but is also not a place that people would go normally. Such examples may include:
- A small clearing adjacent to the main path.
- A slim walk path that clearly detours from a primary walking path in a park, but is still possible to navigate through.
- An area that requires a bit of walking to get to normally, but is often not sought after by park or trail goers.
Leave No Trace
You should be mindful of the location you pick, ensuring that the path and action of finding the cache follows Leave No Trace principles. Specifically, that you aren't causing harm to the nature around you via actions such as littering or damaging the wildlife.
Such examples would include: * Avoiding putting disposable wrappers or throwaway material in your geocache container. * Using a container with a snap or locking mechanism to keep the geocache contents from being potentially littered. * Picking locations that do not require trampling on or destroying existing flora to reach the geocache location. * Picking locations with clear, established, and stable paths.
Hiding spots
"Where do I actually hide this thing?", you might be asking about now. Well, if you've found a good spot, then this part requires some imagination. Try to find a place that your cache won't be easily seen by others.
Some common examples might include: * Behind a large tree that faces a trail. * Within a shrub or bush. * Behind tall grass or a fence that is normally not visible when walking past the area.
Safety considerations
As with any hobby that involves leaving your house, there is always an innate risk of danger or injury. That being said, you should hide your geocache in a place that will not further incur such risks for those trying to find it.
These guidelines are somewhat outlined already above, but the key things to look out for are: * Stable ground - make sure that the path to reach your geocache follows level ground with no drastic shifts in elevation. * Part of an existing park, nature trail, or hiking trail - your geocache should be possible to find by starting with an established location, such as the entrance of a park. * Keep your cache within public property - your geocache should be somewhere that everyone is allowed to be.
Posting your geocache to Treasures
Now comes the easier part, hopefully! To create your geocache listing on Treasures, log in with your nostr private key (or sign up to obtain one on Treasures if you're new), then go to the Create page.
This page will walk you through the key details of your geocache listing, such as the title, description, hints, difficulty and terrain scores, the container size, and additional images you may or may not wish to add to your listing.
Upon submitting your listing, the following will occur:
- An event will be published to the nostr relay(s).
- The optional QR code will be generated for your listing. (Download it now, as it's not possible to generate the same QR code twice!)
...and that's it! Your geocache listing is now present to the public - congrats. :)
Additional Considerations
- Double-check the location you're using for your cache. Is it accurate? Is it in within 10~ ft of the destination (or starting point) of your cache location?
- If you don't want to bring the QR code back to your geocache container later, you can create the cache listing in advance - just mark it as a 'hidden from public view' to keep the cache unlisted in the UI.
- The relay event is still public, and you can still share the link for those that might need to review it, but it won't appear in listings for anyone using Treasures directly.
- Take some good pictures of the surrounding location! These are good ways to provide context and hints to those looking for your geocache.
- Images are blurred by default to avoid spoilers, so feel free to provide anything that might be helpful for those who might need assistance.
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read through everything! I may update this guide as new or helpful information comes up, but I hope that this information serves you well as you start your treasure hiding adventure.
If you have any questions, you can find me at @chad@chadwick.site on Ditto.
Good luck, and may the winds of adventure carry you forward!