Starting at the Beginning

Q: What is geocaching?
A: It is a type of high tech hide and seek game. People hide containers of varying sizes called caches. Caches will have at the very least, a log for the finder to sign, proving he or she found the actual cache. Bigger containers often contain small trade items, AKA SWAG. SWAG is just 'stuff' placed in a cache for trading. It can be almost anything except for inappropriate items such as alcohol, drugs, adult material explosives, weapons etc. 
The person hiding the cache notes the GPS coordinates and uploads them along with details about the cache and the area and possibly a hint to geocaching.com. The person wishing to find the cache goes to geocaching.com and gets the coordinates for the cache or caches they want to hunt. They use a GPS to get to 'ground zero' (GZ) where they now have to find the container that is most likely hidden somewhere nearby. Once the container is found, the geocacher usually signs the log to prove they found it, maybe trade some stuff then replaces the cache as it was and move on. 
At some point most cachers will log into geocaching.com and log their finds. He or she can post a note about their experience and post photos (as long as the cache's hiding place is not given away) Geocaching.com keeps track of each member's finds and displays a total find count.
There are several characteristics about geocaching that can be confusing, especially in the beginning. Some of these I will address as separate blog posts.


Areas of confusion include:

• Do I need a special GPS to go geocaching?
• How do I use my car GPS, phone GPS etc. to geocache?
• How do I get the cache coordinates to my GPS?
• Should I go ahead and pay to become a premium member?
• What are waypoints?
• What are trackable items (travel bugs and geocoins?)
• What do I do with trackable items?