A Geocacher is, in essence, a
crazed geek hiker. Give a body a clear
objective, seemingly
simple yet sure to be
frought with
guesswork, bleeding-edge
scrutiny of an otherwise
random environment, and an almost guaranteed 30 minutes to an
hour of
plodding around in
circles around the same seemingly
imaginary spot, which tends to move around as you try to find it, depending on such things as
weather,
tree cover,
battery strength, and plain old quality of
equipment.
Okay, sure, not all caches are in the woods, and some are smack in completely urban or man-made settings. These however, are worse, requiring even more scrutiny of a higher number of possible locations. At least in the woods, such tips as the parallel sticks rule and the nearly ubiquitous overused pun of "Don't get stumped!" as a hint, you only have to stare accusingly at a few pieces of flora and natural debris before you find your objective. In an urban setting, especially with microcaches, the little buggers can be anywhere, like crammed into the inside lip of a metal shelf in a phonebooth, or camouflaged to look like a normal part of the public works.
It's been said that geocachers would be a great team to hire to find anything, or anyone, in the woods or elsewhere. Just make sure you include a logbook -- and preferably, worthless trinkets to trade with -- on the car keys, gold bars, dead body, or whatever else it is you need to find.