What is Muggles: Learn Geocaching

The term muggles is bound to ring a bell in your ears, if you’re familiar with the Harry Potter series (well, who isn’t?). But, we’re talking about the geocaching term ‘muggles’; not the ‘muggle’ that J K Rowling refers to, in her action-packed fiction series of Harry Potter.
However, ‘muggles’ in geocaching context also refers to someone who’s not aware of the geocaching puzzle, or somebody who encounters a geocache, and destroys it unintentionally. Basically, muggles are those who don’t understand what geocaching is, and are analogous to those who don’t understand magic.

For those who don’t know much about geocaching, here’s a brief overview. Geocaching refers to an outdoor activity involving usage of a GPS receiver to hide and seek containers, which are referred to as the “geocaches” anywhere in the world. A small waterproof container containing a logbook forms a geocache, and the logbook indicates who had discovered it last.

But, just as J K Rowling calls some of the muggles to be fairly smart to understand magic, despite being unable to perform it, the same way, some of the muggles in geocaching context, are smart enough to figure out a geocache. Such muggles don’t spoil the geocache, but rather leave them “as is”.

The behavior of muggles with geocaches is however not at all predictable as some may turn out to be spoilsport and destroy the geocache, while others may not even bother to know what it really is.

The best way to keep a geocache safe from muggles is to attach a note on it, clearly indicating what a geocache really is, and requesting those who’re not part of the geocache treasure hunting to leave the geocache unperturbed.