Meet the Hedgesville man who has become an international geocaching sensation.
NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO, Tim Eggleston was introduced to geocaching by a friend. Before he fully understood the hobby, he ordered a GPS device and started using it to track down geocaches—small, waterproof containers tucked into bushes or lamp posts, each holding a logbook for finders to sign.
That was fun for Eggleston for a while. But he saw room for something greater: the gadget cache.
Known as WVTim to his fellow geocachers, Eggleston describes a gadget cache as one that poses a problem to be solved. One of his latest creations is a cardinal-shaped birdhouse that conceals a miniature Guess Who? board game and a short mystery. Solve the crime, identify the culprit, and earn the code that unlocks the cache. Others might require players to push, pull, or slide something. One of Eggleston’s favorite parodies: Operation. Use a wand tipped with a metal loop to carefully trace a copper wire in the shape of the Mountain State without letting the loop touch the wire, and you’ll be awarded the lock’s combination.
His gadget caches became popular, and his inbox was filled with questions from people wanting to learn how to make their own. For the past 13 years, Eggleston’s YouTube channel has taught exactly that, helping make gadget caches an international hallmark of the hobby.
COMING SOON
One of just 10 mega geocaching events in the U.S. in 2026—CacheMore—will take place June 26–28, 2026, in Morgantown.
Today, most players download the Geocaching app and use coordinates, clues, and old-fashioned curiosity to track down caches. Among those listed on the app are Eggleston’s own 311 geocaches. The majority of his are located in West Virginia. About a third are gadget caches, and 69 are currently active. Over the years, his caches have been logged on the app by geocachers from all 50 states and several countries, earning more than 42,000 favorites. That makes Eggleston the most-favorited geocache placer in the country by far on geocaching.com—and a trendsetter.
Closer to home, his work has turned Berkeley County into a global hot spot. In partnership with the Martinsburg–Berkeley County Convention and Visitors Bureau, he has developed multiple geotrails designed to highlight the area’s greatest features.
“For the last 10 years, I’ve really tried to support the Visitors Bureau by bringing people to West Virginia,” he says. “It’s been a great hobby. If you like getting outside, geocaching is it. It has something for everyone.” @gadgetcaches on YT
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM WV LIVING’S SPRING 2026 ISSUE
Leave a Reply