Get out there and hide em

[+The Laughing Gnomes]

Another recent topic on the steps you take to go find a cache has got me thinking.

 

We are looking to place our first hide, but were unsure of what steps to take when.

 

For example do we scout out an area and hiding spot first? or ask permission from the land owner to not waste the time scouting? How do you determine who the land owner/property manager is? Should we hide the cache before submitting for acceptance? or hide it first then submit it to GC?

 

What other steps are we missing that might come in handy for a Neophyte hider?

 

Thanks,

The Laughing Gnomes

Edited August 15, 2006 by The Laughing Gnomes

[+briansnat]

Here's basically how I do it. I have a mental list of interesting spots I've discovered over the years and I'm constantly looking through newpapers, magazine articles and at maps and brochures for more places.

 

As far a getting permission, no land manager or authority in my part of the state has a geocaching policy that requires permission, so that isn't an issue for me. If it was, I would identify the governing authority and obtain permission for the placement.

 

Since public lands are often marked by signs, that is the easiest way to figure out who manages the land. Topozone, Google, Mapblast and other online mapping programs often show public lands. They are good sources, but not perfect as they are sometimes out of date. Paper road maps for your county will also often show public land, as do hiking trail maps.

 

If the land is not shown as public on some map, somewhere, there is a good chance it isn't public.

 

Next I consider the kind of container that would be approprite for the hide. My general rule of thumb is that the closer to the beaten path, the smaller the container needs to be. A high traffic area would call for a small cache or a micro, while for a cache deep in the woods I would use an ammo box or other larger container.

 

I then prepare the cache by camoflaging the container so it will fit in with the surroundings, stock it and head out to place it.

 

When placing a cache I try to make sure that searchers won't easily be observed and that the cache is not visible from roads, sidewalks or hiking trails. I rule out any hollow trees, or rock crevices, etc... that face paths and roads and look for ones that face away.

 

I also ask myself if my chosen hiding place is the kind of place someone would investigate if they pass by. A place that looks like a really cool spot for a cache might also look like a cool spot for kids or even adults to check out. For example I just passed over a very interesting, cave-like crevice that someone could crawl through, because it looked like the kind of place that kids would love to play. I instead hid the cache about 40 feet away.

 

Once I find a spot, I mark the coordinates and head home to submit my listing. I always place my cache before submitting the listing. I learned my lesson the hard way after having a cache published a lot faster than I expected and I wound up heading out at 4 am to get the cache in place so it was there for the early FTF hounds.

 

Most important of all, read the guidelines and I mean really read them. Don't just check the box saying you did, because the time you save will be wasted 50 times over when you have to go back and remove a cache that violated a guideline or two.

Edited August 15, 2006 by briansnat

[+The Leprechauns]

I generally agree with briansnat's post. Cache placement for me starts with selecting a location that's worthy of bringing people to visit. If it is less than stellar, then I'd better make up for that with a creative container/hiding technique, a puzzle, a history lesson on the cache page, or something else to justify a cache there. Then I tailor a container to fit the available hiding spots.

 

Nearly all of my cache hides have involved one or more scouting trips. I don't just walk 150 feet into the woods and look for a stump big enough to hold a cache. I walk around the entire park and do my best to find the best spot. If I want finders to follow the same interesting path that I used during my scouting trip, I'll make a multicache. I spent nearly 20 hours planning my first multicache, and the effort paid off, as it is cited on the "favorite caches" lists of two of the most influential geocachers in my home area. It took me three trips before I hid an urban micro at a touristy scenic overlook, and that cache made the favorites lists of two nationally influential geocachers.

 

Choose a place for your cache that you enjoy visiting. This makes maintenance not seem like a chore. On a maintenance trip last weekend, I explored a loop trail to get to my cache by a different route. It was fun!

 

Some of my best placements were at spots recommended by the land manager, who knows "his" park way better than I do as a casual visitor. And that gets to the one point where my experience is different than briansnat's. Within 100 miles of my home, there are about 15 different land manager policies applicable to a cache placement -- everything from an outright ban in the local park near my daughter's school, to a cache-friendly but bureaucratic permit procedure for caches in Pennsylvania State Parks. The best way to find out about permission policies in your area is to ask in your local geocaching forums. A good rule of thumb is that the odds of a permission policy increase as you get to bigger and bigger park systems. Town parks don't have the resources to develop policies. Some large cities do. Many county park systems do. And probably by now a majority of the state park systems do.

[+Big Max]

You mean I am supposed to put all that effort into it? And here I was all excited waiting for the new Walmart to put up their lightposts so I could be the first to hide a micro in it.

[+Prime Suspect]

You mean I am supposed to put all that effort into it? And here I was all excited waiting for the new Walmart to put up their lightposts so I could be the first to hide a micro in it.

You do have to chose just the right lamppost. That's the difference between a really lame cache, and one that's... well... also really lame.

[+GreyingJay]

I've got a micro container all ready to go. On my way home I'm going to drive by the local swamp and chuck it out the window. Then I'll estimate the coordinates using Google Earth.

 

Funny how nobody ever seems to talk to me at meets...

[+msrubble]

Think about the kinds of public lands in your area that already have geocaches. What are they? City parks, county parks, national forest, state park? Has a city, county, Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau, or the like sponsored a geocaching event?

 

The Michigan Geocaching Organization has information on known land use policies on their web site.

 

Are there any areas near you where geocaching is allowed that do not yet have a cache? Is there perhaps a large park that would support another cache?

 

Are these places at least .1 mile from the nearest cache?

 

When you have a few potential locations in mind, I would advise, go take a look, and keep an eye out for spots that could support a cache. You may find out that one trail is too exposed, or that one park has no good hiding places, but you may find a pleasant area that you never knew about.

 

Unless you have an extraordinary container in mind, I'd recommend choosing a container that fits the place and not the other way around. Take measurements. Note coordinates.

 

Prepare container. Place cache. Take coordinates again. Average coordinates (the more readings on different days under different conditions, the better). Submit listing. Cross fingers.

[+The Laughing Gnomes]

well Ive got a couple of micro/hidden (No they arent altoid tins and no they have nothing to do with lamp skirts ) type containers in mind that would fit just about anywhere, its the 3rd stage thats going to be a bit trickier. Mostly city parks in my area, and a few county (I already know the county ones are ok I jsut need to get a permit).

 

Its kind of strange that the city Im in has them in parks all over, but the one just east of us has none, Im wondering if its been denied by the park officials or if its just an oddity that no ones placed there yet.

 

Is it acceptable to place the end of a multicache in a park closer than .1 mile from the final stage of someone elses multicache? Just curious on this one.

 

thanks for the advice all and Ill keep watching for more input. Were trying to not be the newbies that place micro spew all over the place. Micros are nice if they are evil, but theres only so many lamp skirts you can peek under before you start to feel like a lamp post pervert.

 

The Laughing Gnomes

[+The Leprechauns]

The reviewers do check for proximity of ALL your cache stages under the cache saturation guideline. See the post on that subject in the FAQ thread that's pinned at the top of this forum. Good luck with your cache hide.

[Earleheart°]

The reviewers do check for proximity of ALL your cache stages under the cache saturation guideline. See the post on that subject in the FAQ thread that's pinned at the top of this forum. Good luck with your cache hide.

I hidden my first cache and it has already been found two times. Just do it. Lol

[+Jennifla]

The reviewers do check for proximity of ALL your cache stages under the cache saturation guideline. See the post on that subject in the FAQ thread that's pinned at the top of this forum. Good luck with your cache hide.

 

I'm glad this came up. I hid a multicache back in May and did not use the "additional waypoints" feature to report the coords of the intermediate stages. I don't even remember if that feature was available then. I do recall reporting those coords in text form to the reviewer. The cache was approved, but so was a new one yesterday, and when I looked it up (using easyGPS), I found that the new cache is less than 50 feet from one of my stages. I have since edited my cache listing and reported all the stages as hidden waypoints. So my question is, how are newly-submitted cache coordinates checked against established caches?

[+palmetto]

Oops, I looked at the new cache and your multi and disabled the new cache. I've emailed you and the new cache owner. As it happens the reviewer who listed the new cache has no computer access this weekend.

 

The new cache (any new cache) should have all the multi and puzzle caches within 2 miles opened and the coords in the archived reviewer notes checked for proximity. This is WAY easier if those coords are in the waypoints fields, instead of in archived reviewer notes. In this case, I don't know what software the listing reviewer might have been using, but I know that when I have to cut and paste, or hand type a bunch of coords to get proximity checks, errors happen.