What is the BEST geocaching trail you have found?

[+skiedra]

Some trails are awesome to collect. Some ... less so. What are the best trails you have found while geocaching?

Any tips for those creating new trails?

 

I've recently posted a blog entry called "75 AWESOME ideas for your next Geocaching trail (and cache)".

 

Here are some of the greatest trails I've found:

Pirate treasure trail: islands of a river

A pirate treasure trail may take you kayaking, canoeing or sailing from island to island to collect loot of a notorious pirate. Every self-respecting pirate must have a hideout or two. It absolutely must be marked by skull & bones. But why is the rum always gone?

 

Abandoned military bases and installations

There are lots of military bases laying abandoned in various countries. Lucky ones got transformed into museums, like Plokstine’s nuclear missiles launch facility near Plateliai (GC3WE08), Lithuania. Yet many more lay hidden in the forests, inside hills, waiting for brave geocachers to pass by.

Childhood dreams

A typical forest. But only at a first glance. Our team called the trail “The dreams of my childhood”. It’s a trail of 6 hides showing the forest through the eyes of a “happy and wild gang of 10-year-olds” that grew up in nearby “communal flats”. Our forest was always full of adventure, fun, and mischief (from time to time).

Every single spot is special in one way or another – a sandy hill that reminds me of long hours of winter fun; large roots of a pine tree that were our tree fort. On the third spot, we saw deer roaming the woods for the first time.

 

Valentine‘s day trip

Lead your loved one on a Valentine’ day trail – full of romance, poetry, and geocaches. Did you read about a guy who proposed to his fiancé at the end of such a trail? You will be a geocaching hero to every romantic soul who tries out such a trail.

 

Ancient places of worship

There are many places of ancient worship present in various countries. Think Stonehenge in England. There are quite a few ancient pagan worship places in the Baltic states in eastern Europe. It is very interesting to find these distant memories of the past in some deep dark forests.

 

The poetry trip

A trail where every hidden cache has a relevant poem attached. Be its praises to the beauty of nature, odes to love, history or friendship… You could ask all logbook entries to be in poetry verses.

Coffee lovers

Searching online for trails, I found one that I really liked – coffee lovers

As the author puts it in the description:

“Is there such a thing as the best cup of coffee, or is it all a myth? (GC5P6E9)

This begins the quest for the best cup of coffee in San Francisco. As a coffee lover working in SOMA (South of Market), I’ve had the pleasure to frequent many cafes, each with their own points of interest. I know the taste for things, especially coffee, is highly subjective, but in this series, I will highlight those that have been most enjoyable to my palette.” I would absolutely love to travel such an urban trail

 

Geocaching race

Hide a trail of caches. Ask the finders to find, sign and log all of them. Take their start and end times. Compare the scores and post a monthly list of champions in the logbook as a note. I.e. visit the largest towns in the county, state, etc.

 

Top 100 famous people of your country

A trail marking stories of top 100 most famous people in your country. Artists, engineers, poets, politicians, scientists and researchers, doctors, you name it. Their birthplaces, workplaces, other important life places, events, and stories. Creating such trail will be challenging, yet the value – enormous. And my geocaching team loves it.

The educational value of such trail is almost unmatched.

 

Apparition places of Blessed Virgin Mary.

One of Christianity’s traditions is marking and protecting of places, where Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. I was very surprised to learn, that in my small country (Lithuania) there are 31 such places. A tiny church or a place of worship is placed in all of them. The religious geocachers will certainly appreciate a worship geo-trail.

Edited March 8, 2017 by skiedra

[+cleandrysurface]

I have done parts of the Captain John Smith Geotrail, probably the best known geocaching trail on the Chesapeake:

 

Captain John Smith Geotrail

[+skiedra]

That is one solid trail, Cleandrysurface!

[+redsox_mark]

You say "trails" which I read as a series of caches, rather than a single multi-cache. In either case, the best ones I've found combine both a great walk and caches with a theme which fit the walk.

 

While I've found lots of trails (say 10 or more caches) with a theme, and great walks, the most memorable caches I've found have been multi-stage caches (either multi or mystery/puzzle type) which created a story which fit the natural landscape. So one could almost think you were a solider in WW II or James Bond.

[+skiedra]

You say "trails" which I read as a series of caches, rather than a single multi-cache. In either case, the best ones I've found combine both a great walk and caches with a theme which fit the walk.

 

While I've found lots of trails (say 10 or more caches) with a theme, and great walks, the most memorable caches I've found have been multi-stage caches (either multi or mystery/puzzle type) which created a story which fit the natural landscape. So one could almost think you were a solider in WW II or James Bond.

 

Redsox, for some reason you link returns an error page...

[+redsox_mark]

Odd, the links work for me. The caches are GC3C118 and GC4ATXD

[+niraD]

My favorite trails are the Woods Road trail at Almaden Quicksilver County Park (which is used for the county's intro to geocaching classes) or the various baylands parks trails in Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Menlo Park.

 

The thing that makes these trails interesting to me is that the caches have been placed by different people, using different containers, different camouflage, and different styles. The Woods Road trail in particular gives new geocachers a view of several different types of geocaches, and they can be back to the trailhead by lunchtime.

[+geodarts]

I like trails of themed caches. A friend and I placed a series of caches that followed the route taken by the poets Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, and Phillip Whalen when they "opened the mountain," first circumambulating a local mountain in 1965 (and often repeated since then). Other "trails" have grown spontaneously - an open space easement donated by George Lucas grew into many Star Wars themed caches; the Sherwood Forest Fire Road continues to inspire Robin Hood caches near where I live.

 

I enjoyed doing a series of caches themed around different cryptids. One of my favorite series (now archived) followed a trail up and down a hillside to collect clues relating to Incan Gold, with a fun illustrated story at each cache. Another focused on a pyramid that you had to build at the final location. If there were local kayak caches taking people on search of pirate treasure I would be on it - maybe I need to think of something along those lines.

Edited March 8, 2017 by geodarts

[+skiedra]

I like trails of themed caches. A friend and I placed a series of caches that followed the route taken by the poets Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, and Phillip Whalen when they "opened the mountain," first circumambulating a local mountain in 1965 (and often repeated since then). Other "trails" have grown spontaneously - an open space easement donated by George Lucas grew into many Star Wars themed caches; the Sherwood Forest Fire Road continues to inspire Robin Hood caches near where I live.

 

I enjoyed doing a series of caches themed around different cryptids. One of my favorite series (now archived) followed a trail up and down a hillside to collect clues relating to Incan Gold, with a fun illustrated story at each cache. Another focused on a pyramid that you had to build at the final location. If there were local kayak caches taking people on search of pirate treasure I would be on it - maybe I need to think of something along those lines.

 

Indeed, geodarts, themed caches are the best.

 

An amazing one in my country is "100 most famous people of the country". So much education, info, interesting facts and little known history packed into it.

[+pingurus]

I've found three great trails:

 

Cave-Wood trail in eastern Germany (Oranienburg) beginning with this cache:

Loads of nice hides reated to the wood they're in, often you have to look for animal figures up in trees or similar. Also some thinking required to get the containers after you've seen them.

 

The trail laid for the Eurogeo 2016 in Auvergne, France around this cache

This one also has many nice hides, but slightly less interesting than the first one.

 

This new trail in Luxemburg beginning with this cache

Every hide is something special, and the Bonus should be very good aswell, but I haven't found that one yet

 

So I think the most important thing on a trail is that each cache has to be hidden in some different, special way, otherwise it gets boring. Also I like caches that require to use simple tools to retrieve or open the container. If you can't or don't want to put a big effort into the hides I think you should rather place a multi cache with stations leading the people to the places you want to.

And accurate coordinates are important

[+L0ne.R]

 

The thing that makes these trails interesting to me is that the caches have been placed by different people, using different containers, different camouflage, and different styles.

 

This ^^

[+narcissa]

 

The thing that makes these trails interesting to me is that the caches have been placed by different people, using different containers, different camouflage, and different styles.

 

This ^^

 

Completely agree.

 

It's much better when people focus on creating great caches, one at a time. Something gets lost when they're placed in bulk.