California66er

One of the logs was 154 FTFs in one day. I mean... wow. Good for them. Not the way I want to play the game, but to each his own.

In mountainous areas, like mine, there are often guardrails even along scenic roads, side roads, back alleys, even areas without roads. I've been to a couple of guardrail caches, and liked most of them. One in particular was a seldom-used road with plenty of nearby parking, an amazing view of Los Angeles, and a place that I've gone back to since finding it. As another poster mentioned, not all guard rail caches are created equally.

Same here. I think it helps me make up for how green I'm not being. Some caches in my area aren't well-planned. Slapdash little LPCs or X-Mart Parking Lot grabs. I'm not very inclined to leave them detailed thank yous. But when someone puts thought into the location, the hide, the puzzle, whatever, I like to thank them. I never thought about it from the CO's POV, though. I will going forward, though.

I don't know what it's like in other places, but here in Los Angeles, we have so many caches that I don't need to concern myself with MOCs. I figure when I find all of the hundreds of regular caches in a 20-30 mile radius from my house, I might begin to think about Premium caches. People will find anything to get upset about. Clearly, if he posted a log, he's a premium member. So is he paying thirty dollars a year just to complain about MOCs?

Looks like one of the writers of "The Forgotten" knows a little something about Geocaching... anyone else see tonight's episode? It was heavy on Geocaching (though they called it Globalcaching.)

X-Mart is always worth going to - for the caches and for the great deals!

These are many of the things I've been thinking about, too. Plus I really like caches that take me somewhere I wouldn't otherwise go. In a city like L.A., there's so much to see that even urban caches can accomplish this goal. I like things that are a little challenging, also, so puzzles and offsets appeal to me. I think, at least in my head, I kind of want it to be some sort of epic cache. After I've found a few more, maybe my expectations will become a shade more realistic. Or maybe the perfect idea will hit me. Until one of those two things happens, I'm content to kind of sit back. It's amazed me, so far, how many small details get missed. A lot of damp logs without baggies, no pencils, etc. Of course, I understand that a lot of these caches have to be very small because they're in an urban environment, but those aren't my favorite. More than anything, I want to create a cache that I enjoy coming back to time and again to check on.

That's really great advice. Thank you.

The thought first came to me when I was on my way to a cache. I hit a point that I knew wasn't the right coordinates, but I said outloud, "This is where I would put it." It had a great view, a perfect hiding spot, everything. After getting to the actual cache, I was underwhelmed. But I was even newer then than I am now, and I thought, "You know, I just don't know enough about this game yet to hide my own cache." What I like about the responses in this topic is that, overall, you seem to be saying that time spent "in the bush" isn't as important as the commitment to the game and thought put into the cache. Which resonates with me. One thing I'm interested in seeing on the aforementioned road trip is to see the way caches are done in different areas. So far, I really like the assortment of caches I've seen, even though most of them are urban caches. I guess here in L.A., that's of necessity. Thanks for all of the input so far!

Sorry to offend, if in fact I have. I haven't stumbled upon these primers yet, as I'm usually on the site for short periods of time. This thread isn't really meant to give me an idea of how long to wait; it's more meant to be conversational. To see how long other people waited. All I've found in my limited searching was an FAQ that said: "Q: How do I hide a cache? A: Before considering your first geocache hide, find a variety of caches in your area to familiarize yourself with the activity." I'm working on that part.

That's good advice. I do tend to get very fired up about something and then lose interest quickly. I don't particularly think that that's the case here, but it may well be.

I'm nearing 30 finds now, but still don't really feel like I know what I'm doing yet. They've almost all been urban caches, for instance, and there haven't been too many puzzle caches. In April and May, I'll be taking an 8-state road trip to shoot a documentary. I've made a list of 232 caches along the way that I'd like to try and get. Mostly traditional, but about a dozen each of virtuals, offsets, and puzzles (I won't have a ton of downtime with shooting, so I had to do way fewer of those.) Even two or three EarthCaches. I think after that, I'll start working on my own... of course, I'd love to do a really good series, but I suspect so would everyone else.

I'm pretty new to the game, and while I'm still not spectacular at it, I am loving every minute. I've got some ideas for hides already, but want to find at least a few of each kind before I even attempt my own first hide. How many finds did you have before you felt comfortable making your first hide? (Or for that matter, how many hides did you have before you knew WTH you were doing?) Not looking for any kind of a hard-and-fast rule; I'll do it when I'm comfortable in my own abilities. Just wondering how long other folks waited.