Chief301

Most of my caching is done on the weekends so I can go with the family. However, since I'm a shiftworker, I work every other weekend, so I don't cache on those weekends. If we happen to miss out on caching on my "off" weekend, due to weather or other plans, then I will sometimes go a month without caching. I will sometimes do some solo caching on the weekdays, but only if I happen to be on some other errand that takes me into new caching territory. However, since my map is all "Smilies" within about a 30 mile radius of home, that's getting less and less common

Within 10' is about as close as you should expect, like the others said. Even a dedicated GPSr won't usually get you much closer than that. No consumer grade unit is accurate to inches, there's usually a margin of error of at least a few feet. Once you get that close, put the phone in your pocket and start searching. Which iPhone do you have? I have the iPhone 4 and I find it's about as accurate as my Garmin eTrex. My son has cached with the iPhone 3 and its accuracy is not nearly as good as the 4.

Try this link... Louisiana Parish Cache Challenge I think the goal is to get one cache of your own choosing in each parish. You might want to check out this site also.... Louisiana Geocaching I haven't even begun to think about anything that ambitious yet So far I've cached in Assumption, Ascension, Iberville, East and West Baton Rouge, and Lafourche. Mostly within 30 miles or so of home. Where are you located?

In Geocaching lingo this is referred to as having been "muggled". It happens from time to time, unfortunately. It's part of the game. The challenge for hiders is to create challenging caches that won't be spotted by the average bystander (or "muggle") but can be located by an experienced cacher who knows what to look for. Part of the challenge for those seeking the cache is to retrieve it from its hiding spot, sign the log, and re-hide it as well as they found it without being spotted by non-cachers and giving away the location. Out in the woods this might not be a problem, but in urban settings it can be a real trick to hide a cache that has to be undetectable to sometimes hundreds of people who walk right by it every day. This is why it is strongly recommended that new cachers wait until they've found a bunch of caches (some say at least 50 or 100) before they consider hiding one...it takes experience finding them to learn good ways to hide them yourself.

Get the Sharpie PEN, not the fine-tip marker. The marker will bleed through most paper, the pen won't.

The "Found" notification on the free app only lets you know that you've arrived at the location. That's only half the battle, you can't actually claim a find until you've located the container and signed the log. The intent of the game is to get the container in your hands, not to get the machine to say you're there. Since you've gone ahead and purchased the paid app, do yourself a favor and just forget everything you know about the free app. I used it for only my first 3 or 4 finds before I quickly realized that the paid app is the way to go. The free app is not designed for serious Geocaching, it's really just a simple introduction to show absolute newbies what the game is about. Start playing around with the paid app, you'll quickly come to appreciate what a great tool it is for real caching. The ability to have cache description, hints, and recent logs available in the field, as well as attaching photos and logging from the field, make it the tool you'll want to use. As far as actually using the app, when you want to log a find, just go back from the navigation page and scroll down near the bottom of the cache info page. Hit "Post a log/Field note". Enter your info and hit Save. If you want to upload it at that time to GC.com, hit Save & Send Log. One thing you mentioned was not having the phone alert you when you're near the cache. Are you trying to navigate all the way to the cache with the map screen, by chance? Once you get in the vicinity of the cache it gets very difficult to pinpoint your location on the map. Better to tap the compass icon at the upper right of the navigation screen and bring up the compass screen. Follow the compass pointer to the cache location and watch the distance decreasing. That's how you'll know you've reached the spot, when the distance gets close to zero (don't expect it to read exactly zero most of the time, though, it may only get you as close as 5 or 10 feet). That's when you need to put the phone away and start looking. Hope this has been helpful. Good luck!

A typical Lock n Lock container is a plastic Tupperware type container (but with a better water resistant seal than Tupperware). They will generally be about a quart in volume (some a little more, some less) and can be square, rectangular, or round. Picture a container about that size and shape and look around for a place where you might hide something like that. Good luck!

I see by your profile you just joined 2 days ago and haven't found any caches yet. Don't you think you should maybe go out and find a few (or at least learn what they're called) before you even think about hiding one? I smell a troll.....

I'd never be so lucky...

No, they're usually not obvious....that's why they call 'em "hides"... It takes a little while to learn what to look for. Be prepared to search with your hands as well as your eyes. Check under, inside, behind, and on top of things where you cannot see. If you haven't found it after 10 or 15 minutes of searching, you may want to give that one a miss for a while, you can always come back later and try again. I've often found that later on you'll find a different cache, similarly hidden, and suddenly realize where that first cache must be ...then go back and find it right away like you knew where it was all along. One other little thing...if you can't find one, please DO log that you didn't find it. A lot of people don't like to admit that they couldn't find a a cache. It's nothing to be ashamed of, you're not being graded on this Logging DNF's is useful because it lets other cachers know that the hide may be very tricky. Several DNF's in a row might indicate that the cache may in fact be missing, which is useful information for other cachers and the cache owner who should come out and check on his cache. Although I did DNF one a few weeks ago that had 6 or 8 DNF's in a row, and when the owner (assuming it had been muggled) came out to replace it, he found that it was right where it was supposed to be. Just a very tricky hide, apparently!

One of my favorites so far was located outside a store at a mall in Baton Rouge. It was a magnetic blinkie under a bench outside the store. This was a Saturday right before Christmas so the muggles were out in force. I relied on the hint alone and was able to sneakily, nonchalantly take a seat on the bench and casually grab the container. We signed the log and replaced the cache without ever even using our GPS. The ultimate in stealth! I really enjoyed that one.

Rite In The Rain does also make plain blank waterproof printer paper, so you could make up your own logsheets and print them yourself.

Yes, nanos are used quite commonly in some areas. They tend to be used more frequently in urban areas where larger containers would be harder to conceal. They are often magnetic so they can be stuck under park benches, behind street signs, etc. They can be frustrating but also a fun challenge. BTW, "nano" is not an official size. It is technically a micro, which is anything about the size of a 35mm film canister or smaller. Sometimes the cache owner will mention that it's a nano in the cache description to give you a better idea what you're looking for. But I agree, micros should not be used in locations where a larger container can realistically be hidden.

Oh, in addition to the Sharpie pen I also ALWAYS have on my person (caching or not) a Swiss Army Knife (Super Tinker) and a small 1AAA LED flashlight. I have used the tweezers from the knife to extract logs from nano caches. If I'm on a planned cache outing I will usually pack a little larger flashlight. I don't usually bring much more than that because most of the caches around here don't involve getting very far off the beaten path, so not much gear is needed.

+1 on the felt tip pen. After a suggestion on these forums I started using the Sharpie brand pens (pen, not marker). Writes well on damp logs.

+1 for the official Groundspeak Geocaching app. A perfect tool for caching with the iPhone and well worth the $10 price. Motion X is another great general purpose GPS app that I always recommend. Paid version is only about $13 but free Lite version is almost as good.

I was at my nephew's college graduation at the Cajundome in Lafayette. After the ceremony while everyone was milling about, taking pictures and such, I checked on my iPhone app and realized we were standing about 30 feet from one. I really wanted to go get it, but since a), the graduation just let out there were a ton of muggles around, and b ) my wife probably would have smacked me , I just let it go.

I have used some of the knock-offs, and they have not fared as well out in the wild for me. The tabs seem to break more frequently. We use some at home for food storage (a novel idea, I know ) and have had them in service for more than a year and the tabs hold up fine. I know they get flexed WAY more in our kitchen use than they will in the wild as cache containers...not a very busy caching community around here, caches get found once or twice a month on average, at least judging from the logs in our local area. I bought a set of them a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't actually released them into the wild yet. I have only two hides yet, an ammo can and a match safe, but my next one will probably be one of the locking containers. I also camoed it with Krylon Fusion paint, think this will help with UV breakdown?

Is it just me or does anyone else think it's stupid that they advertise it as a 20 piece set because it contains 10 containers and 10 lids? I'd consider that a 10 piece set . I bought an 8 container set of knock-off Lock-N-Locks ("Knock-N-Locks"? ) at the local dollar store for $8.00. Not sure how they'll hold up compared to the "real" Lock-N-Locks but they seem essentially the same. Filled one with water, sealed it, and tried to get it to leak and nothing came out, so it seems like the seal holds just fine.

That might be part of the delay too. The reviewer may have some concerns about a hider who is obviously active in California suddenly submitting a hide in Texas (maintenance issues). Plus, they tend to be a little more laid back in Texas than in California... :-)

Hides don't just automatically get posted when you submit them, they have to be reviewed by an actual person, approved, and published. The reviewers are volunteers and probably get dozens, if not hundreds, of new hides to review every week. (I know the reviewer who is responsible for my area in Louisiana actually lives in Georgia, which tells me he is probably responsible for reviewing a VERY large swath if the Southeast US). Have a little patience, I wouldn't expect a cache to be published in 2 days. The reviewers do have jobs, and lives. I'd give it about a week.

Where on earth do people get this concept of a "drug stash". People... drugs are sold, and sold for lots of money. They don't just leave them somewhere in public for others to take if they want to. Sounds like a good plan to me. Sort of like a drug vending machine. Dealer stocks the cache with product, user comes along, deposits the appropriate amount of money and takes his product. All on the honor system, of course, because if you can't trust a drug addict who can you trust? :-). Sure, that would work...

I don't mind them, but of course I'm still fairly new at this. Like someone said, the lameness comes not from the type of hide but from the location. Under a lamp post skirt is actually a perfect hiding spot for a cache. The first one I encountered was at the edge of a casino parking lot, but actually had a scenic overview of the Mississippi River, so it really wasn't a bad location (I didn't know about LPC's yet and haven't been back to that area again, so it's still a DNF on my logs ) The most recent one I've logged is at the boat launch at a local lake and is also a pretty cool scenic location. Once I did find out about them, I rushed back to one I had previously DNF'd, all excited that I "knew the secret". I triumphantly lifted the skirt and found nothing. The cache was actually about 10 feet away in a fence post. So LPC's can also serve as decoys to keep things a little more interesting.

So what does GC.com do with people who are obviously doing this? Do they get deleted from the site and banned, or is it just one of those things that nobody worries about too much? I had a similar run in recently...just put out my first hide and a couple of weeks later someone logged a "Needs Archived" on it...I'm in Louisiana, this guy's in Maryland and had been a member of GC.com for just a couple of days. Needless to say I deleted his log (I did check the physical log anyway, just to be on the safe side...)

Most of the time, but not always. We hunted for one a couple of months ago that had 8 or 10 DNF's in a row before we looked for it (we DNF'd as well), and a couple afterwards. CO posted a maintenance note about a week ago saying that he went out with a new container to replace this obviously missing cache, and found that it was still in place after all. Just a darn good hide, I guess! I gonna have to go look for that one again...