maccath

I didn't suggest the New Forest as large parts of it are not all that well served by public transport and you said you don't have a car. If you can get to somewhere around Fritham you'll find some parts are almost perfectly flat (Stony Cross was used as an airfield during WWII) and some halfway decent hills. Throw a pack on your back and load it up for extra exercise. Alternatively take the bus to Bournemouth, walk along the seaside promenade to Southbourne (that bit's flat, as you'd expect) and then walk back making sure to go up and down every single zigzag between the seaside and the clifftop. I went to college in the New Forest (ah, Brockenhurst!) so I am familiar with the area and the (lack of) public transport, but you can at least get trains to places like Brockenhurst, Beauleiu, Ashurst, etc. so if any of those areas happened to be particularly good then it could be worth a trip, but like I said, what I can remember of the New Forest is pretty flat, and I don't think Fritham will be easy for me to get to, at least in the winter. My mum used to take me to Bournemouth beaches and I remember having to walk up a craptonne of steps to get back to the car. I don't know what beach that was at now, but I guess there is an opportunity for a bit of climbing there, thanks for the tip! One thing that always sticks with me in the south is the Jurassic Coast. I'm going to Swanage this weekend, but with a tourist friend rather than for a serious walk. I think that there probably is a bit of potential for good hikes along the south coast, I just hadn't thought that Bournemouth would be very... hill-y, but it is indeed easy to get there by bus from Salisbury.

Thank you everyone, there are some really useful suggestions you've given Thanks for the useful site, I've already found a potential trail nearby. The New Forest is very close to me so it's a potential, do you know what part of the New Forest has the most hills, though? From what I remember it tends to be rather flat. Thanks for the advice! Actually, most of the people doing the challenge are from the Marlow area, so if we decide to do group training those suggestions would come in useful I think!

Thanks for all of your advice. I have done very little hill walking. I have hiked up a few small mountains in Japan and Italy, which were exhausting for me, but nothing like the 3 peaks. I know I struggle with hills in general, so that's why I need to be serious about training if I'm going to succeed. I have never done any orienteering, but I do have and know how to read a compass. If I do any serious mountain hiking, I will try and get hold of paper maps, but on the challenge we will have two mountain guides too.

Hi folks, I have a request. I was wondering if people could tell me the best hiking/geocaching trails throughout the UK that are of moderate difficulty, terrain wise. I 'accidentally' signed up to do the Three Peaks Challenge for charity with my company, and I have six months to train and prepare. It's a 25-ish mile hike across three mountains - Snowdon, Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike - in 24 hours. I will be training by walking a few days a week, but I live in a relatively flat area (Salisbury) and would like to get out to practice/train on some ~~real~~ hills/mountains, maybe once a month. I'd like to combine my training with activities I find enjoyable, so that's why I'm here. Can anyone recommend me some good Geocaches or Geocache trails that require some pretty serious hiking to get to? Preferably with trailheads nearby to bus and/or train routes (I can't drive) and it would be great if they were in the southern parts of the UK. I don't mind two day hikes as I could get to the destination by public transport on Friday night, hike out on Saturday and hike back on Sunday to travel back Sunday evening. Thanks for your help!

I'm sure you've all heard of Google+ by now, the shiny new social network by Google. Well, I've been going round today adding lots of Geocachers or wannabe-Geocachers to my Google+ circles, and had some quite interesting discussion, and I think, even made a few friends. I'd love to connect with more of you, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. There are already lists of Google+ active photographers, librarians and knitters - but I couldn't find one for Geocachers, so I made one. If you are a Geocacher active on Google+ and would like to connect with other Geocachers, please fill out the following form to be added to the spreadsheet: http://tinyurl.com/gplusgeocachersform To add other Geocachers to your circles, please check out the spreadsheet: http://tinyurl.com/gplusgeocachersdatabase I hope people find this useful and fun, and add away! You can find me on Google+ at http://gplus.to/maccath - feel free to reshare my post from there.

When nobody warns me that the cache will be out of reach for someone who is 5' tall. Plenty of low terrain rated caches I've been to that I've spotted but have been unable to get to due to my size, and I'm not even the shortest person I know. Thankfully most of the time I drag a taller gentleman with me, but I would have had a lot of problems without them.

Just wanted to note that they haven't been in there for 'months', seems like most of them are quite recent drops. I was just reading the date the wrong way round. dadgum American formats, always confuse the hell out of me. D: I guess I'll pick up as many as I think I can help. Thanks!

I also have a question regarding tb ethics/etiquette so thought I would post here instead of making a new thread. I'm going to do a big 20+ cache trail tomorrow and a number of the caches appear to have multiple tbs in that have been there for some 4 months or more (the trail /is/ a bit out of the way). I'm wondering if it would be bad form to take most/all of them (must be about 10 listed, not sure how many are actually in place though) to move on as I am visiting 4 different counties within the next couple of weeks so I think I could get most of them moving again at least and sone definitely have a goal I can help with. I'm sure the tb owners would be glad of that. But maybe such a large trail should have at least a few tbs in for those who come after me to pick up/discover... even if it could be a while. I only have two trackables that I can drop off in return and I'm sure I'm going to a better place soon for one of them. So I'm not sure what to do. Advice appreciated.

Looks like we're going for Wells and Sheringham (and maybe a few in between there and Cambridge) on Saturday, and Great Yarmouth and maybe going a bit south into Suffolk on Sunday before returning home. Thanks for all of your suggestions.

Thanks for the heads-up Adsandco! Shame there are no steam trains running on the day we're visiting, but there are diesel ones... if I can just time things perfectly... looks like http://coord.info/GCVPEN might be right up my street.

I think my top priority would be to visit interesting areas that are possibly a bit out of the way that have a decent view, interesting wildlife, strange structures (natural or manmade) or in quaint villages/towns. I also have a bit of a thing for trains so if there's any historical railway caches around let me know, though I won't hold my breath as it's a bit specific. I don't mind having to walk/hike and quite enjoy multi/puzzle caches, but I think we'd like to visit lots of different places so if it takes less than a couple of hours that'd be good, unless there's a 6 mile trail in an absolutely stunning area that has lots of different and interesting things to see.

I'd like to know if people have any favourite caches or cache series' in Norfolk, or if there are any caches people regard as must-dos if you're in the area. Me and a friend are hiring a car over a weekend, starting out from Cambridge on Saturday morning, staying in Great Yarmouth overnight, and then driving back south on Sunday night. We're prepared to go almost anywhere in Norfolk but obviously we can't go /everywhere/ and I can't decide what places would provide the best caching opportunities. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you!

I've found 69 over two months and hidden none so far. I have an idea of where I would like to hide one very close to my home, but although the area is an abandoned victorian industrial site, I expect I will have to get permission from landowners, so that has somewhat put me off so far.

Did they trade up, or just take everything? O_o

I've seen this done a few times and actually if I don't want to be spoiled as to how a cache might look like or where it might be I won't look at the photographs or logs at all. It's sensible to assume that photographs and logs might contain spoilers, but actually sometimes it's useful if you check after DNFing and realise that you were totally looking out for the wrong kind of container. However, I saw a really cool container recently and I took a photo of it but I didn't post the photo because I thought it was so unique and it would've ruined the surprise when other cachers went to find it. For normal caches I don't think it's such a big deal, but for uniquely hidden caches in strange containers maybe politely asking the cachers to remove the offending photos would be best.

I think that on the internet people feel shielded from the judgement of the people that they are talking to, and can seem a lot more uptight and argumentative than they would be if you met them in real life. Tact often goes out of the window, and things are easily misunderstood due to the distinct lack of tone and body language. I had a bit of reputation on another game's forum for being a bit hot headed and willing to debate about almost anything, but after a group meet-up in real life everyone went away thinking that I was like a timid little pussy cat who couldn't hurt a fly. I often think I should just avoid forums because it only gets frustrating, but somehow I just can't help myself.

So why don't Groundspeak change the page to say: ?? You might aswell have asked why Groundspeak didn't write: So where's your point? The wording is ambigious, but if you want to delete logs made by non-PMs on your PMO caches then feel free, but Groundspeak have clearly stated (in the guidelines and in emails to members) that they will reinstate wrongly deleted logs in these cases (and they have done so). To expand on this..., editing to add a few points: 1. Groundspeak don't advertise that you can still log without becoming a PM because that doesn't exactly convince users to pony up the cash, and wouldn't be particularly profitable, would it? At least that is my personal assumption. XD 2. Upon being notified that there was a bug preventing people from logging PMO caches this way, they prompty fixed it and apologised (apparently). 3. It would take approximately 5 minutes to fix this if it were an actual bug, but they have not fixed it in many years of it being there and have no intention to. Although it is not documented, it is widely known and not against TOS to use this method of logging. 4. The activity is meant to be free for all and the intention of PMO caches is to somehow prevent mass traffic or potential muggling if it's slightly more difficult to get hold of the co-ordinates. Just like wrapping your suitcase in clingfilm at the airport isn't going to deter the determined thief, it just might put them off for the time being - preventing opportunistic crime. Not foolproof. 5. It's not supposed to be an elitist thing for the privileged only, or for contributors. As I said earlier, stating that in order to log the cache you must be a premium member is considered to be an ALR which is against Groundspeak's terms, in the same way that saying you can't log unless you have blue eyes. Groundspeak will reinstate deleted logs in these cases.

My friend had just got a new smartphone and was playing around with various things including the GPS. He mentioned that there were Geocaches around and I assumed he was just talking about caching (the computing term - storing data, we are both computer science geeks) GPS data on his phone. Then he said something about hints and I wondered what on earth hints would have to do with caching GPS data and Googled Geocaching quickly and realised my initial evaluation of the term was way out. I was hooked and got involved quicker than he could, with a smartphone I'd purchased a few months previously. Yes I am a heathen with no real GPS device, but it's served me well thus far - and I don't write short logs either.

I read the thread that was linked earlier in this post (yes, the whole thing) and I want to quote an email that was sent to a basic member by Groundspeak who had their log on a PM cache deleted, and later reinstated by TPTB: (http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?s=&showtopic=245047&view=findpost&p=4323968) The general consensus is that anyone can find a PM cache, as it is only the listing that is private. Even muggles can find a PM cache, and there is a back-door to enable basic member logging to PM caches that Groundspeak know about and have refused to close because they feel that once a cache has been found--any cache, by any person, through any means--that person has a right to log online, and by saying that only PMs can log a PM-only listed cache is enforcing an ALR, which is, of course, banned, and they will reinstate deleted logs on PM-only caches.

I once found a micro cache which was a very small tube with a piece of paper rolled up in it so damp that it disintegrated on my pulling it out. I logged it as a find, added a slip of paper with my name on it (though I fully expected this to get soggy too, so it was pretty pointless), replaced the disintegrated log and took a photo of myself with the cache. Someone had already posted a 'needs maintenance' log before me mentioning the wet log so I didn't do that, but would've done if nobody had yet.

I don't think it would make you any less of a cacher to ask for a hint. I've posted DNF logs and the owner has immediately emailed me asking if I'd like another clue. Sometimes they are a little too helpful and point out the exact spot, but ho hum. Most cache owners I've encountered have been happy to help.