ZaphodAndTrillian

Check out the Porter's Creek trail. It's right outside of Gatlinburg but remains less traveled that many of the other trails in the area. Perfect day hike, with some options as you go. Trail runs next to water the entire way, with a waterfall at the top. http://www.hikinginthesmokys.com/porters.htm Also, visit Cade's Cove, it's amazing.

Just keep going, it'll get easier. The vast majority of our finds have been at night. In fact, when we cache during the day for anything more difficult than a park n' grab, I always feel a bit odd and out of sorts. I'd also strongly recommend night caching during winter. Since we just started this year in February, this was our first summer caching. We've definitely had better luck in the colder months. Winter night caching is easier due to the lack of heavy foliage cover. This makes it easier to spot caches and lessens the chance for GPS issues in heavily forested areas. Plus, if your lucky enough to have snow on the ground, you'll find it generally brighter. I totally agree with the other posts about having a good flashlight. We use Maglite XL50's. They're super bright, waterproof, and cast a white (not blue) light. Plus, they're inexpensive compared to comparable output lights (SureFire, Fenix, etc) and work great with rechargeables.

With Halloween right around the corner, I've been wondering what are some creepy (but fun) caching towns or areas. We live in Chicago and a few months back decided to head up to Kenosha, WI for a night of caching outside of our comfort zone. We didn't do any checking before hand on the specific caches in town, only checked for quantity and a good area to start. One after the other, the caches got creepier and creepier, with tales of hauntings, ground that breathes, and cemeteries so old and uncared for that your likely to end up with one foot in the grave, literally. This got me thinking that there must be some other areas that are full of spooky caches.