moose61

I'm sure if you have a lot of founds you will pick up some good idea's for your own hides. It's very positive you want to make someting creative. You can have a look to some vendors for special containers, but more important investigate the environment of the place where you want to place a cache, so you might see a cleaver place to hide something.

Not really any milestone. I don't care about the numbers, only about the quality of the caches and some special finds. I don't care if it is a milestone or not.

My advice: get some expirience with multi caches first. Make sure you find some and figure our what you like and don't like and how you can improve.

There are hunderds of ways the information can be hidden. It can be in the picture itself, in the internal information of the picture, hidden in the code, or maybe even not in the picture itself. It can also be hidden somewhere else on the page and not in the picture, but not visable. It's sometimes easy to find the solution, other times very hard. Just check this document on Steganography and you will get some idea's. http://ocw.kfupm.edu.sa/user062/CSE55101/stegno2.pdf

The question should be: do you as a CO like the cache you placed? There will always be other cachers who like your caches and others who don't like them. Some like micro's, others hate them. Some like long hikes, others don't. Some like difficult riddles, others get sleeples nights (I know that from expirience based upon response on some of my caches). Everybody can make it's own choice weather or not to search for your caches. If they don't like them they can put them on the Ignore list. Lucky enough everybody has it's own idea's regarding placing caches. Therefore you will also see a huge variation of caches and new idea's are developed. Would I go out to look for these caches? No, most likely not. I will search for them when I drive by, but it's not my favorite. Should you care? No, not really.

You can create permanent caches and get them released after the event has ended. This way you will have the cachers attending the event being the first ones to search for the cache. Simply add a request into the notes when requesting a listing of a new cache to be approved.

I use some garden gloves. Also convinient when working through a busch with thorns.

You can use several options: - If it are only a few caches, you also can add the to your watchlist. - Create a bookmarklist on GC.com and add them in the list. - Download them, load them into GSAK and put them in a database and mark them. - Simply add the WP code and name in a Word document or Excel sheet.

Reading your description I would say it is a clear DNF since climbing the tree to sign the logbook is the challange of this cache. It something else when you did hide it on the ground and a squirrel did take it up the tree, so it was not the intention the cacher has to go up the tree. In that case you as a CO can grant him the opertunaty to log a Found.

My advice: get some more experience first. Attend some events and talk to other cachers who have placed caches. They also can give you advice how to get approval from the land owners. When you plan to place a group of caches in one area search for as much as possible caches in tah are, so you know what's out there and if you might run into problems with other caches or waypoints. Also try to add someting extra in your caches. A great view, historic interesting place or an interesting way of hiding the cache. If other cachers like your hide you will get more positive feedback and satisfaction.

I have done a lot of caching outside my home country, as a matter of fact more than two third of my founds are outside the Netherlands. Lucky for me I speak Dutch, German and English, which makes it easier with international caches. Ever considered learning an other language as wel? Looking for caches in a strange language makes it an additional challange. Just think youre personal difficulty rating is increased by one star. I personally feel a local cache in a local language looks better than a cache in English language only dropped by a tourist cacher. Next to the online translation sites (available in many different languages with a different quality levels) you always can ask a CO if he can send an English translation by mail. I found most CO's willing to help with language issues although it's sometimes difficult since it's not their native language. If the CO is not able to provide and you realy need the translation I'm sure you will find somedy of the cachers who already found the cache willing and able to provide you with a translation. My cache listings are in Dutch when located in the Netherlands. Located in Germany they are in German with Dutch or English translation. English I provide always on request, but when adding it into the listing listings sometimes get very long. Looking to my caches in the Dutch language there are still a lot of founds reported by German and Belgium cachers, so people are able to figure out how to solve the language problem.

Be carefull the weather conditions don't make the logbook wet. It will be difficult to make it watertight. A "Rite in The Rain" Logsheet might be convenient.

My comments: don't put a general label on old school geocachers based upon your experience with some of them. Also all 'newbies' are the same. We're all individuals with their own thoughts and habbits. Mine experience is not the same as your's. Meanwhile I'm one of the more expierienced cachers in this region and try to help newbies (and veterans) if they have questions. With some it's easy, others experiences are less positive, but for me it does not mean I don't help people any more. If you meet some cachers you might find some which are more positive. Just visit a local event and talk with some other cachers. One remark for the newbies: Keep in mind there are old caches out there, which were hidden when the equipment was not as accurate as new SIRF III equipment, especially in the woods. The listings of these caches should be kept 'original' as much as possible. That's one of the charms of an old cache. If the coordinates are really off, you will see it in the logs and you can take that into account when looking for it.

The problem with creating maps is that you need to get the information to plot it. Unfortunately there is no way to easely retrieve it, except when you ask the other cacher. In some occasions you might find a plot on their homepage. I got a couple of them on mine homepage.

A cacher in my area had the same problem. He made short multi caches, allowing him to use WP's with questions which were at the site he wanted to show and still meet all GC rules. It turned out fine.

The program GCStatistic will generate your statistics of your found caches. One of the option in the program is to create a map (Google Map style) with the cache locations marked in the map. Just look at my profile at the bottom. The Route66 maps in my profile are generated with GSAK, but that's most likely not the thing you're looking for.

At this moment I use GSAK to generate statistics. Prior to generating I use a macro (AddLogs) to retrieve the latest logs of my hides. That's OK if you only have hidden a couple of caches. The list of hides is getting longer and therefor more time consuming. Your suggestion would make the update much easier. Great suggestion!

Two years ago there was a cacher in the neighbourhood who did hide caches using Google Earth. The were never accurate enough, always a nightmare. All cachers hated his caches. At the end all of his caches were archived by the reviewer and the cacher was not allowed to place any caches any more until he had a GPSr. My recommandation: keep the fun in the game. Use the assistance of an fellow geocacher or don't place a cache. You will get the most joy of your cache if you read that other like your cache.

You select in the menu on the left "Your Profile". You will find "Set Up Notifications" under"the menu "Premium Features" on the right side.

Just delete the log. Just heared from a friend a young cacher logged one of his caches without finding it. He didn't know the cache was moved a couple of meters since the last time it was ripped. His father (also cacher and found the cache months before at the old location) had warned him not to log it as a find. Of course the log was deleted. If the cache owner allows you to log it as a find, that's a different story.

One of the great things about Geocaching is it brings you to new and interesting places. This surely sounds like such place. A message in the cache listing is appropriat. It is up to every cacher to choose to search these caches. If they do't like it there is still the ignore list.

I have searched a couple of caches which require playing a CD on location. No problem in the car. In the field it is a bigger problem since they require portable players. Please note most car CD players do not play MP3 format. Also I have searched one where MP3 players were hidden in the forest. Cachers needed to bring their own batteries. Unfortunately this cache was very sensitive and required a lot of maintenance (broken headset/player or ripped MP3 players).

In the Netherlands we add a request for a bulk release in the notes to the reviewer. All caches should be send to the approver in time to give them time to review the listings. This approach is for instance done to release caches during an event. It might be different in other countries.

Quantity and qaulity are two different things. Lucky for us it is up to you if you go for the numbers or for the lonely one. I personally have the most pleasure on the last one. My favorite: Sesvenna 2 http://coord.info/GCJN1D. Almost two years not found when I found it. After finding the cache continued the trail into a beautifull canyon which I would not have seen without the cache (Check out the pictures with the cache). That's what geocaching is about. I also do not know how you can do this when defining a PQ, but you can filter on them in GSAK.

GSAK for organizing GPX files, generate HTML files to get the listings organized on the PDA and generating nice cache statistics pages. Mapsource (free with Garmin GPS) POI Loader GCT for calculation of WP's and decription (only in Dutch language)