u1bd2005

follow the water flow and check the banks near all of the bends. If the water flows towards the ponds check the ponds, if the water flows into the pond but there's also a part flowing out of the pond, start following the second part and check the bends etc... there too. Basically just keep following the water flow and check any bends, ponds, banks etc... thoroughly, i personally wouldn't hold too much hope though, once flood water catches a hold of something it's usually gone.

isn't part of the challenge in placing a geocache, finding new amazing locations and then helping others to find those locations. instead of sticking to roads or trails, just detour, turn left and cut through some woods and keep walking, get lost, once you're lost in an area that looks pretty, scan for nearby caches. then you can do either of two things, find some caches that you never knew existed, or hide some of your own. there's always areas unexplored by geocachers, theres always spots without caches that are perfectly suited to new caches being placed, and finally there's always spots opening back up when people archive their caches. my 3 most recent hides were places shortly after someone nearby decided to archive one of their circular series, it was a shame as I loved the previous series, but it helps me with my aim of converting people back to hiding decent sized caches instead of micros.

Again...consider the fact that this will be outside and there will be no guarantee it will be free of standing water and other dirt and debris. Think about that before you start spraying (or drizzling) folks with Legionnaires' Disease or thousands of mosquito larvae. So caches with the "May require wading" attribute should all be removed too then? river water's far dirtier than this would be. It's upto people to evaluate the risks, and decide if they're willing to risk getting wet, moaning about legionnaires etc... is just way to over the top, any cache could cause you to get ill or die. a cache near thorns could cut you, and the cut may become sceptic and you could die, a cache near falling rocks could could crush your car and leave you stranded 200 miles from civilisation with no food and water, and even no phone as you accidentally left it on the dashboard of your car and you may starve to death. even a lamppost cache could put you in the path of an oncoming bus which is being driven by a drunk bus driver and he could crush you up against it, or a bird may do its business on your head, you may not notice until it's too late and you could catch a new strain of bird flu. moaning about a little bit of water while caching seriously? lighten up, and don't look for it if you're bothered about getting a little wet.

I haven't yet been approached, when the day does arrive I'm probably gonna be trying for hours to explain what caching is to them. Maybe I should just tell them "I'm searching for kitchen storage containers, Tesco was out of stock."

I response to my previous reply, I feel as long as you warn people that they may get wet, then it's no different to a cache that "may require wading" etc... You're given the info prior, so it's upto you if you want to risk getting wet by attempting it, I reacon it would get quite a few fav points.

Short Walks - 5 miles (most days) Medium Walks - 10-15 miles (3/4 times a month) Long walks - around 20 miles + (about once every couple of months) But I go walking in general anyway, even when I'm not out caching. Also most of my walks are power walks, so I tend to walk reasonably fast and don't stop for many rests (if at all). Im still young though, only 24, so still improving day by day. Also hoping to get more practice at walking longer distances so I can hopefully do a sponsored walk for charity, but I'm really hoping to be able to tackle 50 miles before I do it, maybe another year and I will be ready to give it a go, we'll see.

OMG, I love that idea, I currently have a cache where the logsheet is in a separate container underneath some slimey Goo. I was unsure how people would react, but it seemed to go down pretty well (Goo has lasted about 5 months too which was a lot longer than I thought it would, gotta head out pretty soon to replace now, it's started to turn liquidy). Also I've seen caches where the finder is required to bring a bottle (to fill from river) or a bottle of water in order to retrieve a cache, so I would assume similar principle in the OP's case. Finder would top it up to get cache container to float to the top, only difference being, I assume there would be a small hole that the water would squirt from aimed towards the finder. A cache like this would defo be worth of a +fav point from me, sure it may annoy some people, but just add "may get wet" or something, and they can not look for it if they're bothered about a little water. No cache will please everybody.

Never take candy from strangers, unless of course it's Halloween, then you can gamble everything on that 1 night xD But yeh, I agree, edibles shouldn't be left in the cache under any circumstances. - My favourite swag to find is foreign or old coins + signature items. But I enjoy looking through all the swag, the stuff I see most is stuff such as bouncy balls, packs of playing cards, erasers, hair bobbles, etc... The hair bobbles aren't quite that bad, but the hair clips with the metal parts on them tend to rust easy, so I'd refrain from putting those in caches. Basically just take a trip down to your local Pound/Dollar store, and hit the toy section with a basket, it's amazing what little goodies you can find which were clearly created just for putting into geocaches.

Its a bit of a tough one,I placed my first few hides with only a couple of finds under my name. I got bored back at the time (had no car or gps and walked everywhere) and 2 of the 3 hides became archived, and the 3rd was adopted. The 3rd is still going strong now and I've since readopted it back from the guy who took over it. Now I have a car and a handheld gps and a lot more (albeit only 70) finds under my name. It's nothing compared to some cacher, but it's helped me place and maintain caches better than when I had only 2 or 3 finds. --- However, there is nothing wrong with these caches being placed, a person with 1000 finds could be just as bad at maintenence as someone with 0 finds. One of my favourite caches was placed by a scouting group who had no finds, and was a great little cache, was nothing really special about it, but took me to a nice area i'd never been, cache was in good condition, well maintained and had lots of swag which I enjoy looking through. Some people may legitimately have 0 finds, no other profile, and never been looking. But so what, if it bothers you, don't look for the cache. Fr some people its much more fun to set up a cache and have people find it that it is for you to find a cache yourself. Sure, I enjoy searching for caches too, but I much prefer placing them now, I enjoy reading the messages people leave, I enjoy watching what kinds of swag make there way through the caches, I like looking at the signature items people leave, and most of all, I like trying to convert people back to placing containers that can hold swag, instead of the dreaded micros I was a good example of why you hate newbies placing hides before they've found many, but there are many people out there who place brilliant hides and maintain them, and there is no way we should restrict them.

I'd definitely do a more thorough search of the area just incase there is a throw-down somewhere nearby. Always a chance someone may not have been able to find your cache in the past and has put a replacement down so they could claim a find, the guy may have found a throw-down if that's the case. Also, go through the logs, if there are any others which don't appear on the logbook but which are logged online then it may indicate a much higher chance that there may be a throw-down nearby. If so, message those people and double check see if they remember what the container looked like.

Welcome, and congrats on finding your first few caches. I'm similar to you, I'm much more comfortable trampling through the muddy fields and riverside paths etc... to find caches, partly because I'm uncomfortable around people in general, I'm trying to tackle that issue though, I work in a large shop and I'm also hoping to attend a local geocache meet-up soon, so that should be interesting and hopefully help with my confidence around new people. The other reasons are that it's usually much quieter, so you can have more fun climbing and searching without the need to look over your shoulder every 2 seconds. And also, I prefer the larger caches anyway, I love looking through the swag and signature items that people leave behind. Anyway, welcome to the hobby, it's great fun and you'll love it

Mine will never change, I'll always be weird, complicated and difficult to understand. Hence, I need a weird, complicated and difficult to understand username.

Welcome, few things I would suggest. - If you're on android or iphone, get a geocaching app, many will recommend the official one, many will recommend others. The choice is yours. And never pass up the opportunity to do a "Nearby Scan" (You may think there's probably no caches right near you, but chances are there's probably a few. E.g. You probably didn't even think there'd be a hidden container just across the street from you until you started caching.) - Visit the forums from time to time, even if you don't have anything to ask, just give your views on a subject or question someone else has posted about, it's a very friendly place to chat, and is the best way to learn about the game and to find out other peoples views/ideas. - Don't let it interfere with work This may seem like a no-brainer, but as you've already seen it can get addictive. A few times I've headed for a cache before work, then had to brush nettles, thorns, dust and dirt from my work trousers before I head out onto the shop floor, I've started taking my work clothes in a bag now and getting changed at work after I'm done caching. - Finally, find lots and lots more caches, have fun, and once you have a good feel for the game, which containers make good geocache containers etc... Think about some unique places to you, hidden places you loved when you were a kid etc... and set up some of your own caches to bring other people to the areas. Have fun

with the geomate jr. I envision a few issues. Firstly lack of maps, secondly this part "Updatable with the latest U.S. geocaches and caches for other countries with the optional Geomate.jr Update Kit (sold seperately)" I haven't used it so couldn't say for sure, but it sounds like you need that "optional" extra in order to update your device. Anyway, to my reccomendations, I would say for your budget, etrex 10, though that also suffers from the lack of maps. I however use the etrex 10 and see it more of a benefit, I don't like maps, why bother taking an easy map route when I can figure out my own route there and possibly find somehwre cool on the way? So all depends how important maps are to you. If they're important then the next step up is the etrex 20, only a little more than the etrex 10 and may be within your budget if you can save a little extra.

Couple of my favourite logs that have been posted on some of my hides. "Sister H slid down and quickly located it. Now, how do i get back up there? Answers on a post card please. Hubby walking away shouting he will get mountain rescue on the case!!" "Went out with S of Just us two to find this one. After finding the right area, was feeling a bit like in a Lara Croft - Tomb Raider game, so down the bank unsteadily I went. Eventually we found it with a clue or two. At least I was dry today!, oh that was until I started on my way back up. Chose a different route to the bank I went down to return to the top, got half way up and slipped and right back to the bottom on my bum.... in the mud! So not a dry day for me today either!"

I smile and say "Hi" or "Morning" whilst holding my GPS in my hand and giving a slight wave (with the hand the gps is in, so that they can see it), to ordinary people I'm just being polite and first thought im just holding a phone, to geocachers they'll hopefully spot it's a gps and talk to me. Not actually met any fellow cachers whilst out yet, few people I've seen who I thought were caching, but never talked to them. I find interaction a bit awkward with people I don't know, and also the fact I'm a 23 year old who walks around in a hoodie 99% of the time, puts some people off approaching me, but I like my hoodie's and I geocache on my walks which is my alone time, so it all works out well for me. I'd be happy to talk to fellow cachers and hope to some day meet some, but I wouldn't want to bump into them everytime I was out caching.

after getting quite a few favourites on my halloween cache that I recently set up, I am hoping to make a much better christmas themed cache as a result. My halloween cache was a slightly modified clip-lock container (skeleton glued to the front, then spray painted the whole container to give it a little bit of a 3d feel. The bit that I feel earned most of the favourites though was the method of putting the logsheet in a separate container, under some Goo, so you have to get your fingers sticky to retrieve log wasn't sure how well it would go down, but people seem to have liked it. Also the area I set it up in had some big black netting draped over the trees (guessing local kids/teens were hanging about down there at some point) but it made for some amazing cobwebs to improve the theme. But yeh, that was for halloween, I have a few idea's going about in my head for christmas which I recieved as suggestions on a FB page, the idea I would most like to do would be a full tree conversion, baubels/tinsel/angel on top and presents underneath. But with limited travel range and nowhere I can think of where it wouldn't be discovered by muggles (likely local teens/kids) I think that may be a little too big to set up in my area. Other idea's are cache container disguised as either a present/christmas cracker, etc...

The moment you release a GeoCoin or Travel Bug into caches there is little chance of it returning to you again, It may travel for a few weeks r months before it goes missing, it may travel for years and keep going. But even if so chances of someone returning it to a cache near you before it goes missing are pretty slim, it could get lost, damaged, muggled, cache could go missing or get washed away etc... and obviously someone could steal it or trade it not knowing about trackables. Basically, if you don't wish to lose a geocoin or tb, the only sure fire way is not to send it out, once sent out i'd say there's probably about a 0.1% chance of you seeing it again, and that's even if it stays in circulation, remember that they travel 1000's of miles

Can you be surprised he hasn't replied to the thread since posting it, judging by some of the answers i'm not surprised he hasn't replied. We should have been giving him ideas and telling him what makes a good cache, telling him about waterproof containers, maintenance etc... not just telling him NOT to place one until he has found some himself, yes it's a good recommendation to find some, and by al means make the recommendation to him. But its not a requirement to have some finds. He's more likely now to go out and place a sub-standard cache which will leak and have a soggy logsheet, as he received very little advice from anyone when he asked.

A pocket query can only download a maximum of 1000 caches, so if it is downloading 1000 caches then it's likely that there's too many to fit on the 1 query, try narrowing down the search area and doing a couple of PQ's spread about instead. E.g. 10 mile radius of my home brings up 930 caches, if I did a 15 mile radius it would only show 1000. so it's better to do a 10 mile radius from somewhere 10 mile to the east, then another 10 mile radius from somewhere 10 mile to the west. That way they'd meet in the middle-ish. Obviously this will differ greatly depending on how many caches are in your area.

I agree, go by the difficulty/terrain ratings rather than the attributes, most CO's I've seen will use the attributes to label things such as tree climbing/rock climbing/swimming etc... but that's about it, a lot of caches are suitable for children, though this will differ greatly depending on the age and how skilled the child may be at climbing or how far the child may walk before complaining. Example, one of my caches is called Cliff Banks. It is easily suited for some children, though due to the small climb to get it, and the fact it's pretty close to a rive and does get slippery sometimes, it wouldn't be suitable for other children. Best way is to read the description and the logs, also if you're hoping for swaps for the kids, stick to the small/regular/large caches.

Well, my only creative cache is the Halloween one that I placed recently, it was a basic clip lock container which I glued a small 3D skeleton to the lid, then spray-painted it to make it all blend together better. then onto the inside of the container, along with the obvious spooky swag, I decided I'd hide the lo in a separate container and underneath lots of GOO!!! that right, you have to squelch your fingers through the goo and get sticky in order to sign the log. Not sure how long it will hold up for if the odd geocacher drops it on the dirt floor, or how the weather will effect it in the winter, but those things will come as a learning curve. The goo was only 99p so it's easy replaced and if it becomes a issue on a regular issue it's easy to replace with a normal logbook after Halloween has passed. Been getting a few comments such as "Ewwwww" and also a few favourite points, so was pretty fun. Just remember a creative cache doesn't always have to be a disguised container or something highly extravagant or over the top. And please only place it if you will maintain it, don't place it just to help you earn a badge, do a bit of geocaching and see if it is something you enjoy first. If you enjoy it, by all means place one or two of your own after a little bit, it will also help because you'll have a better iddea of what others have done and how good you found them to find.

The cable to attach your garm t a computer is just an ordinary USB lead, same kind used for a lot of phones/cameras and other electronic devices. On the back of your device there's a small flap that will lift up to show you the connection it needs. Mine's a different gps so I couldn't say for sure what type yours will use, theres 2 main types, but mine uses the same as my camera/ps3 controllers/kindle so I have plenty of the leads lying around. If you don't already have one they're really cheap, you can easily pick up one (likely with multi-connections anyway) from a pound shop (or dollar store if you're american) etc... as for apps, I think Ipad does have gps built in, once again I don't have an ipad so I couldn't say for sure. There are lots of app choices out there, the official one is a popular choice, it is a paid one though and lacks some of the features that some of the other free or cheaper apps have. Just do a search in the app store for geocaching apps and try a few to see what suits you, most of the paid ones have demo or trial apps to let you test them. Once installed on your device, just scan for nearby caches and navigate your way to some of the areas to start your finds. The best way to learn is to get out there and start searching. But I'd recommend sticking to the easy difficulty ones and also the small/regular caches to start with, the micros and the more difficult caches could be difficult to find at first.

With my tree cache that I placed a few days ago, I had previously chosen a different tree for the hide, it looked pretty easy to scale and was higher, so I thought it would be reasonably easy to scale higher up to place it. However after about 10 feet up it got a little more difficult and the branches seemed weaker too, I contemplated a few options. First of all, I climbed down, got my rope from my backpack, and tried again to see if the use of rope would help me scale any higher, but it didn't help much. So I decided I'd climb down and scout other nearby trees, I settled on a new target, planned my route up and set off up the new tree. got about 15/20 feet up and decided it was a good spot for the cache. So never think that the first way is the only way. Same goes for searching, if something looks too hard, dont just give up, take a step back and see if there is an easier way to approach it, then weigh up the risks and decide if you think you are capable of doing it.

When you upload it to an image hosting site you will want to look for the direct link to the image, eg. http://www.website.com/image.png Then it's really easy to make the basic html code for it, it will just be. <img src="http://www.website.com/image.png">