vw_k

Happy new year everyone! My new years resolution is to set unusual caches in my area to add to the variety for local cachers and visitors to the area. I also plan to put my V8 powered Range Rover on the road this year. Will I use it for 4x4 caching? You bet!

I do this alot to log geocoins, as ReadyOrNot mentioned, just use "write note" instead of "found it" when you log your visit. That way your find count isn't out.

I'd revisit the cache and post a note saying you've retrieved a TB or coin, if you log it as a find again your find count will be out. I often revisit caches if they have geocoins in them, I like getting the logos!

If you want to leave cash, the co-ordinates of my mailbox are..... Seriously though, it's considered good etiquette to "trade up or trade even" meaning if you take something, leave something that is at least as good. Alot of caches I've found though have contents that don't follow this rule. I've seen alot of broken toys, the free CDs/DVDs you get with Sunday newspapers, and I once found a train ticket that had expired! I cache mainly for the enjoyment of the hunt and I rarely trade swag, but I do carry some swaps with me just in case. It doesn't cost alot of money to find some half decent swaps for caching, I bought a pack of Volkswagen Beetle keyrings on Ebay that worked out at less than £1 each, small toys of good quality are cheap and easily available, and with a little imagination you can think of some decent swag for adults too.

One major use of a forum like this is for inexperienced cachers and complete newbies to ask questions and get information, I don't think anyone should have to do a certain amount of geocaching in order to post. Alot of us only get the chance to go caching at weekends or when we have free time, yet still have alot to contribute to the forum. Remember we all do this for fun, there should be no reason for people to be judged as "more" or "less" of a geocacher. We're all just enthusiasts hunting for a tupperware box in our spare time

I'd agree with previous posts that the challenge of the cache and making it look attractive on the cache page will intice alot of visitors, A FTF prize will only attract people on the first day or until it is found! Saying that, an unactivated geocoin would be a nice FTF prize that isn't too expensive.

There have been horror stories here in the UK (not sure if they are true or urban legends) about thieves stealing a car with Sat-nav/gps and being able to find the owners home, if you've stolen someones car there's a good chance their home will be empty and convenient to burgle! I'd rather mark my GPS with a phone number, if someone finds it and is generous enough to want to return it they can call me.

I'd say go for it! Yes, alot of cachers will leave it alone because it's more than a walk in the park. But for those who do do it it will be alot more memorable, The caches I always remember are the ones that are more of a challenge, this makes them more fun. I'd rather remember a cache that was a challenge than do 20 drive by micros and then forget them. As long as you make it clear on the cache page what special equipment will be needed, and give any safety warnings that may be necessary.

If the muggle is a landowner, ranger or police officer I'll tell the truth. Anyone else I'd gauge the situation, try telling kids that you're looking for something that's hidden and expect them not to try and find it when you're gone!

There's a guy on here that makes magnets/window clings with TB numbers and logos on, I'm sure a search would bring the thread up. You could also just attatch a TB dog tag to your car, maybe displayed in the window somewhere.

You could also "dip" the car TB into drive by caches to record the mileage you've done in the car for caching, but technically the TB never went into a cache, unless you can fit your car into a 35mm film canister!

1: I don't usually put caches on my watchlist when I'm hunting for them, but I print out the cache page with all the necessary info, you can then search for the cache page by the waypoint number (usually something like GC123X) to find the page again. I use my watchlist to keep an eye on caches I plan on doing someday! and to watch caches that are disabled but that I'm waiting for to be reactivated so I can hunt them. 2: It's recommended that you find a few caches (10 or more) before planning on hiding one, by this time you will have a good idea of what sort of containers are suitable, and also what makes a good hide. 35mm film canisters, "lock & lock" sandwich boxes and metal ammo cans tend to be the most popular containers to use. 3: I wouldn't class it as cheating but as has already been mentioned, alot of caches aren't metal, a metal detector may have a use when the cache is covered by snow or leaves and you know it's a metal ammo can, but I personally wouldn't bother carrying one, after a while you tend to get used to the sort of places caches are hidden, and searching for hollow logs/piles of twigs and rocks etc with your eyes will be more useful than a metal detector in most cases. Happy caching Dave

Welcome to the sport, Michael. I print off cache pages and google maps from my home PC and take them with me, you don't necessarialy need a laptop with wifi to take with you.

Welcome to the sport Mark. My first cache was the nearest to my house, and in an area I was familiar with as I spent alot of time there during my childhood. Good luck and have fun!

Here's another one from Wales, an abandoned quarry complete with rows of cottages and a ghost station. GC12RFV

I visited a playground once to solve co-ordinate clues for a multi cache, luckily I could get the information I needed without leaving my car, but I did feel uncomfortable at the thought of being a man on his own wandering around a play area writing things on a piece of paper. I agree with the point about caches being muggled in high traffic areas too, especially if there are alot of children playing in the area, quite often the trees and bushes in a park attract as many kids as the swings and slides, I know if caches existed in my local park when I was a kid, I would have found them by accident pretty quickly.

Geocaching is the cheapest hobby I participate in! All you need is a £100 GPSr and access to the internet. I also do a motorsport called banger racing, it's similar to demolition derby, for this I rent commercial yard space at £125 a month, and have about £1000 worth of kit including tools, welding equipment, trailer, safety gear etc etc. Then add the price of getting hold of scrap cars to build into race cars (I get through one car per race meeting, I'll maybe get my money back on the car when I scrap it at the metal recyclers if I'm lucky). This season I'm going to use a Range Rover 4x4 to tow with, that's another vehicle to tax and insure alongside my everyday car. ...and banger racing is often advertised as the cheapest form of motorsport that is accessible to everyone!

I think by the time you have to make a maintenance trip to replace a rusted out ammo box you will have already made many trips to replace the logbook and prehaps a few to check up on it after DNF logs. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Welcome to the sport! I accidently found a cache once that was about 100ft from the cache I was searching for. The owner of the cache I was searching for knew about it and told me that the other cache had been placed by someone but was not listed on geocaching.com because it was too close to an existing cache. Does the cache you found have any markings indicating who the owner is? If so you could tell them you've found it and ask if it is listed on any website so you can log the find.

You should be able to tell if you are able to retrieve a cache without attracting attention, I've sat on park benches and reached under to retrieve magnetic micro caches whilst people have been jogging/dog walking in the area, but if you're rummaging around in woodland in front of people it might be a bit more risky. When I'm searching for a cache and there are muggles around I'll often pretend to be wandering around whilst on my mobile phone, (this is also a great way of waiting until muggles have gone), I can walk around in an area kicking piles of leaves and looking around the place if I have a phone held to my ear and I'm saying "ok" and "yeah" occasionally! I sometimes remove the cache or more often just the logbook to the nearest park bench or somewhere where I can sit and reach into my bag without looking too suspicious. Nobody's going to take any notice of someone getting a notebook out of their bag and writing something in it. The longest I waited to replace a cache to its site was about 15 minutes, the cache was across the street from a house where a lady was sitting at the window. The cache contained a geocoin so I didn't want to risk it being compromised. I'm sure there is another thread on here about not looking suspicious whilst hunting.

What I carry with me depends on the environment and conditions I'm caching in, for caches in a suburban park or drive bys on a motorway journey I'll usually just take: GPSr Pen/pencil Camera (for taking photos needed to log earthcaches/virtuals and photos of anything interesting) Tweezers (for extracting fiddly nano caches) and I usually carry a trade item in case I find something I like, these are usually toy cars on keyrings as the only things I usually swap for are other toy cars! (I'm a big kid and a classic car freak!) If however I wasn't just in my local towns but was somewhere more extreme I'd take all the necessary clothing and safety equipment with me, I'm going to be up a mountain at midnight on new years, so I'll also be taking: Waterproofs Spare clothing Headtorch Spare batteries First aid kit Survival blanket Food Whistle Trekking poles Water Map Phone Gloves

What you can do is buy a travel bug dog tag and either attatch it to your clay "coin" or have the tracking number moulded into the coin. Technically it will be a "Travel Bug" rather than a "Geocoin" but it will be alot easier than trying to get a set of coin tracking numbers, as I believe you have to buy them in multiples of 100 for geocoins. I heard of a guy somewhere in the US (possibly Hawaii) who makes clay tiles and numbers them that way.

Hi, welcome to the forum and to the wonderful sport of geocaching :sad:

I'd definately go with poles over a stick. when using poles you are basically using all four limbs to walk with, you can stabilise yourself over rough terrain easier and you'll find going uphill alot easier too. Going downhill you'll feel the benefit on your knees, which take 4 times as much pressure going downhill than uphill. Another benefit of using 2 poles is that your body stays aligned better, if using one pole or one stick your body tends to rotate around the stick (for example, your body will rotate around to the right if using one pole in the right hand). Alot of technical backpacks nowadays have loops to attatch poles to, so they can be collapsed and attatched to your pack at time you don't need to use them. I'd stick with brands that are well known, therefore you'll be able to locate spare parts like tips and baskets if you need them. Dave

Is anyone planning on doing any caches on New Years day? Perhaps at midnight? I'm planning on being on Snowdons summit for midnight, weather permitting. I did the virtual on the summit a while ago but I see there's a regular cache nearby too