msrubble

Or tic tac toe.

Moist towelettes or hand sanitizer Bandana Map Mosquito head net Emergency blanket (if near water) Sinkers and bobbers Campers' toilet paper Emergency whistle Bungee cords Small sewing kit Single-use camera

Two each of: normal size pens, "Shortie" type pens, regular pencils, golf pencils with cap erasers, pencil sharpeners, snack size baggies, pint freezer bags, quart freezer bags, logbooks. Also a Sharpie and a larger permanent marker. If I know the cache container is damaged, I take along a tape measure. Perhaps I can find a replacement that is nearly the same.

Think about the kinds of public lands in your area that already have geocaches. What are they? City parks, county parks, national forest, state park? Has a city, county, Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau, or the like sponsored a geocaching event? The Michigan Geocaching Organization has information on known land use policies on their web site. Are there any areas near you where geocaching is allowed that do not yet have a cache? Is there perhaps a large park that would support another cache? Are these places at least .1 mile from the nearest cache? When you have a few potential locations in mind, I would advise, go take a look, and keep an eye out for spots that could support a cache. You may find out that one trail is too exposed, or that one park has no good hiding places, but you may find a pleasant area that you never knew about. Unless you have an extraordinary container in mind, I'd recommend choosing a container that fits the place and not the other way around. Take measurements. Note coordinates. Prepare container. Place cache. Take coordinates again. Average coordinates (the more readings on different days under different conditions, the better). Submit listing. Cross fingers.

At most caches, it is possible to trade. You don't have to trade if you don't want to. Travel bugs are not trade items. You can take one to move along and not leave anything in its place. Same goes for FTF prize, if you happen to be first to find a cache. Think of inexpensive things that you might like to find in a cache. I usually take along one item for children and one for adults, then choose which to trade when I see what's in the cache already. Some things I have left: Toy car Beads Colored chalk Keychain First aid kit Moist towelettes Batteries Where's George? dollar Pen Tape measure Miniature screwdriver set Bandana Deck of cards Compact mirror Rubber stamp Rain poncho Foreign coins Ruler Map Lapel pin

If your GPSr can be 20 feet off on a good day, and so can the hider's, then anywhere within 40 feet is quite possibly as accurate as you can get. One of the best tips I think I read here in the forums: don't make it too hard on yourself, particularly if the terrain rating is not very high. This could be part of thinking like a cache hider. If the hunt takes you in a wooded, swampy, or hilly area, look for an easy way. Many cache hiders will place the cache somewhere that is fairly easy to get to, so that it won't be a major undertaking for them to check up on the cache from time to time. It might be ten feet from a path and not require fighting your way thirty feet through a patch of thorny bushes.

Pretty much like you, Bear Paughs. I looked up some caches I especially liked, and some that were similar to mine (location, difficulty), to form some realistic expectations of how many visitors I might get.

Yes, there are. Books, with links to music CDs and movie DVDs. Keyrings. There are others with this theme in the UK. Postcards. There is at least one other.

A keychain that was almost exactly what I was looking for. Not too big. Unusual enough that I could describe it if I lost it, and it wouldn't be common.

My first cache hidden is a themed cache, Keychain Insane. I would like the cache to stay all keychains and travel bugs. But I want cachers to have fun. I would rather they trade normally than feel excluded if they don't have a spare keyring to trade.

One of these things is not like the others. . .