Placing My First Cache.

[+UOTrackers]

I've been doing some research and found the place to set my first cache. So far I've been out to the area on a fairly nice day. Very few clouds, but windy. I stood in each spot (multi cache) and with my garmin etrex legend I "marked" the spot. I've been back there once since then and the co-ords on pt 2 seem to be way off. How many times should I go back and mark and trace the steps? Or is there a better way to do this?

 

Any info is much appreciated!

[+welch]

The more times, the better. But is it practical to spend weeks to get a waypoint?

I'd suggest reading Markwell's FAQ.

[+briansnat]

How far is "way off". 20-50 feet is quite normal.

Edited January 29, 2006 by briansnat

[+dogdoins]

I usually hide it and mark it, walk in a big circle around it and come back and mark it again. I do this until I have 3 or 4 waypoints and kind of average it out.

[+badlands]

It also depends on what you are hiding and how you are hiding it. If it's an ammo box under a pile of sticks next to a tree, most people will find it with +/- 50 ft accuracy. If you are hiding a bison tube on the other hand, it needs to be much more precise.

Edited January 29, 2006 by badlands

[+GPSOkie]

I use the averaging function and seem to have really good luck with it. I usually set the GPS down and let it gather about 1000 datapoint. It takes a couple of minutes, but each spot I've marked that way I am able to return to +/- 20 feet.

[+Beffums]

Also, sometimes, no matter what you do, your accuracy will be bad. if so, just say so in the listing. that way, if I go look for the cache, I know that you had bad reception, so I know that I shouldn't just rely on the GPSr - I need to go a bit broader in the search.

 

And, keep an eye out. You can state in the listing to "feel free to post coords" and some people will. There are people out there who are REALLLLLLY good at marking spots - they'll let you know where they found your cache. Then you can average that in with what you had.

[+UOTrackers]

How far is "way off". 20-50 feet is quite normal.

The one that was way off was the 2nd waypoint, it was off by 120+ feet and it needs to be close because it will have the next set of co-ords on it. I took my husband out to search for it, and he was all over something it was not on but would make sense for a cacher to look over. I think I'll go out a couple more times before placing the cache anyway, it also helps me get a feel for the traffic. It's a park but so far I've only ever seen one woman there and she's there everyday and inquisitive, heh that should make this fun! Course I told her I was looking for an old rairoad mark. It worked! She thought I was trying to "age" the trees. I took a lot of pictures my first time there of possible hiding spots.

 

Thanks for everyone's input!

[+JDandDD]

I use the averaging technique with my GPS and leave the GPS on the cache site for about 5 minutes. I also usually take 2 or 3 measurements and see how close I get and try to average. As someone else wrote, despite your best efforts you still can be off by the usually acceptable 20-30ft and some cachers aren't even tolerant of that. Don't expect perfection and take the criticism in step. Chances are the criticizer has caches that are also 'way off'.

 

JDandDD

[snowfoxrox]

My favorite way to test co-ord's is to check them against google local (hybrid maps) for urban caches it's pretty near dead on. So if I enter Co-ords on google and they show up where I hid the cache, I know they are good. Just my 2 cents...

[+Team Cotati]

"I usually hide it and mark it, walk in a big circle around it and come back and mark it again. I do this until I have 3 or 4 waypoints and kind of average it out. " Exactly! This also simulates the way that future hunters may be approaching the location. Nice job. "Cache on Garth!!".

[+humanloofa]

On any of my hides I go to it at least five times, on different days if possible and than average. That seems to get most people real close.

[+saturn639]

We just placed our first cache recently. We took three diffrent readings at different times of the day. Then we plugged those coords into Google Earth to see where it would place the marks. We picked the mark closest to our actual cache. So far, no one has posted a DNF (did not find) so it must have worked!

[+Kealia]

I use a Magellan SporTrak Pro and I leave it in place for about 5 minutes while I hide the cache. It averages automatically.

 

That's it.

Never been a complaint about my coords and most of the hides are underneath heavy redwood cover.