Questions on hiding and finding caches

[SniderBrother3]

Hello All!

 

Just bought a Garmin eTrex Legend C for part play and part usefulness on back roads when traveling and to mark hiking, camping and other spots. But I needed some info to make geocaching a little simpler and fun for myself and possibly others.

 

Is it OK to bury a cache in sand? I was planning on hitting a beach and maybe a sanddune in the desert and burying a cache (an ammo box) a few inches under the sand, in a place the sand wouldn't blow off to expose the box and where people may not normally walk. Maybe have a clue to "bring a shovel" and be able to find the box by simply poking a stick into the ground at several places. Is that fair? At least make it easy enough where they could use there hand to dig it out if neccessary.

 

Next: Is there a website or program on here where I can find the coordinates or at least the zipcode of small cities of less than 20,000 if I happen to take a trip to these places and want to do some caching? I see the program on here has lists of cities in each state with populations of greater than 20,000, but what if I am approaching small town America, where do I go. I know I could take a reading on the GPS and hit a library and type that in to find something, but what if no library or no time? I am probably asking for too much and must preplan or look at state maps for coords.

 

Lastly for now...Is it possible for me to place a Travel Bug with a small log book attached with instructions for the cachers to write down their name, the coords where it was found, the date, and to please place in another cache, and after 20 -30 "finds" have them mail the TB and logbook back to me just to see where it has been? I could include stamps to pay for it too. The "Travel Bug" can be just a logbook as well. I also thought of placing a disposable camera in a larger cashe with similar instructions. Maybe the person who finds it writes the pertinate info on a piece of paper and then takes a picture of themselves and the paper and the scenery around them and moves it to another cashe. Again include stamps for the return home. Would this work in a practical sence? Any other ideas?

 

Thanks for any info you can give!

 

SniderBrother3

[+mgbmusic]

Hello All!

 

Just bought a Garmin eTrex Legend C for part play and part usefulness on back roads when traveling and to mark hiking, camping and other spots. But I needed some info to make geocaching a little simpler and fun for myself and possibly others.

 

Is it OK to bury a cache in sand? I was planning on hitting a beach and maybe a sanddune in the desert and burying a cache (an ammo box) a few inches under the sand, in a place the sand wouldn't blow off to expose the box and where people may not normally walk. Maybe have a clue to "bring a shovel" and be able to find the box by simply poking a stick into the ground at several places. Is that fair? At least make it easy enough where they could use there hand to dig it out if neccessary.

 

Next: Is there a website or program on here where I can find the coordinates or at least the zipcode of small cities of less than 20,000 if I happen to take a trip to these places and want to do some caching? I see the program on here has lists of cities in each state with populations of greater than 20,000, but what if I am approaching small town America, where do I go. I know I could take a reading on the GPS and hit a library and type that in to find something, but what if no library or no time? I am probably asking for too much and must preplan or look at state maps for coords.

 

Lastly for now...Is it possible for me to place a Travel Bug with a small log book attached with instructions for the cachers to write down their name, the coords where it was found, the date, and to please place in another cache, and after 20 -30 "finds" have them mail the TB and logbook back to me just to see where it has been? I could include stamps to pay for it too. The "Travel Bug" can be just a logbook as well. I also thought of placing a disposable camera in a larger cashe with similar instructions. Maybe the person who finds it writes the pertinate info on a piece of paper and then takes a picture of themselves and the paper and the scenery around them and moves it to another cashe. Again include stamps for the return home. Would this work in a practical sence? Any other ideas?

 

Thanks for any info you can give!

 

SniderBrother3

 

A: RE: Burying in sand - It wouldn't be my first choice honestly. Sand is such a fluidic substance it's blown all around all the time. I honestly don't think a few inches would suffice to hide it. It's your cache, don't get me wrong, but whether it would be findable, or people would venture out to look, don't know. I know _I_ probably wouldn't look for it..

 

B: RE: Zip codes - usps.com - us postal service. specifically - http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown.jsp

 

C: RE: TB - To be honest, I don't have a good answer for this one. I would say it's a touch impractical for a number of reasons, not the least of which is transport. Things get lost/damaged/etc. when moving around. Throwing a logbook or papers or stamps into the mix would, I think, be pointless because at the end of the day, I think you'd end up with a dog tag in a cache in Connecticut somewhere. I know I personally would take care to follow your wishes as best as I could, but not everyone is me, and frankly I'd lose your stamps.

 

In your shoes, I would release the TB, and use the TB log page to keep track of its movements. 9 times out of 10 it'll be easier to track and read than the average logbook scrawl i've seen. As far as pics are concerned, Ask people to email them. Most people are gonig to research the cache before finding it, and those people will bring a camera with them. If not, they'll snap off a picture while en route moving it to another cache.

 

In a perfect world, your idea would be wonderful. In practice howevr, it doesn't seem practical.

 

Just my $0.04 (there's a lot here, so I had to double it).

 

--==MGB==--

 

Edited: added content

Edited September 16, 2006 by mgbmusic

[SniderBrother3]

Thanks for the replay MGB!

 

I remembered my other question for whomever can answer. Is it OK to place a cache in a National Park or something similar?

[+briansnat]

Thanks for the replay MGB!

 

I remembered my other question for whomever can answer. Is it OK to place a cache in a National Park or something similar?

 

National parks in the US are generally off limits for geocaching. National forests are generally OK. I say generally because there are some limited exceptions in both areas.

[ozarksearchers]

about burying a cache. on www.geacaching.com/seek page they have a "read the guide lines for reporting a cache" link if you read this it gives the rules and one of them was quit adement about not burying caches and even went as far as saying that if a shovel was required they would not post your hide on there site. you should read this it gave some other good info also

[+Kryten]

There have been caches buried in sand in the past but I don't think you could get one approved now. Even dunes which appear to be stationary are actually moving and there have been cases of caches that went missing simply because the sand moved.