Placing a woodland cache

[+Crid]

I'm looking for place my first cache, hopefully on Forestry Commission land. I figured I should find some decent candidate spots first before approaching them.

 

I remember reading somewhere (I can't remember if it was in a cache log or in a forum) that somebody was complaining about woodland caches because GPS doesn't work so well under tree canopy. When I first started geocaching I borrowed an old Garmin Legend which completely lost the satellites the first time I got under tree cover (a disused railway line that is now a footpath), so I realise that a woodland cache may exclude people with older GPS kit.

 

I've found a few woodland caches myself. Some have been in the wood itself, some have been on bits of ground where there is a lot of floor cover and only a few trees. Obviously the GPS was less accurate under tree cover (in one instance my GPS told me the cache was about 30 metres from the coordinates). In the clear areas the tree itself can be a landmark.

 

I've started walking the wood in question fairly regularly, finding where the various paths go and looking for good spots to hide a cache. But I'd appreciate opinions of what constitutes "a good spot" in a woodland cache, especially since I haven't hidden a cache before. Anybody care to offer their views?

Edited November 8, 2007 by Crid

[+The Lavender Hill Mob]

Anybody care to offer their views?

I prefer woodland caches purely because the scenery is better especially at this time of year but if you're going to hide a cache try not to make it a micro............I know I'm a fine one to talk............but micro's especially in woodland are unpopular. Hiding a cache in the Autumn is a good time because the leaves are off the trees and holes are filled with water, there's nothing worse than placing a cache only to find that a few months later all the leaves have gone and the cache is exposed or the hole you put it in has turned into a pond.

 

Try to pick a spot which is not on a footpath but just off a footpath so the seeker doesn't have to tear through dense bush and thicket. Also, try not to place too many caches in the same area at the same time...local walkers will notice the influx of new faces holding strange devices...........I've just learnt this from a series of cahces that I've just placed.

[+macroderma]

Anybody care to offer their views?

I prefer woodland caches purely because the scenery is better especially at this time of year but if you're going to hide a cache try not to make it a micro............I know I'm a fine one to talk............but micro's especially in woodland are unpopular. Hiding a cache in the Autumn is a good time because the leaves are off the trees and holes are filled with water, there's nothing worse than placing a cache only to find that a few months later all the leaves have gone and the cache is exposed or the hole you put it in has turned into a pond.

 

Try to pick a spot which is not on a footpath but just off a footpath so the seeker doesn't have to tear through dense bush and thicket. Also, try not to place too many caches in the same area at the same time...local walkers will notice the influx of new faces holding strange devices...........I've just learnt this from a series of cahces that I've just placed.

 

I love woodland too - some of my favourite caches have been in woodland

 

I would agree with all of this advice - especially thinking about how the woodland will change through the year

 

I have a cache in an area that looked fine - the following summer it was behind 30 feet of stinging nettles!

 

Small containers (especially in tree roots and holes) are vulnerable to animals - especially squirrels, who seem to enjoy moving them

 

I think it is inevitable that searchers' GPSr will be more inaccurate (unless you place the cache near the edge of the wooded area, or near a clearing), so look for an unusual or distinctive feature as the hide or as a spot to start the hint from. After all you will need to find it to maintain it!

 

I think there are some agreements for forestry commission areas - check out geocache.uk

[+scanker]

All good advice. The only thing I'd add is to maybe place the cache somewhere distinctive so that the hint can be of real help. For instance, if the cache is in the roots of the only holly bush amongst a load of silver birch, it would be an easy find with the hint, should the tree cover be playing havoc with the GPS. Assuming the finder knows the difference between holly and birch.

[+Team Sieni]

Take a spoiler photo for your own reference. I have just 1 (one, un, uno, yksi, ein, 1) cache to maintain, I went to check on it the other day and couldn't find the cursed thing. Only after about ten minutes searching and thinking "this area has changed a lot" did I realise I had my GPS on OSGB not WGS84! What a nitwit!

 

If you are worried about tree-cover excluding finders, just increase the level of detail in your hint (or not, if you want to make it harder).

 

We recently did a cache that was a way off the path in quite scrubby woodland and very difficult to get to if you approach on the wrong one of many possible paths. Initially I was cursing the hider for such a poor choice of location - I mean, who but a fool would put a cache in such an inaccessible place. Of course once we had found it I was praising our finding efforts under challenging conditions and thanking the clever hider for setting a challenge worthy of us.

 

Drainage is important. As noted above, consider carefully if your hiding place will remain nice and dry.

 

See Geocaching Association of Great Britain www.gagb.org.uk for forestry commission agreements. Also the forums there are a good place for specific advice on permissions.

[+Pharisee]

Remember that some cache seekers are not as conscientious at re-hiding the cache as others. A cache that you've disguised with a cunningly placed piece of tree bark will very soon turn into a very conspicuous pile of broken branches that resemble a cub scouts first attempt at building a fire (generally termed 'stick-o-flage'). Try to find a location that will minimise this. A hollow tree or log can often be used to good effect.

 

Sometimes there are footbridges over small streams or ditches. Often it's possible to hide a cache under one end of such a structure. Be creative but above all..... Don't make it a micro!!

[+SidAndBob]

I addition to the other sensible comments I would add...

 

Do:

Place it soon or you'll miss that great autumn foliage.

Find a proper hiding place.

Bear in mind that animals may move the cache whilst foraging if it's not reasonably secure.

State on your listing that there is tree cover and GPS coverage can be poor for some. I sometimes offer a spoiler "for those who can't get GPS reception".

Put it in an interesting spot, not just an arbitrary point in a forest. This rule should apply to all caches, though not everyone seems to agree.

Get as good coords as possible by averaging your readings.

 

Don't:

Place it in dead or damaged trees, as the FC may remove it whilst clearing a sick tree.

Place it on the ground and cover with a huge pile of sticks. Boy I hate those caches.

 

I know of one cache which is a perfect example of how not to do it. Place it in FC land (almost certainly without permission), in view of houses, in stinging nettles, in a pine forest, in the roots of a toppled pine tree, 30 seconds from the road.

[+Crid]

Thanks for the comments so far. Some good points raised.

 

I don't plan to do a micro (I'm not a fan of micros anyway). But having said that, I did a cache a little while ago where there was a micro near the car park that gave you the coordinates of the final cache elsewhere in the wood. The micro wasn't all that hard to find, and it did mean that people didn't try to drive along tracks to get to the cache. I thought it was quite a nice idea.

 

I'm figuring that I probably want to look for a lesser-used path or track in the wood (less chance of being surprised by muggles) and good GPS coverage (hopefully) means less disturbance to the cache area if cachers don't have to walk over much in order to find the cache.

 

Mud is another consideration (and this is probably a pretty good time to gauge that problem). The woods get used quite a bit by horse riders (I was up there during my lunchtime today and encountered three horses in about 20 minutes). Not only do they churn the mud up more, they also leave other presents for unwary walkers.

[+The Lavender Hill Mob]

Don't:

Place it on the ground and cover with a huge pile of sticks. Boy I hate those caches.

We did a cache at the weekend that you could spot a mile off, the cache container was bright green and half hidden in a crack of a tree, it could never have been completely hidden. There was a pile of 'Boy Scout fire' sticks (I call it 'cache sign', like 'worm sign' from the novel Dune!) up against it, I guess previous cachers had tried to hide it, as did we

 

Other 'cache sign' I've come across apart from the pile of 'Boy Scout fire sticks' are the trail of flattend grass that leads to a tree, a pile of stones and one I found today........a giant plastic grasshopper sitting next to an exposed cache!

 

[+Pharisee]

One other thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned.... Don't be tempted to wrap your cache up in a black bin liner, or any other plastic bag, come to that. A good quality 'Lok & Lok' type box doesn't need any extra waterproofing and there are much better way to camouflage your box than to disguise it as discarded dog poo.