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10 things


va griz

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1. Bring a camera with you...in your day pack is fine.

 

2. It's always a good idea to check property you own for caches. I've found caches that others have put out on my property before. Didn't bother me...well it did a little.

 

3. Bring your kids with you to cache. It's a wonderful family hobby and you look less conspicuous during the hunt.

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I've learned that 300 feet is a very long ways when you are on the wrong side of the river! B)

Heh, So true. :D:D

 

Sloopy12 on temperature

It gets 20 degrees F colder when you are 1 mile deep in a forest and 30 colder when you get locked out of your car. Finding a cache will help you warm up.

In short: Bring one extra jacket in addition to what you think you will need.

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Never eat the Yellow Snow!

 

Garter Snakes are always in a hurry.

 

All animals are geocachers.

 

I always go in the hard way back the easy way.

 

If you don't mark your car - better know what the map page is all about.

 

Things go better if you don't forget the GPS! and the listing.

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NEVER stick your hand in a strange, dark hole in the ground while searching for a cache in the woods!

 

We learned that some large house cats are subterranian and are as scared as you are.

 

I have learned this as well....It seems that Large Toads love dark places....who knew?!?!?! :)

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So far I've learned

1. The last place you think to look, the cache will be there.

2. Trust your "cache sense" and follow it.

:)

 

Of course it's in the last place you look. Once you find it, it would be silly to continue looking!

 

Not so sure. Yesterday I found a letterbox by mistake while I was looking for a cache that turned out to be only 20 yards away. If I'd quit looking I never would have found Make It To Jamaica and he'd still be stuck in a northbound rest area...

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I've just started caching, and I've already learned something.

 

I'm going to buy one of those sport style eyeglass straps. I nearly lost mine off my head last weekend, and trust me when I say that without my glasses, all of the GPS units in the world would have never helped me find my way back!!

 

Also, if the idea of pulling those pesky burrs off of your clothing creeps you out, then geocaching is NOT for you!!

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Bring antiseptic. You will get scratched.

 

If you end up going the wrong way on a mountain.... turn it into an adventure.

 

Bring water with you. (found this out the hard way going the wrong way up a mountain on foot.)

 

Take a moment to stop and enjoy the beauty of the area you are in.

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Bring more batteries and band-aids.

 

There's no such thing as a good snake.

 

They are called "fire ants" for a reason.

 

Figure out what doesn't look right.

 

You get what you pay for.

 

It's not about the numbers, but FTFs are pretty cool.

 

CITO

 

One wrong digit can put you 310,000 ft off. Check your coords.

 

Cachers are good people.

 

Don't forget the walking stick.

Edited by bbqbob2
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Only caching 3 days what I learned

If you can't work the new GPS give it to a 14 yr old

If you give the new GPS to the 14 yr old never expect to get it back

And last but not least my 14 year old can keep a secret (how to work the GPS) :)

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Things I've learned in 9 months of caching.

 

1. It's not a hunt until you draw blood.

 

2. Three magic words to get a PTC to turn off it's cloaking device, "I give up"

 

3. I can turn a 1/1 into a 5/5 with the best of them

 

4. It takes longer to find your cell phone at night, in the woods, in the rain, with a dead flashlight than it does to find the same cache AND be the FTF the next morning after the rain quits. (Don't ask how I know)

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Most cache owners are very nice people. But some are evil, some are nasty and some are just imcompetent. So, it's up to you to make your own fun.

 

Something I *just* learned! Harry Dolphin is a much, much, much nicer person than I am!

 

:) I would have just said "(well, you don't want to know what I would have just said)" and skipped the "very nice people, evil, nasty, and just incompetant."

 

Don't get me wrong. I have met some very, very, very, very nice cachers ... once, and I can't remember their names!

____________________________

 

To add to your list:

 

- you're never going to find the number of caches you set out of find. If you leave home expecting to find 20, you'll only find 4, and if you leave home expecting to find 4, you'll find 20!

 

Did I mention what a nice, nice person Harry Dolphin was? :(

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things i have learned in just over three months of geocaching (along with all the other things folks have mentioned):

 

1) a really great hunt is not as much fun without someone to share it with (won't go out without my partner)

2) we are only the most stealthy when we are *not* hunting a cache.

3) you always remember your first: first find, first hide, first event, first TB picked up/moved/launched, first cacher met in the feild, etc.

4) i am not as much of a wuss as i thought, marching through briars in capri pants or shorts, determined to wear tank tops in the heat and not stressing about sunburns

5) mosquitos these days seem to love the taste of bug spray, since no matter how much i use, i always end up with the itchies

6) no matter how many caches i find, i will never stop enjoying the hunt, and marveling at the next most creative container i see

7) nanos are only cool the first time you find one

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1) Going paperless only works if you load the info on a PDA. IF you don't print the log and you don't have a PDA, then all caches will be puzzle caches.

2) The car is always much much further away from the cache than the cache was from the car.

3) No matter how "sneaky" you start out, soon your rear will protrude from a bush.

4) You can intend to head west to hunt caches and end up 100 miles east without realizing it.

5) No matter how cute you look when you pull out of the drive, you will have weeds in your hair, stickers on your socks, and mud on your face when you come home. AND you will need to stop for milk.

6) People you'd never think were into caching know all about it (and have impressive numbers!)

7) It's fun to cache alone and it's fun to cache in groups.

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(1)- The other parallel thing I learned about trails - When placing a cache that you THINK is far, far, far from the trail, scope around for about 150-200 feet and make sure that the trail didn't loop back

 

(2)- When placing a cache, load the local caches (found or unfound) into your GPS to make sure that yours if far enough away from the others.

 

(3)- In July and August, carry a stick in front of your face while walking through dense foliage. This will make it so that you avoid the "pfuh--PFUH!!" when you walk through the spider webs. Alternatively, cache with others and let them lead so you can laugh when THEY go "pfuh--PFUH!!"

 

(4)- Kids will do a 3 mile hike easily for a deck of cards or a cool super ball.

 

(5)- You don't HAVE to find ALL the caches out there. Find the ones with a set of criteria you know you'll like. Unless you're INCREDIBLY picky, there's plenty of caches that you'll like around.

 

(6)- Don't spend more time updating and maintaining an offline database than you do with GPS hunts.

 

(7)- Looking for a cache that you didn't know is archived is not all THAT bad.

 

(8)- Every cache you hide should be inspired. Offer your BEST and try to impress the cachers in your area. Placing one great cache will let your cache-name be famous for years. One group of uninspired caches that give you a bad name will last even longer.

 

(9)- Cachers, in general, prefer traditionals to multi's because of the work involved in getting a smiley. After learning this, I was greatly disappointed.

 

(10)- 90% of the time, a second cache placed in a park is closer to the parking lot and much easier - and somehow seem to detract my enjoyment of the original cache (my personal opinion).

 

(11)- Don't worry about FTF. Let someone else find out that the coordinates are 75 feet off.

Edited by Markwell
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We are very new to this, but have learned a few things. The single most important thing that I have learned is, "Figure out how to set and use waypoints". Once you know how, set them early and set them often. Set one when you get out of your car, set one when you leave the trail, set one when you take a fork in a trail. It just may turn the 2 mile hike back to your car into a 1/2 mile walk. Trust me, I am a slow learner and have made the 2 mile hikes instead of the 1/2 mile walks more than once.

 

TamaraL1

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I just got my GPSr on the 5th (my birthday) and have only been out once but so far I've learned that if you're in an urban area and think you found a private little pocket chances are someone with an addiction to narcotics has found it before you. B)

 

Furthermore, if you are tracking down a cache and end up in a similar situation - check for needles! (2 out of 3 of my cache finds this weekend had a discarded needle close by)

 

And lastly, if you find a needle call it in to the fire station so that no-one else will have to deal with it.

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Altho my 1st attempt was yesterday and I by default live less than .2 miles away from at least 1 cache and less than 1.5 miles from at least 2 others I was not able to find anything. That process taught me a few things:

 

If you want to take a 4-legged companion, they need to be able to go as far and as fast as you do, without causing you bodily injury along the way to the cache or on the way back home.

 

The best coordinates in the world will not be able to be found using a GPS or PDA whose batteries - main, back and/or spares are dead {yup found that out the hard way}

 

IF you have just added geo-cacheing to your already huge list of internet-assisted hobbies, you do not want to take any more time explaining this new obsession to your spouse or partner than it takes for them to roll their eyes, shake their heads and walk away. This will probably take no time at all, it took me less than a minute!

 

Whether you find anything or not, it will probably take longer to prepare to leave your domicile than it will to find any number of caches.

 

Did I mention I got all of 200 feet from the end of my cul-de-sac? I learned soo much in that time. :lol:

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On the 20th of December I found my first cache. So it’s my three month anniversary of following the little electronic arrow. Considering there are many folks here that have 20 times that experience, I am hardly a veteran at the game. But I thought I would list what I know that I didn’t before I started this game/sport/hobby/preoccupation/pastime/ whatever. And I’m hoping others can share their greater experience and tell what they have learned too.

 

1. Only trust your GPS to get you to the ball park, then concentrate on the ball.

2. One mistake on the coordinates will put you off by one street, park, county, or state, depending on where the error is.

3. Much of the landscape that I thought was deserted is visited every day by somebody.

4. A lot of times people see what they EXPECT to see instead of what’s there.

5. Many containers that I thought were waterproof will get wet inside.

6. Even with frozen stiff fingers, I can now roll up a tiny strip of paper in a wind storm.

7. Geocachers know more about lampposts than 95 percent of the population.

8. If my area is any indication, for every park the locals know about there are three more that they didn’t know were there.

9. Sometimes you can see the micro before you park, and sometimes you can trip over the ammo can and still not see it.

10. If you aren’t having fun geocaching it’s your own fault.

 

What have you learned?

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In the last Month I have learned:

 

1. There are 1,652,789 different models of "magnetic key boxes"

2. There are 7,853,998 different models of "match tubes"

3. Cachers take more medicine than most folks - otherwise were in the hell do they get all those empty bottles?

4. Some folks forget to remove the labels from the prescription bottles before turning them into caches :ph34r:

5. A Camera is just as important as a GPSr to a successful cacher

6. 15 year old boys can be excited by something other than a video game

7. 15 year old boys see better and move faster than 53 year old men

8. There are more skirts in most parking lots than there are females walking through them

9. The amount of noise made when opening a cache is directly proportional to the proximity of muggles.

10. The U. S. Military REALLY shoots up a lot of ammuntion!!!!!

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.

 

Some hard caches are easy to find without coordinates or a GPS.

 

Some easy caches are hard to find with coordinates and a GPS.

 

If you put your backpack down and begin searching, look near the backpack FIRST!

 

Some micros are higher than you can reach but require no climbing.

 

As soon as you put your GPS down somewhere, you're asking for trouble.

 

.

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(9)- Cachers, in general, prefer traditionals to multi's because of the work involved in getting a smiley. After learning this, I was greatly disappointed.

The trick in my area seems to be placing the "multi" parts out as micros in their own right, with the coordinate parts in each one. Not only does that make them more inviting for those who are interested in the numbers, it also makes it a bit more obvious that you can do each one individually rather than trying to do them all in a single caching session. Then when you've got all the numbers you can go for the "bonus cache".

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-There are really big spiders here in Okinawa, and they all spin their webs across trails.

 

-Okinawan muggles are very polite, and do their best to ignore strangers.

 

-The heat and humidity here make some of those 1/1s into 5/5s...as do the well coordinated attacks by mosquitoes.

 

-Holes in rocks often contain Habus. ;)

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:) The main thing I've learned is: A surprising percentage of the time, the cache is in the last place I look. (before you say "duh", admit you've looked in holes, etcetera and didn't see the cache that is there.

 

Another thing: Geocachers don't have as much a sense of humor as you might hope. I learned this after hiding a micro with a 6 inch thread attached to a fake spider. (yeah, it's funny if it happens to someone else...)

 

and another: An hour long conference lunch break is a half hour too short to grab that cache you've been hoping to get to.

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A film can will hold a grocery store plastic bag. Just stuff it inside. That makes it very easy to carry a trash bag with you for CITO purposes. (It also makes it easy to keep one in your glove box for use in the car.)

 

Thanks! Appreciate that info!

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Even if you were careful there was still some poison oak that you didn't see

 

If you cache in the dark and then have to pee don't be surprised when you find poison oak in unfortunate places

:D

#1 No matter how well you think you know the difference between sumac and poison sumac you should still carry TP.

 

Do not back into that parking spot at the local park. :D

Along the same line... If you see someone else lurking in the woods by a rest stop or park-n-ride, don't ask, "Are you looking for what I'm looking for?"

You're under arrest!

 

You will really find out how lazy your kids are when you ask them to go with you on a hunt!!!!!!!!! :D

Ain't that the truth!

 

#2 People that place caches in bogs and fens should be shot. I can't tell you how many times I was out looking for carnivorous plants and ended up following a trail of smashed CP's right to a nano inside a pitcher plant.

#3a Gothing out and then hunting in the wood is hilarious when you happen on a hiker or two.

#3b Even more so when hunting near a crowded beach.

#4 Falling out of a tree because you didn't test a branch can let insects munch at will for a long time (got knocked out for an hour once)

#5 Near heavily wooded Canadian borders try to find out about areas of suspected illegal activities (set off a sound boobie trap in Minnesota near a refer feild.)

#6 Deet doesn't work on chiggers any more.

#7 Don't try free diving for a cache you cant see from the surface.

#8 If you can reach that cache above you wile flat footed in fast moving water, don't try going tippy toe.

#9 That muggle eyeballing you might think you are a muggle and don't want you knowing whats there.

#10 Don't leave the 5 gal buckets you where painting out over night to cure, somebody will steal them.

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Still a newbie - but here is what I've learned over the course of a few months...

 

1. Wearing flipflops and a mini skirt turns a "quick grab" 1/1 on the side of a hill into a 5/5 with a bonus peep show.

2. Juniper bushes are NOT hypoallergenic.

3. When stealth is required, take along a couple of kids and a dog - you can get away with almost anything.

4. Keep an open mind. Once you utter the words "it just has to be RIGHT HERE!" you are on your way to a DNF.

5. Trying to squeeze in a cache on a time limit (like a lunchbreak from work) ups the adrenaline but also ups the chance of a DNF that will make you slap your head and say "Duh!" when you go back and find it.

6. Not everyone will "get" how you became so addicted to geocaching!

7. Try not to look so guilty (still working on that one...) :D

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Things I've learned in my first month of caching:

 

An adult man skulking around alone in the woods just off the path? Very Creepy. Same adult man, but with a kid and maybe a clipboard in hand? "ooh look, they must be working on a boy scout project or something."

 

If the cache description says "bring bug spray," you should douse yourself the moment you step out of your car.

 

Caching during lunchbreak is awesome. Sitting back down at your desk wearing a dress shirt that's soaked through with sweat is not awesome.

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You're not cheating on your husband if you just want to go geocaching....

but it sure looks that way! <_<

 

Hide a caching back-pack in the trunk of your car, so that when you go visit awful relatives, you can sneak out with your sister-in-laws for some, umm, "shopping" - needless to say, you'll need an extra pair of shoes cause hubby WILL eye you suspiciously... :D

 

Get gardening gloves for the kid, too - she wants to poke around in the cracks and be the FTF in the group :D

 

Always pick up a few things for trade when you are really actually shopping and see something you know others will like (tiny wooden alphabet stamps for $1? Ten, please). :D

 

Bring the tweezers not only for the nano, but for pulling the ticks out of said kid's back and arms - none of the bug sprays seem to work, and then hubby accuses you of geo-cheating...it's him or the CACHE! :D

 

The flashlight is for shining into the hole - even in Connecticut we have Timber Rattlesnakes and Copperheads. Even the Brown Recluse spider. :P

 

Wave the stick between the trees - the spider is worse than the webs....when it's on your chest! B)

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Well I do find this thread fascinating! There are some US caching experiences that I can safely say I've never come across. So I'll share a few things I've learned about caching in England (Rochdale, Manchester for anybody who is interested):

 

1) Even the smallest of landmarks have names. A tiny little hill or promontory, a spring or stream, a tiny valley or rocky outcrop, or the most obscure of tracks leading from nowhere to nowhere. All of these things are or were special to someone, somewhere. You might think you're the only person to use the track, but for someone it is (or was) probably the Sunday morning walk to church.

 

2) The nicest scenery is not too near, and not too far, from civilisation. Too near and you get litter/ dirtbike tracks/ doggie gifts/ traffic. Too far and you get the elements, and a bleak, featureless countryside that doesn't lend itself perfectly to caching.

 

3) Train station security guards are paranoid about terrorism. CALM DOWN!

 

4) You can probably get from and to anywhere (or at least anywhere worthwhile <_<) along the canal.

 

5) Everything I say is a generalisation (there we go again! :P)

 

6) Website spellchecks hate it when I spell with an s instead of a z. (Generalisation, civilisation etc)

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