Your first hide, the joy of sharing

[+Jeep4two]

At about 90 finds I finally found a location that met all my basic requirements for a first hide (First, close enough for easy maintenance, but also significant enough to want to bring people to).

 

My first hide was on a trail in a close by state park (see profile) on a trail that was absolutely unexpected for me. My wife and I had decided to do some hiking on the trails of this park to see if there was any potential. There was already one cache and we had enjoyed it very much this spring and I we had our very first find (now archived) here back in 2005. After living in the are for almost 13 years we hadn't explored this area - what a shame.

 

After hiking about 5 or 6 miles of trails we found a spot that we really liked. Ground zero was actually not real significant but the loop where it was hidden was a nice .5 mile jaunt that is really a nice relaxing place to be.

 

After getting familiar with the guidelines and obtaining permissions for the placement our reviewer published it today. A few cachers from the area were quick to make the FTF and gave great feedback in logs and e-mails. It was very satisfying and I look forward to continue giving back to the Geocaching community with new hides. I may not be able to maintain hundreds (or even dozens) but I look forward to my caches bringing joy to fellow cachers out there as theirs do for me.

 

Got a story about a first hide?

[+bittsen]

At about 90 finds I finally found a location that met all my basic requirements for a first hide (First, close enough for easy maintenance, but also significant enough to want to bring people to).

 

My first hide was on a trail in a close by state park (see profile) on a trail that was absolutely unexpected for me. My wife and I had decided to do some hiking on the trails of this park to see if there was any potential. There was already one cache and we had enjoyed it very much this spring and I we had our very first find (now archived) here back in 2005. After living in the are for almost 13 years we hadn't explored this area - what a shame.

 

After hiking about 5 or 6 miles of trails we found a spot that we really liked. Ground zero was actually not real significant but the loop where it was hidden was a nice .5 mile jaunt that is really a nice relaxing place to be.

 

After getting familiar with the guidelines and obtaining permissions for the placement our reviewer published it today. A few cachers from the area were quick to make the FTF and gave great feedback in logs and e-mails. It was very satisfying and I look forward to continue giving back to the Geocaching community with new hides. I may not be able to maintain hundreds (or even dozens) but I look forward to my caches bringing joy to fellow cachers out there as theirs do for me.

 

Got a story about a first hide?

 

My story is similar to yours. I was actually feeling anxiety over my first hide. Whould it be good enough? Will it be hidden enough? Will it last in the elements?

I picked a place for my first hide but that one will wait. My actual first hide was at a place I have been to dozens of times but never actually explored where I placed it. Its just a short distance down a trail but not many would ever go there unless they were fishing or following a running deer.

I had to wait a whole day after it was published before it was found but the logs I received (3) have all been positive.

Like you, I had only 90 or so finds when I placed it.

 

It's a lot of fun to know its there.

[+StarBrand]

I hid my first one after just 1 find. At the time there were just 5 caches with 100 miles of here and only 1 within 50 miles. I spent about 2 days putting together a cheap plastic box stock full of goodies. I knew exactly where I wanted to place it too. It was a cold late January day when I arrived at the location - immediately i scrapped my plans as there were a number of beer bottles nearby. I scouted around for another hour to find a perfect place with a view and good hide potential. About 2 weeks later I returned at replaced the tupperware with an ammobox. It took 7 1/2 weeks for the first find - a guy drove up from Denver where only 4 caches existed just to find it.

 

Still going stong 7.6 years later........ http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...57-0b3ca74a0c55

[knowschad]

Oh, boy.. did I ever lose a lot of sleep over my first hide, The Tortoise And The Hare. I had it all planned out, yet I stil brought two very recentl geocaching friends to the sight to check it out. I

 

t was a 3-stage multi (yeah many newbies want to do a many-staged multi). The first stage was, get this: a dime, epoxied to a brass dog collar tube. This was hidden in one cinder block of an old foundation in the woods.

 

Those coordinates took you to an old oak tree that had a couple of railroad spikes pounded into the trunk (they were already there!) You had to use those to reach a fake squirrel that I had attached to a high branchl

 

Those, in turn, took you to another oak tree. Covered with a $50 fiberglass fake boulder from the nearby landscaping shop were a resin tortoise and hare playing checkers. If you lifted the checker pieces and looked at the bottoms, they spelled "Lift Me Up". Lifting the checkerboard revealed the final container.

 

Not that anybody in their right mind really neeeded to jump through every hoop, but that's frequently the way the beginner thinks, and it probably isn't a bad thing.

 

You will see, much to my embarrassment, that the original coordinates were off by about a half a mile. My now good friends, Candy Apple Green and Buzzygirl were very gracious in letting me know about my mistake.

Edited July 11, 2009 by knowschad

[+Jeep4two]

Nice hides... History of the game and a multi for a first hide. I have some ideas for a multi in the future. I hope to bring more cachers to our area and maybe spark an interest in some of the local folks.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[+JackQuest]

Got a story about a first hide?

Here's one for you, after having to drive to NJ to find my first it was time to start populating around the home coordinates. Started with two simple rules: Don't place two caches in the same quadrangle and lead cachers to interesting not so known areas of parks and forests. First cache GC3!B too bad it is not active anymore. Happy to say after a very long hiatus I am waiting for JQ009 to be published, my first VA cache.

[+Michael_Schaap]

I have lived in the area of my first hide for 4 years. Passed this strange path hundreds of times. Never really going down it to see what this path leads to. Did one day on a walk with the missus. It was a park! In the middle of pretty much nowhere in the middle of the suburbs. I thought if I had taken this long to find it, I bet many people don't know it's here either. So that was my first hide.