How do I create a private search for a birthday party.

[happytrails2U43V3R]

I would like to do a 5 point search and stash items at each location for the young adults to find. How/Is there a way to use this app for a group of people and then leave behind the points for others to find after we are done?

[+palmetto]

Assuming by "this app" you mean the Geocaching.com app, then you can place your items, take coordinates for them - see this Help Center article on accurate coordinates. Scroll down to see the section on the Geocaching App.    See also this This Help Center Article: Add a waypoint

Once the waypoints are in your phone, others can use them to find the items from that phone. Not from some other phones, though you can share the waypoints for hand loading into other phones.  

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then leave behind the points for others to find after we are done

I'd suggest you pick them up when you're finished instead of planning to leave them.   Search, find, pick up. For "others to find" you'd have to successfully submit the 5 waypoints as caches to be published, as "others" would only be able to see them through publication on this site. See Hide a Cache

I suspect that your 5 point search will be unlikely to meet this site's listing guidelines, and the effort to learn what's required for publication exceeds what's reasonable for your adventure.

 

Edited October 12, 2017 by palmetto

[+cerberus1]

Just last weekend I was at an event and the CO had caches not yet published for attendees to find.  Later that afternoon, they were published by the Reviewer.  That takes a bit to plan.

Besides following guidelines on cache placement (permission, minimum distance, accurate coordinates, etc.) so no issues botching up plans, they had to coordinate a timeframe for publish that was doable by the Reviewer. 

The second paragraph in the geocaching guidelines says, "We encourage you to find at least 20 geocaches before hiding one", and with no finds, I personally think that's a good idea for you to get a feel of what's involved in cache placement. 

I think palmetto's idea of placing "caches" that are removed when you're done (search, find, pick up)  seems a good substitute for what it appears you're looking for.   

[+niraD]

There's a series around here that started life as a private birthday multi-stage cache hunt. Later, the person who created it was able to list it on geocaching.com as a series of geocaches. So it can be done.

But the owner of the series was already an experienced geocacher and cache owner, and even then, some of the stages needed to be altered to comply with the listing guidelines before they could be published.

[+TwistedCube]

This doesn't use the app, but I have thought of printing a satellite map of my property and sticking a dot a putty on a cache location that family members can find. Or use a map app like Google Maps to enter coords from there.