+GPS_David Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I purchased a GPS yesterday after reading this website. I picked up the Basic Yellow etrex. I was glad to find a bunch of cache's within 3 miles of my house and I was equally surprised to find many in my old hometown which I plan to visit. I have my tuperware container all ready to go but figured I might as well find some caches prior to me setting one up on my own. I just figure I should get some practice with the GPS first and see how close I can get before I subject someone to the wrong coordinates :-) I also ordered some TB's today. I'd like to send it out and just add a note to it that states "feel free to make some modifications to it"... I've seen a bunch of really awesome tb's out there. Would love to get mine back well traveled and well modified. I read all of the FAQ's, Can anyone offer any additional newbie advice? Thanks, Dave Quote Link to comment
+AuntieWeasel Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Nope. Get busy! Find some stuff! Everybody does it the wrong way at the start, so get it over with as fast as possible Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 (edited) Nope. Exactly what I was thinking. Sounds like you are on your way. Oh, I guess I'll give my standard advice: Stay on the trail longer than you think you should. I've bushwhacked only to find the same trail had cut back around. Happy Caching! Edit: missing word. Edited January 18, 2005 by BlueDeuce Quote Link to comment
+Team Tigger International Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Congratulations and Welcome to the obsession . So far it sounds like you are doing very well ! Star Quote Link to comment
+GPS_David Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 (edited) I was thinking of placing 1943 Steel cents and some well worn indian head pennies in my cache, a bag of marbles.... is kid stuff good? Thanks, Dave edited to say: Thanks everyone for the quick replies. Edited January 18, 2005 by GPS_DAVE_11735 Quote Link to comment
+Papa Bill Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Welcome aboard from a fellow newbie. I spent last Saturday with some local geocachers and really picked up on some great methods and ideas. Find you some other folks locally and tag along. Great people out there. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I was thinking of placing 1943 Steel cents and some well worn indian head pennies in my cache, a bag of marbles.... is kid stuff good? Thanks, Dave edited to say: Thanks everyone for the quick replies. Thats all fine. I've been using Indian head pennies for some time. When I started I had several rolls and now I'm down to maybe 20. I hope there weren't any really valuable ones among the ones I set out. I never checked. . Kids stuff is great too. Lotsa people cache with their kids. Use the type of hide as a guide. Something more remote will probably see few kids, so put more adult oriented stuff in the cache. If its in a local park there will probably be a lot of familioes visiting so weight it more towards kid stuff. Quote Link to comment
+Ed Rad Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Nope. Exactly what I was thinking. Sounds like you are on your way. Oh, I guess I'll give my standard advice: Stay on the trail longer than you think you should. I've bushwhacked only to find the same trail had cut back around. Happy Caching! Edit: missing word. SHHHHH..... don't tell the noobs all the secrets. AHHHEEMMM.... follow the arrow to the cache ESPECIALLY if it off the trail and thru thick thorn filled brush!! Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 ...Oh, I guess I'll give my standard advice: Stay on the trail longer than you think you should. I've bushwhacked only to find the same trail had cut back around.... It's amazing how long it takes to learn that one! Quote Link to comment
+Robespierre Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 (BlueDeuce @ Jan 17 2005, 06:25 PM)...Oh, I guess I'll give my standard advice: Stay on the trail longer than you think you should. I've bushwhacked only to find the same trail had cut back around.... It's amazing how long it takes to learn that one! Sometimes we learn it in one wonderful/terrible afternoon. Quote Link to comment
+Sputnik 57 Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Another tip. When you get out of your car, mark a waypoint. I know you know where your car is, and you know you know where your car is, but is AMAZING (to me) how turned around you can get when you spend 20 minutes walking in circles in the woods looking for Tupperware. Lesson 1: Mark you car as a waypoint. Lesson 2: When you are turned around in the woods, kick yourself for forgetting Lesson 1. Lesson 3: You can always use the Tracback function to find your car, but that may be the LONG way back. Quote Link to comment
+NickL Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 ...Oh, I guess I'll give my standard advice: Stay on the trail longer than you think you should. I've bushwhacked only to find the same trail had cut back around.... It's amazing how long it takes to learn that one! Some of us are still learning that. Another tip. When you get out of your car, mark a waypoint. I know you know where your car is, and you know you know where your car is, but is AMAZING (to me) how turned around you can get when you spend 20 minutes walking in circles in the woods looking for Tupperware. Lesson 1: Mark you car as a waypoint. Lesson 2: When you are turned around in the woods, kick yourself for forgetting Lesson 1. Lesson 3: You can always use the Tracback function to find your car, but that may be the LONG way back. Lesson 3a: Using the Tracback function will also let you rediscover all the briar, thorns, stickers, and other fun things on the way back that you discovered the first time. But on a more serious note. A few months ago I was on a trip and found a cache. Logged it, took a couple pictures of the area and exchanged a couple TB. Keyed up the car’s waypoint and started heading back. Attempting to avoid some of the assorted killer plants that seem to thrive in Texas. Got back to the rental car and my fanny pack was missing. Back tracked (using the GPS) as best as I could to the cache and didn’t find it. Figured that it was a lost cause now because I was getting short on time, and was a little mad at myself for losing a couple travel bugs and my digital camera. I was really close to my route. It was some light but not bad bush waking. So I followed the track back out again, on the way out again just before I cleared the brush I found the pack. Since that time I always have the track turned on. Besides that it is kind of interesting downloading them at the end of the day and looking at all the wondering that I did. As I have said before you really don’t want to follow my tracks in the snow unless you want to find all the bad things and the hardest route to the cache, not to say anything about all the wrong searches to find it. Got to love all that fresh air and exercise. Quote Link to comment
+BilboB Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 ALWAYS PACK EXTRA BATTERIES!!! Quote Link to comment
+scoobiedew Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 We use GPS to locate Meth Labs and Marijuana Grows and a few other things Quote Link to comment
Smaug1 Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Dave, I think you're on the right track. - Read the tips on Hiding Your First Geocache. It is good stuff and will help you from making your first cache a lame one. (a newbie's worst fear) - Geocacher University is a good site to read too. I picked up some good tips there. I'm determined to make my first hidden cache a decent one. It won't be in the middle of a sawed-off log, or stuck underneath a railroad bridge, but I think it will please people and be worth a trip out there. Quote Link to comment
HIPS-meister Posted February 13, 2005 Share Posted February 13, 2005 (edited) I'm determined to make my first hidden cache a decent one. It won't be in the middle of a sawed-off log, or stuck underneath a railroad bridge, but I think it will please people and be worth a trip out there. That's what you want to place. "Take me to an interesting place that you know about but that I might not know about yet." Give me a clever find, but try to make it one that I eventually will find. Let it please me and be worth my trip. Show me that you cared about your work... so that, at the end of the day, a "smiley" will be on my face, not just a website. Rate it appropriately as to difficulty... people naturally dislike something that is "too easy" or "too hard" depending on how it was advertised. If the audience comes away frustrated or bored, you've missed your target and corrections are needed. There are all kinds of audiences out there. The cache location should be safe, well-thought-out, and so on. Once you get an idea of where a cache might be placed, you might set one up on-the-spot or you might think about it for many days. Consider how your future audience will approach the puzzle you have set; both how they might go about getting it right and how they might get it wrong. (A seeker's enthusiasm, possibly combined with inexperience, can even be potentially dangerous to them, and you need to think very carefully about that when designing your placement, your description, and your clues.) The cache must be known to the property owner. Since it may be sought at any time of day or night and in any kind of weather, these considerations must be disclosed. Property hours? High water? Is it lit at night? The list goes on... It's your show, and yours to think about. As the boilerplate says, "sometimes a good location turns out to be a not-so-good one." If your show needs to be closed down, be the one to close it. But there's an endless opportunity for being creative. When you set the cache, imagine that you're setting the table for your guest. (And cleverly hiding the table, of course.) People will come to your spot, hoping to be thereby entertained for a little while, and it will be a personal, one-on-one encounter each time between each seeker, as an individual, and you, the clever hider. I think that I enjoy hiding caches as much or more as seeking them. Edited February 13, 2005 by HIPS-meister Quote Link to comment
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