A Proud Papa

It took awhile but I finally got the Geocache "Placing" bug. I recently placed two new caches, making my total placed caches four. This, combined with the emergence of spring, has spurred a flurry of activity in my area. Both have been found around 15 times. Pretty good considering the crappy weather we've had recently.

But I've figured out what makes placing caches so fun for me. The logs! My first solo cache was floating around in my head for awhile and I finally took the plunge. I got my cache (micro) ready and got my GPS and I was off. I spent only maybe a half hour or so looking for the best possible spot which unfortunately was hard to come by since all the major branches in the area were cut down and the hook for my cache to hang with was too small. At last I spotted a place (at the time I thought I was settling, now I realize it was perfect) and got my coordinates (I also double checked them).

After submitting it and having it go live I waited to see the response it would get. So far it's been really positive! Most saying they enjoyed the cache or that the coordinates were dead on. And that means a lot coming from cachers who have almost 4000 finds! Both my new caches have people who submitted pictures and someone also used my cache for their 100th cache milestone!

It's a strange feeling of pride. Like the caches are my children and I'm the proud father or something. Placing your own caches is a rewarding experience for sure. And to me it emphasizes that if your going to be placing caches, do it right!

(Also, try to be nice in your logs ;) )

Guide to Posting Geocaches

1. Scout the location
1.  Use GIS maps (many counties have them) or whatever you can find to figure out who owns the property
1. If private then make the request to the owner, have information like this Official Guide (pdf)
2. If public (like a park) then make an attempt to find out if they have a policy on geocache and try to find a way to contact the park manager.
2.  Go to the location yourself. 
1. Identify things that may be hazardous to cachers this could include roads, railways, a lamp post with wires sticking out, a minefield, who knows? 
2. Identify problems the cache itself may cause. This could be harm to the environment, muggle threats or issues the police may have with it.
3. If its a park, find out if there are certain open hours.
4. Consider the terrain rating. One spot may be better if it's accessible to those with disabilities or children. 
2. Make the hide
1. The right container
1. Your first concern is making sure you have the right container. A general rule of thumb is the farther the walk, the bigger the container. 
2. Make sure you container doesn't look dangerous. This means "pipebomb" containers are right out.
3. If it is a size small, regular or large, be sure to have some "swag" in the container
   
4. It's optional but many have a prize for the FTF (may be a gift card or geocoin)
2. The Spot
1. Make sure the hide isn't obvious, not only to keep muggles from finding it, but to give cachers some challenge
3. Get the coordinates
1. DO NOT USE GOOGLE MAPS OR ANY OTHER ONLINE MAP SYSTEM
2. Use your GPS to find the coordinates for a cache. Walk towards the cache from different directions and note whether or not the coordinates are right.
3. Note any issues with your GPS (the signal lose strength in the area?)
4. Also grab the coordinates of any parking lots or trail entrances in the are
3. Posting the hide
1. Cache Type: This is pretty simple...
• Traditional cache is where you simply have coordinates to find the cache
• Multi-Cache is a cache where there are multiple stages to find a cache.
• Puzzle Caches are caches which require you to figure out the coordinates from a puzzle.
• Events, Letterboxes, Wherigos and Earthcaches have their own guides later
1. Terrain/Difficulty use the information you got while scouting the area with the system provided
2. Short description this is a brief description of the cache, include its location, description of the container and any other must know information (how to get to the cache for example). If you don't have coordinates for a parking lot, recommend the nearest legal street parking here too.
3. Long description this can be as long as you want, you can put an interesting story or the history of the area here. What you put in the cache would also be perfect here.
4. Hints There are a couple factors that come into play here:
1. How easy is your cache?
2. Is the GPS signal strong in the cache area? If your cache is at the bottom of a canyon with a weak signal and is well hidden, for the love of god you better tell me exactly where that cache is in the hint
5. Note to Reviewer The saying goes "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" in other words save yourself some hassle and explain your cache to the reviewer. Example: "My cache is a standard micro in a park" or "This cache is behind a business I have the owners permission"
6. Above all else make it look professional. It should be easy to read, contain no spelling mistakes and have proper grammar.  My first thought when looking at your cache should not be "Did a three year old write this?"
7. Submit the cache
4. Activation
1. We're almost there! View your cache listing
1. Add your waypoints this includes your parking information or trail head information
2. Attributes. Totally under utilized feature. You have 10 attributes that you can place on your cache.
1. First mark any Equipment needed to get the cache (boats, climbing gear, etc.) and Hazards such as cliffs, animals or thorns!
2. Second mark any Conditions, especially availability at night, hike distance, winter availability and whether its appropriate for children.
3. 3rd is Permissions this is important for people with dogs or bikers
4. Finally add Facilities. This can be important for people who are planning trips and may want to make a stop in your area.
3. Give it a once over, are the coordinates right? Is spelling right? Is all the information there?
5. Enable the listing! You're done! Just make sure you read the logs and maintain the cache!