Before hiding a geocache, I recommend that you have at least a dozen or so finds as experience. Finding what others have hidden (such as the containers in the image above) really helps demonstrate what works and doesn’t work when it comes to hiding geocaches.

Once you’ve done this, you may want to consider hiding a cache of your own. The first step is to find a suitable location. Look for nearby parks or nature reserves with plenty of good places to hide a cache. Don’t just hide the cache on a verge or somewhere it could be found really easily by muggles.

For the purpose of this post, I’m assumign you wish to place a fairly traditional cache. These are a good start for beginners, however you may want to turn your hand to more innovative hides, such as constructed containers using the materials nearby, etc. I’ve placed caches using power point cases, carved wooden planks, hollow sticks, and the like.

My philosophy is that it either should be an interesting location (so in a beautiful part of nature, an area worth visiting for some reason; historical or otherwise, or a tourist landmark) or that the cache should be an interesting hide (so well camoflauged, or in a very tricky hiding spot). If you’re planning to throw a plastic container under a bush in an ugly industrial site, you’ll find that your cache won’t be well received.

Also be aware of the placement rules. It’s not a smart idea to place the cache on school grounds, outside a police station, or anywhere that it could be considered a security issue. I also suggest that you don’t place it right near a playground, as the hunting process, especially for lone males, will look very suspicious.

Next, put together the cache. Remember that you’ll need to maintain it, so choosing the cheapest container isn’t a smart move; cheap plastic containers tend not to be watertight, and therefore will soon need replacement. I tend to use Sistema containers, which are hardy well constructed plastic lunchbox style containers, with multiple locking latches, to help keep the cache watertight.

Next, consider camouflaging it. I have a few different spray paints which I use to paint the outside of the container. Using brown, green and black or beige in a random fashion helps make the container less likely to be spotted by non-players.

Whilst letting your painting job dry, start collecting the contents. I typically have a bag of cheap toys that I have bought at a local bargain outlet, and a few different sizes and styles of notebooks. Place a notebook and pencil in a snap lock bag, add a few swappable items, and you’re good to go!

Visit the location you wish to place the cache. Make sure that there are no other caches nearby – you wont get your cache listed if there is another cache less than 200 metres away, and it just doesn’t make sense to place yours that close, anyway.

Place the container, ensuring that it’s hidden well from accidental finds. Take note of the location, and record the co ordinates using your GPS. It’s wise to let the coordinates settle for at least a few minutes, and it’s advisable to actually take a few readings, so you can average them out.

Once you’re happy, return to your computer and from the Geocaching.com homepage, click the ‘Add a new Cache’. Make sure that you read the Guidelines before listing, and that you add plenty of information, including those important attributes.

Best of luck with your first hide!

So, you’ve read my previous posts about Geocaching, and you’re up with all the lingo and how to read the Geocache listing page, and ready to try your first cache. Let’s walk you through finding that elusive first find.

Start by reading everything you can before you leave the house. Read the attributes, ratings, description and possibly the hint (if your confidence is low). I’m going to assume you’re attempting a Traditional cache with a fairly low difficulty and terrain rating.

As a result, you won’t need to take much with you, besides perhaps a print out of the cache listing or your smartphone, which you can use for ‘paperless caching’. It’s also a good idea to take a pencil or two (bring a spare to place in the cache, if the one provided is missing), a few cheap trinkets to swap (especially important if you’re taking children) and it’s probably worth taking a drink bottle.

Arrive near the listed coordinates, and find somewhere nearby to park. Now, head on over to the rough location. Take a look around, and see if there are any people nearby – part of the geocaching game is to not be caught, so you need to be ready to abort the hunt if there are people nearby. Fire up your geocaching app, or your GPSr if you have one, and wait a few moments for the coordinates to settle.

Then, walk in to where the device leads you (if you’ve got the excellent Geocaching application for the iPhone, it features a handy compass and map). Once there, remind yourself of any clues to where the cache could be hidden. Perhaps the clue is ‘down low’ or ‘in the abvious place’. For many caches, the obvious place to start looking is at the base of a tree or underneath a bush.

Be careful! There may be broken glass, spiders, snakes or other refuse to keep an eye out for – you may want to resort to using a stick or heavy duty gloves to hunt. Look for anything that could be out of place; an unusual pile of twigs or leaves, or a stack of stones are a good giveaway.

Be careful with the environment though – the purpose of Geocaching is to enjoy nature, not destroy it. Trampling over plants and throwing rocks and sticks every which way isn’t taking care of the environment.

Another good hint is to consider where you would hide something. That’s helped me find a number of elusive hides before. Could it be up in a tree, underneath some rocks, or hidden inside a log?

If you don’t immediately find it, start to widen your search area – some devices (especially the iPhone) could be out by a few metres at least.

Assuming you find it (and face it; many first hunters don’t, so please don’t despair), pull the container out a distance, open it carefully, and pull out the logbook (typically an exercise book or notepad). Find the first blank page, and sign the log – something along the lines of date, your caching username, and a comment or feedback, such as ‘Thanks for the great cache – love the location!’.

Now, if you have kids, they’ll want to look through the trinkets and perhaps swap something. The key here is to swap to approximately equal value. Don’t go putting in a 10 cent coin in exchange for a watch, for example. It’s also worth noting you shouldn’t place food items or any perishables in, either, as this could go off, and attract wildlife.

If the log book or pencil needs replacing, feel free to do this – leave the original log book in there though. Experienced cachers often bring spare pencils, plastic ziplock bags, etc for this very purpose. It’s a nice way to help the community and the cache owner.

Once you’ve gotten over the excitement of the find, replace the container exactly where it was. Hide it well (so take note how it was originally hidden) and head back home. Once back at your computer, revisit the listing page, and click the ‘Log this cache’ link. Even if you didn’t find it, this is a step to take regardless. Choose the appropriate choice ‘Found it, or Did not Find’, choose the correct date, and then leave your comment or feedback.

Hit save, and that’s it! You’ve found your first cache. Now, there’s plenty more to find in the future – many of us have thousands of caches available within a few hours drive!

Best of luck finding that first find!

You’ve read my last two posts, What is Geocaching? and Getting started with Geocaching, and now you’re ready to learn some of the terms used by geocaching participants.

You certainly don’t need to be proficient at these in order to start geocaching, but it certainly helps if you have an idea what is being said or written in logs.

Here are some of the more popular phrases found in Geocaching.

Cache
The actual container that you’re looking for. These can be anything from Mont Tins, to fake rocks, to Ammo cans, plastic containers or other watertight items.

Cacher
Someone who hunts geocaches.

Camo
Short for camouflage, a popular method of helping to hide those caches.

DNF
Acronym for ‘Did not find’. It’s worth logging your DNF’s, as it helps the owners understand if there are potential issues with a cache of theirs.

FTF
Acronym for ‘First to find’. As your geocaching developers, you’ll start wanting further challenges, by being one of the first to find a new cache. This adds an element of speed to the game.

GC
An acronym for ‘Geocoin’. These are specially made coins that feature a unique code that can be logged on the website, and moved form cache to cache. They are not designed to be kept, but rather moved to another cache.

GZ
Acronym for ‘Ground Zero’. The GZ is the listed final coordinates for a cache.

Muggle
A term used to describe non-players of geocaching, ie: the general public. Muggles are a blight on the game of geocaching, as they’ll unexpectadly pop up when you’re hunting for a cache.

Q&E
Short for ‘Quick and Easy’. This often appears in logs, if you find the cache within a few minutes of looking.

SL
Acronym for ‘Signed Log’. This is often used in the phrase TNLNSL (see below for TNLN).

STF or 2TF
Acronym for ‘Second to Find’ – see FTF above, you’ve won Silver, not Gold.

TB
Short for Travelbug. These are other not-to-be-kept trackable items, similar to Geocoins, and can be tracked on the Geocaching website.

TFTC, TFTH or T4TH
A short way of saying ‘Thanks for the Cache’ or ‘Thanks for the Hunt’. This is a nice way of thanking the cache owner for placing the cache you’ve just found.

TNLN
This is short for ‘Took Nothing, Left Nothing’. This means the finder literally only signed the log, and didn’t swap any of the contents of the cache.

TTF or 3TF
This means ‘Third to Find’. A bronze place in the art of chasing down new caches. See FTF or STF above.

Waypoint
These are recorded coordinates, possibly in a multi-cache or used to show good places for parking, etc.

It may all seem like secret code, and in a way, I guess it is; Geocaching is a secret handshake kind of hobby, and these terms make it easy to write quick logs or have codewords for the general public, etc.

Now that you’ve become familiar with some of the terms used in Geocaching, I’ll next post about ‘Finding that first cache’.