Tips for new cachers

February 23, 2103 UPDATE - I have been updating and editing this a bit now that I am actively caching again.

This topic comes up quite a bit on Reddit (example, another example), and since I'm relatively new at caching and have learned a great deal in the past few months, I figure I'd share what worked for me.  Feel free to use the comments section below this post to add your own input, or even better, get on the Geocaching subreddit and join some great discussions.

A little history - I officially started caching in July of 2012.  If you count my non-logged DNFs (did not find), I would estimate that I was actually finding less than half of what I was looking for.  Sometimes this was simply due to the fact that I didn't have a lot of time to cache. There were many times when I only had about 5 minutes to look before I had to get in to work.  Other times it was due to the placement of the hides. I live in a very developed area and my initial finds were a lot of LPCs (lamp post caches) and Nanos that were in busy parking lots.  Again, because I usually cache before work and on lunch break, I had a very limited time to wait around for the area to clear out.

I've since found over 170 caches, with over 150 of them being solo or with my 7 year old (so pretty much solo, ha ha!).  I now know so much more than when I first started out, it amazes me that I was ever able to find caches in the first place.  I'm also much more aware of how much I don't know.  Sure, I'm a caching machine compared to when I started out, but I have seen more than a few local cachers with thousands of finds, and the amount of experience they have is staggering.

Long story short - I have put together a list of the top things I wish I knew when I first started out, and am presenting it here.  Enjoy!

1 - Cache with an experienced cacher.  Even if it's only once.

I think the thing that helped me the most early on was a short caching trip I took with my dad and my son. My dad has been caching for a few years and I learned more in 2 hours caching with him than I did the rest of the first month. If you don't know a local cacher, check the Geocaching website for local groups - I ended up finding a group in my area (Philadelphia suburbs) and they have a Facebook page where people post questions and suggestions, and plan meetups. Very helpful.

If you don't like dealing with people face to face (believe me, I understand), look for online communities, such as Reddit.  There are plenty of conversations that are helpful for new cachers.  It doesn't beat actually getting out with someone experienced, but at least you'll have some place to turn when you have questions.

2 - Familiarize yourself with the basic kinds of hides.

The most common types of caches in your area really depend on where you live. I'm in a heavily developed area, so there are a lot of ones hidden in shopping centers and public areas. There are some parks in the area that have a lot of caches, but by and large, the easiest caches to find (and learn on) are the ones in shopping centers. They are usually hidden behind signs or underneath the skirts of light poles (more info on both below). These days, I don't really go out of my way to find that type, but they were great to learn with.

• LPC - Lamp Post Caches.  These are caches hidden underneath a lamp post skirt - the little boxy thing toward the base of the light pole.  The lamp post skirts lift up, and people hide bison tubes, magnetic keyholders, or pill bottles underneath.  I'll post an example as soon as I stage and take a picture of one (no spoilers, remember!)


• Nano Caches - Nano hides can be confusing for several reasons.  The first is that these containers are really, really tiny.  The second is that there is come confusion about how to categorize them.  Technically, nano hides are a subset of micros, so if you see a cache listed as micro it may actually be a nano.  A lot of people don't classify them as micros, though, so occasionally you'll see a cache listed as "Other" that's actually nano sized.  I'd say that it's a 50/50 chance that the cache owner bothers to note that you'll be looking for a nano anyway, so if you've checked all the obvious places for a larger hide, start thinking smaller.
  
  A common place to hide nano containers is behind street signs.  There is a little magnet in the base of the container, and a little gap between the ferrous metal of the sign pole and the sign itself.  Check in that little area for the nano.
  
  Once you find your first nano, most of the rest of them become much easier. You may occasionally run into a tricky nano, and people have been known to hide nanos in the woods, which is really just plain wrong.
  
  Here is a picture of a nano container, and where to look for them 90% of the time:

A nano on a Post-It, next to a Travel Bug.  Weird stuff for size comparison,
but it's all I had on hand when I took the picture.

Nanos are hidden in the little gap between the sign and the sign post 90% of the time.
If there is a sign near the coordinates, you should check here first.

• Guard Rail Caches - These are typically magnetic keyholders, or similar magnetic containers, that are hidden in the end of guard rails.  Guard rail hides are some of the easiest to find, as the end of the rail is usually the only hiding spot.  The only real issue is when the guard rail happens to be on a busy road and you need to dodge traffic while still looking inconspicuous.

The end of a guard rail.  Most of them have a curved metal bumper on the end, but this was easier for taking pictures.  NOTE - The cache may be hidden behind any of the support legs, not just at the end.

Almost all guard rail caches are magnetic, but only some are key holders.  It's easy enough to tape or glue magnets onto regular cache containers, so they are common as well.

This isn't a real cache - I'm just demonstrating.  No spoilers, remember?

• Tree hides - Tree hides are very common.  There are numerous places on a tree where a cache can be hidden.  The obvious spots are holes in the tree or root system, but small bison tubes are often zip tied to branches.  Trees and shrubs of all sizes are used for this, though in areas where leaves actually drop off the trees in the autumn, evergreen trees may provide more camouflage.


• Other common containers - Common containers include bison tubes, pill bottles, film canisters, lock and lock containers, and ammo cans.  Urban and suburban hides tend to be micro and small sized, while caches off the beaten path or in less populated regions can get a bit larger.  This is a rule of thumb - I've seen video of 5 gallon bucket cache hidden in plain sight right on a main street of a city.


• Geopiles - Even the best containers sometimes don't quite blend into the environment.  When that happens, it's accepted practice to make a little pile of the nearby debris to conceal the cache.  Sticks, rocks, bark, pine needles, or a combination thereof.  If you know you are in the right area and can't see the cache, start looking for little piles and then check underneath.
  
  Please note that critters sometimes take advantage of geopiles and make homes out of them. I have disturbed two snakes (both harmless) and a mouse in geopiles.  It may be a good idea to poke around with a stick first, and gloves are also very, very handy.  I don't think that's a pun, but hey, I tried.
  
  Enjoy these pictures of simulated geopiles (no spoilers!)

Rock piles I happened to find.  Not geopiles, but you get the idea. Look for artificial piles of natural material, like rocks or sticks.

A closer look.  Just a pile of rocks.  Easily ignored, but if you know what to look for you're set.

3 - Check the Difficulty and Terrain ratings before looking for a cache.

While they are not 100% accurate, Difficulty and Terrain ratings usually give you a good idea of what to expect. Look for 1 or 1.5 difficulty hides when first starting out.  There are usually a lot of them, and they shouldn't be too hard.  Search for caches with Terrain ratings that you are comfortable with.  Again, a 1 or a 2 shouldn't be all that bad.

4 - Check the logs.

Before you go looking for a cache, make sure to check the recent logs.  I can't stress this enough.  If you use a smartphone, just read the logs on your phone.  If you use a GPS with paperless caching you will have the last few logs from when you copied the GPX file to your GPS, so make sure that you update your GPS at least once a week if you want current data.  A few more tips:

• There are often more hints in the logs than in the cache description.
• If the last few people didn't find it, odds are that you won't either, and this will just be an exercise in frustration.
• While you're not supposed to post hints or spoilers, some people post pictures that give away more than they should.
• Logs also give you insight into the local caching community.  You'll soon recognize the active cachers, and will learn to add weight to the comments from the successful ones.
• There are often more hints in the logs than in the cache description.  Yes. I said it twice.  The logs are just as important as the cache description, especially if the cache has been around for a while.  It's much easier finding a cache with 40 logs than it is to get the FTF. 

5 - Expand your search radius.

Your GPS position is only as accurate as the coordinates, and it's reasonable to expect to be up to 30 feet / 9 meters off of where you think you are.  The most inaccurate coordinates I have found showed up on my GPS as being around 90 feet / 27 meters off.  This could be due to my GPS bouncing around under tree cover, or the original coordinates may be off.

If you have checked the logs as per #4 above, keep note of anyone who mentions that the cache coordinates were inaccurate.  It's not uncommon for people to post revised coordinates in their log, so jot them down and adjust your search accordingly.

It's also a good habit to use GZ as your base point and then expand your search to check likely places.  Do you see any trees with lots of knots or holes nearby?  Is there a pile of rocks with nooks and crannies where a cache may be hidden?  As you cache you'll start being able to judge distances by eye a bit better, and while 30 feet sounds like a lot, it's almost always within sight (unless you're on a high terrain difficulty cache) and you will eventually be able to find it with a little looking.

6 - Learn the Geocaching jargon.

In order to understand the logs, you should be very familiar with the Geocaching jargon.  I have a short guide here, though it's more focused on terms that I use on this blog.  TFTC, GZ, SL, TNLN, CO, DNF, etc... all can have meaning on a log, and if you're looking for hints you'll want to make sure that you understand what's being said.

When looking at hints, something like GR may mean "guard rail".  An LPC or LPS is a "light pole cache" or "light pole skirt".  A "cache and dash" or "park and grab" implies that you should be able to park very close by and it should only take a few minutes to find.

There are plenty of lists of terms online, and a good place start is on the official Geocaching Glossary.  As always, Google is also your friend.

7 - Double check on Google Maps

I have a whole post on using Google Maps to find Geocaches, but even if you have a GPS or a smartphone, it's a great supplement.  My post goes into a lot more detail, but the gist of it is to look for landmarks on the aerial photos to help orient yourself when you get close to GZ.

8 - Don't hesitate to log DNFs or ask for help.

The Geocaching community seems to be one of the friendlier online communities around.  I have messaged cache owners and always received responses, and I have been messaged in turn by people looking for hints. I had once made a find on a very difficult local cache, and a much more experienced cacher messaged me out of the blue looking for a hint.  It was great to be able to chat with someone who had so many finds, and now I have someone to shout out to if I get stuck.

Look for local caching groups (check Facebook), and as I've suggested before, online communities such as Reddit are great as well.  The Geocaching web site also has its built-in messaging feature, if you need to contact someone directly.

9 - Never assume that you know what you're looking for.

There's a lot to be said about not assuming stuff anyway, but it's doubly important when caching.  On more than one occasion I have made an assumption about what a hide must be, only to waste a long time looking in the wrong spot.  I once spent upwards of an hour looking for a bison tube on a tree branch, when the actual hide was a camouflaged pill bottle hidden near the roots.

Even if everything in a cache description seems well defined, there is a lot of room for interpretation.  There are no real hard and fast rules about cache sizes, just guidelines.  Some people list bison tubes as small rather than micro.  Sometimes people intentionally list the wrong size, just to throw cachers off.

A key here is to check the logs, as repeatedly mentioned above.  Sometimes people take pictures of the cache, even though it's frowned upon.  Look for logs on micro sized caches saying that people left or traded trinkets - that implies that you're looking for something at least the size of a pill bottle.

As long as you go to a cache site without many preconceived notions of what you're looking for, you'll be in decent shape.

10 - Keep trying... but know when to take a break.

Geocaching can be both an incredibly rewarding and incredibly frustrating pastime.  Many caches are intentionally very difficult to find, and as a new cacher you may be unable to find well over half of what you go looking for.  They key is to keep plugging away at it, and hopefully the tips above will give you enough of an edge to make it a bit easier for you.

As you gain experience you'll also be better able to make the judgement call on when you just need to stop looking for a cache and try again later.  Early on, it wasn't unusual for me to spend upwards of an hour looking for a cache and just getting myself more and more frustrated.  At the time, giving up was the last thing I wanted to do, but I did it to maintain my sanity.  Weeks later, after having found many more caches and gaining experience, I would retry a cache that had stumped me, and 9 times out of 10 I'd find it within minutes.

These days, if I get stuck I'm pretty likely to move on after searching for a few minutes.  That gives me time to think about it without having the pressure of actually knowing that the cache may be 3 feet in front of me staring me in the face.  Always feel free to take a break and come back to it later.

Experience only comes with time, and each cache you do find gives you knowledge that may help you find something in the future. Keep plugging away at it and look forward to getting those milestones!  I remember how excited I was when I found 20, then 50, then 100 and 150 hides.  I'm looking forward to reaching 200 relatively soon, and this hobby has given me something to keep me busy on lunch breaks, boring weekends, and when I travel.  Persistence is the key - keep at it, and you can only get better.

Hopefully you'll find these tips helpful. As mentioned above, feel free to use the comment section below to share your thoughts.

Now get out there and get caching!

Pre-Thanksgiving fun in Skunk Hollow

I have been working a lot of extra hours recently, and with half of my coworkers starting their vacations early, I figured that I could take a slightly longer lunch and pick up a few of the caches in Skunk Hollow.  I had been getting them in ones and twos, but I really wanted to pick up a few before the holidays start and my caching time diminishes significantly.

Alas, I was unprepared and did not bring a camera again.  This sucks, because winter is right around the corner, and I'll probably wait until spring before coming back here to take some scenic shots with actual leaves on actual trees.

Google Map view of the area.  Click to enlarge.

This area is by far my favorite place to go caching.  It's less than 10 minutes from work, and it has a really high cache density.  It's also one of the most beautiful areas I have come across recently.

I started today's trip picking up the first stage of Saw Mill Two-Step, and then walking across Sawmill road to Skunk Hollow, where stage two is located.  As I approached GZ, I saw that there was a major outdoor gathering of a group of youngish folks, exactly where my GPS was directing me to.  I didn't consider that people would actually be over here when I went looking for it, though with schools closed for the holidays I guess it makes sense.  There were so many people there, and I would have been so out of place looking, that I just turned around on the trail and went back toward where I could reach some of the other trails that would take me to other hides in the areas. Sure, it was a bit anti-social, but I deal with people every day at work and have grown to like the solitude of my caching lunch breaks.

I spent about 40 minutes wandering the trails and picking up three caches.  One of the caches took me near the community garden area - in the pic above, it's that big brown blobby area in the upper middle.  There are huge mulch piles there, and a fenced off garden area.

I had actually visited this area on a previous caching trip, but from the other direction.  The Willows is a park located just to the northwest of that garden area, and I have parked there for a few other caches.  I didn't know that the Skunk Hollow nature trails intersected over there, but now that I do I'll be better able to plan my parking for future trips.

That being said, I don't know how much time I'll have in the coming weeks to get back over here.  the holidays are upon us, and much of my lunch time will be spent either working or shopping, so I'll probably be limited to caches in the vicinity of shopping areas.  Not as much fun, I guess, but it's just as well.  I definitely want to take some pictures back here, and I'm sure it's impressive in the spring.

Caches in this post:

• Saw Mill Two-Step (Stage 1 of 2)
• Skunk Hollow #5
• Skunk Hollow #2
• Skunk Hollow #3

My third cache is live!

Cache number three is officially live!  Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial has a new home in what's officially known as Recreation Park, but what everyone actually calls ABC Field.  This cache commemorates the time spent in 2011 filming Silver Linings Playbook in the area. This movie was filmed in and around Ridley, Upper Darby and Lansdowne, among other places.

Google view of ABC Field.  I should try to take a kite aerial photo here.

I learned a few lessons with this cache.  My original site was located near where this picture was taken by my cousin-in-law:

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

Unfortunately, the walkway they are standing on overlooks the local freight rail line, and a cache placed in that area would be in violation of Federal law or something.  I took great care in selecting an area that was safe, but getting local cachers in trouble with the feds would probably diminish this hobby a bit, so I moved it.

I have run into plenty of caches near train tracks, but when I thought about it a bit I realized that those were all near local passenger lines.  I'm not 100% sure that it makes a difference, but it was a no brainer for me to just move this to another park that had previously has no caches in it.

My wife played a huge role in the creation of this cache, as she spent the weeks that they filmed here stalking Bradley Cooper.  She denies it, of course, but if you describe what stalking is without actually using the word "stalking", she totally agrees that that's what she was doing.  I'm not going to argue with her about this one, because deep inside I think she knows that I'm right, and she did stalk him.

The cache container I made for this one is like nothing I've ever seen before.  Internally, it's nothing more than a Bison tube, but it has been crafted into something totally unique.  I had previously run into some waterproofing issues, but quite a few more coats of a few different types of varnish seemed to do the trick, and my location is at least slightly protected from the weather.

All in all I'm happy with how this came out.  It's different than what I've been working on with the Videogame History series, and 98% of it was inspired by my wife's suggestions, but I still enjoyed making it, and I hope that plenty of local cachers enjoy finding it.

Cache in this post:

• Local Movie Locations / Celebrity Stalker Memorial

Great Cache Location - Houston Park in Nether Providence Twp., PA

I have a new favorite cache - Let The Sun Shine In, located in Nether Providence Township.  This one kept popping up on my GPS every time I drove up Rt. 252 - my "last resort" route I take to work if I see that the Blue Route is jammed.   It's a pretty scenic drive, actually, especially when you get up to the Springton Reservoir, but it takes upwards of 40 minutes (due to the lights) to get to work this way.

But I digress...

The GPS showed the cache only a little bit off of Rt. 252, but you actually need to go to Houston Park and walk down a nature trail.  There is plenty of parking, and the start of the trail is right next to one of the parking areas.

Start of the trail.

About 2 minutes down the trail, if you look down the little valley to the left, you can spot some ruins.

It's hard to see.  You can click to enlarge, for what it's worth.

A little farther on, and the stone bridge comes into view.

The ground is deceptively steep, but I've been doing this kind of thing for almost four whole months now, so I knew what to expect.  When I got down to the bottom I wandered around the bridge for a few minutes.

Closer to the bridge.  It's missing some chunks, but that just makes it look more interesting.

It was a lovely fall day with lots of fallen leaves.  Yes, I said "lovely".

The area is actually what remains of the grounds attached to the Houstonia estate, which was the home of the mayor of Chester, PA from around the turn of the 20th century.  To be clear - he was mayor then, the house and buildings are a little newer.

The house is there and still in use for... something?  Not sure it it's a residence or open for tours.  A little Googling shows that it's available for movie shoots, so that's something I guess.

On the path toward the house.

The hole was at least four feet deep.  The graffiti has dates ranging from the '50s on,
but honestly what's to stop someone from carving an inaccurate date?  I could even
carve a date from the future if I was so inclined.

The fun thing about the house is that the no trespassing signs all warn about the attack dogs that will be sent after you if you approach.

For all the warnings about dogs, I didn't see or hear any of them.

After being warned off by the signs, I walked back down to the bridge again and wandered around a bit.  My GPS showed the cache several hundred feet up the path past the bridge, but I had time to kill and I love ruins.

On the bridge, looking downstream.  Loads of fallen trees.

There were lots of fallen trees and we're only a few weeks after Hurricane Sandy, but most of them looked like they had been down for a while and starting to decay.

The bridge dates from 1921.

This would be a good place to take artsy pictures.  Alas, photography is not one of my strong points.

Steps to nowhere.  Very pretty, but functionally a bit odd.

Once I crossed the bridge, I took a short detour in the direction opposite the cache to check out that little building that I originally spotted from the trail up the hill.  I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like it might have been a little spring house or something.

The barred windows give it such a welcoming, homey look.

About 2-3 inches of water.  There were brackets on the wall where it looked like shelves were attached.

It's still in good shape, even without a roof.

After checking that building out I decided to finally make the walk up to the cache.  The trail is easy to walk, as it looks like it was a well kept road sometime in the past.

There are some really neat old non-working street lamps lining the path.

Closer shot of the street lamp.  Again, note how I'm good at making my shots blurry.
I guess that's a hot thing with Instagram and all, but I've never attempted to sell my
technique to Facebook for $1 Billion. Lost opportunity I guess.

A few minutes up the path takes you past this neat place:

It looks like some kind of cinder block bunker.

Stone stairs lead down.

Over the fallen tree.

What remains of a generator or something, and some rude graffiti on the wall.

This was still a little ways down the trail from GZ.  After exiting the building I went a little farther down the path and started looking for the hide. The cache took me a few minutes to find, as my GPS put me about 20 feet away near a spot that was full of potential hiding areas.  I'm getting better at relying less on my GPS, but sometimes it takes me to a promising place and I can't help but check things out for a few minutes.  In this case, if I had used my geosense I would have made the find a bit quicker.

This is one of those caches where I love the site, and the cache is just an added perk of exploring back here.  I have found quite a few caches that were fancier containers or more complicated hides, but this location was just so cool it was totally worth a favorite point.  It meets quite a few of my criteria for a good location:

• Scenic
• Off the beaten path
• Ruins
• History

A little farther down the path.

After finding the cache, I followed the trail to the end, right before it hits Rt. 252.  I really just wanted to see what it looked like from this side of the road, as I've driven by it often enough.  After that I made the 10 minute walk back to the car and headed out.  I'm planning on taking Jack here in a few days, because he likes ruins almost as much as I do.

Apparently there is a puzzle cache somewhere in this park as well - Houston, we've had a problem is somewhere back here.  One of these days I'll take the time to solve the puzzle, as it'll give me an excuse to come back!

Caches in this post:

• Let The Sun Shine In
• Houston, we've had a problem

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy made its way through the area a few days ago. Watching the news, it's pretty apparent that this was a massive storm that did severe damage to areas that are not too far away.  We had a ton of rain, and a good bit of wind, but all it all it wasn't that bad.  Nothing near the soaking that we saw during Hurricane Floyd a number of years back, at least as far as I remember.  A decent sized chunk of the neighboring town was out of power since the storm, but I think it's back on now.

There are quite a few trees down in the area, though, including one very close to the very first cache we ever found - View of the Lake. The road that passes by there has been closed, and when I took a walk through the park to check on that status of my two Video Game History caches I could see that a pretty massive tree actually fell down on top of the boat house that is pretty close to View of the Lake's GZ. I''ll check up on it as soon as I can, once they clear that tree and take down the police "Do Not Cross!" tape.

Not much else to report.  Both of my caches were fine, and I swung by my adopted cache while at work today, and it was fine as well.

There is a cache very close to work that I'd been meaning to check out - Keara's Monkey Cache.  This is in a park that's split between fields with trees and a huge playground area.  There is something interesting about the placement of the cache, and it's attached to GZ with....

Ok, well, it was attached to GZ with something.  When I attempted to get the cache, the thing that attached the cache to GZ fell apart.  I temporarily fixed things up, and have a plan to replace the attachment thing tomorrow.

My lesson learned is that I should be a little more prepared to patch things up if I visit a cache in bad shape (or if I cough break it cough).  I have seen plenty of cache logs where people replaced wet / missing log sheets, or changed out cache containers when the original went missing.  I'm not talking about the cache owners, either - random cachers make the effort to keep a cache alive.

I've noticed that, at least locally, the community of cachers is a true community, looking out for each other and each other's caches.  I've read online about people causing problems for cachers, but haven't seen that all around here, and that's just fine by me.

Cache listed in this post:

• Keara's Monkey Cache