Your Very First Hide

One of the biggest things that people get excited about in geocaching is wanting to go out and hide their first cache. They want to hide one and see if other people can find it. It’s very exciting and many new cachers get caught up in the excitement and don’t think about what they are doing.

Although there is no rule about when you should hide your first cache, many seasoned geocachers agree that you should not hide a cache until you have found a certain amount of caches. For myself, I believe that no new geocacher should hide a cache until they have found 100 caches. There are really two very distinct reasons why I believe this is a good rule to follow:

1. Many people learn about geocaching and get excited about the sport and start caching but don’t stay with the sport for very long. They might get really excited about it at first but as time passes, they become less and less interested and move on to something else. In those cases, if the cacher hid a cache shortly after starting geocaching and then became bored of it quickly, the cache they hid might remain and not be maintained properly. Although it might seem trivial, all geocaches require maintenance from time to time and if you are not willing to maintain a cache, then you shouldn’t be hiding. Those who quit the sport quickly after hiding a few typically don’t maintain their caches and they become trash, not cache. Someone who finds 100 caches is likely a bit more committed to the sport than someone who just wants to know what it’s like.
2. Once you have found 100 caches, the odds are in favor that you have seen a good variety of containers, and hiding places. You will have likely seen both good and bad places to hide caches and have a bit of experience in knowing what containers are more suited to hides, and what makes a lousy container. Many “newbies” get so excited that they go out and hide a cache right away but because they don’t have much experience, they make very poor choices about the container or the location. Things like hiding containers in dumpsters, using glass containers that will break easy, placing the cache on private property without permission, placing the cache in plain view without any camo (making it easy to be picked up by non-cachers), hiding caches in places that would put the cacher in un-needed danger, and many other “newbie” mistakes are very common. In some cases, a friendly email to the cacher letting them know about what they have done will help the situation but not everyone takes criticism well.

When you do go to hide a cache, you need to keep a few things in mind:

• Make sure the location makes sense for the type of container you are hiding
• If it’s in a public spot, make sure that it’s properly hidden or camo’d very well
• It is not located within 161M of another physical container
  • This is a restriction of the Geocaching.Com website and they are pretty tight about this rule.
  • You may not see any containers on the Geocaching.Com map for the area, but stages of a multi-cache and the final location of Mystery caches also count in this distance limitation. Try to make sure puzzle and multi’s are not near your location either.
• Always label non-micro sized caches with a geocaching sticker or the website name to indicate the container is in fact a geocache
• Always include some sort of log book or sheet for people to sign
• If possible, include a stash note which tells a finder about geocaching (in case it is found by someone who is not a cacher)
• Try to insure that you have good GPS accuracy when you hide the cache.
  • If the accuracy is not the best on the day you hide, either hide it on another day, or make note of the accuracy reading in your cache description and give better details about where the cache is.
  • If your GPS supports “averaging”, use it! An average between 50-100 readings pretty much guarantees you with the most accurate reading you will get with your unit.
• Never place any kind of food item within a cache. Animals from anywhere will find it and likely tear the cache apart to get at the food.
• Always try to include some “swag” (trade items) in your caches if the size permits. Avoid anything hazardous and try to keep the contents kid friendly unless you have explicitly indicated that the cache is not for kids on the cache page.

Now these are all great tips on hiding the actual container, but there’s a whole other part to hiding: getting it listed on Geocaching.com.

In order for other geocachers to know about your cache, you need to submit a listing on the Geocaching.Com website. Before you submit anything, be sure to read their guidelines for submitting a cache listing.

I will say this again, BE SURE TO READ THE OFFICIAL GUIDELINES BEFORE SUBMITTING A CACHE! Although it may seem like a long document that has too much to bother with, for someone who has never submitted a cache before, you NEED to read this. There are countless caches that get denied because the cacher didn’t read and understand the guidelines. Make sure you read them thoroughly before submitting your listing.

That having been said, submitting a cache listing is pretty easy. Here’s what you do:

1. Navigate to Geocaching.com and fill out this form. Within it, you tell them everything about the cache. This includes:
   1. Cache Type: Traditional, Multi, Mystery, WhereIGo, Letterbox, Event
      1. Traditional caches are regular geocaches that can be found with no other tasks to be performed
      2. Multicaches are caches that consist of more than one stage. You typically find the first stage which then points you to the next stage, and so forth.
      3. Mystery caches, known as puzzle caches, typically require you to solve some sort of puzzle or use some kind of logic to figure out where the cache is actually located. There are multitudes of variations on the mystery cache.
      4. WhereIGo caches require a WhereIGo player and a WhereIGo cartridge to find. These can be read about on WhereIGo.Com
      5. Letterbox caches combine geocaching with the old treasure hunt game Letterboxing. These typically contain a stamp for letterboxers to add to their own collection.
      6. Event caches are gatherings of geocachers together to talk about caching and trade trackable items.
   2. Cache Size: Micro, Small, Regular, Large, Other
      1. Micro caches are typically smaller than your hand. 35mm film canisters, nanos, key-lock holders, bison tubes, and anything small can be classified as a micro. Most micros have a log sheet only.
      2. Small caches are typically small tupperware containers that can only hold a few items.
      3. Regular caches are regular sized containers which can be ammo cans, full sized tupperware containers, lock-n-locks, water bottles, and many others.
      4. Large caches are typically oversized caches like Rubbermaid containers and 18 gallon buckets.
      5. Other simply means that the size is not specified.
   3. Cache Name: The name you will give the cache
   4. Placed By: Who placed the cache. Typically your username
   5. Date Placed: The date the cache was hidden
   6. Web page / background: Related website and/or background image for cache listing
   7. Coordinates: The actual coordinates you recorded for your cache
   8. Location: General geographic location (Country & Province)
   9. Difficulty & Terrain Rating: 1-5 scale rating of the difficulty to find, and difficulty to navigate to for the cache.
      1. In most cases, a terrain level of 1 is considered to be handicap accessible
      2. Any cache located on an island should have a terrain level of 5 since it requires special equipment to get there or a real long hike during the winter.
         1. Caches on PEI do not fall under this guideline.
   10. Short Description: One line description of cache (optional)
   11. Long Description: Main description of the cache
   12. Hint/Spoiler: Hint to help find the cache
2. Agree to their terms and conditions at the bottom and click “Report New Listing”.

Once the cache report is submitted, you can use the “Attributes” link to add attributes to your cache. It’s a good idea to have a few on there like whether or not it is winter friendly, kid friendly, etc.

Caches are not immediately published. All caches must go through a review process. A reviewer will look at your listing and insure that it meets all of the proper guidelines. If the reviewer has any questions, they will post a note on the listing and you will get an email. Read their notes carefully and follow their instructions. Sometimes they are open to discussion but some things are just hard rules that cannot be broken.

The two most common reviewers for New Brunswick are cache-tech and cache-agent. If you have reviewer specific questions, feel free to email them.

Once a cache listing is approved, it gets published and you should receive notification that it is now live on the website. Congrats! You’ve now published your first cache!