How To Hide A Geocache

Do you enjoy looking for and finding geocaches?

Try being on the other side of the table. I’ve been told by several friends that hiding a cache can be even more fun!

  by  cachemania 

For most people, geocaching serves two purposes:

 a) A great way to get outdoors and see some amazing sites and spots you’d normally miss or wouldn’t even think of going to.

  by  thievingjoker 

b) The thrill of actually looking for the cache, the part right after using your GPS. Once you’re at the cache site, you have to use your wits to actually find the cache.
Geocaches are hidden by members of a cache listing site (like www.geocaching.com). These members will often painstakingly identify a location (Geocaching follows the same rules as real estate – location, location, location), study it, put together the cache container that’s appropriate as per the intended difficulty of the cache (micro, mini, regular, etc.).

  by  meddygarnet 

The person who creates the cache site will be called the “cache owners” and responsible for maintaining their cache site(s). What maintenance does a cache site need? Well, the owner periodically checks the cache on the cache listing website and if he/she notices a lot of people logging a “did not find” status, he/she is expected to visit the cache location and verify that the cache is still there. It is possible that a cache was removed by someone or even an animal.
There are different types of Geocaches, however, for the purpose of this article, I’ll talk exclusively about a “traditional” cache. This type of cache is just a regular cache and the most common you will see listed.

Ok. So here are the steps you’ll need to carry out for hiding your first cache:

1. Login to your cache listing website. The very first thing you need to familiarize yourself with are the guidelines/Dos & Don’ts posted on your cache listing site for hiding geocaches. This will help ensure that your geocaches are not rejected when you submit them for review in the last step.
Search around your desired location for your geocache. Please do not try to setup your geocache in a far flung remote area that you cannot visit at least once every three months. This is important as you may need to visit it periodically to make sure everything at your geocache is as it should be. For the same reason, do not hide geocaches when travelling abroad. Please make sure that there are no other caches at least 512 feet near yours. This is a requirement for most cache listing websites.

2. Decide exactly where you want your cache to be hidden – maybe a tree hollow, a shrub, among a pile of rocks. You want to make it difficult for your cache container to be found accidentally and yet not impossible to found by fellow geocachers. Make sure that your container is airtight, waterproof and contains at least the absolute essentials – log book, pen/pencil, a geocaching note (unless it is a micro cache), zip lock bag, small prizes.

3. Hide your geocache in your decided spot. Write down the GPS coordinates. Make an entry for your cache on your cache listing website and submit it to the reviewers. The reviewers will need to approve your cache to make it visible on the cache listing site.
Now you just wait for fellow geocachers to find your geocache and write about their experiences doing so.