Geocaching.com Tip

How To Log A Cache Visit

I know this might seem like an overly simple topic, but trust me, there are plenty of newbie geocachers out there who ask me questions like this. And, once you actually go to geocaching.com to LOG a cache, you realize that it might not be that simple of a question after all!

The first time I logged into my account on geocaching.com to log a cache, I was really surprised that I had a ton of options for recording a cache hunt. I figured that it would be the straight forward:

Found or Did Not Find

And that was the end of the story.

Boy! Was I ever wrong!

Here are the steps to logging a cache.

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13 years ago • • Tags:

Deleting a DNF Log: Yes or No?

Any geocacher worth their salt has a bunch of DNF (did not find) caches under their belt. (And those that don’t are either brand new or lying!) Often times, those DNF will just nag and nag at a cacher until they go back and find the cache.

Like my most famous ‘did not find’: ‘Summer Lovin” Not only did I not find the geocache, I lost a $40 piece of equipment, the whole adventure is on YouTube! That cache will bother me and keep me awake at night until I go back and get it.

But once I go find it, what is the etiquette around changing the DNF into a found?

A Piece of Caching History

When a cacher logs a DNF on a cache, that log becomes part of the cache’s history. It can signal to the cache owner and future cachers that the cache might have been muggled. In some cases, the ‘did not find’ log entry shows that the cache owner is one-cool-dude for placing such a hard to find cache.

Geocache

This is the cammo for a regular sized geocache.

For example, Crooks Grand TB Hotel is an example of a cache that had logged 7 DFN by the time I found it in December 2009. It had nothing to do with a cache being missing or muggled, just a well-hid cache.

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13 years ago • , • Tags: ,

Geocaching In National Parks: Can or Can’t?

In a couple of weeks, ESP Boss & I will be taking an overnight kayaking trip on the Colorado River. We’ll start at Hoover Dam and head down to Willow Beach.

Like any EatStayPlay.com business trip, we’ve got out fair share of agenda items. One of which was to hide a geocache along the way.

But then I got to thinking:

Isn’t that section of the River in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area?

A quick glance at Google Maps and yep, the whole route is inside a National Recreation Area. (The green area on the map!)

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13 years ago • , • Tags: ,

Loading Caches Directly Into A GPS

I recently got a great comment from Andy on the article “Using Geocaching.com To Find A Spot For A Cache”

I would normally load all the caches in that area to my GPS. When I find a good site I just simply check the GPS for any nearby waypoints in my GPS and it will show up it the new cache is close to an existing one. If this is the case I would try to seek out a new spot using the same method.

But that got me thinking:

How many cachers know how to load caches into their GPS?

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13 years ago • • Tags: , ,

3 Must-Know Pages on Geocaching.com

Geocaching.com Home Page

Don’t you just hate it when you KNOW that Geocaching.com does FILL IN THE BLANK but you can’t remember where you saw the link? That happened to me the first time I was hiding a geocache; I wanted to print out that cool sheet that appears in the caches. You know the one I’m talking about, right? The printout that says “Congratulations, You’ve Found It!” and then goes on to explain what geocaching is.

I knew that printout had to exist. Somewhere. After all, I’d seen it in caches around Northern Arizona. I just didn’t know how to navigate the geocaching.com website in order to find what I was looking for!

This article is actually a reader’s request and addresses just that issue: What ARE the parts of geocaching.com?

Since this website is HUGE and offers a ton of information, I’m giving my top three pages you need to know the anatomy of! If you have a section of geocaching.com that you feel everybody should know about, then let me know!

The Home Page

We all know the homepage of geocaching.com — that’s where you can log into your account!

Well, have you ever scrolled DOWN the page a bit? There’s a ton of really neat links hidden towards the bottom of the page.

So, starting on the top left and heading down the page:

  1. You can search for a geocache from this page using a zip code or a GC code
  2. A section for interesting products and services
  3. Upcoming geocaching events around the world

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13 years ago • • Tags: , ,

Tips for Printing

It’s nothing for me to plan to do a whole series of caches in a day. I always plan for more caches than I know I can possible get to in a day. That way, if one turns out to be muggled, or the quest for lunch takes me a different direction, I have plenty of back up caches ready to go. A lot of pre-planning goes into a caching adventure; especially with MY caching buddies!

Caching with ESP Boss means that we simply MUST take the geocache printout with us.

Gee, one time of writing down the PARKING coordinates instead of the cache coordinates! Just one time of saying “Oh, it’s a terrain 1.5!” when it was ACTUALLY a 3 and the man just won’t let me write it down!

I know there’s a lot of discussion in the geocaching world about caching paperless or printing out the geocache’s information before heading out. For those of you that just need to hang on to something, here are all my tips and tricks to taking printouts with you when planning a caching adventure.

The advantages I like to printing out the cache information are:
You can see the size and terrain. This is especially important if you have kids, limited mobility, or are really into swag. When my family & I first got started geocaching, it was really important to us to be able to trade swag. That meant that not knowing it was a micro was always a disappointment when we got to the cache and there were no trade items to be found.

You have the hint! I know a lot of experienced cachers don’t decode the hint until they absolutely have to, but as a novice cacher, that’s just making the game harder than it has to be.

You can see the inventory. Doesn’t always mean the travel bugs will be IN the cache, but at least you can get an idea.

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13 years ago • • Tags: ,

Using Geocaching.com To Find A Spot For A Cache

Here’s the scenario:

You get the cache container all ready to go. It has a log book, swag, the geocaching disclaimer and the PERFECT camouflage. You hike out to where you’re going to place the cache, going through all manner of pricklies and brambles. You find the PERFECT spot, stash the cache, take a GPS reading (I’ve some tips on just how to do this!) and the scurry home to submit it to geocaching.com.

But, alas! When you submit it for publishing, you get that nasty message that says that it is too close to another cache! All caches need to be .10 miles apart. Geocaching.com says: “Cache containers and physical stages should generally be separated by a minimum of 0.1 miles (528 feet or 161 m).”

Here’s a tip to help you find likely places for your caches BEFORE you get all carried away!

This past summer my family and I were camping and caching near Flagstaff, Arizona. Since I came up a full week after my folks were there, my Dad asked me to research all the caches near Ashurst Lake. Well, that was really easy since by that time, EatStayPlay.com had coordinates for most attractions. All you need to do is visit the attraction page on the website and then click on the link: Find geocaches.

This link appears on any attraction that EatStayPlay.com has GPS coords for!

Bingo! A link to geocaching.com with all the caches listed. But, that didn’t really tell me WHERE those caches were located in relationship to the lake.

All the caches near Ashurst Lake, in a list.

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13 years ago • • Tags: , ,