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Thread: Tips for Newbies (Please share yours!)

  1. #41
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Bangor, ME
    Posts
    6,343

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by covefarm
    Hi_ I am new to this sport and bring along a gaggle of kids. I have read complaints about the quality of the contents of the cache. Do you season cachers have suggestions of good deposits?......silly putty, cards, play dough....................
    I am also having a little trouble dechiphering some log shorthand. I have figured out TB, FTF, TN but help me with some of the others. Thanks for your help.
    The idea is to always "trade up" at caches, but unfortunately a few people think a stick of gum or a used, non-winning lottery ticket is a fair trade for a Mapping software CD.

    I like to see anything unusual in a cache - something not seen at every Wally World you go to. As for kid items, stick with ones that can hold up to some possible moisture as well as abuse from getting tossed around in the cache, and it never hurts to place them inside a ziplock bag.

    But my main reson for posting is to remind you and any others to be careful when placing any items that have an odor to them - the silly putty and play-dough may fit into this category. Any smells might attract local critters. Obviously this is more of an issue in a Gladware container than in an ammo box. Also, be careful of anything with liquid in them, they can freeze and break open in winter, and can leak any time of year.
    Last edited by brdad; 07-15-2005 at 06:00 AM.

  2. #42
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Solon, Maine
    Posts
    5,965

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    Quote Originally Posted by brdad
    The idea is to always "trade up" at caches, but unfortunately a few people think a stick of gum or a used, non-winning lottery ticket is a fair trade for a Mapping software CD.
    I fully agree. Seems like that I've seen more and more logs lately where someone has taken a "nice" item and left something totally undesirable. We try and make sure we "trade up", and do not substitute our signature item - our Maine Geocacher permit - as a trade item. We leave them without regard to any oter trade. We've seen some signature items that are beautiful, and certainly a "trade up" item. But some are just computer printed "business cards".

    Play fair! LOL!

  3. #43
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Washington, DC
    Posts
    79

    Default Random thoughts...

    Greetings from Maryland. I sure miss the Maine woods.
    1. Bring a compass with you and learn how to use it in case something happens to your GPS. I use mine when I get close to the cache in addition to the GPS anyway.
    2. Do frequent "look backs" so that you will recognize an area when you approach it from the reverse direction.
    3. If you're going on a long hike, mark significant waypoints, such as easy places to cross streams, trail heads, etc. as you go. You may (usually?? ) find a much easier way back to the car from the cache (finding a major trail near the cache, avoiding briars, streams, etc.) but it's good to have these places marked.
    4. Bring a small medical kit. Benadryl is also a good idea as you never know when you'll become allergic to an insect sting. I heard a report that one cacher down here in MD was bitten by copperhead and now carries a snake bite kit.
    5. Carry some food, matches, spare socks and gloves, and other type gear if you're going into the woods, especially in the winter.
    6. Check out the rules on travel bug etiquette. If you are going to take a travel bug, please log it in properly and send it on its way in a reasonable amount of time. If you are unable to do so, please send the travel bug owner a note.
    7. HAVE FUN!!!!!

  4. #44
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Washington, DC
    Posts
    79

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    Lesson learned the hard way today: bring ziplocks for your cell phone in case you find yourself caught in a sudden rainstorm. Sure hope it dries out OK...

  5. #45
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Solon, Maine
    Posts
    5,965

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    A reminder when setting out your first caches: make your terrain/difficulty settings as accurate as possible. I visited 2 caches today that I thought were highly inaccurate - one with a terrain rating of "4", which was less than 20 feet off the road and down a slight bank. I would consider it a 1.5, and certainly not more than a "2".

    Here is a great resource for judging the terrain/difficulty ratings:

    http://www.clayjar.com/gcrs/

    (I used this on the cache I just mentioned and got a difficulty rating of 1 and a terrain of 2)

  6. #46
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Madison
    Posts
    21

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    This is a very helpful thread...I never thought of doing a waypoint for the car! Duh!

  7. #47
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Auburn, Maine
    Posts
    318

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    Quote Originally Posted by covefarm
    Hi_ I am new to this sport and bring along a gaggle of kids. I have read complaints about the quality of the contents of the cache. Do you season cachers have suggestions of good deposits?......silly putty, cards, play dough....................
    Ditto on the smells, and critters don't know if it's food or not. They will chew first, ask questions later.

    If you're leaving business cards, trading cards, stickers not in the original package, or anything paper, I notice it doesn't take too long for them to get ruined in the cache. In a pinch, those can be tucked into a ziplock that's already in the cache.
    ~*There's Tupperware in thum thar hills!*~

  8. #48
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Solon, Maine
    Posts
    5,965

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Family Three
    This is a very helpful thread...I never thought of doing a waypoint for the car! Duh!
    I think that this is one of the most important tips. You'd never realize how often you'll get turned around even on a short bushwacking trip.

    Once you've established a waypoint for "car", you can usually reposition the cooordinates to your car's current location so you don't have to keep entering the coordinates manually.

    I rarely get turned around (lost?), but waypointing the car has saved me extra walking on many occasions. Especially helpful when the mosquitoes are hungry!


  9. #49
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Petersburgh, New York
    Posts
    41

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    A thing I learned very early in my caching "career" is to have a solid lock on as many satellites as possible BEFORE entering heavy cover. Once you are in there without a good lock, you may never acquire it. (OK, all you "x" model folks can just go blasting in).
    <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=af1bf874-68f6-4173-bc83-ec22f791fbd0" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.geocaching.com/stats/img.aspx?txt=Let's+go+geocaching&uid=af1bf874-68f6-4173-bc83-ec22f791fbd0&bg=1" border="0" title="Profile for Quoddy" alt="Profile for Quoddy"></a>

  10. #50
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    south china, Maine
    Posts
    10

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    Thanks for all the great posts. We are still really new to this game and need all the help we can get.

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