After you figure out the land ownership issues, the next step is to ensure that your cache appears in the Geocaching.com database. The site has a series of common-sense criteria that a cache must meet to be added to its database. Generally a cache can’t be
- Buried: Covering it with braches or leaves is okay, but no digging, please.
- Placed in environmentally sensitive areas: This includes archaeological and historic sites.
- Placed in national parks or designated wilderness areas: This is a no-no. Sorry; them’s the rules.
- Placed within 150 feet of railroad tracks: Umm, this is for safety reasons.
- Placed anywhere that might cause concerns about possible terrorist activities: Use your post-9/11 brain. This includes areas near airports, tunnels, military facilities, municipal water supplies, and government buildings or bridges.
- Placed within one-tenth of a mile of another cache: This is a rule for adding a cache to the Geocaching.com database as well as simple geocaching etiquette.
- Of a commercial, political, or religious nature: Keep it neutral; don’t cache something promoting some business or cause.
The geocaching community polices itself fairly well. If you put a cache where it shouldn’t be, a cacher will probably let the Geocaching.com administrators know about it, and the cache will be removed from the database. After you select a good general location to put the cache, visit the area to figure out exactly where you’re going to hide the cache. Use your creativity to find a challenging hiding place: in a tree hollow, underneath bushes, wedged in rocks, and so on. The more experience you have finding caches, the more ideas you’ll have for good hiding places.
After you find your secret hiding spot, you need to determine the cache’s coordinates as precisely as possible. (Use the WGS 84 datum) This can be challenging because ofless-than-perfect satellite coverage. You might find the location’s coordinates changing on your GPS receiver every few seconds. Many GPS units have an averaging feature that compares coordinates at a single spot over a period of time and then averages the result. If your receiver does do averaging, get it as close to the cache as possible, let it sit for five or ten minutes, and then copy down the cache coordinates and enter them as a waypoint.
A manual approach to averaging is to set a waypoint for the cache location, walk away, and then come back and set another waypoint. Repeat this until you have 6–12 dozen waypoints; then examine the list of waypoints, and pick the one that looks the most accurate (generally the value in the middle of the list).
After you find your secret hiding spot, you need to determine the cache’s coordinates as precisely as possible. (Use the WGS 84 datum) This can be challenging because ofless-than-perfect satellite coverage. You might find the location’s coordinates changing on your GPS receiver every few seconds. Many GPS units have an averaging feature that compares coordinates at a single spot over a period of time and then averages the result. If your receiver does do averaging, get it as close to the cache as possible, let it sit for five or ten minutes, and then copy down the cache coordinates and enter them as a waypoint.
A manual approach to averaging is to set a waypoint for the cache location, walk away, and then come back and set another waypoint. Repeat this until you have 6–12 dozen waypoints; then examine the list of waypoints, and pick the one that looks the most accurate (generally the value in the middle of the list).
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