NorthWest Arkansas Cachers

Tell me honestly, what do you think about newbies hiding caches? On the worldwide forums, many people suggest finding 100+ caches before you hide one...

With the weather getting better, I hope to find some more caches in the next few weeks, but my numbers won't be climbing quickly as I simply don't have that much time to go caching, especially in the Ozarks or along hiking trails. But I do have a pretty spot that I visit a couple of times a week where, as far as I can see from the map, there are no caches anywhere near. I am thinking of hiding a caches there, it would be an easy difficulty/ terrain.

Personally, I don't have a problem with anyone hiding a cache, as long as they think they'll stick with the game long enough to maintain it.

"Newbies" hiding caches causes problems in two ways: 1. They get all excited about the game, go out and hide a few and then give up on the game, leaving their "geo-trash" out there with nobody to maintain it. Some reviewers are reluctant to archive caches, so we end up with a cache that's disabled for several months taking up space...

2. The main reason the forums suggest newbies have 100+ finds before hiding one is so that they have some experience in what is a good hide, versus a run of the mill hide. Finding 100 or so gives you a better idea of the mistakes people make hiding caches: poor locations, poor coordinates, poor containers and the like.

FYI, generally speaking, film canisters are poor containers. Ammo cans and lock n locks are good containers. Most everything else falls somewhere in between. If it won't stand up to the rain and sun and critters and man-handling of geocachers, its probably not a good container.

Having said all that, if you think you're in the game for the long haul, go ahead and hide one. See what kind of comments you get. Learn from the first hide, then go hide some more. Don't be too disappointed when you start getting logs that say only "TFTC", most cachers are lazy. Just focus on the logs that actually SAY something.

I would have to agree with *TNT* on those points.

Now on the flip side, hiding a cache is the other half of the game. You'll get to recieve and read posts for your hides. You'll also see how important it is to replace the cache just how you found it. It wasn't untill I had a few placed that I realized how bothered an owner could get when the container wanders from the original GZ (ground zero).

I wouldn't worry about trying to make the perfect hide right off.

Thanks for the feedback. My thought was to have my first hide be close-ish to my house, so I could easily go to check it, and make it a very easy difficulty and terrain. I have friends in the local police, so getting amo cans should be no problem.

Then once I have found more, and gotten feedback on that first hide, I can hide some more (I have always been a fan of creating puzzles, not just solving them!). I am currently playing with a pathtag design idea, maybe I'll hide my first cache once I have had some made an delivered, so I can place one in the cache too.