Hints for Hiders

Geocaching is very much what you make of it. If you like long treks out in the country, great! If you want tree climbing or abseiling off bridges, you can do that too. Would rather blend in around a bus stop in a suit a tie - also thousands of caching opportunities for you! But regardless of where the caches you look for are hidden, there are still good and bad ways to hide them and I'm beginning to be able to accurately predict which ones are not going to be very good. They tend to be hastily placed and ill-thought out and make a caching experience less than delightful. I think it's quite often a case of newbie cachers who have found ten or so and can't wait to hide one. To these people, I implore you, please wait until you've found a few dozen and of differing types and locations. See what works and what impresses you. My first couple of caches were very much of the hastily placed "can't wait to join in hiding!" variety and they embarrass me to think of them. Long archived, I'm pleased to say. I am still guilty of struggling to find a decent place to hide a cache once I've come up with the concept of a puzzle or a perfect container but experience certainly helps.

Below are ten top tips for hiding that awesome new cache of yours so that we seekers will truly enjoy finding it and the favourite points will roll in:

1. Have a good hint: this means something that will actually be of use at GZ, even if it's a bit cryptic. The hint "ivy" when every single tree within a 20m radius is smothered in the stuff is NOT helpful. Anything that doesn't narrow your search down is simply frustrating. "No hint available" is often depressing when the hide is a tricky one but if you don't want to leave a hint, then fair enough!

2. Accurate coordinates: When the hint fails... refer to coordinates! Really it should be the other way around but sometimes the coordinates are so woefully bad that keeping your eyes open and looking for geoflage or consulting the hint first are better tactics. Having said that, the coordinates should be pretty much spot on for the orthodox cacher. Advice here includes using a specialised GPS device rather than a smart phone, and taking multiple readings. Have a look on Google Maps at your coordinates to make sure that they are where you expect them to be and maybe even get a friend to try the coordinates out first before publishing them. It's easy enough to change your coordinates but they must be at least 0.1 miles from all other caches or physical stages of multis. If you are hiding a puzzle or a multi cache final, the coordiantes are even more important to get right because if you need to update them, it's a lot more work to correct!

3. Use the cache attributes: The attributes on a cache page are there to help potential finders. Thankfully the latest way of creating a hide on geocaching.com now adds this in as routine rather than as an optional afterthought. Some people create pocket queries (PQs) based on attributes so if your cache is dog friendly or bike friendly, say so. If it's not available 24/7 this might also be valuable to share. Is it a cache 'n' dash (what our American friends refer to as "Park & Grabs", please use this attribute! Night cache? UV light required? Can bring a snowmobile? You can tell your finders all these things so that people can plan ahead and make the most of their caching experience.

4. A good location: This is probably the most important. Think long and hard about where you are hiding the cache. I do not like caches which don't seem to have any thought behind them and they feel like they've been thrown out of a car window. Please don't go putting caches in people's hedgerows, and even if you do have permission from the owner the likelihood is that curtain-twitching neighbours will get panicky. Don't let your cache look like a bomb. An innocent Tupperware box coated in black tape and magnetically attached to a railway bridge might seem like a good idea and a geocacher might spot the treasure a mile off but to a muggle, this is suspicious. Any cache, if found by a muggle should not cause alarm. I had to spray over a label which said "explosive" on an ammo can because that could have scared the crap out of a geocacher let alone a curious muggle! If part of your box can be left transparent, for example the bottom, then that might be a good idea.

5. Good hide and geoflage: This is linked with the previous point. It's not just about finding a good location but a good way of hiding the cache from muggle eyes. Is under rock best? Under a bridge? Piles of sticks? The point of geoflage is you want the cache to blend in with its environment. Sometimes less is more. Just use enough to hide the cache and mix it up a bit with leaves, moss, some rocks and a log or two rather than a big pile of twenty sticks. Unusual piles of neatly ordered rocks will not help your cache blend in. It'll make muggles think they've stumbled into the Blair Witch Project.

6. Parking and trailheads: Geocaching.com has the helpful option of listing additional waypoints to your listing. Obviously you need the coords for the cache itself but parking coordinates are so insanely useful for visitors who are not familiar with the area or who are coming from a distance. If you have to pay to park, please say so so we can make sure we have spare change. If the parking is a layby big enough for two cars, that might be worth mentioning before a team of cachers turn up to do a series together. Trailheads and other useful waypoints may also be greatly valued by your finders.

7. Maintenance: So you've set up a wonderful cache. But unfortunately the elements have got to it and it's waterlogged, local fauna have shifted it from its hiding place or the lid is broken. Some caching Samaritans kindly fix minor problems by adding additional paper to a full log book, for example, but as the cache owner (CO) it's your responsibility to check on your cache when the "Needs Maintenance" log is used by a finder, or just routinely in a cache's life. So don't hide caches so far away that you can't go check on them or move them if necessary. You can delegate this responsibility to a friend or family member if they live closer and are willing to check on it for you but please, when the cache has been tended to, post an "Owner Maintenance" log and re-enable the cache is necessary. If it's disabled it might not show up on everyone's PQ and reviewers will start asking you to see to your cache or they'll archive it on your behalf. Better to stay on top of your hides and respond to concerns which are expressed in your finders' logs.

8. Don't bite off more than you can chew: As an addendum to the previous point, think carefully about how many caches you can successfully manage at any one time. A lot may be low maintenance but if you have several long trails and hundreds of complicated and far-flung caches, make sure you can dedicate the time required to keeping them in good shape before your local area is just full of geolitter. If you don't want to maintain a cache any more you can offer it up for adoption by another cacher or you should archive it and free up the space for another hider. If you do  use the archive feature, you must remember to actually remove the containers as well otherwise they are nothing more than litter.

Not massively inspiring, but short and sweet in the field I guess?

9. Design your listing: A good cache listing can make a huge difference to the find. For a start it can attract people to actually want to go and find your container. It's a blank canvas for you to advertise on! Explain why you've chosen to hide a cache here. Is there a historical significance to the area? Is there a viewpoint a few feet away? Add photos, edit your text in HTML if you want to snazz it up a bit, and describe what you might find at GZ. Bear in mind that a lot of listings are first consulted out in the field and not on the home PC so put the information about the hide itself at either the top or the bottom of the listing so that it's easily found by the active geocacher.

10. Swag and trackables: Is your container big enough for swaps? The listing should be able to give an indication to potential finders by the listed size and a lot of family caching groups look for containers which are big enough for swaps as it's likely to keep the kids interested - I mean this is a real treasure hunt for them! Do not put unsuitable objects in your cache. I've found sweets which although well intentioned were never going to be suitable to be eaten and would only attract wildlife. A boiled sweet in a cache plus rainfall can equal an incredibly sticky log book. Not nice. Don't put dangerous objects in caches - I can't recall seeing any but I'm sure somewhere, someone's stuck a box of matches in one. Make sure the toys and trinkets you put in are of good enough quality that someone else might actually want to trade. And if you're encouraging trackables to lodge in your cache, make sure that it's not in a prime location for muggling because it's one thing to lose lots of McDonald's Happy Meal toys and it's another to lose someone else's token momento which has been travelling the world since 2006. You can't help it when someone else's travel bug (TB) or Geocoin gets stolen or goes AWOL, but you can play your part in minimising the risk that it will occur because your cache was not suitable.

This sounds like a long list of moaning, but seriously, apply these simple principles and you'll have a fantastic cache which people will be recommending to their friends and fellow cachers at the next event. It'll result in nice detailed logs rather than "Quick find, TFTC" and will earn you other nice comments such as "Definitely worth a favourite point!" You may even encourage other cachers to up their game or place a cache inspired by yours. Everyone's a winner!