We thought it might be a good idea to post ideas here for things you can do to enhance your geocaching experience. We'll keep adding to this list from time to time as we come across an example of best practice.
Safety First
Always carry a mobile phone with you when out caching. It can literally help to save a life if you come across a situation where assistance is required. A bonus of modern mobiles is that if you have a camera phone you can take pictures of the tracking codes of any trackables you come across to record them without the need for pen and paper.
Remember to mark your cars location into your GPSr before embarking on a cache hunt if you are in an area unfamiliar to yourself. That way, you can't get lost as you'll always be able to find your car again - even if you can't find that elusive geocache.
If you are looking inside a hole for a cache, take a minute to check the area, is there any activity from wasps etc, and it could also be worth checking the hole with a long stick first to ensure that it is not a wasps nest or something similar before you put your hand in.
Geocoin Dipping
Ever heard of the term 'dipping a geocoin in and out of a cache'? Geocoins can be very expensive to release into the wild as you always run the risk of it being stolen or mistaken as geoswag by newbies. You might have a special geocoin that you can't bear to part with and its a shame that no-one else can enjoy it. Well geocoin dipping is the term given to carrying a geocoin on you (ie not releasing it into the wild) and dropping it into and immediately retrieving it from a geocache again when you visit it. This does two things:
- It acrues mileage to the geocoin. This is in fact your own mileage, so you can use it to record how far you travel whilst geocaching.
- By carrying the coin with you and not releasing it you don't risk losing it and it can be shown to other geocachers that you meet whilst out geocaching so that they can 'discover' it.
Releasing a Trackable Item
We strongly recommend that before you release anything trackable you attach something to it to say what its mission is going to be, and that it is not a trade item. This helps people know if they can help it move, and where you would prefer it to go. It also means that new people to geocaching will not mistake it for a trade item.
