Is this allowed??

[CLSx2]

I have an old spot in my moms backyard from when I was a kid. It is an old metal box buried with a lid that is just a sheet of metal camoed and the handle is a rock.

Unless you are really looking you don’t even notice the spot. It was where I hid my diary for years without my sister ever finding it!

I know that caches can’t be buried, but if I went out there are fixed the spot up again would that be allowed?

The other issue is my moms backyard butts up against HWY 36. Are there restrictions on how close a cache can be to the HWY?

Any tips would be appreciate,
Crystal

[cheezehead]

Caches can be buried on you own property or if you have permission from the land owner. And distance from the highway should not be an issue if the cache is one private property.

[Team Deejay]

Well, you can do anything you want with your property, but you would need special permission from Groundspeak to list a buried cache on geocaching.com. Becky or I couldn’t approve it for you. This is one of those guidelines that is there for a reason. One of the running battles we have with land managers is overcoming the misconception that geocaches are buried. And while obviously you are the manager of your own property, the problem is that ,as soon as you place it, 2 dozen other people will run out and create their own buried cache in Whitnall Park, or Lapham Peak or wherever and THEY won’t tell us that the caches are buried. And then we will have a big problem with Milwaukee County Parks, or the DNR, or whoever runs the land. I actually received complaints about a cache I approved where the cache was a nano container attached to a nail stuck in the ground about 1/4 inch, the complainers indicating they felt it was buried.

Additionally, remember that there are a lot of issues with having a cache in a residential neighborhood. You will have people in your yard at all hours of the day and night, including 5AM and Midnight. Your neighbors also may not be happy with the steady stream of people wandering off into their yard, expanding their search. A typical traditional cache in Milwaukee county gets visited 30-40 times the first month and then probably 20 times the following month and decreasing from there. Is this level of visits to your property going to make you happy?

So, if you want to do this:
1. Contact Groundspeak at [email protected] and get preapproved.
2. Think about what sort of restrictions you want to place on the hide (hours, parking locations, etc.) Be sure to include this in your listing. It won’t stop everyone from coming at 3AM, but it might cut it down a little.
3. Make sure all relevant neighbors are informed, so we don’t get people calling the police thinking that you have some sort of drug or pornography operation going on in your backyard.
4. When you submit your listing, be sure to attach the email from Groundspeak indicating their approval, or we will just have to send it back to you.
5. Make sure your coordinates are spot on, provide a useful hint and give your property address and a description of the house. We do NOT want people wandering onto private property if their signal is off by a few feet.
6. Finally, in your cache description, be sure to note that you received a special guideline variance from Groundspeak and give the email address for anyone contemplating a similar hide.

If this sounds like a pain in the neck, well, it is. Buried caches are generally bad news, and neighborhood caches take a lot of patience from their owners. Combining the two isn’t going to be pretty. When you find 20 three foot deep holes dug all over your yard, just remember that I tried to warn you.

[CLSx2]

LOL Yeah, I guess you are right, didn’t think that one through all the way!

[Author]

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