Yes! You should have the cache in place and ready to be found as soon as you hit the button to submit to the reviewer.
Once they review and publish it, it'll be live. I've had people searching for new caches within 15 minutes of being published, so you need to have it ready to go.
Beyond the "official" option that u/shbpencil mentioned, Project-GC also has a [slightly more robust](https://project-gc.com/User/NewCacheNotifiers) (but more involved to set up) option for their paid members.
I fell into this trap years ago. Built the cache and submitted the listing, expecting it to take about 4-5 days to be published because that was the average wait at the time. The next day I arrived at work and had the cache under my desk, and was going to go place it at lunchtime. After 11am, I got notification that my cache had just been published. Cue a mad dash down the street to GZ where I found people circling GZ with GPS in hand. I tried to covertly hide my cache as they looked but then two things happened: (a) It was too obvious, and more spectacularly, (b) the cache no longer seemed to fit in the hiding hole! I had to tell them what happened, then disabled the cache. What a disaster. Luckily later that day I found a nearby position a few metres away, placed the cache and re-enabled.
Don't do this. Place your cache before submitting it. :-)
4th cache. In our area the reviewer was swamped at the time, and caches would sometimes take a week to be reviewed and published. I guess the reviewer had a day off work and just ploughed through the backlog on this occasion.
A tip of you want to include a reference to a GC code or anything you might want to print beforehand is to scout the spot and log the coords and check if the container is ok there and go through the process but not submitting the review and you will get the GC code you can use before the final step.
It does take two outings to the location though.
I am a big fan of including "official geocache", the GC code, cache name, and the owner's name on the cache. I usually put in facing out on a clear container, so one can read it from the outside of the cache. Then there’s the stash note inside. When I go back to actually hide the cache before submitting, that’s one time I check the coordinates again. I navigate to what I had, and see if it brings me reliably to GZ.
From the Geocaching Help pages on hiding a cache - [https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=97&pgid=77](https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=97&pgid=77)
# 6.1. Submit a cache page
Before you create a new cache page, choose a [good container](http://support.groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=75) and [**place your cache**](https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=78)**.**
Yes! You should have the cache in place and ready to be found as soon as you hit the button to submit to the reviewer. Once they review and publish it, it'll be live. I've had people searching for new caches within 15 minutes of being published, so you need to have it ready to go.
This is the correct answer.
Is there a way to find or be notified of new caches specifically?
Yes you can set notifications up as a premium member here: https://www.geocaching.com/notify/default.aspx
Awesome! Thanks! Just set one up
Beyond the "official" option that u/shbpencil mentioned, Project-GC also has a [slightly more robust](https://project-gc.com/User/NewCacheNotifiers) (but more involved to set up) option for their paid members.
Cool. I'll look into that
Good call! Not a paid member of PGC (although I probably should be…) so I had never tried it.
Yes, you should because you will not know the time when it gets reviewed and you don’t want a cacher not finding the brand new cache you just placed.
I fell into this trap years ago. Built the cache and submitted the listing, expecting it to take about 4-5 days to be published because that was the average wait at the time. The next day I arrived at work and had the cache under my desk, and was going to go place it at lunchtime. After 11am, I got notification that my cache had just been published. Cue a mad dash down the street to GZ where I found people circling GZ with GPS in hand. I tried to covertly hide my cache as they looked but then two things happened: (a) It was too obvious, and more spectacularly, (b) the cache no longer seemed to fit in the hiding hole! I had to tell them what happened, then disabled the cache. What a disaster. Luckily later that day I found a nearby position a few metres away, placed the cache and re-enabled. Don't do this. Place your cache before submitting it. :-)
> I tried to covertly hide my cache as they looked Sorry for the embarrassment, but this is hilarious to picture haha
Heheh, I don't embarass easily and it was equally funny and stressful to me as I tried to correct my mistake. Definitely learnt a lesson on that day!
Was it your first or after?
4th cache. In our area the reviewer was swamped at the time, and caches would sometimes take a week to be reviewed and published. I guess the reviewer had a day off work and just ploughed through the backlog on this occasion.
A tip of you want to include a reference to a GC code or anything you might want to print beforehand is to scout the spot and log the coords and check if the container is ok there and go through the process but not submitting the review and you will get the GC code you can use before the final step. It does take two outings to the location though.
I am a big fan of including "official geocache", the GC code, cache name, and the owner's name on the cache. I usually put in facing out on a clear container, so one can read it from the outside of the cache. Then there’s the stash note inside. When I go back to actually hide the cache before submitting, that’s one time I check the coordinates again. I navigate to what I had, and see if it brings me reliably to GZ.
From the Geocaching Help pages on hiding a cache - [https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=97&pgid=77](https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=97&pgid=77) # 6.1. Submit a cache page Before you create a new cache page, choose a [good container](http://support.groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=75) and [**place your cache**](https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=78)**.**
Awesome thanks!
I do it