Four years into geocaching and like all of you I've had my fair share of splinters, fossicking around brambles and the little beggars get in and stay there until I finally fish them out towards the end of the week and sure enough come the weekend it happens again.
The cache is best done by bike to minimise risk on interest from local muggles, please re-hide well.
For the FTF, there's some useful bits to add to your caching kit.