CheekyBrit

March 11, 2022

Some of the best geocaches I've done have had some sort of movie inspiration for a puzzle or theme. Some examples are:

National treasure 1 & 2 GC74WTB
Another in Idaho Falls styled after 'gone in 60 seconds'. Sadly archived now but it used a list of UV on side of a building.
I'm working on one similar to Finding Ohana -with a carved coin silhouetting the mountains.
I have two so far based on the macguffiniest Star wars film - episode IX GC9H56R and GC9H5DD - the landscape made these two work but others in the series will feature caches/objects like the dagger or sith wayfinder.

March 11, 2022

Imagine a Tenet themed geocache. I'm talking the 2020 movie by Christopher Nolan.

I'm not sure which way to go about it but I'm open to brainstorm with y'all; and it's not like there's only one that can be made, there's lots themed after national treasure. Feel free to make a puzzle build off of this.

So far I've got five main schools of thought:

1) People have to watch scenes from the film that are on youtube and solve a mini quiz about it, like how many Neils are there at this point? How did the Protagonist know to plant the listening device in the briefcase (pick from multiple choice)?
This option would use videos like the airport sequence synced up or one of Welby Coffeespill's 3D animations like the Stalksk12 battle sequence .
A QUIZ seems like a bit of a cop out though. I'm just not smart enough to come up with something on Nolan's level with the world rules he built.

2) Produce some sort of scene with inversion involved and have the coordinates in the video somehow. This would be the coolest, but also toughest to do. I want my budget to be less than a few million...

3) Take the approach of a young Sator. The first stage of a multi is a cheap replica of the gold bars and a laminated message he found in Stalsk12. The container can't be buried but it could be a big penguin box / military style box. The message could be like it is from the future telling 'Sator' to go to X coordinates to build the first turnstyle after using the inverted gold for a loan. Not much of a puzzle but easy to pull off with a nice container.

4) A choose your own adventure puzzle where decisions / observations made as a story unfolds involve inverted characters and objects. There would be a lot of physical stages to give length to the story and most of them would end up dead ends and not make thematic sense with the rules of inversion. Someone could make the right choices knowing how inversion works and avoid any dead ends. This would be a lot of work and be somewhat similar to my other choose your own adventure caches that had no story: GC8B0F6 or GC9KH87.

5) Along with some story, have an audio clip that includes the coordinates spoken backwards, like the freeway chase at Tallinn in the movie. "I can't understand this." "I thought you spoke Estonian." "It's not Estonian, it's backwards."

Brainstorm with me. Steal any and all ideas. What would you want to see in a geocache made nearby that you could do?

March 3, 2022

Gerandkat I had no idea. Thank you for that brilliant piece of information. That link as well to show the source of the info is great. Thank you.

25 miles away, got it.

March 3, 2022

If anyone in the area has credit to host a community celebration event still, doing one near MOGA 2022 would be so fantastic. Not least because it would allow someone to break the record for most types in a day.....

March 1, 2022

That new string should work well. Thanks for that. The google drive option I posted is still working for the geocache pages I set up a few months ago so it might only be an issue for NEW geocaches.
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC9H56R is one of mine with a working gif using the google drive approach.

December 7, 2021

Good question Max and 99. I guess I'm thinking of more than just buying the container. Anyone can buy stock and even custom containers. I'm thinking more of the full process taken care of by the commissioned builder. Picking the spot, building and hiding the container, getting permission, designing the cache page, ongoing maintenance possibly, all of it.

December 7, 2021

Here is a thought experiment for you:
Suppose someone wants to pay you to build geocaches for them. This isn't people who want you to put out more for them to find themselves, but someone who wants to pay to have them built under their own name on some sort of commission basis.
I could see that happening if the one paying didn't know how to make the containers, the cache page, or getting permission.

I could also see that happening if there is a legendary geocache creator like WVTim with his epic gadget caches.
There are surely a lot more reasons someone would want to hire someone to make caches for them, but what are some of the ethics or issues that could arise from this?

This isn't much of an issue if it is just services exchanged, like I'll make a plate of cookies for you if you build this for me, but money could complicate this.

I am not hiring anyone any time soon, but it was a shower thought milling around my head lately.

December 6, 2021

I agree, the awesome logs some people leave is a big reason I am a cache owner.
I also enjoy creating the puzzles and caches I enjoy to make them available for others. There is genuine fun had in making some caches even if they are never or even seldom found. This is the case with some of my mountainous caches or ones with tough puzzles or rock climbing elements. But those are the ones with the all time greatest logs.

November 30, 2021

It is good there is a mechanism to resolve persistently missing caches. Whether it is the CO it needs replacing or archiving, or flagging it to the CO and reviewer that it needs replacing or archiving.

November 30, 2021

I am torn between updating and replacing a cache.
I built GC8CEC7 when my wife and I bought our new house. I absolutely wanted a front yard cache as a dealbreaker of where we bought a house. I had to put down a 'blocker' cache to stop someone inadvertently placing a geocache within 0.1 miles of our house and denying us having one at our home.

It was made quickly and crudely - a spray painted camouflaged bucket hanging high in a tree, and lowered by rope. It is a simple large letterbox, and yet it has the most favorite points of any of ours (28 points).

Now here is the catch. I was planning on building a mini free library British telephone box with a geocache inside but I am a little torn between updating the existing letterbox cache or archiving the letterbox once the mini free library is complete and can be published.
I'm leaning toward the latter, but my wife disagrees.

November 30, 2021

On 11/19/2021 at 4:25 PM, GeoElmo6000 said:

I once audited one of my caches, and it was the last time I ever did that.

I have a difficult to reach 25' in a tree cache. The rating is high and attracts a fair bit of attention but every now and then someone will spot the cache, make no physical contact, and log it as though it were a virtual cache. I audited my cache like GeoElmo6000 did and contacted those who hadn't physically logged it.
I'm not very personality A so I told them I have the TOTT that makes it very easy and am happy for them to borrow it or go with me some time so their log can become legitimate.

November 30, 2021

There's a strong north pole theme. Maybe the reindeer is home and signal is just visiting.

November 30, 2021

One of my geocaches: GC8R4AQ Pocatello Underground has 99 waypoints. I overlaid a map of the London underground with a contrasting map of my town and placed the 99 waypoints where stations would fall in the city. Then the multi cache stages were directions along the London underground network, like "travel northbound 4 stops and transfer to the Central line, eastbound 1 stop" for example.
People only visit 4 locations including start and final, but having the full 99 means I can get GPS coordinate precision for the stages you need to find without giving the game away.

November 30, 2021

On 11/7/2021 at 9:44 PM, cerberus1 said:

On 11/11/2021 at 12:51 PM, ReToddy said:

<...>

I guess I am OK with getting permission. But that seems more like an artificial barrier to this cache than real concern or knowledge that this location requires permission first. I don't believe it does as there are other published caches on this campus and nothing in the description states that they received permission to place the cache.

<...>

Seriously? Pardon me for being a little short on this, but EVERY cache requires permission.

In its current form, the cache permission page has a checkbox that asks you if you have permission to place the cache.

There are NO exceptions to that.

I realize it may bug you, thinking maybe the Reviewer's going a bit further than normal, like it's a pet peeve, but the issue is permission.

The Reviewer even said they'd published it after you provide permission.

Feedback on the feedback on the feedback of the feedback.
It is definitely an irritating barrier to have to ask for permission from landowners and all other necessary parties but I agree with the rules, it is necessary. There have been a lot of issues between landowners and geocaching in the past. The game could be at risk in entire areas if people hide caches with reckless abandon and get us in hot waters. For example - unknowing trespass on property even without 'no trespass' signs in Idaho can now result in jailtime.

November 30, 2021

I know there are hidden cache stages like multi, Wherigo, mystery, and letterbox, but I don't know how you managed to display the circles on your phone. Pretty cool secondary app whatever it is.

November 30, 2021

New irk: landscaping changing the terrain of an area ready for construction. Where I live in Pocatello it is almost always on top of trails and geocaches. It is a silly irk, people need houses and they need to be built somewhere.

November 30, 2021

Isonzo Karst has it right. the free software GSAK is amazing and lets you filter your logs in so so many ways.

November 30, 2021

It blows my mind that these satellites are constantly whizzing around on predetermined planes. Even though they are not in geostationary orbit, they maintain planetary coverage and it is amazing. A dedicated team is constantly monitoring these satellites' movement to ensure they stay on their orbits - around the clock. This is complicated by the fact that there is an insane amount of space debris up there, admittedly at a variety of elevations, but that still must be a huge headache.

I know a lot of profound technology understood by a few is used by the many. Not many people could engineer and build a planetary gear system but they sure can use it in a car. Same with satellites and smart phones.

November 30, 2021

This could get pretty humorous. Pick random caches the other side of the planet and ask your self if you found it today. No, I did not find it - DNF. Someone could DNF entire continents.
I can kinda why Groundspeak no longer allows DNF challenges. There are grandfathered challenges with DNFs, though ironically I DNFed this one: GC18AQA

To clarify, I am not advocating mass DNFing caches someone didn't attend GZ for, also not trying to offend anyone. You enjoy the game your way.

November 30, 2021

The scenario specifically when someone cannot successfully reach out to an inactive Virtual cache owner regarding cache adoption.... that is a tough topic.

People really want to keep old virtuals alive and one getting archived is a really sad day. Someone adopting a cache without knowledge and consent of the cache owner is also potentially a sad day. I'm glad I don't have to make the policy but I'm guessing without cache owner permission, adoption is a no starter.

October 28, 2021

On 2/1/2021 at 2:33 AM, The Trekbuddies said:

One new movies Finding Ohana 2021

The Netflix movie "Finding 'Ohana" was one of the better depictions of Geocaching in pop culture. They have a multi cache published during an event (Greenpoint Geocachers) as a race to the finish. It is pretty cool. Then they kept up the theme of finding treasure throughout the movie. They find the treasure at "ground zero". The dialogue kept mentioning how the lead character Pili Kawena would rather be geocaching than sitting around the house - this is accurate for most of us.
In the credits they list Roland Lee as the geocache consultant. Based on https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/17358698/geocaching-craze-in-hawaii/ I believe his geo handle is GeoGerms. He is the #5 ranked top finder of Hawaii caches at a whopping 3342 just in Hawaii.

October 25, 2021

On 9/30/2021 at 9:37 AM, Max and 99 said:

2. There are some in my area, and I'm sure everywhere, who rate their caches for the SOLE purpose of helping others fill their D/T grid. Example: A skirt lifter cache is rated 5T so that others can fill a grid on a difficult square to find.

I am one of those less worthy types that can't get my head away from stats; i love them. About 1/3 of my geocaches are to help people fill their fizzy grid, though I try to make the difficulty and terrain truly up to expectations. I have a fair few tree climbing, cave crawling, rock climbing, rappelling, and mountaineering geocaches to justify the ratings, and my puzzles leave some stumped. I know that is far from what you're talking about with skirt lifters being rated 5T, but I had to confess to building geocaches with grid filling in mind.

October 21, 2021

45 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

(Photo slightly embellished; weather not as shown.)

lightning is so hard to catch, photo embellishing is understood. Those seemed like gnarly locations even before the lightning came rolling in.

October 21, 2021

I have helped tangent this thread into the favorite points rabbit hole. A fascinating topic that has been had elsewhere and even further complicated by many great caches not getting visitors and in turn, no favorite points, like remote mountainous caches or boat required ones... GAH I digress again.

Back to competing areas against one another and bettering your own county as best you can,
We haven't considered attribute chart filling yet.
I have put out the only wireless beacon cache Bannock County has ever known, as well as a handful of the only rock climbing equipment caches. Scuba is on my list but it is hard to find a sustainable, non draining by August location. There are no scuba caches anywhere near us and that is the only wireless beacon cache I can find for several counties.
Anyone else built caches specifically around rare attributes?