hiplainsdrifter

I typically build multi-caches, because I am trying to target cachers that want something more than a drive by experience. A good trick that I have found is to place travel bugs (yours or others) in the multi. A little incentive for the out of towners to check it out. Most of my multis only get a handful of finds a year, but almost everyone leaves very positive comments, so it works for me.

oh goodness. If people don't want to look for risky caches they do not have to. That is the whole point of the rating system. I have had to shut down one awesome cache because people kept complaining that it was too dangerous, even when I clearly listed the hazards, equipment to mitigate those hazards, and called it a 5/5. Safety and risk are relative concepts, and I for one appreciate it when people push the envelope a little, including in geocaching. Much more fun than another lamp post hide.

Truth. If someone put an hour or two into creating a cache, certainly you can put more than 2 seconds into your log.

I guess you gotta protect your natural features when you don't have any. BOOM. Just kidding. The abandoned pole idea is good, but the only ones I can think of are in railroad ROWs, which is an even bigger issue. OP- Do you have a particular pole in mind or something? Why not pick one with a utility box, and do a magnet cache- like a fake switch or something? Not the safest cache in the world, but shouldn't be a violation.

I think your rating is fine. I have found that most people over-rate both terrain and difficulty- probably because for most people a mile hike is "difficult" and anything that takes more than 5 minutes of concentration is "difficult". As others said, this is subjective, but use the guidelines and then put what you think is appropriate. If someones lil pinkie gets hurt, that is their deal.

As mentioned, you should really focus on having a waterproof container, then get creative with it. Basically just do something unexpected. A good hiding technique is to put a cache in a location where the searcher will think they know where too look for it, but will be a bit off. Examples (I am sure other people will have more/better): two caches I hid this week. One is next to a smaller tree on the edge of a pond. At first glance, you might think it is in the reeds or maybe somewhere in the trunk of the tree. It is actually in the water, in a matchstick container I submerged with a lead weight on fishing line. You have to find a bobber under the reeds and pull on it to raise the cache container out of the water. Another: A hide in a yard that has several rockbeds with aspen trees and small bushes. The obvious hide spot would be amongst the rocks or in the trees, but it is really in a sprinkler head along the edge of the rockbed. As has been suggested to me, you first need to get a feel for what is 'normal' in your area, and then do something completely different.

Amateurs. Creedence (or Led Zepplin depending on your mood), black morels and wild asparagus over a medium bison ribeye with bourbon au jus and refried mashed potatoes, and orange.

I like it. I too enjoy placing hard to get to caches. I have several that have been up for almost a year with no finds- and it is not like they are in a wilderness area or something. I usually try to put them in a cool enough spot to justify the effort to get there. I just built a harder to reach multi last week that ends inside a little known cave. I think most cachers don't try for them because they are more about quantity than quality- they would rather hit 20 right off the interstate than 1 in a really cool secret spot. I suppose mobility plays a factor as well. Does your buddy down there usually make difficult hides at difficult access? I haven't tried that yet. Right now the wet weather is stumping the local FTFers- I don't even have to try- two right in town for almost a week with no attempts. Ha!

Interesting discussion. I am suprised that so many are making blanket statements that trash camo is inappropriate. It seems like a common sense thing to me- if people will be hurt by the container, or by rummaging through other junk trying to decide what the container is, probably not the greatest idea. However, it seems that there is definite potential to do clever hides like this, especially in locations where the muggle factor is low, and where they aren't an eyesore. I think it is ridiculous to suggest that such caches are somehow lazy or less creative. I would say it depends on the cache. I think a tupperware with pine needles and bark glued to the lid is definitely more lame then some recycled containers. CITO dogmatism would be tempered by the realization that with the exception of virtual caches, ALL caches are littering. Chill guys.

Just an FYI- I intended this topic to be a discussion about what YOU think makes for creative geocache possibilities. Yes, I am a bit stumped myself, but what do YOU think? I appreciate all the noob advice, but to be blunt, I am already hiding caches that I think are more interesting than 80 percent of what is out there. So, what are YOU excited about pursuing in cache placement?

Good advice, I should search more. I like the idea of filtering by favorite points, I can see that working good in a more populated area. Where I live, there is kind of a paucity of caches, and the ones I have been placing are some of the better ranked for favorite points, so I don't think that will help me much.

I guess I don't mean that such caches aren't challenging, I think they can definitely be that. I just think that they are conceptually boring. Maybe you are right though, more searching would help fire my creativity. I am definitely intrigued by the 'hidden in plain view' type caches. My current project is a dog park with almost no above ground features to utilize in a hide, and way too much regular maintenance to do an on the ground hide.

I am rather new to geocaching, but I really like hiding more than hunting, so I spend a good amount of time thinking about how to make fun caches. I was wondering what people thought offers the best opportunities to do so- is it cool containers? complex multicaches? interesting hide locations? I guess I feel I am a bit stumped on what direction to go next. Micros. Yawn. Camo. Yawn. Urban camo. Yawn. Ideas?

Thanks Steve! This is the responsible way to arrowhead hunt. This has been discussed already in this thread, but in the United States it is against federal law to collect arrowheads or other archaeological materials from federal lands. It is often illegal to do so from state lands. Lots of people enjoy arrowhead hunting legally by obtaining permission from private landowners. However, as a former professional archaeologist, I have found hundreds of arrowheads, and I only photograph them. Unless you are greedy, a photo is just as good and it doesn't remove a temporal marker (artifact that gives a date estimate) from a surface archaeological site.

Prolly the same guy that hid this one... somegeek Yikes. Creative - yes. Clever - yes. Wildly inappropriate and foolishly dangerous - yes. Dude, did you just put an arrow on a photo of an electrical substation? Aren't those usually totally off limits/ guarded by razor wire? Anyway, I can see your argument about hiding something in a 'dangerous' spot. Really I would guess that the danger would actually be that once a cacher learned that such hides were possible, he might go tearing something apart while searching for a different cache location. I actually chose that spot because there are enough alternative hiding places that the cacher would not immediately assume that the cache was on the pole. I already am planning to move this cache, my original idea was to stick it to the side of a metal shed, but found that the magnets don't stick well to the corrugated steel siding. As for lone kid cachers, this hide is 6.5 ft. off the ground, so they likely couldn't get it even if they wanted to. I guess I didn't think it was a super dangerous spot, compared for example with a hide in an area with lots of poison ivy or where rattlesnakes might hang out. It seems like there are tons of those. Maybe I am wrong (and I wouldn't want to be).

Why is there always someone out there prepared to pick apart any creative effort? If you aren't the reviewing moderator, don't worry about it. Go find another Walmart pelican case.

This is what I started with: I epoxied the magnets to the inside of the switch box, and I drilled a hole in the front plate so it will swing open. I epoxied a small strip of metal to the base to act as a stopper for the swinging plate. At least for its first use, I placed it where it didn't perfectly blend in. You gotta give em a fighting chance.