Tally Dragon

Not necessarily. I've hidden two caches out that were camo'd with real leaves. Both survived surprisingly well. My trick was to spray them (as in "saturate") with clear matte acrylic spray paint... several coats. The first cache held up well for over a year (including a Minnesota winter) and the second is still out there, although that one is protected from the environment to some extent. While I haven't tried it (yet), I suspect that something like Thompson's Wood Seal would also work pretty well. To Tally Dragon: That is awsesome! But I think The Ravens are right... that green stuff sure looks like poison ivy!! I thought about using fake leaves, I've used fake ivy before as in the picture below, but do they come in brown? The matte spray paint is also a good idea. I used to be a draftsman and we used it to waterproof and smug proof our drawings. I figure with all the handling and flexing of the lid, a good amount of the leaves will come off and I'll just re-do it if necessary. Also the camo tape works pretty good by itself and any leaf material at all will make it even better. The fact that the surrounding area was all brown leaves (except for the poison ivy) made me want to try this technique. Thanks for your comments.

This one uses a Lock&Lock container with camo Duck tape and oak leaves glued to the top. Sprinkle a few extra leaves on top and it completely disappears! It's hidden in a cemetery that has a lot of groundskeeper activity such as leaf blowing, string trimming and trash removal. Also if a cacher doesn't re-hide it very well, it kind of hides itself.

I found the Conner Creek geocache in March of 2006 and took a picture of the ammo box and my dog Tillie. Is this it?

Okay, last night I had put my leftover brewed coffee in the container (I use it to dye fabric) and for the doubter(s) I turned it over to take a picture of the bottom. Happy to report not a drip of coffee came out, indicating to me it's most likely a reliable container. Hehe. I wonder why they would give you a 43 oz. container with 10 ounces of coffee?

Here is a picture of the tape I got from Wal-Mart a while back. I looked for it the other day in Wal-Mart in the paint section where it used to be and couldn't find it. And even worse I looked for the Lock & Locks and couldn't find them either, only the cheap rip off brands. This tape has a cloth backing, dull finish and sticks like crazy. It has held up for years on my camo taped Lock&Locks. But now I don't know where to find either product. Haven't tried the 800 number or link printed on the tape yet.

One of the things I like about Geocaching is all the statistics. Some of the more accomplished geocachers display a variety of statistics on their profile pages. This is a good thing because it shows how dedicated they are to the sport. However there is one statistic that would be interesting to see but is always missing. I’m talking about the number of times they looked for a cache and “did not find” it (DNFs). So what would an average ratio of DNFs to found caches look like? Mine is 17 percent (32 DNFs to 190 found) which is probably not good, and the number would be worse if it reflected all of my DNFs and not just the ones logged. I suspect a lot of geocachers fail to log all their DNFs and some may not log them at all. This is another interesting statistic we’ll never know, the ratio of DNFs logged to ones not logged. Why is it important to log your DNFs? It lets people know there may be a problem with the cache. If the cache suddenly racks up several DNFs in a row, the owner may want to check on it. You can assume that for every DNF logged there are probably twice that many not logged (we can only guess at that number). You can find out how many DNFs you have logged by clicking on “MY PROFILE”, then choose “Geocaches”, then “Didn’t find it”. Count them and divide that number by the number of finds to get your ratio. This information is only available to you, but if you want to share it in a reply to this post, please do so.

How did you cover the locking flaps? The spray insulating foam is applied to the container with the lid closed. Then an Xacto knife is used to cut around the lid after it's dried and sanded with the belt sander. Even though the foam sticks like crazy to the plastic, the flaps are a problem in that they flex when opening and closing the Lock&Lock container. The foam has a tendency to pop off in that area after a while. However, it's not that noticeable if they are touched up with the gray spray paint after this occurs and the container is hidden flap side down (as in the photo). One of the comments I got was "You know the camo is excellent when you pick up the cache to see if the cache is under it!"

I couldn't figure out how to fix the broken link to the image on the original post, so I'm fixing it with this reply. The container itself got muggled and is missing but the cache is still there. Now the container looks like this- On the second one I took a camo taped Lock&Lock a step further by adding artificial ivy. After placing the cache I walked off and came right back to it checking the coordinates and couldn't find it myself for a while!

I have a technique that works well under certain conditions. If your signal strength is poor because the hiding spot is under a canopy of trees, but there is a clearing nearby, try this; Mark the hiding spot somehow so it is visible from the clearing. In the clearing check your signal strength to see if it has improved, then change to the screen that shows your coordinates. Walk in a north south direction in the clearing. Your latitude reading will change while your longitude remains about the same. When you’re abreast (perpendicular) of the hiding spot, write down the latitude. Do this a few times and choose the reading you get most often. Repeat this process walking east/west in the clearing to get the best longitude. If it’s not possible to check both coordinates this way, you may have to settle for doing just one. Of course you can only use this technique when a clearing is near the cache. I have found though, that it is easier to maintain a cache if it’s not too far into the woods. Far enough to be out of sight of muggles is good enough for me. BTW - This technique can also be used when searching for a cache.

Here's a website that I like to use - http://boulter.com/gps/distance/

In a recent editorial in our local newspaper it was suggested that GPS chips be installed in all guns to track their location. A database would be created and somehow this would help combat crime. Someone else wrote back and suggested the GPS chips be implanted in the criminals instead. Both of these ideas are a little too big brother for me but it got me to wondering about the technology. Do GPS chips exist that transmit their location? I'm fairly certain they do, but not small enough to fit in a gun. And wouldn't they need to be out in the open to transmit to a satellite? Some people think that because they saw something in the movies that it exists. I'm not so sure.

Here's one I just finished that took a camo taped Lock&Lock a step further by adding artificial ivy: All of the items used were bought at Walmart. Sixty Ounce Lock&Lock, camo duck tape and artificial hanging ivy all cost about ten bucks. After placing the cache I walked off and came right back to it checking the coordinates and couldn't find it! After I did find it, I took a photo or two for future reference. I'm thinking this will work good with those cachers who don't re-hide your cache very well. This cache container is used with my "Impaired" puzzle cache hidden in Tallahassee, Florida. For those of you who enjoy solving puzzle caches, I would appreciate your feed back on it, by email of course.

I admire the intelligence and skill that went into constructing this cache container. But asking people to figure out the tone, record it and bring it with them to play at the cache may be too much. If they still gave away the whistle in the Captain Crunch cereal and all they had to do was come up with that, then maybe so. Also, there will be the cachers who will try alternate ways to open the cache container and tear it up. Most people sophisticated enough to own a computer and a gps would not do this, but don't count on it.

Clifford the Little Red Dog travel bug 1/16/2004 Released in Tallahassee Florida 5/9/2004 – Lost in California 7/15/2005 – Released copy in Tallahassee 10/10/2005 – Copy lost 5/25/2008 – Original reappeared in Canada Four years and change Now if the copy shows up things will get real confusing! I started a thread about Clifford before I found this one.

After four years of being lost in California my travel bug shows up in Canada. “Clifford the Little Red Dog” is the only bug I’ve ever owned and I was really disappointed when he went missing. After a year of not hearing from Clifford I decided to launch another Clifford using the copy tag. This one lasted about three months before he too went missing. I don’t know now if using the copy tag is such a good idea, because now if the copy Clifford shows up too, it’s going to get real confusing on the log page. I’m not sure how to straighten this out. Here are some things I’ve learned about how travel bugs get lost or stuck: They get found by a newbie who looses interest in the sport (this is what happened to the copy of Clifford). Or by the casual geocacher who decides to take a year or two off (this is one of the things that happened to the original Clifford). They are given to their children as toys. The cache they are in gets muggled. They get put in a difficult puzzle or multi cache or one that’s real remote or hard to get to. They get found by a geocacher who likes to collect travel bugs and hold them hostage (really). So if your Travel Bug gets stuck somewhere, lost, or kidnapped try not to get too bummed out about it. He may show up one day like my Clifford, and if not, you can always start another one, or watch someone else’s bug that you’ve found.

I used a product called GREAT STUFF Insulating Foam and it stuck like crazy to the lock&Lock container. After a while it wants to come off the hinge flaps because of the flexing during opening and closing. So it's good to have them painted gray ahead of time and hope that end gets stuck in the rocks. The rest of it is stuck on there pretty good and if some of the gray paint chips off exposing the brown foam, it just looks like the aggregate in the real concrete. This container is for a puzzle cache I created and it doesn't get found that often. There are only a few cachers in my area that appreciate a good puzzle cache. They figured it out right away and found it, so now it just sits there waiting for an out-of-towner or someone who has begged an extra hint to come along.

I disguised this sixty ounce Lock&Lock container to look like another piece of concrete in this pile of concrete rubble. This was accomplished by squirting foam insulation on the exterior, then using a belt sander and gray spray paint. If you want to see this cache container in person you must first solve this puzzle.

I’ve hidden several multi caches with the orienteering element included. Nearby “get out of your car and walk to the cache” ones get found about four times more often. Some people don’t think they have the skill, but it’s likely they have more fun seeing how many geocaches they can find in a day. Some people download the coordinates to their GPS without even reading the description. But that’s fine with me. That’s why they have different flavors of ice cream.

Uploading the pictures to the Internet is another great way to share them. I uploaded almost 200 pictures that I had accumulated over the past few years to Picasa and posted the link on our local geocaching forum. Picasa offers you a gig of space at no charge and allows people to download the original images. Another thing I have done is copy the pictures plus a slide show of them to mini CD-R's and placed them in geocaches around town.

I've used about eight or ten cameras in the last four years and lost only one. That one was taken by a muggle and not a geocacher. Most cachers know the camera is not a trade item but I've started taping a note to the camera just to make sure. Here's what it looks like- CACHE CAMERA This is not a trade item! Take a picture or two and return it to the cache I'm thinking using a cheap digital camera is not a good idea. After it sits out in the weather for a year or two it may become a disposable camera as well. And I agree with you, someone would probably steal it.

I use this Coleman compass purchased at Target for $2.99 - My GPS has a compass screen which works fine but I like having a regular compass too. It doesn't need batteries or signal strength to work.

I do post the pictures, but without names.

I send an email to all the people that have logged a find since the camera was placed in the cache. In it I tell them to look at the collages and if they like, identify themselves in the pictures. Usually about a third of them respond. I like knowing who's who in the pictures but it's not real important. I keep a version of the collages with the names accumulated but I don't usually post it to the cache page. Even though the names provided are user names, and not their real names, some of them might like to remain anonymous. And that might explain why I only hear back from a third of them. Also, cache cameras held at arms length don't always take the most flattering pictures!

This made me think of a travel bug called Pict-O-Cache TB that I found in one of my caches here in Tallahassee a year ago. It too was an underwater camera. It started out in Chattanooga and traveled around for about 2500 miles, then back to Chattanooga. Now it's being reported as missing. I wrote to the owner to see if he had gotten it back and developed the pictures. Haven't heard back as yet.

I enjoy hiding caches as much as finding them. I have yet to hide a micro because having room for trade items, travel bugs and sometimes a cache camera is important to me. Looking at pictures of people who have visited my caches is always fun and I like sharing these pictures too. It cost about seven or eight bucks for the disposable camera, development (without prints) and a photo CD. Instead of uploading all the pictures to the cache page, I like to combine them into two or three collages. This makes them easier to browse through and doesn’t clutter up the web page. After the pictures are uploaded to the cache page, an email is sent to all the visitors in the log that might be in the pictures. In it, I invite them to have a look and offer to send them a copy of their original picture. Many people have written back saying it’s the first time they have seen pictures of themselves from a cache camera. So I’m wondering…How do you feel about cache cameras? What have you seen done with the pictures and do you have any interesting ones that you want to share with us? Here’s an example of one of the collages-