Evil Cache Hides.

[+norsehawk]

I've been geocaching for about 2 months now, and am getting very close to hiding a few myself. Now, several of the cachers in my area are very tricky with thier hides, and I want to provide the same level of challenge on some of my hides.

 

Some ideas I have been tossing around in my head include:

 

Finding a standing tree that has a hollowed out section in it, and hanging the cache on fishing line down in the hole, with a thumbtack or similar item inside the hole to act as the anchor.

 

Another evil idea I have been tossing around, a bottle, fill it mostly with small rocks, a bison canister, securely tie it to something on shore low to the ground, and then toss it out into the water where it will sink. to retrieve, they would have to reel in the cache.

 

I'm just starting to plan some hides, but any truly evil ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[+wimseyguy]

That's great. Creative hides are almost always appreciated, especially if they are in quality locations.

Have you read through this thread that after over two years and 22 pages is still near the top of page one of the forums?

[+medic208]

Sounds like a good idea to me! Turns out I have a cache hidden in a very similar way to your first example.

[+Mule Ears]

Both of those ideas sound great! I've taken to hiding caches inside hollow trees just to shelter the latch-top mason jars I like to use, but the suspension idea is ingenious.

 

Judging from those two concepts you've probably already thought this out, but given that there's a thread running called "Destructive Geocachers" it's worth mentioning: When you design a hide, try to anticipate what a frustrated searcher might do to the surroundings. It'll reduce your maintenance and the impact of your caches on the areas in which they're hidden.

[bogleman]

Lately I have really started to dislike "evil" hides - frustration ect..... If I hide a cache I WANT YOU TO FIND IT, that is why I hid it.

 

I say get creative with a larger container, it's too easy to hide a 1/2 tube. Challenge yourself and others by hiding a difficult to find regular cache.

 

I enjoy micros but if you are into evil make a fake boulder and hide a 5 gallon bucket in it.

[Pto]

Some ideas I have been tossing around in my head include:

<snip>. . . Finding a standing tree that has a hollowed out section in it, and hanging the cache on fishing line down in the hole, with a thumbtack or similar item inside the hole to act as the anchor.. . . <snip>

 

I''ve used thin a thinner diameter bailing wire to create a "hanger" by securing it to the container by either duct tape, or using parts of the container to loop it thru. Some camo tape to conceal if needed....

I carry some bailing wire, and a cutter in my bag, or pockets. Find trree- Find length needed, cut and hang.

No damage to the tree, etc.

Just be sure that if the tree you choose is "a bottomless pitt" to secure the open "hanger" end with a peice of fishing line, etc- so a cacher cant accidentally drop it down into oblivion (but might think so at first. . . . )

 

Good luck, and just keep thinking. . . there is always something new to come up with - evil or otherwise

[+Jellyfishman]

A thumb tack you say...

 

Jelly

[Tahosa and Sons]

I say get creative with a larger container, it's too easy to hide a 1/2 tube. Challenge yourself and others by hiding a difficult to find regular cache.

 

You've got that right. That is why I love the 4 star terrains and mountains and rocks, there are so many natural made evil hidey holes. Just pluck a flat black and brown ammo box in a nice rocky area and it will drive them nuts.

[+Kacky]

Don't put a thumbtack in a tree. Any wound, however small, invites insects & disease and is destructive to nature.

 

ETA some trees look dead but they might not be. It's not up to us to decide.

Edited April 23, 2006 by enfanTerrible

[+Logscaler and Red]

Don't put a thumbtack in a tree. Any wound, however small, invites insects & disease and is destructive to nature.

 

ETA some trees look dead but they might not be. It's not up to us to decide.

 

A thumbtack? A THUMBTACK?? You are kidding, right?

 

Uh, wrong.

 

What makes you believe this idea anyway?

 

Beside, he said HOLLOW! Don't you think there might already be some decay going on here?

 

If you had seen the things I have found in trees that I have scaled or seen run through a sawmill, you would have to rethink this idea. Things like Mule shoes, Horse shoes, guns, tri-cycles, musket balls, .50 caliber armor piercing rounds, .45 caliber rounds, .30 caliber rounds, nails, spikes, railroad spikes, bolts, metal fence post, fence wire, bailing wire, pipe, car fenders, bumpers, iron wagon wheel rims, bikes, rocks, ceramic insulaters, angle iron, sheet metal, Elk antlers, Deer antlers, etc.

 

If a tree is healthy, it will pitch over a wound to protect itself.

 

Thanks for the laugh.

 

Now as for the cache ideas.

It is very easy to hide a micro.

It is very easy to hide an evil micro.

Put a Magnetic micro onto the side of a tree with a screw and a washer, cover the micro with moss or old bark - use expanding foam to make a cacoon around the cache and stick the moss and or bark to that while it is wet. Make sure the tree is close to something metal. Like an old bridge or something.

 

Find a guardrail with a buffer block between the metal rail and the anchor post, bore a hole into the bottom of the cushion block, predrill a small diameter hole into the the bored hole, screw a washer up into the hole, glue a magnet to the bottom or top of a film can, put a logsheet into the container and stick it into the hole. Make sure the hole is bored deep enough that the container is not showing. State into your cache page the "Your looking for a MAGNETIC micro cache." That will throw everyone off most of the time. Unless someone is packing a mirror on a stick.

 

Find a dead limb, cut it off very carfully, get a dowel, bore out the stub and the limb with a hole the size of the dowel, glue the dowel into the tree end, write the coords for the next stage on the dowel and slip the limb end over the dowel.

 

Find an old outhouse in the woods, use a cordless drill to pre-drill a hole in the underside of the seat boards, screw a lag hook into it, tie off a line to the lag hook, tie a cache to the line, tie a loop into the line to hang the cache from.

 

Useing expanding foam, place a cache container upside down on a sheet of newspaper, spray the foam around the container and shape it into a rock for. Buy several colors of spray paint in your local area ground cover colors, pack the fake rock out into a boulder field, color the fake as close to native as possible and sit the cache down just anywhere out in the open.

 

Find a tree that will bear large cones for several years, take one off, bore a hole into it that a micro cache will fit into. screw a picture hook onto the limb where the cone came oof from, glue a picture hook loop onto the cone and rehang it on the limb.

 

Find a large boulder with a bore hole in it from when the rock was drill for blasting. Make sure it does not go all the way through or is blocked off. Glue a magnet to the top of a cache container and drop it into the hole.

 

Or you could get some real evil ideas that will tic people off. I like the fake dog pile ones, the fake cow pies - or even the real cow piles that have been dried out and scrapped out with a cache hidden inside it, the fake stump, Fake birdhouse 20 feet up a tree, etc.

 

Logscaler.

Edited April 24, 2006 by logscaler & Red

[+Kacky]

 

 

A thumbtack? A THUMBTACK?? You are kidding, right?

 

No.

 

Uh, wrong.

 

What makes you believe this idea anyway?

 

My certification as a Master Gardener. (Androscoggin County Maine, 2004)

 

Beside, he said HOLLOW! Don't you think there might already be some decay going on here?

 

Some. Kinda arrogant to appoint oneself to finish the job, don't you think?

Edited April 24, 2006 by enfanTerrible

[+Logscaler and Red]

 

 

A thumbtack? A THUMBTACK?? You are kidding, right?

 

No.

 

Uh, wrong.

 

What makes you believe this idea anyway?

 

My certification as a Master Gardener. (Androscoggin County Maine, 2004)

 

Beside, he said HOLLOW! Don't you think there might already be some decay going on here?

 

Some. Kinda arrogant to appoint oneself to finish the job, don't you think?

 

IF a THUMBTACK is going to hurt your trees, All I have to say is Main must have some very sorry species of trees.

 

AHH! I see the line about Master GARDENER. That explains it.

 

Your not talking about trees, your talking about SHRUBS and ORNAMENTAL tree wannabe's. I see we are talking about two different things now. More harm is being done to your trees by the air they have to try and clean then any little thumbtack will ever do.

 

As for being arrogant, I have no problem culling the herd, so to speak.

 

Why should I let the weak destroy the strong by taking resources they can not use? If I thin out the hollow decayed trees, if I take out the misletoed trees, if I take out the snow broke trees, if I take out the red needle trees, that lets the healtier trees have more, therefore making them stronger.

 

Let me ask you a question. In your garden trees, what do you do with trees you find a blight in? What do you do with your trees that you find aphids on? Misletoe? Cankers? Galls? Root rot? Stem rots? Ants?

 

Just let them go? Yea, right. You protect them.

 

Heck, I will bet you even graft trees to try and get a better strain to handle any pest or rots or to get a better fruit.

 

Why? Kinda ARROGANT playing GOD isn't it?

 

logscaler.

[+Mystery Ink]

make a fake boulder and hide a 5 gallon bucket in it.

Been there done that I have a few fake boulders from the telephone company.

[+ranger-rob]

Find a guardrail with a buffer block between the metal rail and the anchor post, bore a hole into the bottom of the cushion block...

Logscaler.

 

Please, don't bore holes in the wood (or plastic) blockouts. I know it looks like it's just a plain ole block of wood that does nothing but hold the rail away from the post. In fact it's a block of wood with specified dimentions and known shear and compression values. Aside from violating GC guidelines regarding vandalism[1], you're (potentially) giving some shister lawyer a toe hold in a law suit if someone hits that particular section of guardrail and it fails, resulting in ... well resulting in anything. Granted, a hole large enough to accomodate a film canister isn't going to change the physical properties that much, but "that much" is all it take's to cause a lot of problems for the state/county/city responsible for that particular peice of guardrail and we all know what rolls down hill and what it does as it as its rolling.

 

 

[1] If you don't have a permit, it's vandalism. I'll bet you don't get one allowing you to modify roadway safety structures (guardrail, crash attenuators, bridge rail, etc) anyways.

[+Zzyzx Road]

Personally, the one and only guardrail cache I have found was on a bridge ( ? ) over a fast running creek (Usually seasonal - this was the season) and the road was quite narrow right there. I did not let my daughter get out of the car back where I parked it because while this was out in the country and there wasn't <i>much</i> traffic, what did go by zoomed through there fast enough to scare me! It was magnetized, and had fallen off once before when the creek wasn't running much and they found it down below.

[+Kacky]

Logscaler, why be hating? We don't need to damage anything on purpose, manmade or natural.

 

You ask for creds and then attack them? Should I belittle your education & training as well?

Edited April 24, 2006 by enfanTerrible

[+ranger-rob]

Personally, the one and only guardrail cache I have found was on a bridge ( ? ) over a fast running creek (Usually seasonal - this was the season) and the road was quite narrow right there. I did not let my daughter get out of the car back where I parked it because while this was out in the country and there wasn't <i>much</i> traffic, what did go by zoomed through there fast enough to scare me! It was magnetized, and had fallen off once before when the creek wasn't running much and they found it down below.

 

I used to do a lot of bridge inspections and traffic whizzing by was a common complaint. I firmly believe the "Bridge Inspection Crew Ahead" signs and orange vests, and flashing warning lights just encouraged people to speed up. As a matter of fact, I've had tractor-trailer rigs and log trucks go by fast enough to blow the hat off my head.

 

I think the current CG guidelines prohibit placement of caches in or on a highway or railroad brigde. I'd advise against it anyways. At least along a road there's somewhere to go. On a bridge, unless there's a dedicated pedestrian walkway, both you and the traffic are channelized into a very narrow space leaving but one option, and in my experience diving over the rail isn't really an option [1].

 

The sad part of this is that there are some pretty spectacular views from bridges. I guess my suggestion, if asked, would be place the cache out of the way nearby and leave a note regarding the bridge on the page and in the container if practical.

 

 

[1] at least not one you can choose more than once

[+Kacky]

...in my experience diving over the rail isn't really an option [1].

 

...

[1] at least not one you can choose more than once

 

Same goes for fishing on a RR trestle

Edited April 24, 2006 by enfanTerrible

[+Logscaler and Red]

I guess I should have been more specific about the guardrail item.

 

Use the blocks on abandoned roads. Ones that have been turned into bike paths or hiking paths or where a new section of road has bypassed the old roadway. The same for bridges as well.

 

Better? There are plenty of places

 

I do not condone getting anyone needlessly into traffic or in too much of a compromised position.

 

I find it far more hazardous trying to get through the parking lots looking under skirts for micros.

 

But why micros? Seeing as they are not really caches anyway, kinda like virtuals but that is another thread......

 

Why not see how big of a cache you can hide instead? Try and place a shoebox sized container in a parking lot. I have one that has been in a parking lot at a Target store for over a year. No problems yet. Yes, I have permission and the security guys know about it and where it is at.

 

enfanTerrible, nothing hateful has been said. Yet anyway.

 

You voiced a book learned opinion as a gardner stateing it as a fact covering a broad spectrum. I voiced a counter opinion using 35 years of experience in the woods and logging industry.

 

You made the statement about being arrogant. I countered it.

 

Wanna keep going or call a truce?

 

logscaler.

[PCFrog]

I spent most of this past Sunday with a shovel, hatchet and ax trying to remove shrubs and saplings that have gone astray on my property. Took me three hours of work when all I really needed was a thumb tack.

 

The ideas posted have been done and I think they are still good. But a larger cache in a good spot I would say is still better.

[+Kacky]

 

 

enfanTerrible, nothing hateful has been said. Yet anyway.

 

You voiced a book learned opinion as a gardner stateing it as a fact covering a broad spectrum. I voiced a counter opinion using 35 years of experience in the woods and logging industry.

 

You made the statement about being arrogant. I countered it.

 

Wanna keep going or call a truce?

 

logscaler.

 

Only to let you know that to become a Master Gardener here you have to be interviewed, show you already have experience as a steward of the environment, take 160 hours of classes/hands on, and be available for projects in order to keep your certification. Our classes were in the field, and we did a lot of tree work. In fact I pruned apple trees in one park not knowing there is a microcache there and I would be searching for it one day!

 

I respect your logging industry experience and you need to respect my 47 years of living in the woods. I actually don't have a book that tells me not to poke trees. But the arborists I deal with all seem quite unanimous about that.

 

I happen to believe that baiting people to attack in forums is just as bad as attacking, so I will not encourage you to do it.

Edited April 24, 2006 by enfanTerrible

[+Kacky]

I spent most of this past Sunday with a shovel, hatchet and ax trying to remove shrubs and saplings that have gone astray on my property. Took me three hours of work when all I really needed was a thumb tack.

 

 

Because you have never been exposed to this, it can't possibly be true? And you know darn well that if someone is poking in a thumbtack, someone else is carving with a knife or driving a spike. How bout we just not introduce wounds into trees, and leave it at that.

Edited April 24, 2006 by enfanTerrible

[+qlenfg]

As far as the trees go, its bad karma to place a cache that damages a tree, either by driving a nail, etc..., binding a wire tightly on a limb, or placing it so the finder can potentially break limbs trying to find it. Not to mention disturbing nests during breeding season.

 

One local cache was in an ornamental tree in a public park. When I found the cache, I noticed a nest on a nearby limb. I checked out the nest, and it contained a couple of eggs. In my log I noted the nest and mentioned this cache should be avoided for a few months due to the birds. Unforunately, no one seemed to care and some did not even notice the nest at all.

 

As far as evil caches, How about a hollowed out padlock or a micro suspended by a wire down one of the holes in a manhole cover (not one in the street obviously).

[+Logscaler and Red]

I spent most of this past Sunday with a shovel, hatchet and ax trying to remove shrubs and saplings that have gone astray on my property. Took me three hours of work when all I really needed was a thumb tack.

 

The ideas posted have been done and I think they are still good. But a larger cache in a good spot I would say is still better.

 

The thumbtack I use is made by "Stihl". Fact is, right now I have a pile about 8 feet high, 12 feet wide and 20 feet long that "Stihl" made this last weekend.

 

enfanTerrible:

 

I do respect your time and effort in achieving the Master Gardener status. A well earned achievement in anyones books. I still do not buy into the theory of thumbtacks but I will let it lay. I have seen way to much more in trees that have no effect on trees. The biggest difference I see is we are dealing with different Species. The trees I deal with have bark upto 9 inches thick. It would take one hell of a thumbtack. Everything else has massive amounts of pitch. Year around it seems.

 

Enough said on the subject in this forum I think. If you wanna go further, PM me and we will chat.

 

As for cache hides, Micros are easy to hide and easy to wimp out on to place. I am in the process of reworking all my micros and hope to not have any after the summer is over with. I will also be doing away with virtuals as well.

 

Logscaler.

[+Tsmola]

about the whole thumbtack thing...I just have to say, there's a park near me where there's a section of woods where the trees are covered from the ground to maybe 6 or 7 feet up with people's names carved on it. Some of the carvings read 1940 or older. These trees are all in fine health as it is one of Michigan's few remaining virgin forests. They are all carved up all to hell, but are all in fine health despite this.

 

Seriously, if a tree can still be standing after that long, being carved up by new people every year, a thumbtack is nothing!

[+Kacky]

about the whole thumbtack thing...I just have to say, there's a park near me where there's a section of woods where the trees are covered from the ground to maybe 6 or 7 feet up with people's names carved on it. Some of the carvings read 1940 or older. These trees are all in fine health as it is one of Michigan's few remaining virgin forests. They are all carved up all to hell, but are all in fine health despite this.

 

Seriously, if a tree can still be standing after that long, being carved up by new people every year, a thumbtack is nothing!

 

Hey, sometimes a cut gets infected, sometimes it doesn't. It's YOUR karma, man.

[+SixDogTeam]

For anyone who knows anything about trees, the thumbtack thing taken literally is a joke. I've seen plenty of trees and tree limbs girdled by fence wire or rope, and they just consume it and go on, thank you very much.

 

I think the thumbtack thing is just a way of saying don't attach anything to a tree, a sort of better-to-be-safe than-sorry deal, if you don't want to hurt the tree. The argument of the beard, here. If a thumbtack is OK, what about a nail? If a nail is OK, what about a railroad spike, if a spike is OK...etc., etc., etc.

[+Kacky]

Thank you. My point exactly.

[+Zzyzx Road]

So you are a Master Gardener? I have the same program out here in California, and I know there are a whole lotta' retired ladies that perticipate in the program. However...

It is sponsored in part by the CAN (California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers) which produces CCNPs (California Certified Nursery Professional), of which I am a member, and the books and information to learn/remember/take action upon is a more streamlined version of the CCNP exam.

We had to not only know the retail/farm varieties of trees, shrubs, groundcovers, grasses, annuals and houseplants that we sold in the nursery, but also the pests, diseases and weeds that would plague them. Following that is the pesticide and fertilizer list that here in California is SO DANGED technical due to added precautionary statements. Being able to identify by chemical name what farm-related product Joe homeowner asked for and getting him the homeowner labeled version was my greatest challenge. I even had a guy come in with a specimen showing severe salt damage due to over-fertilization - he had a damaged cannabis leaf! ()

While the CCNP program is related to Retail nursery, I still feel that it and about 4 years of retail experience should be the equivalent of a 4 year specialized degree somewhere!

Master Gardeners always came into the nursery, with books with marked pages and requests for new introductions of plants. With their help I managed to get the largest organic pest control product collection in our nursery. I applaud the folks who take part in the program - they are the non-retail version of the CCNP!

[Northern-Lights]

Another good idea is using magnets and a small cache container (micro) in public areas. It's evil because not only does one have to be careful in looking for it....but also in retrieving it.

[+7squared]

This is a cache container that a friend made and placed.

 

It is an actual bolt from the guardrail, end epoxied in the nut, bolt hollowed out.

 

It has caused a lot of difficulty for finders, some still looking

 

after two months and a dozen visits to the general area.

 

Edited April 28, 2006 by 7squared

[+Jhwk]

Couldn't we talk about the thumbtacks some more?

[+Ed & Julie]

I've been geocaching for about 2 months now, and am getting very close to hiding a few myself. Now, several of the cachers in my area are very tricky with thier hides, and I want to provide the same level of challenge on some of my hides.

 

Some ideas I have been tossing around in my head include:

 

Finding a standing tree that has a hollowed out section in it, and hanging the cache on fishing line down in the hole, with a thumbtack or similar item inside the hole to act as the anchor.

 

Another evil idea I have been tossing around, a bottle, fill it mostly with small rocks, a bison canister, securely tie it to something on shore low to the ground, and then toss it out into the water where it will sink. to retrieve, they would have to reel in the cache.

 

 

Evil micros = my ignore bookmark.

[+fox-and-the-hound]

We did a local "multi-in-the-mountains" type cache a few weeks back with a couple great "evil" hides. The first was a laminated strip with cords slipped between the bark and wood of a piece of deadwood. The second was a suspended container via heavy fishing line. The opposite end was tied to a piece of deadwood and wedged between some tree roots.

 

My partner Fox also has a truly evil hide. It's a small plate of copper with stamped coords. One end is glued to some small stones. The strip is slid into a crack in the face of a rock shelf. Unless you notice the difference in the stone types, you might be busy looking for awhile.

[+Adrenalynn]

My first cache has been out long enough, I feel ok about posting it. I'd say it was "moderately evil":

 

[gridlox]

How'd that get past the RR Track restriction?

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

enfanTerrible, nothing hateful has been said. Yet anyway.

 

You voiced a book learned opinion as a gardner stateing it as a fact covering a broad spectrum. I voiced a counter opinion using 35 years of experience in the woods and logging industry.

 

You made the statement about being arrogant. I countered it.

 

Wanna keep going or call a truce?

logscaler.

Only to let you know that to become a Master Gardener here you have to be interviewed, show you already have experience as a steward of the environment, take 160 hours of classes/hands on, and be available for projects in order to keep your certification. Our classes were in the field, and we did a lot of tree work. In fact I pruned apple trees in one park not knowing there is a microcache there and I would be searching for it one day!

 

I respect your logging industry experience and you need to respect my 47 years of living in the woods. I actually don't have a book that tells me not to poke trees. But the arborists I deal with all seem quite unanimous about that.

 

I happen to believe that baiting people to attack in forums is just as bad as attacking, so I will not encourage you to do it.

Anyone who chooses to obsess about a thumbtack in a tree might wish to first rememer that a single peck from a woodpecker to a tree makes a deeper and far larger diameter hole -- in fact a lesion -- in a tree, than does a thumbtack pin. Same thing could be said for the boring activities of many insects. I could go on an on, but I think I have made my point and so I will now leave quitely.

[+Adrenalynn]

How'd that get past the RR Track restriction?

 

Kinda simple when the tracks have been out of service for 30 years or so. . .

[vhs07]

For anyone who knows anything about trees, the thumbtack thing taken literally is a joke. I've seen plenty of trees and tree limbs girdled by fence wire or rope, and they just consume it and go on, thank you very much.

 

I think the thumbtack thing is just a way of saying don't attach anything to a tree, a sort of better-to-be-safe than-sorry deal, if you don't want to hurt the tree. The argument of the beard, here. If a thumbtack is OK, what about a nail? If a nail is OK, what about a railroad spike, if a spike is OK...etc., etc., etc.

I used a vintage brass mail box for a cache container in a park to fit in with a theme. I screwed it into a dead tree close to the ground that was covered with vines and undergrowth. Well, the city decided to clear most of the area for the disk golfers and removed most all of the brush. They came across my cache and left the dead tree intact, so as not to disturb it.

So,....if I had used those 4"long screws in a living tree, it would of "saved it life", and would still be out there today, but I didn't, so by now its just mulch in someones garden.

[gridlox]

How'd that get past the RR Track restriction?

 

Kinda simple when the tracks have been out of service for 30 years or so. . .

 

Ahhh! "I See" said the blind man!

[+Confucius' Cat]

Thumbtack!

 

I have a forty foot ash tree beside my bedroom window that has been hit by lightning three times just since I have lived here.

 

It hasn't shown a sign of caring yet; but sadly, the ash borers are steadily coming closer and its soon demise is almost certain.

 

We simply do not know what will ultimately cause the most harm to a tree (or anything else). One person smokes like a chimney for a hundred years; another gets run over by a truck at age 3.

 

A thumbtack could harm a tree, and a person could die from a hangnail.

 

The principle of not intentionally damaging something to place a cache is a good one. If it were MY tree and you were asking my permission (excuse my french!) to drive a nail in it to hang a cache, I would say "go ahead". But if you drove a thumbtack in my tree without asking (which we must admit is the norm for caching), I would perhaps be slightly perturbed.

[+Kacky]

So you are a Master Gardener? I have the same program out here in California, and I know there are a whole lotta' retired ladies that perticipate in the program. However...

 

That's why a lot of them are retired. It can be a pretty time-intensive course. But it depends on where you live. People 20 minutes to the west of me get away with 40 hours of classes. We had 160! The place where I went gets a fair amount of younger people who are trying to get jobs at nurseries or landscaping companies.

Edited April 30, 2006 by Kacky

[The Harlequin]

Here's some words of caution about "evil" caches. they get stolen

Edited May 1, 2006 by The Harlequin

[knowschad]

Kacky, how do they extract the sap from maple trees up there in Maine?

[+Team Maccabee]

Kacky, how do they extract the sap from maple trees up there in Maine?

 

Because, you know, you have to extract the sap from maple trees or else it builds up until the trees explode!

 

It's true, I heard it on the radio (NPR) on April 1, 2005!

 

 

Team Maccabee

[CoyoteRed]

Finding a standing tree that has a hollowed out section in it, and hanging the cache on fishing line down in the hole, with a thumbtack or similar item inside the hole to act as the anchor.

I've seen this technique but the hanger was a rusty hook that simply hooked over the lip of the stump. No permanent damage to the tree--or temporary for that matter--and the rusty metal blended in near-perfectly with the wood. Of course, you could simply camo the hook and not rely on rust.

 

Another evil idea I have been tossing around, a bottle, fill it mostly with small rocks, a bison canister, securely tie it to something on shore low to the ground, and then toss it out into the water where it will sink. to retrieve, they would have to reel in the cache.

A former local, Lone Hawk, was fond of submerged caches. Some ideas worked pretty good, so not so good. I think that is what is fun for him, playing with different ideas. Just go out and see what works. I believe all of his were trading caches, though, from smalls to regulars.

 

Of course, the technique can be used for stages of a cache, as well.

 

I think one of the most evil hides that come to mind is one where the owner had found a natural hole in the ground...

 

...and the searchers don't see a hole when at GZ.

 

In many wet and swampy places, stumps rot very fast leaving a hole. Camo and protect a piece of outdoor plywood. Cover with detritus. This works even better if the hole is partially under a bush or other form of preventing the searcher from stepping it.

 

Doesn't defeat those of us that probe with our walking sticks, though.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Kacky, how do they extract the sap from maple trees up there in Maine?

 

Because, you know, you have to extract the sap from maple trees or else it builds up until the trees explode!

 

It's true, I heard it on the radio (NPR) on April 1, 2005!

 

 

Team Maccabee

 

This is entirely true, same as a milking cow will explode if she is not milked regularly to release the milk pressure.

 

In fact, consider the famed "Tunguska Incident", a massive 15 megaton explosion in Tunguska, Russia, on 30th June 1908 in Siberia, near the Tunguska River. For years the bizarre explosion, which leveled forests, was widely attribtued to an anti-matter meteorite or to a nuclear explosion due to a crashed alien spacecraft for many years, and was eventually found to have been due to a chain-reaction maple tree explosion in a stand of 455 maple trees which had not been tapped in a timely fashion.

 

Interestingly, conspiracy theorists make a lot out of the fact that the KGB did not investigate the Tunguska explosion, citing that failure to investigate as proof of a conspiracy or of a UFO-from-outer-space connection. The reality is that the KGB was not formed until 40 years later, so there was no KGB in existence at the time of the explosion.

Edited May 2, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+Tsmola]

Thumbtack!

 

I have a forty foot ash tree beside my bedroom window that has been hit by lightning three times just since I have lived here.

 

It hasn't shown a sign of caring yet; but sadly, the ash borers are steadily coming closer and its soon demise is almost certain.

 

We simply do not know what will ultimately cause the most harm to a tree (or anything else). One person smokes like a chimney for a hundred years; another gets run over by a truck at age 3.

 

A thumbtack could harm a tree, and a person could die from a hangnail.

 

The principle of not intentionally damaging something to place a cache is a good one. If it were MY tree and you were asking my permission (excuse my french!) to drive a nail in it to hang a cache, I would say "go ahead". But if you drove a thumbtack in my tree without asking (which we must admit is the norm for caching), I would perhaps be slightly perturbed.

 

yup, there's a pine in our yard that's been hit at least 4 or 5 times. It's finally dying after being hit the last time back in September, but it took a lot before it finally gave up.

 

Another thing I was thinking, I built a few treehouses when I was little, hammering nails right into the tree, while the tree houses themseleves may be gone or still rotting away, the trees are still fine.

 

I also use screw-in tree stand steps for deer hunting, trees I screwed them in are just fine.

 

Oh should I also mention the way most people hang up "No Tresspassing" and "No Hunting" signs on private property? Oh that's right, they usually just nail them to a tree! Most of those trees are perfectly healthy as well.

 

Yes, a thumbtack MIGHT be able to kill a tree, but from what I've seen it'd have to be a tree in pretty bad shape already to be killed by a thumbtack, especially with all the abuse I see done to trees all the time.

[+Kacky]

It's been my experience that when you introduce a new concept to some people, they will become sarcastic as a defense because they're embarrassed that they didn't know.

 

So..... you're welcome.

[+Jeonlyep]

I'd like to add to this thread, but my cat just climbed a tree, and I have to get him out of it before it falls over dead.............

 

The tree that is, not the cat..............

 

DAryl

Edited May 3, 2006 by Jeonlyep