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where was the first lamp post cache?


K9 GEEP

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I have looked everywhere on here and cannot locate the first of this kind and I was just pndering the reaction to the first one.

can anyone help me find it?

Try your local Wal-Mart....

no no no I do not want to physicaly find I just want to see the cache page for it

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I have looked everywhere on here and cannot locate the first of this kind and I was just pndering the reaction to the first one.

can anyone help me find it?

Try your local Wal-Mart....

no no no I do not want to physicaly find I just want to see the cache page for it

Sorry, but I don't think there is any way of figuring out which one was actually first.
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I've only recently started cruising the forums and have noticed that a lot of time and threads are taken up discussing the pros and cons of micros and where they are hidden. Reading the logs for the cache mentioned above there are some very complimentary comments, admittedly they were made quite a while ago.

 

Is the main frustration that the once unique hide has now been done to death, become ho-hum and boring?

 

Just curious as the vehemence against lamppost micros runs high in some threads.

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Is the main frustration that the once unique hide has now been done to death, become ho-hum and boring?

Not for me. My LPM angst comes from the fact that I thought they were lame from the very beginning. The Groundspeak motto is, "The Language of Location", and while, technically, 100 acres of sweltering blacktop is a location, it's certainly not a very inspired one.

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I first looked under a lamp-post skirt when I was searching for one of georgeandmary's caches on June 7, 2002. It wasn't there, but I thought it would be a really clever place to hide a cache. I don't remember the first one I actually found, but I do recall being sick and tired of them by that same December. So I'd say it was an idea that stayed fresh for approximately 6 months.

Edited by fizzymagic
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My first experience with tiny micros and lampost finds in January of '03:

 

My friend Ish-n-Isha had gone caching in the Seattle area, came back and placed two caches in Wenatchee. He was excited by this new way of hiding caches in a tricky way. He met us at the first hide so that he could watch in glee while we tried to find the darn things. :huh:

 

First one was a bison in the crown of a tree in the park. I was in this park of grass and trees and couldn't figure out for a few minutes where a cache could be hid. I was amazed at such a tiny cache in the middle of town! Wow! Then we went to his next one near by, and it was a lampost skirt. That made me laugh. I was amazed that you could place a cache right under peoples' noses like that, and no one knew a thing. How stealthy. Funnily enough, I see on the cache page that he attributed the lampost hide to Moun10Bike. :P

 

Now those caches would be considered ho, hum caches - been there done that, let's move on. But on that day, my mind was expanded to think outside the box in caching, what sort of possibilities there really were.

 

Inspired, my first in-town micro was a key magnet under a bench on a dowtown street corner in full view of a bunch of shops and busy car and pedestrian traffic. I placed it for fun, to see what happened. I told everyone that it probably wouldn't last two weeks. That thing has never been replaced, and today is its 4 year anniversary. :bad: I was so nervous that it would be found and stolen, that I made the cache into a sneaky secret agent theme, and had the people know what they were getting into so they weren't obvious to non-geocachers. People have loved it and made lots of positive comments on it, and it inspired another cacher to make one just like it in another town. Not so bad for a "park bench urban micro".

 

My very first micros were in September '02, doing some micros by Ish-n-Isha, inspired by niskibum, who was inspired by Otis Pug, blew my mind. I still remember them as the highlights of my caching time.

 

But hey, I got into caching for the long hikes and high views and big caches that you could trade lots of travel bugs. But I have enjoyed the variety that has come about in this sport. I also never would have dreamed that one day I would need these lampost skirt hides and other urban hides to be able to enjoy caching in a small way when I could no longer go on those long hikes so much.

 

Of course, I didn't answer the OP's question. Just answered it by telling about the first lampost in our town, and my experiences because of it. :P

Edited by Ambrosia
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We haven't searched for many LPM's, but one that we found in August 2003 was, at that time, rather unique. The hider borrowed it from someone else, too. They took an AOL tin, glued the heads of 4 bolts to the corners (to make it look like screws to an acess panel), and painted it the same green as the ornamental light poles in part of the down town. Magnets were used to keep it attached to the lamppost. Reading the logs and clues I pretty much knew what to look for, so I wasn't real obvious. Besides, it was a pretty area, and not a typical parking lot.

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First one was a bison in the crown of a tree in the park. I was in this park of grass and trees and couldn't figure out for a few minutes where a cache could be hid. I was amazed at such a tiny cache in the middle of town! Wow! Then we went to his next one near by, and it was a lampost skirt. That made me laugh. I was amazed that you could place a cache right under peoples' noses like that, and no one knew a thing. How stealthy. Funnily enough, I see on the cache page that he attributed the lampost hide to Moun10Bike. :huh:

 

No, no, no, no, no!! I've never hidden a lamp post cache! (I am, however, still repenting for hiding a Bison tube in the crown of a tree!) :P

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Being one of the foremost Micro Spew haters on these forums, I must admit that a. I was stumped by the first LPM that I attempted, and b. when I finally found one, I, like most others who have posted on this thread, thought it was a creative, fascinating hide.

 

Alas, a. so have literally thousands of other cachers since then, and b. you know what they say about "too much of a good thing..."

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First one was a bison in the crown of a tree in the park. I was in this park of grass and trees and couldn't figure out for a few minutes where a cache could be hid. I was amazed at such a tiny cache in the middle of town! Wow! Then we went to his next one near by, and it was a lampost skirt. That made me laugh. I was amazed that you could place a cache right under peoples' noses like that, and no one knew a thing. How stealthy. Funnily enough, I see on the cache page that he attributed the lampost hide to Moun10Bike. :P

 

No, no, no, no, no!! I've never hidden a lamp post cache! (I am, however, still repenting for hiding a Bison tube in the crown of a tree!) :P

:bad:

 

Whoops. He credited you in the lampost hide, instead of the crown of the tree hide. And it may be for something else, not the hide itself. But the way he worded it makes it sound like he got the cache hide idea from you. Good thing it's archived. :huh: Sorry for the mis-information there, Moun10Bike.

Edited by Ambrosia
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Being one of the foremost Micro Spew haters on these forums, I must admit that a. I was stumped by the first LPM that I attempted, and b. when I finally found one, I, like most others who have posted on this thread, thought it was a creative, fascinating hide.

 

Alas, a. so have literally thousands of other cachers since then, and b. you know what they say about "too much of a good thing..."

I know. After so many ammo cans in the woods you start sighing and saying, "you've seen one, you've seen them all." :huh::P

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First one I did was in Cheyenne Wyoming in early 2003 and took my wife and I about 45 minutes to find. Was in an abondoned restaurant parking lot. Owner said he was inspired by similar in California but none around here. I thought it was most unique and looked for a similar place to hide one. Then I started seeing more and found them boring and easy rather quickly. Was horrified to find one in a Hospital Parking lot and then right near the door at a Home Depot. Now I avoid them.

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... Was horrified to find one in a Hospital Parking lot ...
Huh.

 

So many times, I've been at the hospital because someone I cared for was very ill. On occasion, I've had to take a walk to the cafeteria or outside just to break up the tension a bit. It would have been great to be able to find a quick cache in these situations.

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This picture was submitted for an article on my site. It was taken by the owner while a cacher was searching for it.

cache-el-b.jpg

Your eyes are drawn right to it, aren't they? :huh:

 

Are there any "fresh" ways left to hide caches like this?

 

Bret

 

Oh no, not another magnetic keyholder in the right rear wheel well of a police cruiser??!!??

 

I thought traveling caches were frowned upon? :P

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At the risk of getting my meter dinged again for an off-topic post, I have no clue what the first lamp-post cache was.

 

In line with most of the responses, however, I will tell you that 1138 of my 1938 finds to date have been micros, and lots of them lamp-posts!

 

For me, the act of navigating to a cache and making the find is the fun. I rarely cache alone, so the real fun is being with my caching friends.

 

I use "Find Next" on my GPS more often than not and usually don't read the cache pages on my PDA unless I can't find the cache. That means that the find experience for a lamp-post cache is the same as any other - it's not until the arrow points to the lamp-post that I get the 'Oh!, there it is' feeling that is still fun for any find (I will quit when it isn't!).

 

Seriously, when a cache takes you to a historical location do you find the cache and split, or do you stick around and learn about the place (rhetorical, no need to answer!)? My personal experience caching with many folks is that they might glance at the sign or view, say "Nice" or "Interesting" and head for the car!

 

So, back to lamp-posts and how many is too many - That's personal to every geocacher!

 

I still like them, the cachers I cache with either like them or like finding things they don't like... I believe it's the former, and cachers that hide caches like them, evidenced by how many they hide.

 

I had gotten to the point where I thought lamp-posts were pretty mundane until GW4, when some new cachers rode with me and just loved the cleverness of their first find of one, and since then I have seen others delight in this type hide.

 

Maybe it's like hunting deer... everyone is thrilled with their first few, some settle into the habit of taking only large bucks (my club has a six-point or better rule for example), some hunters take only rare trophies they spend days hiking deep into the forest to hunt, and some hunters are a danger and embarrassment to the sport, shooting everything that moves. I personally hunt at every opportunity, take one doe a year for the freezer, and just go for the enjoyment of the experience the rest of the year. After I have one to eat I take my camera instead of a rifle, or just go to sit in the woods. Again, when spotting a deer ceases to thrill me, I will quit (no choice, you'll have to bury me!)

 

So, if the first lamp-post is fun for most, many hide them, many more hunt them, and they are in fact common to every caching community, they must have merit and value!

 

I hope you find the first one, I will make a tribute cache to it when you do!

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The first one I was aware of was in NYC. I'm looking for it now, but this forum post from March 2001 mentions it, so it predates that. IIRC, it wasn't under the skirt, but actually in the base of the lamp post inside an access panel.

 

Hey, I remember that one! I DNF'ed that long after it was archived. (Had an old print out with me :huh: )

Right after 9/11, the city replaced all of the missing panels on those lamp posts.

 

According to one log, there is/was a cache like this in Philly

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I have looked everywhere on here and cannot locate the first of this kind and I was just pndering the reaction to the first one.

can anyone help me find it?

 

Seek the wisdom of JoGPS, BruceS, or CCCA. Only one of which can ever be spotted in these forums.

 

Or maybe try to contact the owner of the oldest one posted here, and see if they remember seeing another somewhere and copying the idea. But as others have said, it would be near impossible to pinpoint the first LPC.

 

I'm sure the reaction to it was that it was a very clever hide. :huh:

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... Was horrified to find one in a Hospital Parking lot ...
Huh.

 

So many times, I've been at the hospital because someone I cared for was very ill. On occasion, I've had to take a walk to the cafeteria or outside just to break up the tension a bit. It would have been great to be able to find a quick cache in these situations.

Sorry - was at the entrance to the ambulance bay/emergency room - just seemed like a bad place for one.

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Hey, I remember that one! I DNF'ed that long after it was archived. (Had an old print out with me :huh: )

Right after 9/11, the city replaced all of the missing panels on those lamp posts.

 

According to one log, there is/was a cache like this in Philly

Here's the Philly one. It was hidden a month later than the NYC one and was in a paper box.

 

Hmmmm, sounds like that one might have been the first traveling/moving cache too! :P

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The first one I was aware of was in NYC. I'm looking for it now, but this forum post from March 2001 mentions it, so it predates that. IIRC, it wasn't under the skirt, but actually in the base of the lamp post inside an access panel.

 

Hey, I remember that one! I DNF'ed that long after it was archived. (Had an old print out with me <_< )

Right after 9/11, the city replaced all of the missing panels on those lamp posts.

 

According to one log, there is/was a cache like this in Philly

 

That's the one. Feb, 2001. Can anybody beat that one for the earliest lamp post micro?

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First one I did was in Cheyenne Wyoming in early 2003 and took my wife and I about 45 minutes to find. Was in an abondoned restaurant parking lot. Owner said he was inspired by similar in California but none around here. I thought it was most unique and looked for a similar place to hide one. Then I started seeing more and found them boring and easy rather quickly. Was horrified to find one in a Hospital Parking lot and then right near the door at a Home Depot. Now I avoid them.

 

The first one we found was this same one. The thing that surprised me the most about it was that it was nearly the size of an ammo can and had quite a decent supply of swag in it. The lamp post skirt it was under was probably 18"x18"x10" - not the size used for most LPMs. We never bothered to copy the hide style, nor did anyone else that I know of until the summer of 2005. Now there are probably close to a dozen in town, half of which make up the majority of local caches we haven't bothered to look for. I'm sure they are fine for travellers visiting the area, but I already knew what the Wal-Mart parking lot looked like before the cache was placed there.

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How could microspew possibly be that old?

I started writing my post about my first lampost, which was 1/03, and then looked at my hides and finds, and realized that I had hidden a film canister (inside a fake birdhouse in the woods) in 10/02. I was so suprised, I didn't remember it being that long ago. That's what made me go and see what was the first micro that I'd ever found and it was 9/02. Of course the dates people are giving here are much older than that, but to me, I was suprised. I didn't remember it being that long ago.

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I'm sure the reaction to it was that it was a very clever hide. <_<

 

I think the new cache idea of being placed in lampposts is still new to some. I got this log from a newbie a while ago on a lamppost cache that I hid back in December 2004.

 

Neat hiding spot! Super_Nate is very creative. TFTC

 

I saw him afterwards a few days later and he was in awe of the amazing technique of hiding a film canister under a lamppost cover. He couldn't stop telling me how cool it was.

 

Well, it was just a simple film canister under the lamppost....big deal! Out of the 54 caches that I have placed, only 2 of them are lampposts! Both of them were placed when I first started caching.....I have avoided hiding them ever since.

 

As far as the first one ever. I started caching in April 2004 and their were some around where I lived so the idea is older than 2004.

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This picture was submitted for an article on my site. It was taken by the owner while a cacher was searching for it.

cache-el-b.jpg

Your eyes are drawn right to it, aren't they? <_<

 

Are there any "fresh" ways left to hide caches like this?

 

Bret

 

Yes but be sure to take it out before you go to bed... There are night cachers out there.

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Sorry, Someone has mistakenly infered a lampost element. No mention was ever made of lamp post. Aureate refered to the color of gold on the bison tube. That was the reference to Moun10bike since he hid a micro in Spokane named Aureate Y, Placed on his annual mountain bike trek in Spokane.

So to clairify. Color not location. K???

 

First one was a bison in the crown of a tree in the park. I was in this park of grass and trees and couldn't figure out for a few minutes where a cache could be hid. I was amazed at such a tiny cache in the middle of town! Wow! Then we went to his next one near by, and it was a lampost skirt. That made me laugh. I was amazed that you could place a cache right under peoples' noses like that, and no one knew a thing. How stealthy. Funnily enough, I see on the cache page that he attributed the lampost hide to Moun10Bike. :P

 

No, no, no, no, no!! I've never hidden a lamp post cache! (I am, however, still repenting for hiding a Bison tube in the crown of a tree!) :(

<_<

 

Whoops. He credited you in the lampost hide, instead of the crown of the tree hide. And it may be for something else, not the hide itself. But the way he worded it makes it sound like he got the cache hide idea from you. Good thing it's archived. :blink: Sorry for the mis-information there, Moun10Bike.

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I have looked everywhere on here and cannot locate the first of this kind and I was just pndering the reaction to the first one.

can anyone help me find it?

 

My first was copied and I found it in 2002. It was a brutal hide in a parking lot and we had no clue that those skirts lifted. When we finally found it we thought the higher was brilliant.

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So now you see that new cachers think that it is a very creative hide and are likely to put one out just like the 300 trillion that are already out there.

I admit my first one was a 'lame' hide but the location I put it at enabled me to meet some other cachers.

So if the 'lame' lampost hide has a purpose such as meeting people or showing a nice location is it still 'lame'?

Flame on.

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Well, now. Someone sounds cranky. I'll hafta give you a hug the next time I see you. :lol::lol:

 

Sorry, Someone has mistakenly infered a lampost element. No mention was ever made of lamp post. Aureate refered to the color of gold on the bison tube. That was the reference to Moun10bike since he hid a micro in Spokane named Aureate Y, Placed on his annual mountain bike trek in Spokane.

So to clairify. Color not location. K???

 

First one was a bison in the crown of a tree in the park. I was in this park of grass and trees and couldn't figure out for a few minutes where a cache could be hid. I was amazed at such a tiny cache in the middle of town! Wow! Then we went to his next one near by, and it was a lampost skirt. That made me laugh. I was amazed that you could place a cache right under peoples' noses like that, and no one knew a thing. How stealthy. Funnily enough, I see on the cache page that he attributed the lampost hide to Moun10Bike. :lol:

 

No, no, no, no, no!! I've never hidden a lamp post cache! (I am, however, still repenting for hiding a Bison tube in the crown of a tree!) ;)

:huh:

 

Whoops. He credited you in the lampost hide, instead of the crown of the tree hide. And it may be for something else, not the hide itself. But the way he worded it makes it sound like he got the cache hide idea from you. Good thing it's archived. ;) Sorry for the mis-information there, Moun10Bike.

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I was trying for being clear and I'm not cranky by any means, but if thats what it takes to get a hug :huh: ..........

 

Well, now. Someone sounds cranky. I'll hafta give you a hug the next time I see you. :lol::o

 

Sorry, Someone has mistakenly infered a lampost element. No mention was ever made of lamp post. Aureate refered to the color of gold on the bison tube. That was the reference to Moun10bike since he hid a micro in Spokane named Aureate Y, Placed on his annual mountain bike trek in Spokane.

So to clairify. Color not location. K???

 

First one was a bison in the crown of a tree in the park. I was in this park of grass and trees and couldn't figure out for a few minutes where a cache could be hid. I was amazed at such a tiny cache in the middle of town! Wow! Then we went to his next one near by, and it was a lampost skirt. That made me laugh. I was amazed that you could place a cache right under peoples' noses like that, and no one knew a thing. How stealthy. Funnily enough, I see on the cache page that he attributed the lampost hide to Moun10Bike. ;)

 

No, no, no, no, no!! I've never hidden a lamp post cache! (I am, however, still repenting for hiding a Bison tube in the crown of a tree!) :lol:

;)

 

Whoops. He credited you in the lampost hide, instead of the crown of the tree hide. And it may be for something else, not the hide itself. But the way he worded it makes it sound like he got the cache hide idea from you. Good thing it's archived. :lol: Sorry for the mis-information there, Moun10Bike.

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