first multi-stage hide - any hints?

[+despot&smitten]

Hints would be much appreciated in helping me plan my first mult-stage hide. What I have in mind is a hide at the posted coordinates that would contain a short story. The story contains hints and clues as to where to find the the other 2 hides. Hide #1 is a dud. Hide #2 contains the loot. If you pay attention to the clues in the story you will go right to the loot in #2. If not, back to the posted coords, and pick up the coords for hide #2.

 

I want to put all three caches in an urban areas accessible by feet, bike & rollerblades - but not in a car. The idea is, that even if you guessed wrong, you could do all three stages in one day - but if you picked the wrong one, you'd sure feel it. What's a good distance apart to put the stages? I'm thinking that Hide #1 and Hide #2 would both be about 10Km from the posted coordinates. That way if you got it right, you'd have a 10 Km ride to find the goodies. If you got it wrong, you'd be looking at 30Km. Too far? Too close?

 

Also, any ideas anyone has about how to stop folks from taking the story with them away from the posted coords would be much appreciated. Also, if anyone has done something similar in the past, what other troubles am I likely to run into?

 

Not trying to do anything diabolically difficult here - just trying to place the kind of cache I like best: one where you get outside and get some exercise (no drive-bys), one with a little bit of thinking (but not too much) and one with a bit of pun (fun) built in.

 

Thanks!

[+andGuest]

Not much of a hider myself but I see all kinds of problems.

#1. People will drive between stages and get as close a possible. Not sure how you would prevent the use of cars in an urban environment.

#2 If you find a way to keep it to to feet, bike, or rollerblade then you have the distance problem. Most people (that I know) if they are going to bike/walk/hike 10km they are not going to do it in an urban environment. They are go going to go caching in the woods.

#3 If you do not tell them how far it is once they figure out/get the coords they will know how far and will likely not walk see #1.

#4 As a general rule a lot of people automatically skip "regular" multi caches and therefore even less would go for yours- meaning don't expect much traffic.