Hide Techniques

[HConwi]

Hey all. I'm new to geocaching though I've used my GPS for mountain biking in the OC for 11 or 12 years. But I've been bitten by the bug and picked up a 60 CSx and have discovered the joys of hiding more than finding. I suspect hiding scratches some unmet creative itch...I've hidden four in two days and have a bunch more ideas.

 

I've been pretty uninspired as far as hiding my caches, often placing them under rocks and such. So, give me a quick primer on more creative ways to stash my caches to make it more fun and perhaps challenging for my hunters.

 

Thanks in advance for your ideas!!!

 

Hernando

[+wapahani]

I can't give out all my secretes, but I found hiding in plain sight is often most difficult.

 

It depends on what you want to do with the hides.

I've got what I call "EVIL HIDE" Caches that are meant to be tough, long drawn out and painful to find.

Then I have "Basic Hides" that anyone can find generally. Its meant to be simple and logged.

 

With my EVIL HIDES, I don't want them found and I go to great lengths to make them up.

 

This one is in plain sight, yet its so tough to find...

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...ae-aef844b87864

 

This one is a simple one that almost anyone can find....

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...40-c99dd5db2fcc

 

Then I have the historic based caches, a couple aren't online yet, others on another account.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...7a-3ef5487e8565

 

I highly suggest looking for 3-5 star caches in your area with low terrain ratings and go see what they are.

 

I've seen pinecones, stumps, limbs, locknlock like rocks, key holders like rocks, a bolt with nut, piece of paper under a magnet and so forth. Just look around you for ideas, there are millions of them.

[+Miragee]

I made a trip to Dollar Tree and a few Thrift Stores before my recent cache-hiding adventure. At Dollar Tree I found a plastic skull I used to hide an Airborne container that held the log and a pencil. At the Thrift Store I found swag for the two ammo cans I hid, but I also found a small metal "bird house." I painted it with the colors of the Manzanita bush I was going to hang it in and attached a bison tube to it.

 

I'm not very creative on my own, but sometimes "found objects" spark a bit of creativity.

[+Shiku]

There's a few websites out there that sell camoed containers looking like the previously mentioned bolts and rocks. I know one person who takes rocks from the area, carves a hole into them and puts the cache in the rock itself. There's utility plates that would look normal on many urban structures.

 

If you want to scratch that creative itch, I would recommend going to the area that you want to place a cache in and look around and see what's natural in the area like is there a lot of trash or metal objects (fences, utility boxes, etc.) or rocks or any place where it looks like something is missing (any kind of hole) or is there a way to extend anything that is currently there or is there anything removable in the area (common ones are the bottom of the light pole covers and tops of fence posts).

 

Many people are satisfied when they find an easy cache in a not-so-well-known area.

 

Some examples are for the trash, I found a cache that was in a pen, but it blended in because there were other pieces of useless junk in a bush, for the metal object, I found a on-off switch attached to a box on the side of an electrical box that looked like it belonged, for something that's missing, there was a hole in a wall with a cache covered by a rock, and for the not-so-well-known area, I found a cache where it seems like there'd be railroad tracks, but it was a hiking path instead.

 

However, I wouldn't have known any of that if I didn't go search for those caches, so I would definitely recommend the most is to go out and find harder caches whose description or title imply that they're something out of the ordinary.

[HConwi]

Wow, some great inspiring ideas people! Thank you very much. And I will go learn by doing and hunting.

[+briansnat]

I just look for a natural hiding spot like a rock crevice, hollow stump, etc... I often bring a few cache containers along in a variety of shapes and sizes and find the one that fits.

 

I prefer rocks to trees because trees fall over and stumps rot. Put something in a log or stump and in a year or two your hiding place might be gone.

 

I try to avoid the unnatural piles of rocks and/or sticks to cover the cache. They scream "check me out" to anybody who happens on them.