Wheelchair accessible ammo can hide

[+Out Wayne Gang]

Hey folks,

 

Me and the fam are hooked. I work in wheeled mobility and seating and have a lot of very active wheelchair users as customers and friends. So I have a desire to place some accessible caches among my hides. Around here, a search for accessibles brings up mostly LPCs. Whatever your feelings on those, I think it stinks that those are nearly the only option for wheelchair users in this neck of the woods.

 

I found a few ammo cans and have them painted, labeled, and ready to hide. I would love to do an accessible ammo can and am wondering if anyone has hidden/found one to give me some ideas?

 

In an ironic twist, I had all the supplies ready to make a really cool, multistage, all wheelchair accessible cache at my shop and then realized that there is an LPC 400 feet away in a parking lot

 

So now I'm looking for other ideas. Any help appreciated,

 

Thanks,

JW from OW

[+Renegade Knight]

...

In an ironic twist, I had all the supplies ready to make a really cool, multistage, all wheelchair accessible cache at my shop and then realized that there is an LPC 400 feet away in a parking lot ...

 

If you work in the trade (from a different angle than I do it seems) just keep your eye open. Other opportunities will present themselves. I almost made a pitch to a company building a pedestrian bridge to create a hidden compartment. I didn't know the company execs as well as I'd like to do such a thing. Still it's an idea. With an open mind more of them crop up than you might think.

 

Next as you hook folks in chairs on caching, and the local community becomes more aware they will in turn start keeping their audience in mind and while they may not nail the caches needed every time, they will do it more than otherwise. They will also learn and improve.

 

Lastly, if you have a cache that should exist, place it and list it. If this site turns you down list somewhere else. You can also email that owner about your idea and the proximity. They may be willing to let their LPC die for the sake of your cache. Maybe they will become the first person to start really thinking about assessable caches.

[+Renegade Knight]

Ideas I've seen.

 

Fake Electrical Outlet on a bridge rail. (Painted to match and attached magnetically).

 

Loose brick in a wall.

 

In a short fence post cap.

 

Under a bench (within reach from the front)

 

In a book, in the library.

 

In a planter near the skylight inside a mall.

 

That's a short list.

 

Good luck.

[+Out Wayne Gang]

Ideas I've seen.

 

Fake Electrical Outlet on a bridge rail. (Painted to match and attached magnetically).

 

Loose brick in a wall.

 

In a short fence post cap.

 

Under a bench (within reach from the front)

 

In a book, in the library.

 

In a planter near the skylight inside a mall.

 

That's a short list.

 

Good luck.

 

Thanks Renegade! I think I will contact the LPC owner, if not disable it, perhaps it could turn into the first step of the multicache I was planning... Can the cache owner change the cache type like that? Or would it have to be archived and then relisted as (a cache from [current LPC guy] and Out Wayne Gang)? Good ideas.

 

Thanks again,

JW from OW

[+seattlegeekgrrrlz]

Along the same lines as the suggestions above, is a cache that is hidden in plain sight. There was one here that was a puzzle cache (to get coords and combination to lock). The cache itself was one of those metal magazine/newspaper dispensers. It was right there, but most cachers overlooked it at first and muggles just walked on by. The best thing is it was so huge!

 

That cache is retired now, so I don't feel bad revealing what it was.

 

Good luck!

[+va griz]

Sometimes the space underneath the handrail of a deck or walkway is big enough to hide a pretty big container. Most of the ammo cans I have seen are at or very near ground level, so I suspect you will have to get creative if you want it easily reachable from a chair.

 

On the other problem. If the parking lot permits, maybe you could ask the owner to move his LPC to a different LP that would give you the desired 528 feet?

[+Seeker_Knight]

One idea that I have already seen in use (but not in a wheelcahir friendly location) is a birdhouse with a normal lock-n-lock container inside, with the birdhouse mounted on a short steel fence post. The trick is to have the roof hinged, and the hole either not cut all the way thru, and painted black, or covered with plexiglass from the inside. It was a real cute cache, and not as easy to recognise as you might think.

 

Someone already got my other idea of using a large newspaper box. They are so plentiful that noone would even notice an additional box in some locations. The local post office where I work has about twelve of them lining the whole front walk. Just make up a fake newspaper to line the front glass, and nobody would even notice it.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I had an accessible ammo can, now defunct because the property sold, that was uber simple... find a tree with thick foliage, mine was a cedar tree, and just set the can inside on branches against the trunk! If it's painted green you can't see it unless you are looking inside the tree, not something muggles often do!

 

Know where there's a hole in the ground (don't dig one!)? Affix the ammo can to the underside of a quarter-sheet of plywood, lay it over the hole, glue leaves and limbs to the top. Do a good job of it and folks can stand (or roll!) on it and not see it.

 

Know where there is a dead-end or abandoned road? Put an ammo can in a mailbox on a post, or in a garbage can, something that idle passerby wouldn't think to look in. Paint it to look old and abandoned... obviously a new mailbox at a dead-end is gonna attract attention!

 

Forget Wal-Mart, you'll never get permission, but the lady down the street that runs the hair salon may let you put an ammo can in her bushes by the sidewalk, the girls can get a laugh watching cachers hunt for it.

 

Hope that helps.

[+flask]

Whatever your feelings on those, I think it stinks that those are nearly the only option for wheelchair users in this neck of the woods.

 

 

i've been saying that forever. people keep trying to tell us that LPCs are great because people in wheelchairs love them.

 

 

I almost made a pitch to a company building a pedestrian bridge to create a hidden compartment.

 

blast! that's just brilliant. you MUST do this if ever you have the opportunity.

[GOF and Bacall]

I had an accessible ammo can, now defunct because the property sold, that was uber simple... find a tree with thick foliage, mine was a cedar tree, and just set the can inside on branches against the trunk! If it's painted green you can't see it unless you are looking inside the tree, not something muggles often do!

 

Know where there's a hole in the ground (don't dig one!)? Affix the ammo can to the underside of a quarter-sheet of plywood, lay it over the hole, glue leaves and limbs to the top. Do a good job of it and folks can stand (or roll!) on it and not see it.

 

Know where there is a dead-end or abandoned road? Put an ammo can in a mailbox on a post, or in a garbage can, something that idle passerby wouldn't think to look in. Paint it to look old and abandoned... obviously a new mailbox at a dead-end is gonna attract attention!

 

Forget Wal-Mart, you'll never get permission, but the lady down the street that runs the hair salon may let you put an ammo can in her bushes by the sidewalk, the girls can get a laugh watching cachers hunt for it.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Some good ideas there. I'm gonna watch for places to put similar caches. Thanks for you insight on the problem.

 

Ask the lpc owner if you can have the spot. Be sure to explain the nature of your idea. I can only speak for myself but if I had an lpc I'd not think twice about giving up the space for such a project. I'd give up any of my caches for what I could be convinced was a worthy endeavor. Some of them just for the asking.

[+Out Wayne Gang]

Thanks again guys,

 

I had thought of putting out an old mailbox, plenty of twisty little roads around these parts where nobody would notice an additional rusty (supposedly) abandoned box...

 

All good ideas, keep 'em coming, not just for me, but so that others might get interested and do such a hide too.

[+flask]

i have an idea.

 

why not enlist your wheeled friends to start hiding the kind of caches they would like to find and be able to find? i bet some of us bipeds would get a really good instruction on what's both possible and desirable.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

i have an idea.

 

why not enlist your wheeled friends to start hiding the kind of caches they would like to find and be able to find? i bet some of us bipeds would get a really good instruction on what's both possible and desirable.

Best idea yet!

[+Out Wayne Gang]

i have an idea.

 

why not enlist your wheeled friends to start hiding the kind of caches they would like to find and be able to find? i bet some of us bipeds would get a really good instruction on what's both possible and desirable.

 

Good plan, I'll have to start evangelizing the ways of the cache

[+flask]

i have an idea.

 

why not enlist your wheeled friends to start hiding the kind of caches they would like to find and be able to find? i bet some of us bipeds would get a really good instruction on what's both possible and desirable.

 

Good plan, I'll have to start evangelizing the ways of the cache

 

here's an angle:

 

so often wheelchair users have to play games or do activities that are scaled down versions of biped games. this is an excellent opportunity to create a level playing field. if you hide wheelchair-friendly caches, especially good ones, bipeds WILL come and play on your field, on your terms.

[+Renegade Knight]

i have an idea.

 

why not enlist your wheeled friends to start hiding the kind of caches they would like to find and be able to find? i bet some of us bipeds would get a really good instruction on what's both possible and desirable.

Nice:

 

I know what I "Think" someone in a chair can do. However real world examples would be a better teacher about what can really be done.

[+msrubble]

Disguised as something that might normally be at that height. Others have already mentioned a mailbox, birdhouse, newspaper vending machine, planter. Depending on the location, it could also be a map box, a real estate agent's information tube, "sign guestbook here."

 

Possibly sandwiched between two signs.

 

If the landscaping is right, an ammo can could be inside a fake boulder.

 

Or use a pulley or lever system where the handle is in reach, but the ammo box doesn't have to be.

 

I would be interested in hearing what you come up with, if you're not concerned about spoiling the surprise for others who are close enough to go look for it.

Edited February 24, 2009 by msrubble

[+Out Wayne Gang]

Well, I've emailed the cache owner, so we'll see what happens. I like Ms Rubbles idea of some sort of pulley system.... intriguing... I'll have to think if it would be possible to make such a thing that was also muggle proof... ah more sleepless hours of cache planning, thanks a lot

[+webscouter.]

I've seen several ammo boxes painted white and fastened to the back of business signs. They were designed to look like information boxes on the back of the sign. They have been in place for a long time without incident.

[+Team O-Zone]

Here are a couple of stores in our area that have caches in/on them. Because if the caches, these stores now have a bunch of new & loyal customers.

 

Finding Nemo GC1KX6Q

 

Bottom of the Cup GCW22N

 

just an idea!

[+pigpen4x4]

I had started planning a W/C multi here in my complex.

I do vehicle conversions for special needs, so that was my motivation.

ANyway, I was going to hide a key behind a downspout with coords to the multi mailbox at the end. The key would open a unused mailbox with a ammocan inside it.

I then found out the mailbox unit belongs to the USPS, so that nixed it right away. 'Splains my wet mail though.

 

Now I'm looking for a retaining wall at the right height to place one behind.

Ta

PP4x4