worst hides?

[GeoFamily57]

Have you ever found a cache that was so easy to find it isn't even funny? share your stories of bad hides.

I'll start:

I found a cache a few weeks ago that was a lock 'n' lock box at the base of a tree with a piece of plywood leaning up against it. seriously? it was super easy to find because it had just rained and the plywood didn't look like the tree at all and because the plywood didn't even cover the box.

[+YooperSnowman]

My wife and I were driving across North Dakota and wanted to grab a quick cache or two in that state. I identified one just off the freeway so we decided to go for it. As we got to the end of the ramp and parked on an access road, I started to look at the description like I always do, when my wife said, "there it is" as she pointed out the windshield. Sure enough, about 150 feet away, was the cache container, next to a fence post and in full view. It was a large camo plastic jar. It was early spring and the grass had not grown up around it yet. I assume the CO "hid" it when the grass was higher. BTW, the coords were right on.

[+roziecakes]

In Denver a few years back, we found one that was a very nice regular sized container, but it had no cammo whatsoever, so you could see the toys inside, and it had a RED lid. It was just right next to a fence. Needless to say, it was archived within a couple of weeks.

[Clan Riffster]

My worst cache finding experience involved one that was placed for a numbers run. It was a gallon ziplock baggie, covered in duct tape, tossed under a shrub. It was hidden in July 05, and was leaky by August 05. It's had 5 NM's since then, and the cache was still a waterlogged baggie full of soggy stuff when I posted my Needs Archived log. Who would honestly think a ziplock baggie would make a good cache container?

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

There are bad hides and "worst hides". Little you can do about it, aside from assuring that you never place any yourself!

 

My buddy, yoopersnowman knows that in the U.P. of Michigan, early spring (which is late for us) is the easiest time to spot caches. Snow is gone, nothing is growing -- BINGO! It's more like cache spotting rather than cache hunting. Give it a couple of weeks or so, then we are back to bushwhacking just to get 5 yards from the roadway!

[+mchaos]

Have you ever found a cache that was so easy to find it isn't even funny? share your stories of bad hides.

I'll start:

I found a cache a few weeks ago that was a lock 'n' lock box at the base of a tree with a piece of plywood leaning up against it. seriously? it was super easy to find because it had just rained and the plywood didn't look like the tree at all and because the plywood didn't even cover the box.

 

There is already probably several threads for this some where. One in particular where people have been posting pics of these worst hides.

 

As far as "so easy to find" I think that a lot of cachers have a miss conception about hiding caches. It is not necessarily to make it hard to find in general. It is to hid it from muggles. A seasoned cache may find hides that a muggle will not notice but stands out to them. You might be a bit bias.

 

As for containers out in the open with just a piece of wood etc..

 

Some people don't take care in replacing them as they were. Maybe it had more bark covering it, or a slightly different placement.

 

I can understand something hidden stupidly, but just because its not hard to find, doesn't mean its a bad hide. You have to ask your self. "Will a muggle find this?"

[GeoFamily57]

My worst cache finding experience involved one that was placed for a numbers run. It was a gallon ziplock baggie, covered in duct tape, tossed under a shrub. It was hidden in July 05, and was leaky by August 05. It's had 5 NM's since then, and the cache was still a waterlogged baggie full of soggy stuff when I posted my Needs Archived log. Who would honestly think a ziplock baggie would make a good cache container?

The same people that think submerging an oatmeal drum is a novel idea.

I like your signature, by the way.

[DannyCaffeine]

Ammo boxes with no cover or micros that are a needle in a haystack.

[+pamlicojack]

Using your definition, this one: GC1A11F would fit the description as one of the "worst" caches yet one of the best ones I've ever found.

 

My kids and I could see it from the road (it was simply sitting next to a fence post in plain view, although 100 feet off the road) and as I was signing the log, the CO's pulled up. They were there to feed their farm animals and invited my kids to help them. For the next hour, my kids fed horses, cows, sheep, chickens, goats, and a zebu. they were super nice people and my kids had a blast. they told us they kept it in plain view to make it easier for novices to find...

[+briansnat]

Most of my caches are so easy to find that it isn't even funny. I want people to find them.

[+Coldgears]

Have you ever found a cache that was so easy to find it isn't even funny? share your stories of bad hides.

I'll start:

I found a cache a few weeks ago that was a lock 'n' lock box at the base of a tree with a piece of plywood leaning up against it. seriously? it was super easy to find because it had just rained and the plywood didn't look like the tree at all and because the plywood didn't even cover the box.

 

There is already probably several threads for this some where. One in particular where people have been posting pics of these worst hides.

 

As far as "so easy to find" I think that a lot of cachers have a miss conception about hiding caches. It is not necessarily to make it hard to find in general. It is to hid it from muggles. A seasoned cache may find hides that a muggle will not notice but stands out to them. You might be a bit bias.

 

As for containers out in the open with just a piece of wood etc..

 

Some people don't take care in replacing them as they were. Maybe it had more bark covering it, or a slightly different placement.

 

I can understand something hidden stupidly, but just because its not hard to find, doesn't mean its a bad hide. You have to ask your self. "Will a muggle find this?"

 

I actually like hard finds. I find them more fun then easy ones! That's only one reason for hiding hard caches, the other is the thrill of finding an extremely well hidden container. I just found one today, with 6 DNF and 3 actual finds. It was super hard to find. When I did it was all the more satisfying then if it had been laying out in the open. (It was out of view of muggles.)

[+teralea]

I'm really new at this, but I would say that any cache that gets a "there it is" when you aren't even within ten feet of it is a bad hide...

[+power69]

My worst cache finding experience involved one that was placed for a numbers run. It was a gallon ziplock baggie, covered in duct tape, tossed under a shrub. It was hidden in July 05, and was leaky by August 05. It's had 5 NM's since then, and the cache was still a waterlogged baggie full of soggy stuff when I posted my Needs Archived log. Who would honestly think a ziplock baggie would make a good cache container?

I know where theres one of those and its held up pretty good[not my hide but i go by where it is a lot so i check on it]

course now that its summer, the duct tape adhesive might turn to goo in the heat.

[+Zork V]

One I thought was the worst was a small GLASS Jar.

 

Bad on so many levels.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Have you ever found a cache that was so easy to find it isn't even funny? share your stories of bad hides.

 

I do not share your definition of "easy to find" as "bad".

"bad" to me is lousy container, bad coords, erroneous write up, significantly wrong terrain or difficulty rating.

 

I'm okay with any location that isn't illegal, someone will like it...the cache owner did. If I don't care for it, I can not hunt the cache.

 

I'm okay with any hide style that isn't buried or defacement. Including just sitting there in the open.

 

I own some like that. Ammo cans, no cover at all, at the base of the biggest tree in the hammock. They're not in the parking lot. They're far enough off trail to elude hikers.

[+DavidMac]

I once found a film container that somebody had stuck under the plastic cover that fits over the bolts at the base of a lamp post in the middle of a boring parking lot in a suburban shopping center.

 

 

Seriously, the worst hide I've ever seen was one of those purple plastic pencil boxes that kids use in school. It was stuffed underneath a dumpster in a way that made it highly visible from a parking lot. Myself and several other cachers emailed the hider suggesting ways in which they could improve the longevity and quality of the cache, but they never responded (they had 0 finds and one hide to their account). Unsurprisingly, the cache lasted all of two weeks before it went missing.

[GeoFamily57]

Have you ever found a cache that was so easy to find it isn't even funny? share your stories of bad hides.

 

I do not share your definition of "easy to find" as "bad".

"bad" to me is lousy container, bad coords, erroneous write up, significantly wrong terrain or difficulty rating.

 

That makes a lot of sense. I am just starting out, so I am a little confused. I totally understand what you are saying, though.

[+Thrak]

I found one that was on the far side of a storm creek which could only be approached from the near side. You had to go down into the channel and cross it to get to the cache. The container was placed low enough that, during the winter, it would be under a couple feet of fast moving water. The container itself consisted of a plastic water bottle (cheap, grocery store style bottle - very thin plastic) that had been cut in half and then stuffed back together. Absolutely a horrible cache.

 

I also found a baggie full of water and soggy crap in a cemetery. It was not only a horrible cache, it was pretty disrespectful of the area. I don't mind a well done cache in a cemetery but a baggie full of water and disintegrating crap is not good.

Edited December 14, 2010 by Thrak

[+kissguy&frannyfru]

Never found a "bad" cache. I've enjoyed finding each and everyone.

[+Ecylram]

Never found a "bad" cache. I've enjoyed finding each and everyone.

I wish I could say the same:

• Caches that filled with water and destroyed all the contents and logs.
  
• LPC that had become a hidden wasp nest.
  
• Cache in a trash strewn, overgrown empty lot in a bad neighborhood.
  
• Cache on school grounds near a classroom.
  
• Film canister hides in high-muggle industrial areas.
  
• Hides that had enormously bad coordinates.
  
• Hide that was just a commercial advertisement.
  
• Any hide in busy drive-thu. (IMO)
  

There have been a lot of great caches, but not all of them.

[knowschad]

Never found a "bad" cache. I've enjoyed finding each and everyone.

I wish I could say the same:

• Caches that filled with water and destroyed all the contents and logs.
  
• LPC that had become a hidden wasp nest.
  
• Cache in a trash strewn, overgrown empty lot in a bad neighborhood.
  
• Cache on school grounds near a classroom.
  
• Film canister hides in high-muggle industrial areas.
  
• Hides that had enormously bad coordinates.
  
• Hide that was just a commercial advertisement.
  
• Any hide in busy drive-thu. (IMO)
  

There have been a lot of great caches, but not all of them.

I see two different attitudes here. I would probably agree with you in your accessment of those caches, but that just says something about my attitude, too.

[+NicknPapa]

Worst hide? A three gallon bucket with a bright blue lid sitting right beside the trail covered with absolutely nothing. I think that one had been moved but to be perfectly honest there wasn't really a better hiding place anywhere close.

[AZcachemeister]

Have you ever found a cache that was so easy to find it isn't even funny? share your stories of bad hides.

 

I do not share your definition of "easy to find" as "bad".

"bad" to me is lousy container, bad coords, erroneous write up, significantly wrong terrain or difficulty rating.

 

I'm okay with any location that isn't illegal, someone will like it...the cache owner did. If I don't care for it, I can not hunt the cache.

 

I'm okay with any hide style that isn't buried or defacement. Including just sitting there in the open.

 

I own some like that. Ammo cans, no cover at all, at the base of the biggest tree in the hammock. They're not in the parking lot. They're far enough off trail to elude hikers.

 

+1

 

Easy is not always bad...and BAD is not always easy.

 

I've got a few that are pretty easy...once you get to the correct location, which ain't easy.

[+TerraViators]

Found a micro baggie stuck in the knothole of a tree. No container, just a baggie and log. I posted a NM several months ago. I took my sister to find it and it was still just a baggie hanging out of the hole.

[+Sol seaker]

I was going to start this thread today, but checked and wasn't surprised to find there already was one in place.

 

I just looked for a cache that deserves recognition on these pages.

 

I don't even know what it ended up being. Ground zero was right outside of the front door of a very busy restaurant in a big mall.

 

I didn't know where it would be, and I ended up there at lunch time.

I stood there in the rain for a while, trying to check here and there between the many people going in and out of the restaurant, and then finally decided I wasn't having any fun, and blew off the rest of the caches I had planned for the day and went home to play computer games.

 

I've found caches that had no container except a plastic bag, and those were not good, but at least they were in decent locations.

 

Groundspeak's motto is, "The Language of Location". This cache owner definitely hadn't heard that one.

Why would anyone find it fun to put a cache on the walkway up to the door of a busy restaurant?

Do people like that actually enjoy finding caches like that?

 

At least I don't have to worry about getting the icon off of my map. That one can't possibly last long (even if the owners of the restaurant don't find out about it, and even if the reviewer doesn't find out about it, being on private property, it can't last)

[GOF and Bacall]

I was going to start this thread today, but checked and wasn't surprised to find there already was one in place.

 

I just looked for a cache that deserves recognition on these pages.

 

I don't even know what it ended up being. Ground zero was right outside of the front door of a very busy restaurant in a big mall.

 

I didn't know where it would be, and I ended up there at lunch time.

I stood there in the rain for a while, trying to check here and there between the many people going in and out of the restaurant, and then finally decided I wasn't having any fun, and blew off the rest of the caches I had planned for the day and went home to play computer games.

 

I've found caches that had no container except a plastic bag, and those were not good, but at least they were in decent locations.

 

Groundspeak's motto is, "The Language of Location". This cache owner definitely hadn't heard that one.

Why would anyone find it fun to put a cache on the walkway up to the door of a busy restaurant?

Do people like that actually enjoy finding caches like that?

 

At least I don't have to worry about getting the icon off of my map. That one can't possibly last long (even if the owners of the restaurant don't find out about it, and even if the reviewer doesn't find out about it, being on private property, it can't last)

 

Few people I talk to actually claim to like looking for that kind of "stealth required" hide. There have been a few who like to hide them. They seem to get off on making the searcher uncomfortable. I just add such to my ignore list and move on.

[+luvvinbird]

I'm not a fan of placing a magnetic cache container behind a parking sign in extremely high muggle areas, like in busy shopping malls placed a few feet from the main doors. Challenging, yes, but just not one of my favourites. Another "poor judgement" location is a cemetery where the cache is much too close to administration offices allowing mourners to wonder what's that guy doing out there? A tad disrespectful, I think. (I got a dirty look when trying to find that one).

[+MoonCatKDT & Peanut]

I found a newer hide a few weeks back that sounded like it would be a clever find just off the road. when we were about 75 feet away I saw the container hanging from the tree- it was a bright purple water bottle. I did my best to hide it a bit better but it was in dire need of some camo tape.

[+jmw61]

Did a 100 mile run to another town this morning and ran a cache along a route PQ. A large portion of the caches were in or very near front yards of homes. I hate those type caches.

[+Juan Durrer]

Found a micro baggie stuck in the knothole of a tree. No container, just a baggie and log. I posted a NM several months ago. I took my sister to find it and it was still just a baggie hanging out of the hole.

 

If it was so awful, why'd you take your sister?

[+JJnTJ]

We sought one today that was a micro somewhere next to (and today downwind from) a restaurant dumpster and cooking grease receptacle. We quickly decided to DNF. Other logs mentioned the coords were off more than 20 feet.

 

We're pretty open minded, but soft coords and rotting food make for a bad cache.

Edited April 3, 2011 by JJnTJ

[Tahosa and Sons]

When I find them putting me right in someones yard, and the cache page states nothing about access to private property its a DNF with a note that clearly states to close to human habitation for me, moving on..

[Mr.Yuck]

We sought one today that was a micro somewhere next to (and today downwind from) a restaurant dumpster and cooking grease receptacle. We quickly decided to DNF. Other logs mentioned the coords were off more than 20 feet.

 

We're pretty open minded, but soft coords and rotting food make for a bad cache.

 

And of course I'm sure they had permission to hide this thing there, right? Approved no problem, I'll bet. but if they tried to put an ammo box in the closest State Park without a permit, they'd have to be crazy.

[+BaylorGrad]

My "worst cache" situation was one that:

 

- Was 15 feet away from a large "no trespassing sign" (you had to walk UNDER the sign to get to the cache).

- Was in the thorniest location I've ever been--it almost seemed intentional (the terrain was a 1.5 and I was all kinds of bloody afterward).

- Required walking past 2 rotting dog corpses on the way in.

 

I posted a Needs Archived. The CO complied.

[+Chrysalides]

Holy thread revival. Never mind, responded to a very stale post.

Edited April 3, 2011 by Chrysalides

[+power69]

Worst hide I've ever found was probably this worn out plastic bag with about a million holes shoved in the middle of a tree filled with cheap, rotted, disgusting plastic toys. Shockingly, the log was dry but I couldn't believe someone would hide such a junky cache. Found out later the owner had abandoned geocaching and this was what was left of one of his caches. Fortunately, it got archived soon after.

 

Other than that, I haven't really found that many bad caches. Most of them have been pretty good.

maybe they were poor and all they could afford was a worn out plastic bag.

[+kpanko]

maybe they were poor and all they could afford was a worn out plastic bag.

Spent all the money on the GPSr eh?

[Mr.Yuck]

maybe they were poor and all they could afford was a worn out plastic bag.

Spent all the money on the GPSr eh?

 

It's 2011, and Geocaching has evolved. They spent it all on a Smartphone. And they log every cache online with "TFTC".

[+NYPaddleCacher]

We sought one today that was a micro somewhere next to (and today downwind from) a restaurant dumpster and cooking grease receptacle. We quickly decided to DNF. Other logs mentioned the coords were off more than 20 feet.

 

We're pretty open minded, but soft coords and rotting food make for a bad cache.

 

I agree, however, other logs mentioning the coords off more than 20 feet doesn't mean it has soft coords. Soft Coords, to me, implies that the cache owner intentionally specified coordinates that are not as accurate as they could be. If the cache page, written by the CO, had mentioned the coords were off by 20' or more than that would be an example of "soft coords".

[+nekom]

Best/worst is subjective, depends on how you like to play. Most of my favorite caches were very easy to find, just hard to get to. An ammo can in the woods is not a difficult thing to find when you can get to within 10 feet of it. Magnetic nanos designed to be insanely difficult to find really isn't up my alley, not that I don't go after them now and then anyway, but I prefer to find what I'm looking for and hopefully see a neat area along the way.

[+cimawr]

I'm in the "easy isn't the same as bad" camp. My definition of good and bad hides is more about how much care has been taken in choosing the location than difficulty, although I do enjoy *clever* hides - IF they're in a location I feel comfortable with.

 

My general "bad hides/pet peeves" categories:

 

1) Shopping mall/urban caches near or on dumpsters that contain *garbage*, or have large amounts of broken glass and other hazardous trash scattered around. Double my dislike if there are perfectly good trees, bushes, etc. nearby.

 

2) Caches placed in areas where there's broken glass everywhere. CITO is fine, but don't send me into an area where local lowlifes hang out and smash bottles without giving me fair warning.

 

3) Caches placed in sketchy areas - ESPECIALLY caches placed with disregard for the fact that someone homeless is living nearby. There was a notorious one in my area that required walking directly through a large homeless camp, and the CO KNEW it. Not only unsafe and uncomfortable for the cacher, it's dadgum rude to the people living there!

 

4) Caches placed on private residential or agricultural property without the owner's permission, and/or caches placed in locations that make me feel I'm invading a homeowner's privacy. Double black marks for ASSuming private property is public simply because the area is 10 feet outside somebody's back yard fence. Fences are not always directly on property lines!

 

5) "Stealth" caches in high-traffic commercial areas, as mentioned by several others in the thread.

 

6) Caches placed in high places by tall people who don't take into consideration that people of all heights cache. I'm talking about ones that are literally unfindable/unreachable if you're not as tall as the person who placed it.

 

Specific "worst caches I've ever looked for":

 

A rusty Altoids tin dropped into a ventilation grille behind a supermarket, five feet from the dumpsters, about 30 feet from the loading dock (e.g. if a truck was being unloaded, there was no way to retrieve the cache without being seen), and DIRECTLY BEHIND the area where pallets of flattened boxes were stacked DAILY. IOW, at least 50% of the time the cache was completely inaccessible - and the CO was fully aware of it, because he stated in the cache listing that "temporary objects" might be in the way. He failed to mention that said "temporary objects" weren't movable without a forklift!

 

A cache buried in pine needles in the drivethrough drug pickup of a CVS, AND right next to the dumpster... literally unsafe in a number of ways. I gave it a pass after realizing that finding it would require sticking my hands into an area with broken glass and other nasty trash, and so did a lot of other people.

 

A cache placed in a narrow (approximately 30 feet wide) gully which between the back and side yards of several private residences, in full view of all (several cache logs relate being watched and/or approached and questioned by residents) and which I strongly suspect is private property. Access to the area is only possible by trespassing, or by going so close to a private yard that you might as well be. To complete the stupidity of the hide, it's listed as "dogs allowed", yet there are dogs in at least one of the yards who are reported barking at cachers. I gave it a pass after driving by and looking at the area.

[+rolfdenver]

I really appreciate these comments. As a newbie, I now know some things to avoid when I start placing my own caches.

 

(And here I thought that hiding a cache under a lamppost cover was so awesomely clever!)

 

One of my favorite caches so far was pretty darn ordinary, and a micro. But the location was sublime: a spot I'd passed by many times before but never really looked at the right way to appreciate it, until I was "forced" to do so while trying to find the cache. Seems to me that's part of what geocaching is all about.

[+GrateBear]

I have to admit having a rather non-PC thought that runs through my mind when I find a really lame cache--a HKF, ie, a Helen Keller Find. I think you can figure out what that means.

[+cimawr]

One of my favorite caches so far was pretty darn ordinary, and a micro. But the location was sublime: a spot I'd passed by many times before but never really looked at the right way to appreciate it, until I was "forced" to do so while trying to find the cache. Seems to me that's part of what geocaching is all about.

 

It's exactly what geocaching was originally intended to be about.

 

There are FAR too many caches in my area that take me nowhere but the grimy areas behind shopping centers. Even if the hide is clever (which most of the time they're not), they annoy me - especially because I've seen some extremely clever ways to hide things in a shopping center without making other cachers slink around the dumpster areas, touch places where electric wiring goes, OR be ridiculously conspicuous.

[Frank Caching]

I've had some very easy finds since I started. But half the fun was that they were in places I had passed by dozens of times before and never seen them.

[+softballmom19]

I have had two hides in my area that are listed as being in plain sight. Both gave me a hard time. One was a nano that was attached to an old fashioned styled lamppost. This nano blended right in that is looked like part of the lamppost. The other was a magnetic box that was attached to a metal sculpture that it looked like it again belonged. I loved both of these since they were creative in the way they were hidden. The worst hides that I found are the ones that someone hides a cache without thinking about the weather,the container in the elements,the location and just throws a cache out there for the sake of being a cache owner. Most times these caches are a mess after a few months of being out there. Maintence issues galore.

[+luvvinbird]

I have had two hides in my area that are listed as being in plain sight. Both gave me a hard time. One was a nano that was attached to an old fashioned styled lamppost. This nano blended right in that is looked like part of the lamppost. The other was a magnetic box that was attached to a metal sculpture that it looked like it again belonged. I loved both of these since they were creative in the way they were hidden. The worst hides that I found are the ones that someone hides a cache without thinking about the weather,the container in the elements,the location and just throws a cache out there for the sake of being a cache owner. Most times these caches are a mess after a few months of being out there. Maintence issues galore.

Yeah, I totally agree on this one. I've found caches that can only be approached by walking through or groping through all kinds of roadside/streetside trash. It's unfortunate because better locations are often very nearby.

[+matt martinez]

I'm really new at this, but I would say that any cache that gets a "there it is" when you aren't even within ten feet of it is a bad hide...

 

just because you can figure out where a cache is right away doesn't make it a bad hide. people that are very experienced in finding caches can do that easily just because they know where good places to hide caches are and can easily recognize them.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I have to admit having a rather non-PC thought that runs through my mind when I find a really lame cache--a HKF, ie, a Helen Keller Find. I think you can figure out what that means.

 

I have found a couple of caches that could not be seen and required one to feel around. One of them was a nano stuck on an old steam train. I wouldn't call it a bad hide, but it was a really difficult hide.

[+GeoGeeBee]

I'm really new at this, but I would say that any cache that gets a "there it is" when you aren't even within ten feet of it is a bad hide...

 

There's one in my area that's an ammo can hanging from a tree branch. You can see it from 50 yards away.

 

Getting to it, however, is an entirely different matter.