my hides are generally easy because...

[ashnikes]

my recent hides, not all of which have been approved yet before you go and research this, have all been very easy to find, as it was more about what was either in the container, or what the geocacher might see while visiting my cache.

 

Although I "spoil" the fun, ide rather have the cachers come to the location and find my cache fairly easy then enjoy what i brought them out here for.

 

I understand I could be Waymarking, since im essentially just taking people to a favorite spot of sorts, but i want there to be a physical prize from me thanking the people who visit my cache, not just a virtual one, i dont expect long winded log entries, if they are written, i appriciate them, but if not, just knowing i did something that brought a total stranger to one of my favorite spots is satisfying enough for me.

 

does anyone else "spoil' their hides? if so why?

 

also for those of you who hide caches like super hard needle in haystack hides, what satisfaction do you get out of it, that you brought someone to a parkinglot, or a nature trail and forced them to scour every inch of your 30ft radius margine of error, looking for a nano?

 

I mean i figure if someone is loging into geocaching, looking for my cache, driving out to it, and actually getting out of their car to find it, thats work enough, of course all my hides are hidden well enough to keep them from muggles, but ive "spoiled" their locations in my description, so no-one should have to spend more than a few brief minutes looking for it, destroying the area where I hid it, because i didnt give them enough information, or hints.

 

whereas some of the micros ive seen out in trails, the area around them has been pummeled from people searching all over eternity looking for the darn things.

[+dorqie]

I have a hide that might be compaired to a needle in a haystack, but it's actually a tupperwear container, and it's in a park that doesn't show up on google maps, so the only way to know about it is if you have actually been there.

The cache is really well camoed, and I get a kick out of giving people a hard time, is that sadistic?

So best of both worlds IMO, you get to find a park you wouldn't otherwise visit, and you get to pull your hair out and swear at me while you hunt for the cache.

[+BulldogBlitz]

we haven't hid any yet because we don't have 1,000 finds yet.

 

gotta play by the rules...

[+StarBrand]

Generally my caches are all pretty easy finds once you get over the terrain to the spot. I do that because I want my caches to be found after they enjoy the spot I have taken them to.

[+Northmark]

Generally my caches are all pretty easy finds once you get over the terrain to the spot. I do that because I want my caches to be found after they enjoy the spot I have taken them to.

Ditto

[GOF and Bacall]

There is a reason that the difficulty can be rated from 1 to 5 stars. There is a level for everyone's taste and/or ability.

[+Thornsten]

Some caches it's about the location, those can be easy finds, the reward is the location.

 

Other caches are about the hunt and the satisfaction of solving a puzzle.

 

Not every cache can be in a great location, there needs to be another "dimension". Nobody wants to find yet another bison tube under a lamp post cover in a random parking lot. But if it's a lamp post with a fake nut/bolt, that's a little more fun right? The "Aha!" moment when you grab that nut and it wiggles. If all the "run of the mill" locations for caches were easy finds, what's the reward for those?

 

Edited to add: Of course now that those magnetic bolts are mass produced and are showing up everywhere they're not as much fun as they used to be...

Edited June 23, 2010 by Thornsten

[+Team Cotati]

Some caches it's about the location, those can be easy finds, the reward is the location.

 

Other caches are about the hunt and the satisfaction of solving a puzzle.

 

Not every cache can be in a great location, there needs to be another "dimension". Nobody wants to find yet another bison tube under a lamp post cover in a random parking lot. But if it's a lamp post with a fake nut/bolt, that's a little more fun right? If all the "run of the mill" locations for caches were easy finds, what's the reward for those?

 

"Nobody wants to find yet another bison tube under a lamp post cover in a random parking lot"

 

I think that the statistical facts prove that statement to be untrue.

[+wimseyguy]

I've got all kinds out there. Some hard to get to, some easier. Some hard to find, some easier. Some have minimal redeeming value, one is even called This Cache Sucks. Some have educational content on the cache page if you are interested.

 

The one thing all of my hides have in common is my hope that you smile and have fun searching and finding them.

[+Thornsten]

 

"Nobody wants to find yet another bison tube under a lamp post cover in a random parking lot"

 

I think that the statistical facts prove that statement to be untrue.

 

I don't think that's the case. Just because people hide them and other people find them doesn't mean they're enjoying it. Speaking for myself I don't know it's another carbon copy cache until I get there unless somebody spills the beans in the logs. I still grab it and get the smiley since I'm there, but there's a pretty big sense of disappointment when I realize it's yet another one of the same.

 

What do you find enjoyable about those caches? The parking lots aren't interesting 99.9% of the time (still running at 100% for me, but I'm sure there's at least one interesting bison-tube-under-parking-lot-lamp-post-cover-cache somewhere). There's no challenge in searching for it because you know exactly where it's going to be the moment your GPS homes you in on a lamp post. All the ones I've seen have been log-only, so there's no opportunity to swap treasures. I really don't see what's attractive about these caches except they're easy for the cache owner to place, requiring little forethought or creativity.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

My hides are generally easy ammo boxes because I want families with kids to access the location and enjoy trading. The location is more important to me, 'clever' hides are a distant second.

 

I do have one film can in a pipe in a rock wall, but it's the only size cache I could make work at this very unique location (The South Shall Rise Again).

 

And I have a very hard-to-find film can in the woods outside a cemetery for those who like evil hides, but I tell them in the cache name (Rambler's Evil Micro) what they are getting themselves into.

 

Actually I recently adopted those last two out, so now all my current hides are easy regular-size containers.

[+humboldt flier]

Because for me it is about a unique spot and finding, NOT about Geo-Torture

[+Chokecherry]

Still accessing adequate permission for the hide I want to do. But I plan on not making it particularly difficult. Mostly because I want people to have a quick find so they can enjoy the spot before the bugs get after them. Those who don't read the cache description probably won't get as much enjoyment but those that do would like get a bunch.

[+Mother Wolf]

I have a couple that are at memorials. I note in the cache page where it is so they dont forge around & disturb the area but go for the purpose of the memorial. From there it is the cachers choice if they want to go but at least they wont disturb the sanctity of the location.

[+bittsen]

 

"Nobody wants to find yet another bison tube under a lamp post cover in a random parking lot"

 

I think that the statistical facts prove that statement to be untrue.

 

I don't think that's the case. Just because people hide them and other people find them doesn't mean they're enjoying it. Speaking for myself I don't know it's another carbon copy cache until I get there unless somebody spills the beans in the logs. I still grab it and get the smiley since I'm there, but there's a pretty big sense of disappointment when I realize it's yet another one of the same.

 

What do you find enjoyable about those caches? The parking lots aren't interesting 99.9% of the time (still running at 100% for me, but I'm sure there's at least one interesting bison-tube-under-parking-lot-lamp-post-cover-cache somewhere). There's no challenge in searching for it because you know exactly where it's going to be the moment your GPS homes you in on a lamp post. All the ones I've seen have been log-only, so there's no opportunity to swap treasures. I really don't see what's attractive about these caches except they're easy for the cache owner to place, requiring little forethought or creativity.

 

I was speaking to a geocacher a while back who stated she LOVES to go after parking lot hides.

 

So THERE!!!

[+kunarion]

does anyone else "spoil' their hides? if so why?

I do that. The camo is to discourage muggles, so people passing by ignore it.

 

also for those of you who hide caches like super hard needle in haystack hides, what satisfaction do you get out of it, that you brought someone to a parkinglot, or a nature trail and forced them to scour every inch of your 30ft radius margine of error, looking for a nano?

Actually, I'd have trouble finding my hide styles. So I thought my caches were pretty tough. They're definitely super-easy for most everyone but me.

 

The satisfaction of a nano in a haystack is being one of very few tenacious enough to find it. If I hid one like that, it's a brain game. It would be because it's a very interesting hiding challenge for me, and one I think is original & fun to find, where people enjoy scouring their radii.

[+power69]

 

"Nobody wants to find yet another bison tube under a lamp post cover in a random parking lot"

 

I think that the statistical facts prove that statement to be untrue.

There's no challenge in searching for it because you know exactly where it's going to be the moment your GPS homes you in on a lamp post.

I know of a cache that homes in on a lamp post but its a most interesting hide[its a 4 star difficulty] and was really fun to do. most of this hiders hides are very creative and fun[and fairly hard even when you *think* you know where it is]

[+power69]

does anyone else "spoil' their hides? if so why?

I do that. The camo is to discourage muggles, so people passing by ignore it.

 

also for those of you who hide caches like super hard needle in haystack hides, what satisfaction do you get out of it, that you brought someone to a parkinglot, or a nature trail and forced them to scour every inch of your 30ft radius margine of error, looking for a nano?

Actually, I'd have trouble finding my hide styles. So I thought my caches were pretty tough. They're definitely super-easy for most everyone but me.

 

The satisfaction of a nano in a haystack is being one of very few tenacious enough to find it. If I hid one like that, it's a brain game. It would be because it's a very interesting hiding challenge for me, and one I think is original & fun to find, where people enjoy scouring their radii.

NiH nano's are easy to fetter out with a security wand.

[+geodarts]

Some caches it's about the location, those can be easy finds, the reward is the location.

 

Other caches are about the hunt and the satisfaction of solving a puzzle.

 

Not every cache can be in a great location, there needs to be another "dimension". Nobody wants to find yet another bison tube under a lamp post cover in a random parking lot. But if it's a lamp post with a fake nut/bolt, that's a little more fun right? If all the "run of the mill" locations for caches were easy finds, what's the reward for those?

 

"Nobody wants to find yet another bison tube under a lamp post cover in a random parking lot"

 

I think that the statistical facts prove that statement to be untrue.

 

I would rather find a film canister in a lamp post.

 

But more to the point, I want people to find my caches. Most of them involve some sort of hike, and with all of them there is a reason to bring people to that particular location. Why would I want people to go out of their way for a DNF? The one exception to this is a "Sheriff of Nottingham" cache that I placed as part of a Robin Hood series along the Sherwood Forest fire road. The sheriff was evil, if the songs are true, so the cache had to be in theme.

 

Its not that hard to place a cache that can't be found, particularly a nano. I could do it without much thought. But that is not why I cache.

Edited June 24, 2010 by mulvaney

[+narcissa]

There is a reason that the difficulty can be rated from 1 to 5 stars. There is a level for everyone's taste and/or ability.

 

+1

[+narcissa]

 

I was speaking to a geocacher a while back who stated she LOVES to go after parking lot hides.

 

So THERE!!!

 

Parking lot hides can be fun if you do them with a bunch of other people and treat it kind of like a car rally or something.

[Clan Riffster]

does anyone else "spoil' their hides? if so why?

I don't know that I'd call it spoiling, but my hides tend to follow your example. They are hidden just enough to keep them out of the eyes, (and hands), of muggles. For most of my hides, the journey and destination are key, and the ammo box at the end is just the icing on the cake. I also like to include explicit hints for those who are having trouble.

[+mchaos]

I have once question that will sum it all up....

 

"Do you hide a geocache for people to find, or not to find?"

 

Whats the point of hiding a cache so that no one can find it? I can understand a little challenge, but you want some one to find it.

 

And the hint is there to give some one a helping hand if they can't find it.

 

I typically try to hide things creatively and in interesting or Non saturated area's. For instance I have a container I just made. Its very tricky. it is a piece of cement rubble. Flip it over and it has a lock&lock in it. I basically dug a small hole, poured cement into it, then pressed the container into it. Let it dry then dug it out and rinsed it off. Now I have what looks like building rubble but on the bottom is the container. I am hiding it in a place where there is other cement rubble. There are no caches in the area, that's why I chose the area. I want it to be some what challenging, but I want people to find it. So in the hint I am going to put either just the word "Rubble" Or which I think is better, "One mans rubble is another man's treasure."

 

If people have a hard time finding it, I will change the hint to simply, " Look under pieces of rubble." Because I want people to be able to find it.

 

A geocache should only be very hard for a muggle to find. The hole point of geocaching is to leave something for some one else to find.

 

I understand that every one has their own things they like, but essentially that's what it is.

 

There is challenging, and then there is aggravating.

[ashnikes]

I also leave plenty of hints for cachers in the description because generally my android phone's gps gets me about 9-30ft (depending on tree cover and other factors) from GZ, so I HAVE to put hints on my page, good ones at that, or people will never find my caches because of the margin of error from using a smartphones gps to place it.

 

Im headed out here in a bit to go check up on one that has significant tree cover, and I have had to adjust the coordinantes a few times to get it honed in, people seem to be finding it pretty easy due to my blatant hints, but just to be sure people do not ruin the shrubbery i'm going back one more time with a borrowed gps unit. I WANT people to find this hide, rather than get stared at for half an hour while they frustratingly scour every bush in the area because my coords were 14ft off or their gps units are bouncing around due to tree cover.

[+wimseyguy]

If anyone is complaining about 14' of difference between their GPS readings and your posted coords, they don't get what geocaching is either.

74' maybe, but 14' nah, I'm not buying that.

 

Anything inside 20-25 is perfectly acceptable in most places, and even up to 40' doesn't warrant a fuss IMO.

[ashnikes]

unless its 25ft off and is a nano on an elevated trail or even in a multi story parking garage, and the description gives no good hints.

 

then lots of people will complain

[+roziecakes]

Like I mentioned in another thread, give as much information as you would like. I don't think that people hate easy caches. I think that people just don't like bad cache placements. If it's a good cache, and it follows the guidelines; make it as easy as you want

[+briansnat]

Most of my caches are easy to find. I want people to find them. Also the easier they are to find the less impact searchers will have on the area.

 

When I want to make it challenging I use the terrain.

[+Mbomber33]

There is a reason that the difficulty can be rated from 1 to 5 stars. There is a level for everyone's taste and/or ability.

 

said perfectly. end of discussion. to each their own

Edited June 24, 2010 by Mbomber33

[+BlueDeuce]

There is a reason that the difficulty can be rated from 1 to 5 stars. There is a level for everyone's taste and/or ability.

 

said perfectly. end of discussion. to each their own

 

On a cache of mine I listed "Feel free to read the hint. There's no sense in coming all the way and not find the cache."

 

That still allows to each their own.

[+kunarion]

On a cache of mine I listed "Feel free to read the hint. There's no sense in coming all the way and not find the cache."

If you think everyone will find a cache based on great coords, descriptions, and hints, you have greatly overestimated the ability of some of us. Edited June 25, 2010 by kunarion

[+BlueDeuce]

On a cache of mine I listed "Feel free to read the hint. There's no sense in coming all the way and not find the cache."

If you think everyone will find a cache based on great coords, descriptions, and hints, you have greatly overestimated the ability of some of us.

 

Not real sure what your point is here. This particular cache is worth the walk and visiting the location and finding the cache. I don't have to add anything to it by making it harder. If you want it harder, don't read the hint.

[+kunarion]

On a cache of mine I listed "Feel free to read the hint. There's no sense in coming all the way and not find the cache."

If you think everyone will find a cache based on great coords, descriptions, and hints, you have greatly overestimated the ability of some of us.

 

Not real sure what your point is here.

The OP was wondering why people deliberately make caches "hard to find". But it's all relative. If I can't find it, it's hard to find. I can read the hint, "come all the way" and not find a given container (sure I'll enjoy the view anyway). Perhaps I'd find yours, since it's never had a DNF. But I've been First To DNF several very easy ones, after hints and all. Those cacher owners got no satisfaction from making their hide so diabolical. They thought it was easy, and for most people it is.

 

My point is, if it's hidden it well, it's "hard to find" -- great hints aren't always enough, for some of us.

Edited June 25, 2010 by kunarion

[+BlueDeuce]

On a cache of mine I listed "Feel free to read the hint. There's no sense in coming all the way and not find the cache."

If you think everyone will find a cache based on great coords, descriptions, and hints, you have greatly overestimated the ability of some of us.

 

Not real sure what your point is here.

The OP was wondering why people deliberately make caches "hard to find". But it's all relative. If I can't find it, it's hard to find. I can read the hint, "come all the way" and not find a given container (sure I'll enjoy the view anyway). Perhaps I'd find yours, since it's never had a DNF. But I've been First To DNF several very easy ones, after hints and all. Those cacher owners got no satisfaction from making their hide so diabolical. They thought it was easy, and for most people it is.

 

My point is, if it's hidden it well, it's "hard to find" -- great hints aren't always enough, for some of us.

 

Ah, okay. I getcha. My caches are still about geocaching. If I have to spoil the experience to have people find it, it wouldn't be worth maintaining the location.

[+Nitro Blast]

we haven't hid any yet because we don't have 1,000 finds yet.

 

gotta play by the rules...

 

Oh brother then I am in big trouble..

 

whats this 1K finds before hides stuff???

[+roziecakes]

we haven't hid any yet because we don't have 1,000 finds yet.

 

gotta play by the rules...

 

Oh brother then I am in big trouble..

 

whats this 1K finds before hides stuff???

 

That's silly is what it is... a joke. The truth is, you can hide caches whenever you want; although some folks advise that you have at least 100 finds under your belt.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I have once question that will sum it all up....

 

"Do you hide a geocache for people to find, or not to find?"

 

Whats the point of hiding a cache so that no one can find it? I can understand a little challenge, but you want some one to find it.

 

That questions may sum things up for a forum discussion but in the real world it's not really relevant. There are many shades of grey between an "easy find" and impossible.

 

With a few rare exceptions, I doubt that there are any cache owners that have placed a cache with the intention that it would never be found. Even the Rainbow Hydrothermal Vents cache, placed at the bottom of the ocean using a submarine, has text on the cache description that "it is real and can be found". On the other hand, before the CO became famous for being an astronaut, he wrote fantasy role playing computer games so take his claim with a grain of salt.

 

I don't believe that every cache can, or even should, be findable by anyone. There are hundreds of thousands of caches all over the world that most of use will never have the opportunity to find simply because we'll never have the opportunity to travel to the locations where they are hidden. Caches can range from very easy to find to extremely difficult and fortunately Groundspeak has provide a tool for cache owners to rate that difficult both in terms of the terrain involved to get to the location and the actual difficulty in locating the container. In fact, the rating guidelines (on the Groundspeak knowledge book pages) specifically define some of the criteria that should be used to determine those ratings. For example, for a 3 star difficulty rating: "An experienced cache hunter will find this challenging, and it could take up a good portion of an afternoon." Granted, these ratings are not always accurate but even a 3 star difficulty cache could be significantly more difficult than an "easy find" but still can be found by those willing to put in the effort to do so.

 

I was actually considering starting a thread called "My finds are generally *not* easy because..." but I'll

just state my reasons here.

 

There are already a gazillion caches that are easily found, and in fact specifically placed so that one can quickly get a find and increment their find count. Looking at my own stats, almost 80% of my finds are rated 2 stars or less for difficult, and almost 85% 2 stars or less for terrain. I suspect that if you looked at the stats for most caches the results would be similar.

 

Secondly, I think that caching purely for the numbers and the proliferation of power trails has got out of hand. Placing more park and grabs just encourages geocachers to become numbers hounds and rewards those that are just looking for a quick fix.

 

I know that there *are* a lot of geocachers that enjoy a long hike, a bit of a challenge, and generally a distinctive geocaching experience. There are already, IMHO, too many caches which cater to numbers hounds so if I'm going to add another cache or two to the mix I'm going to place something that those that prefer long or interesting hikes, beautifu/interesting locations, or a bit of challenge are going to like.

[+SeekerOfTheWay]

i like the variety i've found in geocaching so far. i like easy with hard hike, nice views, parking lots, micros, ammo cans, HIPS etc. i don't mind bison tubes in the woods. At least with those i don't have to dig around in the muddy pine needles!

[+BlueDeuce]

i like the variety i've found in geocaching so far. i like easy with hard hike, nice views, parking lots, micros, ammo cans, HIPS etc. i don't mind bison tubes in the woods. At least with those i don't have to dig around in the muddy pine needles!

 

I believe you. Come back in a year and revisit this post when you are as jaded as most of us old-timers.

 

Happy caching!

[viper1986]

I like getting a mix of hides.

Finding an "easy" one out if the middle of the woods laying in the Y of a tree is fun.

 

But i also like getting the hard to find ones that are in a public park with lots of people around. And spend 30mins searching for it.

 

There is a cache here in austin, tx with only a 25% find rate! It will be, DNF DNF, Find, DNF.... FIND FIND DNF... so it IS there... it is just crazy fun!