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Your Creative Ways To Finding A Geocache Around Muggles


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As usual when needing to know suggestions about geocaching I go to the experts, other geocachers.

 

I have been asked several times recently for ideas about how to find geocaches in a muggle prone area.

 

I have personally used a clipboard, reflective worker vest and hard hat in the past but what I want to know is your suggestions. Granted there is always the come back later approach but for the ones you really must find and to look as inconspicuous as possible situations.. how would you make the find?

 

If you would like your alias stated in the video please note it in your post. Otherwise I will assume you would rather not.

 

As usual, thanks in advance for all your ideas!

 

-HHH :D

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If I don't see the cache right away, I'll stop and play with my phone, like I'm sending a text but will really be looking for the cache with my eyes. Sometimes my son & I will take a picture (if it's a scenic area) while my wife looks. That way people see us and don't really notice her, or some variation of that. Once we find the cache, we'll just grab it.

 

There's ways to do it so you don't look so obvious, but I find that if you act like you belong, you'll be less noticed than if you "skulk" around.

 

If someone is right near the cache we'll usually walk up and say hi and then say "We're doing a scavenger hunt. Don't mind us while we look around." If we find it, we'll usually show it to them so they know what it was we found and then tell them that they might see others people come by too.

Edited by Skippermark
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Well, you can always use:

 

1. Tying your shoes over and over again.

2. Use the GPS as a cell phone.

3. Drop your keys.

4. Work on your bike at GZ while looking.

5. If a bench or retaining wall is nearby, sit and read the paper/book/anything.

6. Ignore the muggles and just keep looking - just don't pull the cache out if you find it until you are "muggle safe".

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If Im by myself, I just set up traffic cones and rope off the area, or I'll send my six year old in and find it.

 

Don't forget to use official looking yellow tape and put up a sign saying "Geocache search in progress. Do not Disturb." It always works for me. Its probably better than having people wonder why you are talking into a gpsr or can't seem to tie your shoe the right way (I could legitimately use this technique).

 

Blending in with the locals is always a tried and true approach. When we did a little caching around Forks, WA, I forgot to bring the yellow tape so I pretended to be a fan of Eclipse but really could not pull that one off. But if you wear a Dodgers uniform searching for a cache near AT&T park in SF, you are likely to be more noticed than if you are just another Giants fan rummaging through the bush.

 

The other guaranteed technique, of course, is panhandling and talking to yourself. Although a deputy sheriff once told me that he had great success in clearing out a swimming hole by waving his gun about and acting kind of crazy, so that might work, too. I don't have the necessary equipment so I cannot vouch for it.

 

Since no one would believe me if I tried the clipboard routine, I often settle for looking like kind of an old guy, wearing glasses, and dressed in some kind of casual pants and a non-descript shirt. But I probably should cut my hair a bit to really make that work.

 

So when it comes right down to it, I disguise myself as a geocacher. Sometimes this involves walking around in circles, poking into things, muttering to myself, staring at gadgets with a blank look, causing squeaky noises when lifting a lamp skirt, fumbling with a pen or using some bit of grass to write on a tiny piece of paper. So it uses many of the specific techniques described above and occasionally you can meet some nice people (if anybody asks, I believe honesty is the best policy).

 

The downside, is that when I do that, my daughter usually slinks off to a far corner of the area so I cannot get her to go in and find anything.

Edited by mulvaney
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As long as you are not looking over your shoulder, most people wont pay any attention to you. We did a pretty big hike along a popular trail last weekend, out of the 20 or so groups of people that passed by us while we were in the middle of searches, only 1 person said anything to us, and it was along the lines of "You guys looking for lizards and snakes??" I said "Yup, or anything else we can find" and he just kept walking. All the other people to my knowledge never bothered to look twice.

 

Urban settings however, as long as I don't have to kneel down, I just search with confidence. Again most people wont look twice if you're just looking hard for something. But you start to draw attention if you're looking over your shoulder, or pacing very slowly looking looking around confused, or kneeling down a lot. If something is down low, I MAY drop something and give it a quick look.

 

Now all we need is the anti-stealth crowd to come in here talking about how if you have to look stealthy then the cache, and cache owner should be crucified. :D

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(removed by moderator)

 

The nice thing about living in a large metropolitan area is that people are so busy with their own lives they hardly pay attention to what others are doing. So I really dont have to do anything.

yeah. most people don't care about why a particular stop sign is so interesting to sooooo many people :D

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My favorite muggle manoever was at a cache at a very scenic spot on the shores of Lake Tahoe. There was a muggle just kind of standing around looking at the views close to ground zero. My brother and mother were with me at the time so we planned a team assault. I first located the container, just under and behind a stone bench. I sat down on the bench while my mother went over to the muggle and asked him "Do you know where Emerald bay is from here (pointing in the general direction)?" When he turned to point across the lake I grabbed the container, then passed it behind my back to my brother, who then walked away from GZ with it. Then my mother sat down on the bench and after signing the log we discreetly handed it back to her and she replaced it when the muggle wasn't looking.

 

I think that was the cache that sold my brother on geocaching as he bought a GPS a couple of month later and now has almost 500 finds.

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I do most of my caching along bike or hiking trails and in cemeteries so usually I don't have many problems with muggles. If I do have someone see me and ask me what I'm doing, I tell them I'm looking for saplings suitable to make into walking sticks and that seems to satisfy their curiosity. I have also found that a good share of muggles aren't real observant, I usually wear earth colors when caching and just freeze when someone goes buy. I've had hikers and bikers go by when I've been 15 or 20 feet into the brush and if they did see me they didn't give any indication that they did.

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We take the dog. Any sniffing around could easily be just a dog looking for a spot worthy of marking. Also we can whip out the little green bag and act like we're cleaning up one of his art projects.

 

He's also very good at cache spotting or maybe cache sniffing. More than once I was looking for a cache and he poked it with his nose kind of like, "say are you looking for this thing right here that smells like maybe 100 people have touched it?"

 

very helpful really

 

superpuppy.jpg

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(removed by moderator)

 

The nice thing about living in a large metropolitan area is that people are so busy with their own lives they hardly pay attention to what others are doing. So I really dont have to do anything.

yeah. most people don't care about why a particular stop sign is so interesting to sooooo many people :D

 

Actually I have a huge 4000+ acre park like a mile away from me. And yes I do live in a major Metropolitan area. I recently placed my first cache which was an ammo box in that park. We actually have a lot of nice places here to hide caches. I just wish people would get creative, and not just hide micros.

 

Back to the original discussion though if ever questioned by someone I would just tell them what I am doing. I have done that once, and the person just left my Fiancee and I alone.

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I try to make my 'creative ways' fit the circumstances!

 

Cemetery Caches - I grab the clipboard and am doing geneology research for an out of town friend, any common name will do. If they see the GPS I tell them that we're now using them to mark gravestone locations rather than plot and marker numbers!

 

I've been a light pole inspector, been employed as a sub-contractor doing sign inspections and electrical box inventories. I count tadpoles in small streams as part of my work with fresh water surveys.... :D

 

And the camera makes a great cover for a lot of things. I employ it for some really wonderful things. I can be taking pictures of leaves, bugs, even guardrails can make for an interesting picture if I want them to be.

 

One time a caching partner and I were at a boat launch. It became readily apparent that the couple trying to launch their boat were going to take just about forever (that's another story in itself). We wandered around, figured out where GZ should be. The only logical place to hide a small cache was under a big rock. I sat on the rock, partner backed up to take a pic of me, used the zoom to locate the cache (right beside my left foot). I dropped my water bottle, snagged the cache. End of problem. We were leaving and they were still trying to back the dang boat trailer into the water.

 

The only time my 'disguise' didn't work was when a fellow cacher happened upon me trying to look nonchalant at a small bridge. I was waiting for a jogger to pass and the car to go down the road. I was kinda startled by him hollering 'Found it yet??'... :D

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I do most of my caching along bike or hiking trails and in cemeteries so usually I don't have many problems with muggles. If I do have someone see me and ask me what I'm doing, I tell them I'm looking for saplings suitable to make into walking sticks and that seems to satisfy their curiosity. I have also found that a good share of muggles aren't real observant, I usually wear earth colors when caching and just freeze when someone goes buy. I've had hikers and bikers go by when I've been 15 or 20 feet into the brush and if they did see me they didn't give any indication that they did.

If you are in the bush just off a trail, ya, just sit still and quiet while the muggles go by. Works every time.

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Look for it anyways and if people ask what I am doing say my 'sister' lost her phone around this bench and I am trying to look for it. (Lol I don't even have a sister)

 

Drop something, pretend look for it.

 

Take advantage of my young looks. A bored tomboy climbing up a tree in public isn't too uncommon.

 

Prevent muggles in the first place- who goes places on a rainy day/early morning/nighttime?

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We take the dog. Any sniffing around could easily be just a dog looking for a spot worthy of marking. Also we can whip out the little green bag and act like we're cleaning up one of his art projects.

 

He's also very good at cache spotting or maybe cache sniffing. More than once I was looking for a cache and he poked it with his nose kind of like, "say are you looking for this thing right here that smells like maybe 100 people have touched it?"

 

very helpful really

 

superpuppy.jpg

 

So wile every one is watching the flying dog you go in for the cache sweet :ph34r:

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