Whats it all about

[scooby666]

I am ater a general opinion on this, and would welcome all answers. I am thinking of setting a trail of ''troublesome caches'' the kind you dont just walk to and find. You may have to search the GZ for a cache that is really well disguised. Would you enjoy this or is it a really bad idea ?

[+Delta68]

Thumbs down from me!

 

If we're doing a trail it's nice to actually find the caches.

Spending ages looking for them is just tedious.

 

Edited to add:

If it is a trail with a lot of caches it will attract a lot of cachers and the area near each cache will get destroyed very quickly!

 

Mark

Edited September 6, 2010 by Delta68

[+Amberel]

I am ater a general opinion on this, and would welcome all answers. I am thinking of setting a trail of ''troublesome caches'' the kind you dont just walk to and find. You may have to search the GZ for a cache that is really well disguised. Would you enjoy this or is it a really bad idea ?

Thumbs up from me . But Mark's point about wear and tear is pertinent - the environs of difficult caches can get very worn, I had to archive one cache for just this reason. Bear this in mind during placement and, when they go live, monitor the situation carefully.

 

Rgds, Andy

Edited September 6, 2010 by Amberel

[+MartyBartfast]

Go for it I say.

 

I was recently in Northern Ireland and found several caches like you're proposing that were part of a trail, and they were a joy to do. I also attended an event while over there and several people recommended them to me so they were well received by the locals too.

 

If you do it I would suggest that you consider how long it will take for cachers to find them, then make sure that the series is either do-able in one visit, or else can easily be broken down into a couple of separate visits.

 

You should bear in mind what Delta68 said, and avoid spots that will develop an obvious cachers trail, otherwise that will give the game away.

 

Avoid placing them in sensitive spots that could be trashed by cachers hunting far and wide, trampling the undergrowth, and lifting every log or stone.

 

Also if they're going to be tricky to find then you have to find the right level of hint. My feeling is you should give a hint, but nothing too easy, maybe something slightly cryptic would fit with your theme.

 

Make it clear on the cache page that these will require more effort than the norm, then those who are after a quick find could give them a miss.

[+The Chaos Crew]

With a trail, the focus for us is to have a nice walk, and the caches are basically just an incentive for the kids to walk further than they otherwise would. In this instance, we wouldn’t want evil hides, as that tends to frustrate the little ones.

 

As an individual cache, however, especially without the kids in tow, I quite enjoy the occasional tricky one, but I’d like to know that it was a difficult one before I set out to look for it, so I know how much time it’s likely to take me, etc.

 

So as long as you set your difficulty stars appropriately, I don’t think it would be a no no.

[+Dorsetgal & GeoDog]

I'd say, go ahead and do it, there is plenty of room for diversity ... unless of course you are thinking of hiding micros in the woods, in which case, I'd say it's been done before and is remarkably tedious!

[team tisri]

I am ater a general opinion on this, and would welcome all answers. I am thinking of setting a trail of ''troublesome caches'' the kind you dont just walk to and find. You may have to search the GZ for a cache that is really well disguised. Would you enjoy this or is it a really bad idea ?

 

Lots of good points so far.

 

A trail of many caches is good for a nice walk and for getting the numbers up, but can be very frustrating if the caches are too difficult to find. If the caches are hard to find because they are film pots in ivy covered trees in a forest full of ivy covered trees you'll probably get a lot of negative comments.

 

A couple of circuits I recently did - the Ockham Common series (starting at http://coord.info/GC1V9PH) was about 2 miles and took in 10 caches plus a couple of unrelated ones. It was a nice walk through a mostly wooded area, a few interesting buildings along the way, and a short enough walk that if I'd missed some it's not like I have to walk for miles to resume the trail. The Wisley Wander series (starting at http://coord.info/GC1Z589) was longer (more like 5-6 miles including the odd detours to find unrelated nearby caches) but also has several possible places to start it, so again if someone picked off a few but then wanted to return there are options that don't involve parking at the beginning and walking several miles to the first unfound one.

 

For myself geocaching is as much about the places I get to see as hunting for the cache at GZ so although I welcome a cache that's less obvious than spotting the huge strips of bark conveniently arranged against a fallen tree my preference isn't for loops of caches where each one is going to take me hours of searching to find. That said I'm sure there are others who would just love such a challenge.

 

Although I'm not personally a fan of the kind of caches that will take an inordinate amount of searching I would just say that if you do place such a cache, make it an interesting location. I have spent over an hour hunting a box in a delightful woodland and enjoyed the hunt because of the location. If the location is dull an extended search, to me at least, feels ever-more like an exercise in futility.

[team tisri]

You should bear in mind what Delta68 said, and avoid spots that will develop an obvious cachers trail, otherwise that will give the game away.

 

It's also worth considering the trails all year around. I remember hunting a cache in the snow and very soon realising that anyone following me would be able to walk right to the cache by simply looking at the area with entirely flattened snow. Or at least they would have found where I'd searched, since I couldn't find the cache under the snow.

 

If it's a fiendish hide be aware of seasonal changes, such as tall bracken, nettles, snow, fallen leaves etc. One cache I attempted months back warned of nettles, and they weren't kidding! I got within about 20 feet and gave up because I was wearing shorts and the nettles were up to my chest.

[The Hearse]

Bear in mind that Geocaching is about using a GPS and real challenges in this vein are in desperately short supply. If this is what you had in mind then crack on. On the other hand, I think we have more than enough caches where the difficult part starts when the GPS is put away and a considerable proportion of these involve scrubbing through ivy or stones. Much good advice has been given and may I add some more. Remember the seasons. A difficult cache set in winter becomes very easy in summer if trampled vegetation and grass gives the location away. Similarly, a well hidden cache in summer may become very obvious when the vegetation dies back. The challenge I offer to you is when setting a difficult cache, use an average size container. It is all too easy to set an impossible cache with a micro or nano. When it comes to the hint, the rule of thunb to which my team works is to knock two off the total score. We also seriously reconsider a cache with a toal score of more than seven. A very specific reason is needed to set a cache that requires extensive planning to get to and then be very diffcult to find once the bagger has arrived at the site. Lastly check DNF log entries very carefully. If you set a diffcult cache you need to be meticulous in your description because how the cache looks to you when you set it may appear very different to the finder and the DNF logs will assist you ensure that it was the finder and not you at fault... that is once you have read through the frustrations that DNFs generate.

[+Amberel]

If the caches are hard to find because they are film pots in ivy covered trees in a forest full of ivy covered trees you'll probably get a lot of negative comments.

Agreed, but the OP did say "You may have to search the GZ for a cache that is really well disguised". I took this to mean cleverly or subtly hidden, rather than simply requiring a repetitive fingertip search.

 

For the record, while I would welcome a circuit of tricky but subtle hides, I would ignore a circuit consisting of micros in ivy, or stuck behind fence palings, or in a sea of rocks.

 

Rgds, Andy

Edited September 6, 2010 by Amberel

[scooby666]

If the caches are hard to find because they are film pots in ivy covered trees in a forest full of ivy covered trees you'll probably get a lot of negative comments.

Agreed, but the OP did say "You may have to search the GZ for a cache that is really well disguised". I took this to mean cleverly or subtly hidden, rather than simply requiring a repetitive fingertip search.

 

For the record, while I would welcome a circuit of tricky but subtle hides, I would ignore a circuit consisting of micros in ivy, or stuck behind fence palings, or in a sea of rocks.

 

Rgds, Andy

Thanks Andy, your the only one that caught on to the ''disguised. Thats just what I mean. eg 'in' stones and other odd things. Thanks again and happy caching

[+currykev]

For me the perfect example of challenging, yet subtle hides, you cannot do better than walking the Toby's Lane series. (GC2C8VP) should get you there.

Quality hunting indeed.

[+L8HNB]

scooby666, you could place one in an existing circuit and see how it was received by comparing the comments in your log with the others surrounding it. If it catches on then others can be added, as far as I know there is no etiquette to stop you doing this other than the minimum cache spacing specified by GC.

 

Personally we enjoy a challenge, and look forward to something a bit out of the ordinary. The mind numbing repetition of a series of similar/identical hides is usually pretty tedious, especially if its a so-so walk near busy roads, uninteresting area, etc.

 

Good luck. H.

[team tisri]

If the caches are hard to find because they are film pots in ivy covered trees in a forest full of ivy covered trees you'll probably get a lot of negative comments.

Agreed, but the OP did say "You may have to search the GZ for a cache that is really well disguised". I took this to mean cleverly or subtly hidden, rather than simply requiring a repetitive fingertip search.

 

For the record, while I would welcome a circuit of tricky but subtle hides, I would ignore a circuit consisting of micros in ivy, or stuck behind fence palings, or in a sea of rocks.

 

Rgds, Andy

 

True, although "really well disguised" could also potentially mean one of those fake stone caches hidden among a sea of stones. I did one of those in Pennsylvania last year, titled "One of these is not like the others". It was entertaining, then frustrating, then I found it. A series of them is exactly the kind of thing I, like you, would probably ignore.

 

I agree with L8HNB - adding a single such cache in the midst of (or very near to) an existing circuit would give a good feel for how well it would be received without the effort of placing a whole new series. You could then look to have your series intersecting someone else's series too, if you wanted to.

[+burtsbodgers]

Hi we really like doing challenging caches and try and search out series that are fun to do, one series we nearly completed, we spent 3 hours an 10 minutes walking and 3 hours 50 minutes searching.This is still one of the best series we have done.

If you decide to do a series like this though, use a sense of humour as this makes the eventual find better.

here are some series which i would heartily recommend.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...8f-2cd2abdf3a91

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...07-3a363b6fa0aa

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...53-e9ec8c78f9ce

 

Have a look, and if you try them have fun.

[+Palujia]

We recently did the Marham Fen series in Kings Lynn Norfolk. A really nice walk and a really well thought out and cunning hides - even though they were all 35mm film pots. It was pouring with rain and the hides were about 1/2 mile apart in a circular route. We did not mind the rain after finding the first cache as we were looking forward to solving the next one and even though one was the proverbial large ivy covered tree and took a really hard look to find the container "clipped" into the ivy (with a plastic ivy leaf stuck to the container)The co-ordinates were so good that you really were a foot from the container when the GPS said so. If you keep the interest up and don't put the caches too far apart, and like others have said make sure the track can be done in a reasonable time (or broken up into easy bits) Make sure the hides are really good, and the clues relevant I would say go for it !!

[+Alibags]

I've just done once such series in Buckinghamshire. Tony's Lane is a series of 11 caches each of which is beautifully hidden and it a real challenge/pleasure to find.