any good ideas

[+jindi kid]

I am looking to hide a very memorible puzzle or multi cache, so does anyone have any great ideas to help me

[+briansnat]

I don't know how memorable they are, but here are a few that I have that had varying degrees of success.

 

A locked ammo box. I called this my multi terrain cache. It was a short walk from a road, but there were several ways of obtaining the combination. 1. I had 3 Bison cylinders, each with a digit of the combination inside hidden throughout the area as part of the multi cache. A 4 mile hike and they were all yours. 2. I had the combination on a travel bug (or you can have more than one) that was not supposed to leave the county in which the cache was hidden (though it did several times). Find the travel bug and you have the combination 3. I placed a piece of paper with a digit of the combination in other random caches of mine and also in other area caches.

 

Each digit was associated with a letter that was associated with a key written on the bottom of the ammo box so people knew the order the numbers had to be entered for the lock to open.

 

My favorite is one where I found some old postcards from a nearby town dating from the late 1800's to the 1930's. I posted the photos on the cache page and searchers have to wander Main St and find the exact spot where the photo was taken (some are easy because little has changed and some are difficult because so much has changed). When they find the spot, they need to look for a clue that will give them part of the coordinates (e.g. count the benches in the pocket park across the street, how many footprints are in the concrete?, What year was the building in front of you built? How many street lights on the bridge?

 

You can also do something like this using recent photos, but I thought that the old photos added an interesting element.

 

One that didn't work so well for me but you might have better results with was where I hid a cache and about 30 feet away I hid a decoy container. The posted coords were smack in the middle of the two. If searchers found the cache first, they were done. If they found the other container first it contained coordinates for another stage which took them on a 2 mile long, 4 stage multi cache that ended back at the beginning with the advice to look harder.

 

There is a popular multi cache near me where there is a riddle in the first stage. Solve the riddle and you are off on a multi with several stages that take you on a pleasant walk along marked trails. If you have the wrong answer, you are sent on a multi that takes you over nasty, difficult terrain. The difficult terrain doesn't start until you are well on your way, so going back the the beginning and going the other way is not an attractive alternative.

 

But I think the most memorable multis I've done are the ones that involved fairly long hikes (4 to 7 miles) over varied and interesting terrain, with some physical challenges along the way.

Edited December 4, 2010 by briansnat

[Clan Riffster]

Head northwest, into the hills. Find ten mountains, like Mount Matlock, Mount Skene, Mount Useful, etc. At the peak of each mountain, hide a tag with something to the effect of A=1, B=2, etc. Have the coords posted as an alphanumeric on the cache page, like "The cache can be found at S 37° AB.CDE, E 146° FG.HIJ"

[+SSO JOAT]

I have two notebooks full of puzzle cache ideas (no, I won't share any of them). As they come to me, I write them down. Later, I go back and look over these raw ideas looking for something promising to refine further. Some of these eventually make it into production phase and get published. Building a puzzle cache is a work of art and a lot of work. Try scanning over puzzle caches well outside of your geographic area for general ideas, but make your puzzle caches your own.

[+jindi kid]

that postcards cache sounds like fun

[+michigansnorkelers]

This cache is archived, and the photos are gone, but it was A LOT OF FUN!

 

Of course, it was an interesting waterfront town with seafaring murals on the side of some of the buildings.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...76-b16e3a69dab7

[+Ike 13]

The best way to get puzzle ideas is to look at other cities about an hour or more away (this is true for any cache). You'll see ideas that your town may already have, but you'll also see lots of other cool ideas that you can copy/modify or will lead to a unique idea. Charlotte, NC has some really good puzzles that you can look over.

[+Walts Hunting]

To expand on IkeHurley13's idea do a pq of any other area set it for 1000 caches and 100 miles. Select Puzzle and Multi Only. Set the difficulty to 3 or greater and then take a look at them. It helps to have GSAK to dump the query into and check them out.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

The best way to get puzzle ideas is to look at other cities about an hour or more away (this is true for any cache). You'll see ideas that your town may already have, but you'll also see lots of other cool ideas that you can copy/modify or will lead to a unique idea. Charlotte, NC has some really good puzzles that you can look over.

 

Rather than look for puzzle caches only an hour away (my weekly PQ which returns the closes 200 puzzle caches includes many that are over an hour away) I'd just pick a populated city in another part of the country or even in another country to get some real variety for puzzle caches. On the other hand I've done puzzle caches in South Africa, over 8000 miles away, that could have just as easily been something someone created locally. I did a few puzzle caches located in Paris that used techniques similar to what I've seen locally.

[+hzoi]

If you need some inspiration, plan a vacation/road trip outside of your area and go to an area with puzzle or multi caches. See what others are doing and determine whether that works for you.

 

Recommend not just looking for puzzles with Google -- if you can find it on Google, I can solve it just using Google as well.

 

I've got back issues of GAMES Magazine around the house, some I've managed to hang onto for years. I go back to those now and again and mine them for ideas.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

 

Recommend not just looking for puzzles with Google -- if you can find it on Google, I can solve it just using Google as well.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this. I've used Google to search for a puzzle cache by title, but Google was only marginally helpful in solving the puzzle. I don't find using a search engine that helpful for a lot of the puzzle caches I've solved. To use a search engine, you already have to know more or less what you're looking for. The difficulty in solving many puzzle caches often is directly related to discovering what you need to look for.

[+Sol seaker]

I'm planning a new series of puzzle caches.

 

My thought is, How can I contribute something to the community?

 

Take them somewhere they have never been.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...1c-11caecf14a53

 

Show them something highly entertaining (like the tubular series in Seattle http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...84-7f43804462e5 )

 

Or teach them something

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...13-69374d4c2565

 

There are enough people putting out random useless caches that are nothing more than another blip on the screen. What can I create that will bring smiles? How can I Enhance others lives in some way? Add a cache to the community that people will take others to? Do something memorable?

What can I create that others will love and appreciate?

[+GRANPA ALEX]

I am looking to hide a very memorible puzzle or multi cache, so does anyone have any great ideas to help me

 

Someone hid a multi-cache for night cachers that made you be at an exact spot at a certain time/hour (ie: midnight) of night to hear an alarm sound to guide you to the ammo can (enclosed was a digital battery operated clock) from which you got final coords to a nice cache hide nearby . . . it was really a fun one. You had to change the batteries, I guess but it was a kick!

Edited December 9, 2010 by GRANPA ALEX