Category 5 Caches

[Guest clunelaw]

Greetings Fellow Geocachers:

I'm interested in identifing any category 5 caches, particularly any in the NY/NJ/CT area.

All the caches I've visted to date have been hikes. I'm interestd in finding those that might be a bit more technically difficult to reach.

I placed a cache at a site that must be reached by watercraft. Rated it 4 because it's a simple paddle to reach it. Check out No_walk Islands Cache in the key word search to check it out.

I've got an idea for a cache that would require some specailized gear and the ability to use it in order to reach it, but I'm not sure there is interest in this type of placement. Is there?

[Guest CaptHawke]

Cache it and they will come.

[Guest Artful Dodger]

I wonder if people are getting selective in what cache's they seek. Would people be willing to seek a category 5 cache if it held just a few trinkets and dollar-store items?

 

..or maybe the thrill is in the discovery after all.

 

Just a thought....

[Guest Iron Chef]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Artful Dodger:

I wonder if people are getting selective in what cache's they seek. Would people be willing to seek a category 5 cache if it held just a few trinkets and dollar-store items?

 

..or maybe the thrill is in the discovery after all.

 

Just a thought....

---

 

Personally I would love to go on a Cat-5 cache hunt ;~) for me the trinkets are only evidence of my adventures (which of course are exaggerated when told to friends and family [grins]). It would also be interesting to see what some people consider a Cat-5 cache. I've been on some Cat-3 diffs and they have been pretty dadgum hard to get to, much less finding the cache.

 

Back to the subject... True, not as many people are going to visit a Cat-5 as a Cat-2 or Cat-3, but that should be up to them. If someone placed a Cat-5 diff cache in my area I would take it kinda like a challange in that I would then feel the desire to place a cache in a spot similarly difficult to retrieve.

 

Sometimes the journey is the only reward.

 

------------------

-Iron Chef

_ _ _ _____________ _ _ _

agefive.com/geocache/

"But a big booming voice from the sky is exactly what you have found..."

-Contact

[Guest MadGPS]

hts,(sleepovers) to reach so a person can take a week vacation.No phones,electricity,TV's.Only you,food,tent,the unusual mode of transportation and power to run that GPS.A category "5" on the terrain.Then you would have to be the most cunning navigator.At the half way point of the trip you have to find that cache,in the middle of nowhere,cause that cache will be hidden with clues,twists and awful turns,that is going to be mind bogling.Impossible,but doable !!Then back to reality.You'll have to try again next summer Bummer!! Yup!!! I'm working on that.People are going to hunt,fish,nature things in other parts.I don't know why they wouldn't go for this...The Ultimate Cache..a GC"5" cache.Even I can only make that trip once a year.Any others for GC5 cache ??

 

MadGPS

[Guest MadGPS]

hts,(sleepovers) to reach so a person can take a week vacation.No phones,electricity,TV's.Only you,food,tent,the unusual mode of transportation and power to run that GPS.A category "5" on the terrain.Then you would have to be the most cunning navigator.At the half way point of the trip you have to find that cache,in the middle of nowhere,cause that cache will be hidden with clues,twists and awful turns,that is going to be mind bogling.Impossible,but doable !!Then back to reality.You'll have to try again next summer Bummer!! Yup!!! I'm working on that.People are going to hunt,fish,nature things in other parts.I don't know why they wouldn't go for this...The Ultimate Cache..a GC"5" cache.Even I can only make that trip once a year.Any others for GC5 cache ??

 

MadGPS

[Guest clunelaw]

I'll throw the question of what constitutes a cat 5 cache into the discussion. I'm comtemplating something that would be a 5 on the terrain scale based upon the established criteria and probably not that difficult to find since it will have obvious topographic charateristics. But there is no established criteria I've found for the difficulty rating. What would make a cat 5 cache on that part of the rating?

P.S. Iron Chef;visited your web sight. Right on concerning garbage removal, I hauled a bit of garbage out of the No_walk Island Cache, beach clean up of plastic bottles, bottle caps, butts and coffe cup tops. I'd thought of the idea of trying to ask visitors to post what garbage they removed to get an idea if geocahers were in fact improving on the areas they visit. Does anyone do that?

[Guest Iron Chef]

quote:

---

Originally posted by clunelaw:

I'll throw the question of what constitutes a cat 5 cache into the discussion. I'm comtemplating something that would be a 5 on the terrain scale based upon the established criteria and probably not that difficult to find since it will have obvious topographic charateristics. But there is no established criteria I've found for the difficulty rating. What would make a cat 5 cache on that part of the rating?

P.S. Iron Chef;visited your web sight. Right on concerning garbage removal, I hauled a bit of garbage out of the No_walk Island Cache, beach clean up of plastic bottles, bottle caps, butts and coffe cup tops. I'd thought of the idea of trying to ask visitors to post what garbage they removed to get an idea if geocahers were in fact improving on the areas they visit. Does anyone do that?

---

 

Clunelaw, I try to mention in my posts (happy face or otherwise) whether or not I haul out trash. :~)

 

As for what defines a Cat-5 difficulty... I'm not sure either. I don't know about others (and I'd also like to hear other people's ideas about this), but when I decide upon a difficulty rating I take the terrain rating into consideration. I never knew though whether these two ratings should be independed of each other, or linked, or otherwise. I know that Jeremy has on geocaching.com somewhere something that says that a cache that requires special equipment should be rated a 5 terrain (climbing ropes, scuba gear, a small degree of insanity, kayak, etc etc), but other than there there isn't much and it is left up to individual interpretation. Personally I rate my caches a little higher than they probably should be since it is best to be overly optimistic in rating than the other way around. Other opinions guys? Or is there an old thread on this issue?

 

------------------

-Iron Chef

_ _ _ _____________ _ _ _

agefive.com/geocache/

"But a big booming voice from the sky is exactly what you have found..."

-Contact

[Guest Exocet]

To me, a difficulty can be 5 while the terrain is one, if there's enough running around to be done.

 

However, to me, a terrain of 5 means "you need climbing gear." Occasionally it can mean "you need scuba gear." Otherwise, I take the stars to mean as Jeremy has vaguely indicated: the condition of the trail (flat, rocky, steep, no trail?) or terrain.

 

A friend and I have placed a cache out on an island. We used a kayak, but since one isn't required, we rated it 2D/3T: 2D: it's not really that hard to get there, especially if you've got motor power. The cache is pretty easy to find once you're there. 3T: rocky shore, an ankle-twister.

 

Anyway, I think it mostly varies. The stars shouldn't be used in place of a good description of what someone is going to get themselves into, especially if it's a 5-star cache (on a mountain, deep underwater, deep in the desert, etc).

[Guest Scout]

From another thread:

 

My personal system for terrain rating:

1 = handicapped accessible

2 = suitable for small children; generally on trail

3 = off trail; requires some risk of getting scratched, wet, or winded

4 = off trail; likelihood of getting scratched, wet and winded; probably requires special equipment (boat, 4WD, etc.)

5 = requires specialized equipment and knowledge/experience (rock climbing, SCUBA, etc.)

 

Markwell's difficulty rating is a good one:

 

1 - My five year old would stumble across it in his path

2 - A ten year old could probably figure it out without too much difficulty

3 - An average adult would be able to find this in about 30 minutes of hunting

4 - You might have to have some indepth knowledge or experience of the area or history

5 - Mensa or equivalent

[Guest Markwell]

Cool - somebody read my rating system!!! But after seeing some of the caches in this area and searching a bit more, I think I might ammend level 3 difficulty to searching for 60 minutes. But I'm nitpicking.

 

[This message has been edited by Markwell (edited 05 June 2001).]

[Guest kbraband]

pliment!

[Guest PneumaticDeath]

quote:

---

5 = requires specialized equipment and knowledge/experience (rock climbing, SCUBA, etc.)

---

 

I just came across this cache today (just poking around. Drop Dead Gorgeous. Aside from climbing equipment (and a lot of nerve), it would require a 14 hour plane flight (for me anyway), but darn if it isn't interesting.

 

-- Mitch

[Guest Markwell]

There were some revisions in the "Getting Started Forum" for the difficulty ratings:

quote:

---

Markwell's Difficulty Rating System (after two revisions)

1. A ten year old could probably figure it out without too much difficulty

2. An average adult would be able to find this in about 30 minutes of hunting

3. An experienced Geocacher will find this challenging, and it will take up a good portion of an afternoon.

4. An extreme challenge for the experienced Geocacher - may require in-depth preparation or cartography/navigational skills.

5. Mensa or equivalent

---

 

Of course, I use "Mensa or equivalent" tongue in cheek, the idea being that you would have to solve perpetual motion to find the cache, or it could only solved after something akin to the Golden Idol scene at the beginning of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

 

I was just having a discussion with another local cacher about ANY level 5 (either terrain or difficult) caches. Maybe Jeremy will post some links...?

 

Hmmmm...level 5/5, a "Mecca" of Geocachers...

 

[This message has been edited by Markwell (edited 14 June 2001).]

[Guest Markwell]

Actually, I had a little time...

 

Since I live in Illinois, I searched Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, and found these:

 

GC9BB: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2491

GC705: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=1797

GCB80: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2944

GC9E9: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2537

GC828: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2088

GCA2E: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2606

GC882: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2178

 

Happy Caching!

[Guest Markwell]

And my first personal level five cache:

 

GCC9D: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=3229

[Guest clunelaw]

Looks interesting Markwell!

I tried to plant a Cat 5 but poor gps reception thwarted the effort. Rating was based on technical skill required. So I shifted to plan B for the day. The Saxon Woods Ge-"O"-Cache was the result: GCC84 http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=3204. I rated it 3/3.5 but it think it will be a fun idea.

[Guest EraSeek]

Here's one of mine from Washington. The currents can get you in big trouble if you hit it wrong and don't know what you are doing. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2610

[Guest bob_renner]

Someone just placed a cache in AZ that's rated cat 5 for terrain. He used very special equipment to place the cache - a helicopter!

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=3194

 

Bob

[Guest Markwell]

It seems that most of the category 5 caches being listed are for their terrain difficulty, which by default makes them extremely difficult to find (hence the 5/5 ratings). Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

That's why I'm so proud of my cache listed above. My five-year-old accompanied me on the hikes for scoping out the placement, but I would guarantee the neither the casual passerby, nor the avid "mathlete" is going to have an easy time with this cache. (I guess it's my being out of shape that made me want to do this one.) OK - I'm done tooting my own horn. Maybe enough hiking on 3.5 terrains will get me back into shape enough to try the more difficult terrains.

[Guest buddhavista]

ind... That is until the KUDZU sprouted and covered the entire area. It is now a Sea of Waiste deep Green Vines. You need long sticks (or machetes) to wade through the jungle. Its the last few feet, hunting for the cache that is the worst! It makes for a great challenge.

 

Check it out:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2101

[Guest brucebridges]

We are going whitewater rafting in July and I plan to place a cache. This would be a cat 5 but I'm trying to decide where on the trip I should place it. do I want to pull over in a more slow area or really make it difficult and make the hunter scramble in a fast current? I think if somebody goes to the trouble of rafting to find this, I'll give them the chance to paddle upstream if they overshoot.

 

I also plan to tie the cache to something for the flood season.

 

We plan to make this a really cool collection of stuff and worthwhile to the finder.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks

bb

[Guest clunelaw]

bb:

I placed a cache on an island in a river called "gorge"ous cache. The rapids on either side of the island are class 3+. In low water the river a hiker can ford the river in waist deep water, in high water a strong hiker would be swept away. The cache is also approachable from downstream via a swim in the pool below the pitch. One thing that I considered in placing the cache was finding a spot above the high water mark. Additionally, I built up a cairn of large rocks to protect the cache from being swept away. If I were to place a cache within a rapid I'd be looking for an eddy so that the boats have an opportunity to safely stop and search, that is be in a position to take hands off the paddle and the focus off the river and put them on the GPS. Also I'd give consideration to a seekers opportunity to watch the coordinates while paddling. If the rivers too wild the seekers may be downriver before they get a chance to find out they are in the hunt area. Consider the shoreline topography. If you want it reachable only by boat I'd look for a canyon/gorge feature on the riversides. Might be cool to find a slow water section below a technically difficult rapid so that boaters would need to have negoatiated that rapid (and perhaps others along the way) in order to reach the hunt area. The harder the rapids the fewer the number of seekers that will have the skill level to attempt it.

Good luck, sounds like fun.

clunelaw

http://www.geocities.com/team_bear

[Guest brucebridges]

Thanks Clunelaw,

 

All are good suggestions. I guess if somebody goes to the trouble of rafting through rapids, they need to be able to relax a little while they get their bearing.

 

I will also keep in mind the suggestions about waterline, rocks as anchors etc.

 

This will be fun!

 

Thanks

bb

[Guest CrotalusRex]

Hi folks,

 

If you are looking for a challenge--both mentally and physically--check out The Smoky Mountain Exterme Team's newest cachehunt--the Sweaty old Sow-pig 'Rootin for Grubs (GCD20) .

The only specialized equipment required is a good pair of hiking boots, canoe or kayak and a few days of time--this may be a long one for the beginning cachehunter but the expert may finish it in a day.

We hope it will be a grand challenge for all interested cachehunters and that hopefully it will start a new "age' of interpretive cachehunts! What do we mean by interpretive---along the way the hunter will decipher clues that will build together to reveal the next location. These clues are located in places of significant beauty and knowledge. Once the cache seeker reachs these places he/she will be asked (via a booklet picked up from the first stage of the cache-hunt--and yes, you get to keep the booklet as a memento) to decode the next set of coodrs form the immediate surroundings. The surroundings are a cornucopia of natural and cultural history in the form of scenery, wildlife and written text.

It is our goal to not only provide a fun and memorable cachehunting experience but also to teach our like-minded geocaching friends out there just a bit more about what they are seeing around them as they travel to and from the cache.

We hope this cache will serve to impart some of our knowledge and love of the natural environment to the cachehunter thus developing a deeper love and respect for the wilds of the earth and mysteries of nature

 

--CrotalusRex and Canis Rufus (T.S.M.Ex.T)