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Tell us about your first hide!


Pezdude

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I’ve seen a lot of threads where people are discussing their very first Geocache finds, but what about your first hide?

 

Was is something you put a lot time and effort into?

 

Did you stick with a traditional cache, or did you jump right to a unique cache type?

 

Is it a hide you are still proud of?

 

Or would you like to forget about your ‘First Hide Sins?’

 

Is it still there? Or has it been long since archived.

 

I would love to hear your stories!

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GOALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!! (GC57D04)

 

27 finds. A simple magnetic micro placed in a local park that has sporting sculptures dotted around and a nice area for the kids to play in.

 

Placed as a learning curve for me, and to commemorative the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, not England's exploits.

 

Have since placed 2 others a church micro and a premium members only cache.

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My first hide? A bit over ten years ago. Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotteburg Ammo can hidden in the NWCDC (Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Commission.) Hiking Permit required. A bit over a mile in, and about 230' climb, from the parking. Great views over the Charlotteburg Reservoir. 53 finds, which isn't bad. Still in great shape ten years later! (Yes. I did check on it five years ago...) Still going strong!

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Peter Rabbit's Stash

 

I did put alot of effort into it and it was a multi, which I personally hate. (I hate other people's multis, not my own.)

 

Yes, I'm proud of it. It's got lots of favorite points. It's not found too often, but maybe this is why it's lasted so long. If it was a traditional, it would have been muggled by now.

 

Funny thing, when I was preparing to hide it, a local cacher told me our area was saturated and there was very little space left. 60+ caches later.... :lol:

 

Also humorous, one of the first cachers who found it told me it was a bold hide (hinting that he didn't think it would last). 3 1/2 years later.... :P

Edited by The_Incredibles_
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A Stroll Along Longfields

 

Put out just over 2 years ago.

 

It was initially a camo taped scuba tank bison in a tree next to the sidewalk.

It grew legs and walked a few months after it was placed.

Replaced it with a camo taped match stick container and it's been there ever since (famous last words).

 

129 finds and 1 favorite point to date.

 

It's the complete opposite to my latest hide, which is a night cache requiring a 3 KM round trip hike through a swamp (48 finds, 17 Favorite points).

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20th Anniversary was a traditional cache with custom camouflage. I put a fair bit of effort into the camouflage, and received a number of favorable comments. IIRC, it was on a number of "Favorites" bookmark lists back when it was active. (This was before Favorites Points.)

 

My one regret is that I didn't anticipate the abuse the location would take from skateboarders when I was designing the camouflage and its attachment mechanism(s). Although even if the cache hadn't been dislodged, the skateboarders eventually destroyed the structure (and its replacement structure), so the cache wouldn't have survived anyway.

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I placed Bastille by the Bay shortly after I took up this game in earnest. Location was the thing that was most important to me - it still is - and this spot offered a little known cove, a rocky point, and a view of the local Bastille where I often find myself on account of my work. Due to a change of the landscape, I had to move the location and container, but the spot remains one of my favorite places where I have placed something.

 

In those days, most of us in my local area cached for the location and from there I began to identify other places where I would want to take someone.

Edited by geodarts
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I placed Boggy Creek Bonanza, a two stage multi, over 12 years ago. The area near the first stage has changed since 2002 so i had to move it to a different nearby hiding place a few years ago. The final however, is still in it's original hiding spot and consists of the original container holding the original logbook. Being that it's in the woods, it doesn't get found all that often. ;)

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A traditional, D1/T1.5. I built a cover, a hollowed out log (hint...) around a small lock'n'lock.

 

Someday someone took the cover away! The cache box was placed in the near tree, openly visible. Still wonder, why. It even wasn't used for something other. After some months my wife accidentally found the cover partly destroyed few hundred meters away.

 

I rebuilt the cover and placed it in the same spot. Still lasts, cache exists now since June 2012, 147 finds so far, 5 fav points.

 

It leads the cacher through a small path, surprisingly offering a nice view over a (very very small) valley. A lot of locals stated that they never knew such a place existed here. There is a resting bench and a nearby restaurant. I put a 10 EUR voucher for that restaurant as a FTF prize and the FTF described his experience on a warm summer evening seeing dancing fireflies and getting a drink afterwards for the voucher.

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GC2WRJ3 placed in the mountains I love and lived near for several years. It requires multi-pitch rock climbing to attain. I actually got a proximity exception for it to be there, showing my geocaching green-ness. It sat unfound for nearly three years, until I invited a cacher friend to climb back up and check on it with me. Yep, still there, and in pristine condition(and now with 100% Favorite Points!laughing.gif). I suspect it may go another 3 years before its next find, although rumor has it one of the areas climber/cachers is moving back, so maybe it'll see a find sooner? When it does get found, I'm sure there will be a nice story to accompany the log.
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Carmel Clay Parks Multi-cache was my first hide and was initially a 10 stage multi that had cachers go to all of the parks that my city operated and maintained. Two more parks opened and 1 was taken over from another entity so I added them as well, bringing it up to 13 stages. Only 17 finds through almost 4 years and the only trouble I had was one stage that kept getting washed away (or at least moved by the water since I found it 3 out of the 4 times the area flooded). I was told not to expect many visitors for a multi that long and sure enough, that's the case. It averages about 4 finds a year, but that's just fine with me. With the exception of one hide, none of them are meant to be overly difficult and it finishes up with an ammo can.
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My first hide? A bit over ten years ago. Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotteburg Ammo can hidden in the NWCDC (Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Commission.) Hiking Permit required. A bit over a mile in, and about 230' climb, from the parking. Great views over the Charlotteburg Reservoir. 53 finds, which isn't bad. Still in great shape ten years later! (Yes. I did check on it five years ago...) Still going strong!

I miss living in NJ. Sometimes. I moved away in Dec. of 2000 and have only been back since I've been caching two times. I need to get back there and visit some friends I haven't seen in a few years now.

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WarNinja's Green with Envy GC2ZV2M. This was the first spot we thought of as we used to hike down there when PinkNinja was a small kid. Well the path was over grown. So we dropped it off as far as we could get to. Didn't realize there was so much poison oak there. We upped the T/D and others have needed that. We have thought about moving it out of the poison oak but that would change the D/T so it stays there. 29 finds and 2 favorites. Not our best hide but we still like it.

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I’ve seen a lot of threads where people are discussing their very first Geocache finds, but what about your first hide?

 

Was is something you put a lot time and effort into?

I spent a lot of time working on what to put in on the profile and about a week end on the container / "camo"

 

Did you stick with a traditional cache, or did you jump right to a unique cache type?

 

It's not 100% unique but it surely isn't a nano / Tupperware in a bush or a LampPost.

 

Is it a hide you are still proud of?

 

Yes very much.

 

Or would you like to forget about your ‘First Hide Sins?’

 

I waited until I got a good feeling of what I like after visiting 100+ caches.

I would like to make another one just like it somewhere else.

 

Is it still there? Or has it been long since archived.

 

Still there? Yep! and it will be unless I no long have access to the property. I even have planed solutions to potential mugglings.

 

I would love to hear your stories!

 

I don't want to post pictures because it will give away the fun. Though it isn't hard by any stretch. I had seen a few of these and really liked them. Of corse I have to take mine to the next level

Edited by mrreet
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I had to chuckle when I looked back to my first cache. It was a LPC, back before every cache in an urban area was a LPC. Near a bench and a nice pond that often held ducks and geese, this was a nice little spot to take people who would otherwise never find it. That much I can still say I'm proud of.

 

Now that so many caches like that hide are frowned upon, I wish I would have remade it in another way as to keep it hidden in plain sight in that urban location. But, for what it was, when it was placed, it was a good, safe hide in a nice little park.

 

Edit to add:

It was a short walk from my house (less than 1/2 mi), meaning maintenance was easy. I actually went by about once a week just to enjoy seeing the log entries. Even though it was an altoids tin, it still had actual log entries...and not just the date and geo-nickname.

Edited by NeverSummer
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My first hide is "RIP Pine Grove" GC5E53 hid on 5-26-02 along with fellow cacher Oddlotter. It is located about 9 mile up dirt roads in the hills near Yerrington NV.

 

It has 129 finds and 24 Favorites. Interesting 31 of the finds are this year. It has a number of nice logs and is still one of my favorite caches after over 12 years. :D

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This is an interesting thread as we are just looking at placing our first hide now that we crossed the "100 Find" line. In 100 finds, we've already identified some CO's that we blacklisted because they think that creating dozens of caches by tossing a camouflaged film canister into a blackberry bush makes for a fun find. We've decided that if we want to put something down, we want to do it up right.

 

The three of us sat around a kitchen table a couple of days ago with pens and paper and started working out how to make something fun and engaging for finders. Since then, we've been spending a considerable amount of time looking at maps to determine a good placement that both matches the container concept and isn't wedged in between a dozen other caches.

 

We're probably overthinking it, but our thought is that we may only put out a couple of caches total (ever) and we might as well make them something memorable.

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This is an interesting thread as we are just looking at placing our first hide now that we crossed the "100 Find" line. In 100 finds, we've already identified some CO's that we blacklisted because they think that creating dozens of caches by tossing a camouflaged film canister into a blackberry bush makes for a fun find. We've decided that if we want to put something down, we want to do it up right.

 

The three of us sat around a kitchen table a couple of days ago with pens and paper and started working out how to make something fun and engaging for finders. Since then, we've been spending a considerable amount of time looking at maps to determine a good placement that both matches the container concept and isn't wedged in between a dozen other caches.

 

We're probably overthinking it, but our thought is that we may only put out a couple of caches total (ever) and we might as well make them something memorable.

Thank you. There is hope !

Have fun and cache safe.

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Was is something you put a lot time and effort into?

My first cache was "Nona the Kananaskis Kamping Kat, hidden almost nine years ago. I wouldn't say I put a lot of time into it, but there was some effort involved to incorporate a number of things.

 

- A friend of mine had noticed the survey marker while we were out walking and had mentioned "Hey, it would be neat if you could somehow work that into a cache idea."

 

- The spelling with a K thing was an inside joke at the time. Some friends owned a fifth-wheel trailer manufactured by Komfort so whenever we were with them we would always joke "Your place is comfortable -- spelled with a K, of course."

 

- I wanted to honor our cherished family pet, who has passed away since the cache was first placed.

 

- When I first discovered the spot that became the final location, I *knew* I wanted to hide a cache there. All those ideas came together into my first hide.

 

Did you stick with a traditional cache, or did you jump right to a unique cache type?

I went for a Multi as my first hide. I wanted something a little more unique than a Traditional.

 

Is it a hide you are still proud of?

Yep, indeed. It's not a particularly great cache (only 9% Favorites) but I take pride in that it is in a nice location and has been going for almost a decade. It's one of my caches that I would certainly make an extra effort to replace if it were to go missing.

 

Or would you like to forget about your ‘First Hide Sins?’

My First Hide Sin was the original container was a coffee can wrapped in a plastic garbage bag. In fairness, wrapping caches in garbage bags was a very common practice around here at the time so I was only parroting what I had seen others do. I replaced it with an ammo can the following Spring.

 

Is it still there? Or has it been long since archived.

Yep, 81 Finds (and 3 DNFs) later it is still there.

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My first hide is "RIP Pine Grove" GC5E53 hid on 5-26-02 along with fellow cacher Oddlotter. It is located about 9 mile up dirt roads in the hills near Yerrington NV.

 

It has 129 finds and 24 Favorites. Interesting 31 of the finds are this year.

 

Let me guess. Someone placed a power trail nearby.

Yep not real near but in the area. :sad:

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My first hide (technically):

"CacheAir Flight School" GC4X4BM

I spent quite a bit of time working on my first cache hide. I didn't want to place just any regular cache so I set out figuring out a theme. I love aviation, so the choice was fairly easy. I decided on a multi with a good story to go with it. The final product is a two stage multi with a bit of a walk involved. The final is a birdhouse type container. It's very easy to locate but signing the log isn't as straight forward. You'll have to figure out how to open the birdhouse. Once inside, you see a small diorama of an airplane hanger and fuel sump. You'll have to put in a combination on the unlocking mechanism which will unlock the log drawer. Sign it and leave a good story, then replace. For those that are willing to make the trek, I tried to make sure their effort would be rewarded. I hid the cache at the beginning of this year. It's only been found 5 times but it has 4 favorites. The fifth find is a friend of mine new to caching who does not have a premium, so he couldn't add a favorite point. It's still there and waiting to be found by more people. I hid it so hat people could enjoy the park it's in and have a great time finding the cache. Still working on getting my second hide out there. If anyone wants pictures, they can message me.

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I hid my first Geocache after finding only twenty caches. I took a Nerf disk shooter apart and removed the mechanism for the shooting, I then filled it up with Gorilla glue and screwed the pieces together (Made it super water resistant). After this, I painted it with water proof black paint and put a hunter's Ed. sticker on the front, and a pill bottle in the area the disks would go.

 

I nailed two 2X4s into a tree and placed the gun in a knothole.

 

Shooter's Lookout

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I hid my first Geocache after finding only twenty caches. I took a Nerf disk shooter apart and removed the mechanism for the shooting, I then filled it up with Gorilla glue and screwed the pieces together (Made it super water resistant). After this, I painted it with water proof black paint and put a hunter's Ed. sticker on the front, and a pill bottle in the area the disks would go.

 

I nailed two 2X4s into a tree and placed the gun in a knothole.

 

Shooter's Lookout

 

Nailed two 2X4s into a tree?????? NA! That's against the guidelines!

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I hid my first Geocache after finding only twenty caches. I took a Nerf disk shooter apart and removed the mechanism for the shooting, I then filled it up with Gorilla glue and screwed the pieces together (Made it super water resistant). After this, I painted it with water proof black paint and put a hunter's Ed. sticker on the front, and a pill bottle in the area the disks would go.

 

I nailed two 2X4s into a tree and placed the gun in a knothole.

 

Shooter's Lookout

Seems odd that the ones that break guidelines appear to be the ones that get the favs.

If you had read the guidelines, you probably wouldn't have admitted that so freely. :)

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I hid my first Geocache after finding only twenty caches. I took a Nerf disk shooter apart and removed the mechanism for the shooting, I then filled it up with Gorilla glue and screwed the pieces together (Made it super water resistant). After this, I painted it with water proof black paint and put a hunter's Ed. sticker on the front, and a pill bottle in the area the disks would go.

 

I nailed two 2X4s into a tree and placed the gun in a knothole.

 

Shooter's Lookout

Seems odd that the ones that break guidelines appear to be the ones that get the favs.

If you had read the guidelines, you probably wouldn't have admitted that so freely. :)

I talked to the city and managed to receive permission for the 2X4s. On top of that, the tree is dead, but holding sturdy because of its surroundings. The reviewer in my area also allowed it, on account of the tree being dead. I did learn it was against the rules and since "Temporarily Disabling" my cache, i have removed the boards and plan to change the location and make it guideline approved. Edited by KaRue
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After I started caching I wasn't sure about hiding caches. So I adopted some from a cacher who was moving. It gave me the opportunity to find out about the hides, maintenance and cache pages. When I felt comfortable about a first hide I researched the park across the street from where I worked. I had a caching friend check to see if any puzzles or multis were in the way. Then I place it, wrote up a simple cache page and waited. I was excited to see Gumlung of SF to be the FTF. The cache was placed in 2006 and though it has no favorite points it has been logged 545 times and many thanked me for showing them this small park. It's GCWXMP called Park of Art.

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I set my first one two days ago and am still eagerly checking emails! The FTF turned up about three hours after publication and a second cacher visited yesterday.

 

GC5CD09

 

I rejected my first intended GZ as after two visits there I realised the view I wanted people to see was now partly obscured, plus the road traffic nearby felt too fast to have children caching. So I scrapped my information page and looked locally again. The current GZ took three visits to plan and place. It's near enough for me to maintain and I hope the 28 finds I have are considered enough for me to know what's interesting and what isn't.

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Forgot to answer the questions, sorry!

It's a traditional as that's what Little Cacher and I like to find. I've detailed the time I took over it. It's too early to know whether I've committed any sins...

Just from looking at the listing, it seems you've got a write-up free of spelling errors, you describe the surroundings, your ratings seem accurate, it's in a park instead of a parking lot, you used attributes, and the first two finders didn't complain about inaccurate coordinates. I think you're golden! :D

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My first hide, The Old A74 - Castle Hill View, has been out for nearly 18 months now. It is a drive-by cache located just off the motorway in a convienient location for cachers and for me to maintain. It is a film canister and is located in a basket of stones, known as cabey baskets. It turned out to be a tough one and has earned 2 favourite points from 95 found it logs. It was originally quite high maintenance for some reason and about 4 film canisters later, it seems to be fine. Long may it continue.

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Our first cache placement was in September, 2006: GCYE1P - "Good Morning." We had found our first 100 before we put out any of our own.

 

We had a really nicely camo-painted large size bison tube, which we hung in an evergreen tree at the edge of the parking lot near a popular local bagel shop. We thought this was very original - guess we hadn't found anything quite like it before. What we didn't think of was that the owners of the shop would wonder about all the people peering into their landscaping! Luckily they didn't mind it being there, but it gave seekers fits because of the heavy muggle traffic into the shop, and also because the evergreen tree gave lots of people allergy itching problems! (Obviously, the reviewers were not as concerned about owner permission back then as they are now. Many people had never heard of geocaching in 2006.)

 

The cache remained in place until January of 2009, when new landscaping removed the tree it was hidden in, so we archived it. (We put a new cache, named "Good Morning Again," in a location nearby.)

 

If I had it to do over, I wouldn't torture people by making them look in an evergreen tree; now I hate those sorts of caches myself! And I would be more mindful of placing the cache a bit away from the heaviest muggle traffic!

 

We placed our second cache, GCYFYD, "Caching 101 in Herndon," (not a very original name, I realize now!) in October 2006. It would have been our first one but we were waiting for permission from the park authority so "Good Morning" went out first. That second cache is still in business, almost 8 years later.

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My first (and only solo) hide started life as a Lock and Lock, complete with GC label, stash note and trade items. It got buried by grass and other junk to a great degree, so a micro took its place. Then along came the fence guys and bye-bye access to that micro. Temporarily replaced with a Hide-a-Key and is now a waterproof container. Currently disabled as the rest stop with a great view where it is located is closed until completion of road work.

I would like to hide more, but always second-guess myself...and get beaten to the spot I have in mind! Serves me right, I should stop procrastinating!!

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I think it took me about 200+ finds before I felt comfortable attempting my first hide. It was a puzzle, which I know doesn't appeal to everyone but a lot of local cachers in my area like puzzles. I of course had found a good amount of puzzles and other cache types first so had a decent understanding of them. So I went out and hid my first cache: ⚔ Geo Fantasy I (Unicode symbol was added later)

It's not my best work, and a standard hide, but it has a few favorite points and I made sure to get the final coords as perfect as possible. I hid it in a place I've always enjoyed the view from, and the subject, though foreign to the majority of geocachers I'm sure, was one I was a huge fan of before learning about geocaching. (Real-life treasure hunting over virtual treasure hunting. :anibad:)

More than two years and still going strong! I've never had to replace the container or even change the log sheets yet.

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It Don't Mean a Thing if it ain't Got that Swing

 

Did you stick with a traditional cache, or did you jump right to a unique cache type?

Traditional, seemed like the proper way to start

 

Is it a hide you are still proud of?

Yes, the tree/swing are still pretty awesome. And it's a overlooked spot in the woods, you would never know it was there unless you found the cache or went out to explore (guilty). The cache is a medium sized box, stocked with kazoos. I think the few people who have ventured out have enjoyed it.

 

Or would you like to forget about your ‘First Hide Sins?’

I do wish I had nailed the coords a bit better. Too many leaves up above.

 

Is it still there? Or has it been long since archived.

Still there and maintained. But it's only been around for a year now.

 

I would love to hear your stories!

No real stories, but here's one of my pics from it

20725226-e4cd-435b-a846-0977cb6bd3d7.jpg

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My first hide is a small traditional geocache called "The Gherkin" (GC4Y1HT). It was placed and published Feb. 2, 2014, on Superbowl Sunday AND Groundhog Day.

 

So far it has 24 finds, no DNF's and 9 favorites. And all geocoins and travel bugs it has hosted so far have been properly logged-in and logged out, no MIA's.

 

The story that makes up most of the cache description is probably as good as any description that I could write now, so I have excerpted it below:

 

"At the Geocaching in Space North County Style event (GC4QPK4), geocacher Carlthepickle brought two "ready-to-hide" caches to give away to anyone interested. One was a regular size, which was soon claimed. The other was a small size, which I later claimed.

 

The regular one was released by its taker a few weeks later as "The Pickle", in honor of Carlthepickle. Maintaining the sentiment, I decided to call the small one "The Gherkin", in reference to that most popular small variety of pickle.

 

I have been working on numerous cache designs, but with the release of "The Pickle", I decided to expedite the release of this one first.

 

Though "ready-to-place", I felt the need to add more to it. I also was still hashing out the process of preparing, placing, and registering a cache (the latter process I am still trying to figure out, even as I write this), so I had a lot of time to think about all manner of "augmentations".

 

All ideas and plans included maintaining the original contents and camo paint job, albeit with labels. Unfortunately, a labeling mishap resulted in separation of a large part of the paint, necessitating a gradated stripping and repainting. Only the lid has its original paint visible, though the center section is now covered by a label.

 

So to the refinished container I added:

 

A permanently bonded "piggybacked" container for old and replacement logsheets.

An "Official Geocache" decal and other needed decals, affixed to the exterior of the assembled containers.

A "nearly" transparent protective shrink sleeve over the assembled containers and decals.

 

The inaugural contents include, with one omission, these original contents as provided by Carlthepickle:

 

Official Geocaching Logsheet in bag.

Yamaha decal.

Princeton Tec decal.

Los Angeles Lakers resin-enameled-print medallion insert (maybe from key fob or other souvenir?).

Shortened Jot brand standard #2 pencil.

Short-by-design unbranded stick-style pen in bright blue "liquid" ink.

 

There was also a "SNORT" miniature "company mascot" figural (maybe a pen topper?). But I removed it to make room for more items (plus, I like it and want to keep it (?:^D).

 

I then added:

A British Virgin Islands copper-nickel proof 50 cents Brown Pelican coin in an Airtite holder with rim-mounted note indicating it as a collectible (a sort of a signature item).

A Barbados copper-nickel proof ten cents Laughing Gull coin in an Airtite holder (the circulated ones, without the Airtite holder are a sort of a signature item I place in smaller small caches and larger micros).

An Australia copper-nickel circulation 10 cents Lyrebird coin (sort of a signature item for small caches).

Four Disney's The Lion King pogs, made under official license by Canada Games, World Pog Federation.

An old-fashioned glass bottle type small paper milk bottle cap from the old Hollandia Dairy, Esccondido Ca. (unused stock, so absolutely no milk residue).

A blank stainless steel "paw print" style pet tag, ready for engraving or stamping.

A vintage Heinz pickle pin.

 

And...

 

For the First-To-Find, an FTF "trophy tag", designed and made especially for this cache."

 

So far, it has exceeded my expectations, except for the seemingly small number of visits (I may not have a proper sense of what is a "normal" frequency of visits, so I am not fretting over it). It is unique in the sense that I know of no other caches that use this kind of dual-compartment container or this specific kind of hide.

 

I have two other caches, both using a larger version of the container in the same kind of hide (my fourth will be very different though, and should be out before the end of the year).

 

I am very pleased with The Gherkin, and intend to keep it going for as long as I can.

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This thread has been fun to read. I'm impressed with how many people clearly put a lot of thought into their first hides.

 

I waited quite awhile to put out our first one- GC3J7K8 Nice Place For a Stroll. A pretty simple traditional along a rarely used, but nice walking path. (I adopted it out when I moved from the area in September.) 42 finds and no DNFs in 2+ years. Also no favorite points. I don't know that I would favorite it, either. There's nothing particularly remarkable about it.

 

My hide style has changed quite a bit from those early hides. It wasn't until earlier this year that I placed a few hides that I'm particularly proud of. Some on a state park island, some that require TOTTs, etc.

 

I wish I had the creativity and/or craftsmanship to emulate some of the gadget caches that I've seen on our travels over the past year. Unfortunately, those traits aren't in my DNA!

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My first hide was Dude, Where's My Key

 

I probably had about 100 finds by then, though I had first geocached in 2008. Since I was a forum developer, when I started geocaching, I immediately searched out the geocaching forums to see what sort of geocaches were out there. We don't have much of a variety where I live and I wanted to change that. We are sort of an "island" city which doesn't help when the surrounding area is almost desert.

Anyway, I hid an ammo can with a lock on it next to the river. I put put four travelbugs with keys to unlock the cache. The coordinates to the cache were also on the travelbug. When finders could get a key they really enjoyed going to the cache as it took them somewhere that they generally had never been and would never go.

Of course, the travelling keys suffered like travel bugs do. Some finders would keep the keys for months afterward or they would sit on the key for weeks before using it. Some would just keep the key indefinitely, they didn't care to use it or put it back in play. I released more keys when that happened but it was depressing that people would screw the cache up that way. Earlier this year, I found the cache was stolen, which wasn't surprising. I would often find it exposed by finders. I would check on the cache often as I had purposely hidden it somewhere that I frequently ran.

Since I had made a mistake and only bought one lock, the travelbugs I had out had keys to a lock I no longer had. I could have tried to get a matching lock somehow but I decided to just let it go to archive doom. I had soured on replacing the keys anyway. I have hidden 40+ more caches since then but I do want to try this style again in a more secure hiding area.

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My first hide was Dude, Where's My Key

 

I probably had about 100 finds by then, though I had first geocached in 2008. Since I was a forum developer, when I started geocaching, I immediately searched out the geocaching forums to see what sort of geocaches were out there. We don't have much of a variety where I live and I wanted to change that. We are sort of an "island" city which doesn't help when the surrounding area is almost desert.

Anyway, I hid an ammo can with a lock on it next to the river. I put put four travelbugs with keys to unlock the cache. The coordinates to the cache were also on the travelbug. When finders could get a key they really enjoyed going to the cache as it took them somewhere that they generally had never been and would never go.

Of course, the travelling keys suffered like travel bugs do. Some finders would keep the keys for months afterward or they would sit on the key for weeks before using it. Some would just keep the key indefinitely, they didn't care to use it or put it back in play. I released more keys when that happened but it was depressing that people would screw the cache up that way. Earlier this year, I found the cache was stolen, which wasn't surprising. I would often find it exposed by finders. I would check on the cache often as I had purposely hidden it somewhere that I frequently ran.

Since I had made a mistake and only bought one lock, the travelbugs I had out had keys to a lock I no longer had. I could have tried to get a matching lock somehow but I decided to just let it go to archive doom. I had soured on replacing the keys anyway. I have hidden 40+ more caches since then but I do want to try this style again in a more secure hiding area.

That's really cool! I wish there was something like that around here.
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My first hide was Dude, Where's My Key

 

 

We happened upon a similar hide in Duncan, British Columbia during 3IEE weekend earlier this month. I was out caching one morning and found a key in one of the caches. It had a GC number and coordinates on it. So we went after the "mystery" cache on the way out of town. Found it, then deposited the key in another Duncan-area cache. Neat idea. Though I could certainly see the CO having the sort of troubles that you had with your cache.

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Our first one was Robbinsdale Forest. I think we had about 40 finds at the time. It was originally a matchstick container, gorilla glued and spiral wrapped with para-cord. When the glue was still tacky, I rolled it in some patio sand to help with the cammo. Just hung it on a large tree branch laying next to the trunk with a small para-cord loop. It blended in almost perfect. Lasted for about a year at that spot until a huge wet T-storm moved through with high winds and took the tree down. Unfortunately I couldn't find the container. I liked the hide area and really didn't want to archive it (since it was our first hide), so the replacement ended up being just a short bison tube wrapped with cammo gun tape, and cable tied to a small tree-bush nearby. The gun tape really hides the cache in the branches and foliage, it looks like a small "growth" hanging there. Simple and effective. Still going strong after 5 years / 3 months, 177 Finds, 8 DNFs, 4 maintenance logs, a couple of minor coordinate changes, and a few complaints about the occasional skeeters in the summer. And lots of compliments on the cammo.

Edited by DadOf6Furrballs
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