Ideas Appreciated

[+Jayeffel]

I am considering a cache but really do not know more than the idea. What I am considering  is a cache so obvious it gets missed by cachers. I have seem many caches that when you get to GZ it is obvious where it most like is. I have seen the fake electrical boxes and plates which are fun -- once found.

 

I was thinking of something  like a mail box that we all recognize but in a place it really doesn' fit but easily dismissed. I thought of a fake gravestone, if I could figure how to make it.  that folds over with a space under it; but then figured that many not be to good an idea.

 

Any ideas will be appreciated even though they may never work out for me; they might inspire others, That way I can be a victim also!

[+barefootjeff]

This is the first stage of one of my multis. It's the fake remains of a camp fire and isn't far from a real camp fire's embers, except the real one is out in the open where you'd expect a camp fire to be but the fake one is tucked in amongst the undergrowth where, if you stop to think about it, no-one in their right mind would make a fire.

 

 

On the underside of the big log in the middle are the coordinates of the next stage, burnt into it with a soldering iron.

[+niraD]

7 hours ago, Jayeffel said:

I was thinking of something  like a mail box that we all recognize but in a place it really doesn' fit but easily dismissed. I thought of a fake gravestone, if I could figure how to make it.  that folds over with a space under it; but then figured that many not be to good an idea.

 

There are a lot of great ideas in the CCC thread, so I'll refer you to it. Note that the photos in many of the older posts are no longer available, but the thread is still very useful.

 

I've seen fake electrical box caches in remote areas with no electrical service. I've also seen fake sprinkler head caches in areas with no irrigation systems. And I've seen a photo of an ammo can painted to look like a fake gravestone (probably somewhere in the CCC thread). But the approach I've used for my own caches has been to look around the location, and try to imagine things that might look like they belong there, that could conceal a geocache container.

[+ecanderson]

Funniest one I have ever seen was a round light pole skirt (hinging open from the side) around a tree in the middle of nowhere.

[+ecanderson]

Darned if it isn't still there.  GC1BC0Y.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I found a pay phone on a pole about a mile and a half up the trail.  Cache was at the base.  I have no idea how they got that in there!

[+captnemo]

54 minutes ago, Harry Dolphin said:

I found a pay phone on a pole about a mile and a half up the trail.  Cache was at the base.  I have no idea how they got that in there!

 

There used to be (50 years ago)  a phone on a tree near Nevada Falls in Yosemite NP.  It was a real phone miles from anywhere with the number Nevada Falls #1.  If you picked it up you got the operator and better yet if you dialed the operator from down in the valley you could be connected to Nevada Falls #1.  We did this a couple of times and hikers would pick it up.  It was put there by the NP and is not there anymore. 

[+cerberus1]

11 hours ago, Jayeffel said:

I am considering a cache but really do not know more than the idea. What I am considering  is a cache so obvious it gets missed by cachers.

I was thinking of something  like a mail box that we all recognize but in a place it really doesn' fit but easily dismissed.

 

Curious, who wouldn't realize a mailbox out of place is the cache ?     That's the first clue in finding any cache ..."what's outta place ?".  

A hidden in plain sight hide may be something as simple as the only  pine cone still in the pine tree.

We were the FTF a walnut in a walnut tree.   Walnut trees don't drop clean walnuts.   

 

[+cerberus1]

4 hours ago, niraD said:

There are a lot of great ideas in the CCC thread, so I'll refer you to it. Note that the photos in many of the older posts are no longer available, but the thread is still very useful

But the approach I've used for my own caches has been to look around the location, and try to imagine things that might look like they belong there, that could conceal a geocache container.

 

Yep. Though I'd say there might be a  good chance that some of those caches may not conform to guidelines (nails n screws in trees is one...).  

 

Similar to niraD, our approach is to find a good spot.  When we find that good spot, we decide what we could place there.

We can usually tell when a cacher had a cache in hand, and was just looking for a place to put it.

For us, even a very creative cache is so-so when it's just dumped in a mediocre location because that's where it fit...

[+ecanderson]

12 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

 

A hidden in plain sight hide may be something as simple as the only  pine cone still in the pine tree.

We were the FTF a walnut in a walnut tree.   Walnut trees don't drop clean walnuts.   

 

Once found an acorn micro in a small pine tree (GC177A2, long since archived). 

[+niraD]

14 minutes ago, ecanderson said:

44 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

A hidden in plain sight hide may be something as simple as the only  pine cone still in the pine tree.

We were the FTF a walnut in a walnut tree.   Walnut trees don't drop clean walnuts.   

Once found an acorn micro in a small pine tree (GC177A2, long since archived). 

Yeah, a pine cone in a pine tree is just another needle-in-a-haystack hide. It's much more interesting to hide a pine cone in an oak tree, or an acorn in a pine tree. Or at the very least, a pine cone in a completely different kind of pine tree.

[+Jayeffel]

Curious, who wouldn't realize a mailbox out of place is the cache ?     

 

We might be surprised how much we become accustomed to not seeing, for at least not recognizing there obvious. Or sometimes the obvious throws out off the real track. There is a cache it took me I think four or five times to find and should have been fairly easy. I made it hard on myself because when approaching the area I saw a huge tree with a gaping hole at the bottom. I of course went there and looked in that hole, a King Lion large cache could easily have placed there and still not seen right away. I got fixated at the spot . The cache was really right next the the trail under a picnic bench, still, not the easiest to pinpoint. My GPS signal was not steady at the site so that did not help. Or now nan ay time do we get to GZ .look around and the only obvious spot is a GR? Where do we go- they GR. 

 

Yes a mailbox by itself-- no house, no lane, should be obvious but if placed sop it looks old and abandoned it may be dismissed. I even thought of, if doing that, putting a name , appearing worn out some, G. O. Cash and maybe even the cache number to look like an address number. Ok, not too conspicuous ! At least be a bit different. Or that could be a starting point for a multi cache.

 

Just thinking at present.

[+Goldenwattle]

How about these for letterbox cache ideas? There is a cache in that mail box, and one of those letter boxes in that group by the road guard, is a cache.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Goldenwattle

[+Jayeffel]

2 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

How about these for letterbox cache ideas? There is a cache in that mail box, and one of those letter boxes in that group by the road guard, is a cache.

There you go

[+Joe_L]

On 4/17/2020 at 6:47 AM, Jayeffel said:

I thought of a fake gravestone, if I could figure how to make it.  that folds over with a space under it; but then figured that many not be to good an idea.

 

I've made fake headstones for Halloween decorations using 2-inch thick rigid polystyrene insulation.  Easy to cut into any shape.  Not sure how well letters can be engraved into it (I've only painted words on.).  Paint grey when finished.

[vulture1957]

how about a birdhouse?

[+ras_oscar]

i am usually circumspect when it comes to touching mailboxes. If its a real mailbox and thee's mail in in it, technically its a federal offense.