Winter Hunting

[Guest SpyderWolf_Pack]

Greetings All,

Labor day is upon us and the days (hopefully) will start getting cooler. While I am excited about getting out in the fall, I am wondering about winter.

Those who live in the cold - what are you planning to do as far as geocaching this winter? Anyone planning any igloo caches in the frozen north? Holiday themes? A Christmas cache hunt?

Strong signals to all!

Raven

[Guest DaveA]

I just started caching recently and placed my first cache a few days ago. While placing it, I thought about the couple caches I went after as well as the one I was placing. They were all in locations that would be covered by the snow and thus not be able to be found(unless someone didn't mind bringing a snow shovel with).

 

I have been thinking of how to plant a cache that could be found in the winter. One idea I am toying with is to use the snow and ice to hide the cache. For example, there is a state recreational area that has a lake that is being drained right now. When winter rolls around the deepest part of the lake will be a foot or two. Snowmobiling isn't allowed in the area and the fish will all be dead so there will be no icefisherman. In other words, this area will not likely see any traffic over the winter. With that in mind I considering waiting until the water freezes and then chisleing a shallow hole in the ice and placing (waterproofed)candy bars in the hole, filling it with water and allowing it to freeze. The candy bars would be sealed in a brightly colored material so they could be seen through an inch or two if ice. I would do this in several spots on the lake and post the coordinates for all the spots requesting a cacher to only take the stuff at one spot. Of course, if they were not all recovered I would need to remove them prior to the ice melting for environmental reasons.

 

I think that frozen candy bars are a nice treat for many and it would make geocaching a viable winter option here in the north. Perhaps placing a stick into the ice that extended a couple inches above the surface would aid in locating the cache in the event of a light snowfall.

[Guest EyezOfTheWorld]

I'm a winter person. I can't stand hot 80 to 90+ degree, muggy, humid days i.e. summer in South Carolina. Thankfully i'll be spending most of the fall and the winter in the Yellowstone area... ahhh, relief!

 

Anyway, the thought of caches in snowy areas is worrying me a little and I know it's been spoken of before. Where there is no snow, or very little snow, year-round caches should be fine. With snow I feel the cache location could be given away VERY easily by others leaving tracks. And then in some places the same could happen in spring with mud. I can just picture it, someone getting in the general location and seeing a set of footprints in the direction of the cache... challenge gone. Looks like if cache hiders give a darn they're gunna hafta make sure winter doesn't provide a way for the cache location to be given away. Lots of people might have to hang a big sign on their cache pages: CLOSED FOR THE SEASON... BACK IN THE SPRING.

[Guest wildkirsten]

I have been thinking on this one and have come up with a reasonable solution I think. I am planning on hiding a few caches that are on the back of signs... places where you don't find traffic on the back side of the sign. A warning sign at the outside corner of a turn comes to mind. The signs are up on 4 x 4 wooden posts. You could easily wire tie up a pvc tubing to the back side of the sign . The tracks problem can be handled by putting your cache where there is a lot of snow removal and traffic, but it would then have to be hidden better...

[Guest kbraband]

I was cache-hunting and cache-placing last winter and IMHO it's not a problem at all. We get a lot of snow in Wisconsin, but the caches hidden in the woods don't get buried very deep if they're placed in the underbrush. Most trails are very hikeable in the winter, and some are placed near cross-county ski trails -- all the better! It's also easy to follow someone else's tracks to the cache. And the best thing about winter cache hunting -- no poison plants and no mosquitoes.

[Guest PatLes]

Since my wife and I just got hooked on this fascinating hobby, I, for one, am not going to give up for the winter. The website http://www.gpsresource.com/ has 2 *million* waypoints. In my county alone, there are over 1300. A good winter game might be to try to find these spots. Today I saw a listing for a cliff just 3 miles from my home. I couldn't imagine where it might be so I followed the coordinates. In a very familiar county park, I found a 105 ft. cliff that I never knew existed! Sometimes just the hunt can be fun.

Just a thought.

[Guest Lou C]

we?

 

It would also be nice if the owners put the cache in an location that could be found without shoveling a 10 meter radius of snow like maybe secured to a log or tree or something else above ground.

 

Lou

[Guest celts]

Like the rest of you, I've been pondering winter caching--and we've only had one cool day so far--but I know it's coming. My main concern right now is whether my containers and contents will be up to the rigors of the climate change.I guess I'll have to put some thought into this over the next couple of months, but I really like the idea of posting on the site :"closed for the season" if that seems appropriate.

[Guest mtnsteve]

Oh yea, I plan on some winter caches. I figure that I will hang them in trees, probably pvc tubes, white or painted green and brown. Lots of us out here (Northern CA) are avid x-c skiers, snow shoer's and snowcampers...I may even set up some that require over night stays.

 

Winter caches are going to require some common sense..... avalanche's, hypothermia and white outs are only a couple things that will effect the ratings, and your safety. Searching during the middle of winter and during Spring are going to be too totally different events, both have the potential to kill, one a little easier.....lets be carefull out there.