Don't Waste Your Half Baked Ideas.....

8.4k · December 9, 2003

I am a big Stephen King fan, expecially 'The Dark Tower' series. There are currently 5 book with the final 2 coming out in the next year. I would love to do a multi, or series of mutli's following some of the themes of the books. Just can't get a really killer idea laid out. One other thing that holds me back on this one is popular knowledge. Do I make the clues fan specific or just themed? (easy or hard enough for even non fans to follow) The books are very adventure driven, pretty much Epic western version of the Lord of the Rings. Stike a cord with anyone?

Another Dark Tower fan here.

Roland of Gilad is one of the greatest characters ever created in fiction.

I too am a big fan.

Blaine the Insane Train hopes to meet SK in his caching adventures. I also have a Roland tb, but it's far from ready to go.

I have one SK themed bookcrossing hybrid cache planned. I replaced my paperback SK collection with hardbacks and I wanted to do something interesting with them. It would be cool if other people copied that idea.

Sn gans

December 9, 2003

My cache partner, Bug, was looking at this thread and suggests a cache like this..... (it's evil!)

With all due respect to a cacher with a similar name, you get hold of one of those large plastic septic tanks and make a pair of interlocking doors in it. The doors would have to work such that the exit door only becomes unlatched when the entrance door is opened. The concept is that a cacher finding the cache would be inside and would have to wait for the next finder so as to get out again!!!!!

So, if you ever see a cache placed by Bug without the moderating influence of Snake, bring sandwiches and a six pack - you could be there for a while.

Edited December 9, 2003 by bug&snake

December 9, 2003

As to Lovecraft-themed caches, how about this: Sunken R'lyeh by The Mad Arab

OK, that's a joke.

Back to the topic. . . My cache The Missing Eight Grand (GCGZCA) is a bank/money themed cache. I have added one of those State Quarter collection books to gather and trade the state quarters. The dream is that people will place quarters I don't have in the book and take quarters for their collection from the ziplock bag of extra quarters.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the collection once it's complete (if it lasts that long). Maybe I'll make it a FTF prize at a new cache or just place a new empty book in the cache. More likely, it will be plunders in the years it will take for all te quarters to become available.

1.2k · December 9, 2003

What about a cache named "The Search for the Holy Grail" Contents could all have a Monty Python theme.

You would have to use a silly walk to get to it.

December 9, 2003

What about a cache named "The Search for the Holy Grail" Contents could all have a Monty Python theme.

You would have to use a silly walk to get to it.

...and it requires you to trade... A SHRUBBERY!!!

--RuffRidr

2k · December 9, 2003

What about a cache named "The Search for the Holy Grail" Contents could all have a Monty Python theme.

You would have to use a silly walk to get to it.

...and it requires you to trade... A SHRUBBERY!!!

--RuffRidr

If you ever go to Huston look for;

Bring Me A Shrubbery!

9.4k · December 9, 2003

What about a cache named "The Search for the Holy Grail" Contents could all have a Monty Python theme.

You would have to use a silly walk to get to it.

...and it requires you to trade... A SHRUBBERY!!!

--RuffRidr

Then you must find ANOTHER SHRUBBERY and place it here beside this shrubbery with a little path running down the middle

1.3k · December 9, 2003

So, what are we supposed to do with this herring again?

December 10, 2003

So, what are we supposed to do with this herring again?

Smoke it!

9.4k · December 10, 2003

You must use the herring to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest

December 10, 2003

Get this thread back on topic or I will lock it!

WOAH, sorry y'all, a touch of admin-itis there!

Gotta go lie down I think.....

December 10, 2003

I'm tempted to do a multi where I write the co-ordinates for the next step on a rubiks cube and scramble it up.

Unfortunately I'd have to leave town and it would become a vaction cache...

It is out there. It is called locked in a cubical, and when I visited it I had to post a 'couldn't find it'

December 10, 2003

Well, I was trying to think of a way to force people to visit a night cache at night. I placed one of the increasingly popular reflector trail caches, and it was recently found during the day. I'm ok with that, but the experience is much more exiting at night. The little laser pointers are invisible in the light of day, so it would make finding the cache much more difficult. I love the concept of night caches, and want to try to inspire other local cachers to create some for me to go find.

On night caches: I was all set to place a night cache called Night Light. I bought the fire tacks, and I took the switch out of an old refridgerator. With the cache hidden under a large flat rock which had luminous paint on it, when the rock is lifted the refridgerator light underneath comes on. Still have the stuff, but all the parks within three cities are closed during dark. Out in the woods my caches rarely get visited, and there are mountain lions prowling that could bump up the difficulty. So, the stuff is sitting in my garage. :huh:

December 10, 2003

darn, thought I had a good idea and found out one person is thinking of it and another has done it already. Thats o.k. they aren't in my area so mybe I'll try a version of it too!

December 10, 2003

I was down at the lakeshore and noticed a brick walkway which was made up of bricks that people had bought and had personalized messages on them.

Has anyone ever thought of a multicache where one of the stages was an engraved brick that had coordinates on it leading to the real cache?

December 10, 2003

I was down at the lakeshore and noticed a brick walkway which was made up of bricks that people had bought and had personalized messages on them.

Has anyone ever thought of a multicache where one of the stages was an engraved brick that had coordinates on it leading to the real cache?

WOAH! I know a place were they are doing one of those walkways right now. BUT, they want a minimum 'donation' of $100 per brick and there is a max of too few characters - would need two bricks... Let me see, two bricks at $100 each - that comes to..... yeppers, a lot, nearly a million bucks!

What a great idea though. Gonna remember that one.

4.1k · December 10, 2003

Don't let these ideas go to waste. Someone else may get some use from them or they may spark a different idea.....

How fun.

These are mental holiday gifts!

December 10, 2003

I was down at the lakeshore and noticed a brick walkway which was made up of bricks that people had bought and had personalized messages on them.

Has anyone ever thought of a multicache where one of the stages was an engraved brick that had coordinates on it leading to the real cache?

There's a mult-cache in Austin that is close to this concept. You have to find particular bricks in the walkway. Plug some of their information into some sort of formula, then out pops the coordinates for the next point.

I had a hard time on that one, since the walkway was near large buildings, and the multi-path made reception difficult. Therefore, I had to read a lot of bricks before I got to the right ones.

George

1.3k · December 12, 2003

The rubik's cube idea has just taken another karmic turn.

Sitting in front of me are twelve rubik's cube keychains. (Nobbies sells things in bulk very cheap)

So, in theory, I could pull an Alien Army of Chaos inspired stunt and use one of my unused travel bug numbers to release all of these guys as a travel bug.

This way, when someone finds a cube, they can keep it until they solve the cube and find the cache (and afterwards if they want to, I can always replace them very cheaply later.)

Hmmmmm.....

December 12, 2003

Radio Shack have a thing that is a 'sender' and/or a 'receiver' that you buy as a pack of two. My concern was whether the cachers would be willing to do this one if it involved going back to replace the 'sender' unit after finding the cache.

Just make it so that the final stage is farther away, and the logical return path to the parking area is in the same direction as the first stage. This has occurred to me several times, only using locks and keys. Would definitely stop impulse plundering because the cache would be locked...

December 12, 2003

Radio Shack have a thing that is a 'sender' and/or a 'receiver' that you buy as a pack of two. My concern was whether the cachers would be willing to do this one if it involved going back to replace the 'sender' unit after finding the cache.

Just make it so that the final stage is farther away, and the logical return path to the parking area is in the same direction as the first stage. This has occurred to me several times, only using locks and keys. Would definitely stop impulse plundering because the cache would be locked...

Why didn't I think of that? DUH me!

Thanx, you have just made that idea into a 'possible' for me again.

December 13, 2003

Remember those Magic Eye pictures that were popular a few years back.

I used one of those with three digits that were the combination of a lock on the logbook.

Email me if you'd like the program that generates them.

Edited December 13, 2003 by Bear_Left

1.3k · December 13, 2003

This is an idea I had a long time ago, but was never sure if it would work very well. Feel free to use it (but let me know if it works).

Two boxes are each securely affixed (tied to an object, or spiked into the ground) at different locations, about 150- 175 feet apart from each other. Finding the first, will give you the clue/co-ordinates to find the second. Each box contains 100 feet of rope, with one end affixed to the box and the other end affixed to a laminated tag (the laminated tags would have some instructions on it) . The actual cache location is at one of two possible locations, being the locations where the two tags meet when the ropes are pulled out straight. This might be particularly interesting /difficult if there were lots of other trees around to get in the way. The instructions printed on the tags, ask that the ropes be put neatly back in their boxes after the cache is found.

I think this is a neat idea, but would like to add a few thoughts of my own. If I were to set a cache like this, I wouldn't publish the distance between the two boxes, or the length of the ropes. This would keep mathmatical types from "pre-solving" for the two possible cache locations.

However, if someone were ingenious enough to bring a tape measure along, they could calculate the locations without actually stretching the ropes, though that method certainly wouldn't save ME any time!

December 13, 2003

How about something like piggy backing one cache onto another? Obviously the first cache owner would have to agree.

The co-ords for the second cache would be listed inside the first. The co-ords on gc.com would be fictitious. User would be referred to the cache he/she needs to find first.

December 13, 2003

I am a big Stephen King fan, expecially 'The Dark Tower'

I really enjoyed the series when it started, but it has been so long since the last book (which I didnt enjoy as much as the first three anyhow) that Im not all that excited about the newest one. Anyway...I think the only "right" way to do a Dark Tower cache would be to have the cacher follow The Beam. Off the top of my head, here are a couple of ideas that might work:

A puzzle-multi that follows a route through town This is the only one Ive actually done that shows what Im thinking. You could have the intermediate waypoints be similar to Rolands waypoints.

The other thought was to use some of the laser pointer ideas mentioned here to create The Beam.

4.1k · December 24, 2003

Here's one from Bherder:

Geocaching Adventures -> Organized Geocaching -> Take your best shot.

Edited December 24, 2003 by MissJenn

2.7k · February 20, 2006

I've always wanted to place a cache with a motion sensor and the drum sounds from "Jumanji". The sound would only play once every 10 minutes or so and the coords would only get you to hearing distance, where you would trip the motion detector.

Or perhaps the coordinates get you to a button and the drums sound once and you can optionally go back and push the button again to hear the drums again. The button would be a wireless transmitter somehow permanently secured and the seeker would have to follow the sound to find the cache.

Edited February 20, 2006 by Confuse-A-Cat

February 20, 2006

Does anyone rmember the 'Choose your own adventure' books?

There's a disabled cache in my area with that theme. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Choose Your Own Adventure. It looks like fun.

February 20, 2006

About a month ago I started a series of Seattle Jigsaw puzzle caches using online software I found. The initial puzzles required download of an executable. The admins then required I find a non-DOS specific way to do the puzzle as well (I am updating the older puzzles). When first posted the puzzles are very difficult so that the voracious FTF community here inthe city must devore at least a couple of hours to solving. After a couple of weeks I post a much simpler version. I could not find evidence of anyone else having made online jigsaw puzzle caches (though I doubt I was really the first) but I certainly don't mind - would like to see in fact - other series of these develop in other places. Just not another in Seattle :lol:

The caches thus far in the series:

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #1: City skyline

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #2: UW campus

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #3: Oncorhynchus nerka

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #4: Iris virginica

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #5: The Beatles

peace, fishiam

February 20, 2006

Does anyone rmember the 'Choose your own adventure' books?

There's a disabled cache in my area with that theme. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Choose Your Own Adventure. It looks like fun.

Ah man! I've been planning one of these for some time now and now it's going to look like I copied someone.

One other one I'm working on is a Bookcrossing Puzzle cache. Most of the numbers in the coordinates will corespond to a question. THe questions are book related and the answers will be numerical. I'm just trying to round up enough books with with numbers featured either in the title or prominantly within the story.

February 20, 2006

I have been thinking about a multi night only cache, that uses black light paint to give the next cord. Each number has that number of dots horizontal, only way that you can find the rocks will be to use a black light.

My two questions, is how much is to much to require someone to spend to complete a cache? and How far to far for a multi cache?

February 20, 2006

I would say make it as big or small as you want. As a courtesy, I would note on the cache page if the distance between caches is more than walking distance or otherwise excessive and if it will take a long time to complete.

3k · February 20, 2006

I was down at the lakeshore and noticed a brick walkway which was made up of bricks that people had bought and had personalized messages on them.

Has anyone ever thought of a multicache where one of the stages was an engraved brick that had coordinates on it leading to the real cache?

WOAH! I know a place were they are doing one of those walkways right now. BUT, they want a minimum 'donation' of $100 per brick and there is a max of too few characters - would need two bricks... Let me see, two bricks at $100 each - that comes to..... yeppers, a lot, nearly a million bucks!

What a great idea though. Gonna remember that one.

We have one like that a stone's throw from where I'm sitting, check out GCP5EQ "Hit The Bricks". Instead of buying bricks, they used existing bricks and built off of them. You could even use a simple cypher for prechosen letters on specific bricks to spell out the final cache location. :laughing:

February 20, 2006

I have an idea you guys might be able to help flesh out a bit. My dad is a pilot and I snapped a great photo of us flying over a 737 on final. It was about a 1000 feet under us so its shadow is very close to the aircraft, A great photo to take from a Cessna 140. We were over an industrial area so there may or may not be a good location for a cache. I've been trying to work out a way to take the in flight photographs like this one or another one I could set up and have that be part of finding a cache. Im thinking old style Tom Clancy Spy novels, I just havent been able to finish the idea... any suggestions? Thanks

1.1k · February 20, 2006

I was reading a cache log one day and had an idea. I remembered the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" thing and thought I'd try to find a cache that someone in that log had already found. This would link us through the geocaches instead of personal contacts.

I set up a cache, GeoBacon, to encourage other cachers to do this. I also had another reason for placing an easy to find micro that you'll read about in the description.

February 20, 2006

Going back to the OP and the night cache...

The first stage of the multi (hidden and listed conventionally) contains one of the mini-lasers and an instruction sheet. "Take this laser 25 feet north. You will find a small hidden tube. Activate the laser, insert it into the tube, and the laser will point to the final cache. Return the laser to this box for the next cacher."

No excessive battery drain. No tricky on/off circuits and nothing to hide but a small, camo'ed tube that apparently belongs to nothing at all.

Hide the final cache wherever the tube points, rather than trying to make the tube point at the cache.

Day cache alternate: Instead of a laser, you use a screweye for one end of a "sight" and a painted stick or ribbon tied to a limb as the other "sight" with the cache aligned behind the stick.

OR just rigidly mount a narrow tube to a tree/post. The cacher is directed (by the instruction sheet) to look through it to the cache - but which way?

February 21, 2006

I was down at the lakeshore and noticed a brick walkway which was made up of bricks that people had bought and had personalized messages on them.

Has anyone ever thought of a multicache where one of the stages was an engraved brick that had coordinates on it leading to the real cache?

this one is a lot of funHit The Bricks

Now if all you have is names you can send them from one set of names to another untill they get to the end.

If anyone is out there in Winslow Ariz. There is a great historic place you can put a cache like this.

I was there the Week before the EAGLES dedicated a small park on a Street corner,and it was loaded with bricks with cool sayings carved into them. You could work them into a great cache.

Edited February 21, 2006 by olbluesguy

February 21, 2006

Just a thought. how about a charity cache. two boxes one with slot for the money securely locked to the location and the other with log book to sign. probally have to be in city location.

February 22, 2006

For a neat night time cache you could make a multi with the first part having a remote control. To find the second part you would have to go to coords a couple yards off of the actual coords. when you hit a button on the control it lights up the cache. I tried to do this but I have no knowledge of building remote controled circuits so it didn't work. If someone else can figure it out send me an email, I would like to see how it is done.

Sobeboy58

February 22, 2006

One idea I considered but haven't planned out is to do a multi cache that is actually a sort of 'geo maze.' Each stage would be a micro with two coordinates, and the finder must pick either of the two. At times, they would reach a 'dead end' cache with no coords in it, and would have to back up and try some of the coords they got from earlier stages. Every once in a while, they would come across a URL to a webpage with the next stages coords, or would even have to call my voicemail and get them off of a recorded message. Final stage would be an ammo box, but the finder would have no idea how close they are to completion. Depending on the route, it could be completed in as little as 4 stops, as some of the later stages point back to earlier ones. I abandoned the idea because it required a large number of micros that would be difficult to maintain.

I have one up like this right now. Not to give too much away but it is working just fine. I have several micros at each stage that will send you in different directions if you are not careful. It has two false stages that tell you to go back to the last one and there are some that will send you across the county if you do not pay attention to the directions. So far no problems except alot of stumped cachers :cute:

Edited February 22, 2006 by Davispak

February 22, 2006

I also thought about the laser pointer idea, and I too think that a small solar panel will work. Most of those things run on a couple watch batteries. 1 solar cell with a small rechargable cell attached should do fine in the warmer months. I was thinking of setting post with holes drilled and the pointer glued inside and the button set in another hole that you would need to stick a pencil into to actually press the button. Should be pretty waterproof if using goop, and the recessed button would keep the rodents from chewing the button up.

February 22, 2006

About a month ago I started a series of Seattle Jigsaw puzzle caches using online software I found. The initial puzzles required download of an executable. The admins then required I find a non-DOS specific way to do the puzzle as well (I am updating the older puzzles). When first posted the puzzles are very difficult so that the voracious FTF community here inthe city must devore at least a couple of hours to solving. After a couple of weeks I post a much simpler version. I could not find evidence of anyone else having made online jigsaw puzzle caches (though I doubt I was really the first) but I certainly don't mind - would like to see in fact - other series of these develop in other places. Just not another in Seattle

The caches thus far in the series:

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #1: City skyline

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #2: UW campus

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #3: Oncorhynchus nerka

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #4: Iris virginica

Seattle Jigsaw Puzzle #5: The Beatles

peace, fishiam

Love this idea! Might actually borrow this one...

18.9k · February 22, 2006

Thought about a sort of branching cache.

List a series of caches to visit in an area and then return to this one.

Stage 1: 4 containers on ground with coordinates in each one - Clue: Same container as GCxxxx, 3 are bogus and lead to bogus branches with "sorry" notes - 1 is real

Stage 2: Hidden under same camo as GCxxxx - 1 real - 3 bogus lead to a box with "Sorry" in it.

Stage 3: so on and so forth

Only answering each stage right will lead to the final cache. If you visted the original series no problem - otherwise - you could be off on a wild goose chase.

February 22, 2006

Just a thought. how about a charity cache. two boxes one with slot for the money securely locked to the location and the other with log book to sign. probally have to be in city location.

Less half-baked, more completely raw.

From the cache listing guidelines:

Solicitations are also off-limits. For example, caches perceived to be posted for religious, political, charitable or social agendas are not permitted. Geocaching is supposed to be a light, fun activity, not a platform for an agenda.

Edited February 22, 2006 by Bear_Left

February 22, 2006

Going back to the OP and the night cache...

The first stage of the multi (hidden and listed conventionally) contains one of the mini-lasers and an instruction sheet. "Take this laser 25 feet north. You will find a small hidden tube. Activate the laser, insert it into the tube, and the laser will point to the final cache. Return the laser to this box for the next cacher."

I have one ready to go that's similar to this, but with a little twist...

I'm using one of those laser level gizmos (available quite cheaply, about A$9) that use 2 x AAA cells to power it (last for ages, easy to replace by finder if required) It's taken from the waypoint and placed in a groove on a post and points the way to a hidden cache 50m away.

Now the twist is that the clever buggers around here would just sight along the line of the laser and find the cache in the daytime, rather than my intended night-only cache concept. SO, I've modified the laser head (with hot glue) in the gizmo to point about 30degrees off true, so that they'll have a long hunt in the daytime...

Hide the final cache wherever the tube points, rather than trying to make the tube point at the cache.

Unless you have a very hidey-hole-rich environment, that might not work too well...

Setting it up at dusk, when you can still see your chosen GZ but can also see your laser pointer spot, should be fairly easy.

1.6k · February 22, 2006

"Teamwork"

Hung with fishing line, a micro cache is suspended high above an impassable river/stream with bridge/crossing not too far away but not obvious.

To lower the cache to a side, one must discover the attachment point (weight) and raise it to lower the container to the other side.

A companion on the other side could then log it. FRS radios would be useful (but not required), as river noise makes it hard to communicate.

The only areas I could do it around here already have caches, and most cachers are solo so I'm not bothering.

Enjoy,

Randy

PS: If anyone uses this, let me know as I'll want to watch the page!

Stage 4 of Bill and Gary's Excellent Adventure IV (now archived) involved a small brass tag hanging over a stream. While it was easier to get it with the help of a partner, they were kind enough to provide a few conveninent branches that you could use to hook the string. 2 years earlier they used a birdhouse suspended over a stream. I'm sure this year's version will have something hanging over something. LOL

Wulf

March 1, 2006

First of all, I don't even know if this is allowed. Second, I don't know how well it would work.

You find a place that can support multiple "cache sites". Perhaps 10 or maybe less. Then you have a general cache that you post online. The FTF goes to the general site which contains a log and the "traveling cache". There's also a "cheat sheet" which has all the locations and the corresponding coordinates.

They then log the cache and take the "traveling cache" to a predestinated spot of their choice, and writes down which spot it's at. Then opens the "traveling cache" and reads the instructions of where the cache location is that they want to place it at. And hides it, again in a predestinated spot. The next cacher goes to the general cache and looks at the last log. Which says (John Doe - Cache 3). The cacher looks up the cache on the "cheat sheet" and goes to find it. Once found, they get to choose where it's next hiding spot is. And then goes back to the "general site" and writes down which cache site it's at.

You can set up different difficulties. It will take time, but it sounds fun. What do you think?

Confusing?

March 1, 2006

i have a plastic skull for halloween that has a motion detector in it an its eye,s light up and it laughs when it sences motion..well for a graveyard cache in the woods tie a fishing line around a rock ,an throw the rock over a high tree limb,take the line off the rock an tie to the skull an cover the skull with leaves an lite sticks..now place a heavy rock in a v of a near bye tree an take up the slack in the line an tie it to that rock..put the cache right by the tree with the heavy rock,inside the cache give instuctions to grab the rock in the v of tree limbs an drop it on the ground..now when that happens the skull will be ripped out of the ground laughing and the lights in its eyes going off right behind the person who dropped the rock..lol....

March 2, 2006

Hide the final cache wherever the tube points, rather than trying to make the tube point at the cache.

Unless you have a very hidey-hole-rich environment, that might not work too well...

Setting it up at dusk, when you can still see your chosen GZ but can also see your laser pointer spot, should be fairly easy.

I suppose I was thinking a bit too locally. Here in Utah, we have rock fields that cover acres - that's a pretty hidey-hole-rich environment! I love your offset laser ploy, though!

Don't Waste Your Half Baked Ideas.....

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