Why Multi-cache?

[+BeachBuddies]

Working my way through some of the various cache types.. I've done a fun night cache, some puzzle caches, and I just finished a letterbox hybrid. Now I'd like to hide a multi-cache.

 

So, I was trying to figure out what makes a good multi-cache, and I realized I haven't really found that many yet. One of my favorite multis had me and my family wandering around a local park, learning all about different things in order to collect all the clues. (For some reason, it wasn't classified as a multi though, I think it was listed as "unknown".) That was a good one, but requires a very specific type of setting.

 

But in any case, there are two obvious reasons to hide a multi:

 

1) you want to highlight a couple interesting sites that are somehow related (or that might be too close to each other to hide traditional caches at)

 

2) you want to increase the difficulty (and hopefully the challenge and fun!)

 

What are some other good reasons? What are some of your favorite multis? I'd really like to hide one that would be better as a multi than any other type. Thanks for your ideas!

[+Kite and Hawkeye]

I like something more complicated than 'walk right up and find the cache.' Finding small tags or magnets or such with further coordinates is more fun than simply finding an ammo box, for me. It's like the treasure hunts I used to make when I was a kid, where clues led to other clues before you finally found the surprise at the end. If there's a little puzzle or something to figure out in order to get from waypoint to waypoint, so much the better.

 

Another reason to make a short multi is if one particular approach to the cache is significantly better, more scenic, or otherwise necessary. You can steer your finders along with the multi waypoints, without giving it all away in the description. Perhaps you want the location of the cache to be something of a surprise, so you put your first waypoint and main cache coordinates somewhere a little more ordinary. Also, if you're afraid some evil non-cacher is looking at cache pages in your area and using the maps to pinpoint and plunder caches, you could safeguard yours by doing it multi-style. (Not all those who find caches sans GPS are evil, and not everyone who owns a GPS is good, but it would probably discourage slackers, at least.)

 

I much prefer planted waypoints (usually of necessity micros) to virtual "do something with the numbers on this sign" waypoints, but if the cache is educational or shows off interesting features of the area virtual waypoints are okay. They're certainly easier to maintain.

[+Navdog]

I think Kite and Hawkeye's post sums up my feelings very well. I enjoy good navigational challenges and most well done multis provide a little extra adventure. My stats tend to reflect that. One-third of my finds are multis and over half of my hides are multis as well.

[+WeightMan]

I have three favorite multi's. This one hits a few historical sites from which you gather information for the final. The same hider did another which takes you to several small parks over a stretch of several miles. I found a whole bunch of parks during that one. It also had some interesting ways of giving coordinates. Look at Criss-Cross.

 

A different type is this one which takes the cacher on a tour of one portion of the city.

 

Other types of multis do similar things in one park. An example of that type would be this one that first visits a park sign with numbers showing the various sites in the park. Waypoint two gets the cacher down to the beach in a safe manner. From that point it is an easy 0.34 mile walk to the final. This was a nice way to get the cacher from the parking lot to the cache without going down a steep bluff.

 

My first hide was a puzzle type multi. I hid some math puzzles in micros. Solving the puzzles got you to the next waypoint and you wound up at the final. It was patterned after the three I mentioned above.

 

Edit -- Spelling

Edited December 16, 2003 by WeightMan

[+Touchstone]

I put together a multi in a small park, but decided to list it as a puzzle. I didn't want anyone going out to do it expecting to zip right through the stages. It requires a fair amount of work to unravel the clues to the final cache location.

 

A thoughtfully put together multi is alot of fun. We have a couple in our area that require some simple math or observation to put together the next coords. They can be a blast to do

[+Mr. 0]

I personally hid a multi because I wanted to highlight some of the lesser known historical aspects of my hometown. I considered putting micros or whatever at each location but found that would be difficult, or even inapproprate in some areas. Plus I didn't want to over saturate the area with lame micros.

 

Here it is, if you want to take a look at it.

 

Hometown History

[+briansnat]

I use a multi for 3 reasons (all previously mentioned).

 

1. To highlight a number of interesting spots along the way to the cache.

2. To add to the challenge.

3. To force geocachers to take a certain route to the cache. Usually one that I think is the most interesting.

[+Northern Trekker]

I am in the process of hiding a multi-cache in my home town. I have chosen the method of the multi-cache:

 

Post the first location. At that cache site (none of these are micro caches) will be some of the coordinates of the final location, plus the coordinates for 4 other non-micro caches that each contain more information on the coordinates of the final cache location. This is fairly typically except that none will be micro.

 

My town has a core area (official city limits) that is quite small (about 3 square miles) and contains some 1500 +/- people. However, the outlying area (also referred to by the name of our town) is large (some 100 square miles +/-) and contains 20,000 people.

 

I plan to spread out these 6 caches so that the geocacher gets the opportunity to visit the entire area.

 

This will be the first multi-cache in our area so I want to make it interesting, a bit more of a challenge and of course fun.

 

Lastly, why no micros? I have found micros and they have their place, however with lots of open space here and a small population I see no reason to go micro. The intermediate containers are "sandwich size" tupperwear that has been covered with camo duct tape. That will 1) hide the cache from non-geocachers and 2) make it more enjoyable (I think) for the geocachers.

 

Have a great Christmas!

Northern Trekker

[+bons]

I used altoids sized micros with log books for the first 3 stages of my new (and first) multi, not because I couldn't have found a suitable place to hide something larger, but because it's possible to be covert with a micro but a little harder to hide the fact that you're opening an ammo box. It's only while you're looking for the micro that you look like a freak.

 

Muggles are just as much a factor as location.

[+GatoRx]

A park near my house had been 'remodelled', including a nice set of trails (some paved, some not), boardwalks, and a long pier going across part of a swampy area, ending on a floating dock in the inlet of a nearby river. The area was very nice, but I didn't think that one cache would get people to explore the whole thing. That's when I hid my first multi, Ring's Challenge. It covers many stages, with coordinates on small tags from a label maker, and ends in a pretty cool spot (can't give away too much of the surprise. )

 

Its been well-liked by those who've found it, and those who haven't finished vow to return to complete the challenge.

[+hikemeister]

Here is the best multi-cache that I ever have done:

 

Red Scorpion (zip code 33458)

 

It took us two days of planning and two days in the field to finally get this one, the final leg being a 3 mile boat trip up a river to an early 1900s pioneer's home sight.

 

I also have one that was developed with help from about 15 other geocachers right here on the forums, with a set of riddles, followed by a set of waypoints. That one is

 

TRIPLE DARE (zip code 33458)

Edited December 17, 2003 by hikemeister

[+BeachBuddies]

Thanks! Great stuff. I'll let you know how it goes

[+Ken243]

I have a pretty difficult multi I created. It called "Can you find it now?Good." Its in Michigan for those interested. Now the hidding spots I used are. A magnetic key holder with cords in it on the under side of a guard rail. I wrote the cords. on the inside of a tunnel with a bunch of other graffiti. I cut a 1 inch thick chip off a stump hollowed it out enogh to put a 35mm film canster in it and put the 1 inch chip back on top with a screw in one side so that the top twists to open it. I ziptied cords. to the inside of a vancant bird nest. I attached cords to a pine comb amonst many other pine combs. Wrote cords on the bottom of a rock and threw it in a rock pile about 3 foot by 3 foot. The final part of this cache there is a box with a combination lock on it. The combination is written on 3 of the 9 steps in the multi. The directions for the order of the numbers is attached to the box for the person to open it. Then once they open the door on the box there is a sign that reads, you didn't need to go through the trouble of going back to each step to find the numbers did you? You could have just opened the top. Needless to say, I get some rave reviews on this one.

[Tahosa and Sons]

Multis are an excellent way of increasing the transition from a drive and bag to a real hunt. They can take a little more work in setting one up but the hard core cacher really appreciates the hard hunt. Quality over quantity.

 

And of course some multis can be even harder than others it all depends on the way you design them. I've got one in the drawing stages for release next year and its not going to be easy, thus I can really load the cache full of goodies for those that have the time and effort to figure it out.

 

I used to make multis out of virtuals but had to eliminate those ideas to the changes. Even though they were well liked by cachers. So their just going to

get a little more difficult as time progresses.

 

Here are some examples of traditional multis

1. Lions Ridge

2. Gray Diamond Ghost Trail

3. #25

4. The Puma

5. Drakes Dilemma

6. Glidden's Wares

7. Corey's Safari III

 

Any questions EMail and I'll give you any help that I may be able to.

Edited December 17, 2003 by Tahosa and Sons

[+geo-jedi]

Although this is not an answer to your question, the notion of a bad multicache is certainly related.

 

1. Descriptions od multi's that don't tell you what you are getting into (i.e., how many stages) can be quite annoying.

 

2. Multi's that are not maintained are even worse. I have found all but the last cache of a couple of multi's only to be told that the final stage had gone missing and will not be replaced.

 

Team Geo-Jedi

[+MaxEntropy]

My first cache is an offset multi that guided the cacher through a local park that uses big stone sculptures as art. The cache makes them follow part of the art trail.

I was hoping that the multi made it a little more challenging and much more interesting. The feedback that I get seems to indicate that I was successful.

 

In a multi, I like to see a theme. High-tech, birds, horses, sci-fi, movie locations and cars are themes that I've seen in a multi. They were all more interesting and more fun than a park-and-grab. I also like multis that guide us through a park or other nice or interesting location. I can tell when the cache owner puts a lot of thought into the multi and I really appreciate the effort.

[+Fritz_Monroe]

Something I've been wondering about is if there's a suggested limit on the amount of territory a multi take up. For instance, I live in Baltimore and in the past 10 years or so a lot of movies have been filmed here. Could I place a multi that would take you all over the city?

 

As I'm extremely new at this, it's strictly out of curiosity right now. Once I start placing caches, I may consider a multi.

 

F_M

[+bigredmed]

Working my way through some of the various cache types.. I've done a fun night cache, some puzzle caches, and I just finished a letterbox hybrid. Now I'd like to hide a multi-cache.

 

So, I was trying to figure out what makes a good multi-cache, and I realized I haven't really found that many yet. One of my favorite multis had me and my family wandering around a local park, learning all about different things in order to collect all the clues. (For some reason, it wasn't classified as a multi though, I think it was listed as "unknown".) That was a good one, but requires a very specific type of setting.

 

But in any case, there are two obvious reasons to hide a multi:

 

1) you want to highlight a couple interesting sites that are somehow related (or that might be too close to each other to hide traditional caches at)

 

2) you want to increase the difficulty (and hopefully the challenge and fun!)

 

What are some other good reasons? What are some of your favorite multis? I'd really like to hide one that would be better as a multi than any other type. Thanks for your ideas!

1. I will try multi's that are like clues. You have to find a tag or directional item to get the cache.

 

2. I will not try caches that require more than simple (back of the paper) math to get GPS coords, nor will I do ones that require finding coords for the 100's or 1000's of a second as there is a fairly consistent discrepancy between Garmins and Magellans, and I don't want to wander around looking for stage 3 of 5 because I am off 2 digits from the error on the machine of the person hiding the cache.

 

3. The best ones though are the clue ones, read the DaVinci code and conceptualize using art or signs to point the way.

 

4. I personally like Cache Cafe's. This is where you can go to stage 1 and then either go on the multi hunt or to a traditional right away. Sometimes I have a day with lots of time and sometimes I don't.

[+beejay&esskay]

Something I've been wondering about is if there's a suggested limit on the amount of territory a multi take up.

 

Could I place a multi that would take you all over the city?

 

F_M

There is a new multi in Dayton OH that will be a 25 mile trip to go to the 4 clues and the final cache.

 

Maybe that isn't "all over the city"....but I don't have any objection to finding that multi.

[+Bloencustoms]

The first multi I ever placed had cachers go to a location, copy two sets of coordinates stamped on an aluminum plate, and travel to the first set. The then had to sight along a compass bearing, and read the name of the building in the distance. The building has "LANDMARK" in huge letters written on it and is visible for over a mile. They then add the number of letters (8) to the second set of coordinates, and follow them to the final cache. It has been archived for several months now, because it was a little far away for me to check up on as often as I'd like. Ironicly, the cache that is closest to my home is the one I have had the least amount of maintenance issues with. Anyway, I placed the multi in hopes of inspiring others to make similar caches. I really enjoy the adventure that a more complex cache can provide.