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Thinking Out Of The Box


hikemeister

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Here in south Florida, I have experienced some fantastic caches where the hider clearly had the ability to 'think outside of the box.' Finding caches like this is great, because it provides ideas for new hides. The only problem is that once something is done in an area, it really cannot be used successfully a second time, because the surprise is gone.

 

However, perhaps we can share examples of caches that are really 'outside the box' from various areas of the world, and use these examples to enhance our local cache hunting techniques.

 

Let me start this off with 4 examples. I am not going to provide the names or locations of these caches -- because of the risk that it could spoil the fun if someone from south Florida reads this thread. Please respect this approach when you post your examples.

 

One of these is mine / the others are from other geocachers

 

Example 1

 

A multi-stage cache

 

Stage 1 -- coordinates for stage 2 written on the back of a piece of pine bark, attached to a pine tree with velcro

 

Stage 2 -- coordinates for stage 3 etched into the back of a metal sign very carefully, with about 1/4 inch tall numbers

 

Stage 3 -- coordinates for stage 4 inside a fake pine cone, placed near a pine tree where there are about 30 other real pine cones that look exactly like the fake one, except for the bottom side

 

Stage 4 (final) -- small tree stump placed into an area with other small trees -- hinges up to reveal the cache container beneath

 

Example 2

 

A micro cache hidden inside of a hollowed out automatic sprinkler head. The cache is placed between the ends of two hedge rows in a park that does not have automatic lawn sprinklers. After two months, no one has noticed it but geocachers find it.

 

Example 3

 

A full size cache, constructed of 5 inch diameter PVC, with bottom sealed and top with a screw cap. Placed at a location 2 ft away from a real sewer stand pipe of same material and 2 ft away from a water meter. Buried in the ground with only upper 1 inch showing, to look like a part of the sewer system.

 

Example 4

 

A small plastic container, about the diameter of a 35 mm film cannister, but half as high with a snap lid. A large bolt screwed through the top. Painted dull brown with a rusty color bolt. Placed with velcro on a wood pier -- looks exactly like other bolts / washers on the pier, unless one notices it is a bit taller. Cache log is made of circular key tags, about 20 held together with a piece of thread.

 

Have at it !

Edited by hikemeister
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The problem with sharing these things is that once a great original idea is cloned it's no longer fresh. It just gets added to the mental database of where to look first.

 

Case in point. The light pole base. The first time I found one, wow, it about got me because I never knew those things lifted. Now even the sprinker is 'old hat'.

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I did a themed cache where instead of maintaining the same theme forever, the theme changed once all the contents of 10 items pertained to the current theme. It was called Everchanging Cache. It was going great until it go plundered twice in a month so I archived it. I want to do another one later on. It was fun to see the comments.

Kirk out, aka Search1128

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The problem with sharing these things is that once a great original idea is cloned it's no longer fresh. It just gets added to the mental database of where to look first.

 

Case in point. The light pole base. The first time I found one, wow, it about got me because I never knew those things lifted. Now even the sprinker is 'old hat'.

OK -- that is a valid point that I had not considered.

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