Coolness Quotient?

[+HoundGrrls]

I am a newbie and am thinking about some places where I could place a cache. One is very close to me and a big indoor mall, not terribly cool but I could find a place about half a block from the mall and two adjacent parks. It would be an easy park, cache, and dash. Is this too lame a spot?

 

My other slightly cooler locale idea is a few miles away in/around a state park. The geo website says that it is a no-no on "land maintained by the U.S. National Park Service" does a county run state park count?

Edited April 4, 2004 by HoundGrrls

[+RichardMoore]

Are you talking about in the mall? If so, I would worry about the searchers being spotted, the cache being "muggled", and the ability to get good coordinates inside a building. In a park is a much better idea.

As for the state park, your best bet is to ask the manager of the park. You should talk to him/her anyway to get permission to place a cache there.

And, as a standard recommendation, you may want to find a few more caches before you place one. This would give you an idea of what works and what to expect from your cache.

[+Lone Duck]

I just did a cache yesterday that literaly a drive-up. When I parked, the cache was at the nose of my vehicle. Nicely stocked and I made a good trade out of it. Fun.

 

Pick spots that you like and others will probably agree with you. The feedback in the logs will tell you if they do.

[+fly46]

There's one out near me that if you do it right you don't have to leave your car to do it.

I'm about to place one that will literally be four steps away from where you park your car.

 

Not everyone wants really simple ones, but they help to break up doing hard ones and they're great for new people just starting out.

[+HoundGrrls]

Thanks for the feedback. The one by the mall is outside not even on mall property. I will inquire at the state park too.

 

I was thinking about leaving something near the mall (before I post it) to see if a muggle walks away with it/trashes it. Do people usually do this (it does not mention it on the website)?

 

I agree about me finding more before placing one but I just like to start planning.

[AC Student]

Why not do both?

[+RichardMoore]

I was thinking about leaving something near the mall (before I post it) to see if a muggle walks away with it/trashes it. Do people usually do this (it does not mention it on the website)?

A local cacher once told me that he has a pink plastic box that he will put in a prospective hiding place with a couple dollars in it. There is also a note saying that if you found the box you can have the money but leave the box.

If he goes back to it a couple weeks later and the money is gone he doesn't put a cache there. The idea is if no one spots a pink box in the woods, they won't spot a camouflaged one.

 

Do people usually do this? No.

Is it a good idea? Yes. But most people (like me) don't have the patience. Once they find a good spot they want to hide a cache right away.

[+briansnat]

The "coolness quotient" I use is: Is this a place that I find interesting and would other people enjoy coming here.

[+HoundGrrls]

About doing both, yeah I will but now I only have one suitable container. I am quite near "the big city" so most of the caches near me are micro/virtual which is fun too but I like "stuff" so I am trying to find places that I could hid a sandwhich (or ideally bigger) tupperware container. Plus as is a common topic the few large caches I've find has nothing worth trading so I'd like to start mine off with at least some decent trinkets (also a reason to do just one right now).

 

I think I am going to do the pink box thing. There are often times lots of homeless people in my area so I'd like to hid it well enough so they don't stumble on it.

[+Riddlers]

I am also new to this and worried that I am making it too easy on one I hid and too hard on the next. I guess feedback will tell.

[+Fritz_Monroe]

I think I am going to do the pink box thing. There are often times lots of homeless people in my area so I'd like to hid it well enough so they don't stumble on it.

I like the pink box idea. I might give that a try.

 

As for the homeless people. I've seen a lot of logs where people were weirded out because of some homeless encampments. I feel that if there are homeless living in a particular patch of woods, it's probably not the best place for a cache. For one, it could limit the people that could hunt for it. A female friend has passed over several caches because the area didn't feel safe to her. Secondly, this is their home, it's not much, but it's what they have at the moment.

 

Just my opinion, take for what it's worth.

 

F_M

[+HoundGrrls]

Good thought. I always go with two hounds and when I'm lucky a human or two so I'm not intimmidated by the homeless thing but I will think about placement if I were to go alone.

[+javamutt]

I would definitely agree with the recommendation to wait a bit for your first hide. Make sure you've really sampled the terrain and difficulty spectrum. You'll probably learn some very cool tricks from your local hiders and be able to assimilate them into your own style. I think it was around 30 finds that I started to figure out what specific hiding styles were peaking my interest, and then I started to look at the areas I knew well in a different light. That's when I started working on the multi-cache I'm about to release

 

It's definitely an art that takes continuous learning, but the apprenticeship is about as much fun as it gets!

[+Renegade Knight]

Not every spot is 'cool' and by and large those are the best locations for a cache. Even so while some are weirded out by homeless encampments, abandoned buildings etc. I rather like seeing the other side. It may be their home but it's my city and I'm not there to kick them out but I do want to know that they are there.

 

It makes me pay attention to reality. Not the one my evening news brings me but the one I live in and don't even know about. When I'm ready to retire should I be so lucky to live that long volunteering to do something to better my community is something that interests me.

 

The most important part about placing a cache is that you had fun doing it. Maybe you want people to see the other side of the clean world people who can afford GPS's live in? That's ok. So are the cool spots.

[+SnowLeopard]

One person's "cool" cache is another person's "lame" cache. However, you can place many caches that appeal to all geocachers!

Don't worry too much about how "cool" the cache is, just go out and find spots that you think are apprpriate for caches, and they will come - cool or not.