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Micro Ideas For A City Park


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I'm looking for new and creative ideas for hiding a micro in a city park.

Other than a few trees (with obvious knot holes) and a decaying stone wall, there's not much to work with.

I know a lot of people keep their micro designs as "trade secrets", but maybe you're willing to open up and give me a few ideas? B)

I'm trying to place caches in all of the forgotten and hidden city parks - I call it ghettocaching! B):mad:

 

(and I have searched the posts for micro ideas already...)

Edited by SnowLeopard
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1) What's metal in the park - all the way down to the nuts and bolts (which can hold a logbook if you make your own and have a hold to put it in)

2) What's the sign like?

3) What kind of trees?

4) Any playground equpiment?

5) Do you have photos?

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1) What's metal in the park - all the way down to the nuts and bolts (which can hold a logbook if you make your own and have a hold to put it in)

2) What's the sign like?

3) What kind of trees?

4) Any playground equpiment?

5) Do you have photos?

I would avoid playground equipment, unless the fear of being seen as a lone stranger lurking in a playground is not a problem for your cachers. This has been discussed before and would get a significant fraction of negative reaction from most male cachers.

 

Put it in a part of the park that doesn't get used much. Anchor it somehow.

 

There is a cache in Omaha that is in a park with several baseball diamonds that was located in a small tree in an out of the way part of the park. This seems to be relatively popular in terms of finds and keeps muggle awareness to a minimum as they are all there for the ballgame and you are out of their area of attention.

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Spend some time walking around the park looking at the place. There is a park that I use for exercising and running ... after awhile different places for a micro just started 'jumping out' at me. Also, if it does get muggled, no sweat, just hide another one close by.

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Well, here's one idea that I have been thinking of. You find a micro container that allows for a clip of some sort to be attached. Then you go get one of those retractable key thingys that janitors always use. Clip it to the container with a hook of some sort attached at the same point to the container and a length of string or thin rope to dangle down. Then get a length of that strap material often used on back packs and end clips (like those of a dog collar) for that strap. Secure the key ring to the strap with a bolt or something. Put the whole thing up in a tree and clip the strap around to trunk high up enough that the string that dangles down from the container is with in reach, but not so high that the chain of the retractable key ring can't reach down. When a person find the cache, they pull the srting attached to the container and pull it down and use the hook to secure it to a branch. The cache can then be opened, log signed, items traded (if the cache is big enough) and then the person can simply unhook the container from the branch and let the spring in the key ring pull it back up into the branches.

 

I know it sounds a little "scattered," but it is something that I have thought of for some time and I'm sure it would work. When I get around to making one I'll post a pic.

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1) What's metal in the park - all the way down to the nuts and bolts (which can hold a logbook if you make your own and have a hold to put it in)

A few signposts, benches, manhole covers, metal railings, and a fence around the playground.

 

2) What's the sign like?

Painted wood with metal bolts.

 

3) What kind of trees?

Two types:

old knarled trees with knots, rough bark, and no low hanging branches (the knots are all obvious, and I would need to be extra-creative to place something in there)

young trees with smooth bark, and no low hanging branches (these come out of the ground in clumps, so I was thinking about placing a fake stumps)

 

4) Any playground equpiment?

Yes, but I wanted to avoid it

 

5) Do you have photos?

At one time it looked like this:

25918_clarkhouse_big.jpg

 

But now it's just a sparse and neglected inner-city park:

cascade.jpg

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I'd spend maybe an hour looking on that "rock wall" looking for a loose brick or a crack big enough for a "bison tube" (REI) or you could take a "small breath mint" container the strip kind...and slip it into a crack....

 

The really looks like a lot of tiny spots that would be there...but since its in duluth you gotta get it off the ground cracks.

 

Remember a few things...a log book just has to be a piece of paper...so if you want you could make it as flat as a "sheet" magnetic strip...."rite in rain" paper rots...so you would need to cover it with plastic and keep chking on your cache location.....

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its basically the same thing you can buy at a large pet store......

 

its a small tube that is on a keychain.....

 

you can get a pet id container that attaches to a dogcollar.

 

also don't forget the power of "camo" and what a magnet can do..."think think think" make something that looks like it belongs.. like a small sign that doesnt make sense and stick it on the back of another metal sign.....

 

I hate to give you more ideas because Duluth is in my range in the summer time.

Edited by Kitch
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VELCRO !!!

 

The secret ingredient for micro-caches. It sticks to almost anything, and if you carefully select your paint color to match the item you attach to, you often can hide in plain sight. I have three caches in plain sight, and I mean plain sight, and they still are there. One is a small plastic box, painted exactly the same color as a metal guard rail. It is attached wich Velcro. The location is the parking lot of an 18 screen theatre. Amazing as it seems, it has been found by over 30 geocachers and never once messed with by muggles.

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Clever camouflage is the answer. Make a container that blends into the landscape somehow, e.g. something that looks like it might be a part of the control infrastructure on a light post.

 

You can also buy sheets of magnetic material that aren't much thicker than heavy paper. Does that give you any ideas?

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Have a look at the "fake post" I did for a recent event cache.

 

The variation I'll be using soon (Christchurch cachers stop reading now!)

involves using the whole post with a few centimetres cut off the top (we're metric, deal with it), a hole drilled and chiseled out of the main piece and a ring of galvanised metal nailed onto the top piece.

The top piece sits back in place on top (maybe with some Velcro between) and the metal strip hides the join and looks authentic.

 

Plant it somewhere a little out of the way and it should survive gardeners, especially in derelict parks!

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