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Best Times To Hide A Cache


The Blue Quasar

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My wife was humouring me the other day by pretending to be more than a little interested in my usual ramblings on about Gecocaching (she claims that there are other things to talk about).

 

Anyways, an interesting comment came from her that she thinks that geocaches that are hidden in the spring are generally the hardest geocaches to find.

 

Her logic (which I happen to agree with) goes something like this....

 

The plants are just starting to grow, so when you hide the cache you usually go a little farther off the trail so it isn't seen. The hiding place is usually better covered up and probably harder to see when you are standing near it. When summer comes the area is so grown over that it is very difficult to find it again unless a geotrail has been formed.

 

Caches hidden in winter normally get buried under piles of rocks and usually are a good give away since there are no sticks and leaves to hide it and there also isn't much that will move from the frozen ground.

 

Summer caches are usually pretty easy too, either a trail of tramped weeds or in other seasons all of the cover is absent and cache can be seen from a short distance.

 

Fall is not too bad as the leaves make it easy to hide, along with all of the new fallen branches and the weeds are going away, or blown over. Then snow covers the cache anyway.

 

So after all that, what does everyone else think about the best times to hide a cache.

 

This is just an idle comment/topic, but debate is always fun.

 

:o The Blue Quasar

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So after all that, what does everyone else think about the best times to hide a cache.

 

I think the best time is between 8:30 and 9:45 AM. :P:P:D Oops! did you mean best season? :o

 

BQ your wife is absolutely right. On more than one occasion I have had to actually "find" a cache owned by myself while doing a maintenance run. Kind of embarassing to say the least but fortunately no one around to see me walk on past a hiding spot.

A prime example of a Winter or early Spring hide is one I hunted a couple of years ago that required cachers to leave the trail and bushwack a short ways. No big deal and very common except in this case the only way in was through a large patch of Trilliums. Certainly this case is a prime example of the importance of owners checking their caches frequently for any adverse environmental impacts especially during the mid to late Spring months.

 

Cheers, Olar

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Your wife is right and wrong.

 

Here is why. She is right to consider the seasons. However you have to take them into context as the cache location cycles though the seasons.

 

Take your spring hide. The growing season is just starting. Soon the cache will be buried in weeds hiding the bark you hid the cache under. Come winter it doesn't matter you can't find it because there is nothing above the 3' of snow to accent the spot. Your only choice is to use a shovel on a 40' diamater circle and hope you find it. The path may or may not develop depending on how far off the beaten path the cache is at.

 

That summer hide, tucked behind the tree trunk under dense growth. Come late summer the growth will be all dead and flattened. The cache will now be exposed from what was a difficult hiding spot.

 

Seasons and local variations. Some of what I just said may not apply in your neck of the woods.

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...in this case the only way in was through a large patch of Trilliums...

So long as it wasn't Poison Ivy! :o

 

Seriously, yes, I am from Ontario, and I wouldn't be destroying the Trilliums. They ARE quite hardy though, we find them growing right in the middle of paths where people must have stepped on them in the early stages of growth...

 

MaisOui

:0)

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BQ

 

I agree with your wife. spring hides do make for hard finds later in the the year. if there is one thing that is good about early spring hides (winter and late fall) is there is no tree cover to hinder your gpsr. yes you get all the other factors but you get better reception in the spring. so harder find yes. better co-ords yes.

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...in this case the only way in was through a large patch of Trilliums...

So long as it wasn't Poison Ivy! :P

 

Seriously, yes, I am from Ontario, and I wouldn't be destroying the Trilliums. They ARE quite hardy though, we find them growing right in the middle of paths where people must have stepped on them in the early stages of growth...

 

MaisOui

:0)

Although, a perusal of my copy of the criminal code shows no prohibition on destroying trilliums. I don't have a copy of the provincial offences list, but I'm pretty sure that trilliums aren't protected there.

 

That said, it's certainly bad form to just go trampling stuff :o

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Although, a perusal of my copy of the criminal code shows no prohibition on destroying trilliums. I don't have a copy of the provincial offences list, but I'm pretty sure that trilliums aren't protected there.

I wasn't even thinking about the legal implications of stepping on a Trillium, I was just thinking about respect for the symbols of my country/province that I've been taught to recognize and love since I was a wee girlie...(Yeah, yeah! Blah, blah, blah...but you can see from another thread on this site that I am a sentimental fool...) But now I'm curious, since it's something I HAVE heard since I was a kid and there were Trilliums growing all over around my Grandparents' cottage. Is it the best Urban Legend Ever? LOL

 

Ooops! Did we hijack BQ's thread?!? (Best Telly Savalas impersonation here!)

 

Back on topic... because it WOULD be bad to place a cache in the winter and find out 3 or 4 months later that the flora of the area are protected (if, indeed, they are).

 

MaisOui

:0)

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Excellent point about the GPSr accuracy in the spring. I never thought about the fact that the less tree cover means it is more accurate and therefore in the summer it is harder to find since the signal is less accurate.

 

I think that the spring hides are the hardest to find, or perhaps are hidden with more care making them all the more resilient(sp) and less like to be accidentally found.

 

Those pictures from GM100Guy prove it case in point that things really fill in making the find harder.

 

:o The Blue Quasar

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Like previous posters mentioned, I don't know that it matters when you hide, might be easier in some seasons, but you must consider all seasons.

 

You need to survive long cold winters intact, even if it can't be found in winter. Need to make sure you are not going to flood out in spring. Make sure there isn't too much foliage hiding you in summer or the opposite for fall, make sure you're not just hiding behind foliage.

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in my opinion, right towards the end of the spring thaw is the best time to hide a cache. mainly due to the fact that there is a minimal growth of flora at this time. if your able to hide your cache good then, just think on how all the foliage will help you conceal it further. but with the soft ground at the end of the thaw it is easy to stamp down and kill any grasses and small plants around the cache area that will grow once the weather warms, so you have o be careful.

 

nothingface.

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I just placed a cache and it's summer. Pretty much everything is grown in so no surprises as the seasons change. I tried to pick a spot that would be accessible in all seasons. I walk the area frequently enough to check on it, so I'd like to take pictures in all seasons just to see. :mad:

 

I would definitely love to place a winter cache. :huh:

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I'd like to point out that Mr. Quassar's Quasy 06 StJohn's CA is a perfect example of what can happen durring the growing season. The trails surounding the cache are usually well kept, but at this time the Red Trail is overgrown and knitted with thorns :blink: Not good for the cachers who are too stubborn to find and alternate route (I.E. Me) I got cut up pretty bad on my arms and chest... So this goes to show you that Summer time can throw some growth issues into effect... Not much worry for that particular cache tho, that trail is the long way in... (My bad :blink: ) But still... Cache's should probably be placed durring the Summer so that you know how accesible the plant life leaves the area... Altho you shouldn't rely on plant's (lively ones) to hide your cache, Throw it under a rock, or in an old dead tree... atleast then you'll be sure it won't fade away and reveal your cache...

 

-D-

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I went out to do maintenance on a cache I placed the last week of April. I was on my bike and rode in along the trail... leaving the GPS in the truck. (heck, I knew were the cache was and I went there 4 times already).

 

I rode and rode... hmm... was it this far in? Kept going and then finally turned around. I slooooowly rode back along the trail to a part that kind of looked familiar and walked in to the cache.

 

Man-oh-man can the surroundings change in just a few months! A pond that was there in April is gone. The vegetation has grown up so much that the rock formations were gone or at least quite well camo'd by the surrounding vegetation.

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With respect to Quasy Cache 06.....

 

The area has poor reception at the best of times, which is why the hint has been edited (about a month ago) to provide more help. The trees are very full this time of year.

 

As for thorns on paths, well, I usually take the longer route to go to my cache (QC06) by taking the west trail. Usually damp at first but then very nice.

 

I only mention the longer route for PBF's giggles!

 

I too have found many thorny bushes or raspberries in my travels this year, they seem worse this year, or maybe it's a perception thing.

 

I did Dex's "Pet Cemetary" cache before it was approved, and reception was awful. Summer is just hard to place an accurate cache in, and I know Dex knows what he is doing when he places a cache. The problem is tree cover.

 

:rolleyes: The Blue Quasar

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