A New Cache.

[+Just the Jinkies]

Hi,

 

I'm new to this and I'm hoping for a little advice. I aim to place a cache on a stony beach but it's not too far from the road - I reckon maybe 50 yards at most. Is this OK or should I add a little difficulty factor and making it multi-cache by introducing questions about the surrounding area? My aim is to make it at least slightly challenging...

 

BiMi.

[+Renegade Knight]

That depends on what you mean by challenging. Challenging to find to find or challenging to get to?

[+Just the Jinkies]

Challenging in terms of finding where it is - not the terrain.

 

BiMi.

[+Renegade Knight]

That's a tough one. Too hard and cachers will turn over every rock. To easy and someone will steal the cache.

[+Robespierre]

Here's the picture I get: I'm going to use the maps on the cache page to choose the road that gets me closest, or parking coordinates, if they are provided. Sometimes this has a "fooler" in it, like, which side ofthe lake do I park on? etc.

If the parking is a no-brainer, then consider the size. An ammo box set down in the rocks with somethin on top may be pretty easy to spot on an open rocky beach. A very small container is another matter.

Nothing wrong with a find that's a little easy. It can be more memorable if you add some touch.

[+WeightMan]

If you go with a smaller container hidden under one of the rocks don't make it a needle in a haystack type of hide. Also don't give a hint that it is under a rock

[LEAD DOG]

Arrange some of the stones in a big "X" that can olnly be seen from the sky...

[+Spencersb]

Arrange some of the stones in a big "X" that can olnly be seen from the sky...

Don't forget to make it a 5* because you need a plane!

 

Seriously, 50 yards from the road should be okay but if there's concern about it, note in the cache description "Stay away from the road" or something like that. My first one (which was tragically bulldozed recently ) was close enough to the interstate that I said "Don't park on the interstate!" Now personally, I would know not to look for an ammo can in the fast lane of I-40, BUT...

 

As far as being in the rocks, I hunted a cache in Washington state that was in a rocky hillside near a riverbed that was an ammo can surrounded by large rocks. GPS reception was iffy, and I only found it by using the hint and poking around with my hiking stick. It's had 2 DNFs since my find. Another one near there was on a beach under some driftwood. Think there might be a few pieces of driftwood on a beach?

 

Make it as easy or as hard to find as you want, it's your cache. But if you do give a hint, make it something useful. I've never been so mad when caching as when I hunted for 30 minutes, in the rain, then broke down to decrypt a hint that said something like, "In order to find this well hidden cache you must decrypt this long winded hint, at which time you will realize that I considered this cache far too easy to supply a meaningful hint!"

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

I suggest that you visit the local paint supplier for several cans of spray paint, in the colors that match the rocks. 3 colors should be enough to effectively hide a cache in the rocks. a careful paint job and you hide it in plain sight!

 

If most of the rocks are dark in color, then paint your container light coored first and then add dark patches as needed. If the rocks are light colored then paint the container dark first. Use irregular patterns/shapes (use shapes similar to the rocks) when using the last 2 colors leaving some of the light spots showing (like sunlight on the rocks).

 

When covered over with some rocks it will blend in and make the hunt a bit more difficult. If there are any niches available use them with just 2 or 3 rocks in front of the container.

 

Hope this helps you come up with some more ideas.

 

John

[+Kai Team]

Be careful about making this one too hard - as noted above, make it too hard and people will turn over every rock, certainly not in the spirit of geocaching (respecting the environment)!

 

I found one micro cache hidden in an old stone wall (an abandoned part of the Erie Canal). To prevent wanton destruction of the wall by avid cache hunters pulling out every loose rock, the cache owner placed a small "X" in black marker on the one rock that had to be moved to find the cache. She noted this in the cache description (i.e. "don't move any rocks except the one with the X").

 

Given the number of rocks (it was a long section of wall!) and the small size of the "X", it still took 20 minutes to find. I thought this was a great approach since it was challenging but also respected the environment that the cache was hidden in.