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Hard Caches


gumpy

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I love hard caches. I love to try and figure them out. we haven't go to many areoun my area so at the momet I am at least trying to think of someway to make a 4 5. I would use special equiptment but I wouldn't do it my self i would if i knew i would be safe. ha yeah right. but I personally LOVE hard caches just with a lower terrain. give me a brain buster. I could try and figure it out.

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Give me a nice challenging hike with an ammo can at the end and I'm thrilled. Geocaching is my leisure activity. I spend to much time puzzling over the hard mental stuff at work during the week. When caching, I prefer not to have to solve a puzzle of some type, look for a needle in a haystack, or find a cache that doesn't even look like a cache in the first place.

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Whoa ShadowAce!!

Glad to see you made it out 'okay'!! :)

 

I would love to do some of the more difficult terrain caches around here but that story is why I won't attempt them alone. Whew! Now if I can find a babysitter and convince my husband to hike up the side of a mountain (okay, we have HILLS around here, but still!) then I might have a chance!

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I like the difficult caches.

 

Its a great way to spend time with friends. Camping out in the middle of nowhere after the cache hunt and sitting by the fire on top of a mountain while looking at the stars with no light pollution is one of the best parts of caching....until all the guys start talking about Britney Spears or the Olsen twins...

 

There is alot more to geocaching than just finding a cache. You won't experience those other opportunities like using a compass, reading topo maps, eating wild berries on the trail, seeing wildlife and overcoming mental and physical challenges if you don't try for one of the physically harder ones.

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Like 'em physically difficult. 4-5 star caches. My Dream cache, while it doesn't actually require technical gear, it is very demanding:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...23-069de6abf486

 

I did a virtual that I actually enjoyed tremendously...this was a 14 mile 4400 elevation gain to the cache and back, but I didn't stop there man. I decided, on way back, to drop 600 feet to Round lake so I did over 5K elevation gain and approx. 15 miles of hiking. Awesome!!!!!

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...ad-e3da2e9b8df3

Edited by evergreenhiker!
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I love puzzles, riddles, thinkers, and even some that require research. I think most people's problems with high-difficulty caches is that you have to plan to waste/spend all day working on them (depending on if you find it or not). My friend Toby and I are working on one that should be a pretty tough one with easy terrain.

 

~Jared

I don't like puzzle caches...definitely not my strength, but I'll take on a 5-star hide though...e.g. Micros.

 

My all time faves are though those 1-2 star hides, but 4-5 terrain hides. The mountains are my area!

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I like difficult terrain caches. Difficult hides I like under certain circumstances. Mostly I prefer a nice hike with a not too hard to find cache.

 

I tend to have to travel for those. There are not that many areas for longer hikes in eastern Nebraska.

Carleen and Lep came all the out ot the northwest to vist one my caches:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...89-ace85559a1ee

 

I have another one not too far away...Gem Cache that's also highly recommended

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...65-45442dc27f45

 

and few other similar caches. When I get back to washignton...first of October or so...I've got a couple more boxes planned even if it's in snow.

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I have done a few puzzle caches that were fun, one required knowing morse code which by chance I already knew, One I had to learn to read music for. Then there are the puzzles I have been working on for a few months now. as far a physical caches, for now those I am limted, per my doctor for a while. I have done a few that should not have been as hard as they we're. One just today was only .32 miles round trip and I felt like I had done one of mine that that is about a 1.5 mile hike up a hill that is fairly steep most of the way.

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In the Chicago area there are not too many challenging terrain caches. Within 100 miles there are 10 level 5 caches; 1 joke cache, 1 rock climbing cache, and 8 water caches.

 

What would I rate a cache that is about 30 to 40 feet up in a tree?

 

The cache is in place and I am ready to submit it.

 

The first branch is about 10 feet off of the ground and if you are a 'Monkey Boy' like my friend Nick the rest of the way is no problem.

 

Now a fall from 40 feet could possibly kill someone and would this be a case where I would recommend special equipment (a lifeline so they don't fall).

 

I realize that not too many people might attempt this cache but they all can't be a nice walk in the woods.

 

Also, legally is there any special information or disclaimers I need to add to the cache description?

 

Thanks for your future insight.

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I have a 5,5 cache all planed out, but I realized that no one would attempt to find it as evidenced by my 4,3 cache that hardly gets any finds. My 5,5 has legs that involve a waypoint in a sea cave (wearing wetsuit and kayak helmet for protection against the surge and sharp rocks), other legs use a laser pointer, ultraviolet and infrared lights, and a hike in a difficult coastal wash/ravine/canyon. Maybe I will make a couple of easier caches out of this.

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EScout:

I have a 5,5 cache all planed out, but I realized that no one would attempt to find it as evidenced by my 4,3 cache that hardly gets any finds. My 5,5 has legs that involve a waypoint in a sea cave (wearing wetsuit and kayak helmet for protection against the surge and sharp rocks), other legs use a laser pointer, ultraviolet and infrared lights, and a hike in a difficult coastal wash/ravine/canyon. Maybe I will make a couple of easier caches out of this.

 

Hmmm...

That almost sounds like this cache:

Pandora's Box :)

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Well Hmmm, Here is another noob that hasn't found a 5/5 yet but manages to get the approver to ok his first hide as a 5/5. B)

GCKM8M

It has some real good stuff in it besides the 2004 South Pole Benchmark replica.

Like a McMurdo station shot glass and a number of souvenir patches.

 

I'll be looking for a first to find on this one! :lol:

 

Mac

Edited by McMurdo1
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Well Hmmm, Here is another noob that hasn't found a 5/5 yet but manages to get the approver to ok his first hide as a 5/5. B)

GCKM8M

It has some real good stuff in it besides the 2004 South Pole Benchmark replica.

Like a McMurdo station shot glass and a number of souvenir patches.

 

I'll be looking for a first to find on this one! :lol:

 

Mac

man that looks like a fun one! If I had the money I'd put 2000 that one. Oh well.

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Completed three more recently.

 

The Window

Over 7 miles each way with a 4,000' foot climb.

and

Mica Mountain

From the trailhead at the bottom the hike was 7.08 miles to the top. Elevation gain of over 4,000'

 

Both of those can fit in our list of 'Wow, we did that? caches.

 

Reef

Not very long hike, but this one has taken down a couple of cachers already. I mean injuries and pain. It earned it's 4/4.5 rating without a doubt.

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Toughest cache in this area is the GCMXA2 Wildlife Cache. It's just south of Rockingham, NC in a swamp that's part of a gameland reserve. During our last visit we saw 6 snakes ... 5 poisonous (4 moccasins and a copperhead). No alligators ... yet. :unsure: It's right at the "seam" in the aerial photos and the topos are not at all accurate with what's there. Hence, the 5/5 ...

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Funny that this thread should be bumped right after I did The Upper Yough Trek last Saturday. My feet are still sore and some of the cuts on my arms still refuse to quit bleeding, four days later. In other words, my kind of geocache.

 

5.5 miles of fairly pleasant hiking along a raging rapid, and then .5 miles of hellacious bushwacking. You had your choice between jumping from rock to rock, hoping not to slip into the whitewater, or climbing like a mountain goat on the side of a steep slope, clawing your way through thorns, mountain laurel, boulders and small caves. Or, you could avoid the bushwack altogether by paddling one of the most challenging stretches of wild river in the eastern US.

 

Twelve miles, one smiley. Accurately rated at 4.5 terrain stars. No wonder that only a half dozen groups have sought this cache since it was hidden in 2003.

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"Difficult" is such a subjective word! I recently did a cache, four stars for terrain. I'm an ex-forest ranger/hiker/ice climber. When I read the description, it said it was an eight-mile hike. To me, that meant eight miles one way. The weather was pretty rainy and I've done my time in the rain, thanks, so I put it on the shelf for a dry day.

 

This is Washington. I had to wait a while for a dry day, so I had plenty of time to re-read the cache description. That was when I discovered it meant eight miles *round trip." It was pouring rain when I figured that out, so I went straight to the closet, got out my rain gear and up the trail I went. Slogged through mud up to my shins for at least half of it, but I found the cache.

 

Difficult? I would have given this one two stars, not four. I got a little wet, but I didn't even work up a sweat.

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I enjoy difficult caches, but not extremely difficult terrain -- just not in shape to do some of those safely. I very much enjoyed this cache, a 4/2.5 -- honestly I think it deserved a 5 on that first rating. It took three visits and as many weeks to complete. I don't care for extremely hard puzzle caches where you have to do the puzzling before you leave home, but puzzles in the field are great. this one nearby has waypoints with mind-blowing camouflage, and made a great companion piece.

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:anibad: HADIDAH'S METEORITE (Hadidah, Ar-Rub' al-Khali) (GCAA76) is two days off the black top travelling over sand to get there and the same back. You need to carry of lot of gas and water. Fortunately you are rewarded by a fairly easy find once you get there. You don't want to return with a DNF after making a journey like that.

 

I chuckled once when someone did exactly that and the group photo taken at the site had them clearly standing around the feature in which the cache was located.

 

I have bagged a 5*/5* and it put me off slightly. It is a bit tedious looking for practically the impossible after making an exacting journey. You normally only give these one shot. That said there is room for such caches for completeness.

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I just did my first 5/5 cache (In South Carolina if you can believe that)

 

The cache is called Deliverance and to find the final cache you have to go down the river for about an hour before you can reach the island where the cache is.

 

I fully enjoyed the cache and what makes it better is the fact the owners of the cache also are certified river guides and are more then willing to get you everything you need for the river aspect of the cache.

 

I HIGHLY suggest this cache to any 5/5 junkie

 

Deliverance

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If you like them hard I found this one

(GCGJV7)

only about 60 miles from my home in Arcata CA.

Its not even a 4 terrian but since it was put out 7/28/03 no one has yet logged it. :lol: We are thinking of giving it a try later this summer.

Just look at the cache discription, you know you want to.

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...a cache that doesn't even look like a cache in the first place.

What does a cache look like? How long is a piece of string? There are many answers you seek, young grasshopper, to questions that cannot be asked.

 

On topic, I love the hard ones. If I see a 5/5 pop up, I immediately make preparations to go do it as soon as I can.

 

This Cache is a pretty good one. I was one of the first 3 or so finders. Don't let the other logs fool you...that was a bear track!

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I recently did a cahce that wasn't so hard, but it took alot of time, alittle mental and physical coordination. I hadn't tried it since I've lived here but the other day I as kind of bored and decided to try it out. It took about 4 hours to complete and I knew it was a log only cache. It actually turned out to be one of the most fun caches I've done.

Here it is

Zero Declination

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Three of us started last year with a 5/5 and decided to make it a yearly thing. So this July 4 we are off to another adventure. There is something fun about fininshing a true 5/5. I guess it's just the challenge. In any case my answer is yes, I love them!

 

X

Do Deliverance then up here in Columbia, SC ;)

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Three of us started last year with a 5/5 and decided to make it a yearly thing. So this July 4 we are off to another adventure. There is something fun about fininshing a true 5/5. I guess it's just the challenge. In any case my answer is yes, I love them!

 

X

Do Deliverance then up here in Columbia, SC ;)

I guess I should before we become outlaws, huh?

 

X

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I was wondering if there really are people who like to do difficult caches?  There is a cache in Manitoba rated a 5x5 and it sounds like it is very hard.  It is called

Brains, Brawn and Beauty Cache

I think I have a right to speak up here...

 

I have done many a difficult cache. Some we make, some we spend over 7 hours climbing and never reach. I am in a unique position to answer this question as I was just flown off a mountain under a rescue helicopter yesterday morning.

 

Nope, not lost.. I fell off a cliff and landed on rocks alittle over 40 feet below where I slipped.. Will this keep me off the hard caches? heck no.. I found the cache before the accident so I do get to claim FTF and all that...

 

I really enjoy the challenges, just takes me awhile to get around to them sometimes..

 

For now, I am going back to the horizontal position.. be safe out there.

Just like any other sport you got to acccept the risk. If the horse bucks you off you either got to decide to take up knitting, but use blunt knitting keedles, or get back on. I tllk a 60 foot fall climbing, on once, but I keep climbing.

 

cheers

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[One person has reportedly found the first 4 stages but was stumped on the final cache. This has not been verified yet. It's the weekend, so he may give it another go before crying to Mommy :)[/color]

(unconfirmed) Found on the one month anniversary of it's placement! B):):):o

I wouldn't say unconfirmed, those are some of the top cachers in this area. If they say they found it then its been FOUND

 

And I must say no one has even found the other 5 x 5 in this area. Maybe next month or some time later in the summer.

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I have a 5/5 cache called Dark. I have had a lot of people who have found it tell me that this is the best cache that they have found yet. Last spring there was a group of cachers from NY and NJ who came down to Maryland to find my dark cache and the DC area project ape cache.

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[One person has reportedly found the first 4 stages but was stumped on the final cache. This has not been verified yet. It's the weekend, so he may give it another go before crying to Mommy :([/color]

(unconfirmed) Found on the one month anniversary of it's placement! :rolleyes::D<_<:(

I wouldn't say unconfirmed, those are some of the top cachers in this area. If they say they found it then its been FOUND

 

And I must say no one has even found the other 5 x 5 in this area. Maybe next month or some time later in the summer.

I only say unconfirmed because I haven't had the chance to look at the logbook. However, based on the emails and logs, I believe they were successful in their hunt.

 

Congratulations to the first finders of Cinco de Saxo!

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I'm very new to geocaching, and started out doing any cahce I could get my hands on. Now I look forward to the harder caches. The first cache I planted was rather easy. Now I want to hide a harder cache. See the trend? I know now that I enjoy the harder caches both hiding and finding.

 

Yah I like them!

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