Ideas 4 Winter Caches Or Doing Winter Caching?

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

Began caching early this summer and notice that in Manitoba. according to logs I've read, little caching is done in winter. Do any of you cachers in Canada or Northern U.S. have ideas as how to make caches that are winter friendly for cachers? What works and what doesn't . I'm thinking that we need to create separate ones for winter and perhaps disabling them for summer - how would geocaching.com feel about doing this.

So many cross-country ski trails would be great for caching on...and no mosquitoes. Should Manitoba cachers list whether or not their caches would even be possible to find in winter? Or should one e-mail the owners? What works and what doesn't. Love some ideas...I just cannot imagine waiting til next summer to cache again. We enjoy it so much as a family...

[+TrimblesTrek]

Stop caching in the winter? Bite your tongue!!!

 

There are plenty of different ways of hiding a winter friendly cache. Just think outside of the box a little...

- camouflage the cache and hide it above ground... in a tree, velcroed to a branch or fencepost, magnetically attached.

- hide the cache in a protected area, like under a bridge

- hide a few creative micro caches. These can be in plain sight, only to be found by the most discerning cachers eye. Lots of fun!

- unless you are in an area that gets very little snow, make sure the cache is above ground (or snow) level.

 

Your idea of indicating the "winter friendly" status of the cache is a good one. Many of us have been wishing for this type of information from gc.com for a long, long time. Kid friendly, dog friendly, underwater cache, cache and dash.... the list goes on and on. Nothing's been done yet... maybe some day.

 

Have a fun winter!

[+Algonquin Bound]

Most of the caches I have encountered, largely in the Golden Horseshoe area of southern Ontario, are definitely winter-friendly. In fact, I don't think I could come up with one that isn't winter-friendly. As my friend TT says, "Bite your tongue!" I don't think there are too many cachers around here who don't go out in the winter. We think those people are weird. Take Flick, for example. No really... take Flick. I think even he goes out for the odd one over the winter, just to feed his habit. Otherwise we would all go mad and there would be some kind of mass rebellion. Personally, I started late last year, so a lot of my caching was done over the past winter and I loved every minute of it. Did my share of digging, or clawing through snowbanks, but more often than not, came up with the goods. Anyway, it's only September. Go find a bunch, then hide a bunch and if you get really bored over the winter, you can go and look for your own. Have fun.

[+fireflyfan]

I started caching last fall and I'm here to testify that winter caching is the best! No bugs, no leaf coverage to block satellites, less muggles and the night time hunts are great fun ... the moon reflects off the snow so you don't need a flashlight until the very last part of the hunt/log signing.

 

We've snowshoed, cross country skied and just plain hiked to the caches.

 

Did I mention no bugs?!

 

Other benefits ... swamps freeze over making it much easier ... when the lake freezes over you can just take short cuts ... don't have to follow the path.

 

The last big benefit I can think of ... nice easy trails to follow right to the cache. So watch those hard ones ... when someone finds it get out there quick and it becomes much easier. In fact I was on a first to find hunt last year on a multi when we just couldn't find the tag. However, we had noticed that we were the 3rd person out that day for the cache (so much for our first to find) so we memorized their treads and watched the trail till they left it about 200 metres later. They led us right to the next tag

 

In fact my caching slowed right down in the summer ... I stuck to the urban caches ... bugs bugs and more bugs were out in those woods

 

In the Ottawa area most of the caches are labeled "winter friendly".

 

Looking forward to the winter for the first time in my life.

 

Fireflyfan

[+Hard Oiler]

Winter is definitely a great time to hunt caches though curiously I've found that hides in places that get long hard winters don't necessarily get hidden with winter in mind - or in containers that will survive being chipped out of a block of ice.

 

The best winter caches are either hanging in trees or under evergreens.

 

The worst are hidden under log piles that freeze solid in winter.

 

Of course winter is also a great time to hide caches - although, as I've discovered, a well hidden cache in winter becomes a really well hidden cache in summer. One winter hidden cache I know requires a machete and a gallon of bug spray to get to it in summer

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

So would a good camouflage in a snowy winter be white paint on a small altoids container hidden in an evergreen tree? Or would it be better to use some hunting camo duct tape for a forest type camouflage? Sorry to bring up snow and winter, but Edmonton already had snow and what they get is never far away from becoming our Manitoba reality...Thank you for the encouragement and keep the ideas coming. I'm a newbie to this all and want to be creative, but not do something impossible for others to find. I think so far my three hides are all somewhat winter friendly but I'm thinking of moving one higher and into a different container for the winter and then switching back to a lower elevation for spring/summer/fall again.

[Prairie Jeepin]

I'm just new to this too and have been thinking of winter caching lately. The only problem I see with winter caching has less to do with the cache or the container and more to do with the snow.

 

The trouble I see is that tracks left in the snow between snowfalls will;

 

1) give away the location to other cachers,

2) give away the location to non cachers,

3) give away the location to those who would destroy, make a mess, or remove a cache because they are not "in the know" and think it is fun to be a moronic idiot.

 

In my mind, tracks left behind during winter caching puts that cache at risk until such time as those same tracks are covered over.

 

Hate to be the one with the bad outlook, but that's how my mind works. I would like to give winter caching a try, but I don't want to jeopardise someone's efforts or location.

 

PJ

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

A cache owner suggested on his website that if you looked for his cache not to take a direct line on it through the grass but to go a little further on and do so and then once the cache was found to please leave in a different direction or stomp around a bit to mess it up for others. We alway try to hide caches slightly better than we find them, covering them up with extra leaves or creating a different trail or at one which was too easy to get to since others had made a trail in tall grass we sort of created a new one to a place that looked like a good place to hide a cache. Don't know if it worked but we'd do the same with winter caches we'd find.

[+Hard Oiler]

The trouble I see is that tracks left in the snow between snowfalls will;

 

1) give away the location to other cachers,

2) give away the location to non cachers,

3) give away the location to those who would destroy, make a mess, or remove a cache because they are not "in the know" and think it is fun to be a moronic idiot.

If you're a slightly evil cache seeker (like me ), once you've found the cache you cover your tracks, lay a few new ones to another hiding spot and trample around that one for a bit.

[+Olar]

I've been at this game for over three years and just love the Winter time cache hunts especially on those bright sunny days with lots of white snow and snowshoes. I also lived in Winnipeg for 4 years about a thousand years ago and we did a lot of cross-country skiing in the protected wooded areas. I think I'm qualified to offer a few pointers for winter caching in the Prairies.

• Clothing: I don't have to tell you about dressing warm.
  
• Wineskin: Wine freezes too fast. Use cherry whiskey.
  
• GPS: Keep inside your jacket. Use an external antenna.
  
• Ponds & streams: have wife break trail in case of thin ice.
  
• Logbook: pens don't work - carry a lead pencil
  
• Facial hair: frozen over mustaches make drinking from wineskin difficult.
  
• Caching vehicle: carry extra key so you can keep car running and locked
  
• Location: stay within perimeter highway close to nice warm pubs
  
• Duration: don't try 24 hour marathons
  
• Tupperware: don't kick when frozen to ground - it shatters
  
• Ammo Box: don't kick when frozen to ground - you'll break your foot
  
• Navigation: don't depend on sun for compass direction - its always in South
  

Have fun, Olar

[Prairie Jeepin]

LOLOL thanks for laughs Olar

 

(just about sprayed my drink on the monitor)

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

We are laughing too!

The extra key to keep the car warm is just a fabulous idea. Can one get an external antena for a Geko 201? I guess I'll do some research. Never thot about how fast the batteies will die in our frozen tundra. I guess the digital camera batteries will suffer too. Hmm. And one could lose some fingers on a wet, frozen ammo box I suppose. Well at least this should get us away from the t.v and out of the house in winter. Maybe that winter fat we build up all fall in prep for hibernation will finally be of some use.

I imagine you've settled into a warmer climate, by the way you write. Congrats - we just finally had our 1st and 2nd and last days of summer this week.

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

Suggestions for cold weather caching on a dog-sledding site that I found useful and interesting were 1) using a chemical hand warming pack around the GPSr unit to keep batteries warm 2) preferably using lithium batteries which have longer life 3)of course keeping it in jacket as long as possible to retain battery strength 4)warnings that the LCD screen will fade sooner than the batteries go in cold weather.

[+FarSideX]

I placed this cache with winter caching in mind. We also had quite a bit of snow when I placed it so it ended up being quite high in a tree come spring time.

 

For this coming winter I found a marsh with a tree in the middle where I will be placing a cache once the marsh freezes. Hopfully the summer only cachers will be able to see it but not retrieve it.

 

Top of ski hills are also a good spot for winter caches, let those that are willing to get out in the winter ride the chair up.

[Taxman003]

Actually, I do more caching in the winter than I do in the summer. I think it's because there's no shortage of things to do in the summer, so when I start getting stir crazy sitting in the house all winter, a nice walk in the bush sounds inviting.

 

I don't like finding the caches by following footprints though, so I usually only cache after some snow or windy days.

 

Mike

[+Swifteroo]

If you're a slightly evil cache seeker (like me ), once you've found the cache you cover your tracks, lay a few new ones to another hiding spot and trample around that one for a bit.

OMG! so that is you that is leading me astray HardOiler! I have noticed that people do that! haha..

 

I agree that caching in the winter is a must to adapt to in our Ontario climate!

 

One of my favoritist caching photos ever came from a winter cache that I did. we found the cache under all that snow!