Tips on Hiding caches

[Guest bunkerdave]

I spent the last week placing some caches to get my average into an acceptable range - for me, that is. Last night I went after 6. First one, no luck, but I found 4/6, which was nice. The other one was a dead cache I neglected to get updated on, so my own fault. I did go to one which was placed, and the coords were 106 feet off. I am not sure if it was a new cacher or not, but I have only been at it a little over a month, and people have found the caches I have placed without any trouble. It seems like a good standard for placing caches is that they should be on public land, and they should be visible when you are at the stated coords - or if they need to be covered to avoid being plundered, the cache register should tell you it is covered, buried, or whatever. It is also helpful to mention what the container is, so A person has some idea what they are looking for. One that I failed to find last night said NOTHING in the log about how it was concealed, but everyone who had found it mentioned how cleverly it was concealed. I am all for a good hunt; I enjoy finding caches which are cleverly hidden. It also makes the caches last longer. That said, I would like to see coordinates closer than 50 feet. With WAAS there is no reason we should not be within 10 feet of the cache with the stated coords, unless hiders are just too lazy to take multiple readings. Sometimes it is difficult to get a good reading in an area due to any number of conditions. If in doubt, it helps to say so in the log, and give more hints. You can encrypt as much as you want, and reputable cachers take extra pride in finding caches w/o the hints. I know I do, but after 15 minutes of hunting, I usually find myself in a comfortable spot decoding the hint. Since I usually seek multiple caches each time I go out, I am not inclined to spend extra time looking for one cache when there are others to get after.

 

I just re-read this, and I guess I probably sound like I am upset about something, which I must confess, I do get a little irritated when a cache is not where the coords take me. That said, I do realize this is all a game, and is meant to be fun. These are just a few tips that will help you to hide caches that will be found, so that everyone can enjoy both sides of the game.

 

Cache On!

 

BunkerDave 6/38

[Guest Ron Streeter]

hat do I know.

 

Just my coins for whatever they may be worth.

 

Ron

19H/18F

 

[This message has been edited by Ron Streeter (edited 01 June 2001).]

[Guest Silver]

Don't forget that only the newest units have WAAS and some units will not do position averaging. So the cache hiders position is usually assumed to be about 30 feet off.

 

If you look at your own GPS unit, most of the time it will say the estimated error is 30 feet also. So the extreme case is even with the same coords, you could be 60 feet from where the cache hider hid it.

 

Can't blame the cache hider or the GPS unit. It's just part of the game.

 

My $0.02 on the issue.

 

Silver

[Guest bunkerdave]

I appreciate the replies, especially those from you who I know to be knowledgeable and experienced in both hiding and seeking. I recognize that there is an element of error inherent in the GPS system. I must confess that part of my frustration lies in that I have found, in spite of coordinates which were tantamount to a "wild goose chase" several caches which I found hard to believe the coords were taken at the cache location. My post certainly reflected that. I think, to rephrase my original post, that it is useful to provide SOME hint. I have sought caches that gave nothing but coords. No description of the container, the hiding place, etc. This is well and good, but for those (like me) who don't know any better when we see a cache posted than to go after it like moths to a flame, it is helpful to have SOMETHING to go on. I think that is what the encrypted hints are for. A seeker can go out and try to find it with just coords, and then, after he/she feels ready to give up, decode the hint, and hopefully find the cache. It's a little less rewarding, but there are, after all, only 3 rules.

 

Clearly, I was unreasonable in a few of my suggestions. What I should have said is that cache placers should simply consider how willing they would be to look for the cache they have hidden. It is important to consider the area of the cache. If there are many places the cache could be, then the coords need to be better, and more detail is called for in order to reduce the search area. If the area is fairly clear, such as an area filled with sagebrush or rocks, then you might be able to get by with fewer or no hints, because there are fewer places to look through. The way I like to do it is to get the seeker to the area, and then encrypt a more specific hint that essentially gives the cache away. I like to mention that the hint is a real "spoiler," so they know it will ruin some of the fun. The point is that I WANT them to find the cache, whether they use the hint or not. I enjoy reading the logs when people find my caches, so I take steps to ensure that it can be found. Maybe I will put my cell phone number in the registers so people can call me and we'll play "hot or cold" while they hunt. I guess that is essentially what the game is, after all. The GPS tells you if you are "hot or cold" and hopefully when you get really "hot" you are standing on the cache. No WONDER I love this game. - Anyway, I am rambling, as usual. Late - BunkerDave

[Guest Markwell]

Sorry for the length...

 

We have two caches in the Chicagoland area that were #41 and #42 placed. The only hints given are the coordinates. There's no description; the names are "Geocache" and "Geocache". That to me sounds like pure Geocaching - give them the coordinates and let them find it on their own. There's no difficulty rating (maybe there wasn't back in the early days). Surely the hider of these still-active caches has had the chance to update their log pages - but he has chosen not to. Does that make me want to find them less? No - it in fact intrigues me.

 

Analogy: I sing in a chorus that prides itself on being able to sing with a lot of power, but also extremely well in extremely soft passages. We've found that it can even give the audience a chill to have something so soft that you have to strain to hear. I recently listed to a recording session in which we had performed, and our soft passages were no where near the softness of our concert. The problem was that the sound engineer compensated in his recording, turning up the input volume during the soft passages and thus leveling off all the volumes to what he considered an acceptable decibel. Cheaper recording devices do this automatically with condenser microphones.

 

If we water down difficulty levels by giving extra hints, there's no challenge. I say the cache is what it is.

 

All that being said, three comments:

1) if a cache were hidden inside a fake tree stump made to blend into the environment, I would be ticked if it gave no hint and listed the difficulty level as "1";

2) if I ever find that my actual readings are significantly different from the cache hider's readings, I will either say so in the log or an e-mail;

3) since my Garmin eTrex does not average, I usually take 10 readings, walking away and walking back each time. Even then, at times I have posted on the cache page that if anyone with better technology gets significantly different coordinates, please e-mail me and I'll consider changing them on the cache's page.

[Guest Peter Scholtz]

This thought popped up reading this topic ...

 

Most of use tend to leave the GPS on the cache location when recording it's location. But many of us tend to stand close to it when recording the location.

 

But if you stand close to the GPS then you'd more than likely be blocking at least one satellite?!

 

 

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Peter Scholtz

www.biometrics.co.za

[Guest kbraband]

I have hidden 7 caches, so I've been able to see quite a bit of feedback in the logs from those who have found them. In most of my listings I include an encrypted hint, but it seems to me nearly everyone is automatically decrypting the hint before they even start their hunt. I see postings that say things such as "we used the hint to go right to the spot." This discourages me, somewhat, because I'd like to think the hunters spent some time searching after they arrived at the location. My experience tells me it's more fun to spend some time searching. My point is this: I'm becoming less inclined to provide hints that guarantee success. If it's too easy for the hunter, then it's utimately less rewarding.

[Guest chipper]

I found that the easier you make it to find the more likely someone will find it. Not everyone wants to go after a 4/4 cache. Case in point: I placed my Childs Play cache easily a 1/1 and everyone so far has enjoyed it immensely. My ?Prehistoric Cartography? cache has not even been attempted by anyone. I have to admit that the ?Childs Play? cache is placed in downtown Boise. While the? Prehistoric Cartography? cache is a little off the beaten path. Does making the cache easier to find make it any less fun? I don?t think so. After all what is the fun in placing a cache that no one can find? Would I want all the caches to be a 1/1? No way!