Micro Caches?

[+MWPinSD]

Just a silly question from a newbie. I see several discussions of micro caches and comments from a few people that they ignore them. I did some searching but found no definition. What exactly is a micro cache?

 

Thanks

[+webscouter.]

Very small cache, usually a film canister or smaller.

[+MWPinSD]

Thanks... but why would people avoid them? Are they usually in easy to find areas?

[+Kealia]

The general consensus lately is that there is an influx of lame micros. Film cannisters or Altoids tins stuck to the back of a non-descript light pole in a Wal-Mart parking lot, etc.

 

It's sometimes easier and cheaper for people to grab a small container and a magnet and stick a log sheet in it - so they have tended lately to be poorly placed or thought out.

 

Keep in mind that I've done lame micros and regular caches. I do scrutinize micros more before going for them to avoid searching for something just for the heck of it. I usually prefer the traditional ammo box in the woods .

 

Opinions vary.

[+CompuCash]

First, there are NO silly or dumb questions - if you don't know - search the forums and/or ask here.

 

Some people ignore them because they can take a long time and can be frustrating to find. Others because they just don't like them. When you get a few caches under your belt you will see that some kinds (maybe multi's) you just prefer not to hunt.

 

A good micro hide can be really hard to find. Example - brick colored micro (say a nitro (medication) tube (about 1/4" diameter and 1" long) in a hole in a brick wall. The dog ID tubes fall into this catagory too. If you want some examples search this and the geocache forums for micros and check this link for some really camo'd caches - photos and all. Got some good ideas here. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=62421

 

A friend and fellow cacher says anyone can drive by an ivy patch and toss in a film can. Now THAT is a lame micro. And another common complaint - why in the world would someone 'hide' a micro in a 450 acre wooded park?

 

I have hid micros (so far) only as early stages in multi caches. I am working on a couple the I hope will be what are referred to as 'evil' hides. Like the brick example above. How about a loose brick or stone hollowed out for the cache container and replaced in the wall. Could take a while.

 

For the most part I agree with Kealia in that they are cheaper and easier to hide, take little work or planning, and in my opinion are often a lazy cache placed just for the sake of placing one. Many are very good caches and I have found a few that took a good while to find. I found a metalic painted metal mini-altoid in a huge corregated culvert about 60-80' long (can you say "NO Satelites!"?) I am 6'2" tall and it was a reach to the top of this culvert. A flashlight helped a lot for that one. On top of that I knew I was looking for a micro, and above the culvert was a road with a stone wall and a guard rail. Started up there and spent way too long there.

 

A good regular cache takes some time to put together. You first have to have either a general idea of where you want to put the cache - or even know already where that special hidy-hole is. You will starting thinking like a hider as you gain experience as a finder, and start noticing likely places you could hide a cache. Onceyou get this far you might even have a couple caches made up and ready to go. Why does a regular cache take so much time and work?

 

1 - determine size of cache for this hide

2 - acquire and paint/camo the container.

3 - decide on and acquiare the trade items for the cache

4 - optional but I take the time to put each item in its own plastic bag

5 - get the log and the pen and the geocache note and place in zip lock bag

6 - put the geocache lable on the outside of the cache

7 - put it all together and you are done

 

The above takes several hours and I try to make several when I make one - usually several of different sizes.

 

Now that is way more than you asked for but some you might have wanted to know.

 

cc

Edited November 28, 2004 by CompuCash

[+briansnat]

Thanks... but why would people avoid them? Are they usually in easy to find areas?

They are often placed in high traffic areas where its hard not to be spotted while searching. This makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Also, a few previous posters mentioned, because they are cheap and easy to put together, they tend to attract the lazy cache hiders who hide them just for the sake of hiding one. There are some good ones, but in my experience most aren't worth the effort.

[+EWDaron10]

There are also locations where it is impossible to hide a regular cache. There are several city parks (micro sized) in my area that I am planning on placing caches that, even though there are creeks and wooded areas, they are so well maintained that a regular cache won't work.

[SpookyChuck]

I love micro's. I think they are challenging. In my little experience,, a decent micro is more fun than a virtual. But that is just me. Everyone likes differant things.

[+tirediron]

I like 'caches. I like them a lot!

[+kingsting]

A well thought out micro can be a lot of fun to hunt and there are some very creative (and evil) containers out there. I have spent the better part of a day making a micro container that would work in a specific location. These are often rewarding to find and will give you ideas for your own hides. There are cachers in this area that don't like the traditional micros but still enjoy one that has some thought put into it. Keyhiders under payphones and film cans stuck to light poles in mall parking lots are fine if you want to add to your numbers. These get plenty of visits and usually aren't too challenging.

Sometimes a hider wants to draw cachers to a cool location but there's no possible way to put a traditional cache in the area. A micro will still draw many of them in.

[rescue557]

There are also locations where it is impossible to hide a regular cache. There are several city parks (micro sized) in my area that I am planning on placing caches that, even though there are creeks and wooded areas, they are so well maintained that a regular cache won't work.

That has been my experience. I hide micros in public parks (with the mayor's permission, of course), and larger ammo box ones in the woods outside of the city.

[+Shalimarjim]

All the answers are pretty well on the money. Micro's have their place as do normal size caches. Downtown Atlanta may not be a suitable place for a standard size cache but it might be well suited for a micro. A micro placed in a remote wooded area would probably be shunned by most cachers.

[+g_team]

Peronsally I love micros. I like it when there is a purpose to them or a unique hide involved. Our first and currently only Cache is a micro hidden with the intent to give some one some thing do in bad weather, which we have had a lot of over the past week or so. The comments thus far have been good.

 

My favorite micro was hidden ona dead end street next to a minor overgrowth of trees and brush. I searched those trees and brush hard but to no avail. I stepped out of the brush for a breather. I was leaning on the dead end road sign to tie my shoes. whe I got up I looked at the sign. On the back of the sign mounted with packing tape in a horizontal fassion so that it was paralell to the ground but just over my head was the 35mm film canister.

 

I liked the defiance of the law of gravity employed.

 

I'm still fairly new, but I enjoy both ammo boxes and Micros.

I am currently intrigued by the reverse cache idea.

 

g_team

CG

Edited November 30, 2004 by g_team

[+wesleykey]

As the owner of about 10 travel bugs, I do like the bigger caches where larger items can be traded.

 

A well placed micro, such as a key holder in a pretty park, can be worth it for the scenery and for the trip.

[+ChicagoCanineCrew]

Sorry to reply to this so late but I had a related question--

 

How small does a cache have to be to be considered a micro? Would a container the size of an 8 or 9 oz bottle (big enough for small items) be considered a micro cache?

[+CompuCash]

Sorry to reply to this so late but I had a related question--

 

How small does a cache have to be to be considered a micro? Would a container the size of an 8 or 9 oz bottle (big enough for small items) be considered a micro cache?

 

the general rule is 35mm can or smaller is a micro -

 

between that and an ammo can is 'small'

 

micros can be much smaller - I planted one that was 1" long and 1/4" diameter - pet ID container. What I call nano cache.

 

an 8 or 9 oz container would be conisdered 'small'

[+TruFinds]

Peronsally I love micros. I like it when there is a purpose to them or a unique hide involved. Our first and currently only Cache is a micro hidden with the intent to give some one some thing do in bad weather, which we have had a lot of over the past week or so.

You got it!!!

 

i'm thinking of hiding one for that reason and that we dont have a high concentration of caches in our area (I figured a micro not to be lame, but because i am inexperienced). the question is what's a really interesting place - we have very few!!!

[+DaveA]

Peronsally I love micros.  I like it when there is a purpose to them or a unique hide involved.  Our first and currently only Cache is a micro hidden with the intent to give some one some thing do in bad weather, which we have had a lot of over the past week or so.

You got it!!!

 

i'm thinking of hiding one for that reason and that we dont have a high concentration of caches in our area (I figured a micro not to be lame, but because i am inexperienced). the question is what's a really interesting place - we have very few!!!

Well I am glad you asked because I wanted a podium to step up onto

 

First, it is plain evil to put a micro where a regular sized cache would work. It completely screws over the person who would be willing to place a regular cache there due to this site's distance rules.

 

Assuming that you intend to place a micro where regular sized caches wouldn't work, here is one idea:

 

Choose creative locations that aren't particularly remarkable for thier views or historical value, but are remarkable for thier ingenuity. As an example I recently found a micro that was located along a moderately busy highway. On this highway near where it intersected with another highway were posts with reflectors on them. These posts were hollow and had plastic end caps on them. Inside one of them was a micro. The hollow cavity was filled with tissue paper so the micro wouldn't fall to the bottom.

The area itself was unremarkable. It was the hidden in plain sight aspect that I found noteworthy. There was also ample room to pull off the road to search, an important element. This is the cache I am speaking of. There was another micro I sought the same day. It was on the side of a road with no parking available. It was simply a small container tossed into the vegetation on the side of a road. Wow, how inspiring. I won't link to the cache as I don't wish to insult anyone, but the cache was seriously lame and uninspired.

 

Bottom line is that in order to create a memorable cache you have to have a wow factor. With a traditional cache the wow factor can be the contents of the cache, but with a micro it can't be. The wow factor has to come in the form of a unique location or experience or a novel hiding spot.

 

If you don't have many places of wow factor significance around you, then you have to find something with a wow factor for it's novelty or ingenuity.

 

Attaching a magnetic keyholder micro to the back of a stop sign might get approved, but it isn't going to be memorable for many.

[+NickL]

Okay, I'm not anti- or pro- micros. They are just another type for me. Luckily around here we don’t have may people placing caches in/under light poles in Wal-Mart parking lots.

 

As has been said else wheres and will be repeated many times in the future for me it is not about the location but about the journey and the search. Okay part of that is being in the Chicago IL area where one forest preserve look pretty much like the next and unless you know or are told some history/fact (which many cache around here does do) you will never know what is up.

 

So a Micro around here is either place because a larger cache couldn’t be placed or for an interesting hide.

 

I have one micro that has gotten some "great" comments from some veteran cachers.

 

When I place a cache I prefer a non-micro but my ultimate goal is to give the person looking for it an enjoyable experience, be it through showing them something they may not be aware of, taking them some where where they may not have been and/or presenting them with a different hide/cache.

 

Ultimately I hope people have as much fun with the caches that I place (micro or larger) as I have with the ones that I search for and some time find.

[+GixxerUT]

I'm completely new to this geocaching deal.

It seemed like a fun way to get to know how to use my new GPS toy, plus another excuse to get up on the trails and hills out of the city.

Then the second cache I inputted to my Legend turned out to be IN the city, half a block from my job. A MICRO.

 

Just my opinion......seems like there is a fine line between having some fun with the GPS system, and being a geogeek.

I decided NOT to spend time looking for caches IN the city.

But to each their own.

For me, it's a means to an end.

For others, it's an end to their means.

As long as we enjoy what we do.

[+Team Yontz]

IMO, I like the micros for the most part. Around here, the little led blinky lights have caught on. People gut the light out, paint it flat back and place them here or there. Usually for a theme cache. To me, it's like having a little secret that muggles walk past everyday and never see.

[+CompuCash]

IMO, I like the micros for the most part. Around here, the little led blinky lights have caught on. People gut the light out, paint it flat back and place them here or there. Usually for a theme cache. To me, it's like having a little secret that muggles walk past everyday and never see.

 

that's not a micro it's a nano cache -

 

do you mean those 1/2x1/2 (rough) blinkies with the magnets?

 

take out the batteries for the log - geeez how do you put a log in there ??

 

and I thought the pet ID tubes were small?!!?

[+Spiritwild]

I like the micros, my first three caches are filmcanisters in the park deals.

 

I've read the "drat19's" and I was aware how some would react to micro caches.

They are simple and since my wife has not developed a roll of film in ten years, i could pollute this town with them

 

Since I host a Hiking / Biking website, I thought "what a great way to get people out into the public parks on a nice day". Or to give them something to do in addition to a picnic or scheduled activity at the park.

 

I have the ammo boxes ready to go, but I have to find the right spot.

And that's not easy.

 

Plus, I threw the micros out to get an idea of how the contents will fare in extremely wet conditions and climates. How well do ziplock bags work kind of experiment.

[+TeamTeeGee]

I have the ammo boxes ready to go, but I have to find the right spot.

And that's not easy.

Amen to that! We've been beating our heads against the wall for the past week trying to decide upon a good location for an ammo can that we've got all dressed up and still no place to go.

 

As for the micros, we've placed two of them so far (still new to the game), but we tried to make sure they were in locations that would be interesting and would also allow for different activities. One of them is in a small walking park near our home and so far it has received good comments and the other one is in a "memorial" park that has a rather interesting landmark that a lot of people just don't get to see close up too often (an F-15 for the curious).

 

We would really like to be able to place more regular caches in our area, but due to much of the land around here being leased out for hunting, and therefore closed to the public, and the remainder of our area being fairly well populated, it makes for some tough going to find suitable locations. But, we're both hard-headed so we're optimistic that those great sites will come to us eventually.

 

There are many more locations available for micros, but as many of the other posters have already pointed out we don't want to go for the "light pole in the parking lot" type of cache. Our philosophy thus far has been, "Hide it in a place where you'd think it was cool to find it."