Tips For The Hunt: How Not To Be Obvious Or A Dork

[+griffsmom]

Went to find a brand new cache during my lunch hour in an urban area. It was only my 2nd find, so even though I try not to be, I'm still kind of obvious when I'm looking for the cache--holding my GPSr out in front of me to see which way the little arrow is pointing.

 

Although I felt dorky walking around, I couldn't help but also feel (1) curious about whether the people I saw were fellow geocachers; and (2) suspicious that they would see what I was up to. And I certainly don't want to lead muggles to the cache. Anyone have any tips for a newbie on how you should act when looking for a cache?

[+Sparrowhawk]

Get a "geocacher invisibility costume".

 

I'm not kidding. Orange construction vest, orange hat, your GPS, clipboard optional. Suddenly everyone treats you like you are invisible!

[Erfunden]

Kids act as great cover too. Kids can get away with just about anything. And those who watch and play with them are either treated the same or arested as pediphiles.

Sorry. Bad joke. Couldn't hold it in.

 

And yes, a geocacher can be pretty obvious to another geocacher. Just yesterday I was in a park and saw a family walking around. One of them looked in the direction of a cache I know of and said "400 feet" and I didn't have to wonder any more. So I went up to them and introduced myself

We all have a common interest so it's almost like having hundreds of friends who you haven't ever seen all over the planet just waiting for you in parks and on trails!

[+lefty2448]

[+Markwell]

Take with you one of three things:

 

Kid

Dog

Trash Bag (good for CITO anyway)

[+QDman]

Get a "geocacher invisibility costume".

 

I'm not kidding. Orange construction vest, orange hat, your GPS, clipboard optional. Suddenly everyone treats you like you are invisible!

Funny you should say that. I've felt a little conspicuous when searching for urban micros. I bought a clipboard last week and used it for my next hunt in a business park. I really did feel invisible!

 

I've always known that if you look like you belong, no one will question you, but that clipboard makes it even easier. Kind of like walking around work with a piece of paper in your hand so you look busy.

[+instep_guy]

I've found that most people are more than happy to avoid eye contact or any type of contact with someone wandering in circles and mumbling to themselves in public places.

 

(sometimes I'm even looking for a cache)

[+Greymane]

I use a Dell Axim w/ CF card GPS. Have my maps loaded right on the PDA. It is just another PDA to anyone who is looking. No "Big Yellow" standing out like a sore thumb (although I use those, too). I just carry my work bag and I look like just another businessman taking a break and catching up on by notes.

[+Mr.BadExample]

I wear bluejeans, workboots, a short sleeve collared shirt, and a beat-up olive drab Filson coat. Everyone thinks I'm a construction worker. When searching for a micro in a busy park, people asked me when I was going to fix the bridge

Then again at another bridge a guy asked if I was trying to blow it up...

[+StarBrand]

I sometimes treat the GPS as a cell phone.

 

Sometimes I carry a field guide to local plants, I also have a notebook with a few pages of notes and a few specimens so I can say I looking for plants and will mark the location with my GPS.

 

I carry a camera almost always and a little notebook - I act like the GPS is some kind of light meter. I mutter and take notes.

 

Cipboard, orange hat and vest works very well too.

 

I probably still look like a dork no matter what.......

[Keith_J]

Get a "geocacher invisibility costume".

 

I'm not kidding. Orange construction vest, orange hat, your GPS, clipboard optional. Suddenly everyone treats you like you are invisible!

Funny! My invisibility uniform is any of my cycling clothing. I'm invisible unless they perceive me to be in their way.

 

Well, almost. I had found one cache in a wooded section of a park and some pedistrians saw me through the openings, thinking I was doing something illicit.

[+hikerak]

Being a person without kids, I sometimes don't look for the cache and keep driving to the next less populated cache. I know that if I saw myself get out of my car and near a busy park and walk into the woods, I would be a little nervous.

[+sTeamTraen]

Orange construction vest, orange hat, your GPS, clipboard optional.

I tried that, and was joined by a guy in leather, a Sioux warrior, and a cop. I think the waypoint was GCYMCA...

[+Team Wampus]

Orange construction vest, orange hat, your GPS, clipboard optional.

I tried that, and was joined by a guy in leather, a Sioux warrior, and a cop. I think the waypoint was GCYMCA...

Oh boo...that was sooooo bad!

 

How about a HazMat outfit? That'd clear out the muggles in a hurry, but I know a couple cachers that probably wouldn't budge!

[Erfunden]

A HazMat suit! LOL! That would be hillarious! I don't know how invisible you'ld be, but it'd be funny!

[+WARedBear]

I drive a utility van. That helps when you get out of it. Most people think I am a worker. I have thought about putting on a tool belt. That way people will think that I am a maintenance person looking for something to fix.

[+Markwell]

A HazMat suit!  LOL!  That would be hillarious!  I don't know how invisible you'ld be, but it'd be funny!

Cool idea for a new cache:

 

2319

by C.D.A.

 

Difficulty: Terrain:

 

Cache contents: Human Child Parephenalia obtained from various closets.

 

Haz-Mat Suit Only

 

[+mikeatnight]

Any urban caching I do I take my camera. I can usually get a few good pix too. I also have a kid and that helps. Being almost 40 years old has also helped me become invisible to 18 year old girls.

[+Morgan's Marauders]

I've found that most people are more than happy to avoid eye contact or any type of contact with someone wandering in circles and mumbling to themselves in public places.

 

(sometimes I'm even looking for a cache)

That's funny!

 

May I shamelessly plagarize it?

 

Momma Marauder

[+mortaine]

I have a hard time with visibility. I'm a short, pudgy woman who doesn't look like she belongs in an orange utility vest. I only manage to get away with looking like a construction worker on Halloween.

 

So far, my best camouflage is to hold the GPS to my ear and pretend to have a conversation. If someone gets too close while I'm looking intently for the cache, I whine "I guess I've really lost it" to the phone or my geocaching companion, if available. This makes them think that I've lost something valuable, and that I'm going to whine about it and be a pill until either I find it, or my geocaching companion does.

[+HoundGrrls]

a dog is great. big dogs can block others vision of what you are fiddling with and even little dogs can loose balls in bushes, logs, stumps, etc. and/or you can always look for poop -- people will not want to watch.

 

Have no dog but don't hate/fear them?

 

Borrow one.

 

If you have no friend or neighbor who might even give you a few bucks for the favor swap some animal rescue places will allow their volunteers to take Fido out for a good long walk.

[+Greymane]

How about a HazMat outfit? That'd clear out the muggles in a hurry, but I know a couple cachers that probably wouldn't budge!

I used to be a Navy Nuke. We had a guy who went into town with a set of anti-contamination clothing (canary suit) on. That went over like a fart in church! CO didn't think it was so funny and he got WAY more attention than you would ever want.

[+EXDNR]

I sometimes treat the GPS as a cell phone.

 

If you use a GPS unit like a cell phone should you be concerned about the radiation flooding your brain (not to mention the satellite signals)?

[+griffsmom]

Thanks for all the suggestions! Pease keep 'em coming!!

 

So far, I have a 4 y/o son who loves to go geocaching, although he seems to draw more attention to us than away from us! I have already used the cell phone trick, and have tucked the "kitty, kitty," clipboard, flora/fauna book ideas away for later use. I also thought if ayone ever asks me what I'm doing, I may say that I'm investigating an accident/dog bite lawsuit, etc.

 

I'm drawing the line at the HazMat suit, though.

Edited April 8, 2005 by griffsmom

[Tahosa and Sons]

Go into some real nice backcountry and no one will even notice you.

[+Bob Blaylock]

A HazMat suit!  LOL!  That would be hillarious!  I don't know how invisible you'ld be, but it'd be funny!

Cool idea for a new cache:

 

2319

by C.D.A.

 

Difficulty: Terrain:

 

Cache contents: Human Child Parephenalia obtained from various closets.

 

Haz-Mat Suit Only

 

  A hazmat suit would be “special equipment”, so the cache would have to be rated at 5 stars.

[+Bob Blaylock]

I sometimes treat the GPS as a cell phone.

 

If you use a GPS unit like a cell phone should you be concerned about the radiation flooding your brain (not to mention the satellite signals)?

  A GPSr is a receiver, not a transmitter.  There is no clear scientific evidence that transmitting devices (such as cell phones and walkie talkies) pose any significant hazard to the user; but even if there was, it wouldn't apply to receiver-only devices.

[+TeamZebra]

Yeah, us cachers can stick out like a sore thumb to other cachers.... Can't they Team Wampus???

 

I had just left a cache because the muggle population was way too high for stealthy pursuit and was driving around looking for my next attempt. And what do I see? A man with three kids walking around in some brush down below the bridge I was driving over. Hmmmm..... Just as I start to ask myself THE question, he turns and I see him looking down at something in his hand. OH YEA... that's a cacher alright!

 

So I pulled in next to an obvious cachemobile just around the corner and check the GPS, sure enough, I had just driven past a waypoint I'd stored much earlier. I scrounge through my printouts and find it.

 

Being VERY new to the sport, I decide to introduce myself and hopefully gain a little help on a find. As I approach the spot where I spotted them, they emerge from the woods. "I know what you're doing!" I proclaim.

 

A quick introduction and some words of encouragement on the task before me and they are off... (the youngest member of Team Wampus had business to take care of). We won't discuss how I managed to tag a DNF on a cache that had just been handled less than 5 minutes before I got there.

 

Anyway, on a later find I discovered the camo effect of TRASH! I had located the cache, signed the log and was waiting for the quiet moment to emerge from the tree cover and back onto the paved greenway when I spotted an empty shopping bag and some assorted trash laying around. I grabbed the bag and emerged from the woods stuffing garbage into it. Nobody even batted an eye. In fact, on the way back down the trail a couple kids helped me add to my trash collection.

[+5]

Any urban caching I do I take my camera. I can usually get a few good pix too. I also have a kid and that helps. Being almost 40 years old has also helped me become invisible to 18 year old girls.

It's probably for the best...

[+5]

How about a HazMat outfit?  That'd clear out the muggles in a hurry, but I know a couple cachers that probably wouldn't budge!

I used to be a Navy Nuke. We had a guy who went into town with a set of anti-contamination clothing (canary suit) on. That went over like a fart in church! CO didn't think it was so funny and he got WAY more attention than you would ever want.

How'd that go about Nukes and common sense?

 

I was also a Nuke...So does that make it ok for me to say that?

[+baja_Traveler]

Being serious into bird photography, I alway carry my big digital SLR with the 400mm lens. I get lots of attention, but nobody thinks twice when they see me exiting the brush carrying it - just another nature photographer. It can be a hassle juggling all the equipment though.

[+Team Wampus]

Yeah, us cachers can stick out like a sore thumb to other cachers.... Can't they Team Wampus???   

So Zebra...are you saying that I AM an obvious dork!? Guess I'd better work on that whole geo-stealth thing some more! Actually, the kids come in handy...we've used excuses like we lost a ball, etc. Maybe we should try a family pack of HazMat suits! Glad you found that cache on your 2nd try...I was beginning to worry I'd done something wrong putting it back.

[+Pork King]

I dont even worry about it anymore. On my first few, I felt the same way. Now I just go around, acting like I'm SUPPOSED to be feeling the underside of benches, digging around in the forks of trees, etc. I dont pay attention to what others are doing, so they can't be paying attention to me (ostrich defense)!

[+TeamZebra]

So Zebra...are you saying that I AM an obvious dork!?

 

Only to another obvious dork! I wouldn't have realized that cache was there if I hadn't seen you down there. I had put the waypoint in the GPSr quite a while ago and forgot about it. I saw ya down there and started wondering if perhaps I'd missed one. Glanced down at the GPSr and saw a little treasure chest RIGHT next to me! Woohoo! Another cache... and a team of cachers to boot!

 

Guess I'd better work on that whole geo-stealth thing some more!  Actually, the kids come in handy...we've used excuses like we lost a ball, etc.  Maybe we should try a family pack of HazMat suits!

 

Yeah, you have an advantage over me there. Having no kids to use as cover, I have to resort to trash bags and my digital camera. I had a lady walking her dog spot me next to a cache in Farragut. I had my camera with me and started taking pictures of the tree the cache was hidden next to. Doing a plant study for school... yeah, that's it.

 

Glad you found that cache on your 2nd try...I was beginning to worry I'd done something wrong putting it back.

 

Nah, wasn't anything you did. Just that my GPS was pointing to the hollow tree that was closer to the road. I stuck my arm down inside it... DEEP hole! I was making a common newbie mistake I guess... putting too much faith in the GPSr and not really looking for the cache.

[darwinmay]

Being noticed doesn't really bother me, if someone comes up and wonders what I'm doing, it's just word-of-mouth promotion.