A Different Kind of Caching

With Christmas fast approaching and my goal of 250 finds by years end almost here I get to thinking of hiding things.  Every year I take one or two of Tina's gifts and make her find them by caching for them.  I make up clues and put them around the house and yard (when we have a yard) so she has to go from place to place to find the gifts.  This is a lot easier to do than one might think.  The only things needed are some paper, pencil, and a little bit of creativity which I don't have a lot of so it proves anyone can do it.  For our first Christmas together I bought Tina a video Ipod which she really wanted.  Being me I couldn't just wrap it and put it under the tree so I made a series of clues that she had to follow.  The gift was actually under the tree but she had to check her email, find a couple of things in the yard, and look in a few places in the house to arrive at the tree.  Each place she had to look sent her to another place.  Another year she had to visit the well in the yard, visit the bookcase and look in the tank of the toilet to arrive at the washing machine.  She said I needed a ton of coal for the toilet.  I always incorporate a few pictures as clues because they are pretty easy.  This year I am making her decrypt the clues.  Each clue uses one of three answer keys that I made up.  One uses letters, another uses numbers, and the third symbols.  Each clue is written on a small piece of paper and hidden around the apartment.  I already showed her the answer key and she said I was a dead man.  What does this have to do with caching?  It is one long multi-cache which will only be found once.  All in all it took me about an hour to make the clues, encrypt them, and find a few containers to hide the clues in.  It will take me about ten more minuets to place the clues and slide back into bed on Christmas eve and here are 15 clues.  Usually only do about five clues.  I can't wait to do this for Jack and Carly when they get old enough.

My Favorite Containers

Of late I have been struggling to find something to write about but have been coming up with nothing.  Well I finally have thought of something.  Over the years of finding geocaches there have been some interesting ones that have stuck out.  Usually it is the container that makes it memorable or the way that it was hidden.  As I think I mentioned before I have a cache up the road from the house I used to live in that us under the seat of an old outhouse.  It is way out of the way and there isn't any other caches for a couple of miles so it doesn't get visited much but everyone that has come to find it almost falls down laughing when they realize where the cache is. 

Some of my memorable containers and finds have been one in front of a person's home under a bird bath.  The container itself was a one foot and a half long piece of 5” diameter drain pipe.  To access the cache the top of the bath had to be lifted off slowly or the spring that was under the tube would shoot it out.  There was another couple that were dummy water sprinkler heads that looked completely legit.  One that caused a lot of people some trouble was a electric outlet box that had magnets on the back and was stuck to the steel siding on a dance hall.  That really looked like it was a working outlet.  There was another that was a very small electric junction box like the ones on light poles in parking lots.  To access the log book the finder had to use a screwdriver to remove the cover.

One that I have never tried to find but that I heard a lot about was a small waterproof matchstick container that had a nickel glued to the top.  The part that made it really hard to find was that it was slid in a piece of plastic pipe in the middle of a soccer field or playground at a park.  I was told by some people that they had to use a metal detector to find it.  Once they found the location they had to use a magnet to draw it up from the hole. 

The most recent container that I really thought was clever was similar to the one I just mentioned but much larger and easier to find.  It was a foot or so long piece of 4” plastic pipe that was sealed on top with a river rock and a slip on cap on the other.  The rock was the only thing that could be seen above ground and the rock looked like it belonged there.

Lesson 3 Trade Items!

     In our first two installments we talked about what geocaching is, how it started, and some of the things that are hidden in plain sight.  In this episode we will look at trade items focusing on signature items and trackables.  First of all just about anything can be used as a trade item as long as it will fit in the container.  A little bit of common sense can go a long way here because some things just aren't appropriate.  For example glass things don't work too well, sharp things for obvious reasons, parishable items like candy and produce.  A general rule that I go by is that if I won't let Jack or Carly play with it then I won't use it as a trade item.  Some things that work really well are kids meal toys, unique looking stones, plastic animals, and small rubber ducks.  There are some caches that have themes which encourage the trade items for them to follow the theme like books or movies.  As you can see trade items can be really simple.

Another kind of trade item is called a trackable and usually comes in the form of a Travel Bug or a Geocoin.  These items have a unique tracking number on them which allows their whereabouts to be tracked from cache to cache.  These items generally have a mssion that their owners want them to complete.  For instance I own three travel bugs and Tina owns one which are named Long Haul, Rockabilly Rod, The Dirty Rat, and Thor the puppy respectively.  The mission of Long Haul is to have its picture taken at truck stops, Thor wants to have its picture taken at animal shelters, and the other two are supposed to have their pictures taken with old hot rods.  Let us back up for a moment so I can explain what a travel bug is.  A travel bug is an aluminum dog tag with a unique tracking number and instructions not to keep it.  The tag comes with a short chain which allows it to be attached to say a toy car or small stuffed animal.  The travel bugs that i own are attached to hot wheel cars while Tina's is a small stuffed puppy we had laying around the house.  There are some special travel bugs that help raise awareness and support cancer research and survivors.  Some of the travel bugs I have come across have the mission go to specific race tracks then back to the place they were released, there was Vlad the rubber bat whose mission was to visit all places Transylvania like the college in Kentucky and the Vlad The Impaler theme park in Romania.  Yes, it really does exist.  For a series of years Jeep had a promotion going on where it released a bunch of travel bugs highlighting a new model they were releasing.  Each years Jeep was a different design and color.  One year it was a it was a red Commander, one year it was a metallic green Wrangler X, and another year it was a white Wrangler.  When the Jeep bugs were fund the finder would log that they found it, perform a task, and be entered into a contest to win the featured model for that year.

Enough about Travel Bugs, now onto geocoins.  Geocoins usually look like, usually, large coins wwith a design on one side and a unique tracking number on the other.  Like travel bugs they usually have a mission that the owner wants them to complete.  As I said they are usually coin shaped but can come in the shape of states and countries, pencils, animals, ect.  Some of the designs can be really intricate and interesting.  They can be as small as a quarter and as large as a silver dollar.

Now for the final order of business, the signature trade item.  There are some geocachers that leave a signature item when they visit a cache.  When I lived east of the Mississippi I came across a few of these signature items.  In Indiana there was a couple who always left a custom business card that they had made up with their caching names on it and thanking the owner of the cache for the hide.  There was another couple if my memory serves me correctly that left a custom wooden poker chip.  In Tennessee there was a retired couple that left small ceramic necklaces that they made and another retired couple that made tiny knitted mittens (I was really impressed, Barbie would have paid a fortune for them).  My signature trade item  are these tiny plastic farm animals that Tina had found at Target in the bargin bins.  I am sure that somewhere there is someone who leaves a playing card and another who leaves marbles.  Until next time.

Second Lesson Containers!

Containers 

      In the first installment we learned where geocaching came from.  In this episode we will be learning about the containers.  Almost anything can be used as a container.  Each container also has a size classification like small, medium, and large that we will talk about too.

      Let us start small with the nanos and move to the larges.  A nano sized container is generally a little bigger than a pencil eraser and contains a thin strip of paper that the finder will write their name or initials on.  These containers generally have a lid that screws on to the base and a small magnet that allows it to be stuck to a metal surface.  In my experience these are usually hidden on chain link fences and other metal surfaces where they can blend in well.  They can be really hard to find at times.  The next size up is called a micro and is about the size of a 35mm film canister which is one of the most commonly used containers for this size classification.  Other containers that are typically used for this size are pill bottles and bison tubes.  The micros are generally log only meaning that they are too small for trade items to fit and contain only a strip or two of paper.  I have found these in places like the skirts around the bases of lamp posts and stuck under foot bridges with Velcro or magnets.  This is a truly versatile container size that can be hidden almost anywhere.  Smalls are as one would guess small containers that can hold a few small trade items about the size of a quarter.  Tupperware about the size of a sandwich container.  Regulars are about the size of a hardcover book or larger and ammo cans are frequently used for this size.  They are my favorite because they are able to hold pretty much any trade item and it takes some cleverness sometimes to hide them in plain sight.  Larges are the rarest of all because it is really hard to hide something the size of a 5 gallon bucket and make it look “invisible” to those that aren't looking for it.

      I realize that this sees like it is quite complex but it really isn't.  The basic idea is this: there are a lot of different containers that can be camoflaged in different ways to blend into their surroundings.  Some are really small and can be easily hidden but are too small to leave trade items in while some are larger that really interesting trade items can be left in but are really hard to hide.  The amazing thing it that there are containers hidden everywhere in the world that we pass by everyday without ever knowing they are there.  Until next time. 

Here are some pictures to help get a visual~ Chris!

Nano Container

        Micro

Small

Regular

Large

First Lesson

Geocaching

The first thing that needs to be answered is what is geocaching?  The answer to that is rather simple.  Geocaching is basically a free treasure hunt using a GPS.  It was started by a gentleman named Dave Ulmer who was curious if he hid something and posted the coordinates on the internet would anyone try to find it.  He hid a black bucket with some books and videos in it near my hometown of Portland, OR.  Within a few days two people had came to find his bucket, people soon started hiding their own stuff and posting the locations on the internet and a game was born.  Geocaching as we know it today started officially in late 2000.

      For more information on the history of geocaching please go to www.geocaching.com and look under the resources tab. 

Chris

Look For Lesson 2 in a few days!