placing new caches

Well, I've spent this summer away, but that doesn't mean I haven't been looking for those hiding spots.
I despise as a cache placer/owner the thought of having to place caches in parking lots, around phone booths, under public benches in busy bus stops, so I look for rural cache locations. So far I've been lucky as none of mine are in the city or even towns! They are in out of the way spots that are fun to visit.
Meaning that you might have to drive, but hey, that is part of the fun right?

New cache containers are in store, I've gotten a nice stock of them ready to go for one spot.
I'm still debating the idea of a stage cache nearby that will allow me to do a "look for me".
Otherwise this location is large enough to get 2 caches for the price of one. We will just wait and see. I've also been working on a new hiding technique, if I do place it, it will be a 8 or 9 on the hide scale, but it only goes to 5, so........ The evil rating will be a 12....on a 10 scale.... you getting the hint yet?

So, keep your eyes pealed!

Off Road Driver, mis-te-que

Nothing like Backseat Driver, and the "Gee-I'm-A-Tree" stand in for Geometery.
Sooner of later the full secret of Backseat will come out, but not for some time. The only hint I would give is that it was a math problem, basically GEOMETRY that would solve the cache for you. It puzzled a few.
As to Off Road Driver, its been over 1 year now and no one has found it. I see people look for it more and more, but no luck for finding it. I'm sure sooner or later it will be found. I don't visit it much in the summer, once spring bloom hits, I hate the idea of going in there to find it, but I've done it.

I've received a few emails in regard to more hints. I can tell you that its a tricky one. I'm a model maker and can do some neat things. Let me just say that the last time I checked on it, it took me 10/15 minutes to FIND THE THING! Does that tell you anything? haha, so get use to looking.

I will say this as well, if you don't want a true hunt, then don't go looking. I tire of the emails asking why or asking to just tell them the location or type of container. WHY? Its a 5 for a reason and if you don't like that, then don't look. Hey, this is a sport/hobby that is suppose to be fun and if you don't like these type finds, then why bother?

Go, look, have fun!

More caching

Well, its been a LONG TIME. So, the other afternoon I took my son out and we found a cache. Nothing big, but I had to do a bit of cache maintenance, so I figured what the heck.
No GPS, just Geosense and well, we found it.
Wasn't hard, it was a quick park, look, grab, sign and replace. But it was a cache find.
This summer hasn't been real friendly to caching, but hey sometimes you just have to do what life lets you.

I see there are a few new caches in the area, but I see many have vanished. I allowed my Premium membership to lapse for a couple reasons, one being I never fully saw the benefit of paying to Geocaching.com when their site is slow as SNOT and more times then I care to count is hard to get onto. Plus there just wasn't the benefit otherwise. I could count on one hand the total of premium caches and I never used the other features.

I turned all the PREMIUM MEMBER caches I had into basic caches, so have fun with them people.

Backseat Driver, what happened!

Well, some have asked what happened to Backseat driver? Well, it is GONE.
I gave up the fight to get it back. I can't help it we have a rogue reviewer with no interest in asking questions. Something I have no respect for.
As to the current status. Its gone. Yup, when I was running into town last week I pulled upon its location to find the farmer had cleared the area and took with it Backseat! It was a nice run, but its over. Dunno if I will place anymore caches. Funny how one rogue reviewer can kill ones interest in the hobby. I'm willing to be they looked for it and could find it.

I stop and think about all the geolitter/abandoned caches and wonder if this was the case in other cachers. Perhaps. Anyone else noticed the slowing number of caches claimed and placed?

Nothing new

Well, almost. Thanks to "BlackJohnson" there is a cache in our honor. Well, we didn't get to make the FTF on it, but its there and should make a nice mate to "OFF ROAD DRIVER" if you chose.
Other then that, we haven't done a thing yet. Just been too busy in life right now!

Frustration and just being pissed....

Last Monday I got online and found an email from a caching friend, they wanted to know why my cache "Backseat Driver" GC1DGZA had been archived. I didn't know what he was talking about because I hadn't been that far into my emails, but sure enough there it was, a note that my cache was being archived.
WHAT THE HELL!!!
So I went and read the note left by the reviewer (not the same one that published it) and found that he claimed he had received complaints about this cache and was tired of it and just going to archive it. Well, you can read the postings on this, just go look at it.
So, I just couldn't understand this. I've found that normally when people have issues, they email you directly and move forward from that point. I had never once received an email stating that anyone had an issue. I couldn't understand why it would be archived without a single word to me from ANYONE. I hadn't heard a peep.
Me being curious I sent a nice note to the reviewer that archived the cache to see what the deal really was. Needless to say, I am still waiting on a response from said reviewer, and 3 emails later I have yet to hear a peep.
The cache doesn't violate a SINGLE rule, there aren't any questions about it, PERIOD. Its a nice right of way cache on top of that.

This cache is however a tough 5 star cache, that isn't easily found. I believe the last person to find it even admitted that they found it by luck. In their email to me they stated how they enjoyed it and liked the hide itself.
I've actually received a great deal of support on this. Even from a couple people I don't know. Via forums and on the cache page itself.
I guess some just don't like the tough nature of 4/5 star hides.

To further my questioning of this issue, I noticed that one cache I have been watching is now a month past a "needs maintenance" issue and NOTHING has been done to it.
I also notice another cache that is located on a federal postal sorting center that shouldn't be there hasn't had anything done to it. I've noticed several caches that are currently down for maintenance that have been such for months, still are just setting there.

So, why the rant.... I'm just wondering if someone got pissy about not finding backseat and complained over and over and well...you get my point.
I've had a theory for a short time now and all this did was add fuel to it.
I don't need to say too much more. Its just given me less of a thrill to even want to hide more caches. I even have a few nice locations too..OH WELL...

That was fun...

The other evening we had a chance to get out to find a few caches. We grabbed our book with cache info in it and went on about finding them.
We found the first cache and it was interesting, a matchsafe with a hook on it in a tree. I saw it when we pulled up and it was quick. I figured a good sign for the day. The next location was a high muggle area, and we moved on, the next location left us a little baffled and finally we gave up, figuring we were missing something and would find the data when we got back home. Sure enough, I figure we will get it on our return trip. We headed onto the next location and upon arrival to the COORDS figured quickly that the COORDS and clue didn't add up. Using the clues, I quickly located the cache, but had to wait for muggles to depart.
Next cache was a "beyond" cache and we didn't find it, needless to say, I know the location now, I guess another scouting trip for this one.
We found a few more, 2 total earth caches and wrapped up the trip on a cache that when we arrived home, found to be archived. Oops.!

It was a fun 8 finds for the day..... Should have had 2 others, possibly 4 more, but oh well...

Back again...

We did make it out last weekend, to grab a few, but only got 1. It was actually a recheck, after we logged a DNF, turned out the cache was buried under debris... Then we headed after a tricky micro, and guess what, we didn't find it either. Funny, when several DNF's go out, I would figure a check might be in order.
So I now turn this into a rant.

What is so hard about maintaining your caches? I guess I realized early on that placing a cache 30 minutes from your house in the "wrong" direction, won't allow you to maintain it as needed. Some people place caches a couple hours away and then complain about 'having to maintain their caches'....its a "WHAT THE HECK" moment from my standpoint.

I look around my area, and I often times wonder why some people placed caches that they did.
I have one cache near me that the owner lives over an hour and a half away and in their email it was said "It is hard for us to maintain this cache due to the driving distance" and "we will deal with it when we can!" Oh brother. Another cache that will lay dormant until they can deal with it.
Why bother? Leave this open for locals to use! Not that I would probably place a cache there, but others might. This best encourages people that are new to caching to start placing a cache, or gives them a place to put it.
To me, 5 weeks is long enough to get out and maintain your caches. If you can't do so, then you need to just archive it and move on! No, I'm not saying that one must drop everything and get out there, but 4 weeks in my eyes is plenty of time to deal with it.
If you have a cache that is so far away and you can't get to it, then its TOO FAR FOR YOU!

So my rant and the question comes in "how far is your farthest cache?" Simple........ 3.4miles!
Yup, I'm thinking about one that would be close to 10 miles, but still haven't made up my mind. The wife must be able to maintain them as well, so I like keeping them close by.

So, in closing my rant, CACHE OWNERS------ Please maintain what you have, if you can't, archive or adopt them out.

Finally got out!

We finally got out today. This weekend had family in and I just figured it was a lost cause to get out. But, we did make it out there and did some caching Sunday afternoon.

We made a familiar visit to one cache, that always eludes us, well it did again. I may just wait til winter time and less leaf/brush to deal with.
We headed down the road and after what I call our southern territory. We made a quick grab and head on, arriving at another location you had a nice large hill and down the other side to the cache location. It was in a large wooden fence post, but it was missing. So 1 of 3 so far.
We racked up our first virtual cache today, nice busy location, but we found the needed info and moved on. We also stumbled across our first micro coin, it was a evil micro, and it's been moved to its new home. That cache took entirely too long to find.
I finally just stepped back and said "where would I hide this thing" and wham, there it was. I also pinched my finger closing the cache.

We stumbled across a couple ammo cans, both of them today where sealed so tight that I barely got them open. The second one opened much better. I chuckled as we walked away.

I think we logged 8 or 9 caches today, and 3 DNF's... oh well.

Now that isn't funny

Decided that since I hadn't been out in a while I needed to post something.
While coming home the other evening, I noticed that "Backseat Driver" had been messed with. More or less, MUGGLED accidently.
See, there was an accident at the location and I would assume that in the cleanup process that "Backseat" was accident prone and well, it had to be replaced.

So, there is a new cache, new cache container and slightly new spot. Its still within the problem limits and I won't change anything to the site page.
Just pay attention when looking. This new container and log holder have made it a 10 of 10 on the EVIL scale!!!!
_________________________________________________

On another note, I'm still planning on placing the next set of caches out there, just haven't had the time to so far. So keep an eye open, it will happen.

Gas that bad?

I have to really wonder if the cost of gas is effecting geocaching worse then I thought. While I have been vocal in forums about gas prices costing the average geocacher more and more, I never thought it was that bad.
That is, until recently.
Why?
I've noticed fewer logs being posted in my email during the day and even on weekends.
Sure there are those cachers that find 10 caches per day, but those too have shrunk.

I recently placed 2 new caches out, they have been found by 3 cachers and that is it.
Are they tough? Yes, but findable for sure. I'm not evening seeing too many DNF's either, or just notes being posted. I'm beginning to think it is the cost of gas.
Why else?
It just seems across the board, that fewer people are getting out there. This weekend was beautiful and perfect for caching, yet in the 30 mile radius logging email I have, we only had 23 finds over 3 days! That is IT. And those had been posted by 8 cachers and that was it.

I'm guessing that I a correct in my assumption.
That and I see that "main drag" caches are the ones getting the Found logs.

Get out there people!!!!!!!

Just grab 1?

Ya, sometimes I question the point in it.
Yesterday evening we just went for a drive. Little did I know that it would lead to a find. I use google earth to recon a lot of caches around these parts, since most are out in the open areas and few in the deep woods. I try and remember as many aerial pictures in my head that I can. Yesterday this came in handy.
While pulling into a small town just south of us, I recalled that a cache was here and that it was in a tree along the fence. A few short minutes later and we had it in hand. No COORDS, nothing more then just a little brain power to recall that.
What will that brain power get you? Well, today while browsing, it obviously failed my as we drove past 2 other caches that we could have had and we missed 4 others within a half mile.... Pays to take the cache book huh...
I loaded more POI into the old TomTom and we won't be driving past these anymore!

EVIL, SO EVIL.......

When one mentions PURE EVIL, you don't think of a cache do you?
Perhaps if you go looking for this.....
GC1EE25 aka "Off Road Driver"
This is my most EVIL cache to day. It rates a 10 of 10 on the scale.
No one and I do repeat NO ONE has seen this cache other then myself. Not Mrs. Wapahani or Wapahani Kid #1 or #2. I repeat NO ONE.
Why is this important? Well, when it comes to evil, showing your hand can often times lead you to giving up your style. This is NOT the case here....no worry.

I actually placed this cache several days ago, I let the territory settle before posting it to the reviewer and its now up for you all to venture after.
There is a nice $5FTF in it, plus the rights to brag.
But I'm willing to bet, it will be SOME TIME BEFORE THIS IS FOUND. Why? ITS EVIL.
The only hints you get, its lower then your eyes and above your toes. I'm 6'4" so use that as your measuring tool when looking.
I wish I had the ability to watch this search, but I don't. I'm sure it will be amusing.

Why this is harder then Backseat? Because, Backseat can be found using the clues. While this can too, the clues for this leave you guessing a bit. Backseat is pretty simple in the clues.

I've talked for a while amongst other cachers about this so called "Off Road Driver" cache and well its finally here. I've claimed evil of a level that has never been seen before.....so lets see...is it?

Prove to me that it isn't evil!!!!!!
CACHE ON!

Observations of a cache

This is more a little hint then anything. This is to aid in the hunt for a certain cache that everyone is looking for.

Sometimes the power of observation is your greatest skill.
Out in the open can be the best hider of a cache.
A double take will often help you see this.
The clue can be a red herring, but is it?
Ants love to climb me, just ask Stinky....Gloves, they are nice, don't think twice.
I might need a shove.
I'm tall for my age.

Figure out the math problem, once you have, use it to identify the location. From said location use the same math problem to pinpoint the location of the cache. Ubear agreed, the math is not "new math" and it located me well. Remember, POWER OF OBSERVATION and a little reading skill.

Caching? You haven't been out.....have you?

remarked a good friend and fellow cacher. "Nope, been to damn busy with life!" I replied. Besides the fact that I have spent too much time making new cache containers as well.
Personally I do enjoy the hunt for a good cache, but I do like making cache containers more. "Why?" Cause its fun. Not only a tad evil, but its my nature. I like to make things, not really use them. A builder if you will.
My search for the most evil container is still moving forward. I have a good one in my brain, but still have to figure out how to execute that.

A "MONKEY CACHE?" NO, but I do want to make one. I've been thinking over other ideas.
My latest involves a padlock and a well hidden container. It would be a multi or a puzzle, still unsure.

As for the last few I've placed. No, no new hints on them. Just use your brain when out and you will find them.

Backseat no longer lonely!!!

Well, I knew it had to happen at some point. Ubear, Stinky & Doobies made the Co-FTF on it. They spent a noble amount of time searching for it, far more then I knew. Even in passing them a few times, I had no idea that they had spent that time looking!

I had to lower the rating of Backseat due to the area being well CITO'ed now.
From the feedback I received on this cache, its a tough one, which I knew it would be.
The 2 listed below are tough ones also, but a veteran cacher should find.

Backseat? Ya, its still there.....come and log away!
No new hints, no new info....unless it goes a while without a find on it.

They are hidden, wanna find em?

Well, finally got them both out, so here you go.

Prairie Creek Stump'n (GC1E6V1)
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ed77b708-8e06-420e-a1b6-a5655dd7c0bf
This cache is a 4/2.5 but I will admit, these are both high ratings. Why high? Because the location of the cache lends itself to a little looking and a little guessing to find it. Its more of a fun semi EVIL cache. On my EVIL cache rating system, I will say its a 5 out of 10 on the scale. Its just go look and develop stealth if you can.

Prairie Creek Side View (GC1E7KD)
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=b7b310ca-a3a2-4c57-93e6-f3eeb489abc5
This cache is a 4.5/4 and I am willing to move this up the scale on both counts, but the terrain level is probably high. Why high? Just due to the location and depending on the weather. Its a careful stepping cache find.
This cache gets a 7 out of 10 on the EVIL scale. Its a nice cache that will leave you chuckling when you finally do find it. IF YOU CAN.

So, if your willing, take a stab at either of these caches. Depending on how long it goes and how many DNF's look for hints here!!!

Chuckling, you can't find me!!!!!!

The past 2 days have been funny at best. Yesterday while on the journey to plant our latest cache, we drove past backseat driver on the way. As we approached, I noticed a car parked, we stopped and asked if they were looking for it, sure enough, YES. I got to meet Doobie and Ubear & Stinky. They are out looking for it, turns out they had been there for a few hours looking. I figured sure enough that they would have found it, but NOPE. You guessed it...EVIL HIDE.
Today while out to plant the new hide, we came upon it again, and again a car parked. It was Doobie and one of his friends (didn't get his name).. Doobie is dead set on getting this cache. We discussed a few other hides and I gave him a few of the new hints on the page to help him. He looked at it not once, but twice. I figure if anyone will get it, it will be Doobie. So those rooting? ROOT DOOBIE..LOL

Good luck my friend.

Oh, the new caches are both planted awaiting approval. a 4.5 and a 5, rock on!

Latest hide?

As some know, I'm constantly working on new cache containers as you can call it.
A container by term is very broad, so take it for what you want, its more or less just a place to hold a log and possibly swag if you chose?

The latest in the line of what I call "EVIL HIDES" is almost ready for its hide.
Its location, I guess I can let it out of the bag. I have 2 spots, one is similar to BackSeat Driver, the other is close to water, but dry.

I suspect it will be more fun to find then BackSeat is, and hopefully won't take long to find. Keep your eyes open as it might get published at any time!
You wanna be a FTF? Well, the COORDS should be dead GZ on it!

I'm stumped......

Can you figure me out? Or is this just a hint?
Lets see how many of you are actually reading this and looking for my caches.

READY?

N 40° 10.076 W 085° 16.660
Between 40 and 55 feet from me!
69 is the Wood brothers favorite number!
I'm 1345 feet (give or take a bit) from a favorite spot of IMACacher2's hides.


Can you figure it out?