Do you see what I see?

Picture day.  I wonder where that cache is hidden? The beauty of geocaching is seeing some of the great and creative ways people hide caches. I found a cache once that was hidden on a sign and had become part of the sign because of the camouflage the cache hider had done on her cache. This one was similar, however it really did have a cache. Muggles wouldn't give this one a second glance, however, it really was fairly easy for a geocacher.

Pictures were taken near the following geocache:
San Bernardino County Geocache - by TrekNTerry

Banged Up, Battered, & Bruised

I went out caching with Chaosmanor and the Tadpole on Saturday.  We didn't find nearly as many caches as we did on Veteran's Day, but it's not about the numbers, but about the quality of caches and the companionship that comes along with any caching trip with friends.

I found another neat spot to hide another cache.  I called it Banged Up, Battered, and Bruised mainly because of the cache container, an ammo can that I found at my nearby surplus store.  It had several dents, was heavily rusted on the inside of the cache and just looked pretty much used up as a decent ammo can.  Now as a cache container, almost anyone can do miracles with a couple of cans of spray paint.

I found a red jeep in another cache earlier in the day, so I decided to drop that into the cache as well.  It's just a short walk from the parking spot to the cache, but it was in a nice spot.  I hope it ends up lasting a long time out there.  Now I need to start working on my 30th, which I'm pretty sure will be a puzzle cache, with a hike.

Picture was taken near:
Banged Up, Battered, and Bruised - by Webfoot

New cache

I received three DNFs on one of my caches, so I figured I'd better go out and check it out. Apparently, the local gardeners had gone a little crazy with the pruning and did a number on that particular cache. That's not the first time, so I figured it was time to archive it and place a new one out there. So now I am the owner of The Case of the Strangled Sycamore.

I had a container at home that I wanted to use for this one, so when I went out there to check on the missing one, I picked up some local material to use as camouflage. With my standard spray paints and camoed the container and then applied the finishing camo. I'd heard about Gorilla Glue in the past, but never had used it before this weekend. I'm a believer. It's some interesting material. Most glues, you apply to a dry surface, but this one you apply to a damp surface. I suspect that there is some kind of chemical reaction that happens with the water and the glue, because not only does it adhere well, it also expands to fill in those nooks and crannies that you might have missed, leaving for a nice bond between surface and material that your're gluing to the surface.

I got two nice logs already for the finds on the cache talking about the nice camo, so I guess I did ok with it. I still have this other ammo can out in the garage and I think I'm going to work out a letterbox hybrid for that one.

Pictures were taken near The Case of the Strangled Sycamore - by Webfoot

Camo the Ammo

Since I’ve been home this week, I’ve been working on the puzzle cache, The Window of the Soul. I thought I’d share with you my camouflage technique. Last week I went down to our local surplus store and picked up two ammo cans. The Grade 2 cans were a little bit too worn, so I took two Grade 1 cans for $7.97 each. One is an interesting orange color and the other one is the standard green that most of us have seen.

Last time I posted I was uncertain whether I was going to place this cache on the east or west side of the park. Since that time, the decision was semi-taken out of my hands by the placement of two caches, Where is the parking lot? and The kings Heart on the east side. I was originally planning on placing my final for the puzzle where this cache, "Call" of the Wild, used to be. If you click on the nearest caches, you’ll see that Where is the parking lot? is only 470 feet away from the original placement of the “Call” of the Wild cache, so I figured that for cache density sake, it would be prudent for me to place this new cache on the west side.

Today, I hiked up to scout possible locations for the cache. I’ve had one spot in mind for awhile and actually, it’s where I should have placed my Size Matters…..Especially in California cache. I had so many problems with muggles where Size Matters was placed, that if I’d placed it up here instead, it probably would still be with us today. Why I didn’t place it there is beyond me, but I probably had my reasons at the time. Anyway, the hike was fairly easy, considering that I’m still recuperating, but I found the perfect place for the cache, just off a fire road, yet secluded from muggles eyes and giving a 360 degree panoramic view of the hills and the city below. Today, I didn’t have any kind of view because the hillside was shrouded in fog. It was a different view, but beautiful in its own right.

After coming down the hill, I finished up the camouflage on the ammo can. Yesterday, I painted the ammo can a rusty color using primer paint. Much of the foothills in this area are this color rock, so it’s a good color with which to start. Fortunately, I have a very similar type of bush in my back yard that matches where the cache is going to be placed, so I picked three sprigs from the bush to use as cover on the ammo can. I laid the three springs on the side of the can, then did a quick spray through with both a flat green and then a flat black paint. This creates some break up in the main color of the can and will probably make it a little bit tougher to spot. My purpose is not to make it that much tougher for the cacher, but to make it tougher for muggles to spot it should they wander up in the area. I think if cachers don’t think that muggles will ever spot their cache, they are deluding themselves.

With the camouflage applied to the can, now all I have to do is gather some goodies together to place inside it while the paint dries. Depending upon how well I’m feeling after today’s hike, I may be able to place this cache tomorrow or Friday. Once placement has happened, all I’ll have to do then is send a reviewer note on the cache page and wait for our local reviewer to look at it and hopefully approve it.