Trail Hound

The perils and pleasures of cache-hiding

Hiding a geocache for others to find is like hosting a party.  You want something that will please your guests, not be a pain in the neck  to manage, and won't annoy the neighbors.  Some people are geocaching socialites, hosting - or owning, in geocaching parlance - dozens of caches.  I'm more reserved, with just seven active caches lying in wait for my geocaching guests.

Last weekend I placed a two-part multi-cache called "Punkhorn West: Cranberry Trails" along paths leading through woods and cranberry bogs in the western edge of Brewster's Punkhorn Parklands.  The first stage is a micro - just a small capsule containing the navigational coordinates for the final stage - and the final is a lock-and-lock box containing a log book and trade items like bug spray (an important Punkhorn accessory), mini-trash bags, stickers, a calculator keychain, and carabiner clips.

"I prefer to be shown something. I don't demand it, but it is nice to go somewhere and see something important to the individual(s) who placed the cache," posted a geocacher on the geocaching.com New England forum.  "My perfect cache is a nice hike under enough shade trees to block the sun, but still let my GPS work, to a nice vista. Perhaps with an interesting geological formation, or a bit of history."

Hopefully, the forum geocacher would like my new Punkhorn cache.  The site is a well-preserved piece of Cape Cod's natural history, it's certainly shady, it may not have a sweeping vista but the woods possess a serene beauty, and it's special to me as an out-of-the-way preserve that's a mainstay of my running route.  Running regularly by the hidden cache makes it easy for me to maintain.  There are few things more disappointing than finding a trashed cache.

Some cache owners (you know who you are!) enjoy devising clever, challenging and deceptive cache containers.  The unique features of where the cache is placed are secondary to identifying the cache itself.  I've seen caches in magnetic sheets that look like utility-box components; in faux hardware; and even in natural-appearing objects that have a hidden compartment.  I'm sure there are geocachers who relish conquering these "evil" hides, but I'm with the forum poster:  Give me a scenic spot I might not have otherwise discovered.

Just as a party host wouldn't want guests trampeling the neighborhood, a geocache should be hidden so that the landscape isn't noticeably disturbed.  I've kept mine hidden along established paths so people don't create "social trails" by bushwhacking.  And it should go without saying, although geocaching.com has to post it prominently on its Terms of Service, that caches should only be hidden where the public is welcome and geocaching is allowed. 

So the cache is hidden, it's been reviewed by the local geocaching administrator and published on geocaching.com.  You hold your breath to see when it will first be found and who will find it.  You await their posted comments on the cache Web page like a Broadway cast awaits the New York Times critic's report.  Have you given good directions (are your GPS coordinates within accurate range)?  Was finding the cache as easy or difficult as advertised?  Did they like where it was placed?  Does it eventually make the unofficial list of "must do" caches that geocachers share with each other? 

A few poorly placed caches can make you a geocaching pariah.  But rewarding geocachers with a good find will strengthen both the hiders' and the seekers' interest in the hobby and connection to the world around them.

Happy Trails.

Photos, from top:

Cape Cod Pathways marks a Punkhorn trail to the cache

Maybe not a sweeping vista, but cranberry bogs are an integral part of this region's landscape and can be viewed along the trail

Entering the Punkhorn Parklands