Geocaching: Hide Ideas from a Twisted Mind

For a few years my family and I were avid geocachers who attended almost every meet and greet we could get to. We loved the sport and looked for any opportunity to find another cache. In that time I spent a lot of time thinking of hides that would be nearly impossible to find without a hint. Well, for the past couple of years we have found that we have had less time to participate and eventually fell out of the sport entirely for a while. We still go out to find an occasional cache, but simply don't have the time to maintain anymore hides. There were some hides, however, that I devised that just seemed too good to let go. I'm passing along my two favorite evil schemes to you. Don't worry. You don't have to credit me. But, if you do find the time, I would love to hear stories if you do decide to use any of my ideas.

Please remember to follow the Geocaching rules when hiding your caches. The ideas are mine, but the responsibility is yours.

The Spider

Oh yes, that's right. I said "the spider." Now, don't get me wrong. I don't want anyone to go around poking innocent real spiders, nor do I want any spider bite casualties. A great hint for this would be "take a stick." But, yes, a spider is actually involved, though not a real one.

I am an artist and actually planned on making my own spider with polymer clay (Sculpey brand, actually... the kind you can bake in the oven), and painting it, then coating it with polyurethane. You can do that too, or you can look around and try to find a fake spider that looks real enough to pass as the real McCoy. You'll need one that is big enough to hold a small tube (I was thinking one of those slender trial lipstick tubes you can get from Avon or Mary Kay). The tube would be inserted where it sticks out of the spider's backside and painted black so that it can't be seen by the naked eye. Now you need to find a hole in a tree or in a board that other's won't see, say out in the woods or on the backside of a fence that most people don't go behind. You don't want the hole to be deep, the spider should be visible to the geocacher, but just the front. You'll want to make sure, too, that your spider is secured. Using a small piece of Velcro should do it, both to secure the spider to its new home and the tube to the spider.

The Thumb Tack

This lovely little hide was actually my husband's idea, but I have his permission to tell you about it. Plus, I've added a bit of my own wacky thinking to it.

You simply take a small plastic thumbtack and a soldering iron and help them become friends. Yes, you make a small hole in the back of the thumbtack right by the needle with the soldering iron, just big enough to fit a small slip of rolled up paper. Place the thumb tack on a public bulletin board (with permission, of course). My slanted idea was use it to pin up a quotation. I picked out a special one.

"Setting an exciting goal is like setting a needle in your compass. From then on, the compass knows only one point - its ideal. And it will faithfully guide you there through the darkest nights and fiercest storms." - anonymous

The hint? "Don't quote me on this, but this is a hard one."

You'll want to make sure that the thumb tack is pushed securely into the corkboard so that the log sheet is safe from the elements.