My hiding ground is at a location I have to visit regularly for work. There were no geocaches anywhere close first and I did not like it and then I was happy for that. It became my hiding ground. On each trip I make to the area I bring more and more geocaches with me to hide. As I am there for work I always have some time to spend on maintenance, new hides and finding new hiding spots. When I have a chance to get a bicycle I cycle the area and place geocaches along the bicycle routes.
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The location
During my last trip I had a colleague with me from overseas and interested in older building built-in the communism so I drove him to different sites and while driving we stopped at a place where they kept a tiny bunker most probably dating back to the wars or during the cold wars.
This tiny bunker must have a geocache. I drove by here multiple times, I even cycled by and never spotted it. I need to make sure more people find it. It is part of Hungary’s history.
Now that is how a hiding idea starts up. Obviously it would be great to place a container into the bunker, but due to the size of it and the fact that kids from the neighborhood play around and most probably in it; it is not the best place to hide. There is another building close by where I found a good spot to hide my geocache.
Remember the river I mentioned? As you see on the above picture it is really peaceful, but trust me it can become really messy there. After the winter when all snow melts up in the mountains it all comes down here and the water level can come up really high. Why is that a problem? Now the thing is that the water level can reach up to where I plan to hide my geocache, and there is nothing more annoying than muggles taking your geocache but when a river takes it and you could have avoided, so I had to come up with a way of making sure it won’t happen.
Before I start sharing the details of the container I put together, here are a few more pictures of the location.
A nice little bench along a pathway gives the opportunity to sit down and enjoy the view. Honestly… I never ever saw anyone at this place sitting there maybe I came at the wrong time.
I just could not stop thinking. What is this bunker was supposed to watch? The river or the road? For the road I cannot imagine any serious traffic passing by back in the war or after. If for the river, now then I really do not get it. Why face the door to the river if the one inside had to shoot towards the river? What if he had to replace with another soldier? They could not safely switch place as soon as they open the door they are dead.
The way to hide
Let me get to the container, so the things to consider before starting:
- I want to hide a bit bigger container then a small one. (I only have a few which can contain some swags and to get kids more engaged. Preferably I want more swags in the geocaches.)
- To avoid the river taking it when flooding I must secure it to something.
- I have to camouflage ti good enough to be invisible for the muggles.
- It has to be different from my previous hides in the area. (When I started to hide geocaches I had so many ideas and I tried to put them all out there. It was fun… till a team showed up and could not find many of them and a placed a typical easy “replacement” for the non missing container. It took me a while to find their replacements in some of the cases. I won’t give it up I’ll try to hide unique containers.)
The container
I decided to use a lock & lock container which I had a long time ago and no use yet.
First I drilled a hole where I put the chain through. To make it waterproof I applied lots of glue in multiple layers on both in and outside of the box. I let all layers dry long enough to form a secure protection against the elements. Time will tell if this was a good way to do or I need to come up with a different approach.
When the glue dried enough I started applying thin layers of glue all over the container and its top. Then used some camouflage tape to stick to it. I recommend using the stretchable ones the nature photographers use to cover their cameras. You could apply it with no glue as it sticks to some level, but won’t last long enough out in the wild that way. More time to dry. I do not mind these drying periods I can move on to another project. As you can see if you zoom closer on the picture the tape is not applied perfectly. No worries about that. After a few days and a few finds it will look worse.
When all dried up I filed it up with a log. That logbook is self-made from garbage and detailed in this post. I also added a laminated instruction leaflet. Of course I added some swags and goodies but that will change before it gets to its final location.
Material needed for the container
Get some lock & lock type of container here
Find some camouflage tape to cover the container here
I keep many different colors at home as depending on a location different colors work better.
Find the fixture chain that is strong enough for the location
These chains are also available in different color, size, shape, etc. Pick the one best fits the location you plan to hide. Also consider if they can handle water or not. Of course if you hide in a desert it is no big deal, but mine might get under water from time to time.
The final location
Here are some pictures taken when the geocache was placed out to its final hiding place. I will try to add more pictures to show you how it evolved over time.
Sorry for the bad picture. It was early in the morning and it looked sharp on my phone … I’ll make a new picture later.
Not too visible for the muggles. Even I had to take a closer look to spot the chain. I’m expecting the chain to get dirty after some rain and other weather conditions.
