Geocache Placement, Just Because You Can...

Went out today after all my mid-day Valentine's activities were done to see if two possible hiding areas were acceptable. They were only a couple of miles from where I lived so I figured I would be gone an hour tops.

You know how a good idea seems great at the time but if you do the slightest bit of research it goes straight into the dumper? Yeah well, geocache area number one stopped me cold when I started hiking into the area and a big fat No Trespassing sign was staring me in the face. Well shoot this was going to be my my first really mean geocache hide. The area in question currently is dormant of the Kudzu plant. You know the plant that ate the south? Right now the vines have completely died into a mass of dark brown. Even now it is starting it's regrowing and in a few weeks the plants will once again be climbing sixty feet into trees, over signs and anything else not moving. Yes I was going to put a geocache smack dab in the middle of one of these fields, but nooooo, darn legal formalities.. Will have to search for a different spot. Needless to say that blew almost an hour of time right there.

Geocache area number two had better possibilities but a few strikes against it. I wanted to do one of my famous "string" hides. That is when you find a nice area to put your geocache and instead of putting in a nice hidey hole on the ground you hang it from Cammi parachute rope up into a tree. That way not only does the finder have to spot the cache in the tree but also figure out where the tied rope is to get it down.

The issues I had with this area is first it was on Highway 42 which is a terribly busy road. There is a parking area but you would have to cross said busy road. For some no big deal but for me I don't want anybody getting hurt. So that was a strike one. Next getting down to the stream area of which I wanted to put said hide you had to go through a fairly trashy area. Over the years people have dumped refrigerators and standard garbage you see on the side of the road. Again for some no big deal for me all I could think of was snake hideouts. Things were starting to look a little shaky. I scouted around anyways thinking if I did find a perfect hide that I would increase the difficulty and tell for kids to stay away from this one. So off I go and after 30 minutes of scouting I did find a nice placement location. Was actually about to get the final readings and all and that was when I noticed the tiny grill and matrice. I do not know if the person or persons was still living in the area but I sure as heck wasn't going to put one of our geocachers in danger. Sorry not my style. So I quickly took a photo or two and got the heck out of there.

So even though it looked good on paper to put two really great geocache ideas. It does not necessarily mean that you should. Checking out the area first is a great way of knowing if a geocache is a good placement or not.