Not an Easy Find

Most people enjoy the hunting aspects of geocaching.  And that can be fun as well as a bit of exercise both physical and mental.  But I actually prefer the creation and hiding of custom caches.  It gives me a chance to tell little history stories.  And to build custom cache containers.

Most caches you find are commonplace.  Pill bottles or small plastic jars, often with camo tape or black paint.  After a while you just start tuning your eyes to look for them.  So creating a custom cache, something unexpected, is part of the fun.

A cache should be sneaky....but not go too far.  I've heard tales of caches hidden in fake dog poop or with a half dozen decoy caches in the same general area as the subtly hidden true cache.  

Recently I started working on a basic cache that can be easily modified.  Cheap, waterproof, and big enough to hold not just a log book but a few pictures and some laminated text.

Here's the "base version".

And here's how to make it.  And to make it sneaky.

The white square tube is plastic.  The Menards surplus store had a big box of these.  As we shall see it takes paint and glue well and is easy to work with.  Of course aluminum tube would also work.  Steel would be less good, unless rusty metal is your camo idea.  But it would stain the contents too.

I doubt there is a widget on earth that you can't order from McMaster-Carr.  I  did some careful measurement and found these inserts that fit the tube perfectly.  Just a bit of sanding involved, then glue the bottom in for good measure.  The top can have a variety of decorative and/or functional pull knobs added.

Outdoor welding table is a great place for painting.  The paint is mottled and multi-color by design, it just has to be peeking through in places.  See those strips of bark?

Base model and nasty, sneaky version.  I don't have a specific location in mind yet, this was just one of a series of ongoing experiments.  For finishing touches perhaps a bit of black Sharpie ink on the places where the shiny glue shows through.