Cachers whose hides never disappoint

[Trekkin and Birdin]

This could be part of the whole “favorites” discussion, but here’s another way to look for caches. Keeping in mind that we love location, nice hides, history and/or hikes, some Wisconsin hiders who have never let us down include
Yawningdog, HotdogsOffTrail and jenhen.

Whose caches do you look to for a great experience and what can you expect when you hunt them?

[sandlanders]

We’ve enjoyed some hides by HotdogsOffTrail and Yawningdog, too, T&B, but we have not had the pleasure of finding a jenhen cache yet, probably because we don’t cache much in that area.

As for us, we like different hiders for different reasons, but our local favorites are sadowskifamily and jar42. Both are always locating great places along the Ice Age Trail to take us, and those often include a few ups and downs! Geolivestrong has added a few of his own recently on the IAT, too. Though not limited to the IAT, the above cachers make great use of public lands to hide bigger-than-micro containers, getting us out on the trails.

Hiders whose hides never disappoint for other reasons are labrat_wr, Team Sloughfoot, and Trekkin’ and Birdin’. Rarely, if ever, do these cachers put out caches just to provide smileys. They have a reason for each placement, and their hides are solid and enjoyable to seek. Their hides are also well-maintained, a must for anyone to be considered a good cache owner.

Our favorite spot to travel for great caches is… north of Highway 64. Yes, the Hayward area is home to Hayward Cheezehead and krymdog, the one-two punch for caches that will exercise both mind and body. And the mind exercise doesn’t end with the puzzle solve. Quite often there is more to do in the field before a smiley can be attained. And you just might put on a few miles in the process. Team Smith Lake has the older hides in the area, and those are solids hides, too.

Just as there are many different reasons to award favorite points to caches, there are many different reasons to enjoy certain cachers’ hides. There is something for everyone in this game.

Disclaimer: Our list of favorite hiders is by no means complete; we have enjoyed caches put out by quite a few great hiders, and we thank them all for making the game fun for us. And we thank everyone who has adopted The Lil Otter’s caches so that those of us caching “latecomers” can still enjoy the places she sought out and shared with us from the early days of Wisconsin geocaching.

[hack1of2]

Great topic. Here’s some of our favorite cache owners of SE WI:

At the top of my favorite hiders list, and I suspect at the top of many people’s list in SE Wisconsin, would be Ranger Boy. I really don’t know of any other who is comparable. He is a master of incredible, outside-the-box thinking. His puzzles are brilliant and his hides are AMAZING. Many who find his caches ( and I’m referring to those with over 1,000 finds) will state in their logs that they’ve never seen a hide like that one. Again. His caches are often found by groups of several people or more to increase one’s chance of success. 85 hides and only 17 are traditionals. His top 20 caches all have about 15 or more favorites. Even his multis are usually a combination of multi & mind-blowing field puzzles. He’s been caching for over 10 years and is still very active, cranking out many new excellent caches.

Whenever a new cache comes out from Froggerz it’s a must-do for us. Their traditionals all are clever with props, and they are (in my opinion) some of the best puzzle cachers in the state. We enjoy their puzzle caches, when we eventually figure them out! Every one of their active caches has at least one or more favorite votes. Although most of their hides are in Milwaukee county, they’re pretty much all in secluded wooded areas that look as if they’re hundreds of miles away from the city. Nice.

Chevyole has 62 caches. His top ten caches all have double digit favorite votes. We’ve only found about 70% of his caches so far but all of them have been great. He doesn’t hide boring caches. All we have found so far have been creative, or at scenic locations, or great topics/cache pages, and/or downright clever. We look forward to finding all of his, little by little.

Doctor Dolittle has over 400 hides, and especially in the past few years they usually could be described as “wow.” Great themes and props. In fact perhaps he is the props master. He has put an incredible amount of work into his custom caches the past few years, building some incredible stuff. Creative themes & cache pages too. His top ten all have over 40 favorites, including the #1 cache in WI (Take a deep breath) with favorites percentage.

The Goldie Diggers and Mister Greenthumb & Sunshine are two of my favorite cache hiders and have well over 700 hides between them, not to mention hundreds of favorite votes. With that many hidden, some of theirs are micros, but the good stuff is really really good. We have found all but one of Goldies (still have to get his newest one) and hope to eventually find all of MGT & SS’s. If and when that happens I don’t know what we’re going to do!

[sandlanders]

@hack1of2 wrote:

We have found all but one of Goldies (still have to get his newest one) and hope to eventually find all of MGT & SS’s. If and when that happens I don’t know what we’re going to do!

You’ll just have to drive a bit farther. 😉
That’s what this forum topic for. There are lots of great cache hiders in the state of Wisconsin! 😀

[Mister Greenthumb]

Staying true to the title of this post we are probably not the norm for our area, Despite living in what is one of the most densely cache populated parts of the state up north cachers get the nod from us. When I saw this post two names immediately came to mind. Sweetlife and Bartrod. We spend quite a bit of time caching in Oconto and Marinette counties where their hides can be found. Bartrod has taken us to many interesting historic spots and also has placed several fun hides including his Oz series. I don’t think we have ever been in that area without finding a Sweetlife hide. We have enjoyed his off the beaten path WSQ’s and long hikes. His hides have taken us to some of the most scenic places in the area. As we work less we expect to cache more. A couple of cachers that we have only found a few hidden by, but will surely be on our list in the near future will be Sandlanders and Hotdogs of Trail. The few of each of theirs that we have found we really enjoyed mostly because of location. An untapped area for us is Trekkin and Birdin territory. We have had our eye recently on several of theirs and one of them will get the nod for #7000 coming up soon. I don’t want to offend any local hiders, but if I did have to pick one it would be beccaday based on the fun we had hiking to some of hers during the past couple of years.

[sandlanders]

How could I forget the great hides put out by Gram&Gramps in the Waupaca area? The only problem with their caches is that there are way too few of them! 😉

[RSplash40]

Timberline Echo’s 🙂

[bartrod]

Thanks, Mr. GT…I try to please.:D Since NE WI is my comfort zone, I haven’t experienced some of these other cachers’ hides. Because I’m visiting my daughter and her family currently over the holidays though, I’m reminded of an area cacher here around Hudson, River Falls, etc. who’s inspired my imagination…Spike 007. When the grandsons are napping I try to be sure I’ve got some of his caches loaded in the gps and sneak out to search for them…Chris’s containers and locations never fail to disappoint.
Another cacher that I’ve heard great things about is Woodcarver Dan in the Rhinelander area. I understand he has created some unique and awesome caches…gotta get over that way some day and check them out.

Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)

[Trekkin and Birdin]

We’ve been lucky enough to do at least a few of the hides by all cachers mentioned and have to agree….when traveling into those areas, those are among those we seek.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

For those three of us who enjoy true letterbox type hunts, may I add sandlanders and woodlandnomad’s LBHs? Both of them “get” the concept and are sure you have a real letterboxing experience, with the stories providing your orienteering directions to find the cache and a handcarved stamp that connects to the cache’s theme. They choose their sites to help you enjoy the hunt and some scenery, too. Pawn of Chaos also has a couple we’ve done in the greater Milwaukee area that provided that kind of fun experience, especially “Le Morte de Cacher.” I don’t know how many gotta run still has active, but his also followed suit, taking us beyond a cache with some random stamp from the dollar store, which seems to happen more and more nowadays. I know some out there like to scoff at “handcarved stamps,” but for those of us who come from the letterboxing world, that extra effort is very much appreciated.

[Spike007]

Thanks for the nice words Rod – I’d better get some new stuff out for your next trek over to this part of the state. 😎

I tend to do most of my caching in the western part of WI and into MN, and have always enjoyed caches placed by zuma (esp. the YST caches over the years), Mutsley and Crew, Diehard, DB, mama kat (that Bjornson area is fabulous), knowschad, and many others. Depending on where Joe Cactus attends college this Fall, it may give us some opportunities to explore other parts of the state.

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