Needle in a Haystack hides

[Todd300]

How many of you avoid Needle in a Haystack hides? Examples are micros in a rock pile and bison tubes inside one of a cluster of pine tress.

I was in Appleton yesterday and drove up to a bunch of pine trees and the cache was a bison tube. I was like, Um, no, and drove away without even looking for it.

Last week, I tried to find a small matchstick container in the middle of a large rock pile. DNF’ed that one and won’t return to it.

How about the rest of you?

[HOT TROT]

Normally, I’ll give it a go. This past weekend I was looking for a bison in a cluster of pines. I looked for about 30 seconds and called it. It was quite windy, and I wasn’t dressed to be stabbed. This is the exception for me though.

[Captain and Mate]

We’ll usually give these a try, but are sometimes disappointed that the area of the hide gets torn up by people searching. It’s hard to know where the line between a good, tough hide and one that’s over the top is.

[TheBalks]

Bison tubes in pine trees light up like candles at night with a good flashlight, if they dont put camo tape ove them.

[brkster]

I’d say that if I was on a trip scouting out caches while en route or at destination, I’d be more than likely to decline most of them, but for those in my area, I’ll give them a shot, and if I miss, probably return within a year if it’s still up and running.

[The Crippler]

I give them about 5 minutes, less if it is a bison in a rock pile.

[DGDK]

I’ll usually put in 15-20 minutes before I give up on it. I figure I’m saving time staying and looking than if I had to go back. I don’t mind trees or rock hides nearly as much as I hate nanos on tanks, trains, and other large things, especially when the hint is “magnetic”.

[EnergySaver]

If there are lets say 5 caches in the area and I have time for 3 … I will avoid to the pine tree / rock pile hides. But if there are not many caches choices I will give them a shot.

But I do sometimes get frustrated when it’s in a pine tree / rock pile hide, when there are other hiding options that would be more enjoyable at the same location. Like there’s a hollow tree 20′ away.

I’m not against tough hides … like recently I found one of those suspend it in inside the end of a fence pole … it was extra tricky because the area was so over-grown I didn’t even notice at first that there was even a fence there … LOL. That one was great and sneaky. Piles of rocks are just plain frustrating … in my personal opinion, so not much fun.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

We’ll try them all, and often spend a long time trying to find it. I did just this yesterday with one in the Madison area, and posted my sad face when I couldn’t locate it. Next time I’ll bring Trekkin’, who will find it in two minutes, LOL.

Neither of the types you mentioned are among our favorites, but if they are in a pleasant location…the one yesterday was close to a stream….we don’t mind a tough hide and the time spent hunting. I will more likely pass up nondescript guardrails and dead ends, even though they’re usually a gimme. We don’t cache for numbers, but for the fun, challenge and new places we discover. So the needle in a haystack ones can be okay, though like Energy Saver, sometimes you just scratch your head and wonder why these tiny things are placed where something more substantial could be. There’s something for everyone to enjoy in this hobby.

And if you want to discover a true needle in a haystack, look up one of Da Bloodhound’s by that name.

[-cheeto-]

A wise man once said, every rock pile deserves a cache. Or something like that…

I’m actually sort of a fan of caches in rocks. Especially when caching with my family. Of course, they’re not winter friendly or available in winter most of the time but during the other seasons.

Pine trees make me break out (which I never knew before geocaching) so I tend to not spend long on pine tree hides. Circle a couple times and then move along.

I tend to think not every cache is (or should be) easy. We hunt a cache. Some should be hard to find. Some should take return trips to find.

[CodeJunkie]

Rocks and pine trees aren’t my favorite hide spots, but only because they generally take longer. I don’t pass them up though without giving a good try. If the ratings are done properly, I expect these types of hides to have higher difficulty ratings. Just part of the game and variety in my opinion.

And sometimes the CO takes it to the next level by using great camo in these same spots (i.e. BakRdz) which really make you scratch your noodle.

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

The harder they are to find, the more I enjoy the cache. I’d rather search for an hour, or return time after time until I make the find, than be able to spot the cache 100′ away. I know I’m in the minority, and I don’t care. 😀

[Timberline Echoes]

I’ll take a pine tree cache where you can hide behind tree cover, over a city street cache any day.
Mrs. TE

[Trekkin and Birdin]

I have seen Mrs. TE find a pine tree hide, at dusk, a bison with NO GPS! No wonder she likes them!

But I agree, I’m not a fan of standing in full view of everyone digging in a metal rail. I’ll do it, but I won’t love it! LOL I know some enjoy the stealth aspect. Not us. If we find ourselves in such a situation, we just tell people what we’re up to and invite them to join in the hunt.

I kind of see a distinction between just plain nasty evil hides and tough hides that are truly clever. We’ve seen way more of the former than we care to, but truly enjoy the latter. We’d rather DNF those and try again another time, than get hints or such. If it’s truly clever, we want to have the surprise to ourselves. Trekkin’ has somewhat slowed down the FTF stuff, but he will still say the main reason he likes them is he gets to discover the hide as the owner intended. Seth joined us for a brilliant tough multi a couple years ago, one where we’d tried before and missed the first stage. It was amazing. Lots of folks are finding that cache now, and you just know it’s due to PAF or hints from other finders. We got to enjoy the cleverness and make our own discoveries. Those are the ones we live for.

The cache in question is called Gauntlet: Seldon’s Century Hide. Highly recommend it. We went strictly with our own wits to figure it all out, and had a blast in the process.
GC1EJ4X
Using phone a friend would just cheat you out of the wonderful aha moments we enjoyed along the way. Everyone plays their own way, and that’s the fun of the game. This is how we choose to play it. In the end, decide what you want and play it your way. There’s no rule that says anyone needs to get them all.

[cekcacher]

“I don’t do Rocks!” A cache has to be small or larger before I give a rock pile a second look – or it is part of a series that depends upon the Find to complete the series (i.e. Battleship caches).

Pine tree hides are “getting old”. I’ll stay with them until I make the find, but I’m getting really tired of this sort of hide. It’s been done! Over . . . and over . . . and over!

[Author]

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