Cacher Incognito: The Art of Stealth
I haven’t found myself doing a lot of urban caching in the last year or so. I’ve gone out and done a few trails here and there, and while on the road for work, I’ve snagged a few here and there but many times I focus on getting virtuals which are easy to snag without being spotted.
A quick glance at the official forum and there’s a discussion about “covering up” what you do. It got me to thinking about the art of being stealthy. As my caching career has gone on, I have found myself less and less stealthy in some of the caches I have found, whereas others I am still very careful not to be spotted.
If you’re out on a trail, or in the middle of nowhere, there really isn’t a need to conceal what you are doing. However, in the urban areas, it’s very likely that someone may spot what you are doing and wonder if it’s nefarious in some way. It’s for this reason we use the “stealth” attribute on many urban caches. This let’s folks know that you should do your best to try to conceal what you are doing, for fear that a muggle might remove the cache.
In some ways, I like the idea of stealth. Can I get that container out from where I know it is, without someone seeing me, and having to explain the entire concept of geocaching to someone who will probably look at me and think I’m crazy. Those tricky hides that are concealed so well but when spotted by a cacher cause us to smile or grin in knowing that we’ve finally found it.
On the other hand, there’s also the part of me that quite frankly doesn’t care if someone spots me. In my early days as a cacher, I was excessively paranoid about being spotted. Now, depending on where I am, I’ll just go for it, because in most cases, no one is really going to notice anyway. Unless you’re climbing up on something and really obviously doing something you shouldn’t, there are times where I just snag the container, sign the log, and put it back.
Both the art of stealth, and the “just go for it” have their own merits. I’ve purposely thrown a set of car keys into a bush as an excuse to search through it. But I’ve also pulled the skirt up on a lampost in the middle of a park knowing full well someone might spot me. It’s never lead to an issue, but I do think that in some cases, the art of stealth really should be exercised.
Do you have your own stealth techniques? Have you pretended to talk on your phone to cover up the fact you were looking for a cache? Has anyone ever asked you what you were doing and you had to explain it to them?
I’ve had the police come up to me twice. Told them I was geocaching. They knew of it but still wanted to see my GPS to make sure I was doing what I claimed to say I was doing. My wife(also a cacher) says I suck at being stealthy so I have almost given up on trying to be stealthy. Sure, if it’s a lamp post skirt cache and buddy is sitting in his car next to it, I’ll wait till he leaves, but that’s about it. I find everyone is so absorbed looking down at their phones no one is paying attention to me anyway(minus those two cops, lol).
I don’t do a lot of urban caching because of the weird looks you sometimes get. When I started 5 years ago ( wow, has it been that long )I was paranoid of being seen. Many times I left a cache because I thought I might be spotted.
Now I take a different approach. I let anyone who passes see me and keep the GPS in full view so they can see it. And because of the way I dress to cache they probably thing I am working on something. Not too many weird looks anymore, but I still don’t urban cache much.
In my opinion the just go for it technique is the stealthiest because you look natural. It’s when you are paranoid and are sneaking around that gets the most attention from others. I’ve told my wife that we needed children as excuse to search for caches in odd areas but compromised with a dog and that works well. I strap the gpsr to the dog and pretend it did its business in the flower bed and I’m picking it up or that it ran into the bushes…
I find the best thing to do for urban caches is to go very early in the mornings. I found that caching in the early part of day you avoid the need to be stealthy or to be disguised. I have seen myself caching after a night shift or before going into work. Having a few finds before work also gave me an extra boost to the day. 🙂
I don’t have a problem with stealth. I stay in car and send MA or Belladan