I learned something from a friendly person at Home Depot that has made a BIG difference with my Geocaching container camouflage process. 

It all started with a bike trail that I found in San Diego.

I recently started exploring this bike trail with my skateboard and scooter. After a few sessions, I checked and realized that there were hardly any geocaches hidden on this gem of a bike trail. The trail is nicely paved, protected on both sides by fencing and is well maintained.

It’s an ongoing project by the city that continues to grow. I don’t think a lot of people are even aware that it’s here and so I thought that placing a series of geocaches would be a good way to “bring people to a cool place that they had never visited”. 

What geocaching containers to use? 

It had to be small and inconspicuous. My purpose was to bring people to the trail, using something easy (for geocachers) to find, but not so obvious to muggles. I decided on bison tubes. I like them better than film cans because they’re versatile and can be hung. There were a LOT of places on the bike trail (fences next to bushes) where a small hanging bison tube would be ideal. 

For about $8 we found a pack of 10 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJ80YRW/

Here’s the problem I ran into: My favorite camo paint was NOT sticking to the bison tubes. It would slide right off like they were coated with Teflon. It took, WAY too many coats to get it to stick. 

My first solution: I sat down with sandpaper and roughed up the surfaces. It took time. While I was watching TV, I’d sit and sand a tube. This took more time that I would have liked, especially if I had to do a pack of 10.

The next day I sprayed a couple as a test. It didn’t work. The sanding hardly did anything. The paint still slid off and didn’t stick. UG! 

I needed the container construction to be quick and easy, otherwise it would be a discouraging obstacle to hiding these caches.

I needed more camo paint and headed to my local Home Depot. While there I told the “paint person” about my dilemma and they suggested that I get a can of Self Etching Primer. I got that and a new paint that looked promising: Multicolor Textured. 

I got home and tried the self etching primer. It stuck. Just what I needed. I let one coat dry thoroughly then tried the multicolor textured. It stuck and looked great! I let it dry and put on one or two more coats for good measure. They all came out great.

A few tips

• I made hooks for hanging out of paperclips, bending them with long nose pliers
• I used the contraption below, using chicken wire, to hang and spray from. The chicken wire keeps the tubes from sliding around. 
• I took out the O rings before any spraying and put them back after the paint was dry

Here's one of the final cache hides:

Do you have a cache construction tip that has helped you make better Geocaches? Share it here by commenting, or write us at podcacher@gmail.com and let us know. We’d be happy to share it!