Arcade claw machines, mirrored illusions, and mazes: Interview with cache owner mrradach

By Andrew Baldwin
Everything from arcade claw machines, mirrored illusions, and mazes have been used by creative cache owner mrradach. To break up the monotony of his day job as a tram driver, he was looking for something with action, adventure, and a creative change-up to ease his ambitions. In his own words, “I’ve been looking for such a pastime for a while and found it in geocaching. I especially like the creative aspect of it, as a geocacher and cache owner.”
Geocaching was the perfect outlet for this, and mrradach’s 31 geocache hides with 90+ Favorite points (2 hides have over 400 FP’s!) speak for themselves in terms of their quality. Though if it weren’t for his dad and two brothers coming home late to Christmas dinner seven years ago, angering the whole family, he wouldn’t have known about geocaching. At the time mrradach didn’t understand why or how they could have forgotten the time but now he says he totally understands.
These cool, fun, and interactive caches inspire cachers at all experience levels. Their appeal sparked some interest at HQ so we reached out to mrradach to get to know what goes on when he is daydreaming of future cache hides, what excites him about the game, and where his inspiration comes from.

Geocaching HQ: Which geocache got you hooked?
mrradach: Actually, it was the first. It took me three tries but the fourth time I found something. It was a stick that could be opened, inside was the cache. I noticed how extensive cache hiding can be. That still makes me curious to this day.
Geocaching HQ: What is the story behind your username?
mrradach: I simply used my email addresses name. At the time I thought, I could remember that better. Besides, I just wanted to try geocaching out. But I never stopped.
Geocaching HQ: What is your favorite cache(s) you’ve found?
mrradach: I really cannot commit to one. In Switzerland and nearby Germany, there are plenty of high-quality caches. I do not like solving puzzles very much at home, but I enjoy the ones you can solve outside. I love gadget caches!

Geocaching HQ: What keeps you engaged with the game?
mrradach: The diversity always makes it interesting. In addition, I have found many good friends through the hobby, they make sure that I remain involved.
Geocaching HQ: For you, what makes a quality cache?
mrradach: There’s a mix: a little manual work, an exciting story, and hidden in an interesting place. But support and sustainable care are also an important part to all of this.
Geocaching HQ: What’s the best approach to creating a geocache?
mrradach: A good idea. What do I want to show and express with my cache? The practical implementation can then be seen as a nice challenge.

Geocaching HQ: If someone reading this was looking for inspiration, what words of advice would you give them?
mrradach: If you’ve already found some nice caches, your imagination will help you a lot. Take your favorite type and imagine how you would like to find a cache like that out in the world. Then you have to get down to make a plan to make that happen.
Geocaching HQ: You have a number of complicated and intricate caches. Do you find it difficult to provide maintenance on them?
mrradach: No. This is always part of a process for me. Not only build and hide, but also optimize the caches for the future. Whenever I create a cache, I can never know how it will evolve and continue to function under different conditions. So at the beginning it is often reworked, so that the maintenance will become less and less.

Geocaching HQ: Have you ever had an idea that you thought was impossible?
mrradach: I still have some ideas that I could not implement at the moment because I lack certain knowledge. But I always want to learn and exchange ideas with specialists. So almost nothing is impossible.
Geocaching HQ: Do you have a favorite hide of your own?
mrradach: Every one of them is my favorite (laughs). But if I highlighted one, that would be Chuchichäschtli Deluxe (GC6MZEJ). Not only the production was a lot of fun, also the naming was exciting. I have found a good way to involve the community in a kind of vote.