The Infamous Chewing Gum Cache

Early on (February) in my geocaching hobby I checked out the various kinds of cache containers you could purchase from geocaching.com (as well as other suppliers). They come in all sizes, ranging from ammo cans down to metal containers that look like a large pill capsule. But by far the strangest is the “fake chewing gum” container.

fake chewing gum cache

The container is made out of rubbery pink plastic and formed to look a piece of gum that has already been chewed. The container is fitted with a small cylindrical recess in the underside that will accommodate the smallest of geocache logs. The one I found had a log about 3/8 inches high and 12 inches long, that was rolled up to fit in the recess. Then the recess was capped by a circular magnet.

So, the purpose of the chewing gum cache is to be able to place it in public spaces where people usually park their gum.  Like metal legs on park benches or picnic tables. The idea is that muggles (people uninitiated into geocaching) will ignore the object that looks like gum.

On Monday, I traveled to nearby Arlington, NE to grab 3 caches. Arlington used to be called Bell Creek for a very active creek that cuts through town. But, the post office changed the name to avoid confusion with Battle Creek (Michigan?). The first caches was at Bell Creek Park.

The cache’s direction said that we were to look for a camouflaged container. We were to bring our own pencil–so the cache was small. Now, lots of caches are camouflaged, usually by covering a plastic container with camo tape. So, the cache could be anything. There were no hints given by the CO. However, one couple took a selfie with the picnic pavilion in the background, and with a caption of “What a mess.”

So, I started looking for the cache in the pavilion.  typical of a lot of these structures, the pavilion has 4×4 wooden poles and a combination of metal and wooden roof. I looked around the roof for awhile, and then reasoned that the cache wouldn’t be that high because then kids couldn’t find it. then, I walked around the pavilion looking at the picnic tables. There were 2 wooden topped tables with metal legs, and one completely metal table. the table was also banged up a bit with its metal top being bent in several places. “What a mess” I thought, and zeroes in on my quarry.

Recently, I had stumbled upon several magnetic key cases and thought that the underside of the metal picnic table would be the ideal location for one of these. So, I knelt on the concrete and started surveying the underside of the table, when, lo and behold, I saw this really pink gob of chewing gum stuck to the side support post of the table.

Now, this was too clean to be real gum left on a park table. And, the rest of the table’s underside was devoid of any other gum. So, I reached out and plucked the cache from its perch. Turning it over, I snapped open the recess cover and tapped the cache to get the rolled up log to fall out. The log was so full that there was nowhere to sign. So, I took photos of the cache and its placement to verify my grab. Putting the log back in the recess, and closing the cap, I replaced the cache on the support post where I found it.

Thus ends my first adventure with a chewing gum cache.  Both you and I will know what to look for the next time.