I like it , cuz i have thought of this many times for the near future. There would have to be a set of criteria for accessibility to the list..? like..membership on this site, and/or ?

Could you clarify this ? : "Unlike geocaches nothing would be taken or added -- that would be the responsibility of the person responsible for the cache."
I assume you mean nothing would be taken or added unless there were an acknowledged emergency? Could that include some other than emp/cme ?

Could accessiblity benefit extend to other unforeseen bo hardships?
For those who don't have or will not have functional GPS gear, can this easily be accessible in advance by conventional mapping, local markers/clues ?

Obviously a circuit of trust would need to be developed.

As a matter of relevance, i'm wondering if anyone has tried or considered using a hand ,or motorized, posthole auger to create deeper/narrower caches for whatever might fit pvc or abs pipe/w/caps, or smaller pails/lids. I'm thinking smaller footprint...easier to cover with rock...and not trip into.

I had this idea from my practise on the farm of using my tractor/auger to make many instant mini rootcellars below the frost line all over the place, then lower down carrots or rutabagas in a pail ....before i had a root cellar. I did use 2x2 sections of blufoam insulation with rock to cap off the watershedding hole-top, and then threw thick blanket of leaves and branches over.

This might be a stupid question, but without a faraday cage won't your GPS be knocked out of commission in a EMP. This means mapping and local markers/clues would be a must (not just for those who don't have one).

First of all, I would suggest moving this to the "Private Canadian Discussions" area.
That way, you would have to be logged in and a member of the "Canadian Preppers" usergroup to read it, thus keeping prying eyes away.
Second, yes, an EMP would likely knock out GPS. Some may have a unit protected, but the satellite may get knocked out also.
I think both GPS and local markers as well as a printable map would be in order.
Just a thought, but for ease, maybe a 4 or 5 inch PVC pipe with sealed caps would work better.
This way, holes could be dug with a typical hand post hole digger, which gives a 6 inch hole.
In any case, this is a fantastic idea.
Let's keep it going!

Thanks for the enthusiasm and the great feedback ideas.
1. GPS Inoperation after EMP -- My intial thought was before going on a trip where you might have to use one of the caches in an emergency is that I would plunk the coordinates into google earth and have a printout map of the cache location with me. Maybe the cache admin could provide some information in our comment section of our spreadsheet to aid in finding the cache (without the ability to zero right in on it with a gps) ... and/or maybe we design a symbol marker that would be recognizable to us to better find it when we are under stress in an emergency.

2. Sealable PVC -- great idea. I think the caches should express the creativity of the individual cache admin. This could be part of the fun of checking out the various caches -- to see how they are setup and what is in them.

3."" Could you clarify this ? : "Unlike geocaches nothing would be taken or added -- that would be the responsibility of the person responsible for the cache."
I assume you mean nothing would be taken or added unless there were an acknowledged emergency? Could that include some other than emp/cme ? "" Exactly. There would be a matter of trust of course -- an honor system.

4. Moving to Members only Section - Denob, can you move the thread as admin?

Keep the thoughts coming. I think the idea has some serious potential but a lot of details need to be worked out by the community.

I love the idea! Also having to travel coast to coast for work, the prospect of being stranded 1000s of km from home doesn't sit well with me. At forms of help would be appreciated. Living I western Canada, maybe I can help by offering the same around here. If this grows, then maybe the next thing might be creating a network of safe houses where like minded Preppers stuck trying to make their way home could stop for rest in a secure area and maybe leave with a few supplies on their way home. (Though this may remain a very wishful idea....)

I've been giving this some thought lately and came up with an idea.
Having a list of locations with GPS coordinates and locations relative to landmarks is great, but still may only get you so close.
I had the idea of using a marker in the exact location of the cache...kind of a "dig here" sign.
The first thing that came to mind was something along the lines of a surveyor's monument...you know, those little round disks in the ground at the corners of your property.
Figuring that ordering a bunch of these and distributing them to the cachers might get a little pricey, and being the cheap bugger that I am, I wondered about making them ourselves. Here is what I came up with...cheap and easy.
Drive a 6" spike through the bottom of an empty tuna can and fill with concrete mix.
Before the concrete dries, simply use your finger to scribe "CPN" on the top.
Once dry, these could be driven into the ground exactly where the cache is burried.
Thoughts?

Denob, I think its a good solution, but may not be that handy when it snows. I was also thinking about having to dig something out in the worse of survival situations and wondered instead about making the cache smaller (like a 1 liter Nalgene type bottle) and just burying it with a pile of rock or something. That bottle could be used to collect water and inside, you can still have water purification tabs, a small map, candles, emergency blanket, garbage bag, a couple of protein bars for food, etc. This isn't much, but it's affordable and people may be more likely to put a bunch of them out and in those cases, I think that having many caches around the country might be better than having a few great ones.

A database with pictures would probably help too.

GPS location, closest major landmark (town for example, for easy indexing), physical location (corner of hwy 16 and township 214, north side, second fence post east side of 214.), a picture of the location and a picture of content.

A picture of the location...great idea!
Canadian winters certainly pose issues...buried markers, digging through frozen ground, etc.
Perhaps the database could list the contents of the cache as well as the container...2 foot PVC tube with, nalgene bottle with, 5 gallon bucket with...
And yes, being as descriptive and accurate as possible as to exact location would help also.

I absolutely love this idea! I am in southern ON and would certainly be willing to contribute to the cache network. I don't travel for work, but my family and I often go out of town for fun things and I would hate to be caught away from home with only the barest of essentials. I look forward to watching this grow.

I love the idea! Also having to travel coast to coast for work, the prospect of being stranded 1000s of km from home doesn't sit well with me. At forms of help would be appreciated. Living I western Canada, maybe I can help by offering the same around here. If this grows, then maybe the next thing might be creating a network of safe houses where like minded Preppers stuck trying to make their way home could stop for rest in a secure area and maybe leave with a few supplies on their way home. (Though this may remain a very wishful idea....)

This just made me think of what my parents used to tell me about the north. I was born in the Yukon and back in those days I was told that people who owned camps and cabins in the wilderness never locked them. They were always stocked with food and supplies and if anyone was ever caught out in bad weather or whatever and needed a place to get under cover and be safe, they they could just go into the nearest camp/cabin. Whatever they used while there they would later replace. It was an honour system that worked well. Sadly, we can't leave our doors unlocked these days, but it's something to think about.

I love the idea! Also having to travel coast to coast for work, the prospect of being stranded 1000s of km from home doesn't sit well with me. At forms of help would be appreciated. Living I western Canada, maybe I can help by offering the same around here. If this grows, then maybe the next thing might be creating a network of safe houses where like minded Preppers stuck trying to make their way home could stop for rest in a secure area and maybe leave with a few supplies on their way home. (Though this may remain a very wishful idea....)

This just made me think of what my parents used to tell me about the north. I was born in the Yukon and back in those days I was told that people who owned camps and cabins in the wilderness never locked them. They were always stocked with food and supplies and if anyone was ever caught out in bad weather or whatever and needed a place to get under cover and be safe, they they could just go into the nearest camp/cabin. Whatever they used while there they would later replace. It was an honour system that worked well. Sadly, we can't leave our doors unlocked these days, but it's something to think about.

This idea could go hand in hand with a cache. If you had a small cabin that you were willing to share, maybe you could include directions, a key, and a permission note in the cache. Of course, this means that you would have to trust everyone that has the cache locations...

I agree, I love this idea as well, now off to figure out how to catch up on this on the Canadian site.

or I could already be on it and reading it.. duh!

I am game to be active in this and to create and place different ones in area's local to me and even to a point a bit further away from me to help create the network etc.

This just made me think of what my parents used to tell me about the north. I was born in the Yukon and back in those days I was told that people who owned camps and cabins in the wilderness never locked them. They were always stocked with food and supplies and if anyone was ever caught out in bad weather or whatever and needed a place to get under cover and be safe, they they could just go into the nearest camp/cabin. Whatever they used while there they would later replace. It was an honour system that worked well. Sadly, we can't leave our doors unlocked these days, but it's something to think about.

Having lived in NWT and NU, I didn't find many cache's in NWT but there were some for sure but in Nunavut, this is common, really common if you are on the land, and if you know how to read the signs, you can find the cache's, you can also get directions for water, fual and or even idea's of how far to the nessxt camp area etc.

Those pretty little piles of rocks, how they are done all have meaning up there. I learned how to read some of the very basic's at least, plus we traveled in area's where they would set up big bear proof survival caches at set locations..

I agree, I love this idea as well, now off to figure out how to catch up on this on the Canadian site.

or I could already be on it and reading it.. duh!

I am game to be active in this and to create and place different ones in area's local to me and even to a point a bit further away from me to help create the network etc.

As a mod, yes, you already had access.