back to epic tales of Cat and Mouse hides

Cedar Rapids invitation part 1:


Now our group of Cat and Mouse players had gotten pretty good. I'm not just saying this trying to brag - we
were the real deal when it came to tracking signals down, and also very creative at hiding. But we really had
nothing to compare ourselves with, so I guess we just didn't think about it. One of our group, Gremlin, spent
a lot of time in Cedar Rapids, a nearby city, maybe for work. But he was a fairly active C&M player here in
Waterloo but also was a well-known CB'er among the group in Cedar Rapids. So I guess they have an active
Cat and Mouse group down there too, and wanted to play a few rounds with our group. Gremlin got together with
them and we scheduled a weekend to go down there to play with them. It was an hour's drive, and gas isn't free,
so it was a bit of a strain on some of our budgets at the time, but okay we're in.

Now Cedar Rapids is a big city by comparison with Waterloo AND Cedar Falls together. We're more urban, and
they have both urban and industrial areas. Also, Gremlin was one of the only ones in our group that knew his
way around CR. So I found a map (that wasn't much help) and we headed down there to play. It turns out that
they're a much more "formal group", and they had a bunch of additional rules that we needed to follow, including
things like mandatory long duration key-downs, only parking on paved NAMED roads, etc. OK, seems like you're
making this pretty hard to hide / easy to find, but okay, your town your rules.

I was in my new-ish Ford Explorer. Now while any good hunter will pay attention to the roads, the RADIO is
what's important, and being spatially-aware of where the good signals are is the key to finding the mouse. So
for us, being "lost" wasn't really that much of a handicap. The big problem is we didn't know where any of the
landmarks were. "Meet at the Hy-Vee". OK where's that? It's at the corner of X and Y. OK, where's X and Y?
OK also where am I? They were a little frustrated with us but tolerant and helpful.

Anyway, first round, I won. They were surprised, "beginner's luck". Whatever. Now the problem - it was my
turn to hide, but I have NO idea where to go. Unlike Waterloo, where I keep a mental note of "good spots" I
see as I drive around, I had no clue where to start. So they loan me a local to help find a spot to hide.
She gets in. "I've got a spot I think you'll like." We get out the map and she poins it out. oooooooo

A little background first... in C&M there is a concept of a "trap". That's where you know which direction
the cats are coming from, and you hide in a place that allows them to drive quickly, straight to you, but NOT
be able to close the last little bit of distance. AND if they make any attempt to go around whatever obstacle
there is, they will see a severe drop in the signal, and will be FORCED to drive a long distance at that
low signal before they can get around the obstacle and get to you. This "traps" them in a place they can't
win by making them want to thoroughly comb the area you're in, rather than take the big risk of going way out
of their way to see if you're somewhere else. Bonus Points if the trap location has LOTS of area to search
and lots of good places to hide, to keep them occupied and give them a big reason to stick around and keep
searching the area.

So she has just pointed out a long, slightly winding road, with no intersections, that goes about 10 blocks
before dead ending just one block before the "main drag" of road that is lined on both sides with tons
of stores and businesses. Bingo, that looks like a great trap. Also they have to drive several blocks in
either direction before they get to a road that will take them all the way back to the road they need to get
on to turn down this road. If they get to where all those businesses and stores are, they'll only be a
block or two away, and should be getting a great signal. Any attempt to leave the area will kill their signal,
and will STAY down for long enough to force them to turn around.

Now the way their rules work, you have to key down for 4 minutes continuously, then interact with them
for the next minute. That repeats, until the 30 minute mark. At that time, they allow you to "make a change"
to your radio, which can be anything as long as at least one cat can still hear you. Well, by the 30
minute mark, most of them had found themselves in the shopping area and were busy combing the lots, although
only one of them was physically close. (they still would have a 10 minute drive to GET here, but they were
within maybe 200-300 feet of us)

Our Waterloo group DID NOT allow you to make ANY changes during the hunt, so this was a bit unusual, but
okay, it's time to make our change. I took the K-40 mag off my roof and stuck it under my truck. I then
turned the power down on my radio (RCI-2950) to about 1 watt. Those poor, poor souls.

The only person that could still hear me was the one that was so close, and whenever they drove even a short
distance away, they'd lose me. Of course at this point there was simply no way to track me, you had to look
at a map and figure out what I'd done, because any attempt to drive to me would require completely losing me
for most of the drive. Since that was the ONLY car that could hear me, they eventually just told everyone
else where they were, and so they all wound up there, stuck firmly in the trap.

At one hour, we officially "won" the hide. They were so convinced that I was doing something shady that they
told us to stay put while they sent someone to confirm our location. They were quite surprised just how big
of a difference there was in our signal compared to the signal of the vehicle that was sent to check on us.
I guess it's extremely rare to "win" a hide, so their ego was getting pretty bruised by this point, after I
had won a hunt and then immediately won a hide.




last updated 11/15/2023 at 13:26:26