Quantum Leap Cache: Hard To Believe

[+tabulator32]

For all of you who can't afford Quantum Leap , I've got a bridge for sale.

Real cheap!

Yuck!

 

What would I do with someone's dental appliances?!

 

[+wandererrob]

Having sporadically read about and checked up on this cache, I get the feeling that it's some sort of inside joke that the finders continue with their wild stories. Kinda like, "ok, now that you've found it, help keep it going, don't ruin the surprise" or something to that effect.

 

And whatever the case, it got approved and hasn't been shut down.

Edited August 30, 2005 by wandererrob

[+Snoogans]

And whatever the case, it got approved and hasn't been shut down.

Let me just take a moment to thank my many un-named geominions for helping me keep this cache going. My peeps, I couldn't have done it without ya.

[+AtoZ]

I met Snoogans and he doen't have that nice of a smile, LOL.

cheers

[Hugh Jazz]

I have it on good authority that the initial puzzle that leads you to the purported 'dead-drop' is actually insoluble, being based on a 500-year old encryption coding scheme known as 'Voynich' of which the initial manuscript has been widely accepted to be a 15th-century hoax, and all attempts to solve it, even by experts using modern computer technology, have met with no success. Quantum Leap therefore is a creative cache idea but as it is not actually findable, all the finds posted to it are vis-a-vis null and void, and all purported 'finders' should have their smiley count reduced by one and have all the attendant prize moneys confiscated.

 

Snoogans is to be congratulated at perpetrating a hoax of biblical proportions on the entire geocaching community and especially in recruiting hundreds of cachers worldwide to perpetuate the hoax. It is also well established that Snoogans operates dozens of sock-puppet accounts, including those of many known as prominent Texas cachers. He is a master puppeteer in that regard, and it has been statistically estimated that fully nine-fifths of those finds posted on Quantum Leap are actually Snoogans himself, operating behind the curtain so to speak.

[+WhatsRNutts]

I have it on good authority that the initial puzzle that leads you to the purported 'dead-drop' is actually insoluble, being based on a 500-year old encryption coding scheme known as 'Voynich' of which the initial manuscript has been widely accepted to be a 15th-century hoax, and all attempts to solve it, even by experts using modern computer technology, have met with no success.  Quantum Leap therefore is a creative cache idea but as it is not actually findable, all the finds posted to it are vis-a-vis null and void, and all purported 'finders' should have their smiley count reduced by one and have all the attendant prize moneys confiscated. 

 

Snoogans is to be congratulated at perpetrating a hoax of biblical proportions on the entire geocaching community and especially in recruiting hundreds of cachers worldwide to perpetuate the hoax.  It is also well established that Snoogans operates dozens of sock-puppet accounts, including those of many known as prominent Texas cachers. He is a master puppeteer in that regard, and it has been statistically estimated that fully nine-fifths of those finds posted on Quantum Leap are actually Snoogans himself, operating behind the curtain so to speak.

party pooper...*PTHPPTHPTHPTHPTH* (cyber raspberries)

[+wandererrob]

I have it on good authority that the initial puzzle that leads you to the purported 'dead-drop' is actually insoluble, being based on a 500-year old encryption coding scheme known as 'Voynich' of which the initial manuscript has been widely accepted to be a 15th-century hoax, and all attempts to solve it, even by experts using modern computer technology, have met with no success.

I call BS

 

Or did you slip up on purpose?

Edited August 31, 2005 by wandererrob

[+Lil Elephants]

Does it really matter if it's a hoax or if it's real? One way it's fun, the other it's... fun.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Does it really matter if it's a hoax or if it's real? One way it's fun, the other it's... fun.

Well put! Exactly, and better, it is GREAT FUN! And... isn't that what geocaching is all about! I guess some people -- due to the nature of the uman mind -- will always have a tendency take just about anything way to seriously, but to me, it is all FUN and goodwill!

[Pto]

But it doesnt fit the guidelines!

(Insert 2 page quote of said guideline)

kidding of course!

[+wandererrob]

Does it really matter if it's a hoax or if it's real?  One way it's fun, the other it's... fun.

with, what... 231 people now watching this cache? I'm inclined to agree. Not matter how you slice it Snoogans is entertaining lots of cachers with this one

Edited August 31, 2005 by wandererrob

[Hugh Jazz]

[CacheNCarryMA]

I find it egregiously disrespectful and hurtful of others feelings when some posters use the animated "Frog Eating Popcorn" or 'drama' clickable smiley, as it is known.

[+TeamAO]

I find it egregiously disrespectful and hurtful of others feelings when some posters use the animated "Frog Eating Popcorn" or 'drama' clickable smiley, as it is known.

Are you another one of Snoogans sock puppets?

 

 

 

Please don't hurt others feelings.

[+TeamAO]

I find it egregiously disrespectful and hurtful of others feelings when some posters use the animated "Frog Eating Popcorn" or 'drama' clickable smiley, as it is known.

Are you another one of Snoogans sock puppets?

 

 

 

Please don't hurt others feelings.

Just kidding.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

(This is part one of my two or three-part post. Later parts appear below!)

 

I (Vinny) have been enamored of this cache since June 2005 and had it on my watchlist since then; I also placed it on our (public) Extreme and Adventure Caches bookmark list. I promised myself back in June that I would go after this one some day. Sue decrypted the coordinates for the first stage by early July, and I assumed that it was just a matter of time before I would someday get to Houston to seek this cache, and so I kinda put this matter aside, and, in fact, started to create our now-infamous Psycho Urban Cache series here on the East Coast. Well, it appears in hindsight that God and the angels did not want the Quantum Leap matter to lay at rest for long, as a few odd things started to occur in my life, each apparently connected with this cache, and I will share just a few of the stranger stories here. First, in late July of 2005, I heard a knock on the door one night about 9 PM. Now, we live in a wilderness area in the mountains, and we normally get only about one unexpected knock on the door each year, if that, because we live so far from civilization (and usually those knocks are due to the sherrif’s office trying to serve a warrant, but that is another story!) In any case, to get an unexpected knock on the door at night was all the more weird. I walked the length of my screened porch to answer the door with a small bit of trepidation. I opened the door to find standing there under the yellowish porch light a total stranger: tall slender woman, perhaps in her late thirties, wearing a black leather motorcycle outfit from neck to toe, and cradling a black Harley-Davidson full bike helmet in the crook of her left arm. She had long straight hair, flowing over her shoulders and reaching her waist. I was dimly aware that I could see a motorcycle in the driveway parking lot nearest our house, to her right and behind her, but for the life of me, I had not heard it come up our driveway, nor had our dog, Toby.

 

Slightly befuddled, I asked her something along the lines of “May I help you?” She looked at me and was silent for what seemed forever, but for a period that was likely about 30 seconds in length. Then, slowly, she started to speak, with a Southern drawl, her large dark eyes looking me directly in the eye, and said “You will not rest until you go to Houston and tackle Quantum Leap.” I was a bit shocked, and asked “Do you mean the geocache ? The one in Texas?” She looked at me and stood silently for perhaps another twenty seconds, and then smiled slightly and said “You already know that which I have named. Do not resist your soul’s destiny. You must go, and I will say no more at this time.” With that final pronouncement, she broke eye contact, turned and walked to her bike, never looking back at me as I stood on my porch staring at her and trying to fully absorb whatever had just happened. That was my first encounter with the unreal, but it was not to be my last.

 

Less than a month later, In August, I spent three weeks in Southern India, in a rural agricultural and industrial area near Chennai (Madras) on a consulting job for a European client. They had placed me in the only Western-style hotel within a 50 mile radius, near the city of Chengalputti. On a weekday evening in mid-August, two-thirds of my way into my sojourn in India, the front desk clerk at the hotel rang my room and told me that I had a visitor waiting for me, a woman. I replied that I would be down in three minutes and meet my visitor in the lobby. The desk clerk, obviously a bit flustered, replied “Sir, she is not in the lobby, although we have asked her to step inside. She awaits outside, and asks to see you outside the front door, sir.” Now, as you have likely guessed, I was not expecting any visitors, particularly at about 9 PM at night and at a semi-rural hotel in India, and particularly not any female visitors. I slipped on my sneakers, placed my wallet and room key in my pocket, exited my room into the still overly-warm, sticky and fragrant air of southern India, redolent with the inimitable odor of tropical flowers, spices, incense, cows*** and human feces, and made my way through the thick air down the stairwell to the front desk and reception area. The front desk clerk caught my eye me immediately from behind the counter, and she waved toward the front door of the hotel. I saw no one out there but the doorman, but I walked slowly to the door. As I approached, the doorman, an elderly Sikh gentleman wearing a turban, held the door open for me and waved me through. His usual broad smile was a bit muted by what seemed to be a hint of confusion, and he merely pointed with a small frown to the small dimly-lit garden, replete with three small fountains, across the courtyard. A woman was standing there, half in the shadows, tall and dressed in black. Her ramrod straight figure looked vaguely familiar. . .

Edited February 15, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

(This is the second and final part of my post, which started above.)

 

. . . As I approached her across the still-sweltering courtyard, I realized slowly, and with a bit of amazement, that she was apparently the same motorcycle rider who had visited me at our mountain home in Frederick a month earlier. She seemed to be wearing the same outfit, and was carrying what seemed to be the same black Harley full helmet in the crook of her left arm again. The only bikes anywhere in sight were the scooters and 200 cc motorcycles of some of the young hotel employees, and as I looked around slowly, I could see no trace of the large black motorcycle which she had ridden in the USA. She watched me approach, looking at me intently and with a small smile on her lips. I realized with a shock that she was the first American I had seen since departing the confines of the Chennai airport terminal building two weeks ago. When I was about ten feet away, I said something along the lines of “Don’t I know you? Are you looking for me?”

 

She looked at me and was silent for a period that was likely about 20 seconds in length. Then, slowly, she spoke, in the same Southern drawl that I remembered, her large dark eyes looking me directly in the eye, and said “You must go to Houston and tackle Quantum Leap. Do not resist your soul’s destiny.” I replied quickly “You told me the same thing last time! Is there anything else on your mind? May I invite you into the lobby or the hotel restaurant and buy you a coffee or lassi or some samosas or pakoras?” She merely looked at me, and when she spoke about 15 seconds later, she simply said “You must go, and I will say no more at this time.” With that, she broke eye contact, turned and walked away, into the dark recesses of the small courtyard behind her. In seconds, she had reached the tattered fence which separated the cultivated courtyard from the barren and pockmarked cattle-grazing wasteland to the south of the hotel. She lithely vaulted over the fence, and quickly disappeared as she descended the steep slope into the wasteland, never looking back. I stared at her disappearing figure for a few moments more, feeling a bit of a chill in my spine, and then I slowly returned to my room, enduing in silence the quizzical glances from the Sikh doorman and the female desk clerk.

 

A very similar encounter occurred about three weeks ago, in late January. I was visiting the New Paltz, NY area for a few days and was staying in a Motel 8 for the duration of my four-day visit to the rock climbing capital of the world; I had lived there for over two years in the 1980s when attending the state university in town, and it was good to revisit my old stomping grounds. I was traveling alone, and so, aside from brief forays into town in the early evening for my dinner and equally brief and cursory forays to the strip bar located across the street from the hotel, I was largely staying in my hotel room in the evening, collapsed on my bed and watching movies on the cable TV. Well, late in the evening of my third day in the hotel, the night before I was due to fly back to BWI in Baltimore, I was still watching TV at a bit past midnight. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door. Since the door opened into a hallway that is locked after dark, and since all visitors were normally announced by the front desk, I found this a bit odd, and in any case, I was not expecting any visitors. I finally decided that it must be room service or some other type of hotel staffer at my door. I got up off my bed, and walked to the door, peeking through the peephole before opening it. Standing in the hallway was a most unexpected figure: I saw the familiar tall outline of the mystery biker woman, clad once again in black leather, and once again with a dark full helmet cradled in her left arm, facing my door. I slowly opened the door, looked at her, and said “Yes? And how did you find my room number, and… this hotel?” -- I think I was by now growing a bit impatient with the melodrama and mystery of her brief appearances, as well as with her rapid disappearances. She looked me in the eye for many seconds when my question was done, and then said to me, quite firmly and quietly “You know why I am here. You must go to Houston and do it. It is not wise to resist your destiny.” This time, I merely asked her in return “Who are you? How do you find me?” She just stood there, staring at me in silence. After a silence of perhaps a minute, I asked her “Would you like to talk more? Can I buy you a coffee at the diner, or a beer at one of the pubs around here?” She looked at me for about ten seconds more in silence before replying “You know why I came here. My task is already done. I am leaving. Goodbye. Goodnight.” She turned and started walking rapidly down the hall toward the exterior doorway. I stood there, absorbing the whole moment, and called after her “Goodnight!” She did not turn around, but I saw the briefest flicker of her shoulder and a quick nod of her head as she walked away.

 

All in all, I had four of these odd and unexpected encounters. The fourth, which I have chosen not to relate in detail because there is very little new information contained in the story, happened this past weekend while I was on a lecture tour in central Wisconsin, just above Appleton. I returned home from WI two days ago. Yesterday, an occasional consulting client from Texas, with whom I have worked in the past only via telephone, called and we chatted for a while. He asked me if I could meet him in Houston, Texas before the end of February; he wired the money to me for the trip as we spoke on the phone. And so, last night I sat down and made reservations for air travel to Houston later in the month (around the 24th) and reserved a hotel and a rental car (a 4WD vehicle) as well. I made sure that my trip itinerary will allow me plenty of time to go after at least the first two or three stages of Quantum Leap. I am also considering going after some other Terrain 5 caches by Snoogans while I am in Texas, as well as a few simple urban caches just so Sue and I can show a few fun Texas caches on our find list. And so, within 10 days, I will finally have the chance to go after the first stages of Quantum Leap. I assume that the tall mystery biker woman in black leather will now cease her nightly appearances at my door. On the other hand, I would like the chance to sit with her and chat with her and resolve some of the mysteries surrounding her and her visits, and so I find myself kinda hoping that I may bump into her during my Texas visit. Sue briefly considered coming with me on this journey, but in the end, decided that this should be my odyssey, and that she would rather spend the money (i.e., airfare, meals, etc.) for other things. However, she promises to work with me over the phone and via the web to solve any encrypted puzzles or riddles which I may encounter at any of the early stages of Quantum Leap.

Edited February 16, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+BigWhiteTruck]

I've had the coordinates for the dead drop for quite some time now. Solved the leap year code back in October. Just waiting for an opportunity to travel to Houston.

 

I'll be home by 7:30 tonight

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

By the way, just so I do not ignore the obvious objections: Yes, I am aware that some folks on the National forums have claimed that the entire cache may be a "tall tale" cache, but I have always had a fancy for this cache, largely based on the great find logs on the cache listing page, along with the unflagging enthusiasm of the past finders of QL with whom I have corresponded, even a year or two after their find. This is one cache which seems to have struck finders with as much joy, and warmed their hearts, as much as has Blood & Guts in Virginia, and thus Quantum Leap has always remaind high on my list of caches to tackle; I have never forgotten it. And thus, I wil be going after at least the first two stages before the end of the month!

[+One of the Texas Vikings]

Darn.. I did it and was so tried I forgot to log it....

 

BTW, for some of you, that don't know, the dog is "Cujo", and is aTB, actually..

 

Rick

[CacheNCarryMA]

I was visiting the New Paltz, NY area for a few days and was staying in a Motel 8 for the duration of my four-day visit to the rock climbing capital of the world; .... I was traveling alone, and so, aside from brief forays into town in the early evening for my dinner and equally brief and cursory forays to the strip bar located across the street from the hotel, I was largely staying in my hotel room in the evening,...

 

I grew up in New Paltz, NY and there is no strip or bar across from the Motel 8. Unless, of course, Snoogans built one for the cache.

 

However, the 'Gunks are the rock climbing capital of the world. You got that right.

Edited February 18, 2006 by CacheNCarryMA

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I was visiting the New Paltz, NY area for a few days and was staying in a Motel 8 for the duration of my four-day visit to the rock climbing capital of the world; .... I was traveling alone, and so, aside from brief forays into town in the early evening for my dinner and equally brief and cursory forays to the strip bar located across the street from the hotel, I was largely staying in my hotel room in the evening,...

 

I grew up in New Paltz, NY and there is no strip or bar across from the Motel 8. Unless, of course, Snoogans built one for the cache.

 

However, the 'Gunks are the rock climbing capital of the world. You got that right.

 

Sigh.... you got me... I employed a bit of literary license for the sake of brevity and clarity! The strip bar is on the south side of Rte. 299, and about a half-mile or so east of NY State Thruway. And, for the life of me, I cannot remember whether the name of the motel in which I stayed was "Motel 8" or "Motel 87" -- it was the one just to the west of the NYS Thruway, and on the south side of Rte. 299, down a little service road across South Putt Corners Road from the Shop Rite shopping center, and near the now-defunct "The Wave" dance center.

 

BTW, even though the gunks are my former hiking/climbing territory (I lived there for over 2 years in the late 1980s), I totally DNFed on a mountain-ridge-top cache there during my trip (the cache was Kodak Moment, GCNDN7.) Sigh!

 

Late edit: Aha! Google tells me it was the "Super 8 Motel", located at 7 Terwilliger Lane!

Edited February 18, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I spent four days, from February 24th thru the 27th, in the Houston, Texas area, and managed to complete the first two stages of Quantum Leap on Saturday, the 25th, and completed two additional local "customized" stages on the following day, per the instruction sheets in the envelope which I found at the bunker. Also managed to find six other caches while in Houston, all in or near the Southwest area of Houston; several of them were Snoogans caches!

 

I am still recovering from my travels, and as I have time I will start to write my log entries about my hunts/finds at the second and later stages of Quantum Leap. I also plan to complete the remaining stages of Quantum Leap, and hope to be done within the next two weeks, if all goes well. Snoogans, if you are reading this, thank you for an excellent but very demanding and exhausting cache! As I wrote today on our local Maryland forum and may have written elsewhere as well, I am of the strong opinion that this cache is not for everyone, and I feel that it is really only for the strong-hearted and for those folks with a strong sense of appreciation for mystery and adventure and even a bit of intrigue. I suggest that if you feel that you do not fit this descripton, then you may wish to pass this one by.

Edited February 28, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+ZSandmann]

Snoogans, you can mark me down for adventure. I broke the first stage code, and am moving to Louisiana soon. I plan to hit 300 finds in Louisiana and think Quantum will be #400. A custom mission would rock, expect me around the end of summer.

[+greyhounder]

Quantum Leap is my dream cache. I hope to be able to do it someday (although finances do limit my taking on an adventure such as this at this time). But one day I'll get there.

 

Snoogans was one of the first geocachers I "met" on these forums. I get the definite sense that he is a wondeful guy who has created something very special with this cache.

 

Keep it up Snoogans!

 

Bec

 

(edit to add: I'm a single gal, by the way......)

Edited March 7, 2006 by greyhounder

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

(I first posted this messsge earlier today, but it was apparently lost in one of the forum crashes, and so here it is again!)

 

Those of you who have been reading this thread may know that Sue and I have been wanting to do Quantum Leap for quite a while. As I mentioned in an earlier post or two, I had the chance to go to Houston for a 4-day weekend trip about ten days ago, and jumped at it. Sue had the chance to come along, but prudently chose to spend her budget funds for other things (including a pocket PC to aid in her cache hunting) instead. While in Houston, I managed to find six caches in the Southwest Houston area -- including the most unique cache container I have ever found -- and also scored the first stages of Quantum Leap; Sue and I completed the latter stages of QL together in the past week upon my return home. Anyway, we completed the find requirements late on Sunday, March 5th, and I found time this morning to file my log notes for the adventure and to log the find on the cache listing page.

 

And somehow, it all fell into place so that Quantum Leap ended up being our 500th find! We had always hoped that it would work out that Quantum Leap would be our 300th, 400th or 500th cache find, and it seems that God and the angels were smiling on us and it all fell in place! We are very grateful!

 

The whole thing was much fun, and the Quantum Leap cache turned out to be close to what I had expected. We appreciate the massive effort which Snoogans and his colleagues obviously put into constructing this massive and intricate experience! We remain amazed that he was able to garner reviewer approval for a couple of these stages, and we wish to thank the geocaching.com reviewers as well for their tolerance of ambiguity and danger in approving some of the stages.

 

Snoogans, thanks for the fun! Rather than relate the tales of my adventures in seeking the stages of Quantum Leap here, I suggest that if you wish to read my rambling account of the search that you take a look at my logs on the cach listing page, at Quantum Leap

 

What makes the whole Quantum Leap saga a bit strange is that I discovered only upon my return home that Rlahti (Ron) and his caching partner SOB, both from Massachusetts, had been in Houston and also at the first two stages of the cache only a few days before my own visit. Ron and I both share strong backgrounds in spelunking and rock climbing, and we had first made our acquaintance via the geo world months ago due to our common interest in cave and cliff caches and other extreme caches. We discovered over the past week that we had missed encountering each other at Quantum Leap by only about 3 days.

 

By the way, the most memorable caches which I found in the Houston area turned out to have been Snoogans caches, ranging from Quantum Leap, to the most unique cache container, to an alien wormhole cache filled with hundreds of lost ballpoint pens. Incidentally, I left two Psycho Urban Cache refrigerator magnets in the alien wormhole pen cache, and they disappeared like hotcakes within the next 24 hours; wish I had left more.

 

Something which also impressed me about Snoogans' (Mark's) caches -- and this may be due in part to the fact that the land there is very flat and thus 10 satellites are in range most of the time -- was the fact that on every one of his caches, my GPSr (a SporTrak Pro) read from 1 to 3 feet to waypoint when I was standing exactly at the cache site. To me, that is outstanding waypoint accuracy!

 

Houston also turned out to be an ethnic food extravaganza for me. I stayed in the Southwest section, and there were literally seventy Asian, Indian, Persian, Middle Eastern and Russian restaurants, fast food eateries and grocery stores within a few minutes walk of my hotel! Amazing!

Edited March 8, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team