Jump to content

Found A Mystery Cache...without All The Coords.


Kemo_Sabe

Recommended Posts

:lol: So, I found my first mystery cache(GCHA43). I couldn't find one of the many spots to get the full coordinates. I think it's missing, but unsure. But, it could only be in a general area, so that's where I searched. I was able to locate it fairly quickly. So, my question is this: Do you think that it's ok to log a cache, even though you couldn't find all the points that you where suppost to find? I mean, I found all but one. :P
Link to comment

Many people find and log caches without the use of a GPS...why can't you...I say.

 

I have heard there is one guy who has over 400 finds and doesn't own a GPS and I have found a few caches without my GPS but then I know my area and I know how the hider hides. Did one today in fact. A puzzle-multi and I didn't add or subtract right and the coords were way off. But as I said I know my area and the hider and walked right up to it.

Edited by Woody_K
Link to comment

Yes, it's a legit find as far as I am concerned. I've got a few where I didn't do things exactly right -- there was a local cache that called for some kind of computer mumbo-jumbo numbers and latitude and longitude and who knows what else! :lol: It makes my eyes cross just thinking about it. But, after studying the cache and a cache or two also by the same person -- I found it, sans GPSr. I may have done just as much work as somebody who did it 'right' -- I'll never know, but I signed the log and that counts in my book.

Link to comment

Now, when you find a mystery or puzzle cache without actually solving the puzzle, does that mean the puzzle wasn't set up well enough? I agree that if you find the cache and sign the log, you should record the find. Then, looking at it from the hiders point of view, he's got to be dissappointed that the puzzle didn't even need to be solved to find the cache. Did you post in the find that you didn't need to solve the puzzle to find it? Just curious.

 

Bernsports

Link to comment

As a fan and creator of puzzle caches, I say go for it.

 

One series of puzzle caches had a validation engine written in Macromedia Flash. I downloaded the validation engine, decompiled it, found the coordinates. I didn't go to the site because it's 1800 miles away. I contacted the owner to let her know that I could solve her puzzles by hacking the validation engine. She seemed okay with it. She said that if that's the way I wanted to solve her puzzles, more power to me.

 

I have to agree. Everything associated with the puzzle becomes part of the puzzle. Don't feel constrained by the puzzle itself.

Link to comment

Sorry, you have broken a cardinal rule of caching. You will now be excomunicated and never allowed to cache again. Turn in your GPSr to the nearest GC representative.

Naww, who cares man. I think finding or figuring out a mystery cache without all the clues is very cool. Remember its all about the hunt. I found a cache when I was looking for a place to hide a cache. Turned out to be the final stage of a multi-stage mystery night cache. I call it a find, and the only thing that I found disapointing is that I didn't get to hunt the whole thing.

Link to comment

Chance Encounter placed a cache in our area last year that had a great FTF prize in it. It required you to find parts of the coordinates in 4 different existing caches in the area. The problem was, there was about 200 caches around here at that time. :D There was another team that took off at midnight and had been searching all that time so we knew we were probably behind them. We got lucky and found two of the caches needed for the latitude coordinates within a couple of hours. Still had a bunch of caches left to search for the longitude so i got the map out and plotted the a line along the latitude that we came up with. What do you know,,, it ended up running right through one of the local parks. We figured that had to be the right area and we made the find after a little bit of searching along that line. :D

 

The Hardin County Geo Trio still made the FTF but we ended up being only minutes behind them. Now that was a fun cache! :D

 

In other words, more power to you if ya can figure out a way to grab the cache without jumping through all the hoops. :D

Link to comment

It's not uncommon for caching in my area to "brute force" a multi if they get stuck on one stage. Sometimes you can get into a cachers head well enough to skip a stage if one is missing or there are muggles in the way. If you sign the book, it's a find.

 

Personally, I feel if you have someone who's already found the cache take you straight to the final that's a lousy way to play the game, but that's different than skipping a stage yourself.

Link to comment

I did the same thing just recently on a local cache. After 3 visits to the site where I was supposed to get the coordinates for the final, eventually I gave up and started searching the nearby bushes. After only a couple of minutes, found the cache. That being said, I'll probably go back to the cache site, at a later time, and see if I can figure out what I was missing. (although I've already logged the find)

Link to comment

On one of my favorite puzzle caches (that I have found so far) I didn't understand the puzzle until afterI walked away. The clues were supposed to send you to a spot where you could gather info to get the final coords. I didn't understand the puzzle, but a clue from someone's online log told me where to go. They had mentioned that they were going to hunt two other caches nearby but they had been archived the week before. I knew where two caches were that were recently archived so I narrowed my search. I found the final and signed the log. I read the other logs in the book and it still wasn't until I closed up and walked out that I understood the puzzle. It was a good one too! I guess that means I'm kinda dumb, but lucky sometimes. Either way, I found it, logged it and it counts as much as the ones who knew what the heck they were doing!

Link to comment

I've done it. Sometimes I can find the information online and save time visiting every site. Sometimes I've got enough info to find it the way you did. I had one that had the second to last step within .5k of the actual site but wanted be to go .5k in the oppositie to the last step before the final. I had enough to guess the last coord and found the cache.

 

Find the cache and log it. That's what its about.

 

JDandDD

Link to comment

I have a very nice, and devious, mystery cache, the first part of which is in a ten acre park. Three of the finders never solved the mystery. They brute forced it. "I am now intimately acquainted with every rock and tree in that park." said one. I'm impressed! They signed the log. They get the smiley. (And I need to find larger parks! :anicute: )

I will admit not finding the third stage of a multi. The cache page said which park the final was in, and had a hint. 'Not far from the path, seek a downed tree.' Only a twenty acre park. Not more than two hundred downed trees. Didn't take us more than a half hour. Told the cache owner. He was impressed with our tenacity.

Sign the log, get a smiley.

Link to comment

Yes, you should log it. But, I would also send an email to the owner, explaining how you did it, so that the next one he puts out, he allows for the chance that someone can solve it that way. I know I would appreciate it, if someone sent me an email about they solved a different way than I expected.. I own several puzzle caches, all are different, but as an owner, I try to figure every different way to solve them. Sometimes you can't think of everything.

Link to comment

I agree with everyone here - you find the final, you get the smiley.

 

However, there is a local cacher in my area that got upset when people completely circumvented Stage 1 of his 2 Stage cache (because of a weak puzzle for Stage 2), and now requires everyone to e-mail him and tell him what yu found at Stage 1, or he will delete your log.

Link to comment

Skipped one stage once because the number that I was going to get was the third decimal of the minutes. In that particular terrain 50 feet was good enough. Another time I just calculated all the reasonable answers, threw out results that were on private land, and hit the cache at my second choice of the locations that were left.

Link to comment

My son and I stumbled on one leg of a 7 part multi. We went to find the next cache and it stumped us. We emailed the owner to ask if we could finish the multi off from where we bumped into it and they told is that we had found the 6th leg and the one that stumped us was the final. Then they said "no" about logging it if we did manage to find it.

 

We lost interest after that.

Link to comment

I, like many others, think it counts as a Find.

 

My Grade Seven math teacher was always a big fan of "show all your work". You would get partial marks for having a proper method, even if the final answer was wrong. Geocaching ain't like that -- as long as you find the cache it isn't important how you arrived at the solution.

 

I do admit, I just solved a mystery cache which required the use of a one-time pad type cipher. I started doing it by hand, then figured I should just get a computer to do the decryption for me. Does it give me the same satisfaction as if I had worked it all out on paper? No, but it counts just the same! :)

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...