Hunting archived caches

[+larry739]

I have occasionally found an archived cache. I even have one I own that is still quite active but cannot be republished because a new one was placed within 500 ft after this one was originally archived. People still visit it and log it though and the smiley's still work. BUt you have to know the GC number to find it on line. Well, that brings me to my question.

 

Is there any way to do a pocket query for archived caches?

[+DavidMac]

Not at this time, but... you can add archived caches to bookmark lists. I haven't tried it, but if you request a PQ of a bookmark list that has archived caches on it, do the archived caches arrive in the query? Has anybody tried this?

[CoyoteRed]

...if you request a PQ of a bookmark list that has archived caches on it, do the archived caches arrive in the query?

Yep. Works.

 

I played around with creating a bookmark of all caches as they became archived. The idea was folks could make a PQ out of the bookmark and then their databases would be updated without having to hammer the serves individually to see if cache missing from a recent PQ was archived. Too much work to do something that is supposed to be automated.

 

So, you could create a bookmark of "Archived Caches that are still Huntable."

[+trainlove]

Many archived caches are only 'archived' because the owner has decided to let others place new caches in an area. In at least one case, I hadn't known that a cache ws archived. It was a puzzle that I had solved after an event a neighboring state. I went there the next month to another event and found the cache. It had not been physically removed. Had I known about it's status I could have brought the continer to the owner who was at both events.

 

There is no guarranty that you will 'find' anything at any archived cache location other than lots of old footpriints.

 

But to search for archived caches you have to to to the profiles of the people you think might have hidden them and go to the caches that have a strikeout line through them. There is no other way anymore, it used to be that you could use the maps on geocaching.com. There will not be any way to automatically search for archived caches, as stated over and over again and again by the people at Groundspeak for the basic fact that an archived cache is an archived cache and it's not valid anymore.

 

If you would like to see if a site is good for caches by seeing if caches used to be there then your idea is flawed. If it was a good spot then an old cache would still be there. If it's not there anymore, due to muggling..., then that's not a good spot.

 

I suggest you find spots that you think would be good for a cache and place a cache there.

[+larry739]

Then if I understand right there are only two ways to find archived caches, bookmarks and via users placed or found caches list. I would imagine for my area I could probably use the latter approach with greater success since there are some well known cachers here who have been at it since the beginning. They would have cleaned them all out as they were published.

 

I have just about cleaned out my area to a radius of many miles so unless I want to go on a road trip, I can only sit and wait for another cache to be placed.

 

There may or may not be a cache located at the spot when I go looking for it. I guess that would be part of the fun.

 

By the way I do put out caches. I have placed more in Kansas than anyone else.

 

I will return to this thread frequently to see if there are other suggestions or to update you on my findings in hunting down archived caches.